#2. Do you feel there is merit to a divine presence whatsoever? Since no divine prescence exists, how can there be merit or lack of merit?

#3. What do you think of the whole “everything is energy” “law of attraction”, “law of abundance” thing that is so popular now? If it helps ya get through the night, go for it.

#4. How do you explain all of the ghost/spirit experiences that people have? The fact that people lay down their lives, or take others’ lives in the name of their religion and their beliefs, tells me people can be fooled into believing anything. Explain this then, some religions teach that ghosts are angels of loved ones that are here to protect them. Some believe ghosts are demonic and even if they appear helpful or loving, they are from Satan and should be expelled. Some people believe there are no such things as ghosts. All three of those beliefs (and no doubt many others) are from Christians I know. How can this be?

#5. Do you believe there is an afterlife? If so, what does it consist of, if not, what happens after death?
Nope. You rot in the ground or disappear in ashes.

#6. The soul. What does that mean to you? Nothing

#7. If you do not believe in God, do you believe in evil/the devil? According to the bible, the devil was a child of god that got too big for his britches. Therefore, if I don’t believe in god, it goes without saying I don’t believe in the devil. However, I do believe in evil in the sense that people can do terrible things to one another for a variety of reasons, including mental illness. The church used to burn epileptics at the stake, believing the were controlled by demons. Some people would still do it if their church said it was the thing to do.

8. Was there a certain event in your life that led you to “push away” from belief in a God? No, there was no single event. It came about through studying religions and their histories. It came about by just plain thinking and asking questions.

#9. was your family religious/nonreligious when you were growing up? Some members were very religious, some not so much, but they all claimed to believe in god.

#10. did you ever believe there was a God but changed your mind? (and if you changed your mind–why?)
Yes, when I was a child I believed VERY strongly in god and also in my 20′s. The more I learned, the less I believed.

#11. Even though you currently believe there is no God–is there any need in you for spiritual answers? If so, what? No

#12. Do you believe there is merit to performing rituals/spells, Witches and the Pagan beliefs? If so, why? If not, why not?

I believe rituals/spells/prayers/etc. may have merit to believers. Since I don’t believe in any of that, no there’s no merit for me.

#13. Do you believe in psychics? Believe IN them? As if they were some kind of messiahs or holy folks? No, certainly not.

#14. Do you believe in “the power of the mind” to create what is not already in one’s life? Expand on answer further than yes/no. Yes, I do. An addict can change their behavior and bring peace, love, happiness, etc., into their life and the lives of their loved ones. People who are very ill can often prolong their lives or lessen their pain by the power of their minds. I do not believe that by using “the power of the mind,” anyone can create a BMW in their driveway or a million dollars in their bank account.

To the atheists, some questions:
#1. I understand you do not believe God exists. What do you believe in then, spiritually speaking?

I can’t really define a spiritual belief within myself at all. I find beauty and joy and awe at the world and all those kinds, but I would not call these experiences spiritual. My strongest emotional responses to nature have been during my two viewings of total solar eclipses, and at no point during those monumentally beautiful, spine-tingling and awestriking moments did I feel any sort of presence of, or gratitude to, a higher being.

#2. Do you feel there is merit to a divine presence whatsoever?

Since I don’t believe that such a presence exists, it’s hard to answer this. We can’t choose whether or not a god exists based on merit. I would find it rather stifling to live in a universe overseen by the jealous god of the bible, though, with his demand for acceptance as saviour (from the concept of original sin he himself invented) lest we are burned in hell for ever.

#3. What do you think of the whole “everything is energy” “law of attraction”, “law of abundance” thing that is so popular now?

A decline in the power of organized religion leaves a void in people who need narrative structure to delineate and understand their existence. Pseudoscience like the abovementioned flourish in such an environment.

#4. How do you explain all of the ghost/spirit experiences that people have?

I’d turn it around: how do you explain that there has never been any unambigous evidence that a single one of these experiences happened outside those people’s own minds?

