Quality

Except for the wasted time during your life and the chance that you have the wrong god or god doesn't like suckups.

Calzaer

Not to mention that there are far more choices than just "theism" and "atheism". Remember, to Allah, Christians are pagans destine for hellfire.

Agnostic Theist

If God doesn't exist, what made the universe?

Explain the inconceivable nature of the mind and how it works if we have no soul?


(After ad hominem attacks and mindless insults) and that's why you, as an agnostic, don't have a clue what you're on about....You want to hit me don't you? (Must resist urge. Be civil. Don't answer!)

jdlongmire

Figured this would cause a rant, since this is the, pardon me, fundamental question.


This is a strawman. A central tenent of Christianity is not to fear death at all.

Philippians 1
20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me;

1 Corinthians 15
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.
55 "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

jdlongmire

What is the term for an ad hominem attack against God?

This would make an excellent thread starter...I will try and remember to snip it, if someone else does not first.

Buffman

I must have missed where you told everyone about the origins of your supernatural god. I feel rather confident that I haven't missed reviewing most of the evidence presented by believers over the last 2,000 years in an attempt to justify their superstitions/myths/actions in this so-called Christian god. As a matter of information, I have taken the time and effort to review most of the ancient creative stories offered as proof of the existence of the supernatural...not just the ones about the so-called divine entity you have chosen to worship.

Is it also a central tenet of your faith beliefs not to eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, breath to stay alive? It is a central tenet of my philosophy to initially trust once but always verify. I learned at an early age that religious experts seldom know much about the natural sciences and, unfortunately, foster a considerable amount scientific and philosophical clap-trap. However, during my studies of psychology/sociology/education, I became interested in the experiments of Ivan Pavlov. Guess what? From there, it was just a hop-skip-jump to recognize that humans can be, and have been, conditioned to believe fairy tales. This became a very important personal insight in my specialized, psychological survival, training classes. So I would recommend that you do some additional study concerning human biology and chemistry, with particular emphasis on the brain-mind interface, before attempting to determine what is or isn't a "strawman."

Thank you for taking the time to provide your selected biblical quotes as evidence to support your conditioned faith beliefs. However, when it comes to not fearing death, it would seem that some of the Islamists can't wait to enact their tenets. I am not a religionist and yet I don't fear death. How do you suppose that came to be? I know! Through trained critical reasoning, I came to respect the finality of death and therefore the wonderful gift of life as a sentient being. It also helped me to appreciate the value of all life and to be damn sure that I was rationally and morally justified in snuffing it out. Even so, at one point in my life, I was fully prepared, professionally conditioned and trained, entrusted with the physical responsibility, and felt morally justified to snuff out hundreds-of-thousands of human lives with a single weapon. That, my worshipful friend, will cause some pretty serious introspective examinations of the so-called tenets provided by others...especially verse quoting religionists.

Kassiana

Except for the wasted time during your life
--Some of us don't think it's a waste of time to do things we enjoy, even if the Gods themselves were to turn out to be untrue (which they won't, but I'll admit to the possibility). Is it a waste if I, the one living that life, think it isn't? I don't think so.

Why are religious believers so fearful of the unknown and death?
--Why are atheists so fearful of the unknown and death? (Unfair, unhealthy generalization met with another unfair, unhealthy generalization) Personally, I don't have a firm belief in an afterlife and I wouldn't mind if there isn't one. I'm enjoying my life as a Pagan theist and I'll continue to enjoy it even if the Summerlands don't exist after death.

Bumble Bee Tuna

Wrong about the one god whose existence we disagree on, or wrong about the thousands of gods whose nonexistence we agree on?

Agnostic Theist

Why are religious believers so fearful of the unknown and death?

To the gnostic, the unknown should be embraced until it is known, and you shall not fear death, as it is life, just as left is right and the pleroma is set beyond those slaves to the flesh.

Ojuice5001

Let's say both.