Many people have an opinion about the overall nature of the universe and about the role which humanity plays in the universe (Taylor, 2003). For example, “Why are we here” and “What will happen to us after we die?” The majority of us don’t know the answers to these questions. Thus, many people want to belong to a religion because it gives them a sense of security in the universe. It may also provide guidance in their life. I assume it’s easier to live with some sort of explanation, even if it’s incorrect. When asked, “What religion do you practice?” I reply, “I am an atheist.” I simply lack belief in deities. However, many people have preconceived ideas about what I am and what I am not. People often assume I don’t believe in God or that I loathe Christians. They assume I comply with the big bang theory and evolution, or I have no morals. An atheist is not a person who does not believe in gods or denies gods; it’s a person who lacks belief in gods (What is atheism, 2013). Also, it is important to know that atheism is not a religion (Got atheism, 2009). There are no common beliefs or sacred rituals that are practice in atheism. What most people don’t understand is that being an atheist does not prevent a person from living a moral life. Atheism has affected my life in a profound way such as, my everyday life, personal relationships and my interactions with other people.
My daily routine is to wake up, shout horrible words to people, burn a few homes, steal my food from others, and if I have time I’ll run over a couple of kittens. I’m joking; my typical day is the same as it would be for a religious person, except the religion part. I wake up without saying morning prayers, yet I’m still grateful for the world and its entities. Ins...
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...s telling me how I should live. I believe that everyone should have a choice as to how they want to live, whether it involves religion or not. Many people don’t realize that atheist people live ordinary lives just like religious people. I have learned how to adapt to the different opinions from others however; I don’t let them define who I am as an atheist.
Works Cited
Frequently asked questions. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.atheist-community.org/faq/
Got atheism?. (2009, February 15). Retrieved from http://www.gotatheism.com/atheism_faqs.asp
Taylor, I. (2003). Why I am an atheist. Retrieved from http://airs.com/ian/essays/atheist/atheist.html
What is atheism?. (2013). Retrieved from http://atheists.org/activism/resources/what-is-atheism
What is atheism really all about?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/atheism.html
America is full and rich with diverse people, religions and values; they make America great. Just look at Riverside, California, there are over fifty churches of different denominations of Christianity, three synagogues, two temples, and one mosque; all coinciding peacefully in the city (Yellow Pages). Because Riverside is so diverse, religious pluralism and religious tolerance are two steps in making Riverside more connected. The first step is tolerance, a reflex that acknowledges a person will come across people of a different faith. The second step is pluralism, which is a better understanding of a person’s religion as well as the other religions around them. Many believe pluralism is the better of the two, because of the interaction involved and the creation of harmony, but pluralism’s faults are greater than the benefits. Currently religious pluralism is quality America should strive for, but America is not ready for pluralism yet, so religious tolerance is best for the diverse population of America today.
Smith, J. Becoming an Atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from the Rejection of Theism. Sociology of Religion [serial online]. Summer 2011; 72(2):215-237. Accessed April 20, 2014.
The Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg has recently put forward an argument for atheism based on the idea that God is supposed to be perfectly loving and so would not permit people to be deprived of awareness of his existence. If such a deity were to exist, then, he would do something to reveal his existence clearly to people, thereby causing them to become theists. Thus, the fact that there are so many non-theists in the world becomes good reason to deny the existence of God conceived of in the given way. I first raise objections to Schellenberg’s formulation of the argument and then suggest some improvements. My main improvement is to include among the divine attributes the property of strongly desiring humanity’s love. Since to love God requires at least believing that he exists, if God were to exist, he must want widespread theistic belief. The fact that so many people lack such belief becomes a good argument for atheism with respect to God conceived of in the given way. Some objections to this line of reasoning are considered, in particular the claim that God refrains from revealing himself to people in order to avoid interfering with their free will or to avoid eliciting inappropriate responses from them or some other (unknown) purpose. An attempt is made to refute each of these objections.
Morality and ethics have always been a large source of debate and contention between different factions of various interests, beliefs, and ideals due to its centrality and foundational role in society and civilization and incredible importance to everyday life and decision making. In many of these disputes religious belief, or a lack thereof, serves as an important driving force behind one or both sides of the argument. In the modern world, one of the bigger instances of this can be seen in the many debates between Atheistic and religious individuals about the implications of religious belief on morality. One of the most famous Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, asserts that religion is not only unnecessary for morality, but actually impedes it. In his work God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens challenges religious believers to “name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer”, and proudly states afterwards that many have made the attempt but no one has given him a satisfactory answer. However, the best response to this challenge is to point out the inherent flaws in his logic, the unfairness of his challenge, and the fact that Hitchens is asking the wrong question in the first place.
Theology is an intentionally reflective endeavor. Every day we reflect upon the real, vital, and true experience of the benevolent God that exists. We as humans tend to be social beings, and being so we communicate our beliefs with one another in order to validate ourselves. Furthermore atheism has many forms, three of the most popular atheistic beliefs include: scientific atheism, humanistic atheism and the most popular one being protest atheism. Scientific atheism is the idea that science is the answer for everything and god is not existent. The humanistic approach states that society is self-sufficient; therefore God is not needed for survival. Therefore how could he exist? The position that I will argue in this paper is the pessimistic idea of protest atheism.
