Interesting info. Thank you for taking the time. Much appreciated.
Again, sorry to disappoint, but I cannot speak for other atheists. You will have to go ask each one individually. All I can do is speak of my OWN reasons for lack of belief. That being said…
My lack of belief in god(s) has damn-near nothing to do with science or “lack of proof”. Certainly, those two subjects do help reinforce my position, but they are not the primary cause. I started having my doubts about religion/god as a little kid at 7 or 8 years of age. Was already able to detect all the contradictions and inconsistencies even then, LONG before I ever had any solid science/history education. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the knowledge or experience at that time to fully counter my religious indoctrination. Plus, I was an obedient and trusting child in regards to respecting my elders. Therefore, the fear of Satan and hell got firmly implanted into my psyche. Took me over forty years to finally escape.
Since I wasn’t raised as a Muslim, or a Pagan, or a Jew, or a Mormon, or any other non-Christian sect, I was never taught about all those other gods. Therefore, they meant nothing to me. Knowing the things I know now, and having finally ejected the fear of hell from my brain, the god/Jesus of the bible takes a seat right alongside all those other gods that were created by Man over the course of many centuries. Pretty simple.
Edit: Oh, and if you didn’t mean “All atheists” in that post, then it is your responsibility to clarify that when you write it.
1 Like
Earth
Must have been late at night. Stupidest thing I have ever heard. I’m gonna “fuck off now.” It’s only words and it’s on the internet.
Yes, you can raise as much hell as you like. The mods are generous to a point. It seems that you are pretty much okay with most stuff but they do step in if someone complains or you are just blatantly being an ass.
I regard this post as quite fair so … no issues with me. Everyone gets called on the stupid shit they say. I’m not exempt. I read that statement and knew it could not have magically appeared from my brain. But sometimes I write when I just wake up or late into the night while also listening to a book or lecture and silly shit does happen. (Case in point.)
Whining? Not likely. Pulling assumptions out of my ass? Yep! Among other things. Treat it like Vegas? Not on your life. Let the turd bombs fly and those with thin skins beware!
1 Like
An atheist lacks belief in a god or god. A theist believes in a god or gods. That is what I was inquiring about.
As far as extraterrestrials and UFO’s, the updated Drake equation indicates that we may be the sole intelligent life in this universe. Of course the Drake equation is purely speculative and may be proven incorrect, but as astronomer Jill Tarter once said, it’s “a wonderful way to organize our ignorance.”
When I factor in the immense distances involved and the fact that our universe is expanding so fast that one could begin from one “side” of the universe and if they traveled at the speed of light they would not reach the other side of the universe because the universe is expanding so fast …
So I am skeptical on your position.
The idea of quantum entanglement may overcome this idea 
- who knew we’d get to the point of quantum computer technology…
What do UFOs have to do with theism?
Some of those “evidence” categories overlap. For example, 10 and 12 can be 7, while 14 and 8 can be 6.
But none of them add up to a hill of beans. The fact is that physics has traced back the origins of the universe to a few microseconds after the Big Bang, but nobody, including prophets and preachers, has any idea what happened before that, if indeed the word “before” even makes sense. One day we may discover the truth about the origins of the universe, but I predict that we won’t find it in the scribblings of bronze age nomads.
Despite that total lack of knowledge, the various species of theists have concocted elaborate theologies describing the actions, personality, and wishes of their widely varying deities. Theology is a vast and expanding field of study all balanced on a vanishing point of total ignorance.
2 Likes
I’m fascinanted by your statement that you believe UFOs are extraterrestrial .
I’m not able to believe that, so would be most interested to learn about the evidence on which you base your belief
Being ignorant of the maths and physics of the question, my position is that there is a probability of 1 there is sentient life elsewhere in the multiverse
However, I can’t imagine why a race advanced enough to travel the distance would bother with us. I mean we haven’t even learned to stop killing each other. Of course I realise this position is a classic argument from ignorance; that I lack the knowledge,imagination or wit to imagine a thing does not make it false.
For interest: Prof Brian Cox and others on alien life:
For myself…I don’t take this out of the realm of possibility - however they could just as easily be time travellers. Most likely, a good many of them are military…however that doesn’t explain, as of yet, all the phenomena surrounding sightings (from released military footage and eyewitness accounts to the space station [I’m not talking dust or other shit around the station]).
