atheists

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megaman125

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I never said Christianity was unreasonable or irrational - You assume that I think that way.
I asked for evidence that atheist arguments have been refuted to which you provided none.
Well then, how about this question. Do you even want the Bible to be true? Why or why not?

(man, I am such a sucker for troll bait)
 
Aug 5, 2013
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Typical atheist, claiming victory just becaue some Christian isn't foolish enough to spoon feed you stuff you don't want to eat. Once again, it's the easy way out for the atheist. Just pretend Christianity isn't reasonable or rational, claim a false victory, and maybe, just maybe, your fear of the Bible being true will finally go away, just maybe. But the fact is, it won't go away.

And then they're shocked when we say we don't want to talk with them, like it's some big mystery.
So much prejudice here. Why do you think atheists "fear the bible"? I think it would be nice if Heaven existed. It's reasonable that many atheists would like to believe in Heaven. But many of us do, in fact, think that Christianity isn't "reasonable or rational". If you want to understand our feelings, you can gain some empathy by putting yourself in our shoes... what do you think about Islam? Do you think it's false because you're "afraid of the Qur'an" or is it because you think Islam is neither rational nor reasonable? Are you unbelieving in the Qur'an simply because you want to break its laws?

Please, don't tell atheists that you understand their motives better than they do. It's just as silly as when you hear atheists tell you what Christian motives are. Wouldn't it make sense that people understand themselves better than others do?
 
Aug 5, 2013
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Yes you do. You owe it to everyone to be polite.
Agreed. Megaman125, you ought to treat others they way that you want to be treated. Even if you don't like atheists, the bible suggests that you treat them with kindness. If you want to have an effective argument (a positive testimony for Christianity), then *you* ought to be showing us how Christians are supposed to act rather than be told with scriptural citation.
 
Aug 25, 2013
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Of course you've never heard an atheist admit to it (or at least not many), because that wouldn't look intellectually honest. It's their behavior that points to it, and maybe asking some specific key questions.
Interesting post (I like posts that make me think :) ).

Christians often assert that believers, in a desire to continue sinning without the risk of having to pay the piper, will give up believing in God, thinking it gets them off the hook; but honestly Megaman, and I am not trying to bluff you here, but I don't think Christians really comprehend how it is people lose their faith. I would be very surprised if anyone loses belief in God for the reason we've outlined above. Maybe it occurs sometimes, but I don't think so. I have heard so many Christians make this assertion that I wonder where everyone is hearing it from. You know, you could start a thread on this. It would be interesting.

You mention that atheist behaviour points you to this conclusion. What behaviours were you thinking of and what key questions would you ask?


megaman said:
I think you underestimate people's pride and unwillingness to humble themselves and admit to God that they're wrong and He's right.
But if a person thinks God is not real, how do you propose that person make this admission? Job could humble himself before God because he believed in God’s existence. Atheists truly think man created the idea of God.

I suppose you need to ask what it is that prevents atheists from acknowledging God’s existence. It is not that I don’t think God is right, it’s that I don’t think God real.

megaman said:
Then again, I could also be overestimating that, as in my opinion, pride is the biggest sin issue for people to deal with (not sure if I'm phrasing that the best, but can't think of how else to explain it at the moment).
I would not say atheists exhibit any less pride than Christians, I would only suggest pride has little bearing on why people become atheists.

megaman said:
I wouldn't say they give it up so they can sin, more like, they have some sins they enjoy and don't want to give up those sins and humble themselves and confess to God they were wrong. Once again, pride.
There are numerous examples of Christians sinning without becoming atheists. This is not the factor that causes loss of belief in God’s existence. This does not produce atheists.
 
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Quickfire

Guest
If atheists don't believe in God, then why do they get mad at Him?
If atheists don't think He is real, then why do they blame him for everything?
If people can't tolerate other religious views other than their own, why do they hold to a position thats high in their own belief?
If people originated with or from monkeys, why then isn't it fully proven to be not a theory?
Why do they call it a theory, but still teach it through books and school?
I don't understand???????
remember i told you in another thread about baptism of the holy spirit,
I said most kids will say God how can you be everywhere and god why cant i see you, well i believe that is divine intervention
i believe that is when kids ask for god to come into there lives i believe that is baptism of the holy spirit,

So i believe there is no such thing as an atheist its just someone who has baptism of the holy spirit but chooses not to follow gods will, we need to pray for them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit, peace be with you
 
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letti

Guest
I can't understand one really important thing about all of this.I would never want to go on atheist site and forum to even give my opinion let alone argue.What motive would one have for being on a christian chat site as a atheist?There has to be a reason or reasons.Anyway ,Christians,in confrontational situations are best to be careful answering to opposing viewpoints.
 
