Ask an Atheist

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Aug 25, 2013
2,260
10
0
So that you'll be better equipped to help others who may have questions about the topic. No other reason was intended. I'm going to slip in this video for the atheists to view here. I hope you don't mind. Stenger wasn't brave enough to include this one:
An interesting documentary, but I can't say for certain that she didn't just imagine it all.
 
Aug 25, 2013
2,260
10
0
Cycel KNOWS there's no God. Yet he doesn't even know that there is plenty of slavery going on today. I'm sure his ignorance is lost on him. Reminds me of the arrogance of scientists who can't predict the weather accurately 3 days out, yet KNOW that man-made global warming is going to cause global temps. to rise 6 degrees a hundred years from now.
I know full well the prevalence of slavery in the world, but it does not exist in the Western world on the scale that it did in the Roman empire. This is what I meant. Slavery was the backbone of the economy as it was in the Southern USA. That kind of slavery no longer exists in the West. The slavery that exists here is hidden and it is not legal.

Instead of rudely making accusations why don't you first ask????!!!
 
Aug 25, 2013
2,260
10
0
I don't read all the discussion in this topic. May be my question was ask by other. But my question is in you believe system (Atheist) who create universe ?
No one created the universe. This is what the atheist believes.
 
Aug 25, 2013
2,260
10
0
At it's core your argument is non sequitur as all actual change past, present, and future with respect to the material universe, world, the human experience, angelic conflict, etc... is Biblical within the frame of reference of God's own immutability and eternality, of course.
I really don't understand what you are saying. The evidence I rely upon is drawn from a large number of sources and is secular in nature.
 

Jackson123

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2014
11,769
1,373
113
No one created the universe. This is what the atheist believes.
Thank for your response Cycel.

My next question:

If no body create universe, according to Atheist, how the universe exist. Any theory ?
 
Apr 30, 2014
1
0
0
i find it hilarious that i was banned for posting a thread like this.... this is biologist by the by
 
A

AgeofKnowledge

Guest
Unlikely in that particular case. But there's plenty more where that came from. The Journal of Near-Death Studies is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering near-death studies that is published by the International Association for Near-Death Studies.

Journal of Near-Death Studies (JNDS)

Knock yourself out.

An interesting documentary, but I can't say for certain that she didn't just imagine it all.
 
A

AgeofKnowledge

Guest
I mean exactly what I said.

I really don't understand what you are saying. The evidence I rely upon is drawn from a large number of sources and is secular in nature.
 
A

AgeofKnowledge

Guest
They have a refuted circular theory they are clinging to. Stenger misrepresented Noether's theorem claiming it shows the laws of nature originate from the universe's symmetries, although the theorem is actually dependent upon the existing laws of physics. So, Stenger's argument is essentially circular.

Thank for your response Cycel.

My next question:

If no body create universe, according to Atheist, how the universe exist. Any theory ?
 

Pie

Senior Member
May 21, 2011
151
1
18
Ok Percepi. Trying to make this concise and stay on topic.

Your first objection to morality being objective- abstract and objective are dichotomous. This is false.

The laws of physics (and all natural laws) are objective and abstract. I just needed to demonstrate that abstract and objective were not dichotomous like you were claiming. While you provided no basis for your claim(you just stated it), I have shown examples of why it is false. If you want to hold onto this conclusion, “something cannot be both objective and abstract”, you need to provide some rationale to base it on and show why my example is false.


I can accept that you reject the existence of objective morality.

However,

Here’s the claim you are presenting- Morality is both subjective and meaningful.

The rational you provide for your claim is- moral opinion is more important than other opinions because it’s based on outcome and emotion.

“We base morality on outcome and emotion. This opinion is far from unimportant, it's incredibly important.”
“Morality isn't based solely off of personal tastes. It's based on emotion and outcome.”
Here, I don’t see how basing an opinion on emotion makes it more important than other opinions. It would still be arbitrary. Can you provide an illustration or reason for why you believe this?

Personal taste is just another way of saying “opinion” and most opinions are based on social/environment conditions (which includes past, present, and perceived outcomes).

My claim: There are no rational grounds to claim morality is both subjective and meaningful.

You can call something good and I can call something evil. It’s arbitrary. Ultimately, these phrases are meaningless since there is no moral reality. I have given example after example of how subjective morality is just opinion. Apparently I’m not wording it clearly enough. So instead of me continuing fruitlessly to show this, perhaps you will better understand it coming from the mouths of fellow atheists.

