Atheists

[Deavonreye]

I'm not an atheist, but I understand them. Atheism is not a religion. It is an intellectual stance against the idea OF theistic claims. . . . claims that cannot be proven via experimentation and the ablity for more than just the FIRST experiment to gather the same results. It isn't a belief system when various experiments match in their theories. It is how technology plays out. It is how you all are able to post on a machine in your house. How you get to work each day. Etc...

And just because SOME scientists enter the field of the theoretical, that doesn't make their notions "beliefs". If all they had were "beliefs", they would be laughed off the pages of peer reviewed literature. There is no conspiracy here.

Faith and belief are useless tools to truly convince people. Science doesn't use these or we would still be drilling holes in people's heads to let out demons.

 

[Pebbles]

The problem with your logic is as my position from an atheist... There's more than one religion and more than one religion that says if you don't believe in it or follow it's teachings you will suffer an unfortunate demise.

thus from my perspective as an atheist your idea of "oh may aswell" doesn't work because I can't without faith value one statement made by an absolutist religion (Christianity or Islam) over another.

Also begin generally religious may not benefit my life at all if those religious teachings make me miserable throughout life and then it turns out that this is all there is.

 

[Winters Eve]

The problem with your logic is as my position from an atheist... There's more than one religion and more than one religion that says if you don't believe in it or follow it's teachings you will suffer an unfortunate demise.

thus from my perspective as an atheist your idea of "oh may aswell" doesn't work because I can't without faith value one statement made by an absolutist religion (Christianity or Islam) over another.

Also begin generally religious may not benefit my life at all if those religious teachings make me miserable throughout life and then it turns out that this is all there is.

Yes one must be aware of extremes no matter if it appears good or Evil.

 

[functional insainty]

Atheists. They do not like to consider themselves people of faith or religion. I'd have to say that they are faithful people. In general the type of faith I am talking about is the one a higher being or an after life or something that is higher than ourselves. In this meaning of faith, I most definitely see atheists as faithful and religious people.

How? Well, atheists are either right or wrong, ok? Either they are right and there is no god what so ever, or they are wrong and there is a god or a higher being or something on this line that leads into an after life. So, it must take something for them to view the glass half empty instead of half full, right? That something is faith.

In fact, in this capacity, I almost admire atheists because they have so much faith that they are willingly to accept that there is no after life at all. If they are wrong, they are screwed. If I am wrong, I am not screwed, I end just as the faithful atheists did.

Make sense?

not really, not all atheist think there is no after life
not all atheist are the same mind you
i believe that there is nothing in the afterlife and all we do is sleep
it's probably little more then a wish but yes that is what i believe
And if there is indeed a hell i will accept it, I'll take full responsibility for my actions and i will have no regrets

 

[WIP]

And if there is indeed a hell i will accept it, I'll take full responsibility for my actions and i will have no regrets

Since you brought up the possibility of hell knowing what we Christians are talking about, how can you even remotely consider "accepting" it? That's like your father telling you over and over that the burners on the stove are very hot and will be excruciatingly painful to touch and will damage your hand beyond recognition. You respond, “I don't believe you father." All the while you’re saying this you’re really thinking, well I'm quite sure I don't believe him and if I'm wrong well, I'm willing to accept whatever happens. Then you place your hand on the red-hot burner.

 

[functional insainty]

Since you brought up the possibility of hell knowing what we Christians are talking about, how can you even remotely consider "accepting" it? That's like your father telling you over and over that the burners on the stove are very hot and will be excruciatingly painful to touch and will damage your hand beyond recognition. You respond, “I don't believe you father." All the while you're saying this you're really thinking, well I'm quite sure I don't believe him and if I'm wrong well, I'm willing to accept whatever happens. Then you place your hand on the red-hot burner.

Actually i see it as say there is a small village from somewhere, and the leader says you can't help out the slaves that have been brought from defeated tribes. But they are treated badly and you can't stand that so you, so you help them out letting them rest and eat at your place and such. Giving them clothes and blankets, but someone tells on you for gold and the leader finds out. He says he gave you a chance to follow what he said and you disobeyed. so he sentence you to death by chopping of your head. You knowing there's no way out, accept it because you know you lived your life the way you wanted and helped people in turn and that he is the one in wrong. so you accept it with no regret and take full responsibility.

See it's more of a i haven't done anything truly wrong in my life to deserve what your giving ,so i feel I'm getting a great injustice but there's nothing i can do but accept it, but i have no regrets about any of the things Ive done.
I do believe that the God is a bit of a tyrant no offense to you though.

 

[WIP]

See it's more of a i haven't done anything truly wrong in my life to deserve what your giving ,so i feel I'm getting a great injustice but there's nothing i can do but accept it, but i have no regrets about any of the things Ive done.
I do believe that the God is a bit of a tyrant no offense to you though.

