Mad Kally

David,
Why do you hate Santa Claus?

Kally

Brian63

Well, one counter to this is to say that "deep down" we all believe in God-we are born with a kind of innate religious belief, but people who profess to be atheists are actually just suppressing their natural tendencies. I am not very familiar with presuppositionalism, but I believe that that is one of its tenets. Kenny and Jim Mitchell argued this point much more eloquently than I could in several threads, as I recall. Of course, whether you believe such arguments have merit is another matter entirely. I'm just saying that another possibility is that there actually are no atheists, only people that claim to be (and they are suffering from self-delusion).

Michael Martin argues against this position in one of his essays in the SecWeb library-<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/no_atheists.html" target="_blank">Are There Really No Atheists? </a>

Brian

[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: Brian63 ]</p>

HelenM

I'm guessing he wasn't very happy with his Christmas presents one year.

love
Helen

brighid

David I hate the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy Mathews and all the Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Hindu Gods, etc. Matthews-

WOW – there must be a lot of pent up anger, hatred and bigotry inside of you. Come on Davey Boy, let it out. Express you anger for Zeus, Kali Ma (well, you might want to reconsider that as she isn’t very nice), Jupiter, Freya, Cerrunos, etc. It will make you FEEL so much better! Don’t hold it in.

But on a more serious note …If there are “some” atheists that have hatred for “some” Christians perhaps you could confine your comments to those SPECIFIC atheists and demonstrate their SPECIFIC hatred for Christians in general or individual Christians. That would be the prudent, intelligent and honest thing to do! You don’t want to be bearing false witness and breaking one of those all important 10 Commandments now would you. Jesus has some pretty harsh words for hypocrites! Tisk, tisk …

B

Synaesthesia

WELCOME TO HEAVEN
(no dogs or atheists allowed)

Autonemesis

Surprise is more likely what I would experience. First, surprise at having survived death, then surprise at finding myself in Heaven. Then, if descriptions of Heaven actually resemble the place, it seems to me that extreme boredom would soon follow.

mariemrm

Originally posted by David Mathews:
Yes! I rejected all that heaven/hell BS, along with the rest of my Catholic indoctrination, many years ago and haven't thought about it since.

But if it did turn out to be true, I still don't want to have my soul "saved". Heaven is not for me, I wouldn't fit in.

First off, I didn't earn it, I don't want it. I'm not so hypocritical that I'd accept getting into heaven on a technicality. I don't want to spend eternity thinking I was only there because of a loophole.

Second, I can't even stand the thought of an eternity of heaven, at least not the heaven the nuns told me about. "Happy forever and ever in the presence of the Lord." Yechh! It sounded horrible 40 years ago and still does. No more dreams or aspirations, no striving or achievement, no hope. Just the same thing, happiness, forever. I can't think of much else that would be so boring.

Then there is that bit about "the presence of the Lord." To have to be in the company of a being that is so arrogant, petty, egotistical, cruel and savage is not what I consider paradise. I won't waste my time in the company of people who are even fractionally as bad as this god creature is portrayed to be (in his own words as stated in the bible.). Why would I find the prospect of eternity with such a being appealing?

And if by some fluke god has had bad press and really isn't as bad as I think he is, I still wouldn't want to hang out with him for the simple reason that I think he is totally unimaginative and dull. If the only way this supposedly omnipotent, omniscient being can come up with to communicate with me is thru some moldy old book that is a massive compendium of contradictions, I don't want to spend eternity with him. You would think god, with all the attributes ascribed to him, could come up with something a little more elegant and relevant. Don't ask me what, I'm not god. All I know is that a god that I might want to spend eternity with would inspire me with his ingenuity, creativity and originality. This dullard isn't even very original!

So no, I don't want to be "saved", thank you very much. I'll take oblivion.

Marie

Arrowman

Yes; and I do not accept that argument. Although I cannot mount an evidence-based argument to support my position that "everyone is born an atheist" I could I suppose fall back on the fact that "everyone is born with a knowledge of God" is the positive assertion and therefore bears the burden of proof; I do not have to provide evidence to the contrary

I will look at the link you provide.

Of course, were a Christian to assert that "there are no atheists" I would be forced to ask why it is necessary to send missionaries all around the world to convert people to Christianity....

Arrowman

I will take it, then, that we can agree that an atheist (a person who does not believe in any gods) cannot be said to "hate" the Christian God. This is the most important point I sought to make, for it is a continuing source of frustration to hear Christians ask things like "why do you hate God?" and "why do you reject God?".

I would argue that "those atheists who do hate God..." are not as numerous as you might think. Oftentimes you will see an atheist venting at a particular inconsistency in the Christian image of God, describing God as "that bloodthirsty God" or whatever, and you might interpret that as the person having an opinion about the nature of God (ie, "Not a True Atheist ™") when in fact they are making a rhetorical point.

Hehe. Sorry, I missed the sarcasm.

southernhybrid

No Dogs? Well that settles it then. I'm not going anywhere without my little dogs.