Not so much about the value of atheism vs. religion, but what does it mean to you? For those of you who are religious, how have you experienced it and how did it make you react? How did you come up with your understanding of atheism (if you have or even if it's unsure) and how does this fit in with your faith?
For those of you who are atheist, how does it feel with respect to your community? What does it mean to your identity, and how do you reconcile that with friends or peers who have faith? How does this affect your worldview?
Let's take atheism as any form of godlessness, or lack of faith. I don't mean it that way, but that's already pretty charged language, so I will leave it to you guys to interpret it however you will.
To help kick this off let me explain a bit of myself. I am atheist in the very fact that I am godless. My parents were born in the People's Republic of China, and under communism, the state enforced atheism. So for them it wasn't that "god doesn't exist!" but quite simply that god was not relevant/did not exist in their lives. Evidently I was raised without god. Religion and I never got along, until one day I was about to physically express my anger/betrayal at a "friend" of mine. A gentleman suggested I walk with him, and he helped calm me down and figure out how I should move on with my life and make myself stronger. He was a Christian. He took the time to introduce me to Jesus Christ but I respectfully declined and we had a good laugh about that. From that day on religion and I get along very well.
So that is describing my experience of reconciling atheism with religion, but note that I didn't even describe what my "atheism/agnosticism" actually is. I feel that there is a lot of discussion that can come out of this, and it evidently won't fit into one post. So let's discuss about anything you feel is related - even if you don't have a personal experience, you have perspectives and they must've come from somewhere. I hope this discussion can lead to a better understanding between everybody along the continuum of faith.
For those of you who are atheist, how does it feel with respect to your community? What does it mean to your identity, and how do you reconcile that with friends or peers who have faith? How does this affect your worldview?
Let's take atheism as any form of godlessness, or lack of faith. I don't mean it that way, but that's already pretty charged language, so I will leave it to you guys to interpret it however you will.
To help kick this off let me explain a bit of myself. I am atheist in the very fact that I am godless. My parents were born in the People's Republic of China, and under communism, the state enforced atheism. So for them it wasn't that "god doesn't exist!" but quite simply that god was not relevant/did not exist in their lives. Evidently I was raised without god. Religion and I never got along, until one day I was about to physically express my anger/betrayal at a "friend" of mine. A gentleman suggested I walk with him, and he helped calm me down and figure out how I should move on with my life and make myself stronger. He was a Christian. He took the time to introduce me to Jesus Christ but I respectfully declined and we had a good laugh about that. From that day on religion and I get along very well.
So that is describing my experience of reconciling atheism with religion, but note that I didn't even describe what my "atheism/agnosticism" actually is. I feel that there is a lot of discussion that can come out of this, and it evidently won't fit into one post. So let's discuss about anything you feel is related - even if you don't have a personal experience, you have perspectives and they must've come from somewhere. I hope this discussion can lead to a better understanding between everybody along the continuum of faith.