Are you an atheist? (13 Viewers)

[Galaxiom]

You really think slavery was abolished when the southern states just came to their senses and realized it was wrong - after fighting a war to protect their right to have their slaves?

No. But remember that slaves had also been previously held in the North. What made them, or any others who pushed for change in any issue stand up against injustice?

Reforms certainly aren't driven by the churches so morality, contrary to BladeRunner's implication, is not exclusive to the religious.

 

[Bladerunner]

Even if people believe that there is some all powerful being out there that created everything thousands, or even millions, of years ago why should it necessarily follow that they should be worshiped and / or obeyed as a god?

People are supposed to have free will and a conscience of their own without the need for outside influence.

He does not required anything except you believe in him. To believe in him you will try to live by his ten Commandments. Really all he ask for is just your love! Another being, older than us, yes more advanced than us yes, would more than likely required a lot more.

You have a free will and a conscience, It is your choice and only your choice! Nothing more.

Have a nice day :>)

Bladerunner

 

[Bladerunner]

Because a sentence like this eliminate the fear.
And what is the Bible without the fear ?

One Thousand years of peace among nations as mortal beings.
Eternity is with him in Heaven forever!

Have a nice day :>)

Blaerunner

 

[Galaxiom]

Really all he ask for is just your love!

Your God demands complete subjugation. Any who don't will suffer an eternity in a terrible place. Fortunately your god is just a myth created to gain compliant subjects.

This essay clearly demonstrates the true nature of your god's "love".

 

[Bladerunner]

Since I did not believe the Bible why would I believe any of the holy texts hence I declared myself an atheist.

If one rejects the Bible does one's sense of morality go with it? Even if you don't believe the words doesn't mean that the sentiment behind it isn't reasonable.

It doesn't mean I'm going to go out and kill someone just because I want something they've got or they simply annoy me.

Probably not. As someone else said a lot of people grow up with the church and religion with their parents. Those people will still have morals and a conscience which is why they are always trying to prove God does not exist.

The ones that grew up and many times have not grown up yet have no morals (killing is just a game) or a quick maneuver to get power (i.e. Various nations in Africa where millions are killed in the hunt for power).

Ask yourself this question, Since there is no written books of Atheism; if a person grows up (outside the influence of others like me and you) as an atheist, has had no contact with any kind of religion, will they have morals. If so, where do they (morals) come from? Hardwired in? Can we get that from evolution?

Have a nice day:>)

Bladerunner

 

[Brianwarnock]

One Thousand years of peace among nations as mortal beings.
Eternity is with him in Heaven forever!

Have a nice day :>)

Blaerunner

And after the thousand years?

Brian

 

[Galaxiom]

Ask yourself this question, Since there is no written books of Atheism; if a person grows up (outside the influence of others like me and you) as an atheist, has had no contact with any kind of religion, will they have morals. If so, where do they (morals) come from? Hardwired in? Can we get that from evolution?

You seem to think that writing something in a book is required as a basis for morality. There are moral codes in societies that have never had books.

We may or may not agree with what a society chooses as it tenets of morality but it does not mean they didn't have one.

When allowed to, morality does indeed evolve as societies develop. That is how modern societies have moved on from the deeply questionable values of ancients and stopped persecuting people solely for the sake of outdated norms based on ignorance.

What has stood most in the way of this progress is the insistence by religious authorities that the first moral codes to be written were the last word, leaving use wallowing in what were really no more than agreed prejudices formed without a rational context and certainly not appropriate in the vastly different world we now live in.

They persisted with the same nonsense in science only caving in when dogma such as a geocentric universe became utterly unsustainable. Four hundred years on the Pope admitted Galileo had been seriously wronged by the church.

Creationism is undergoing the same transformation. Morality is increasingly being transformed. The worldwide child exploitation scandals that are now clearly endemic in religiously organised institutions is taking a heavy toll. Everywhere the utter arrogance of church leaders who turned a blind eye to the abuse is being exposed. It is ugly and it will eventually be fatal to them.

Modern rational morality has exposed the deep fundamental flaws in the notion that one can be guided by the hand of God by simply praying without the context of a rigorous analysis of the framework on which we base our sense of morality.

Religion is an anachronism. Its days are numbered. Unfortunately those who hold the deepest loyalty to their prejudice and dogma would rather see complete destruction than to start thinking.

 

[Libre]

What are the benefits suggested for for others by allowing people to have same sex partners?

I think it is more a case of the prevailing attitudes literally dying out and being replaced by more enlightened attitudes not rooted in Biblical nonsense.

Some walk a strange path retaining their faith while they pretend that the Bible has been misunderstood and didn't really say that homosexuality is an abomination.

Similarly with women's rights.

