lpetrich

The old "god's thin skin" defense. But being thin-skinned is not generally considered a virtue.

Biff the unclean

Man, you must have been naive. I never believed that. In fact, I never even heard it.
Oh I found all the parts to Jesus story, but they were all in Pagan religions. I just couldn't find an historic Jesus. Nor could I find anyone who claimed that there was one who had any proof either.
The greatest argument for the resurrection is the conversion and subsequent bravado of the apostles. There never was any more compelling evidence for it.
When I went looking for "historic Jesus" I kept a weather eye out for "historic Apostles"---there's nothing. They are fictional characters in the same novel.
Every awful thing Robin put up with is not proof that there is a Batman.

Shonfield's question is a good one- how do we know that Jesus really died in his short time on the cross? How do we know, given that no one has ever documented a resurrection, that Jesus did not simply swoon?
A better question would be…"Jesus? What Jesus?"

That to me is an intelligent and tough question.
To me that is stupid and biased.
Stupid because it is dwelling on minute details of a persons life when it has zero information about the person. You can't even show that he even existed.
Biased because it uses the word "swoon" as though the story were about a southern belle whose stays were too tight at the cotillion. The story describes someone in shock or even a light coma

Fortunately most atheists prefer to make wild assertions about how the Gospels came to be, which raise more questions than they answer, so nobody much listens to them.
It does appear that you don't listen, or read a word that is written on these boards if you can claim that.
But then all your claims come from your imagination anyway, don't they?
People likely to lose faith are people who want proof
At last we agree. If you want proof to believe something then you are out of luck with Jesus. If you'll believe any asinine thing you are told then Hallelujah brother. Pass the collection plate.

Dargo

Personally I would recommend focusing on the Messianic prophecies as quoted by the new testament authors. There are plenty of extremely embarasing in your face contradictions here. Unlike old testament contradictions, these can not be dismissed as being trivial areas of the Bible, since apologests are always braging about how Jesus "fulfilled" all of these prophecies. A thorough study of prophecies is what finally killed my last vestiges of my faith. This would be an excellent topic for a future debate on this board if we can ever find a reasonably knowledgeable christian willing to tackle this subject.

Javaman

I second this and I think it will help the OP. The Is 7:14 quote seems so easy but I'm not that knowledgeable.

Javaman

Dargo et all,

I started this thread in BC&A. Maybe some of them smart folk'll help out. I've always been curious about this subject... I'll admit, though, that it seemed too much effort for a lifelong atheist to take on.

NonHomogenized

Jebus is welcome to as much of my 'sin' as he wants - especially since I believe in Jebus about as much as I believe in sin (ie not at all)

ROFLMAO!!!
"Everything in the bible is literally true... unless, of course, I find it obvious that it's not"... oy.


Re the OP:

I find a nice set of not-all-that-hard questions to get them thinking about their religion works quite well. My favorites?

-the flood (both the ethics and truth)
-gawd's behavior
-why jebus had to die
-who goes to hell, and why
-the garden of eden bit (entrapment)

and, well, pretty much any subject they bring up.

joedad

Why aren't our prisons filled with non-christians and atheists?

Who or what does your god worship? Nothing? No one? So your god is an atheist?

If being christian means not believing other gods are real, is said christianity atheistic with regards to these deities?

Why did your god kill children, babies and toddles in the Flood? Are these souls in Heaven? Why did your god kill them if he loved them?

Do you have any friends who are atheist/non-christian? What kind of people are they? Do you see them as inferiors? Are they good, decent, capable humans, but going to Hell nonetheless?

miss djax

for me the first steps towards my deconversion where when I read Bishop Shelby Spong's "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism". I couldn't believe what I was reading when I read it. Both of my parents are fundy ministers, and I had never learned after YEARS in church that there were multiple creation stories, nativity stories, resurrection stories.

The book was well footnoted, and I started a big search of my own. Spong concludes that even tho the Bibles in no way literal and still concludes there is a god, I eventually concluded there was not.

So, for me, a book by a liberal Christian helped me deconvert. I can't recommend his books enough.

Miss Djax

Radorth

They are, but nobody writes "atheist" on the form.

Is that clever or what? All atheists who think this is an intelligent question, and joedad is over 26, raise your hand.

Many are, yes, if there was such a flood. I don't believe in a universal flood. There is almost no evidence for it, and all we have is a fifth hand account at best.

No, not really.

Some are, yes.

No. I think they will be judged as they judge. Jesus seems quite clear on the subject. Anything unfair about that?

Rad

AJ113

Yep. That may be your opinion Rad, but Jesus and, for that matter most NT writers say that you have to believe in him in order to be saved. Jesus seems quite clear on this subject.