Is there such a thing as an atheist?

[mustaphadrink]

Pardon me saying this directly but your attitude comes across as hostile the majority of the time. Where is the love that your bible and fellows preach?

A couple of things here.

One, you only oppose the truth so I know that I am not being hostile the majority of the time so thanks for your confirmation.

Two. Love and truth go hand in hand. I know that you want me to drop the truth bit in case it upsets your fragile sensibilities but as I am accountable to God, not you, then I will follow his directions which are clearly enunciated in his word.

And just for your information, read the New Testament and you will find that Jesus was far from being lovey dovey. That is a furphy the atheists love to use to score points. He mixed it with the best of them and if you were a hypocrite he told you so. He used terms like whitened sepulchres to describe some people's attitudes.

The bible itself is far from loving as it makes it quite clear that unless you do things God's way you are on the outer as in "Repent and be baptised"...No repentance and no baptism and your toast.

 

[mustaphadrink]

What do atheists claim? Atheists by definition reject the "God" claim. I don't have faith, you do.

You have faith that what you believe is right as you don''t have any evidence for it. If you do then answer this question.....

How did sex originate? Asexual reproduction gives up to twice as much reproductive success (‘fitness’) for the same resources as sexual reproduction, so how could the latter ever gain enough advantage to be selected? And how could mere physics and chemistry invent the complementary apparatuses needed at the same time (non-intelligent processes cannot plan for future coordination of male and female organs).

 

[mustaphadrink]

Just being here in the forum shows he believes in God Whistling in the dark.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

 

[Spokenpassage]

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." - Augustine

 

[mustaphadrink]

Point 2 as an example:Is he still alleged? He says he accepted Christ as his savior and was upholding the will of the heavenly father?

Dear O me. The atheists are at it again trying to be intelligent and failing miserably. Let me instruct you in a few facts.

One. You never, never, never make a case based on one example as one example a body of research does not make.

Two. There is such a thing as justifiable homicide. This man felt the homicide was justifiable as it would save the lives of thousands of babies. That was true.

Three. Going into a garage does not make you a car and going into a church does not make you a Christian. The fact is it is not what he said that is important but what he did. Hitler was an example of that. He said what the churches wanted to hear and then he massacred 6 million Jews.

Four. The whole pro-life movement condemned this man's actions.

So............before you pronounce your sanctimonious claims, try sticking to the truth and avoid the slander....if you can.

 

[MarkMulder]

I am 100 percent sure there is no god.

The fool says in his heart:
“There is no God”...

[Psalm 14:1]

 

[Jda016]

This concerns abiogenesis, not biological evolution.

You may state the problems for life arising from non-life but that is not evidence against theory of evolution.

oh come on now! Aren't you splitting hairs just a tinsy weeny bit?

Biological evolution couldn't come about unless there was abiogenesis and he is showing the absurdity of life coming from non-life, therefore the theory of evolution has problems because it stands on the back of abiogenesis.

 

[Sirk]

It seems that we Christians spend a lot of time defending why we believe in God. I have a few questions I would like an atheist to answer.

1) What did Einstein mean when he said, "God does not play dice with the cosmos?". If he considered evidence of intelligence in the universe, why shouldn't you?

2)What evidence is there for genetic mutations that increase the biologically useful information of the genome? Or another way:What evidence is there for genetic mutations facilitating macroevolutionary change?

3) After thousands of generations of fruit fly's, why have they not been able to produce even the slightest evidence for microevolutionary change...much less macroevolutionary change?

 

[mustaphadrink]

If I'm presented with real evidence, I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong. Can you say the same?

Sorry but your are totally deluded. The evidence has been there for ever and a day but you are too blind to see it as satan has blinded your eyes and whilst he does this you are blind as a bat spiritually because you have sold your soul to a liar.

Until you admit you need God, nothing will change.

 

[mustaphadrink]

I will use this definition. So no I do not have faith in evolution, I believe it is a credible theory for the diversity of biological life based on evidence.

In that case answer this question....

How do ‘living fossils’ remain unchanged over supposed hundreds of millions of years, if evolution has changed worms into humans in the same time frame? Professor Gould wrote, “the maintenance of stability within species must be considered as a major evolutionary problem.”

