Brian37

Let me use a sports analogy for you. "Foofball" cr "soccer" in Europe is set up pitting one team vs another. Now, does only one of those teams get to touch the ball or do both teams have the same oportunity?

Now, think about logic. If someone comes up to you and makes a claim, "My purple snarfwidget makes beer under my bed" Do you simply accept what they say or do you ask for evidence?

Atheists discuss and explore the claims of theism because they are being made by theists. Humans wouldn't have alot of their modern technology and medicine if our ancestors simply blindly followed something without questioning it.

Atheists are humans too and everyone tends to gravitate to like minded people. That doesnt make us hatefull or make us anti-anything. The only thing atheists have in common is a lack of belief in a god or gods.

Brian37

Brian37

The bible is not a history book, it is a mythological work of fiction. The only thing historical about it is that people have a tradition of believing that the magic in it is real.

How is Apollo pulling the sun across the sky in a chariot any less magical than a human being diprived of oxygen and bloodflow to the brain and body and surviving rigor mortis?

It is a historical fact that Gene Rodenberry created Star Trec but you don't believe that Vucans are real.

Repeat after me, FICTION!

Brian37

newtype_alpha

I don't want to be accountable to Saddam Hussein either. I don't see you nagging me about joining the Baath party

charis

Dear forumer,
Can you give some reasons for such hostile attitude to those who believe in God and in Jesus Christ? :huh:

Mageth

I think that's bullshit, and it's bullshit we hear a lot from the naive theist that has little or no knowledge of atheism or atheists. Next question?

(BTW, what "wickedness" is it I'm supposed to have done, exactly? I can't think of any.)

I've been thinking about this topic for 40+ years. I don't "reject God and Christ" because I do not want to be accountable to "Him" (sic). I simply lack belief in God (and Christ) because I see no compelling reason to believe in either. I'm first and foremost accountable to myself, and then to my family, then friends, work, country, and humankind. I don't need a God-figure, a daddy in the sky, to be accountable to, to hold me in check, to behave-or-else.

Mageth

Here's one reason: they too often come here making asinine statements like "May be people reject God and Christ because deeply in the heart they do not want to be accountable to Him? Especially for the wickedness they have done?" Oh, and they too often generalize from our reaction to their asinine statements that we are "hostile" to all who "believe in God and Jesus Christ." There are many believers that come here with which we carry on quite polite discussions.

Seriously, it's not the messenger that we're hostile towards; it's the message and the way it is sometimes delivered. If you feel the need to be accountable to some higher power to keep you from "wickedness", then so be it. I have no such need. I'm an adult, and have learned to behave on my own, and to be accountable to myself. I no longer need a daddy to spank me or reward me.

Mageth

The universe does not point to a creator.
And Jesus, if he ever existed, is long since dead, buried, and rotted away to dust. The resurrection accounts are mythical, dreams of disillusioned followers of the dead Jesus, who failed miserably in being the Messiah that would free them from Roman Tyranny, as they had wished he would. Instead, he was squashed like a flea by the Roman authorities, leaving his disciples to create a different, more heavenly, reason for his life and death - one that promised them reward in the afterlife rather than freedom from tyranny here on earth. That is a historical fact.

There, that was easy.

King Rat

If god really existed we would need to find a way to destroy him before he destroys us.

trendkill

The Politics forum appears to be the most popular one on this site, going by the number of viewers at any one time. I estimate it tends to have about twice the viewership of General Religious Discussions or the Existence of God forum.

Angrillori

As for the OP, it's simple really. God might not exist, but the people that believe he exists and tells them to do things definitely exist.

And a lot of those people are scary. And a lot of them are doing things that make my life a worse place. For example, stopping stem cell research, women's right to choose, and halting science all have deliterious effects on my life. They are not performed by god but by people who believe god exists.

As the saying goes: I'm not scared of god, only those who claim to follow him.

For the later bits of the thread:

Charis,

I think you'll find most of us just don't believe in god because no one has offered us a compelling reason to do so. We've chalked god up in the same category as Vishnu, Allah, Boddhisatvas, Nature Spirits, Thor, Odin, Leprechauns and the IPU. Most any of us WOULD believe in any of these entities if someone gave us a compelling reason to do so.

I'll repeat that because it is the most important thing you'll hear here:

Most any of us WOULD believe in any of these entities if someone gave us a compelling reason to do so.

One more time:

Most any of us WOULD believe in any of these entities if someone gave us a compelling reason to do so.


However, to date, no one has offered any more compelling reason to believe Jesus was god, as Vishnu, Rama, or the Invisible Pink Unicorn. So we remain unconvinced.

Did you ever receive that e-mail claiming to be from a Nigerian ambassador who needs your bank account number so he can transfer $100,000 into it?

I bet you didn't forward your bank account number. In order to do that you would have required the e-mailer to offer you a compelling reason to believe him and his story. We merely extend your skepticism of the Self-proclaimed Nigerian Ambassador to the rest of the outrageous claims we're subjected to in a day, in this case including one that some all powerful being killed himself as a present to himself to allow some human beings to escape his own wrath, if they did what he wanted.