I was very interested to read your article, about your first book, on the Internet today. It is a truly difficult situation for parents with no religion to know how to bring up their children concerning God or their acceptable way of life. I have a brother-in-law in a similar situation with three kids all grown up and married now. We have five kids and only one practises any form of religion now. To say that you are non-religious does not of itself mean that you are an atheist. Believing in God is not of itself a religion. A religion is “a way of life towards God”. The different faiths are the different ways to God. Many people believe in God without following a faith, or religion. The only harm we have seen in our nephew and nieces is that they were never given any basis. Your basis of ‘there is no God’ (atheism), or ‘I do not know if there is a God’ (agnosticism), is not very helpful. How would it be if you had no mathematical knowledge (could not calculate your bank balance) and you were trying to educate your children in math? There are many forms of math, and not everyone has agreed on all of them (see fuzzy math for example). Letting a child develop according to his or her worldly experiences and letting it choose their way of life can lead to drugs, gangs, murder, sexual abuse… Most parents find that a moral code as a basis is necessary, and many choose religion (a formalized one). It is very helpful.

By the way – if you do not think that it is right to follow a god without question, it is because you do not know God. However, we do question what religions teach because that is not always exactly what God has asked or told us.

Happy searchings,

Paul.

It’s refreshing to hear her voice among some of the other, louder ones out there. Not that I disagree with Dawkins, Harris, etc., just that it nice to have some balance.

Just one note to Mr. Lake – the title of my book is meant to be ironic. There are a great number of things I believe in. There are a huge number of things that are meaningful and important to me. Gods are not among those things. Hence, my religious identity is “nothing”.

Having the word nothing as an identity is freeing, challenging and keeps me thinking…I am a biological being and all I have is my time here – so rather than be robotic, I try to feel and live think through my life – my life HERE on this planet.

Also – Hicth wasn’t the one on the panel who said science disproves God, I believe it was Professor Stenger who stated that fact.

Cheers!

I’m happy to chat with anyone who isn’t letting their differences in opinion get in the way with just having a good discussion and trying to find some common ground.

I didnt say your lives have no value, I’m just pointing out what I believe makes Atheism so negative.

Brendon, I hope you’ll spend some time here and get a different perspective on atheism through the experience of actually communicating with atheists. I’m glad you’re here and willing to talk with us.

Taking god and an afterlife out of the equation means we must make the most of the time we have here – this is the only life that counts. If makes live MORE valuable, not less.

As Christians, we believe this life on earth is the only chance we have to do good for God, and we believe God will reward us for the good we have done in this life, so it counts to us too.

I suggest you ask us what we value, what inspires and motivates us daily, rather than telling us that our lives have no worth.

I didnt say your lives have no value, I’m just pointing out what I believe makes Atheism so negative. There is nothing more valuable on this earth than a human life.

Take God out of the equation, ‘believe in nothing’ and we’re all just a bunch of biological robots doing our time ’till we expire.

I suggest you ask us what we value, what inspires and motivates us daily, rather than telling us that our lives have no worth.

Take God out of the equation, ‘believe in nothing’ and we’re all just a bunch of biological robots doing our time ’till we expire.

Your erroneous assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Taking god and an afterlife out of the equation means we must make the most of the time we have here – this is the only life that counts. If makes live MORE valuable, not less.

Atheists, humanists, freethinkers – we all believe in lots of things: The love and loyalty of our families, the wonder of the universe, the value of reason. We just don’t believe in the unfounded supernatural claims of religion.