ILX Religiosity and Spirituality and Agnosticity and Atheicity Poll

I am atheist/agnostic but I have found value in a religious or spiritual tradition that I did not grow up in.
- going with this over option 1, but I don't really think of Zen as being religious or spiritual

There are a lot of ways to say 'the Bible is basically a bunch of stories', and a lot of them don't involve being an atheist.

I think one way in which there can be church-going atheists is if you are new to a religious area, and want to get to know the community, it doesn't seem unreasonable to go help out at a church. I think one or two ilx0rs have stories of doing similar?

There are tons of church-going atheists at Unitarian Universalist churches, folks.

Phil D otm

xp to emily- or a soup kitchen, sports centre, etc. i get that you're saying it's a possibility, but i don't think it's what philip is saying- he seems (and apologies if not) it's a pity atheists don't get to go to church to experience community and wisdom

Also it's a bit rich to be all "where have you ever created communities?" to a segment of the population that is still only 2% worldwide.

ya true in civ we'd still be in wagons

i now regret not taking more time and including "not allowing your child medical attention" in my pulling the hitler card list. the other thing you site about dude sacrificing money so that he can spread the faith is maybe a little more real, but still v v uncommon. what im saying is that for the garden variety believer, i dont see how convincing them of atheism is going to save them from unhappiness as a general rule - most religious peeps find great comfort in their religion as i understand it throughout their lives, the last thing they need is me trying to save them from their supposed ignorance.

"There are a lot of ways to say 'the Bible is basically a bunch of stories', and a lot of them don't involve being an atheist."
What would be the practical difference? I feel like there'd be no beef between an atheist and any Christian who starts from that POV.

I don't think the pity is that they can't go (in fact I think a lot of them do go), it's that they can't go openly, and serve as
a moderating influence.

! on what/whom?

jj, that's fine, and like I said upthread, I don't much care what people personally believe as opposed to what they do, and I mostly just keep my mouth shut when family or friends talk turn to god, even though I'm still not sure exactly why I should. I don't try to convince anyone of anything, but they all sure spend a lot of time trying to save my heathen soul.

lol, I am kind of giggling at the "why don't more atheists go to church?" questions because CLEARLY you folks don't know enough professional choristers

also Phil N you are kind of insane

The practical difference would be that one believes in God and the other one doesn't. To take examples, I could easily imagine a beef between an atheist who says the Bible is a bunch of stories meaning that it is all fiction and should be treated as on a par with the last Steven King novel, and a Christian who says the Bible is a bunch of stories meaning it is a guide written by spiritual leaders full of allegories that help one to live ones life.

(Also, haha, Hi Dere, I completely forgot about members of my family who go to church to sing. Though I don't think they are atheists, more lapsed protestant agnostics.)

re: who would it moderate --
On people who don't think the Bible is just a bunch of stories, basically.
I feel like a lot of the culture war is being lost against them (e.g. global warming, science teaching, stem cells, gay marriage, etc...)
and it would be helpful for decent, church-going folks, going, every now and then,
"hold on, there, fellas. remember, the bible is just a bunch of stories."
and then there'd be murmors and scattered shouts of "the deacon's right!"

and then they have an orgy

*I* only go to church to sing. Which makes it extremely disappointing when I'm somewhere with a disappointing hymnal full of thin, reedy, modern arrangements that strip out the harmonies to make it easier for the amateur pianists in someone's PRAISE CHORUS to follow along.

Although tbh when the parts I know don't fit, I just sing them louder.

lol, I am kind of giggling at the "why don't more atheists go to church?" questions because CLEARLY you folks don't know enough professional choristers

my dads an atheist & played the organ in the local church for 20+ years. guy just likes playing the organ. i sometimes used to go along with him as a kid & sit next to him, help pulling out the stops. it was fun!

*I* only go to church to sing. Which makes it extremely disappointing when I'm somewhere with a disappointing hymnal full of thin, reedy, modern arrangements that strip out the harmonies to make it easier for the amateur pianists in someone's PRAISE CHORUS to follow along.

Although tbh when the parts I know don't fit, I just sing them louder.

haha I do the same thing

also I make up descants for praise songs (note: I am a bass/baritone)

descant praise

my one major problem with atheism per se is that it doesn't offer any sort of alternative to the many other good things that religion can offer -- wisdom, values, community, etc. and if the only virtue of atheism is "being right" it's small comfort against creeping nihilism.

ffs if you want to know why some atheists might be uncomfortably shrill it's because they get told that this is how they feel

this is not contributing to this discussion but i had to post this hilarious rapture image YT link somewhere

btw I'll cop to being mostly a nihilist but it doesn't mean I'm not capable of awe and wonder and I'll those other "spiritual" things

"I could easily imagine a beef between an atheist who says the Bible is a bunch of stories meaning that it is all fiction and should be treated as on a par with the last Steven King novel, and a Christian who says the Bible is a bunch of stories meaning it is a guide written by spiritual leaders full of allegories that help one to live ones life."

Stuff like this, though, doesn't feel like an interfaith beef. I mean, I don't feel the Bible is bereft of life lessons, so I could theoretically have the same beef with this godless dude tag-teaming with my new Xian buddy, also because I like Stephen King.

Oh God (ha), did I spell Stephen King wrong? Sorry, I've been quite careless with my post editing today.

But anyway, surely it isn't an interfaith beef, because atheists by definition don't have faith. Also, there are many gradations between my two examples, those two were merely illustrations to prove that there IS a practical difference in attitude.