The problem is that you have lowered God to meet your standards rather than raising yourself to meet His. He is supreme. We are not even remotely equal with God and can't even come close to comparing ourselves to Him. He is absolute perfection and we fall short of absolute perfection.

It's not about how good we have been or how wonderful a person we have been or how generous we have been or how perfect we have lived our lives. There's nothing we can "do" to earn our salvation. The problem is we are too proud and stubborn to surrender ourselves to Him but instead continue to reject the gift of salvation He offered. We keep thinking that if we do something for others we will win God's favor. It doesn't work that way. We do good deeds out of gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Accept the gift by the grace of God and let the Holy Spirit change your life. Until you do, you will never understand.

 

[AKJVReader]

See it's more of a i haven't done anything truly wrong in my life to deserve what your giving ,so i feel I'm getting a great injustice but there's nothing i can do but accept it, but i have no regrets about any of the things Ive done.
I do believe that the God is a bit of a tyrant no offense to you though.

​

ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK YOUR SOUL? My friend, you're gambling with some very high stakes!

Isaiah 40:22, "It is he that sitteth upon the CIRCLE OF THE EARTH." How did Isaiah know in 700 B.C. the earth is round? The scientists of Isaiah's day thought the earth was flat. They didn't discover the earth is round until the early 1500s when Magellan sailed around the world. How did Isaiah know something over 2000 years ahead of science?
There were over 300 prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. That Amazing Book has many that were written thousands of years before Jesus was born! Precise, detailed prophecies such as; where He would be born (Micah 5:2), how He would be born, (Isaiah 7:14) how He would die (Psalm 34:20), etc. And history has PROVEN, without ANY doubt whatsoever, they were fulfilled EXACTLY as that Amazing Book had prophesied, hundreds of years earlier!

The Bible says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

If the Bible is true and God is real why don't you try it out?

See more:
av1611.org/amazing.html

 

[Chris]

i find atheists as interesting as watching paint dry. most people in the world I am intrersted to know about but generlaly I find atheists to be self centered and not always driven by love for others. Everyone who has religion despises them for the things they say about what we value most.

 

[WIP]

For me, this is one of the biggest problems with Christianity. The assumption that 'god' gave the earth to humans is a massive problem. This one sentence basically gives every 'right thinking' christian the right to exploit, abuse, and eradicate anything on the planet with no regard to conservation or responsibility. It effectively places humans in conflict with everything around us. Tells us that is is alright to do as we want (to the environment) without reprisal, as we are in charge, and the boss of everything.

It is the arrogance of statements like this that have completely removed any wish to be part of your little club.

I don't know where you're getting your views from but I have a hard time believing them to be an accurate assessment of Christian principals. Man was given dominion over the other creatures of the earth but we have also been assigned the responsibility of being good stewards.

 

[Vivisectus]

Atheists. They do not like to consider themselves people of faith or religion. I'd have to say that they are faithful people. In general the type of faith I am talking about is the one a higher being or an after life or something that is higher than ourselves. In this meaning of faith, I most definitely see atheists as faithful and religious people.

How? Well, atheists are either right or wrong, ok? Either they are right and there is no god what so ever, or they are wrong and there is a god or a higher being or something on this line that leads into an after life. So, it must take something for them to view the glass half empty instead of half full, right? That something is faith.

In fact, in this capacity, I almost admire atheists because they have so much faith that they are willingly to accept that there is no after life at all. If they are wrong, they are screwed. If I am wrong, I am not screwed, I end just as the faithful atheists did.

Make sense?

First off, I do not agree with you that Atheism requires faith. I think that both a religious position and atheism require a belief, in so far that at the base of any rational thought-process you will find some presupposition, but it ends there. The leap of faith that an Atheist has to make is "Stuff Exists And We Can Study It's Properties To Come To Conclusions About It". A religious view requires a leap of faith that states "There is stuff that is supernatural, beyond our understanding, and that has an influence on all of existence".

What you are describing later on is called Pascal's Wager, and I think it is rather a flawed argument. Pascals Wager basically says - why not believe? What do you have to lose? If God exists and you believe, good! If not, then what have you lost?

The problem is a) it assumes that the God that exists is the God you believe in, and not some other one, and b) when you think about it, religion DOES cost time and / or money in many cases.

It presupposes that the God in question is the Christian one, and that the ideas your particular branch of Christianity have about Him are the correct ones.

My personal view is the reverse: I live like an honest man, and do my best to be truthful, respectful, kind and loving because I feel this is right. Should God exist and should this not be enough for Him, then I would find this unjust, and I would not like to worship an unjust God even under threat of torture. If God is just, then my simple honest life should be good enough for him. If God does not exist at all, then I have enjoyed a good life, and that is good enough for me.