Comments on: U.S. atheists to have ‘coming out party’

By: adx

adx — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:24:09 +0000

Of course many people don’t believe in God, but they believe in `the people’. Their belief in religion is actually belief in the people. They’re never gonna suffer for God, e.g. change their intimate life to suit their Church’s teachings, but they want to look moral. And, even more important, they want that people around them are moral. What the closet atheists themselves do not believe they try to sell to others (so that these others get weaker).

By: DoctorE

DoctorE — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:15:09 +0000

Its takes a real coward to believe in god that threatens to torture you if you dont love him, especially when this god is imaginary

By: Subodot

Subodot — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:47:37 +0000

The Jewish News Weekly published an article last October authored by Rabbi Stephen Pearce, titled “Militant atheists are getting it all wrong”.

Rabbi Pearce discussed many of the recent popular books by Dawkins and Hitchens. The article examines the sort of charges that have been made against religious people and responds with learned quote that both literalists, and skeptics are wrong:

“Unlike these authors, Judaism has long read the Bible metaphorically, taking it seriously but not literally. In his essay “Law and Love,” Hebrew poet Chaim Nachman Bialik suggested that both literalists and skeptics are wrong because they only read the text literally and not as a metaphor with a deeper and richer meaning.

Furthermore, strident atheists do not address today’s rising tide of spirituality among most religious groups, proof that people continue to seek deeper religious meaning especially because atheism does not replace lack of belief with a viable rational alternative, leading to what Michael Novak calls “a leap in the dark.” ”

The article goes on to discuss Mother Theresa and her personal doubts about God. There are plenty of religious people who doubt or struggle with faith. The fact remains that non belief offers nothing to replace the social community structures that churches provide, or the personl spiritual intimacy with a higher force many people feel. If there is no God then there is nothing to fill the void. That void can seem like darkness where there was once light for a “former” believer.

By: wes

wes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:19:54 +0000

I was a closet atheist for 7 years, so yes, I know of at least one!

By: Victimlesscriminal

Victimlesscriminal — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:45:21 +0000

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said only 1.6 percent of U.S. adults identified themselves as atheists.

This is a truly shocking statistic to us here in the UK.

Imagine what the USA would have been able to achieve over the past decades without any interference from religion? It beggars belief.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:18:55 +0000

De-baptizing… I love it. Always wondered how to get that darned holy water out of my hair…
Actually it’s funny that even atheists feel this need to go through rituals in order to make their ideas more “real” but then perhaps that’s just something hardwired into humanity.
But good for them. Being atheist is not easy in the U.S. I think though in Canada it’s not that big a deal.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:22:20 +0000

Well considering the fact that we all are born into this world atheist, yea there’s a lot of us around.