Religion

[trailerman]

Atheist believing in supernatural. Paradoxal isn't it ?

Not really. It's not exactly a common occurance, but the only requisite for being an atheist is to not believe in a god/God/gods/Gods/a goddess/Goddesses/goddesses.
Also, "god" doesn't look like a word anymore.

than, I'm really "atheist". I don't believe that I'll get in hell or in heaven for my deeds, but I believe that something is beside our imagination there.

[antisp13]

I'm not sure what to believe in as of right now. I guess I'm too young to really go into religion and things like that.

[trailerman]

I'm not sure what to believe in as of right now. I guess I'm too young to really go into religion and things like that.

don't think, and you'll be happy

[absinthe_spoons]

I'm not sure what to believe in as of right now. I guess I'm too young to really go into religion and things like that.

don't think, and you'll be happy

That's some... interesting advice there, champ. Way to go.
How old are you, antisp13? It's definitely your choice as to when you start thinking about religion, but I've been taught that you can't be truly free until you make your own critical decisions.
Branching off of that, I can't remember when exactly I became an atheist, but I know that I'd made that decision by the time I was 12.

[antisp13]

I'm not sure what to believe in as of right now. I guess I'm too young to really go into religion and things like that.

don't think, and you'll be happy

That's some... interesting advice there, champ. Way to go.
How old are you, antisp13? It's definitely your choice as to when you start thinking about religion, but I've been taught that you can't be truly free until you make your own critical decisions.
Branching off of that, I can't remember when exactly I became an atheist, but I know that I'd made that decision by the time I was 12.

14 0_0. i have thought about atheism definitely but then there's that part of me that questions what happens to us when we die.

[CancerianFireLordess]

14? Trust me, at your age I was already a designated Atheist having discussions with my peers about Spiritual stuff. At 14 you can make your own decisions. Don't mean to pry but, are your parents really religious, forbidding you to even think beyond that set religion?

[trailerman]

Wow I already had a job at 14 . But you don't have to be obsessed about this question...the time people spent on thinking "what will happen when they'll die" or "is there any sense to live", could be used wiser and with more sense. and fun.

[Sejame]

I've always had something against organised religion. Just never made sense to me.
I went to church and some campaigners nonsense when I was younger and even won a bible ( *joygasm* ) for a jesus story I made up o.o;
But I was all the time asking questions, one of my main things even in school was wanting to know why something was the way it was or worked the way it did so I was never really the most popular kid in the church.
Now before it seems like I was actually forced to go to church my parents are both intolerable athiests, my dad completely certain when we die we just die and nothing more and our existance is all just a big luck deal. The going to church was my own choice, simply because I had friends going there and they let you play football ( soccer for US people ) on the grounds whenever you wanted as long as you attended.

But back to religion..

The more I looked into things the more it all just seemed like some out of control scam. No one could answer my questions and these people were the leaders, the ones who were supposed to know everything and be able to guide the younger generations. Which got me then thinking that if they couldn't answer my questions then the people who taught them didn't know and so on down the line. Therefore.. pretty much everyone was just winging the whole thing, trusting in a book with so many flaws it makes my brain spasm that anyone can follow it.

Now I'm pretty much an atheist but do beleive there's something more to the world. Or at least I hope so. Bottom line with me really is that I don't care. I'm here and I'm going to make the most of it. Whether there be a Heaven and Hell or nothing at all I'm still going to treat other people with respect and live a good life. I don't need a warning to do that.

[absinthe_spoons]

Whether there be a Heaven and Hell or nothing at all I'm still going to treat other people with respect and live a good life. I don't need a warning to do that.

QFT. Nobody should. It disgusts me that so many people WOULD need a warning.
It's so unfair how it's so difficult for me to find a fellow atheist IRL to talk to, whereas on the internet it's a good deal more difficult to find someone who isn't either agnostic or atheistic.
I have an anecdote. Atheists/theists/agnostics all welcome to address it if they so wish.
Me and my best friend are both big TV-watchers, and even though we don't always watch the same shows, we still tend to share a lot of whatever we're watching with the other, over MSN and such. I recently picked up "Reaper", a dramedy about a young man whose soul has been sold to the devil. (It's completely addictive -- I watched the whole series over a matter of days.) And like always, I told her which parts were hilarious, which characters were awesome, etc. In particular, my favourite character is, yes, the devil. (He's awesome.) On my end, this has absolutely no religious or moral meaning. He's just an awesome fictional character, one that's not even particularly evil in comparison to a lot of fictional antagonists. But whenever I brought him up, she seemed genuinely uncomfortable. She's Muslim, and I don't have a lot of clear ideas about what her religion believes. I asked her, and as it turns out, she believes the whole kit & caboodle. Fallen angel, rebelled against God, now hangs out in another plane of existence (hey, at least it's not underground) called Hell, that place where you go when you die to be tortured for all eternity if you were a bad person while living.
This just seems... very odd to me. When it comes to God, in whatever capacity one believes that he exists, his existence can't be proven or disproven, one way or the other. But Satan, Hell... I'd thought that these concepts were beyond belief at this point. They're something out of Gary Larson comics, out of amusing TV shows on the CW, out of gaudy Halloween costumes.
So my poorly-lead-up-to question is, where does abstract religion concept end and pure, silly fiction begin for you?

[Sejame]

Honestly.

I find the whole thing to be fiction. Not just the devil but the whole concept of a God as well. I would have an easier time beleiving in many Gods than one, heck, I would feel more comfortable with there being many.
The idea that one guys opinion is everything just makes for a really crappy existance. I understand he is supposed to be all these wonderful great things and know everything but from what religion says of him, for being a forgiving guy he can be a bit of an arsehole. ( Suicide cases go to hell just for an example )
His existance is about as solid as Santa Claus and to me the whole thing just seems like a story created a long time ago, used to try and have people act according to plan.

I actually really like bibles stories though, but I see them as a great work of fiction. No different than a modern day book or movie.