What Do You Believe In?

[SGOS]

I'm watching a show where a Catholic nun is interviewing a man.  The exchange goes like so:

Are you a Catholic?
No.
Protestant?
No.
Jewish then?
No.
Muslim?
No.
Well, what do you believe in then?
Nothing really.

It got me thinking.  Depending on the context, "What do you believe in?" can be strange question.  As an atheist, if I ask the question here, I imagine it could be somewhat thought provoking:  "Oh gee.  How much time to you have?"  Obviously, we believe lots of things, too many to list them all.

But I think the question in most contexts, implies something more specific, along the lines of, "What religion do you believe in?"  It's sort of begging the question.  "I don't believe in anything," is taken as a perplexing and unacceptable answer because you must believe in something like religion.  

If you say, "I believe the sun will rise tomorrow," it's not the kind of answer that is being sought.  It sounds flippant, like you're trying to be a jerk.  I almost feel guilty about not having some nonsensical rubbish I can point to as a belief.  You're supposed to believe in something that's kind of quirky and without evidence, something you believe with your heart, not with your brain, some woo thing.

[Shiranu]

I suppose an atheist could respond with a philosophy/world view, because that is what the majority of religion actually is.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I merely tell them I don't believe there is any sort of supernatural bullshit and if that's not good enough for them then good old handy piss off works.  :)

[SGOS]

I merely tell them I don't believe there is any sort of supernatural bullshit and if that's not good enough for them then good old handy piss off works.  :)

The person would have to get extremely rude for me to go that far, although, "What do you believe in?" sounds kind of rude to begin with.  Maybe they deserve your response, although then they would just say to themselves, "Typical atheist!  I was just asking a straight forward question (even if it does reek of an obvious ulterior motive)."

I have to admit that I don't like the question.  I find it offensive.

[stromboli]

Science.

[Youssuf Ramadan]

I guess by 'believe' they mean 'assume to be true without evidence'.  When people talk about their 'beliefs' they're usually talking about some supernatural shit.  I guess you'd need to counter their question by getting them to clarify what their definition of a belief is, otherwise the question could become unintelligible.  A lot of religious people ask really open questions like that and don't like to be boxed in by questions that leave little wiggle room.  :-k

[SGOS]

I guess you'd need to counter their question by getting them to clarify what their definition of a belief is,

That's reasonable, I think.  That's why the question bothers me.  It seems to have something that's implied.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well, I DO believe in comfortable shoes and pants that don't ride to high in the crotch.  :-k

[SGOS]

Science.

I believe in science as a process, but I don't believe the entire body of the content.  For example, I can't say I believe in string theory.  It could be true, and it's interesting, but I haven't heard enough convincing evidence to believe it.  Not at this point, anyway.

[SGOS]

Well, I DO believe in comfortable shoes and pants that don't ride to high in the crotch.  :-k

So you say.   :-D  But that's more of an approval than a belief.

I believe serpents can't talk, a man won't survive in the belly of a whale for three days, and people don't walk around and talk to old friends after they die.  How's that?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

To be honest 99.99% who ask what I believe in don't really deserve a straight answer.  They're trying to set me up and I have that little part of my psyche that just has to disappoint them. They set me up with a bullshit question & I give em a bullshit answer. Fair is fair, huh?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well, I DO believe in comfortable shoes and pants that don't ride to high in the crotch.  :-k

So you say.   :-D  But that's more of an approval than a belief.

I believe serpents can't talk, a man won't survive in the belly of a whale for three days, and people don't walk around and talk to old friends after they die.  How's that?

Someone might,  if crazy enough worship my loose fitting crotch and personally I'm eager to meet them.  =D>

[Mermaid]

Biology, physics and chemistry.

[mykcob4]

I'm watching a show where a Catholic nun is interviewing a man.  The exchange goes like so:

Are you a Catholic?
No.
Protestant?
No.
Jewish then?
No.
Muslim?
No.
Well, what do you believe in then?
Nothing really.

It got me thinking.  Depending on the context, "What do you believe in?" can be strange question.  As an atheist, if I ask the question here, I imagine it could be somewhat thought provoking:  "Oh gee.  How much time to you have?"  Obviously, we believe lots of things, too many to list them all.

But I think the question in most contexts, implies something more specific, along the lines of, "What religion do you believe in?"  It's sort of begging the question.  "I don't believe in anything," is taken as a perplexing and unacceptable answer because you must believe in something like religion.  

If you say, "I believe the sun will rise tomorrow," it's not the kind of answer that is being sought.  It sounds flippant, like you're trying to be a jerk.  I almost feel guilty about not having some nonsensical rubbish I can point to as a belief.  You're supposed to believe in something that's kind of quirky and without evidence, something you believe with your heart, not with your brain, some woo thing.

I run into this all the time. One of my neighbors refused to believe that I was an atheist. Someone told her and she said " Oh no he isn't. No one is an atheist."
I think that it is presumptuous to ask what someone believes in. What someone is really asking is "Are you a Christian like me and if so are you the right kind of Christian?" The thing is, just asking the question is a put down. It is a way to be prejudice and attempt to be superior.

[barbarian]

"What do you believe in" is a religious question.

Where as you can believe a lot of things.

I had to do a "I believe" speech years ago in an ethics class.

Much of it was bullshit like this.

guy1: I believe that my car ran out of gas.
guy2: What make you believe that?
guy1: I believe that the gas gauge is working and it is past the red mark saying empty.
guy2: I believe you may be right.

I had 5 minutes of senseless "I believe" babel like this as my speech. The teacher wasn't going to give me credit for it because he told me that I prepared and gave my speech out of context of what the assignment was about. I told him that all he wanted to hear was the same spew of what the others in the class were giving about their religious belief and what they felt was right and wrong. I told him that I gave the speech from a different point of view based off of reality of things. He did give me credit for it but he wasn't happy about it, saying I believe you could have gave a better speech about reality.