Ask an Atheist

[SkepticJosh]

What do you base your hope in so that you may be happy and joyful?

I personally base hope in the good of people. The good of humanity. My past experiences with the natural inclination towards good in man. I have an optomistic view of humanity that gives me hope for the future which gives me hope and comfort for the future and for my own future. There are other factors within my own experiences that lead to joy. Like eating a birthday cake or going on a roller coaster. I don't see why hope, joy, and happiness must be connected to an unseen force.

The existence and reality of God is not predicated on one's personal beliefs, no matter how sincere. It is clear to me as a Christian that God is quite real an is the author of happiness and joy.

I agree. What we believe has no influence on the existence of god. Then you say it's clear to you that God is real. I'm sorry but that is a belief. Not a fact. And as such the above applies in that your belief does not relegate whether god exists.

If there is no God then there is no hope for those that believe in him. Faith is the hope in the evidence that is unseen. I pray that you may experience this type of faith. Good luck to you Sir.

But you haven't demonstrated that he exists. And logically if he is the author of hope and happiness then an unbeliever like me should not be able to experience these things. But I do experience happiness hope and joy. Thanks and good luck too?

 

[ob77]

Ever had a question you wanted to ask an unbeliever but don't know any or were afraid to ask? I'd be happy to answer anything about myself, atheists, or atheism in general. I'll try to answer all of them to the best of my ability. Thanks

The one thing we have in common is faith. I have faith that there is the Father, the Atheist has faith that there is not.
In my dealings with Atheists, it is in that I have an answer for most of their questions, but they have no counterpart answers for their own questions. One cannot prove a negative. I would not know where to begin in asking why you do not believe, for I have no idea of your biblical knowledge that you may reject, if any exists. I would rather that you ask me specific questions that you may have in regards to what the Bible has to say on any given subject.

 

[SkepticJosh]

You have no evidence they exist yet you believe they do? Interesting.

Actually I do have evidence. We know what life needs to exist through examining it here. We can examine other planets and determine if they meet the criteria for life (we've found 1000s of candidates). Multiply that by billions of galaxies with billions of suns and billions of planets and it's almost impossible not to see the extremely high probability that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Its not leap of faith to reach this position at all.

 

[tourist]

Actually I do have evidence. We know what life needs to exist through examining it here. We can examine other planets and determine if they meet the criteria for life (we've found 1000s of candidates). Multiply that by billions of galaxies with billions of suns and billions of planets and it's almost impossible not to see the extremely high probability that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Its not leap of faith to reach this position at all.

It would take a much lesser leap of faith to simply believe in the God that created this universe.

 

[Sirk]

Okay so now you wanna talk numbers and odds eh? How bout 10 to the 50th power to 1 that a single cell could come into existence.....keeping in mind that there are 10 to the 86th power atoms that make up the known universe. And that's not even considering the odds that all this came into existence out of nothing and the fact that the odds of your little swimmer making it down thru the generations to make little ole' you.

 

[Agricola]

If you can argue people into accepting God exists, then people can argue them out of thinking God exists. Therefore I do not bother to try to convince people to accept God by "proving" creationism is right.

The only questions worth asking an atheist is what has brought them to be an atheist. Why make that decision?

 

[tourist]

You are an interesting person and believe you are conducting yourself well in what has to be a hostile environment for you.

 

[ob77]

Actually I do have evidence. We know what life needs to exist through examining it here. We can examine other planets and determine if they meet the criteria for life (we've found 1000s of candidates). Multiply that by billions of galaxies with billions of suns and billions of planets and it's almost impossible not to see the extremely high probability that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Its not leap of faith to reach this position at all.

Yes, life exists elsewhere. Definitely in the Celestial Plane, and we do not know how far that may stretch into the known Universe. Physical laws apply everywhere. The book of Ezekiel as well as the book of Enoch, talk about spacecraft coming to earth. The atheist (if he or she knows this) might say they are alien lifeforms....well, in their natural state, they may very well be perceived as such, but these lifeforms identified themselves as being sent by the Father and that they are our brethren.