 

[mustaphadrink]

Herein is your problem. As a logical being. I accept that god is improbable. And accept that evidence 'could' be found to suggest it exists. However yourselves, as non-logical theists. are unable to accept in any way the proposition that coule 'may' not exist. This comes back to the Dawkings scale of belief. Do you consider this statement accurate, and if so, do you consider it reasonable?

More and more I am convinced that atheism is a religion and its God is Dawkins as they quote him so much and believe what he says. There's that word again...believe. It is going to take more than a few denials to convince me atheism is not a religion especially as in the last 12 months they have opened atheist churches in three nations. If it is not a religion, why do they need churches?

 

[mustaphadrink]

Ha! Nice. From the most massive expanse of space to the minutiae of the smallest particle, to the precision mechanics of the aforementioned plus the mystery of what holds it all together screams for a designer behind it all.

That is right Sirk but no atheist is going to admit to that truth because it would blow their fairy stories out of the window and leave them without a leg to stand on.

The atheists that I listen to or should I say ex atheists are those who carefully considered both sides of the story and as a result have ditched their atheism. People like C.S.Lewis, Derek Prince, Peter Hitchens, Malcolm Muggeridge, Nicky Gumbel, Alister McGrath, Enoch Powell, Dame Cicely Saunders, Bernard Nathenson, John Montgomery, William J. Murray to name but a few.

When the atheists here can match these people with intelligent comment then I will take what they have to say seriously. Until then I consider it to be one big joke.

 

[mustaphadrink]

It seems that we Christians spend a lot of time defending why we believe in God. I have a few questions I would like an atheist to answer.

1) What did Einstein mean when he said, "God does not play dice with the cosmos?". If he considered evidence of intelligence in the universe, why shouldn't you?

2)What evidence is there for genetic mutations that increase the biologically useful information of the genome? Or another way:What evidence is there for genetic mutations facilitating macroevolutionary change?

3) After thousands of generations of fruit fly's, why have they not been able to produce even the slightest evidence for microevolutionary change...much less macroevolutionary change?

You are going to have to wait for hell to freeze over before you get an answer to your questions.

 

[Sirk]

You are going to have to wait for hell to freeze over before you get an answer to your questions.

The typical atheist response to real questions is mockery and obfuscation. Maybe someone here can answer honestly and or humbly.

 

[JesusLives]

A couple of things here.

One, you only oppose the truth so I know that I am not being hostile the majority of the time so thanks for your confirmation.

Two. Love and truth go hand in hand. I know that you want me to drop the truth bit in case it upsets your fragile sensibilities but as I am accountable to God, not you, then I will follow his directions which are clearly enunciated in his word.

And just for your information, read the New Testament and you will find that Jesus was far from being lovey dovey. That is a furphy the atheists love to use to score points. He mixed it with the best of them and if you were a hypocrite he told you so. He used terms like whitened sepulchres to describe some people's attitudes.

The bible itself is far from loving as it makes it quite clear that unless you do things God's way you are on the outer as in "Repent and be baptised"...No repentance and no baptism and your toast.

You will note though that most of the times Jesus was forthright was with the religious leaders of His day and not the regular sinners. The self righteous Jesus would remind them of their place which was to be a disciple of God's kingdom which they were too busy making it too hard for the sinners to make it into God's kingdom with all their rules and regulations.

So meek, mild, kill them with kindness turn the other cheek, go the extra mile comes to mind for me when I think of working with sinners and by the way I am one of those too a sinner that is although a forgiven one. I get that you are trying to uplift the truth, but it can be done also with kindness. What is that sin that you are having trouble with? I know we all have one. There but for the grace of God. Remember we are all sinners. All in need of a God who so willingly died to save us and set us free from the bonds of sin. Love is the way to lead them to Jesus love is what lead Jesus to the cross.

 

[Sirk]

You will note though that most of the times Jesus was forthright was with the religious leaders of His day and not the regular sinners. The self righteous Jesus would remind them of their place which was to be a disciple of God's kingdom which they were too busy making it too hard for the sinners to make it into God's kingdom with all their rules and regulations.

