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Atheist / Agnostic Betrayed Spouses

25K views 268 replies 49 participants last post by  GusPolinski 
#1 ·
It seems like those with religion can grasp onto that and pray and trust that their god will deliver them from the pain of being a BS. What can atheists and agnostics use? You can't pray to science. You can't expect the Universe to deliver you from your pain. I think I'm feeling jealous of other's faith even though I have no desire to have faith in a god myself.
 
#259 ·
If I have missed something and I am repeating please ignore me (my wife does). Both Religion and Science serve to answer the questions that as humans we need answered. The conflict, I think, is that both systems are trying to explain the same things and to have authority they must be right.
This world of ours is full of great unknowns but it is our nature to want to know what it is. Religion says that the great unknowns belong to God and so long as He She knows the answers we don't need to. We must show faith. Science on the other had provides us with tools to explore our world and find our own inexact answers.
We have two diametrically opposite answers for the same things neither of which can be concretely proved. The solution of course is an inquisition and executing as many people as we can.
By the way, how do you get a bunch of Americans twisted into a knot? You start a conversation about God. (can't help it, I'm Canadian)
 
#260 ·
If I have missed something and I am repeating please ignore me (my wife does). Both Religion and Science serve to answer the questions that as humans we need answered. The conflict, I think, is that both systems are trying to explain the same things and to have authority they must be right....
Disagree to a point. Most 'science' types are fine with the idea of 'we don't know that answer yet.' Hence why they study, make hypothesis, etc. and try to make a case. It lacks that 'absolute' and can be rebutted or refuted as new information and studies are made.

A lot of religious folks are the ones that say "because God made it like that" as if that should be the only answer you need. Some even go so far as saying your 'probable' or even proven scientific data is wrong 'because this book' tells me so.

Plenty of us out there believe the bible is someone else's hypothesis based on the information they had at the time of it's writing as well as some 'embellishment' to make some point clear. Pork and shellfish can make you sick; lets put that in there and give our own 'why' God might choose to punish you for eating those things. That was their answer for it... push the fear.

Got to give you the same tip of the hat in that science often operates the same way, but doesn't do it so much on the philosophical as much as 'bending' the data to support why it's bad. Here's the "facts" about gluton or MSD or rock and roll or violent games or _____. So with this overwhelming and confusing "fact game", in some ways, it'd be wonderful to just have a fallback of "because of God; he works in mysterious ways". It's a struggle us atheist have because the 'data' says 'if I do this, then statistically that might happen based on certain studies...'; Second guessing occurs whereas a person of religion might find 'faith' in some better outcome occurring. It's an area where I envy the 'believers'. They don't feel compelled to research it, live in that confusion of different findings and studies, etc.
 
#261 ·
No Disagreement Racer, I just missed that point. You are correct, knowing that some things can't be known right now keeps them working.
As to the original post idea. I think that the religious might turn to God in their pain, and us Atheists, we have NLP or some other theory of changing thoughts. I guess everybody suffers.
 
#262 ·
Scientist don't ask teleological questions. We don't ask "why is grass green?" Rather it so more important to ask "what causes grass to be green? Scientist only ask questions that they can test through verifiable experimentation. So we do look for answers to all our questions, we just ask our questions differently than theologians.
 
#263 ·
There is often more than one answer too. Or more often a sequence of answers that make up a complete answer.

For instance you could say that chlorophyll causes grass to be green, but the most immediate answer is because grass reflects a lot of light with a wavelength in the 'green' part of the spectrum.
Each answer begets another question.
 
#265 · (Edited)
But I would never say the grass is green because that's what god wanted.

Nor would I say that the world was populated by 2 people. That in itself begs a lot of questions. Incest being one of them.

However the the principle precepts for speciation is a founder population, that is a small isolated genetic pool under geological pressures for survival of the fitter among anyone of the non-diluted random mutations that occur :p
 
#266 · (Edited)
I agree with your points Racer, and I liked Thinkitthrough's perspective as well. We do have two diametrically opposed points of view, so I guess that's why I wish we could deal with the world in front of us, live and let live when our lives are not directly affected by others' choices, and seek to find common ground... regardless of who is in the majority. It beats discord and discrimination. Good Christians love others, seek to understand them, and forgive them for their trespasses; and I think good atheists do the same thing.

Adam and Eve got us rolling of course... but then Noah and his sons/family repopulated after the great flood, Abraham and Sara were half-siblings and founded a tribe, Lot and his daughters also founded a tribe after the destruction of Sodom/Gomorrah, etc. Incest is a pretty big thing in the Bible. I know Islam has edited incest out of certain shared stories, but the Bible makes it pretty clear who is begetting who and how. It just goes to show you that there are different versions of the "truth" out there, which is to be expected when dealing with thousand-year-old stories.
 
#267 ·
Cabsy, now there is another spanner in the works. Those things that the Bible explains as the works of God will have natural explanations. There are to my understanding references to Jesus Christ's existence and execution but little else. The characters in the crucifixion story have historical reality and crucifixion was a method of dealing with problems used by the Romans. But the "science" that can prove their existence denies their divinity.
 
#268 ·
So I'm on Facebook right now...After my wifes affair I facebook'ed the OMs wife. I was looking something up and her name popped up, I guess from user history.

I never told his wife about the affair because that was the best way to keep him out of my life...but thats another story....Anyways, on her profile page is a pic of her, their infant son, and the POS. Now keep in mind, the POS cheated on her while she was pregnant.

Well, his tshirt he is wearing proves my point about most religious people being hypocrites. His shirt proudly proclaims "Worship Jesus!" I just about spit my drink out all over my monitor.

Religion? No thank you.
 
#269 ·
So I'm on Facebook right now...After my wifes affair I facebook'ed the OMs wife. I was looking something up and her name popped up, I guess from user history.

I never told his wife about the affair because that was the best way to keep him out of my life...but thats another story....Anyways, on her profile page is a pic of her, their infant son, and the POS. Now keep in mind, the POS cheated on her while she was pregnant.

Well, his tshirt he is wearing proves my point about most religious people being hypocrites. His shirt proudly proclaims "Worship Jesus!" I just about spit my drink out all over my monitor.

Religion? No thank you.
At the end of the day you've gotta do what you feel is right for you and your family but, having seen that... Well, I'd think that any and all doubts, reservations, second thoughts, etc that you may have once had w/ respect to exposure would've been completely obliterated.

Just saying.
 
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