 

[SkepticJosh]

The one thing we have in common is faith. I have faith that there is the Father, the Atheist has faith that there is not.

Wrong. Christians have faith. Atheism is the lack of faith not faith in the opposite direction. If faith in God is "A",atheism is "not A" or "lack of A". Atheism is not "B". I don't have faith god doesn't exist, Im just not convinced he does. I along acknowledge that he could exist so I'm not making any positive claims and therfore do not have any burden of proof to meet. Which brings me to my next point.

In my dealings with Atheists, it is in that I have an answer for most of their questions, but they have no counterpart answers for their own questions. One cannot prove a negative.

First off that isn't true you can prove a negative but the thing with atheism is we don't have to. Atheism makes no claims at all. It is the default position to the god question. Theism and by extension Christianity does posit the claim that God exists among other things. Therfore the burden of proof lies on you. You must prove god exists whereas I don't need to give any proof for why I reject that claim. It is just how court works. The default position is inoccense until guilt is demonstrated. If guild cannot be proven then until it is the defendant is inocent. If this was not the case anyone could claim any unfalsifiable thing was true and it would be true which just doesn't work.

I would not know where to begin in asking why you do not believe, for I have no idea of your biblical knowledge that you may reject, if any exists. I would rather that you ask me specific questions that you may have in regards to what the Bible has to say on any given subject.

Why not? It's a simple answer why I don't believe. I haven't been presented with evidence enough to persuade me that God exists. I've already read the bible and it isn't enough evidence. You don't have to start a biblical discussion with me because I pretty much reject it entirely. It would talk alot of extra biblical evidence to authenticate it and convince me so that is where theists should start if they want to demonstrate his existence.

 

[Sirk]

You are an interesting person and believe you are conducting yourself well in what has to be a hostile environment for you.

We love this person. I think it's great! Shows some character to come to a place like this. Most just hang out in their little backslapping circle.

 

[SkepticJosh]

Yes, life exists elsewhere. Definitely in the Celestial Plane, and we do not know how far that may stretch into the known Universe. Physical laws apply everywhere. The book of Ezekiel as well as the book of Enoch, talk about spacecraft coming to earth. The atheist (if he or she knows this) might say they are alien lifeforms....well, in their natural state, they may very well be perceived as such, but these lifeforms identified themselves as being sent by the Father and that they are our brethren.

It's no stretch of the imagination to believe life exists somewhere in the universe. However it's another thing entirely to claim intelligent life visited earth in spaceships 1000s of years ago to lead us to a god... that requires a hell of a lot of evidence and the bible don't cut it.

 

[Sirk]

Yes, life exists elsewhere. Definitely in the Celestial Plane, and we do not know how far that may stretch into the known Universe. Physical laws apply everywhere. The book of Ezekiel as well as the book of Enoch, talk about spacecraft coming to earth. The atheist (if he or she knows this) might say they are alien lifeforms....well, in their natural state, they may very well be perceived as such, but these lifeforms identified themselves as being sent by the Father and that they are our brethren.

I'd be extremely careful here. This can be treading into some dangerous waters.

 

[gzusfrk]

how much time have you spent reading the NT.

 

[SkepticJosh]

You are an interesting person and believe you are conducting yourself well in what has to be a hostile environment for you.

What a nice compliment. Thank you

 

[ob77]

I guess my only honest answer is I don't know. The documentation of his life is really shotty. I'm also not a historian. Some historians have given evidence for why such a man never existed. Others say he did. I honestly think that he was a real man that may have been a prophet and teacher that lived a normal life and attracted a following. People then wrote stories about him and turned him into the character in the bible by attaching the supernatural claims. He was probably written in to fulfill the OT prophecies and to reform the religion to make it more appealing as the OT laws were becoming outdated as society and their morals changed.

Thank you for being honest by saying you do not know.

 

[ob77]

I'd be extremely careful here. This can be treading into some dangerous waters.