The search for “life”, sentient or basic, is ongoing just in our solar system, and there are many candidates that are being examined (it’ll be years before we receive data).
For myself, I think of the evolutionary leap we’ve made with technology just since the Industrial revolution and its mind boggling. It’s effected our species in ways we couldn’t have imagined from social, national, religious, educational, economical - and its been a by-and-large positive result.
Should this be a path that other conscious life forms (have no way of knowing yet - just speculating 
) take - who knows where it will lead. We also don’t know yet, what other “breakthroughs” are possible…but like our ancient ancestors who dreamt of flying because they observed that birds 
were capable of it - we do dream of exploring and one day inhabiting our known universe.
Intelligence is the most rare and precious thing in the universe. Humans are fascinated with the possibly of extraterrestrial life and desperate to find it. I think every intelligent species is likely to share that curiosity.
With all the new advances in space telescopes and SETI technology, I’m pretty confident we’ll find evidence of intelligence in the next few years. I’m equally certain that religious nuts will try to claim or ruin this discovery, as they did in “Contact”.
1 Like
I believe UFO’s are real to the degree of available, reliable evidence. .000000000000000001. I could add a few more zeros, but you get the idea.
For a little different take, I think about what it would take for humans to cross the stars. To visit other intelligent life out there.
The biggest problems humans face by far is our fragile mortal bodies. We only live for a maximum of around 120 years, and those last years we are incredibly fragile. Our bodies are built for gravity and the conditions on earth, and even then, much of the earth is utterly hostile to the human body.
We have yet to even figure out how to get humans safely to mars, we can place a robot there, almost easily, but despite all our advances, we still have many problems to solve getting a human to mars alive and well.
Now, if we humans could shed the mortal body, and bounce ourselves around at the speed of light as information, that solves a lot of problems. Even the time issue. We could broadcast our conscious into the universe in every direction, as pure information, all the information needed, if an advanced alien race had the equipment to pick it up to converse and share the information to that intelligent population. A bit like broadcasting tv signals, but obviously with far more information.
Sure it is not instant two way radio, but all that we are minus our mortal bodies can be transported to any location at the speed of light. A 2 way radio is not needed, and with shedding of our bodies our thoughts become immortal, waiting 5 million years to hear back from intelligent life in our own backyard is no problem.
And who knows perhaps we will discover a way to transfer information that is faster than the speed of light, as it has been said elsewhere, at the quantum level, the rules start to change.
2 Likes
Awesome Logic - never thought of this! So cool!
What? Pretty sure two way time travel is impossible using Einsteinian physics, but I’m not sure.
Based on what you’ve said, your belief in extra terrestrials is at about the same level of my wishful thinking.
The UFO in the video clip looks like a bird. A big leap to ‘it’s aliens’. Why is it that without exceptions, film and videos clips of UFO’s are always fuzzy, unless faked?
So far, I’ve never seen any thing approaching credible evidence of aliens having visited earth.–I also read about a dozen of books about the matter in the 1970’s.At that time ‘God is an alien’ had it’s own genre.
I am sorry I’m unable to share your belief. These days I’m far too much of a skeptic. The more extraordinary the claim the more extra ordinary the proof I demand.
Unfortunately the postulates of QM conspire in a weird way to prevent information from being transmitted faster than the speed of light, even with entanglement.
All I can comment on is our present understanding of the universe delivered via science. The future? Who knows …
We may be able to learn how to physically travel faster than the speed of light, we may hit a barrier.
Who knows …
We’re getting there… baby steps…
Ahhh Cranky - best to reread my post before you start putting words in my mouth or straw-manning me 
OOPS. So Sorry, my post was aimed at Earth, not you. Obviously pressed a few wrong buttons ----- Of course I’m aware you are far too rational to believe the UFOlogist fruitcakes.it.
)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))0)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
I’m having a bad week. Just dropped my lovely little jellybean off at the crash repair. On Tuesday, a bloke had parked his SUV right outside my house. Obviously not paying enough attention, I nudged his front bumper ever-so-slightly as I backed out, up the sloping drive… Couldn’t even see where I’d hit him—damage to Jellybean, $1500. Cranky is very cranky with Cranky. Stupid old prick.