I am intrested in becoming an Atheist, i am tired of people telling me things i can not verify or question, exploiting me in the name of God, Telling me that i will go to hell if i dont believe them, and that i will go to heaven and stay in peace forever if i believed, only for me to believe and see that i am following man like a fool , making him powerful

The worst is that they tell me that i am already perished and i need to be part of them in other to be saved, Giving me empty promises that never come to pass, creating unneccesary hope for me, telling me about , war, subjection, mystry, and things that can not be satisfactorily explained, puting guilt and comfusion in me , after believing them, i go and see that i am better than people who had earlier condemmed me.

i was told Atheism is all about free thinking, and i love to be part of it, who can put me through,

become an atheist, why are you telling us? Who really cares?

Greetings banom.

Not everyone here is as rude as the previous poster.

you can start by reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Nonsense-Review-Doubting-Christians/dp/0595341829/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235415888&sr=8-1

Its called biblical nonsense and is a real eye- opener about the Christian religion.

Peace

davidylan:

become an atheist, why are you telling us? Who really cares?

Davidylan if not that you are my most cherished nairalander, i would have insulted you, if you dont care, why posting ?

mantraa:

Greetings banom.

Not everyone here is as rude as the previous poster.

you can start by reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Nonsense-Review-Doubting-Christians/dp/0595341829/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235415888&sr=8-1

Its called biblical nonsense and is a real eye- opener about the Christian religion.

Peace

Please can you tell me more about Atheism and how i can become an Atheist.

It is a curious turn of phrase to say "you want to become an atheist". Being an atheist is not a badge of honour nor is it a position or mental state one desires. On the other hand, what one may desire is to be more logical, rational and adopt a critical thinking and philosophcal and skeptical approach to life. This may be a long and tedious process in which you will learn:

1) Analytical and argumentative logic
2) Critical thinking skills
3) History
4) Philosophy
5) A great deal of science and the scientific method
6) Religions, myths and supersitions

Having learn all of the above (and of course some more) you would then be in a better position to evaluate all sorts of propositions put in front of your, religious or non-religious. For instance, a critical thinker should not be easily fooled my 419 scams for they should have learned the techniques for evaluating business and social propositions put to them. So also, I would expect a criticl thinker not to be easily taken in by the claims of the African (or otherwise) black magicians, new-ageist, astrologers, etc.

Armed with these skills you will be in a better position to see through the falsehoods and corruption that theistic religions are. There are some good resources online, but I suggest you start with this book: http://www.federacionatea.org/documentos/thecaseagainstgod.pdf.

Banom, appologies for coming across as rude.

My brother, what kind of an atheist do you want to become?

Some Atheists do not believe in God but believe in the existence of a supernatural world.

Other atheists believe neither in God nor in any supernatural

You could be a reactionary atheist. That is an atheists whose beliefs are merely a reaction against some particular religion or ideology. In this case you have to study the religion that you are reacting against and learn to pick holes in it to properly understand your position.

There are numerous others, but the general gist is that you have to think carefully about exactly what kind of atheist you wanna become.

Pastor AIO:

My brother, what kind of an atheist do you want to become?

Some Atheists do not believe in God but believe in the existence of a supernatural world.

Other atheists believe neither in God nor in any supernatural

You could be a reactionary atheist. That is an atheists whose beliefs are merely a reaction against some particular religion or ideology. In this case you have to study the religion that you are reacting against and learn to pick holes in it to properly understand your position.

There are numerous others, but the general gist is that you have to think carefully about exactly what kind of atheist you wanna become.

Very good point you made here and it is partly addressed by my post above, ie avoiding becoming like the "reactionary atheists" by educating yourself in critical thinking, scientific rationalism, philosophy, etc. Today, we see reactionary atheism amongst all religionist in the sense that all religionist are atheists with respect to other religions that are not theirs. Thus the christian is a reactionary atheist with respect to the hindu religion, or Thor, or Wotan, or Zeus, etc.

be what you are, no need for a billboard advertisement.

i was told Atheism is all about free thinking, and i love to be part of it, who can put me through,

well deism is about freethinking too

@banom, good intention, join the satanist group there ask you shall find.

mantraa:

Greetings banom.

Not everyone here is as rude as the previous poster.

you can start by reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Nonsense-Review-Doubting-Christians/dp/0595341829/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235415888&sr=8-1

Its called biblical nonsense and is a real eye- opener about the Christian religion.

Peace

This is what I have a problem with - viewing Atheism as an anti-Christ movement.
If you don't want to believe in any supreme being, do so but why use Christianity and its beliefs as your stepping stone to all things ungodly? Why oppose everything Christian just to prove to yourself that there is no God? I don't get it.

all dis -unnecessary talks-bullshit


u are already an atheist,right from d day i saw ur post i knew u r an atheist,so own up to it and stop acting as if someone will cut off ur head if u say "i am an atheist"


hisssssss

"This is what I have a problem with - viewing Atheism as an anti-Christ movement.
If you don't want to believe in any supreme being, do so but why use Christianity and its beliefs as your stepping stone to all things ungodly? Why oppose everything Christian just to prove to yourself that there is no God? I don't get it. Huh"

In my view i don't see atheism as a solely anti christ movement. It is more a group of people who do not believe in the existence of a God or Gods regardless of which religion that God is the head of. As a person who was raised a Christian and having read the bible from cover to cover I can relate to Christianity more than any other belief system.

