The origins of atheism

[anonymous person]

You told me you didn't have a religion. You then told me that how you would list your religion on the census.

I said I am not religious.

 

[Chriliman]

1 Timothy 6:2-5

"Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain."

It's amazing how this verse describes the mind of an atheist just perfectly! Jesus is the only truth.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I'm not a science experiment. I am not a patient of yours. Your multiplied questions and probings are not going to accomplish what you want them to.

I honestly do not think it would do any good to give you an exhaustive list of views I hold tentatively. So I wont. Think of me what you will but hear this. I think of you often and love you.

An exhaustive list? You couldn't name more than one, even after I asked you several times.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I said I am not religious.

Then shouldn't you be ticking the "No religion" box, like me?

 

[ToddNotTodd]

I actually could care less what the census classifies me as so long as I respond to the questions the way God wants me to. I am more concerned about what God says about me, not what a men say.

So do you believe that your posts exactly reflect what a god wants you to say?

 

[Cearbhall]

The simple truth about atheists is that if their intellectually honest then they will admit they don't know if God exists or does not exist.

I agree, but what reason do I have to bother clarifying this? I'm sure you have no problem saying that certain other things do not exist, even though you actually don't know. No one questions my intellectual honesty if I say that Santa Claus does not exist, because what motivation is there to entertain such ideas? If someone claims that there's a monster under my cousin's bed and he comes running to me in tears, I'm not going to say "He could be right! It could be invisible, so I can't reassure you if I want to maintain my intellectual integrity." It's of no consequence to me to conclude that it does not exist.

 

[anonymous person]

An exhaustive list? You couldn't name more than one, even after I asked you several times.

And I'm not going to. Take it how you will.

 

[Cearbhall]

I think of you often and love you.

I really wasn't sensing a severe lack of love in this thread. I'm still not sure what your purpose is with this theme.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

And I'm not going to. Take it how you will.

Then why the big act? What happened to your call for transparency?

 

[anonymous person]

Then shouldn't you be ticking the "No religion" box, like me?

I assumed you knew the word "religious" could be used in more than one way...

I see I was wrong.

When Christians say things like, "I am not religious" they intend to convey the idea of a phariseeic, legalistic, self righteous disposition, not that they are not an adherent of one of the three monotheistic religions i.e. Christianity.

Ok?

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I assumed you knew the word "religious" could be used in more than one way...

I see I was wrong.

When Christians say things like, "I am not religious" they intend to convey the idea of a phariseeic, legalistic, self righteous disposition, not that they are not an adherent of one of the three monotheistic religions i.e. Christianity.

Ok?

So you acknowledge that you are, in fact, religious - in the sense that you are an adherent of a religion?

 

[Chriliman]

Suit yourself. Contrary to your "clear outline of terms", you never explained your concept of "rationality". I am extrapolating a little here, but based on what I have learned about your way of thinking and your character from your postings, I'd say it means: whatever makes sense to me.


Resorting to that no-good one-line argument of "you cannot prove me wrong", just after I shot down your whole line of reasoning in my last post?

Yes, definitly, "rational" to you means "whatever makes sense to me... and LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"



You cannot even keep within the correct frame of a logical argument... having to introduce concepts that aren't in any way relevant for the discussion. You ignore whatever arguments you don't like. You're own arguments are inconclusive at best... and empty repeated claims at worst, like here now.

Go and boast about your victory over an irrational atheist, if you like. Go and brag how you have shown by claiming that I am irrational that I am being irrational.

I'm out.

That's just it. I have no desire to boast or brag. The only reason I'm engaging you is to hopefully help you understand why I believe what I believe. Atheists are always asking for reasons to believe, but when we give them, they don't want those reasons.

My hope is that if an atheist can understand why Christians hold their beliefs so strongly they might find Christianity has value that they can't find anywhere else and begin to investigate this Jesus guy with an open mind and heart.

Why do you engage in these discussions? Is it the desire to understand that drives you? Or is it something else that drives you?

 

[anonymous person]

Then why the big act? What happened to your call for transparency?

Me refusing to answer every question you ask does not preclude me from calling for transparency. You're not going to answer every single question put to you my friend. That does not mean you are not desirous of transparency in them that you do engage in discussion with.

 

[HitchSlap]

1 Timothy 6:2-5

"Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain."

It's amazing how this verse describes the mind of an atheist just perfectly! Jesus is the only truth.

That's pretty much you in a nutshell.

 

[anonymous person]

So do you believe that your posts exactly reflect what a god wants you to say?

No.

 

[HitchSlap]

That's just it. I have no desire to boast or brag. The only reason I'm engaging you is to hopefully help you understand why I believe what I believe. Atheists are always asking for reasons to believe, but when we give them, they don't want those reasons.

My hope is that if an atheist can understand why Christians hold their beliefs so strongly they might find Christianity has value that they can't find anywhere else and begin to investigate this Jesus guy with an open mind and heart.

Why do you engage in these discussions? Is it the desire to understand that drives you? Or is it something else that drives you?

My hope is that you will effectively learn to logic and reason. It's not just for atheists, you know.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Me refusing to answer every question you ask does not preclude me from calling for transparency. You're not going to answer every single question put to you my friend. That does not mean you are not desirous of transparency in them that you do engage in discussion with.

As I indicated in our conversation, the answers to the questions I posed to you were critical to establishing your honesty in discussing these matters.

 

[HitchSlap]

I assumed you knew the word "religious" could be used in more than one way...

I see I was wrong.

When Christians say things like, "I am not religious" they intend to convey the idea of a phariseeic, legalistic, self righteous disposition, not that they are not an adherent of one of the three monotheistic religions i.e. Christianity.

Ok?

Why do you think "religion" is s pejorative term, then?

 

[Loudmouth]

Fascinating...did you ever communicate with god? Ever experience god in any way?

If so, what do you make of those experiences now?

If I believed I interacted with a deity, I wouldn't be an atheist.

The bigger question is how anyone can know that any of their interactions were with a deity. The ease at which you can fool yourself is well documented, especially as part of a group. What I did experience and saw in others was a yearning to conform and feel part of a group.

 

[anonymous person]

Then shouldn't you be ticking the "No religion" box, like me?

I told you once already that I don't tick the box. I WRITE IN "follower of Jesus Christ".

I consider myself a religious man in the sense that I am a member of a particular worldview that is labeled as a religion. I am not religious in the sense that I am self righteous and legalistic.