"Trust but verify" like Kennedy said in the Cuban Missile Crisis

@Remiforce Trust has nothing to do with it. If you make a statement, I expect you to back it up with evidence. Something as simple as 'the sun will rise tomorrow morning' is implicitly backed with millions of years of historical data and studies about planetary motion so no, not trust. Acceptance of factual evicence.

Those halycon days might return if you don't take anything seriously

If "That's All There Is", like the old Peggy Lee song, we better make good use of every moment of it. We don't get a redo

Atheism is a thing in the sense it is a concept, though often a confused one. But it's good you get your emotional satisfaction elsewhere. Atheism can be a frigid mistress

@Remiforce Since Atheism is a LACK of belief, I fail to see how you see it as a thing, even a concept. It is my failure to accept the assertions of theism without adequate valid evidence.

So what concept are you referencing? The idea there is no God, the concept of a Godless universe?

I can't prove that either and it would be hubris to claim I could when we can't even see 1% of our Cosmos.

PLUS, and most importantly, I have yet, in 58 years, to get a good, solid, viable definition of the term "God". It always ends in a mystery beyond human understanding which human nonetheless assert to understand often because some other human told them.

I am an Ignostic

I was raised a believer
AS a believer I thought understanding God of the utmost import.
SO I studied that.
Which is why I am today an Igtheist/Ignostic

Ignosticism is an Epistomologic position; it is a set of ideas refuting the importance of determining the existence of God. It claims that knowledge regarding the reality of God is altogether unprofitable.

It is the idea that every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God and other theological concepts; including (but not limited to) concepts of faith, spirituality, heaven, hell, afterlife, damnation, salvation, sin and the soul.

IF you cannot even define what you are talking about, or consider it beyond human understanding, how is it you can claim to know anything about it and keep your intellectual integrity intact?

Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the term god has no coherent and unambiguous definition.

It's called Pascal's wager

@Remiforce Did you ever invert that on a believer?

"What if all of Christianity is a Test like that of Job? What if God is testing the population of the planet to see who is so despicable that they would paint themselves in his own son's innocent blood to escape Justice?
What if, at the final Judgement, those covered in the innocent blood of the Lamb are condemned for lack of morals and ethics because they scapegoated his innocent child rather than accept personal responsibility as his child tried to teach?
What if you have it backwards Christian?
How could you ever know with the perfect God conducting the test?"

@Remiforce Yes, but it's ridiculous on its surface.

It seems to me you are referring to Pascal's wager. That you are better off believing in a God just in case. But it is based on 3 fundamenatal flaws. 1. Believe is a choice. 2. That you have nothing to lose by beliefing in God and finally and most importantly it is a simple abstract thought experiment that cannot allow for lifes complexities and intricacies. Like human behaviour can be boiled down to 4 options!!!!

Plus of course one has to bet on the right God!!!!!!!

I don't know if being satisfied implies others are not satisfied. If we are truly satisfied, we hope otherswill be too.

You may get some satisfaction at looking down your nose at the gauchery of others, but I think the important satisfaction is believing you are on the path toward greater reality

So did you think life would straighten itself out because you gave up a misguided notion of "god". To my mind, life is still complicated as hell, but at least I don't have to waste my time thinking about divine illusions. I can focus on what is without nonsensical ideas

You might spend the 10% on the things that give you pleasure

The way what is?

@Remiforce, I'm agnostic. That's what I am. Emotionally doesn't change neither for better nor for worse.

@Paddypereira Good.

I'm glad for you. One of the deepest challenges for many is getting over the resentment that our parents, teachers, & community deceived us, even though it was unintentional & they were deceived themselves.

One of the most freeing things about becoming an agnostic or atheist is it frees you to really be yourself, to take real responsibility for your own life & do your own thinking, without worrying about Hobgoblins in the sky

It is an emotional "leap of faith" (without irony) to admit & accept, if only to yourself, you are an agnostic or atheist

The Big Bang is a theory. Every theory is a probability, not a certainty. If we maintain the scientific attitude & don't make a religion out of science, we must accept the possibility that any theory can be wrong, even gravity

Personally I don't see agnosticism as disinterest. I see it as a scientific search for truth. A true scientist keeps an open mind, but he or she is not disinterested, they are deeply interested in finding truth

@maturin1919 Not well-established. Not scientific. Not a theory. The BB is an attempt by LeMaitre to prove Genesis using equations run backwards based on an initial thought by Edwin Hubble that he said led to anomalies he later dismissed.

@maturin1919 The All Things Astronomy group is the place for this subject. Sarcasm, besides weakening your case, isn't necessary and I will want you to commit to the site's values.