Perhaps I should have recommended the more general book by Richard Dawkins; The God Delusion, which is equally as good, if not better.
You can watch the documentary version here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbANH_0KfRw

Peace

P.s. Is it really ungodly to question your beliefs?

huxley:


Very good point you made here and it is partly addressed by my post above, ie avoiding becoming like the "reactionary atheists" by educating yourself in critical thinking, scientific rationalism, philosophy, etc. Today, we see reactionary atheism amongst all religionist in the sense that all religionist are atheists with respect to other religions that are not theirs. Thus the christian is a reactionary atheist with respect to the hindu religion, or Thor, or Wotan, or Zeus, etc.

Please sir, how do you educate yourself in critical thinking? I admit that my tongue is a little bit in my cheek but if you can explain it to me satisfactorily I will remove it from my cheek.

all these blablanla is not what i am after, i want to become one, period,

and please if you know you are here to say your religious nonsence, keep it to your self, nothing will ever make me change my mind, i am tired of this confusion an violence called Religion.

Pastor AIO:

Please sir, how do you educate yourself in critical thinking? I admit that my tongue is a little bit in my cheek but if you can explain it to me satisfactorily I will remove it from my cheek.

ROTFL!!! Nice. . . .
Please, give me permission to quote you?

banom:

all these blablanla is not what i am after, i want to become one, period,

and please if you know you are here to say your religious nonsence, keep it to your self, nothing will ever make me change my mind, i am tired of this confusion an violence called Religion.

I am yet to see anyone who has said you shouldn't become an atheist.
I, however have somewhat adviced that you become one because you don't care about a supreme being or religion and not because you want to "protest Christianity".

Why do you need permission from Nairaland to become an atheist anyway? If you want to become one, you don't need any sort of baptisimal hoopla, just become one. End.

@Banom
for the sake of clarification what religion did you practise before you decided to become an atheist. How deep were you in this faith, if you practised christianity i might be able to tell you a thing or two. the problem might not be the religion it might be the way it was presented to you. I agree with you that a lot of churches preach and say unrealistic things but this is purely becos most of them don't understand Christ's true gospel. The religion as been abused and bastardized over the last 2000 years hence the complications. i honestly think you should keep your mind open and try and understand the real true gospel of christ, you would be shocked that it is so different from what most pastors tell you.

KunleOshob:

@Banom
for the sake of clarification what religion did you practise before you decided to become an atheist. How deep were you in this faith, if you practised christianity i might be able to tell you a thing or two. the problem might not be the religion it might be the way it was presented to you. I agree with you that a lot of churches preach and say unrealistic things but this is purely becos most of them don't understand Christ's true gospel. The religion as been abused and bastardized over the last 2000 years hence the complications. i honestly think you should keep your mind open and try and understand the real true gospel of christ, you would be shocked that it is so different from what most pastors tell you.

Actualy i was born a christian , i am from highly religious family, i am a pastors son for that matter.

So what do you have to tell me ?

Pastor AIO:

Please sir, how do you educate yourself in critical thinking?  I admit that my tongue is a little bit in my cheek but if you can explain it to me satisfactorily I will remove it from my cheek.

There are many options available if one is really serious about critical thinking.  In fact, in the UK and US, CT is a subject now studied in colleges and universities and for some career options (eg, law, journalism, nursing, etc) this is a compulsory course module.

There are many books on the subject available to the interested reader.  Just do a search on [url=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=critical+thinking&sprefix=criti] Amazon [/url] to see what you would get.  For my money, one of the best is Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

There are also some good material for juniors 5 - 12 year old on Amazon and also provided by some independent vendors


I particularly like this site  as it presents some very useful downloadable  manuals and has a very good working definition of what CT is

Other useful rresources are:

http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/critical-thinking.php

http://www.criticalthinking.co.uk/



The need for CT is greater now than ever before with the almost limits amounts of data and oppurtunities for such data to be misused.  In the UK, if you work in an environment where you deal with vast quantities of personal, institutional and are involved with making strategic decisions and policies, you will sooner or later be sent to one of these courses by your employers.

If you would like some more details, I would be only too happy to help.  