Aug 5, 2013
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I can't understand one really important thing about all of this.I would never want to go on atheist site and forum to even give my opinion let alone argue.What motive would one have for being on a christian chat site as a atheist?There has to be a reason or reasons.Anyway ,Christians,in confrontational situations are best to be careful answering to opposing viewpoints.
Instead of answering arguments, you're "arguing about arguing"? Why wouldn't you go on an atheist forum to argue? Jesus would. Why wouldn't you want to defend your faith with reason?

I do, at least, agree with you that "Christians in confrontational situations" ought to be careful answering opponents. Bad arguments "poison the well"... that is, a bad argument makes "your side" look bad and can cause your opponents to ignore or rationalize away your good arguments (it ought not to be this way, but it is). Also, a wide variety of arguments make it appear that your answers are coming from multiple sources, rather than a consistent source such as God.
 
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megaman125

Guest
So much prejudice here. Why do you think atheists "fear the bible"? I think it would be nice if Heaven existed. It's reasonable that many atheists would like to believe in Heaven. But many of us do, in fact, think that Christianity isn't "reasonable or rational". If you want to understand our feelings, you can gain some empathy by putting yourself in our shoes... what do you think about Islam? Do you think it's false because you're "afraid of the Qur'an" or is it because you think Islam is neither rational nor reasonable? Are you unbelieving in the Qur'an simply because you want to break its laws?
I could answer those questions, in a variety of ways. It's just that, when I'm dealing with atheists, it usually doesn't matter if I actually answer those questions or not, they don't listen or care to. Instead, atheists will usually bring up other religions just to hide behind them instead of actually seeking answers to those questions.

Please, don't tell atheists that you understand their motives better than they do. It's just as silly as when you hear atheists tell you what Christian motives are.
So in other words, don't do what they're doing? Ya know, refer back to how the atheists assume that someone doesn't want to talk to them "because they're afraid of losing their faith."

Agreed. Megaman125, you ought to treat others they way that you want to be treated. Even if you don't like atheists, the bible suggests that you treat them with kindness. If you want to have an effective argument (a positive testimony for Christianity), then *you* ought to be showing us how Christians are supposed to act rather than be told with scriptural citation.
You do make a point. But that's why I generally don't like talking with atheists (especially those that I'd group as the 99% typical atheists). How or why I ever found myself in this topic, well, that's something I have to take the blame for. Keep in mind the Bible also says not to cast the pearls before the swine. I also hold the opinion (which may or may not be accurate), that when it comes to the group I classify as the 99%, I don't believe there's anything I could say that could "push them further away from God," because I don't believe that's a thing for these people. I believe they're as far away from God as they want to me. (Again, that's just my opinion.)

As for treating them how I want to be treated. If I came on here way back when I was an atheist, I would have loved it for someone to speak to me boldly, and even a bit harsh. It would certainly be memorable, and they might have even gotten me so fired up that I'd be daring enough to take a challenge such as "go to a Christian church, or find a group of Christians, and ask them to lay hands on you and pray to have evil spirits cast out in the name of Jesus Christ," just to try and prove them wrong. But maybe that's just my style, which may or may not work for others, and that's ok.
 
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letti

Guest
I am not arguing I am stating my opinion,in regards to my own thinking.A christian is not excluded from solely giving a observation.At least,it is my conviction that to debate with anybody determined to solely argue my belief is useless.I know what I do in this case.
 
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letti

Guest
God,is always in my thinking and I know what to do next.
 
Aug 22, 2013
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Well then, how about this question. Do you even want the Bible to be true? Why or why not?

(man, I am such a sucker for troll bait)
Let's deal with one thing at a time. Do you admit that all the arguments for atheism have
not been refuted? And that what you said was a lie?
 
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megaman125

Guest
Interesting post (I like posts that make me think :) ).

Christians often assert that believers, in a desire to continue sinning without the risk of having to pay the piper, will give up believing in God, thinking it gets them off the hook; but honestly Megaman, and I am not trying to bluff you here, but I don't think Christians really comprehend how it is people lose their faith. I would be very surprised if anyone loses belief in God for the reason we've outlined above. Maybe it occurs sometimes, but I don't think so. I have heard so many Christians make this assertion that I wonder where everyone is hearing it from. You know, you could start a thread on this. It would be interesting.

