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People see "not believing" as cool?

It often bothers me in my school when people (not the sort of people I like to associate with) claim to be an atheist or "non-believer" yet they continue to sing the school hymns and say the prayers when asked. Also when some people who say they are atheists then they go a head and blame god for some thing; such as creating a creature in a certain way.

I stopped sings the hymns ages ago. I go to an Anglican school and they are pretty accepting although some of the staff are a little pushy with there beliefs. But the other day during on of the chapel services we have once a week while not singing the guy standing next to me nudged me. I looked at him and said I don't believe he said he doesn't either and i asked him why he sings. He said he didn't know and stopped but about 5 minutes later he was at it again.

Sorry about the long post but I would like to hear other people's opinions.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on November 19, 2010 at 11:31am

If a million people believe a stupid idea - it's still a stupid idea.

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Permalink Reply by Erin Giesse on November 19, 2010 at 8:19am

Some people don't like god, those people do believe in god. Some people just think it's the hip thing to "not" believe in god when they really haven't had a proper deconversion or just don't really that atheist means "no god". But you have to back off on some people because they do those things probably just to be respectful or for fear of ridicule.

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Permalink Reply by The Snide Atheist on November 19, 2010 at 4:11pm

I've always felt that atheism that isn't the result of skepticism, is pretty meaningless.

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Permalink Reply by William Arnold on November 19, 2010 at 7:25pm

Yeah, Makes no sense as to why they have chosen it other wise. Unless they were simply brought up with out any knowledge of another way.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on November 19, 2010 at 6:59pm

Fake atheism may be a bit annoying, but believe me when I tell you that it's a step in the right direction. Only when atheism becomes "cool" will atheists be safe from discrimination and the world safe from religious insanity.

I was at school more than 30 years ago now, and things were very different. The environment for atheists was extremely hostile. Of course, it didn't help that I grew up in one of the worst part of the "bible belt" in the U.S.

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Permalink Reply by William Arnold on November 19, 2010 at 7:25pm

I guess you could look at it like that. I feel very safe about my atheism at my school. My close group of friends are very open minded or they just don't give a damn about any of it. I even argue and question the things they tell us in Christian education.

Yes, I've heard that in the US there are a lot more devote Christians than Australia.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Pandelaere on November 19, 2010 at 8:31pm

Depends upon where you live, I suppose. I don't know how religious Australia is nowadays; it never struck me as a particularly devout country.
You could certainly not be 'cool' here on the other side of the world simply by being an atheist, since it's more normal than being a radical obscurantist. We have very low church attendancy and the vast majority of the population doesn't give a toss.

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Permalink Reply by William Arnold on November 19, 2010 at 8:35pm

Well the people I was talking about in my first post are the sort of people who think they are cool by listening to their "hardcore" music and skate boarding every where. I think they pretend to not believe because they think its cool because it goes against the schools outline.