How many here are atheists?

[Dylboz]

Raving Godless Heathen! 

[TackleTheWorld]

Poll Poll Poll!

[Vitruvian]

I suppose, if we are to have a proper debate on the existence of a deity, someone (perhaps one of the theists) ought to define the alleged deity.

[Caleb]

You can't define the Deity. That's sort of the point. You can say what God is not, but you cannot define Him. Or if you do define him, it is best to keep in mind that your definition is a vague shadow of the reality, an idol really.

You can, however, experience the divine. God isn't an intellectual exercise. He is an interactive experience.

[kola]

i am not at all interested in debating the topic.

maybe the question should be who is NOT an atheist? 

kola

[Caleb]

I'm not an atheist. 

[Vitruvian]

You can't define the Deity

If one is unable to define an entity, i.e. to distinguish the entity from everything else, how can one claim that entity exists, separate from everything else?

[Jim Johnson]

You can say what God is not,

God is not anything.

[Caleb]

You can't define the Deity

If one is unable to define an entity, i.e. to distinguish the entity from everything else, how can one claim that entity exists, separate from everything else?

well, I also am weary of the atheist debate. there is thread after thread about it. It hardly seems productive to rehash it. I will tell you that the only sure way that any person can convince themselves of the existence of a higher power/deity/whatever else you want to call it, is to experience it. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Your argument seems a little silly to me. Because you rely on the thought that if I cannot conceive or understand something, it must therefore not exist. This is nonsense, because it essentially argues that my personal limitations set the boundaries as to what is ontologically real.

[kola]

i didnt think that was going to be so difficult to answer.

gee wizz.

Kola

[Jim Johnson]

God has revealed it's self to me.

I am to be the leader of all men on this planet and any planet that I can concore.
I am to be a benevolent master... if I want.
All the world is to respect and obey my thoughts, words and deeds, because I am the conduit through which God flows.

God has given these words to you: "lfvbvwervlevn ulhiriv rvhuvhir  dnx, iu49 ic9nc kk erh  vnlir  mc;oir".
These words are to be followed without further interpretation.

The wrath of God will be on all who resist.

The first thing I want is some of that Schnergenburger Chocolate.

[ReverendRyan]

God has revealed it's self to me.

I am to be the leader of all men on this planet and any planet that I can concore.
I am to be a benevolent master... if I want.
All the world is to respect and obey my thoughts, words and deeds, because I am the conduit through which God flows.

God has given these words to you: "lfvbvwervlevn ulhiriv rvhuvhir  dnx, iu49 ic9nc kk erh  vnlir  mc;oir".
These words are to be followed without further interpretation.

The wrath of God will be on all who resist.

The first thing I want is some of that Schnergenburger Chocolate.

Uh oh, he's going on one of those "singularity" trips I've heard about. Lauren, hide the matches.

[Seamas]

I am an atheist.

I also have no problem acknowledging that the human ability to understand the world is very limited.  We did not evolve to do so yet somehow in the last two centuries humans have created an understanding of the world that those who created the major religions in the middle east could not even conceptualize.  With each major scientific advance there is typically a large religious retreat.  For example, few today believe that the sun revolves around the earth. 

Faith is merely a belief in authority in the absence of evidence or the mistaken belief that ignorance indicates a higher power.

I believe in all those gods.    Since the dawn of time, man has struggled to deal with the infinite, and has come up with complex mythologies to express something that is beyond human ability to even conceptualize, let alone put to words.

[KBCraig]

You can say what God is not,

God is not anything.

Or, isn't nothing.

[ReverendRyan]

Faith is merely a belief in authority in the absence of evidence or the mistaken belief that ignorance indicates a higher power.

Better definition: Faith is the excuse used for believing something with no rational basis to do so.