Is Atheism A Religion?

[th1b.taylor]

Brother th1b.taylor, how is it that in Php 4.3 the Apostle Paul knew that those women which laboured with him in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Was it their labor, or a confession that Jesus is Lord. Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Are you alone left as Elijah in 1 Ki 19:4 requested for himself that he might die, and in 1 Ki 19:13 God finds him in a cave and asks him, "What doest thou here, Elijah?". In 1 Ki 19:14 Elijah has the excuse why he is not walking with God: I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (I'm the only for sure servant you have left LORD).
Trouble is that Elijah isn't privy to everything God is doing evidently, and God sets him straight in 1 Ki 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel.

Now how can we possibly know whose names are in the book of life? By their confessions of Who they believe, or their deeds? When I see them professing to be a Christian on these forums I count them as brethren, and their names in the book of life unless at some future time they admit they are here just pulling our legs as it were.
God bless you Bill in Jesus' name.

Very strong and very important preaching, brother!

 

[th1b.taylor]

I see that you like a previous post where the definition of religion given was "a belief system". Do you actually agree with that? If so, how can you deny that Christianity is a religion? If not, what is your definition of religion? Do you realize that by most, if not all, definitions of religion that Christianity is a religion?

Free, I have never denied there are two branches of Christianity because there are. Please reread my OP and you must find tat I find the world filled with religions and that every one of them will purchase the same ticket the lack of the same will purchase one prepaid Entrance into the Eternal Lake of Fire, often miscalled Hell.

 

[turnorburn]

Here's something on it..

Atheism is a religion.

Atheism IS a religion. I know that some have made that statement without much evidence. And I know that atheists themselves heatedly deny it. I’ve heard their rejoinders: If atheism is a religion, then not playing baseball is a sport. Or, atheism is to religion what bald is to hair color. Clever. I guess I don’t blame them for denying it, but denying something doesn’t prove it is not there. (I would advise any atheist readers to re-read the previous sentence until BOTH meanings sink in.) A religion doesn’t have to posit a god who must be identified or worshiped. Some religions are polytheistic (Hinduism, Mormonism), some monotheistic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), some non-theistic (Buddhism). I’d say the new atheists and their religion are “anti-theistic.” But their atheism is religious nonetheless. Consider this:

• They have their own worldview. Materialism (the view that the material world is all there is) is the lens through which atheists view the world. Far from being the open-minded, follow-the-evidence-wherever thinkers they claim to be, they interpret all data ONLY within the very narrow worldview of materialism. They are like a guy wearing dark sunglasses who chides all others for thinking the sun is out.
• They have their own orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is a set of beliefs acceptable to a faith community. Just as there are orthodox Christian beliefs, there is an atheist orthodoxy as well. In brief, it is that EVERYTHING can be explained as the product of unintentional, undirected, purposeless evolution. No truth claim is acceptable if it cannot be subjected to scientific scrutiny.
• They have their own brand of apostasy. Apostasy is to abandon one’s former religious faith. Antony Flew was for many years one of the world’s most prominent atheists. And then he did the unthinkable: he changed his mind. You can imagine the response of the “open-minded, tolerant” New Atheist movement. Flew was vilified. Richard Dawkins accused Flew of “tergiversation.” It’s a fancy word for apostasy. By their own admission, then, Flew abandoned their “faith.”

• They have their own prophets: Nietzsche, Russell, Feuerbach, Lenin, Marx.
• They have their own messiah: He is, of course, Charles Darwin. Darwin – in their view – drove the definitive stake through the heart of theism by providing a comprehensive explanation of life that never needs God as a cause or explanation. Daniel Dennett has even written a book seeking to define religious faith itself as merely an evolutionary development.
  
  
  

• They have their own preachers and evangelists. And boy, are they “evangelistic.” Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens (Speaking of which, our prayers goes out to Christopher Hitchens in hopes of a speedy recovery for his cancer, we need more time with him Lord) are NOT out to ask that atheism be given respect. They are seeking converts. They are preaching a “gospel” calling for the end of theism.
• They have faith. That’s right, faith. They would have you believe the opposite. Their writings ridicule faith, condemn faith. Harris’s book is called The End of Faith. But theirs is a faith-based enterprise. The existence of God cannot be proven or disproven. To deny it takes faith. Evolution has no explanation for why our universe is orderly, predictable, measurable. In fact (atheistic) evolutionary theory has no rational explanation for why there is such a thing as rational explanation. There is no accounting for the things they hope you won’t ask: Why do we have self-awareness? What makes us conscious? From what source is there a universal sense of right and wrong? They just take such unexplained things by … faith.

https://debunkingatheists.blogspot.com/2010/07/atheism-is-religion.html

 

[Free]

Free, I have never denied there are two branches of Christianity because there are. Please reread my OP and you must find tat I find the world filled with religions and that every one of them will purchase the same ticket the lack of the same will purchase one prepaid Entrance into the Eternal Lake of Fire, often miscalled Hell.

What do you mean by "two branches of Christianity"? How does any of this answer any of the four questions I asked?

I believe that the Lake of Fire is Hell, given all that is said about the two, but that's a different discussion.

 

[Eugene]

I believe that the Lake of Fire is Hell.

Dear Brother Free, how can that be considering Rev 20:14?
"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Thanks.

 

[th1b.taylor]

What do you mean by "two branches of Christianity"? How does any of this answer any of the four questions I asked?

I just this morning said it in some discussion but I'll repeat it.

Better than 98% of the American Christian Church was demonstrated to be Lost Men and Women. In a mid-eighties, a cross-denominational, double-blind survey of the Faithful, demonstrated that better than 98% ofr them do not believe the basic tenants of Walking with God.

