Atheism

[tzikeh]

After all the Rapture!Fail discussion, I've become curious about how many atheists are reading this lj.

Since some/many atheists are not "out," for their own reasons, I am setting the names of the participants viewable to no one but me.

As far as this poll is concerned, "atheist" means "there is no god/are no gods."

ETA: I know there are bunches of options that aren't included in the poll, but all I'm looking for is "atheist/agnostic or not." There's nothing wrong with skipping the poll. *g*

[Poll #1744576]

Comments

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I have no problem saying I am an atheist, but then, in Norway that's no biggie at all. I understand it's not like that in the US.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Right. But a lot of folks in America have very religious family/friends and don't want to deal with the frustration/ scorn / what-have-you.

Hell, you see several post-secrets a year like "I am a pastor's wife. I am an atheist. I am trapped and miserable, but I cannot leave."

It's so unhappy-making.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

hey - to be sure I've done this right - you can't see the answers, right?

[semielliptical]

I can't see the answers.

I don't mind telling people I'm an atheist if it comes up.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

On one level, I wanted to enter "hard agnostic" (as even Richard Dawkins would do if you caught him on a good day *g*), but I'm guessing the question is actually "Do you believe?" (as opposed to "Does god exist?") and so my answer has to be ix-nay.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh heh... I am... uncomfortable with labels. *g*

I find it hard to believe that this is all that there is, for a variety of reasons particular to moi-self, although I openly admit that I don't actually know what will or won't come next. I'm not particularly afraid of it, *whatever* it is; I figure it's one of those things we're all going to get to find out in due time. I don't really believe in fire and damnation.

I find that a Buddhist-ish outlook is best for my mental health, and so that's how I try to live, although I don't make a fetish out of it. ::shrugs::

So, I don't know what you'd call that, but that's where I am. Maybe a "soft agnostic"?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the need to waver on "hard agnostic" and "atheist," and I don't blame people or call them fence-sitters, but for me... not so much.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'll add a definition of atheist as "does not believe in god(s)" to the post, if that helps.

[isagel.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the term "hard agnostic". What's the difference between that and plain "agnostic"?

[ipstenu.livejournal.com]

Religious Skeptic :) I was a moderate agnostic for a long time, though.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hard agnostic: There might be, like, a tiny tiny percentage that I'm wrong, okay, but really, no, there is/are no god(s)."

Soft agnostic: I don't believe in god(s), for my own reasons / research / critical thought / whatever, but I figure you can't *really* know, in the end. But again, I don't believe.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hm! Can you define more specifically?

[xenacryst.livejournal.com]

Meh. I really don't think about it much these days. I'm a non-practicing agnostic. Or some days a non-practicing atheist. And some days, a non-practicing pantheist (I mean, if one entity can be a god, why not everything? right?).

[kageygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly an apathetic agnostic. Don't know, don't care, not attempting to figure it out. Though there are some days I'm convinced that the universe is both sentient and having a laugh at my expense. *g*

[pocketmouse]

I'm areligious. I grew up Roman Catholic, and I can't shake it enough to call myself something as definite as atheist or agnostic. I'm mainly of a belief that the major religions can't be an accurate representation of any god I'd choose to believe in.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I get that. The opposite is the militant agnostic - "I DON'T KNOW AND YOU DON'T EITHER!"

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: I should edit the post to explain that yes, lots of options are left out, but I wasn't looking for a spectrum, just an "atheist/agnostic or not," so nobody should feel the need to "choose" if their option isn't there.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: I'm not sure what a "practicing" atheist would look like, vs. non-, unless you mean "actively involved in the atheist community" or the like, but okay.

[leviathan0999.livejournal.com]

As somebody who approaches large, important questions with the Scientific Method, the only honest approach I can take is agnosticism. I don't know whether or not any deity exists. I find most deeply improbable, but I can't back any opinion up with evidence or data.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Note that it is quite possible to be both an atheist and a practicing Jew. Kate Fridkis (http://www.eatthedamncake.com/), for instance, is a lay cantor (musical leader) at a synagogue near me -- so not just a practicing Jew but a member of the *clergy* -- who also describes herself as an atheist. This is not all that uncommon, either.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Right--reform Judaism is more a culture and philosophy than a religion and seems not to require belief in any kind of god (though that is *relatively* new, I think), but it wouldn't have any impact on her answer to this poll, should someone like her take it. "Atheist" is the answer. There's nothing up there about any kind of religion qua religion.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: totally understand.

[mirandir.livejournal.com]

I believe in an underlying organizing principle to the universe that might as well be called God, but I think the very idea of the Rapture is frakking ridiculous. Also creationism, transubstantiation, religious exclusivity, original sin, absolution via confession, speaking in tongues, any literal interpretation of the Bible, and 99.9% of all miracles.

To Pythonize my response, I'm a member of the "Sensible Deist Party." We find dogmatic Christians incredibly annoying and love making small talk about quantum physics.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

A soft or weak agnostic is defined as one who does not believe there is enough information to know if there is a god, or if any religious beliefs are true, but that at some point there is a possibility of gleaning more knowledge. A hard or strong agnostic just believes it is all unknown and unknowable and will remain that way, by humanity.

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

... Uh.

I think I believe in god in the sense that I believe we can feel a connection to something greater than our individual selves, can yearn for and sometimes attain a transcendence that calls us to be our best selves, and that supports and comforts us when we can't. (And for all "us", of course, you can read "me".) I emphatically do not believe in god in the sense that I do not believe that a conscious supernatural entity created the universe, responds to prayer with concrete rewards ("oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV..."), or judges us after we die. I think of God -- when I do -- as an emergent property of humanity.

I don't know where that would put me on the definitions you're using. But I'm ticking "neither."

(Can you tell I'm on my way home from a Unitarian Universalist con?)