Smullyan-esque

Split from the EOG thread "A hard question for atheists like me" found here.

The answer you have given here is NOT an answer. This is a conclusion you have come to AFTER accepting the Bible and the claims of Christianity.

Why did you reject the claims of other religions? For example: Why did you reject the claim that Allah is the creator of the universe and the source of moral rules?

Perhaps it was because Christianity was the religion you grew up with. Perhpas a Christian girl/guy was your first love. Perhaps there was a charismatic preacher who gave you license for the angry, dismissive feelings in your heart, and told you they were justified and part of God's will.

Or, perhaps, you had a reason for believing the God claims of Christianity over those of other religions. If this is the case, please tell us what it was. Do not simply repeat another claim that Christianity makes. We are well aware of those claims. We want to know WHY you believe them, and just as important, WHY you reject other, similar claims from other religions.

dr lazer blast

No that was the conlcusion I came to BEFORE accepting the bible and claims of christianity. Before I was a christian I knew that Jesus died for my sins, and you (probably not being a christian) know that as well. How is that not an answer?

Didn't I tell you that using islam is a very bad example, as far as I know at the moment Islam and Christians could be worshiping the SAME God.

Actually you're wrong. I grew up a very strong atheist, my first love was an atheist, and I knew no preachers considering I was atheist and stayed away from churches, so all of your assumptions are wrong(assumptions usually are.) Care to make any more assumptions about my life with other blanket christian statements?

I told you that reason. Can you please show me any other religion where God sent His son down and sacrificed Him for me? can you show me any other religion that explains why Jews and Muslims hate each other so much? can you please show me a religion that predicted the temple of jerusalem would be destroyed prior to the destruction? not to mention that historians acknowledge that Jesus was a real person.

I did my research and the more I researched the christian religion, the muslim religion, the buddist religion (if you even want to call it that) the more the christian religion made sense, and the more I realized that I (and a lot of other atheists) was totally mis informed about the bible. There are plenty of reasons to accept christianity before becoming a christian.

Smullyan-esque

Because you had to have SOME reason for believing that fable to be true.

Yes, I think we all know that the Christian mythology claims that Jesus died for our sins. But that is just a claim. If you think the claim is TRUE, then you have already accepted Christianity! Islam makes the claim that Jesus was NOT the son of God, and was only a great teacher and prophet. Why do you NOT believe THAT claim? What we are trying to get you to answer is:

Why did you choose to reject the God claims of every other religion, and accept the God claims of Christianity?

So, please stop dancing around the issue. You are making it look like you are embarassed or something. Get to answering the question.

dr lazer blast

Why did you ignore the rest of my post. I did answer those questions.
Are those not reasons? should I re write them for you? it seems you have trouble understanding.

Because no other religion had God sacrificing His son. That is why I REJECTED the other religions. Regardless of whether there is evidence or not, if you look at religions in the same way, no other religion even MADE THE CLAIM that God sent His son to be sacrificed to me. The fact that the bible said that muslims and jews would be fighting until the end times and the destruction of the temple is just icing on the cake, not to mention all the other scripture that is found throughout the bible, the fact that I was already living by the 10 commandments (i didn't even know it) and Jesus's commandment are all REASONS why.

Smullyan-esque

So, let me get this straight.

You believe the claims of Christianity, because they made the claims.

I'm just having a little trouble understanding your standards. Do you typically believe things just because people say them?

You still haven't answered why you think those claims are TRUE.

I understand that you think the claims are interesting. I understand that you think the claims are unique*. But that doesn't explain why you think the claims are TRUE.

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*Every religion has unique claims. That's not a reason to pick one over the other.

diana

Thanks.

To stay on track with what I was asking for, can you rationally defend this belief?

d

dr lazer blast

No, you miss the point. Please pay attention to what I am saying, because I am answering YOUR QUESTIONS. I answer your questions, and you continually come up with new questions claiming I haven't answered them when you never asked them in the first place.
I reject Christianity over Islam because of the CLAIM that God sent His Son to die for me, however as we've established before, they could be worshiping the SAME GOD, but doctrine wise I reject Islam because of THAT CLAIM.

How could I ever know 100% if it is true or not?, I don't have a time machine to go back and find out. I made the best decision I could make, based upon the resources available. I have Tacitus that states that Jesus did exist and was executed by Pontius Pilate. I have a lot of historical evidence of jews hating muslims, and the bible predicting that hatred will continue (and it has) I have the Holy Temple's destruction predicted, "Do to others what you want done to yourself" is true. There are many other truths in the bible as well, so with the evidence I had, I made a rational decision that as far as religions go this would be the closet thing TO the truth than all the other religions.

I mean if we went by your logic of "don't accept anything unless you know it is true" then our justice system is totally messed up, as judges, prosecution, attorneys don't know ANYTHING 100% truth wise, so they should just say Well hes not guilty or innocent so we'll just wait to render a verdict until we know 100% for sure if he's guilty or innocent.

Smullyan-esque

OK. I get it now. You think Chrisitanity has more support than other religions. That is actually fairly rational.

It also means you didn't look very hard. Each religion has similar justifications to the ones you mention here. Tacitus is a very weak historical support for the existence of Jesus. Mohammed has much stronger historical support, as does John Smith. Other religions have holy books that describe fulfilling their own prophecies.

It is probably too late for you to finally fill in the gaps in your religious education. If you investigate, and discover that the other religions can all give similar stories in their own support, will you be able to admit you made a mistake in your rush to believe something?

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And, to continue the discussion of the atheist "mantra": You reject the claims that other religions are true, because you don't believe they have enough evidence. We do the same thing with just one more religion.

Oldal.

What on Earth do you mean? It is true? It is not even a proposition which may be true or false. It is a desire. What rubish theists write.

Oldal.

diana

We can't guarantee any of our knowledge is "100% true." As far as I know, my name is Diana. My birth certificate says that's my name. I bear physical resemblance to my mother and my father, so I suspect this is all true. However, I can't be 100% certain that I wasn't switched at birth and that my name isn't really Agnetha.

In reality, what we work with is knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt. We may still be wrong--on all of it--but when we cross the "beyond a reasonable doubt" line, we consider information "knowledge" and not "guesses" or "hypotheses."

The question then becomes "What qualifies as reasonable," and why?"

d