Just because there is strong selection for a moral norm is no reason to think it right. Think of the adaptational benefits of racist, xenophobic or patriarchal norms. You can’t justify morality by showing its Darwinian pedigree. That way lies the moral disaster of Social Spencerism (better but wrongly known as Social Darwinism). The other alternative—that our moral core was selected for because it was true, correct or right–is an equally far fetched idea…Since natural selection has no foresight, we have no idea whether the moral core we now endorse will hold up, be selected for, over the long-term future of our species, if any. This nihilistic blow is cushioned by the realization that Darwinian processes operating on our forbearers in the main selected for niceness! The core morality of cooperation, reciprocity and even altruism that was selected for in the environment of hunter-gatherers and early agrarians, continues to dominate our lives and social institutions. We may hope the environment of modern humans has not become different enough eventually to select against niceness. But we can’t invest our moral core with more meaning than this: it was a convenience, not for us as individuals, but for our genes. There is no meaning to be found in that conclusion.” -Alex Rosenberg,The Disenchanted Naturalist’s Guide to Reality (emphasis added)
"The position of the modern evolutionist is that humans have an awareness of morality because such awareness is of biological worth. Morality is a biological adaptation no less than hands and feet and teeth. Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. –Michael Ruse, The Evolutionary Theory and Christian Ethics, in the Darwinian Paradigm (emphasis added)
There are more, I just don’t know if you want to read a book of quotes. There are atheists that disagree of course, but I have yet to see one rational argument against this. I only see people talking about their “feelings” and alluding to how others "feel" which just shows they are being intellectually dishonest with themselves. If there is a rational argument against this - why subjective morality has meaning- I’d like to see it.



That's quite depressing actually. : |
Yes it is, isn’t it? And yet if naturalism is true, that’s the reality. But I have no reason to believe naturalism is true. =)

We have the chemical processes in our brains to give us the feeling of happiness - why not be happy about that?
Seems a shallow reason to be happy.
Is it too hard to fathom that a person can be happy, even if the happiness isn't eternal or even if the happiness is just a chemical reaction in his brain?
I have already stated several times that all humans feel emotion, which would include joy.

Can you PM it to me so I will for sure see it?
Sure, give me time to try to put it together in a concise manner. 2 years worth of study isn't easy to condense down. And the study is ongoing obviously... Learning is a life long process.

So far, it's all been philosophical.
And? Seems like an attempt to downplay philosophy (?)
Regardless, you can’t refute a rational argument with, “that’s philosophical.” If I responded to an atheist’s argument with “that’s philosophical,” I would just be stating the obvious and it adds nothing to the conversation.

I’ll end with I appreciate the fact you are actually engaging in this conversation Percepi. I’ve noticed here some tend to ignore the harder questions and stick with things they are comfortable with.
 

Pie

Senior Member
May 21, 2011
151
1
18
Just noticed the OP has been banned. So perhaps, it's time for this thread to die.
 
P

pastac

Guest
its past time a whole lot more need to be banned or at least threads removed
 
P

paulsfam4

Guest
Its amazing to see someone who is proud of their demise? Gods existence doesn't depend on you or anyone else ! he was there at the beginning you were not! you claim that you were a Christian before is false you never knew him..
 
P

pastac

Guest
not worthy of any rebuttal
 

PennEd

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2013
13,932
9,398
113
i find it hilarious that i was banned for posting a thread like this.... this is biologist by the by
I think this site is incredibly tolerant of atheists, muslims, and other falsehoods that infiltrate this CHRISTIAN site posting all kinds of threads.

Wonder how tolerant and how long an atheist chat cite would allow if I took the time to make an account, then started a thread titled. "Ask A Christian how you can be saved through the perfect sacrifice of God's only Son Jesus Christ"

I think 5 seconds would be optimistic.
 
S

Sirk

Guest
I think this site is incredibly tolerant of atheists, muslims, and other falsehoods that infiltrate this CHRISTIAN site posting all kinds of threads.

Wonder how tolerant and how long an atheist chat cite would allow if I took the time to make an account, then started a thread titled. "Ask A Christian how you can be saved through the perfect sacrifice of God's only Son Jesus Christ"

I think 5 seconds would be optimistic.
Haha! I got banned on the tgp for posting a link to the hitchens debate at biola. Their policy does not tolerate religious views.
 
S

Sirk

Guest
Haha! I got banned on the tgp for posting a link to the hitchens debate at biola. Their policy does not tolerate religious views.
I was actually suspended not banned and it lifts tomorrow. I don't think I'll be going back mostly because if I can't be myself then I don't really want to participate and also because I really don't want to see any of the mean things that people said about me. It would hurt too much I think.
 
O

oldernotwiser

Guest
well. i'm a christian and i welcome a dialogue with atheists. i will not argue the existence of god on a basis of empirical reasoning. it doesn't apply. i believe there is a god, a "prime mover." i will not go beyond that. i believe the hebrew and christian scriptures to be inspired. both in their origins and in what we have today but i do not believe they are authoritative in the areas of history and science. they are religious documents from a far different culture and time. i see the new testament and the cross as a window into the nature of that infinite god.
 
Mar 18, 2011
2,540
22
0
Do you think it is possible to tease out what was pertinent to the author's own time, from what is only relevant for the end times?
tease it out? you can read it and see it. There are things in revelations that have not happened yet. God's wrath,coming on the clouds, gathering of the church. Clearly never happened in Johns time. He was "taken in the spirit" No man can discern the Word of God without the Holy Spirit to guide. The rest of the bible shows with clarity things that must be before "the great day of the Lord." Its truly amazing Cycel.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
38,620
13,841
113
i find it hilarious that i was banned for posting a thread like this.... this is biologist by the by
i find it hilarious that this user made exactly one post, boasting of how he was formerly banned, and is now banned again.

so much for "atheists are the smart crowd"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.