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.