Dangerous for who? If you are unfamiliar with what I write, save your warnings and use them against the unlearned.

 

[SkepticJosh]

how much time have you spent reading the NT.

I read the bible start to finish once and have referred back to verses for various reasons. I do it all the time. So idk how much time I've logged reading it but I go back and read pieces consistently as needed.

 

[Pie]

If it turns out there is no God, would it become appropriate to rape babies? Or do you believe we would have other means of determining such horrid behaviors as being wrong?

No, there are no other means of determining objective morality..if there is no God.. there are no objective moral values and duties so nothing is "appropriate" or "inappropriate." Good and evil are opinion... not real things. Illusory. In other words..there's nothing "evil" about raping babies because objective morality doesn't exist. You might claim it's not beneficial to the propagation of our DNA.. but that doesn't make something "evil." Obviously, we don't live according to that, do we? Why is that? Because our experience tells us that there is something objectively wrong with it. Why? My question would be to the atheist, if you believe raping babies is objectively morally wrong, what do you base that on? So your question "Do you believe we would have other means of determining such horrid behaviors as being wrong?" is the question for the atheist to answer.

Well, our rationality stems from our thoughts, which are created by our brains. If you cut down to it, as an atheist, I do believe we are the result of chemical reactions. Does this mean we can't trust our senses? Well, yes and no. We do our best to understand the world around us. For the most part, what we come to understand about the world works well enough for us. We are constantly finding examples of how misleading our senses can be. Optical illusions are a great example of this! But just because we find flaws with our senses and often our logic, doesn't mean we can't trust them at all. After all, we are able to survive precisely because we trust our logic and our senses!

My body and mind isn't perfect, but it works.

Yes our mind and senses tell us about the physical world around us. So thoughts are nothing more than chemical reactions created by our physical brains in your opinion. Animals survive because of their senses and instincts. Yet I asked about human rationality. Self awareness...second order thoughts..logic...rationality. Why do we ponder and why do we trust our conclusions on these things? If our rationality is nothing more than just atoms colliding... seems strange to trust it. This leads into the argument from reason that C.S. Lewis brings up.

"1. No belief is rationally inferred if it can be fully explained in terms of nonrational causes.

Support: Reasoning requires insight into logical relations. A process of reasoning (P therefore Q) is rational only if the reasoner sees that Q follows from, or is supported by, P, and accepts Q on that basis. Thus, reasoning is trustworthy (or "valid", as Lewis sometimes says) only if it involves a special kind of causality, namely, rational insight into logical implication or evidential support. If a bit of reasoning can be fully explained by nonrational causes, such as fibers firing in the brain or a bump on the head, then the reasoning is not reliable, and cannot yield knowledge.

2. If naturalism is true, then all beliefs can be fully explained in terms of nonrational causes.

Support: Naturalism holds that nature is all that exists, and that all events in nature can in principle be explained without invoking supernatural or other nonnatural causes. Standardly, naturalists claim that all events must have physical causes, and that human thoughts can ultimately be explained in terms of material causes or physical events (such as neurochemical events in the brain) that are nonrational.

3. Therefore, if naturalism is true, then no belief is rationally inferred (from 1 and 2).

4. We have good reason to accept naturalism only if it can be rationally inferred from good evidence.

5. Therefore, there is not, and cannot be, good reason to accept naturalism"

 

[Sirk]

Dangerous for who? If you are unfamiliar with what I write, save your warnings and use them against the unlearned.

Okay well educate me oh learned one. As to the nephilim and seraphim and the visitations from the book of Enoch which btw was not considered to be an "inspired" work.

 

[ob77]

It's no stretch of the imagination to believe life exists somewhere in the universe. However it's another thing entirely to claim intelligent life visited earth in spaceships 1000s of years ago to lead us to a god... that requires a hell of a lot of evidence and the bible don't cut it.

Ah, but it is a matter or record is it not? It is written and recorded, and that is a fact you nor anyone else can dispute.