You mention that atheist behaviour points you to this conclusion. What behaviours were you thinking of and what key questions would you ask?
Behavior wise - there's a sin that the atheists love and don't want to confess it as a sin. I hate to bring this into the discussion, but homosexuality seems to be a great example of this. Or getting drunk, or having sex before marriage.

As for key questions - I would start with something like this. Say that we gave you enough evidence where you would say, "Ok, I have enough evidence, and I believe God exists." My question to you would be, would you worship God? Why or why not? (and please don't come back with the "which God?" question, we all know which God we're talking about.)

I'm not sure how you would answer that question, so I'm not going to answer it for you. I could give you the predicted response of the 99% if you'd like.


But if a person thinks God is not real, how do you propose that person make this admission? Job could humble himself before God because he believed in God’s existence. Atheists truly think man created the idea of God.
Well, I'm not sure I really believe that atheists truely think that. After all, of God was just nothing more than a man-made idea and none of it is true and nothing will even come from it, then it's safe to just ignore, and it'll go away. But in reality, atheists don't act like that (well, a lot of them don't.), and it isn't going away. Perhaps I just borrow from my views from when I was an atheist and project those onto other atheists too much. For instance, when I was an atheist and was taught the big bang, I didn't believe it. I found it more rational to believe that the universe has a creator (in some form or another) than to believe the universe does not have a creator at all. I do tend to extend this to others in the sense that I don't believe anyone really thinks it's rational to believe the universe has no creator.

I suppose you need to ask what it is that prevents atheists from acknowledging God’s existence. It is not that I don’t think God is right, it’s that I don’t think God real.
Perhaps you're right, maybe I should look at some atheist testimonies and maybe I can get a better sense of why they're atheists. I do have a few conclusions I've come to thus far, some of which I deem to be more plausable than not.

1. Atheists don't believe in God because of "science." (I don't deem this one to be that plausable, but still slightly plausable enough that I will acknowledge it)
2. Atheists don't believe in God because God didn't give them that new bike they wanted when they were a kid. This one can come in a lot of varieties, but it's basically them not getting what they want from God on their demand, as if God is supposed to be some kind of wish granting genie. This view of God and not getting what they want can very easily be linked to pride.
3. Atheists had a bad experience in their lives, or maybe even were hurt by someone at church, and as a result, left the church and turned from God.
4. There's a sin they like and don't want to confess that it's a sin because they don't believe it should be. In other words, they believe God is wrong about what should/shouldn't be a sin and they are right. This is the pride I've been talking about.

If there are other reasons, please share some of them with me, or link me to some testimonies you think would be good for me to read. Please note, I do not consider the "God is evil" argument to be plausable, hence I didn't list it above.

I would not say atheists exhibit any less pride than Christians, I would only suggest pride has little bearing on why people become atheists.
Fair point, but I think we're talking about 2 slightly different things. You say they don't become atheists because of pride, but that's not quite what I'm talking about. I'm saying they won't make the transition from atheist to Christian because of pride and how they don't want to confess their sins (see #4 on my list above).

There are numerous examples of Christians sinning without becoming atheists. This is not the factor that causes loss of belief in God’s existence. This does not produce atheists.
Right, sinning doesn't produce atheists. If that were so, then we'd all be atheists because we're all sinners. However, there is a difference between how Christians treat their sin and how atheists treat/view it.
 
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megaman125

Guest
Let's deal with one thing at a time. Do you admit that all the arguments for atheism have
not been refuted? And that what you said was a lie?
No, I don't need to admit to any such thing just becuase I refused to spoon feed you stuff you didn't want to eat. You want me to spoon feed you, the least you have to do to is demonstrate to me that you're willing to eat it. Otherwise, it's just a waste of my time (in which case, wasting my time would be accomplishing your primary goal). So far you have only demonstrated to me that you don't care to listen or learn from another perspective, and there is no reason why I should bother trying. So no, I didn't lie just becuase i didn't bend to your every whim.
 
Aug 22, 2013
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No, I don't need to admit to any such thing just becuase I refused to spoon feed you stuff you didn't want to eat. You want me to spoon feed you, the least you have to do to is demonstrate to me that you're willing to eat it. Otherwise, it's just a waste of my time (in which case, wasting my time would be accomplishing your primary goal). So far you have only demonstrated to me that you don't care to listen or learn from another perspective, and there is no reason why I should bother trying. So no, I didn't lie just becuase i didn't bend to your every whim.
Why should I listen to a liar? You can feed me all you want but if I don't like it I'll just spit it back up.
 
