>- Dear Atheists,

>-

>- My name is _______ and I go to ____________________ High School.

>-

>- This year for my English class we are required to write a truth paper.

>- Part of the requirements is to survey a specific demographic. I chose

>- Atheists. I have run into a dilemma though, the small town that I live

>- in does not have a large number of atheists. Could you please fill out

>- the attached survey, distribute it to as many atheists as you can and

>- send it back within a week. Thank you very much for your time.

>-

>- Sincerely,

>- A. Young McStudent

>- = = = = = =

ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

Dear Young,

I hope you can find 12 atheists willing to respond, even if dozens get to read your request. We have seen such before, most of us, and have learned to regard them with suspicion. Most are from people looking to bait us, or for information to use against us in their own agendas. Truth be told, many of us don't know the answer to some of your questions, as all that is required to be an atheist is absence of god-related belief. Atheism is about what we are *not*, not what we are, and while that generally means only that we are *not* religious, that's all it says about us, and may be all we have, as a "demographic", in common.

__________________________________________

>-

>- Survey

>- What is your name?

Lloyd Harrison Whitling, http://www.atheistlloyd.com . If you are serious and this is not a hoax or bait, you will find other information there, and links to other atheist sites all over the world, enough information to keep you busy at research the rest of your life.

>- What is you(r) gender? —male—

>-

>- How old are you? —70—

>-

>- How is “fact” determined?

A 'fact' is not about what people believe, no matter how many of them do so. A "fact" is dependable information as determined by testing and physically demonstrating its accuracy, usefulness for whatever tasks it pertains to, verified by other people in other places and times, that enables accurate predictions to be made about whatever it pertains to. Testability and factuality stroll hand in hand.

>- What is joy?

You will find that I am an unusual atheist in that I am a clergy person for Spiritual Humanism. Spiritual Humanism is exactly the same as Secular Humanism, but for our interest in nurturing the progressive side of human existence. Joy results not only from personal accomplishment, but also from the successes of others who may be close to you, or merely acquaintances. It has nothing to do with gods, angels or such, but is an emotion that emanates in all the different ways of which a healthy human being is capable.

>- Is joy always temporary, or can it be eternal/long lasting?

Joy is best experienced in waves, the peaks of which are best experienced after one has "earned" it through personal or team accomplishment. "Permanent" joy becomes pain, as a painful distraction that occupies one's mind and renders all efforts to overcome it as futile. Think of the most fun thing you get to do, and then about being made to do that with no rest forever, with no chance for advancement to the next level.

>- What is pain? Are physical and emotional pain connected?

Pain is nature's way of warning animals against something, to get us to stop doing something, wanting something, going someplace, or to teach us that something we did was wrong. In practical hedonism, pleasure and pain play against each other as reward and punishment so that we can learn to be moral human beings. By experiencing both, healthy-minded, reasoning human beings (and other animals) learn empathy and compassion. The experience of ongoing pain in a goal-oriented task is a normal price to pay for the heightened pleasure and joy that successful accomplishment is hoped to bring.

That, by the way, is not different from the Heaven/Hell scenario that some religions teach, except that practical hedonists can expereince their rewards in the here and now, whereas the religious experience the pain in the here and now in exchange for empty promises of "eternal" (painful) joy after death.

>- What is faith? Is it good to have? Is it a synonym for hope, or is

>- there a difference? If so what is the difference?

Faith is akin to confidence: In what does one place confidence?

Atheists realize that we are responsible for our accomplishments and failures, and so must place confidence in ourselves to earn our rewards and realize whatever pain results for our own failures. The only alternative to that is to blame others, or to expect others to to provide (whether it be truths, nourishment, housing or what). In the communist political religion, for example, the expectation for "others" to perform led to the downfall of most communal experiments. In the Arabic religions, and others, the expectation of authorized authorities to be truthful and honest has led to a divisiveness in the religious ranks that could not have occurred had they been provided with a reliable primary source of information.

>- How has your family influenced you in your atheist decision? (Do

>- they support you, or did you come to this decision on your own?

>- Has it caused family issues?)

Among others, my family did influence me to adopt an atheistic philosophy by proselytizing to me about their religious beliefs. I found them to be untenable and diabolical, and that I could only adopt them as a complete hypocrite. Family issues?– I believe their religious heckling directly caused my youngest brother to become insane because he could not escape from them the way I did. Such issues as that led me to author The Complete Universe of Memes, which ought to provide religious people with plenty of insights about the direct harmfulness religions cause, and what is behind that to drive it onward. ISBN 0595244297, read about it at http://www.atheistlloyd.com/AboutMybooks/index.html . If your interest in such questions as these is serious, I (of course) recommend you to purchase a copy and read through it several times, as you may find it rather heady, definitely not light reading. If there is a god, understanding this book will provide you with insights about demonstrating that, and about the true nature of deities. You may not like what you discover, but truth is not a matter of preference, but about what is real.

>- Why don’t you believe in God? Did you ever believe in God?

Yes, I am an apostate, and may have remained a Christian were it not for wanting to know whatever is true the best way I could discover that. I believe that basic, internalized honor and self-respect, along with the constant prodding of the religious herders, drives thoughtful honest people to abandon their religious upbringing.

>- Can you prove God does not exist? —or is that a matter of faith with you?

It is not my duty to disprove existence of the god named God, nor any other god. It is the duty of those who would convince me to describe which of the gods they have given the name God, and to demonstrate the reality of that in some way that I can verify. Otherwise, I cannot believe without knowing exactly what  I am being asked to accept in some real (not anecdotal) fashion. If you do not know what you believe in so you can describe and demonstrate it, you are being very careless with the life you are living. Why throw that away on a whim or a guess?

>- Do you consider atheism to go hand in hand with evolution? Do you

>- believe in evolution? If not, what do you believe?

Evolution is not something to believe in, as it meets all the requirements for factuality already set forth. The only way atheism and evolution go "hand in hand" is that both result from the quest for testable, dependable answers that enable accurate predictability in ways that no alternatives can. One does not have to "believe in" evolution to demonstrate it as being the most honest of all the alternative theories and hypotheses.

>- What is truth?

Truth is nothing more than a goal that enterprising mankind struggles toward. It is easier to say what truth is not than what it may be:

Truth is not a "thing". Truth is not something somebody owns the only one of. Truth is not an emanation from the past, but a condition of studied future knowledge that humans may share to edify common understanding about various facets of our existence. Truth is about information, but not anecdotal tales from unverifiable sources about impossible events that left no evidence of their occurrence. Truth is the result of trial and error and the acknowledgement of what went wrong as much, even more than, of what went right and why. Truth is the ever increasing accuracy of the human pool of knowledge that enables greater certainty and predictability inherent to any assemblage of facts.

Truth is useful knowledge well understood. Anything else is moot, errors, guesses, opinions, or outright lies. That, in a nutshell, will lead to apostasy for any honest person who dares to use it to test his or her own beliefs, and I believe that is why religions typically condemn atheism as an evil they must banish from their presence.

And they are sheep;

We go "bah-ah-ah-ah"

Copyright İ2007 by Lloyd Harrison Whitling. All rights reserved.