To understand what christianity really is i believe you have to start all over again a dsicover the truth. Most people are christians today becos they wee either born into it or becos they have been intimidated that hey would go to hell if they don't give their lives. Both this reasons are wrong reasons for being a christian. To be  atrue christian you truely have to understand the teachings of our lord Jesus christ. That means you focus on the four gospels (matthew, mark, luke and john) try and understand exactly what jesus was preaching, after that read the teachings of the apsotles in the latter books of the new testament it would also help a lot. please forget about the old testament, it has very little to offer as far as christianity is concerned.

i would also be the first to admit that the bible is not 100% accurate but it contains a lot of truths and you have to be discerning when reading it. Please read the teachings/ sermons of christ in the new testament we can then build this up from there. Please note that Christs teachings was mostly about love for god and ouur fellow men, in fact all his teachings centred around this two themes. When you focus on these teachings and not what they focus on in churches you would begin to appreciated christ better.

banom:

Actualy i was born a christian , i am from highly religious family, i am a pastors son for that matter.

So what do you have to tell me ?

What i have to tell ya is that you re confused! Meet your father for guidance since he is a pastor.

spikedcylinder:

I am yet to see anyone who has said you shouldn't become an atheist.
I, however have somewhat adviced that you become one because you don't care about a supreme being or religion and not because you want to "protest Christianity".

Why do you need permission from Nairaland to become an atheist anyway? If you want to become one, you don't need any sort of baptisimal hoopla, just become one. End.

Spot on!

besides, there is nothing called atheist, it is a deception.
they all believe in God only that they try telling others they dont!

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

A guy once came to his friends to proudly tell them that he is an atheist because there is no God. But the arguement became very heated, his friends pulled every string of evidence to put it to him that he is wrong. this greatly infuriated him. Out of anger he screamed at them, 'I swear to God that there is no God!

dgreatrock:

What i have to tell ya is that you re confused! Meet your father for guidance since he is a pastor.

Must you insult me before advising me ? any way my father is late, but i see nothing but negative things in religion, Religion came with more evil than good, it created more problems that it solved, it is just something i have thought about , and i see no need for it.

dgreatrock:

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

A guy once came to his friends to proudly tell them that he is an atheist because there is no God. But the arguement became very heated, his friends pulled every string of evidence to put it to him that he is wrong. this greatly infuriated him. Out of anger he screamed at them, 'I swear to God that there is no God!

So coz the guy shouted that i swear to God there is no God your indirectly saying that the guy himself confessed that there is a God. Well like u said its just a story.. And where is your imaginary God? Where was He when the Lord's Resistance army were massacreing innocent civilians in the Congo on Christmas Day and how comes i've never seen Him?

dgreatrock:

besides, there is nothing called atheist, it is a deception.
they all believe in God only that they try telling others they dont!

Do you believe in the Gods Thor or in Wotan or in Zeus? If you understand why I don't believe in these gods, you would understand why I don't believe in your god.

first of all ,let us get one thing straight. what is atheism? Webster's dictionary defines it as  ''the belief in the non existence of God or gods'' or as another defines it ''the lack of belief in the existence of any God, gods or supreme being''.

now my question is, do you believe there is a God? if you do, then u r not an atheist. if you don't then you are. you do not need permission from anyone to be or not to be, it is all about your belief or lack of it as the case may be.

banom:

all these blablanla is not what i am after, i want to become one, period
and please if you know you are here to say your religious nonsence, keep it to your self, nothing will ever make me change my mind, i am tired of this confusion an violence called Religion.

my point is, the fact that you have not concluded that you are an atheist but want to be one suggests that you still believe there is a God hence coming across as confused ( do not take offence cos that was not meant as an insult). one more thing, you do not broadcast a lack of belief in something out of the blues otherwise it doesn't make sense. the fact is you must have felt strongly enough about God in order to state you want to be an atheist there4 my conclusion is, you are not convinced there is no God. my dear , WHO hurt you.

@ poster

Aren't you already an atheist?

op: I am intrested in becoming an Atheist,

I would ask why, but that already seems redundant. I suspect your post is one of those mundane attempts at satire, but I find it interesting anyway.

i am tired of people telling me things i can not verify or question, exploiting me in the name of God, Telling me that i will go to hell if i dont believe them, and that i will go to heaven and stay in peace forever if i believed, only for me to believe and see that i am following man like a fool , making him powerful

The worst is that they tell me that i am already perished and i need to be part of them in other to be saved, Giving me empty promises that never come to pass, creating unneccesary hope for me, telling me about , war, subjection, mystry, and things that can not be satisfactorily explained, puting guilt and comfusion in me , after believing them, i go and see that i am better than people who had earlier condemmed me.

Becoming an atheist won't cure you of those ills. People will always tell you things you can't verify, try to exploit in the name of gods, etc. Sounds like you need a change of location instead.

i was told Atheism is all about free thinking, and i love to be part of it, who can put me through,

No, atheism is all about not believing any gods exist. Free thinking isn't a requisite. If you want someone to put you through the steps anyway, contact your local EAC* representative.

* The Evil Atheist Conspiracy. Like Fight Club, it doesn't exist, but it really exists. Now with more virgin sacrifices and orgies.