Any Atheist/Secularist/Humanist/Free-thinking premeds out there?

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Cytotoxic

Cytotoxic

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For those who see no reason to believe in gods, faeries, magical teapots, unicorns, etc. Oh, and we worship rocks and/or Satan, depending on what theists you ask.
 
You're on the dark side!
 
.
 
Last edited:
I smite thee........
jesus-cross-17620.jpg
 
ryandote said:
...and plus the douchebags. Why would you perpetuate this kind of stuff? Let it die.
Click to expand...

👍+2

...and OP, no love for us 'Rationalists', or whatever term Bill Maher is using these days😀
 
Honestly, I've always wanted to ask this to an atheist: what makes you get up in the morning?

Without knowing that everything is not some incredible random accident, it would be very hard for me to go on. Especially because we all only live for a maximum of about a hundred years (most of us on SDN have already finished 1/4 of our lives), I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.

What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
 
shippudenfan said:
Honestly, I've always wanted to ask this to an atheist: what makes you get up in the morning?

Without knowing that everything is not some incredible random accident, it would be very hard for me to go on. Especially because we all only live for a maximum of about a hundred years (most of us on SDN have already finished 1/4 of our lives), I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.

What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
Click to expand...

Duh.

God does.
 
shippudenfan said:
Honestly, I've always wanted to ask this to an atheist: what makes you get up in the morning?

Without knowing that everything is not some incredible random accident, it would be very hard for me to go on. Especially because we all only live for a maximum of about a hundred years (most of us on SDN have already finished 1/4 of our lives), I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.

What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
Click to expand...

I'm not particularly atheistic, but my alarm clock gets me up in the morning.

But seriously, I guess living can be enough of an adventure for some people. Worrying about what comes after would just take away from what we have right in front of us.
 
shippudenfan said:
What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
Click to expand...

For me, it's actually a greater driving force for me to get up in the morning. I know that this is the only life I have to live, and I had better make the best of it and attempt to make a lasting impact on the world while I'm here. When I'm gone, only people's memories of me and my accomplishments will remain.
 
shippudenfan said:
Honestly, I've always wanted to ask this to an atheist: what makes you get up in the morning?

Without knowing that everything is not some incredible random accident, it would be very hard for me to go on. Especially because we all only live for a maximum of about a hundred years (most of us on SDN have already finished 1/4 of our lives), I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.

What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
Click to expand...
The fact that I know life is short and temporary, makes every moment all the more important. It makes my time, my relationships, and my actions all the more valuable to me.
 
dizzyorange said:
I usually have to pee pretty badly.
Click to expand...

Cegar said:
Oh wow I hate that feeling so much.

And trying to pee in the morning?
Tccch. Impossible.
Click to expand...
What's worse is when you wake up in the middle of the night and have to go real bad, yet you are too tired to get up. It is the ultimate dilemna. You just wait there and hope that by changing position it will get better, but it only gets worse. Finally you drag your half-asleep body out of bed and do your thing. But then when you sink back into bed it's a great feeling
 
Depends.


Not just for geriatrics.
 
RPedigo said:
For me, it's actually a greater driving force for me to get up in the morning. I know that this is the only life I have to live, and I had better make the best of it and attempt to make a lasting impact on the world while I'm here. When I'm gone, only people's memories of me and my accomplishments will remain.
Click to expand...

I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
 
Rooter76 said:
What's worse is when you wake up in the middle of the night and have to go real bad, yet you are too tired to get up. It is the ultimate dilemna. You just wait there and hope that by changing position it will get better, but it only gets worse. Finally you drag your half-asleep body out of bed and do your thing. But then when you sink back into bed it's a great feeling
Click to expand...

That's true! Except sometimes changing positions works, you fall back asleep, and then wake up and can't sit up cause your bladder's so full.
 
Rooter76 said:
The fact that I know life is short and temporary, makes every moment all the more important. It makes my time, my relationships, and my actions all the more valuable to me.
Click to expand...

I echo this sentiment. Being an Atheist doesn't make life any less important, but it certainly makes me reflect on the fact that I need to enjoy my life all that I can, while I can. It actually helps me have the strength to keep working so hard to become a doctor. I only get one life and I have a dream career, so I'm going to do everything I can to achieve that.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...

1. What is comforting and what is true are not always the same. You may find it terrifying that what's coming is complete oblivion, but that doesn't make the existence of God more likely.

2. We didn't happen by accident, we happened by an innumerable amount of years of evolution.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...


I agree that facing the end can be haunting. As for the car analogy, if you are subscriber to scientific doctrine, then it really took billions of years of trial and error for things to even get started on this planet. And still there are mad crazy bugs in the system.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...