On these forums and on many other I have been informed by Professi9ng Christians that it is impossible to walk with God as Adam, Enoch and Elijah did.

The two branches are those that religiously attend Church services and then there are a few who, like myself, who depend solely on God for every breath, every bean we eat anmd the new tire when one blows out. We walk with God and often a I type I am instructed to clear that and to type something else or to say it a different, more specific way that is unfamiliar to me.

So it is, there are millions on the Church Roll, they are, duly Registered Christians in this World but their names will not be found in The Book Of Life The only names I am certain of are mine and my wifes and the only,THE ONLY way I am certain is because of the moment by moment communication with our LORD and it is He that assures me we are there.

So many go to Church because they fear!

 

[Free]

Dear Brother Free, how can that be considering Rev 20:14?
"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Thanks.

That's a translational issue. Several translations, including ESV, NASB, HCSB, and NRSV, say "Death and Hades" in Rev 20:14. Some translations confusingly and incorrectly, IMO, translate three very different Greek words as "hell". One must look at all the verses that mention hell and then look at the Greek.

 

[Free]

I just this morning said it in some discussion but I'll repeat it.

Better than 98% of the American Christian Church was demonstrated to be Lost Men and Women. In a mid-eighties, a cross-denominational, double-blind survey of the Faithful, demonstrated that better than 98% ofr them do not believe the basic tenants of Walking with God.

On these forums and on many other I have been informed by Professi9ng Christians that it is impossible to walk with God as Adam, Enoch and Elijah did.

I don't see how this answers my questions either.

 

[th1b.taylor]

That's a translational issue. Several translations, including ESV, NASB, HCSB, and NRSV, say "Death and Hades" in Rev 20:14. Some translations confusingly and incorrectly, IMO, translate three very different Greek words as "hell". One must look at all the verses that mention hell and then look at the Greek.

It is interesting that you include my favorite translation, the NASB. Keep in mind that I used up to eighteen translations when I taught and that my favorite two reside on opposite ends of the scale, the NASB for a Word for Word Translation and the Bible I cut my teeth on, the KJV, an Idea for Idea Translation.

As close as is possible, the NASB is correct.

 

[th1b.taylor]

Free, I looked and I do not find four questions, what are they, please?

 

[Free]

Free, I looked and I do not find four questions, what are they, please?

Post #20.

 

[th1b.taylor]

I do not see four questions but I did answer that post in my post 22.

 

[Free]

I do not see four questions but I did answer that post in my post 22.

There are clearly four questions that you quoted (my post #20) in your post #22 but that post doesn't answer them. I don't see how your post #22 answers anything in my post #20.

 

[Malachi]

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

What James is speaking about is the good works which must follow salvation. That would be pure religion.

But salvation itself is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Hence an invisible, eternal, and genuine relationship with the living God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20). To sup is to have fellowship.

 

[th1b.taylor]

There are clearly four questions that you quoted (my post #20) in your post #22 but that post doesn't answer them. I don't see how your post #22 answers anything in my post #20.

But brother, except you explain what you mean, we have reached an impasse that I cannot move us away from. If you have a concern and you do not specify it I cannot answer it. I saw one question and i tried to answer it. Right now, this feels much like you want to pick a fight and I'm not willing to go there. Now please, tell me what you want and if I can answer, I will. And if I don't it will be reasonable to figure I don't know. Right this moment, you know that I am not seeing what you are not expressing and truthfully, I am not a mind reader.

But I would appreciate this not moving in the direction you appear to be pushing it.

 

[JohnDB]

th1b.taylor ,
Here are the questions Free was asking.

I see that you like a previous post where the definition of religion given was "a belief system". Do you actually agree with that?

If so, how can you deny that Christianity is a religion?

If not, what is your definition of religion?

Do you realize that by most, if not all, definitions of religion that Christianity is a religion?

 

[th1b.taylor]

th1b.taylor ,
Here are the questions Free was asking.

Yes and I think you want to leave this alone. I answered, not to Free's satisfaction and instead of explaining what was wrong he began pushing for a fight that is not allowed here and if he bars me you don't need to go with me.

 

[Free]

Yes and I think you want to leave this alone. I answered, not to Free's satisfaction and instead of explaining what was wrong he began pushing for a fight that is not allowed here and if he bars me you don't need to go with me.

You didn't answer though; you simply repeated some of what you had stated previously. I did explain what was wrong by clearly stating that you didn't answer my questions. And I'm not looking for a fight. I'm asking for clarification as you seem to have contradicted yourself.

 

[th1b.taylor]

You didn't answer though; you simply repeated some of what you had stated previously. I did explain what was wrong by clearly stating that you didn't answer my questions. And I'm not looking for a fight. I'm asking for clarification as you seem to have contradicted yourself.

And you are not telling me how I am contradicting myself. If I do not know what you think I will never be able to answer and already this has gone on for to long. So once again, what is wrong? Without an answer I'm done here.

 

[Free]

And you are not telling me how I am contradicting myself. If I do not know what you think I will never be able to answer and already this has gone on for to long. So once again, what is wrong? Without an answer I'm done here.

I have told you, very clearly. You even quoted the very post, the same one that JohnDB quoted. It seems as though you responded to both of us without even reading what I wrote.

This is what I wrote:

"I see that you like a previous post where the definition of religion given was "a belief system". Do you actually agree with that?

If so, how can you deny that Christianity is a religion?"

Do you see the apparent contradiction?

I then followed with two more questions:

"If not, what is your definition of religion?

Do you realize that by most, if not all, definitions of religion that Christianity is a religion?"

What I have been asking is very, very clear.