So meek, mild, kill them with kindness turn the other cheek, go the extra mile comes to mind for me when I think of working with sinners and by the way I am one of those too a sinner that is although a forgiven one. I get that you are trying to uplift the truth, but it can be done also with kindness. What is that sin that you are having trouble with? I know we all have one. There but for the grace of God. Remember we are all sinners. All in need of a God who so willingly died to save us and set us free from the bonds of sin. Love is the way to lead them to Jesus love is what lead Jesus to the cross.

I struggle with this because it seems we are losing in the arena of ideas because some of us are afraid to speak up. Also, I see Christians who may not have the intellectual ability to defend their faith being run over by atheistic bullies. A little pushback is good IMO because it doesn't afford them the ability to rely on bullying tactics.

 

[Sirk]

I struggle with this because it seems we are losing in the arena of ideas because some of us are afraid to speak up. Also, I see Christians who may not have the intellectual ability to defend their faith being run over by atheistic bullies. A little pushback is good IMO because it doesn't afford them the ability to rely on bullying tactics.

I want to add to this that the beauty of following Jesus is that Christianity is historically and scientifically testable as well as all inclusive in that you it welcomes those who take a blind leap as well as those who require some intellectual basis for believing.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

You're applying a modern secular definition of an english word to non-english ancient Biblical manuscripts.

While faith means belief in God and acceptance of His revelation, as one would expect, the meaning of the word faith in scripture must be understood contextually in its original semantic as in the Bible it is always linked directly to truth. For the inspired authors of scripture, faith is an act of the intellect assenting to revealed truth aligning with correspondence.

For example, Jesus perfectly corresponds to the Father (John 1:18); He said to Philip, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). So Jesus corresponded to God in His character and His actions, and in this sense, persons can be said to be true, or express the truth. The apostles were eye witnesses to this correspondence and wrote about it in this manner. Their "faith" in Christ was directly linked to factual truth with emperical and observational correspondence.

The most common Hebrew root employed to express Israel’s faith in God is ’mn, of which the basic meaning is firmness, certainty, reliability, and trustworthiness.

From this root are derived the adjective ’e¯mûn (faithful: 2 Sm 20.19; trustworthy: Prv 13.17), the nouns ’e˘mûnâ [steadiness: Ex 17.12; security: Ps 36(37).3; fidelity, faithfulness: 1 Sm 26.23; Hb 2.4, and often predicated of God, as in Dt 32.4; Ps 35(36).6; etc.] and ’e˘met, for original ’ement [trustworthiness: Ex 18.21; Jos 2.12; constancy, fidelity, faithfulness: Gn 24.27, 49; Is 38.18–19; Ps 24(25).10; 39(40).11–12; etc.; truth, reality: Dt 22.20; Jer 9.4; Is 59.14–15], etc...

In the New Testament period, it's important to understand that classical Greek seldom employed these terms in a religious sense except with respect to pagan pantheons. In the New Testament; however, the actual usage, context, and meaning of faith aligns to the Hebrew meaning of faith. This is why in the first three Gospels faith often signifies confidence in the same manner it does in ancient Hebrew.

In the New Testament, as in the Old Testament, faith in God is in the context of a real encounter with God. In the New Testament, to believe in Christ or "have faith" in Him means for the Christian to encounter God through Jesus Christ His Son.

So while faith is defined by the author of Hebrews as "the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that are not seen" they are real, known, and experienceable. These words are commonly understood in the sense that faith gives the Christian the assurance that his spiritual hopes will find fulfillment and the conviction that the divine revelations that surpass knowledge derived from the senses are true.

In the Bible, the ancient words and their semantics for faith NEVER mean what you've posted and bolded below. In fact, just the opposite.

And as I stated earlier: http://christianchat.com/christian-...sident-atheist-any-questions.html#post1497798

World English Dictionary
[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR="class: tr1"]
[TD="class: td1, colspan: 2"]faith (feɪθ)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr2"]
[TD="class: td2, colspan: 2"]— n[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]1.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]strong or unshakeable belief in something, esp without proof or evidence[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]2.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]a specific system of religious beliefs: the Jewish faith[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]3.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]Christianity trust in God and in his actions and promises[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]4.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]a conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, esp when this is not based on reason[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]5.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]complete confidence or trust in a person, remedy, etc[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: tr3"]
[TD="class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right"]6.[/TD]
[TD="class: td3n2"]any set of firmly held principles or beliefs[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will use this definition. So no I do not have faith in evolution, I believe it is a credible theory for the diversity of biological life based on evidence.