Your argument fails, but it is such a long explanation I'll leave it to someone else...but as a starting point, you can't view the human organism as coming to be by pure accident. There is a process.
 
I agree that I'm afraid of death seeing as it is the end of everything, but it doesn't make me afraid to get up in the morning. There's nothing I can do to prevent it, whether I'm right or wrong, so I try not to dwell on it.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?


I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...


Peolpe have already pretty much said what I feel. The car analogy is worthless, because human being did not spontaneoulsy come together in one moment. It is a current form of life after countless years of environmental pressures and changes.
 
Well I guess since this is the first "Any ___ Here?" threads that applies to me, I have a question.

Anyone read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins yet? I've gotten through twice and loved it both times.
 
shippudenfan said:
I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.
Click to expand...

"Know" huh? If you can prove it, that'd be pretty impressive and news worthy.

I don't mind living just for living's sake. I wake up to kiss my boyfriend good morning and to love him and be loved, to admire gorgeous sunrises, to enjoy delicious food, touching music, and moving novels. I don't really need a cosmic carrot to guide me or the comfort of life after death to enjoy the life I'm living now. Maybe as I get closer to death, I'll believe in reincarnation (the closest i ever got to belonging to organized religion was to be buddhist, but that didn't take either). I read Beyond Good and Evil when I was a fairly young and impressionable 9th grader, and it basically argues the societal and personal needs that led to the "evolution" of religion and morality. It's actually a pretty interesting read (and despite popular belief, doesn't support nihilism).

I'm personally agnostic (and a tad Nietszchean). Don't know if there is a "god", but don't know if there isn't one (same goes for the afterlife). So I generally just live my life to the fullest and enjoy what time I have 🙂 If once I die, I'm worm food, oh well, I won't be conscious to worry about it. If there really is reincarnation, cool.

I personally don't know what religious fanatics are thinking (not that I think you are one, just a comment in general)...I really don't think the bible was meant to be taken literally...like Noah's ark...I really don't think it's supposed to be taken literally.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...
If you consider that the manufacturer of the car was a human, who is the product of billions of years of evolution (which you might rather call an 'accident'), then by relation, the car was the product of billions of years of evolution (an 'accident').

Human U Evolution --> U == subset in mathematics
&
Car U Human

you have: Car U Evolution

QED

Simple math
 
Textuality said:
I don't mind living just for living's sake. I wake up to kiss my boyfriend good morning and to love him and be loved, to admire gorgeous sunrises, to enjoy delicious food, touching music, and moving novels.
Click to expand...

Very well put, I completely agree. It reminded me of a Dawkins interview when they asked him "But as an atheist, don't you not have anything to look forward to?" and he replied something to the effect of "Well, I'm planning on having a very nice lunch today." :laugh: It was a great response.
 
I'd say the "car" analogy classifies as a teleological argument of intelligent design. It's a pretty old argument.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/alex_matulich/why_i_believe/3_apndx.html

And those are some criticisms against it for those that are curious.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure most "logical" debates on religion are useless, usually the conclusion is just "nobody knows". There's no point arguing, there's a reason it's called faith right?
 
Katatonic said:
Well I guess since this is the first "Any ___ Here?" threads that applies to me, I have a question.

Anyone read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins yet? I've gotten through twice and loved it both times.
Click to expand...

Amazing book, especially the chapters dealing with research into the evolutionary origins of religion/religiosity (by-product/spandrelist theories).
 
shippudenfan said:
Honestly, I've always wanted to ask this to an atheist: what makes you get up in the morning?

Without knowing that everything is not some incredible random accident, it would be very hard for me to go on. Especially because we all only live for a maximum of about a hundred years (most of us on SDN have already finished 1/4 of our lives), I would cry if I didn't know that there was life after death.
That death wasn't the end.

What makes you get up in the morning? I'd never be able to get out at all.
Click to expand...

:laugh:, I get up in the morning because I feel like it...
And there is no life after death, hate to break it to ya
 
Cytotoxic said:
Amazing book, especially the chapters dealing with research into the evolutionary origins of religion/religiosity (by-product/spandrelist theories).
Click to expand...

Sounds like Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. I'll have to take a look at it. I also like Geneology of Morals. Pretty interesting read, especially if you think about how novel those ideas were when he wrote them.
 
KVO said:
How do you know?
Click to expand...


I agree. It cannot be argued one way or another since no one who has died can tell us. I would prefer that there is something afterwards, but I will not say there is or there is not.
 
dizzyorange said:
I usually have to pee pretty badly.
Click to expand...

