ExTheist

Do theists come here because they have doubts?

OwnRules

To the myriad of prior answers, I'll just add that that I never "became" an atheist through a support group to begin with. Even though I was raised as a Catholic in Spain, I don't recall ever believing -- hard as I tried -- any of the inherent incongruities of said faith. In fact, I distinctly remember around the ages of 11 or 12, asking a number of priests about my own childish preoccupation with the Problem of Evil. Almost needless to say, their answers made about much sense then as they do now: which is none at all.

Interesting to note, that my sister, raised in a similar environment, is to this day an avowed Catholic. But one that runs away from any meaningful discussion that questions her faith. Don't know how much -- or how little -- one can deduct from a personal experience like mine, but it seems to me that just as I was 'born' a skeptic, others are born with a predisposition towards credulity.

As for having joined this forum in particular, sure, it's good to know there are others out there that have come to the same conclusions I have, but I don't see how I could change mine even if I was the only person in the world that felt this way. See, I've reached my conclusions through the tools of reason and logic and I don't know how I could possibly abandon those in favor of faith-based belief any more that I could 'dislearn' how to walk.

Ultimately, I don't much care what anyone believes...but I've always understood religion to be a faith-based belief regardless of the zillion arguments theists have tried to come up with to deny the logic behind that conclusion. However, as long as said point is agreed upon, I see no use for further debate.

Unless of course, one enjoys the afterglow felt when one desists from banging ones head into a wall. And I can't deny that I've succumbed to that masochistic urge on more than one occasion

NOGO

I am curious, which one is not Basic Christian doctrine?

GeoTheo

The one on the bottom and the third one from the bottom. I don't agree with those. some Christians might.

hinduwoman

Me, I come here not for reassurance that I am right, but for intellectual companionship as opposed to the usual drivel in daily life.

Benefit: I am already better at arguments and more confident at asserting my views in off-line world.

Debit: I get more angry at inane arguments and more quickly too!

MollyMac

The best place an atheist can go for reassurance is to a Christian forum. The smallest dose of this cranky, noxious religion is enough to reassure me. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Panta Pei

I agree that this site (among others in my faves list) is a great resource for building friendships, exchanging ideas and engaging in spirited debate (ooof, puns, damn )

However, just as there are understanding Christians on this board and their own, there are also atheists and/or 'freethinkers' that profess the equally insipid mindset of...

This, in my most humble opinion of merely a participant on a privately owned board, is a damaging trait that should be considered unproductive in pursuing the critical thought approach to any topic.

It also forms the impression to the observer that there exists a 'special group' that is not willing to remain open to all considerations and would rather suppress the idea and attack the presenter.

In turn, this is not too far from what many atheists here have expressed as being the negative trait of the 'fundies' that are so despised...or, what theists here have been trying to express as hypocritical, in so many words, prior to being summarily dismissed and/or insulted.

~ just my .02

Steve

Perchance

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

I've been looking around at Christian boards more lately, especially Christian Forums, because I thought I might be listening to only one side of the debate and therefore might get a more "balanced" view if I was on a board where Christians closed in on atheists instead of the other way around.

But... it's weird.

Even the casual threads I've looked at, the threads devoted to discussions of things like going back to school or books or music, are like entering a foreign world. God (or what they think of as God) is REALLY IN these people's lives, it seems. Everything relates to him.

I can't even comprehend a life pointing to a being defined, not by anything existing in the outside world at all, but solely by an old book, families and youth groups, and sometimes something in these peoples' minds. I just don't know how they live.

I started looking thinking that perhaps this would sway me more towards the theistic side. Now I'm thinking that perhaps the debates in the EoG forum present a more reasonable Christian perspective, and stand a better chance of convincing me, than what is on those boards.

It's like scuba diving without any air. But it sure is reassuring.

-Perchance.

NOGO

That would be
I don't buy the idea that this life is a test and that if you don't pass you are off to hell.
and
the idea that Jesus is God or the son of God,

I assume here that there is an error since questioning Jesus as the Son of God is rather basic to Christianity.

So it must be
the idea that people are sick because they have sinned ...
and
the idea that believing without seeing is good and questioning is not.


Do you deny that there is good support in the Gospels on both these issues?

Cappy

Sorry, off the subject.

Geo, is that Bemiji, MN?

Just curious