What do you believe?

[theloconate]

I want to know what you believe and why?

As for me, i'm an atheist because I haven't been convinced there's a god.

EDIT: some people seem to be a bit confused by this post. The reason I put why in italics is because that's the part I care about. I honestly couldn't care less whether or not you believe something (no offense intended or anything). I care about why you believe it. Of course you're still free to post what you believe without stating why. Btw if you don't want to get into a discussion about this then just don't post why you believe and only post what you believe

[Dragoon1140]

A little too general for a thread, but oh well.

I am a Mormon that attends the LDS church every Sunday.  I am not a polygamist nor do I believe that everything should be judged by God.  My policy is "to each his own."

...I think I have most of it down.

[Bloodshadow]

I am not an atheist, but rather an antitheist. As long as I'm still in my depressed state, I am repulsed by any and all forms of faith.

Currently, I have an extremely cynical world view:
There is no benevolent entity watching over us, nor is there a greater purpose to existence. There are no happy endings in real life, and everybody will suffer because the world is imperfect and corrupt.
Simply being happy is a sin by itself, because it is selfish to be happy while billions of people are suffering worldwide.
Altruism, sympathy, kindness, trust, and faith are naive, and they only exist in idealized fairy tales. You cannot afford to trust anyone, else people will take advantage of you. In the real world you can only rely on yourself, otherwise the people you rely on will stab you in the back.
If you're hurt and dying, nobody will help you. They'll either stand by and watch, or come and steal your valuable possessions while your life bleeds away.
Basically, I believe the world to be the polar opposite of the idealized God-made world you religious people believe in. If I have faith in something, I'm subconsciously convinced that only two things can happen to me: 1) the thing that I have faith in will turn out to be the absolute worst case scenario possible, and 2) people will take advantage of me because faith is naive. There is no heaven, there is only hell.

Am I having typical teenager angst, or am I going insane like I thought I was?

[theloconate]

I am not an atheist, but rather an antitheist. As long as I'm still in my depressed state, I am repulsed by any and all forms of faith.

Currently, I have an extremely cynical world view:
There is no benevolent entity watching over us, nor is there a greater purpose to existence. There are no happy endings in real life, and everybody will suffer because the world is imperfect and corrupt.
Simply being happy is a sin by itself, because it is selfish to be happy while billions of people are suffering worldwide.
Altruism, sympathy, kindness, trust, and faith are naive, and they only exist in idealized fairy tales. You cannot afford to trust anyone, else people will take advantage of you. In the real world you can only rely on yourself, otherwise the people you rely on will stab you in the back.
If you're hurt and dying, nobody will help you. They'll either stand by and watch, or come and steal your valuable possessions while your life bleeds away.
Basically, I believe the world to be the polar opposite of the idealized God-made world you religious people believe in. If I have faith in something, I'm subconsciously convinced that only two things can happen to me: 1) the thing that I have faith in will turn out to be the absolute worst case scenario possible, and 2) people will take advantage of me because faith is naive. There is no heaven, there is only hell.

Am I having typical teenager angst, or am I going insane like I thought I was?

I'm sympathetic to the anti-theist position, and i agree the world is a shitty place, but what annoys me about this is that when you post something like this where you state outright there is no god for certain and with all this emo stuff. Dude you're just giving them ammo

[willng3]

And suddenly my fantasy that the world is filled with rainbows, flowers, and smiling ponies is ruined forever D:

[Bloodshadow]

you state outright there is no god for certain

I never said "there is no God". There could very well be one, but with my current world view God would be just as corrupt as us humans. He will punish those who do good deeds, and make sure that everyone suffers.

[theloconate]

you state outright there is no god for certain

I never said "there is no God". There could very well be one, but with my current world view God would be just as corrupt as us humans. He will punish those who do good deeds, and make sure that everyone suffers.

There is no benevolent entity watching over us

sounds a lot like a statement of fact to me. How do you know that if god existed he would be just as corrupt as humans? wouldn't it be more plausible that it's something more like what deists propose

[theloconate]

also correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't anti-theist a person who believes there is no god, or am i confusing that with gnostic atheists

[Bloodshadow]

There is no benevolent entity watching over us

sounds a lot like a statement of fact to me. How do you know that if god existed he would be just as corrupt as humans? wouldn't it be more plausible that it's something more like what deists propose

I believe that God, if there is one, is not benevolent. Why? Because I'm cynical. Religious people are idealists, I'm not.

also correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't anti-theist a person who believes there is no god, or am i confusing that with gnostic atheists

I coined the word "antitheist" because I'm not just atheist, I'm repulsed by faith.

Okay, someone else say something. Don't want to hijack this thread.

[theloconate]

There is no benevolent entity watching over us

sounds a lot like a statement of fact to me. How do you know that if god existed he would be just as corrupt as humans? wouldn't it be more plausible that it's something more like what deists propose

I believe that God, if there is one, is not benevolent. Why? Because I'm cynical. Religious people are idealists, I'm not.

also correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't anti-theist a person who believes there is no god, or am i confusing that with gnostic atheists

I coined the word "antitheist" because I'm not just atheist, I'm repulsed by faith.

I'm not an idealist either and i find it weird that god, if he exists and is as much of an asshole as you think he would be, wouldn't have just created an utterly horrible place with no joy, our world has joyous things in it, why would that be the case if the god you proposed existed. There is both joy and horror in our universe and to me that speaks to a natural process which is why i would conclude that if a god existed it would be something more like the deists prepose

[Bloodshadow]

I'm not an idealist either and i find it weird that god, if he exists and is as much of an asshole as you think he would be, wouldn't have just created an utterly horrible place with no joy

Read my signature:

"Happiness is nothing but tragedy waiting to happen. There are no happy endings in real life, period."

In my personal opinion, the world is an utterly horrible place with no joy and only suffering. Don't bother showing me examples of humans being kind and selfless, because the majority of humanity is still biologically limited to be selfish (according to this article (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html)). Right now, the only thing preventing me from committing suicide are my biological urges, and a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe the world does have some goodness left in it. I'm just depressed, but I'll probably get better eventually, I hope.

Now, can we please move on? I do not want to drag your thread off-topic.

[theloconate]

I'm not an idealist either and i find it weird that god, if he exists and is as much of an asshole as you think he would be, wouldn't have just created an utterly horrible place with no joy

Read my signature:

"Happiness is nothing but tragedy waiting to happen. There are no happy endings in real life, period."

In my personal opinion, the world is an utterly horrible place with no joy and only suffering. Don't bother showing me examples of humans being kind and selfless, because the majority of humanity is still biologically limited to be selfish (according to this article (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html)). Right now, the only thing preventing me from committing suicide are my biological urges, and a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe the world does have some goodness left in it. I'm just depressed, but I'll probably get better eventually, I hope.

Now, can we please move on? I do not want to drag your thread off-topic.

wow dude. big difference between joy and selfless, btw about the suicide thing, you'll most likely get over it (last year i almost committed suicide). okay fine if you wanna move, although i love offtopic discussions