Precisely. I try to stay unconcious, keep going back to sleep, until, finally, I have to concede, wake up, and take a leak. Then I have a cup of coffee and read the sports page.
 
med007 said:
I agree. It cannot be argued one way or another since no one who has died can tell us. I would prefer that there is something afterwards, but I will not say there is or there is not.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I'm solidly in the agnostic camp, and that I have not signed on as an atheist is simply because it seems a bit arrogant to be able to state with 100% certainty the existence or non-existence of a deity. Or an afterlife. Can we explain our existence without a deity? Yeah, I think so. Is an afterlife likely? I would wager not.

But denying its existence with a 100% certainty? How?
 
shippudenfan said:
If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...

We know cars are designed because we designed them. We can trace back the history of cars to the first concepts. We can watch a car being designed and assembled. What evidence do you have that suggests humans, or any other form of life, was designed?
 
searun said:
Precisely. I try to stay unconcious, keep going back to sleep, until, finally, I have to concede, wake up, and take a leak. Then I have a cup of coffee and read the sports page.
Click to expand...


Sorry, I just love how there are these parallel conversations on this thread about the nature of human existence and the problem of late-night urination.

Says a lot about how far humanity has come and yet how far we have still to go. haha
 
Speaking of 'free thinking', when I was in highschool I had some pagan/wiccan friends and was fairly vocal about being wiccan myself. But I realized I was partly doing it because I was tired of classmates and teachers trying to convert me to christianity, and because I like trying eclectic things. I ended up losing most of the wiccan beliefs, but good things did come of it: I learned to meditate and focus better, it instilled a strong sense of whimsy in me and led me to read up on a lot of theology/philosophy, and I made some awesome friends and have some great (if odd) memories like Beltane fires and hand fastings. Good times, good times.

I just thought it was funny that people would mock and scoff at my friends for being "New Age". I don't see how believing in "fairies" and "spirits" is any less farfetched than believing in "god". Like my friend likes to say "when you understand why you deny all other gods, you'll understand why i deny yours."
 
KVO said:
Yeah. I'm solidly in the agnostic camp, and that I have not signed on as an atheist is simply because it seems a bit arrogant to be able to state with 100% certainty the existence or non-existence of a deity. Or an afterlife. Can we explain our existence without a deity? Yeah, I think so. Is an afterlife likely? I would wager not.

But denying its existence with a 100% certainty? How?
Click to expand...

I don't think any rational atheist would tell you with 100% certainty that there is no god. There simply isn't a reason to believe in the existence of god. Look at it this way: person A makes a claim (e.g. there is a god) to person B, who is neutral on the matter. The onus would be on person A to provide the necessary evidence to support his claim. If he can't, there is no reason for person B to entertain it.
 
I was raised Catholic, and I'm agnostic now. I try every day to live my life in a way that helps people around me (obviously a lot of the time I fail or slip or do selfish things, but it is my life's purpose). This drive doesn't come from a fear of a higher power, and it has nothing to do with a potential afterlife. I think that if God exists, he'd probably rather I was doing these things than sitting in a church service, the point of which I never quite understood when I went to them. If he would rather i sit around and praise him than go out and build a house for someone that needs it, then that doesn't make much sense given his wishes about how we should behave! Either way, what I do with myself is not done to satisfy a deity, but since I'd like to hope that what I do with myself would make this theoretical deity happy anyway, I don't worry about it all that much.

I haven't read Dawkins' book yet, but check out "god is not great" by Chris Hudgens. It's pretty good, and from what I've heard lots less arrogant than Dawkins.
 
Rooter76 said:
What's worse is when you wake up in the middle of the night and have to go real bad, yet you are too tired to get up. It is the ultimate dilemna. You just wait there and hope that by changing position it will get better, but it only gets worse. Finally you drag your half-asleep body out of bed and do your thing. But then when you sink back into bed it's a great feeling
Click to expand...

Up until the moment I had sex taking a pee when I had been holding it for so long I thought I was gonna piss my pants was the greatest feeling in the world!!!!
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...

Trap set... aaaand trap sprung.

Don't bother responding to this please.
 
shippudenfan said:
I know this is what many young aethist people say. But when we get closer to the wire, isn't it terrifying to think that's coming is complete oblivion? No matter what people think of you back here on earth, there will be just worms and nothingness for you in the ground?

I asked my brother this once when he was starting to question the existence of God:

If you go to the most isolated spot on Earth today and see a Hummer, then you automatically assume that car was manufactured by someone somewhere. The parts didn't just assemble themselves miraculously into a working, functioning car. Then why do we assume that people happened by complete accident?
Click to expand...

What an incredibly poor understanding of evolution, especially coming from a self identified premed.
 
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