I get there would be a kind of 'tude divide between atheists who have no use for the church and those who
do voluntarily attend, but I can't imagine atheists that do attend going to hear scary stories, unless it's
some hellhouse kind of thing.
also, i spelled it wrong, too! but i felt compelled by an unseen presence to change it.

cad, the point i want to make is that atheism doesn't really have a cultural traditions parallel to religious culture. and i said 'atheism' -- i'm not trying to describe any particular atheist as lacking wisdom, values, or a sense of community. but it seems to me that an atheist those things have to be found outside of atheism -- or if you crib these things from a religion, in spite of it.

just -- i think of atheism as negating the existence of god and by extension, religion. that void gets filled somehow, and it'd be nice to see atheists advocating humanism / an ethical life / whatever rather than see certain atheists shitting on ppl's beliefs and giving y'all a reputation.

agree with all of that--i think most reasonable atheists do advocate an ethical life! but i don't think it's a failing of atheism not to provide those things (why would it want to) and disagree that it doesn't have virtues beyond "being right."

i disagree completely tbh. the assumption that these behaviours/instincts somehow come from religion as opposed to religion being perhaps the prevalent way of celebrating these existing and natural behaviours- that seems backwards to me.

Okay CAD now I'm kind of confused, partially because I'm not sure which things you mean by "those things" and therefore it seems contradictory to be okay with atheism not providing the values I'm thinking of yet still argue it has virtues beyond "being right".

I mean, you look at religions and most of them have a moral code baked directly into them. If you are granting that atheism does not have an inherent moral code, what are its actual virtues?

xp: that feels like a tomayto/tomahto objection but I can't put my finger on exactly why

yep. esp considering that said behaviours are actually pretty much across the board beneficial in an evolutionary sense xpost

hi dere jj just splained why it isn't and btw tomato is just pronounced tomato fyi also

those things being the things elmo mentioned originally.

i think it's a virtue of atheism that i wake up every day knowing (to the extent i can) that no supernatural force is acting on my life. i think it's a virtue knowing that if i want to change something in my life, i can do it without something like prayer.

I'm atheist, but I will stan for the King James bible as a) a work of literature b) a work of literacy in the sense that it opened up reading to those outside the 'privileged' class because you had scripture in English and other vernacular languages all of a sudden and that, like Greek myth or whatnot, there are recurring tropes that people are expected to know as canon (lol) in literature and the other arts, as well as popular culture.

However, I have this thing where I think forms of Christianity which use what I call 'Bibles for slow readers' are full of people who are generally not very bright.

BTW my atheism has always been underpinned by a very specific moral code: that I don't need some notional supreme being thing to reinforce my idea of the difference between right and wrong/good and evil because any intelligent person should be able to work out that hurting other living things or telling lies are shitty things to do.

Atheism cannot have an inherent moral code, because it is not a belief system. It is an absence of belief in God. But the reason why religions have moral codes at their core is because they are created by people. Atheists are people. Therefore they are just as equipped as the religious to provide morality etc.

suzy otm about another virtue of atheism

I think my argument is that it doesn't particularly matter where they came from; they got baked into the social construct we call religion and, barring some massive cataclysm that drastically reshapes humanity, they are going to stay there, so arguing that those behaviors are totally independent from religion is kind of akin to arguing that black and white are not actually colors; yes, in strict terms you are correct, but it is not a practical distinction to make.

so yes I did basically concede the point, you're welcome

Just because there's no deity involved, that doesn't mean atheism isn't a belief system. Non-belief is also a belief of sorts /ouroborous

also suzy's virtue is pretty easy to classify as "being right", to go back to elmo's original argument

I think my argument is that it doesn't particularly matter where they came from; they got baked into the social construct we call religion and, barring some massive cataclysm that drastically reshapes humanity

I think maybe the Enlightenment provided for a means (in Western culture obvs) of ascertaining morals and ethics and values that were independent of, and in some cases contrary to, religious values and ethics. Like, they ran on a parallel track and could be derived independently and practiced independently.

if atheists had awesome embroidered robes and geodesic temples and rites and folklore and shit i would be all over in a heartbeat.

The Enlightenment also brought us non-Latin Bibles, yo.

A few years ago someone used the gambit of 'you should thank God blah blah blah' on me and I pointed out that whenever people use the G-word on me it has more to do with what they want emotionally from me than what is actually necessary - also a bit like blaming your own fart on the dog.

jeez hi dere i think it's a pretty big distinction to make when someone (or a lot of people? i dunno) claims atheists somehow are at a disadvantage in their ability to relate to those behaviours

re: robes and domes, wouldn't you prefer we take over catholicism? we'd get a whole city.

Just because there's no deity involved, that doesn't mean atheism isn't a belief system. Non-belief is also a belief of sorts /ouroborous

Only when you make it so. It certainly isn't analogous to a religion. Perhaps for someone like Dawkins, or people who identify as 'Humanist' in a certain way. But certainly not for me.

atheism isn't a 'belief' as i'd understand it. in fact just whatever emily says i'll go with itt tbh

"Bibles for slow readers" is like the best thing I've seen all day btw.

I'm not sure skepticism operates on a physical level the same way that belief does. I think you have to on some level hold the belief in order to be skeptical of it. Someone with neuro-bio help me out here.

i think you have to on some level be cold to be hot

I think you have to on some level hold the belief in order to be skeptical of it.

Not true. You have to be able to consider it, which would include viewing it from both (or, if you want to reject binaries, multiple) sides. This is not the same as 'holding the belief', which would mean believing it. But of course, the only reason why I consider this particular belief, which is entirely unimportant to me, is because society asks me to make a decision. Really, I would've been much happier had it not been a question at all.