Media-1

If the God of the bible exists, then it's easy to see why it ought to matter to Christians that they believe in the biblical God.

As a Christian, I can't help wondering why it seems to matter to all you atheists, THAT you are atheists. If there aren't any gods, why does it matter to you what you, or anyone else believes about god?


Media-1

three4jump

First, I don't think I understand the question. You must be refering to a conversation you had somewhere else.

Second, since you are a Christian, I would be willing to bet that you are not really interested in what I actually say or think. You are probably just looking for any sort of response, and you will take it as your opportunity to regurgitate something someone else told you. If I am mistaken in this assumption let me know.

Third, while I do think religion falls under miscellaneous, I'll bet this topic gets moved to another forum.

MassAtheist

I'm not sure I understand the question either. It sounds like you are saying because I don't believe in gods, it shouldn't matter to me that I don't believe in gods. That doesn't make sense to me. Are you saying something else? I don't particularly care what anyone else believes, so long as they don't force their beliefs into the public arena.

sidewinder

But Christians claim that the existence of the Biblical God and his revelation (Jesus) is the most important thing in life for all human beings. It's a big claim. It should be examined critically to see if this claim is true. The claim and all that goes along with it has been examined in great detail and it turns out that there are many flaws in the system. Most atheists would outright state that it is completely false. I think it's important for people to critically examine their religious beliefs. Are you interested in believing what is truthful or at least most likely true, or are you only interested in believing in what makes you feel good? I think for most people, it's the latter.

Mageth

While I pretty much agree with three4jump's assessment:

As an atheist, it would be kinda stupid, not to mention contradictory, for me to believe in something that I lack a belief in, no?

Not to mention intellectually dishonest to believe in something for which there is no <substantiated> evidence.

[ March 07, 2002: Message edited by: Mageth ]</p>

Media-1

I'm not asking you why you lack beliefs, or whether there is any evidence that any gods exist. I'm asking all of you why it seems to matter to you that you do not believe in a god. If no god exists, I don't understand why you (atheists) seem to think that the topic of god is somehow relevent to anything.

I doubt that this website would have been very successful if lots of atheists weren't so drawn to these kinds of issues. It obviously does matter to most of you that you do not believe in a god....but why does this matter to you?

Media-1

Mageth

Why does it matter to you that it matters to us? I don't get your point.

Look at my second statement. I'm fascinated by the fact that so many believe something that is not backed by substantiated evidence, and indeed is contradicted by the evidence we have. I like to discuss this with others. What's the big deal?

What else would you prefer we talk about, the weather? (actually, a lot of other topics than god are talked about on the SecWeb.)

Hobbs

In the absense of so many theists who keep trying to convince everyone else that their particular denomination of their particular religion is the One True Way and who try to persuade/convince/force others to think and act the same way, this issue would not matter to me any more than the issue of the lack of any evidence that unicorns or leprechauns or blordgits exist matters to me. If most of the population believed leprechauns existed, and had serious but conflicting beliefs about what that means for laws, social expectations, etc, and tried to impose those beliefs on others, then the non-existence of leprechauns would be much more important to me. The non-existence of blordgits has absolutely no effect on me, and no web site devoted to their non-existence would attract any traffic, because no one has any clue what "blordgit" even means (given that I just made up the term).

It doesn't matter to me that I don't believe in leprechauns because it doesn't matter to you or anyone else. It matters to me that I do not believe in any gods because so many other people do believe in various gods, and many of those believers allow their beliefs, or use their beliefs, to affect me, often in negative ways.

Leave us alone and we'll leave you and your beliefs alone.


Edited to add: For another reason, I, like Mageth, am very interested in the phenomenon of belief in gods, especially since I once was a fervent believer in a god (of the born-again evangelical protestant christian variety). I'm interested in god-beliefs as a strange psychological phenomenon. Again, if nobody else believed in gods, I wouldn't be interested in their non-existence.

[ March 07, 2002: Message edited by: Hobbs ]</p>

DMB

It isn't god or gods that matter to atheists. It's the undesirable effects that belief in them has on our fellow human beings.

GunnerJ

Is... there a point to this post?