Shotgun

Where do you get this from? I don't believe in a "creator." This has nothing to do with whether I believe everything else requires a designer. Actually, I have no idea whether everything that has ever existed required a designer. How would you know such a thing? You would first need to have knowledge of everything that has ever existed, and I don't believe that anyone has anything even close to that.

See, this is where the reasonable argument ends. It's fair to ask what caused everything except for what caused God. "God is eternal, so the rules of cause and effect do not apply." Convenient answer, but totally made up, and neither provable nor dis-provable at this very moment. I'll just stick with "There is a lot I don't know, and I'm OK with that, but I'll continue trying to learn."

Therefore, God needs a designer. And God's designer needs a designer. And God's designer's designer needs a designer. And so on and so on. The concept of infinity seems much simpler (yet still complex) to me if I just leave out the God stuff. But that's just me.

Just be aware, no one starts out using mood altering substances believing that they will have a problem. The first step to solving a personal problem is recognizing that a problem exists. That step is immensely difficult. I don't entirely agree with you here. Personally, I can't speak for "everyone" and what they know when they start out using mood-altering substances, and I don't believe that you can either. Same with personal problems. Some people might recognize that a problem exists right away; others may take a while. And some people might find a solution right away, while others may not. I have seen a number of people give up illegal drugs and then continue to drink alcohol in moderation, while I have seen others give up one drug only to become addicted to another (including alcohol). And many of the people I know who have been "clean" for years still abuse caffeine and/or nicotine, while some are able to use those drugs in moderation or not at all. People are all different.

That'll work. I believe in work therapy. What is the difference between "work" and "work therapy"? Work therapy is a term I used when relating to clients in treatment programs. It refers to focusing on a job with enough intensity to keep cravings and boredom at bay. The object is to gain clean time. Work is having a job. Oh, OK. Then your response to jclalor didn't make much sense. He clearly stated that he didn't have a problem with alcohol, and I got the impression that he wasn't in any kind of treatment program. He did say he had a problem with a different drug at one time, but despite the popular theory, I don't believe that necessarily means that one will ever have a problem with alcohol.

Because as a society, there are certain things (such as abortion) that we have to come to some sort of agreement on, at least for legal reasons. And most issues (like abortion) have no clear right or wrong answer, so the discussion needs to continue while society's and our individual ideas evolve. I have changed my mind before (at least a little bit) based on someone else's persuasive argument. Which might not have happened if the other person had simply said, "Oh well; she has a different opinion," and left it that.

Same here. I think that's the one thing most of us agree on. Darn, you were sounding so rational til I got to this part. I'm pretty sure that any "judgment" for my bad actions will come in the form of consequences in this life. (But that being "good" does not preclude me from having bad things happen anyway.) If it turns out that something does happen after death, I'm also pretty sure that no one here has a clue of what that might be, so I don't see much point in worrying about it right now.

One of the most common "why I believe in God" explanations that I hear is the "I should have been dead" scenario. For example, someone misses a horrible wreck with a drunk driver by mere inches or a fraction of a second, so this is proof that God must exist. But the explanation for all the others who actually are killed by drunk drivers? Well, that varies from person to person, but I've yet to hear a rational explanation.

He posted a link about how the slain hostages were delivering Bibles.

That'll work. I believe in work therapy. What is the difference between "work" and "work therapy"?

I think it is because belief is personal to many people. I seriously doubt that you go correcting the flaws in the argument supporting Father Christmas to kids - it makes them happy and generally hurts no one else. As jakee said, Ron is a professional counselor, and so his beliefs may actually hurt someone else. I would personally want to know that before receiving counselling, and then would look elsewhere. Similar (in my mind) to someone who was convinced they had been abducted by aliens. It may be very "real" to them, but most likely a hallucination of some sort. That is an interesting dilemma. Many counselors are religious (all religions). I am not sure where I stand on that although I suspect to quote the bible "remove the plank in your own eye before...". I don't see that a counselor needs to be perfect before helping damaged people. "Perfect" does not exist. But, as an atheist, I would have trouble receiving counselling from someone who believed that he had actually heard a voice talking to him. But yeah, perhaps another Christian could benefit from the experience?

I think it is because belief is personal to many people. I seriously doubt that you go correcting the flaws in the argument supporting Father Christmas to kids - it makes them happy and generally hurts no one else. As jakee said, Ron is a professional counselor, and so his beliefs may actually hurt someone else. I would personally want to know that before receiving counselling, and then would look elsewhere. Similar (in my mind) to someone who was convinced they had been abducted by aliens. It may be very "real" to them, but most likely a hallucination of some sort.

I don't know, but I am now grossed out at the thought of Glenn Beck wetting his pants. Thanks for the link.

sangfroid

Deadmau5

I would be willing to bet that most criminals are not atheists.

Why don't you? Is it only because of your fear of the "ultimate" consequence? Or does it also have to do with aversion to more immediate consequences?

I enjoyed that book too.

Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello

I have seen some pretty strong evidence of the existence of religion.

She's asking if anyone else has had a similar experience. I don't think that implies that she trusts the Internet more than she trusts her doctor.

I started to say something about never having to fake _my_ religion, but..... There was that one time when I really wanted to go on the Methodist choir trip.

Religiosity is higher among females overall. Even when both men and women subscribe to a particular religion the women seem to have higher levels of formal participation and regard their religiosity as more important to their identity. This is well studied although the underlying mechanism is not clear to me. Higher levels of religiosity seems to happen in many, many different cultural and religious contexts. I would hesistate to say that it is universal, but it is extremely widespread. Here is one scholarly abstract that offers a hypothesis on why this is: http://www.jstor.org/pss/1386523. This study looks (from the abstract, I can't access the whole study here at work) to focus on western religiosity but there are many, many articles on other contexts available as well. Interesting abstract, and I've heard similar things before, but I do have to say that religiosity is not necessarily the same thing as theism. One can engage in all kinds of religious behavior but still be an atheist. The higher degree of religiosity may have more to do with a higher degree of conformity and/or socialization (or something else?) among women rather than a higher degree of actual theism. But again, I don't know.

Emotions, and how much of them are what drives the decision making a woman chooses to do. Are you saying that theists are more likely to be driven by emotion?

The article does bring up a point that I have been curious about: the apparent disproportion of male atheists to female atheists. I'm not sure if men are just more likely to be outspoken about it, or if there really are a lot more male atheists than female atheists. And, if it is a mostly-male group, what is the explanation for that?