Mageth

The fear of hell is not the purest motivating factor for following God -- rather, a desire to be with Him so we may love Him more perfectly is.

Then why the coercion of hell, however one defines it?

Tenek

Well since the necessity of Hell has already been questioned, what makes you think you're following God?

Ronin

Ominpotence is not lonely and requires no lover.

Gooch's dad

To answer the OP---sure, I doubt a lot of things, and I certainly would like for there to be an afterlife. Yeah, I even hope that there is one. I think it is extremely unlikely that there will be any sort of afterlife, though.

As for Christianity being true? No, I think it's as likely to be true as, say, sacrificing a goat to Zeus to make my crops grow better. I can't say the chances are zero, but they are about as close to zero as anything can be. I've studied Christianity enough to be quite certain that it is a myth. Although I think Jesus probably existed, his disciples didn't worship him as a resurrected 'son of God'. That came much later.

Magus, you're a hoot. We've refuted your 'prophecy' BS time and time again. Why do you keep trotting out such nonsense?

-Kelly

beyelzu

and the screams of the sinners are just a fucking bonus for your bloodthirsty god?????

beyelzu

the mind of a theist often knows no disagreement. magus is ed's sockpuppet is an alternate explanation.

christ-on-a-stick

Hi Corso

Sometimes, as I lie in bed at night and my mind wanders and ponders as it tends to do when there's nothing good on TV , I drive myself nutso thinking about stuff like infinity and how freakin' old the "world" is and how we evolved and way way way way back when, how it all started. And it trips me out sometimes, wondering "why am I here?" "What does it all mean"? Maybe my mind is just easily boggled, but thinking about that stuff usually does the trick.

Here's the thing. While it is certainly a mystery to me whether there is anything "else" out there, whether we (humans) and our evolved consciousness is part of anything "larger', I remain an a-theist - lacking belief in a theistic God - because THAT concept of explaining the "mystery" of life is so patently freakily and truly, laughably ABSURD. Southernhybrid put it beautifully: If there's some "greater spiritual truth" out there that I am not aware of, I am 100% certain that it has *nothing* to do with the bizzare, illogical ancient superstitions purported by Christianity.

I have found some elements of Eastern "religions" (which are largely a-theistic) interesting and some of the principles useful in life, but I look at it more as a philisophical outlook than some kind of Ultimate Truth.

Don't let the age-old scare tactics get to ya.

Starboy

Hi Corso,

I'm an atheist and a scientist. As an atheist I doubt nothing because as an atheist I believe in nothing. As a scientist I may at one time or another doubt everything. But as a scientist I must doubt everything at one time or another because I must hold all scientific knowledge tentatively. Naturalism is not "true" in the logical sense. Naturalism is "true" in the sense that it is real. But this is by definition, since if something is declared to be real by a scientist it automatically becomes natural. This particular use of the word "true" confuses "truth" with reality. The word "true" is a tricky word. It is so tricky that IMO it is just about useless. You see science is the human activity to explore reality, to try to determine what is real. Since it is very much a work in progress and looks to be so for a very long time to come, to make "truth" claims about what is real is nonsense. If you could do that why bother with science in the first place. History has shown that as a provider of working explanations of reality, science beats the hell out of religion (and heaven, god and the rest of it as well).

Starboy

Abel Stable

So would you honestly love your father if he built a torture chamber in his basement, just in case you didn't love him enough?
Ahh, pure unconditional love

Ojuice5001

How unjust can you get? Christianity and naturalism are both false, but the adherents of each worldview often have a nagging suspicion that the other is true. Roman polytheism is true, but everyone (e.g., Gooch's dad) is sure it isn't.

I have doubts every once in a while, but I don't take them seriously. They're the intellectual equivalent of a sudden, 15-second period of disorientation after getting off the merry-go-round. True understanding of the world requires me to refrain from looking through the fun-house mirrors of Christianity and naturalism.