Cappy

GeoTheo - Why are you here?

Are you curious about us? Does it make you feel good to come here and tell us we are wrong? Do you feel the need to reasure yourself of your faith by proclaiming it on an atheist forum?

I am here (and on other ateist forums) because its nice to "talk" to people who are like me. I know personally only one other person who doesn't believe in god, my brother. If we came out and told everyone, we would probably be shunned by people just like you. I don't say anyting mean or degrading to people who I hear refer to god, but a lot of you xians have that down to a science. It's no different to me than if a person discriminates or degrades a person based on nationality or color. We avoid much critism by staying in the shadows, and not speaking our minds. Its sad that in a country as great as the USA, people have to be scared to say how they feel, to keep atheism inside. We live in a society where most any lifestyle is accepted, generally speaking, and yet I am scared to reveal mine. That is another reason why I come here, I am able to "speak" freely without the tounge-lash and the looks.

O.K., now I can smile.

GeoTheo

I come here to argue. I form and fine tune my opinions through debate. I also think many atheists have good reason to disagree with many things some Christians espouse. I think some of the basic assumptions of fundamentalism about the world are incorrect and that Christians should abandon them. The best way to strengthen ones position on a subject is to see what people who disagree have to say.I try to maintain a modicum of civility. I don't see how I degrade people by merely disagreeing with them. I believe most of all in the free exchange of ideas. I find that when I spend too much time with people I agree with I get bored or I end up playing the devil's advocate or I try to find somthing generally held to be true and take the extreme view from the opposite side just to see if it stands up to logical arguement. I like having my thoughts challenged. This actually causes me some problems in some Christian circles. I am not a very good sheep. Some of the teaching techniques in Church is just mind numbing. Like verbal fill in the blank questions in an adult sunday school class.
"I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by......"
and someone in the congregation is supposed to answer. Then after several of these statements some unsupported assertion is thrown in as being the only logical conclusion. Just the other day I questioned the teacher on a statement he made that violated the seperation of church and state. I threw him totally off guard. He said it was a good thing that at one time a person could not be a college professor in a state funded college unless he was a Christian. Is there a problem with letting the government define Christianity?!? Hello! Religious freedom!
I was most comfortable in Bible college where people had curious minds and actually threw around different doctrines of theology and really questioned them tried to understand them.
I will probably end up no longer being a fundamentalist largely from visiting this forum.
Some think I will eventually give up Christianity but God has never been more real to me. People have to keep in mind that Christian fundamentalism is a 100 year old movement created in reaction to diverse social pressures unique to post industrial American society. There is no reason to not question it's assumptions. If an argument against somthing has good logic, it has good logic. I don't care who states the arguement. All truth is of God.

NOGO

Actually my problems with Christianity are not the differences between the fundies and other Christians. I have problems with all of Christianity, from A to Z.

I do not buy the idea of
salvation,
the original sin,
the fall of mankind,
the need to fix it,
the idea of sin,
the requirement of blod for forgiveness,
the idea that Jesus's sacrifice is a substitute for our punishment,
the idea that you must believe to be saved,
the idea that believing without seeing is good and questioning is not.
the idea that Jesus is God or the son of God,
the idea that people are sick because they have sinned ...
I don't buy the idea that this life is a test and that if you don't pass you are off to hell.

I can go on but I am sure that you get the picture.

NOGO

Why am I here?

As a lot believers live with a great deal of contradictions about something that is so dear to them. That is what mades debating them so entertaining.

My purpose here is to nudge a few believers back onto the road to reality.

GeoTheo

NOGO
Given my presuppositions, though, all of those doctrines you listed make perfect sense.

davidH

Kosh - just to let you know that i am back. If you want to debate more on the Exodus topic then I'll be there.

Ps you know where Mendeh is?

GeoTheo

Well, not all of them (I just glanced over them)
Basic Christian doctrine is what I mean.

Infinity Lover

This is a place where you can interface with otherrs, and relay your thought, or ventilate your sillyness or frustrations, without there being much of a chance at a reply such as...

...now first let me explain to you, why you need the Lord Jesus as your saviour...

nuf said?

HelenM

I think this is wiser: "The best way to test one's position on a subject is to see what people who disagree have to say."

I mean, isn't it at least possible that the opposing arguments might be better than yours?

love
Helen

DMB

I think a point worth making to Geo Theo is that the atheists on this forum can find plenty to disagree about. That's healthy, IMO. But what is good about it is that we can argue about things with one another without having what we regard as the irrelevancies of religion dragged in all the time.