#5. Do you believe there is an afterlife? If so, what does it consist of, if not, what happens after death?

No, I do not believe there is an afterlife.

#6. The soul. What does that mean to you?

Nothing.

#7. If you do not believe in God, do you believe in evil/the devil?

I don’t believe in the devil, of course. I will accept the concept of “evil” as the kind of behaviour culturally agreed upon to be unacceptable. With regard to absolute evil, I will go as far as the social programming handed down from us from our apelike ancestors’ flocking interactions, which can account for the certain level of universality of certain “evils” although all these universal evils have been set aside in certain cultures in certain times, of course.

#8. Was there a certain event in your life that led you to “push away” from belief in a God?

No particular event. Learning about religions and science naturally moved me to godlessness.

#9. was your family religious/nonreligious when you were growing up?

They were religious.

#10. did you ever believe there was a God but changed your mind? (and if you changed your mind–why?)

I believed there was a God for as long as I was young enough to believe everything my parents told me. I then found myself in a pseudoscience phase for several years, believing in ghosts and mysterious phenomena of all stripes. Then, I finally broke through that wall and started scaling my credulity with the evidence.

#11. Even though you currently believe there is no God–is there any need in you for spiritual answers? If so, what?

No.

#12. Do you believe there is merit to performing rituals/spells, Witches and the Pagan beliefs? If so, why? If not, why not?

No. It’s a waste of time, effort and energy, and it makes no difference if you do these rituals or not (barring any social interaction and personal feeling of unjustified accomplishment)

#13. Do you believe in psychics? As in–do you believe in the ABILITIES of true psychics. Where do you think it comes from, if you believe. If you do NOT believe, why not and how do you explain away true psychic’s abilities?

What’s a “true psychic”? Show me a single person who is unambigiously able to see events that cannot be known otherwise under controlled conditions. James Randi is interested in this person, too.

#14. Do you believe in “the power of the mind” to create what is not already in one’s life? Expand on answer further than yes/no, pls. (this Q. is similar to other questions but not the same)

No, I do not. I have no evidence that the mind’s power extends any further than to the body the mind inhabits.

How about it, thought about what it’s going to be like going to Yomi or Jahannam when you die? According to your logic, both of these beliefs is therefore an adequate argument for Shinto and Islam and you’d better not be wrong about them, now should you? If the Christian is wrong no real harm done? Christian wrong about Yomi ends up in Yomi instead of Heaven; Christian wrong about Jahannam ends up there instead of Heaven. Not very convincing on the “no harm” front.

Perhaps in the future you will properly include these two places (and the thousands of others ever dreamed of through human history) when talking about what might happen to your yet nebulously understood afterlife.

The voice of God is allegedly thunderous, so it all ties in.

Fartin’ for jebus!

DISCLAIMER: If this comment seems disrespectful, well, that’s because it is. I find it hard to respect a person who will base his entire life on something like the story THE PROPHET tells. Even if the story is 100% true, it proves exactly nothing about the existence of God, just as little as thinking about Vishnu when a bus finally shows up proves that Vishnu delivered it.
As a further analysis of this story, it is quite likely that this is not the first time The Prophet has told his testimony to people. it is a well-known fact that stories, through repetition, get embellished, in particular if they are told in order to prove a point. The reality could easily have been that the stomach ache had been going for some time and The Prophet had been beseeching God to stop it for several minutes before the pain passed naturally. I am skeptical of the “instantaneous” recovery, which is the kind of thing that would get embellished.
Another explanation could be that The Prophet rolled onto his back or kneeled in bed to face/pray to God. This change in body pose could easily rearrange the intestines and release painful trapped gas, causing the pain to subside almost instantly.

In any case, what kind of omnipotent God reveals his existence through causing, and then relieving, gut pain? That is a deeply unimpressive miracle.

I am not impressed with this story. Nor am I impressed by people who are impressed with this story.