 

[Cycel]

... I am no longer concerned about God not dropping in to acknowledge my prayers. His absence pretty much confirmed my earlier suspicions that he wasn't really there.

Which, of course, does not explain why God is letting me experience His acknowledgement of my prayers.

What I sought was confirmation of his presence. Any acknowledgement at all is what I hoped to receive. I kept looking for a sign, but nothing came my way.

Clearly you separated yourself from God, publicly denied Him...

Wait a sec. You are flying off on some kind of tangent. Are you talking about 40 years ago or this past few months? First of all when I became an atheist I was not aware there were other atheists in the world. I hadn't even told anyone I was an atheist. There was no public declaration. Can you clarify your accusation?

... and presently invest a material amount of your time on Christian forums exercising a negative volition making false assertions about Him.

I never knowingly make false assertions. You are making a false assertion. If you wish to speak truthfully you should simply say that I make claims contrary to what you believe. I believe my statements are both accurate and defensible.

If you believe you are right I would think you would welcome the opportunity to correct my misunderstanding, but I don’t see any attempt to do so in this post.

You're shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:19), in a spiritually bankrupt and deceived state, with a darkened heart (Ephesians 4:18) and it's clear as day to those of us in communion with God.

You have such a negative attitude toward those who interpret the evidence differently. You seem more interested in being accusatory than in discussion.

Yet even in your lost, deceived, spiritually bankrupt state; you serve the purposes of God fulfilling the role of an antagonist... a role you chose for yourself and presently live out somewhat obsessively.

Things are not as they seem AoK. You view the world through a glass darkly.

My relationship with God continues to be strengthened in times of adversity... the very thing that led you to dispose of yours.

Do you interpret my posts as bringing you adversity?

I don't think you understand why my faith collapsed.

My tribulation was worse than your own. It was a perfect storm that struck suddenly and went on for years leaving me in poverty, debt, facing homelessness, serious illness, physical deformity, terrible pain, abandonment by friends, and all of the intense emotions that go along with living through such a grueling experience.

Very sorry for your troubles.

But I didn't abandon God as you chose too.

God abandoned me. It would have been a simple matter for him to make his presence known. If he exists then he apparently chose not to act. Jesus said God cares more for the lost sheep than for the rest of the flock that is not lost. I was lost. I tried to find God, but I did not succeed. I knocked, but the door did not open. I interpreted the silence to mean there was nothing there. If you have evidence of God that all men can clearly see, then by all means show me.

I exercised my will and continued pursuing Him. That's when it happened. Subsequently, He supernaturally healed the most serious medical issue (the other remains but is manageable), began to assist me in rebuilding my career (a process that continues), restored my family to me (mission completed successfully), and led me to a church where I made new friends and experience Him work supernaturally as if it is common it happens so often.

Healed you?

That things improved financially and socially is not evidence of God. It may well be evidence that hard work and persistence pays off; but of your being healed I can make no comment. I know nothing about your situation.

It is from my present position of knowing that I watch you make false assertion after false assertion about God from your deceived state as the sand of time flows through the hourglass.

I object to your calling my assertions false, anyone can do that. Take one of my assertions and prove it false.

"But for the cowardly and u ???????, ?? and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" -Revelations 21:8.

Well, I am certainly glad I am none of those things.

Yet while you live, God's offer of reconciliation remains...

I earnestly sought God, but did not receive a reply. Had God responded I would not now be an atheist.

 

[nl]

I'd accept a hug from you anytime, but I am no longer concerned about God not dropping in to acknowledge my prayers. His absence pretty much confirmed my earlier suspicions that he wasn't really there.

After Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights, the devil tried to tempt Jesus into doing a miracle to turn stones into bread. Jesus could have done that but didn't comply.

God cannot be expected to meet with us on our terms. He sets the terms and conditions. We can't obligate God to act but He will act according to His promises in His timing.

God calls people to humility and repentance. God wants people to seek His glory and not their own. "If anyone wants to boast, let him boast in the Lord." God has conditions but He has also made wonderful promises.