Religion can be described as a social institution built up around the idea of a supernatural being or beings, and the relation of human beings to them. In addition, religion provides individuals a belief to which they understand their existence as well network of emotional support during times of distress. Moreover, religious institutions provide individuals a proper perspective of life and establish values. Religion involves three major aspects: A conception of the nature and character of divinity (2) A set of principles concerning the duties and obligations between divinity and humanity. (3) A set of behavior patterns designed to conform to God’s will (Thorman, 154). The theme of panopticisim is to assert and maintain power by being unseen. In Christianity, God, unable to be to seen, is a supernatural being with infinite power. In addition, the Holy Bible reaffirms this power and establishes accordance among civilians. The social institution of religion is a form of a panoptic system where individuals are compelled to act accordingly.
For the rest of my life there are two days that will never again trouble me. The first day is yesterday with all its blunders and tears, its follies and defeats. Yesterday has passed forever bye my control. The other day is tomorrow with its pitfalls and threats, its dangers and mystery. Until the sun rises again, I have no stake in tomorrow, for it is still unborn. With God’s help and only one day to concentrate all my effort and energy on, this day, I can win! Only when I add the burden of those two frightening eternities, yesterday and tomorrow, am I in danger of faltering under the load. Never again! This is my day! This is my only day! Today is all there is! Today is the rest of my life and I resolve to conduct myself through every waking hour in the following manner. . . . For the rest of my life, this very special day, God help me . . . to heed the wise advice of Jesus and Confucius and Zoroaster and treat me. To maintain a rein on my tongue and my temper, guarding against foolish moments of faultfinding and insults. To greet all those I encounter with a smile instead of a frown, and a soft word of encouragement instead of disdain or even worse, silence. To be sympathetic and attentive to the sorrows and struggles of others, realizing that there are hidden woes in every life no matter how exalted or lowly.
The topic of atheism has become an increasingly investigated topic in the United States. With the slow, but steady, rise of the atheist population in the United States, the inquiry is becoming more relevant in modern research. The atheist population in America are considered to be cognitively deviant because they reject a theist view which are the majority. They are also one of the most discriminated groups and hold a very large and pervasive stigma.. There are a multitude of recent studies that address the topic of atheism in the United States in varying ways.
Religion is a symbolic representation of society. The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, “Why are people religious?” We express our participation in religious events through plays, acts of confession, religious dances, etc. To begin to understand why we have such term, let’s understand the common elements of religion. There are different types in which people believe in or follow and that is: animatism, animism, ancestral spirits, god and goddesses, and minor supernatural beings. Beyond these different elements, such one is to have religious leaders to follow.
Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods, a particular system of faith and worship or a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). From religion, many new groups, communities and further derived religions have formed. Closely related to religion and with endless controversies surrounding it’s classification as a religion is the concept of Atheism- which is defined as the disbelief or rejection of a deity. Descending from this is a social and political movement in favour of secularism known as New Atheism. Understanding the historical content concerning the emergence of atheism, this essay will then address how various aspects within the field inclusive the goals, structures and approaches have emerged and developed over time in comparison to the original atheist ideals.
“The changing meanings of religion. Sociological theories of religion in the perspective of the last 100 years” is a research article written by Irena Borowik and the final version of the same was published in March of 2011. This article is targeted to other sociologists and academics of similar branches. Borowik states that the purpose of the article lies in discussing the conceptual framework for defining religion from a sociological perspective. In her article Borowik start by discussing when and how the first impression of religion from a sociological perspective appeared, and how such reflection on religion in the framework of sociology may be organized in a way that highlights dominant characteristics. According to Borowik the sociological
For many people, religion is a very touchy subject. For most, it is a personal decision; people choose a faith that aligns with their beliefs, ideas, and faiths. Although people would like to think that religion is a personal decision, and they can adapt it to how they feel and what they believe, in practice, that is not the case. Religion represents a commitment to a set of principles that are not moldable, adaptable, or flexible. Religion, although it may be a personal belief, it is extremely defined, with little to no room for flexibility. If people try to modify their religion to their own beliefs or ideas, the pushback can be severe. The lines in religion and faith as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable are clear, and crossing them can bring serious consequences.
In Introducing Philosophy of Religion, Chad Meister asserts “there are several components (that) seem to be central to the world religion: a system of beliefs, the breaking in of a transcendent reality, and human attitudes of ultimate concern, meaning and purpose” (Meister 6). Throughout my life, I feel that religion is one of the core social belief systems that people use to maintain what they feel is a good way to live. Giving them a sense of purpose or fulfillment during their earthly life, most hoping whatever beliefs that have will help them after death. Even though there are many different religions or religious value systems, everyone has most likely been exposed to one or more. There is only 15% of the world’s population that do not believe in one type of religion or another (Meister, 7).
Let’s start off by explaining what atheism is, it’s when you don’t believe in any form of an “Intelligent Creator” or God, as usually referred to as. The word atheism comes from the root word “theism”, which is when you believe in a God, or numerous Gods depending on the religion, and the prefix “a”, which means “not”. There are no set practices of atheism, or a set list of beliefs. To be an atheist you must believe what you would like and simply live your life without constraints based on what you believe is good or bad, not what you are told is good or bad. There is a constant debate against atheism from the theist side, because both sides’ arguments are polar opposites and each believes their side of the argument is 100% valid. I will state my view on some arguments, and clarify some common atheist stereotypes.
...e if other people live my kind of life. I do live my life to the fullest having parameters that help me be the best I can, however I do think we all need to have our own personality and create our codes through experience and gained knowledge that can help set up moral conducts.