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letti

Guest
In,complete opposition when no choice is left,I then give up the effort and I pray.
 
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megaman125

Guest
Why should I listen to a liar? You can feed me all you want but if I don't like it I'll just spit it back up.
Thanks for verifying my hypothesis that you aren't open-minded about other views.
 
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letti

Guest
We,often feed into efforts that may only be meant to attack us in the first place with our beliefs.
 
Aug 25, 2013
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As for fearing hell, any atheist that fears hell is inconsistent with their beliefs. At best you could say they're doubting their atheism.
Yes, it would seem so, wouldn't it.

I lost my belief in God over a period of six years. In that time I was a fence sitter, leaning to one side of the theist-atheist divide or the other. I leapt back into faith right near the end of that six year period, and tried with every ounce of my being to rediscover my belief in God. I tried to make contact with God. I wanted him to reach out to me, to tell me he was there. I prayed and read the Bible in earnest. It was probably fear that temporarily brought me back, but in the end I concluded No One was there.

As I said in the post you responded to, some atheists do have a latent fear that they might be in error, and that fear brings some of them back to God. I have talked with a few atheists who admitted that they hadn't gotten over the fear of Hell. It is one thing to stop believing in God, it is quite another to stop worrying about Hell. Warnings against Hell are so prevalent in our Christian upbringing that this fear is a tough one to shake. Not all atheists feel this way, but there are some who do.

megaman125 said:
Atheists (specifically the ones you find discussing God all the time) spend so much time trying to disprove the Bible to Christians, saying it's just a book of fairy tales, but the fact is they aren't going to convince anyone with tired old typical tactics like that. In fact, it makes them look like they're still struggling to convince themselves, because they don't want the Bible to be true.
Some might still be trying to convince themselves, you’re right. As Christians like to point out, the penalty of being wrong is eternal damnation – at least, that is the fear. In the early years of my atheism I spent a lot of time assuring myself I wasn’t wrong.

Just don’t make the mistake of assuming all atheists are like me.

megaman125 said:
When I was an atheist, I was consistent with my atheist views. I didn't believe in heaven or hell, and I certainly didn't fear hell, because that just looks silly coming from an atheist (an atheist fearing hell adds credibility to the Bible btw).
No, it lends no support to the Christian claim that the Bible is true, it is only evidence that certain people fear it might be true.

megaman125 said:
My view on death was that death was the end, nothing came after it, and that's the only thing that stopped me from killing someone when I was an atheist.
My goodness! No, I have never possessed violent tendencies. I can’t identify with that.



megaman125 said:
I viewed death as coming on quick and painless, almost as a reward. If someone crossed me in a way I didn't like, I wouldn't want to kill them, because who would that really hurt? Just their friends and family, who I didn't have a beef with. Instead, I wanted them alive to inflict pain and suffering on them. (Btw, that's a scary place to be, and I'd hope to see others escape from such places)
Indeed, undesirable for sure! With all due respect, I would suggest that these emotions were simply part of your personality, and were not a result of your atheism. Perhaps your belief in God does help you to control those emotions. Christianity might act like a soothing tonic for you.

megaman125 said:
While I haven't read any of the accounts you're referring to, I have talked with many many atheists (in the hundreds at least). ... they were all ex-Christian, err, specifically ex-catholic (with very few exceptions), and they subscribe to the whole "God is evil" nonsense arguement, which only comes about by people not liking the fact that God judges sin (yet these same people would also call God evil if God allowed Hitler into heaven, but that's just one of the many ways these people contradict themselves).
I don’t think you can generalize too much. Of the atheists I know, myself and two others were Protestants, another was Catholic and the remainder were all born into atheism. Of these individuals I am the only one who enjoys the company of Christian forums.

I really don’t believe that people become atheists because they are essentially angry with God. If you are angry with God you still believe in his existence. You know there are growing numbers of Christians who have essentially stopped believing in the threat of Hell. So if Christians don’t like God’s judgement all they need do is switch to a mode of understanding in which God does not send people to Hell. This happens all the time. It is far easier to change your mind about what God wants than it is to stop believing he exists.
 
Aug 25, 2013
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Nana nana boo boo stick your head in doo doo.
Nice rhyming. :)

Maybe I should surreptitiously teach this to the grade one kids when school starts next week. What do you think?