Comments on: Atheist Conversion or Religious De-conversion http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/ A Godless Skeptic's Notes on Liberty, Religion, Society, and More... Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:27:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Interested http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-875 Interested Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:28:44 +0000 http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-875 Dawn, I could not agree less with your comments. Faith has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with religion. If we, as atheist, begin to create some dogma, doctrine, creed, etc., then we are just another religion. That is not the case. And to the meaning of life...survival. I find great meaning everyday as I struggle to understand my environment and cohabitants on this earth. My life has meaning to me and to those whom I love and who return that love. I don't need faith to accomplish that. Dawn, I could not agree less with your comments. Faith has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with religion. If we, as atheist, begin to create some dogma, doctrine, creed, etc., then we are just another religion. That is not the case.

And to the meaning of life…survival. I find great meaning everyday as I struggle to understand my environment and cohabitants on this earth. My life has meaning to me and to those whom I love and who return that love. I don’t need faith to accomplish that.

]]> By: Dawn http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-864 Dawn Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:25:33 +0000 http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-864 Meaningless meaning: you still die... you can't take it with you... so whats the point? As Tolstoy said in "A Confession"(part 4) : "The truth was that life is meaningless. I had as it were lived, lived, and walked, walked, till I had come to a precipice and saw clearly that there was nothing ahead of me but destruction. It was impossible to stop, impossible to go back, and impossible to close my eyes or avoid seeing that there was nothing ahead but suffering and real death - complete annihilation." You can read A Confession by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy here: http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tolstoy/confession.html Hope this helps, -Dawn Meaningless meaning: you still die… you can’t take it with you… so whats the point? As Tolstoy said in “A Confession”(part 4) : “The truth was that life is meaningless. I had as it were lived, lived, and walked, walked, till I had come to a precipice and saw clearly that there was nothing ahead of me but destruction. It was impossible to stop, impossible to go back, and impossible to close my eyes or avoid seeing that there was nothing ahead but suffering and real death - complete annihilation.” You can read A Confession
by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy here: http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tolstoy/confession.html

Hope this helps,
-Dawn

]]> By: Mana http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-861 Mana Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:58:26 +0000 http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-861 Dawn, can you give examples of atheist faith? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by faith, but your description of "no meaning in the world," has nothing to do with faith or atheism. Atheists find much meaning in the world, especially in humans, their potential, human interactions, all that humans produce, such as art, literature, etc. Many atheists are involved in meaningful causes, environmental, science or education-based. Many atheists care deeply about liberty and justice. Atheists don't find meaning in a book of scripture, or in superstitions. Is this the meaningless meaning you're talking about? Dawn, can you give examples of atheist faith? I’m not exactly sure what you mean by faith, but your description of “no meaning in the world,” has nothing to do with faith or atheism. Atheists find much meaning in the world, especially in humans, their potential, human interactions, all that humans produce, such as art, literature, etc. Many atheists are involved in meaningful causes, environmental, science or education-based. Many atheists care deeply about liberty and justice.

Atheists don’t find meaning in a book of scripture, or in superstitions. Is this the meaningless meaning you’re talking about?

]]> By: dawn http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-860 dawn Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:55:54 +0000 http://skepticum.com/atheist-conversion-or-religious-de-conversion/#comment-860 I think it is converting when a person becomes and atheist, not deconverting. After all, atheists have the stronger faith than any religious group that I know of in the entire world! To believe that there is no god, and therefore, no absolutes or meaning in the world is a cold hard fact is a frightening thing. Sure, we can create meaning in our lives... but when you really think about it, because there is no god, no absolutes, it is just made up "meaning" that is inherently meaningless because we created it in our own minds. It takes lots of faith to be an atheist, so why call it dereconversion? It is in fact a conversion to a different kind of faith. Thank you for reading my comment, -Dawn <a href="http://www.livingwaters.com/good/", rel="nofollow">http://www.livingwaters.com/good/</a> I think it is converting when a person becomes and atheist, not deconverting. After all, atheists have the stronger faith than any religious group that I know of in the entire world! To believe that there is no god, and therefore, no absolutes or meaning in the world is a cold hard fact is a frightening thing. Sure, we can create meaning in our lives… but when you really think about it, because there is no god, no absolutes, it is just made up “meaning” that is inherently meaningless because we created it in our own minds. It takes lots of faith to be an atheist, so why call it dereconversion? It is in fact a conversion to a different kind of faith.
Thank you for reading my comment,
-Dawn
http://www.livingwaters.com/good/

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