Have you ever noticed that....

[JadeDragonSoul]

Wow, I must be very lucky compared to you guys.

Just about all my friends are atheists.  

[Edi Gammon]

Yeah I get the feeling that some young people that i know simply say they are atheist because it's the rebellious thing to do and they are at that period in their life when they feel like rebelling. That's fine, but without really knowing why you take a particular stance, at least enough to label yourself, you show that you really haven't thought about it very much.

It leaves you open to believing whatever willy nilly idea comes your way in the future.

I took quite a bit of art in college. Whenever we would be finished with a project, everyone would place their finished work in front of the class to be critiqued by their peers. The professor would not critique anything, but only encourage constructive criticism from the class. Comments like "I like it" or "It sucks" were totally not accepted. We want to know WHY you like it or dislike it, and WHAT ASPECT of it makes it suck or makes it good.

I have a sister who is in her teens, and I've found that it's really hard to get her to think in this way about anything. When I ask her why she doesn't like some kind of food or music or whatever, she just says "I don't know, I just don't!" and becomes very defensive.

So to really reflect on why we believe things or feel a particular way about something, I think it takes a lot of effort, and one must learn to think about their thoughts in that manner. And I think that too many people simply go with their initial gut feelings about too many things without really thinking about why they feel that way..... and this same kind of simple reaction leads rebellious kids to choose whatever seems rebellious at the time (maybe atheism) and adults who feel the need for social belonging and comfort to choose gives them this comfort and social belonging, like religion. Know what I mean?  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

You've touched on a subject I've done quite a bit of thinking about. A "defence" that theists often use to justify their beliefs is the bandwagon fallacy. According to Harris Interactive Poll, 90% of Americans believe in "God" (I placed it in quotation marks to signify the vagueness of such a question in relation to non-Christian religions). 90% of Americans who were polled (a fairly representative sample, really) claimed to believe in a god of some sort. This doesn't mean that they actually do believe in it. They may have convinced themselves that they believe in it, because it's the "in" thing to do - like your example of kids claiming to be atheists because it's "cool." They may also have answered according to the beliefs of their families, having really a more apathetic stance about it personally. They may "believe" in God because they were taught to when they were children, and simply never questioned it - if they were to think about it critically, they may come to a rather different conclusion.

I suspect that the reason that fewer college graduates than people with less education believe in gods (or at least the traditional views of them) is because college students (and especially those who finished their education) are more prone to critical thinking than those who live their lives without finding it necessary. I know that before I went to college, I almost never thought about anything critically - I didn't even know how to, as certain of my Christian friends and their churches had taught me that critical thinking was of the devil and would endanger both my relationship with God and my eternal soul. In college, where I was forced to learn critical thinking skills in classes that were admittedly unrelated, I started to make up for lost time, pondering all the spiritual questions I'd shoved under the rug before. I simply couldn't ignore them any longer. More people need to reach the point where they admit to their questions and begin searching for real answers.  

[Edi Gammon]

Exactly Daffodil.

One of my co-workers is a evangelical, and the first time he and I had a high octane discussion, one of the things he said was "Haven't you ever wondered why 90% of people in America believe in God?"... I told him that not too long ago probably 99.999 percent of all people on the planet also believed that the world was flat... what the majority believes isn't necessarily correct.  

[SkeletonPhoenix]

I think there is like maybe 3 atheists in my senior class but I think there is alot of people none religious people.  

[JadeDragonSoul]

SkeletonPhoenix

I think there is like maybe 3 atheists in my senior class but I think there is alot of people none religious people.

Only 3? eek

Me, Sam, Tom, Max, Holly, Dan, Dylan, Rob, Jeff, Jade, Billy, Jon, Stefan, Tedday.
Those are my friends that are atheist, that I even know of.  

[Alucard2021]

there's a lot of "athiest" kids becuase most of them think it's "cool" because they don't like god and want to rebel against their parents... just more angsty bullshit that makes me weep for our future.

Go up to any of them and i'd bet 9/10 give some BS answer as to "why" they are athiest and what does it mean to be so.

Another thing that pisses me off in regards to them is how much they voice that they are "athiest". And then dress in all black and mope around like pansy's.

I've been an athiest ever since i started to care or even think about how things are. I won't change and unless God himself comes up to me and say "looky looky it's GOD!" I won't change.  

[D i v i n i t y]

There are a handful of non-religious people at my school, but I think they still believe in God.
A lot of my friends are really religious though x__x
(christian)
There are lots and lots of religious people at my school. They're pretty firm in their belief and want to make me see God... but they're not asses about it.  

[[Perfect Calamity]]

now that you mention it, that's kind of happening here too. I have at least five friend who were atheist whereas in seventh or eighth grade I was the only one I knew. I think it has to do with the kids trying to be rebelious, which bothers me because then them being atheist doesn't mean anything. I used to pride myself on being a non rebelious and different but now I can't.