I know I can find the answer for most of these questions by simply searching the net, but I don't want to read long text walls or visiting numerous websites and also I want to know about different opinions ,so I decided to ask them here:
1. Do atheists really think we humans are evolved version of monkeys? and if not, what do they think about the creation of the very first human? ( I don't say the universe to prevent making things complicated. so only answer about the creation of the first human )
2. Do atheists consider theists as some kind of retard or they have respect for them in the heart?
3. Do atheist believe in no God and afterlife or they just don't believe in them the way theists do?
4. What is an atheist's motivation to do good deeds?
5. Do atheist believe in the existence of prophets? I mean do atheists think Jesus Christ existed, but was a liar or they believe there was no such person at all?
I think that's enough for now.and also if you only want to answer only one of these questions, feel free to do it. It's not necessary to answer all of them at once.
Thanks in advance.
Sign-Number-Two
1. Yes. There was no "very first human," as breeding and genetics did their thing we slowly stopped resembling apes and over time evolved the features we now refer to as human.
2. Yes and no. There are some aspects of religion I don't respect at all and never will. This whole thing with John Paul is a great example, the fact that people today still believe in miracles I think is patently ridiculous. I can understand how people can modify their faith to suit new scientific discoveries, but I don't know how people can retain a form of religious belief that so obviously resembles arcane superstition. I also have little respect for indoctrination, and I feel that many of the religious people I meet outright refuse to adress the adverse effects that religion might cause. I don't feel that these effects are endemic to religion, I just feel that when they manifest, and they do manifest often, that people feel that if they adress them at all they will lose their entire faith or something. Overall, I respect faith as something deeply personal and that can be used for tremendous good, though I feel that for many their relationship with faith is more dogmatic than personal and that religion is also constantly used for tremendous harm.
3. I do not believe in a creator being, though I am an agnostic atheist so I am open to the possibility of one should the evidence be presented. As to the afterlife, my current belief is leaning towards a sort of scientific pantheism. Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, so I, as in the matter and energy that comprise my physical being, will always exist. Consciousness, however, is another thing. I'm more agnostic to that, given the lack of ability to know beyond death there cannot be any conclusive evidence of what happens after death. The most likely scenario is nothing, consciousness ceases to exist, since we can correlate brain waves with consciousness and brain waves cease after death, the logical conclusion is that so does consciousness. I've recently been contemplating the nature of consciousness, and I was exploring the possibility of if consciousness ever ceases to exist. Since consciousness is self-awareness, would my consciousness always exist as the period in which I was self-aware? When they say that life flashes before your eyes when you die, would I even know when I die? Would my consciousness be stuck in a sort of limbo where my life replayed itself over and over? Or perhaps, given that my matter and energy would exist after I'm dead, would my "essence" exist as part of someone else? Maybe reincarnation is right after all, what if I ended up being someone or something else and not knowing it? Anyways, I find the whole issue interesting to contemplate, but ultimately quite irrelevant given that no concrete knowledge can be gained at all and all we can do is speculate, and given that in the end whatever happens will happen regardless.
4. Well, good is subjective. Personally, I think the one law of universal value is rarity. My life is rare in the long run, I should make the most of it. I do that by preserving what is rare for everyone else, by trying to get the best out of what we have, by trying to leave a good foundation for the people who come after me. I also believe in karma to a degree, doing good helps one live a good life, helps one make the most of the limited time they have, and is ultimately more rewarding than doing bad.
5. I think Jesus was someone who believed deeply in Judaistic principles, but saw that they had deteriorated over time. In an attempt to reinvigorate such principles, he used an ancient prophecy that most people probably didn't take very seriously anymore to start a religious revival. He was a liar in that he wasn't the son of god, and I don't think he thought he was the son of god, but I don't really think he was a bad person. I adhere to the explanation that John Stuart Mill gave about faith, that when Judaism was in its infancy people really believed in its principles. However, when they made such principles into societal rules the people they handed them down to didn't understand them in the same sense as the original disciples, and over time the principles broke down and were misused. Enter Jesus, where he and his disciples properly understood his teachings. After their deaths, however, the same principles repeated themselves. This happened again with the Reformation and the various Protestant movements like Calvin and Luther, and again over time the beliefs deteriorated from the purity of their form as practiced by their founders. So to answer your question, I think Jesus and his followers were pure in their intentions, but naive in thinking that their teachings would inspire such pure intentions after their deaths.
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