It has come to my attention recently that more and more people are swearing by atheism, especially in this age group. But what really defines atheism? Disbelief in any and all deities and organized religion? In most religions, you have to prove your commitment to it. Jews have to have a bar mitzvah, Christians and Catholics have baptisms and whatnot, Muslim's are supposed to pray five times a day, I could go on and on. To profess your committed belief in atheism, all you have to say is "I am an atheist." I find that to be incredibly irritating. I want people to prove their disbelief.

Out of all the people who read this, how many of you consider yourself atheist? Now out of all you, how many of you participate in christmas or easter? If you were an honest atheist, you wouldn't.

In my experience, there are three types of atheists.
Poser Atheists: The majority, and probably, most of you. Consider yourself atheist because honestly believing in organized religion has gone stale socially. You still celebrate christmas and whatnot, and tell people your atheist to make you seem "edgy and hip"
Pushers: another large portion, these people tend to try to prove that they are superior to those who follow a religion. They try to push their atheist beliefs on religious people. Mostly do it to make them seem rebellious. Probably follow christmas and the like.
Honest Atheists: people who consider themselves atheist for their own personal reasons, maybe because of a particular incident in their lives, or just their outlook. They don't try to force their views on anyone else, and they don't follow any organized or commercialized religious holidays.

How you do prove your atheism-ness? There are no holidays, no gatherings, nothing. It seems like an empty statement. I decree that from now on, we should have atheist holidays. I'm going to be fertilizer day, there is nothing after you die day, let's sit around and worship our iPods, etc. I can imagine commercialized atheism within the next few years, most people know that this category of individuals is ripe for profit.

Atheism is based solely on your personal beliefs, it doesn't need to and shouldn't be public knowledge. The reason why I am so annoyed is because whenever I talk to anyone about religion, they mostly always tell me, "god doesn't exist I'm atheist." If anyone was to ask me about my beliefs, I'd probably tell them I'm jewish. Personally though, I consider myself agnostic. There could possibly be a god, but I have yet to see any proof.

Anyways, debate go.

xD nice thread steve.

For all intents and purposes I am agnostic, though I have claimed atheism a few times. The debate over what makes someone atheist or agnostic is actually kinda complicated though. It's funny because a bunch of people claiming to believe only in knowledge and fact can barely come up with a decent way to categorise themselves.

I don't think that celebrating holidays is essentially wrong for people who claim to be atheists though. Most holidays have been reduced to commerce any more, and they are pretty much secular events for most people.

Thanks deady. <3
I claim to be agnostic because most atheists I encounter have no respect or understanding for any religion. They refuse to even consider religion, and I find that close minded and childish. I find myself to be open to religion, even though I don't really believe or participate in it.

I was actually about to post about that. When Christmas comes around, I enjoy giving and receiving presents and spending time with family. I don't acknowledge anything religious, but I still "celebrate" it. But since I still don't believe in a higher power while doing this, my Atheist status doesn't fall to the poser definition.


That's just what it is. Not believing is simply not believing. What you're stating that you want here is an evangelical Atheist that has to at least voice his Atheism, when really, a quiet disbelief is still a disbelief.

Why should us 'honest' atheists prove it to you if you theists can't prove god to us?

As a good saying goes, atheism to religion is like not collecting stamps is to a hobby.
Why do you want people to "prove" their lack of belief? Isn't claiming it enough?


Ironically, what these 2 sentences tell me is that you are an atheist.
Position of agnosticism simply means you don't claim to know - anyone in their right mind is agnostic, because metaphysical claims by definition lay outside of empirical inquiry and as such can't be subjected to reliable tests. That doesn't mean one can't be agnostic and believe god(s) highly implausible - that's the case with me, an agnostic atheist. If i was provided sufficient evidence, i would believe just about anything.

Steve don't be an ass. The vast majority are what you call 'honest atheist'. You just don't hear from them, because they are busy minding their own business.

Atheists do not like to distinguish themselves from "regular" non-religious people, but that doesnt mean they arn't devoted.

A) I do not understand why you think we should force our religion on others like others do to us. You think atheists enjoy easter or christmas etc? Think we enjoy all these churches and mosques around the place.

B) Religion is a shell we must shed eventually, us making holidays or holy artifacts is stupid and counter productive.

C) The only thing a devoted Atheist is required to do is to believe in logic above answers.

Defending Atheism against dillusional religious devotees is just one of the perks.


This thread is a massive troll bait, please close it before the inevitable flame war.




EDIT: tri-ninja'd!


This is an Atheist. Steve, you are an Atheist.

You see no proof of God, hence you must logically discern that there is no god.


About Agnostics:

Agnostics fall into a few basic categories

A) Posers; people who want to be different but even consider Atheism to be too mainstream

B) Slow people; they just haven't had the time to think about what they actually believe

C) People who don't understand; they think 'Agnostic' is neutral, but its just someone who is uncommited or an idiot

D) Scared people; they do not want to be wrong.

Being Agnostic gives you no moral high ground. Atheists consider religions, but they also reject them. By being an Agnostic you are basicly saying "I don't want to choose, its too hard!"

I once considered myself an Agnostic, but thankfully Odlov and Mister616 showed me the way. I believe Mister616 once said; "Agnostics are idiots"

There is no way that an intelligent logical thinking person could come to the conclusion that they "have come to no conclusion". It is simply impossible.

I do it to get together with family. Then again, we don't stress the religious aspects or go to mass or anything. But there are more reasons to celebrating holidays than expressing your religious belief. Sometimes it's nice to unwind, and it makes sense to do it when everyone else is. The Christian holidays were created to supplant pagan ones anyway, so the message that comes across to me is to party once a season.


Odlov got it before me. I consider myself an atheist because I don't believe in gods, not because I believe it's impossible for gods to exist. If Moses appeared while I was making breakfast and kicked the shit out of me (I don't know what actual divine revelation is like) then I would probably believe.

Of course there are atheists who are assholes, there are religious and "agnostic" assholes too. The assholes have nothing to do with how sound the logic is, they make up a large part of the population. If you don't interact with a whole group of people because some are assholes you're going to be reduced to living in a shack. That's where prejudice of all kinds comes from. :l

You're talking nonsense. You've got a weird look at all atheists, and mistake religion for characters. If you don't believe in God-you're an atheist. Some shit like "People who try to push their view are not atheists!" makes me think that you're just looking for a way to prove you're better than the rest. I'm an atheist, and I celebrate Christmas. Because now, it has nothing to do with religion. I go for the religion classes aswell-I treat like a part of our culture.

The term Agnostic is useless. Someone who is entirely neutral on the idea of a god is an Atheist.

I'm a pretty extreme atheist and I celebrate most mainstream holidays. Christmas, Easter, etc. Why? Because it's fun. Also, as a bonus it pisses people off.