My belief is that it is the legislators and the courts that bring about these changes. The prevailing attitudes dying out and being replaced in the general population could happen over a lot of time - meaning generations - but I doubt it could happen on an individual bases very often. People grow accustomed to their beliefs and are loath to change them. And besides they are basically apathetic about issues that don't affect them directly.
The legislators and the courts become convinced (by the persistant pressure of the afore mentioned nucleus of determined activists - coupled with the apathy and ambivalence in the general population) - that they will be toast if they don't change their tune. They will be toast because the activists have a lot of sway, can lobby and campaign (because they have financial backing and the will and determination to succeed), and it is in the legislator's interests to see things their way. There is the opposition too, and the legislators keep their eye on the ball and see who has more influence. And they are resistant at first - and often nothing changes for awile - and sometimes it changes and then gets changed back again (cases in point prop 8 in california, the continuing sagas of abortion rights, prayer in schools, and so on).
This is the means of social change in a large, complex society such as ours. And the pendulum swings back and forth and sometimes progress is reversed.

 

[Mihail]

Your God demands complete subjugation. Any who don't will suffer an eternity in a terrible place. Fortunately your god is just a myth created to gain compliant subjects.

This essay clearly demonstrates the true nature of your god's "love".

Do you think that a "true believer" will read more than 3 sentences from this link ?
I don't think so. The Bible has an interdiction to even read whatever seems to be, from the start, against its teachings.
You can start a new poll in order to see how many believers have read, at all, your link

 

[Mihail]

Just a joke:
There are 3 minutes from the time when God has created Adam and Eve.
He is very proud and, looking to Adam He say for Himself:
"What nice. It is superb. It is perfect" and so on...
Then turning His holly eyes to Eve:
"Hm. You will need some make-up".

 

[Old Man Devin]

Ask yourself this question, Since there is no written books of Atheism; if a person grows up (outside the influence of others like me and you) as an atheist, has had no contact with any kind of religion, will they have morals. If so, where do they (morals) come from? Hardwired in? Can we get that from evolution?

Morality is more likely to be instilled by parent and influential peers rather than books. If it is going to be from books, it is very likely to be because your parents told you to obey the book, and you in turn obey your parents. Morality is thus a cultural property for the most part, with the presence of religion possibly being the basis for the morals, but not the reason people have them.

Plus yes most morality is hard wired. A human has to be conditioned in certain ways to find extreme acts like killing to be acceptable. The default human brain trusts and cooperates with others until trained or traumatised into doing otherwise. There is a strong evolutionary advantage to this, so it is perfectly reasonable to have gained this trait naturally.

I'll also add that in African nations where you claim morality is at a low, it is a violent minority creating this image (the majority of people would be considered morally average by western standards), and the cause of their violence is often the presence of strong religious beliefs and the conflicts they cause with communities with differing beliefs as they compete for resources (they are 'trained' to compete, rather than cooperate as they would with groups of the same religion).

 

[Libre]

Probably not. As someone else said a lot of people grow up with the church and religion with their parents. Those people will still have morals and a conscience which is why they are always trying to prove God does not exist.

The ones that grew up and many times have not grown up yet have no morals (killing is just a game) or a quick maneuver to get power (i.e. Various nations in Africa where millions are killed in the hunt for power).

Ask yourself this question, Since there is no written books of Atheism; if a person grows up (outside the influence of others like me and you) as an atheist, has had no contact with any kind of religion, will they have morals. If so, where do they (morals) come from? Hardwired in? Can we get that from evolution?

Have a nice day:>)

For 1 thing there are numerous books about and on the subject of atheism (Chris Hitchens is a noted author and there are many others), and for another, I don't know of anyone trying to prove that God doesn't exist, which would be an exercise in futility because you can't prove that a thing doesn't exist, only that it does - which is why the burden of proof is on the one who proclaims the existance of something, not on the one who denies it.

 

[Galaxiom]

Do you think that a "true believer" will read more than 3 sentences from this link ?
I don't think so. The Bible has an interdiction to even read whatever seems to be, from the start, against its teachings.
You can start a new poll in order to see how many believers have read, at all, your link

I expect you are correct. The more incisive the piece the more the aversion to reading it and the essay is a very good one.

I doubt that most true believers have even read the Bible right through.

 

[Dick7Access]

And of course the reverse argument can be made, the Ying is always followed by the Yang
.

The first thing that I learned in computer school (Navy) was gnip gnop!

 

[God]

Guys, I was reading this forum and I thought I simply had to sign up to tell you that I do indeed exist. If you'd like to repent, that's cool, just fund the Church with your hard earned cash so we can use it to mask child abuse scandals.

Thanks!

 

[Old Man Devin]

Guys, I was reading this forum and I thought I simply had to sign up to tell you that I do indeed exist. If you'd like to repent, that's cool, just fund the Church with your hard earned cash so we can use it to mask child abuse scandals.

Thanks!

Admirable honesty, but then again you are God, so I guess such virtues are to be expected!

 

[Libre]

Guys, I was reading this forum and I thought I simply had to sign up to tell you that I do indeed exist. If you'd like to repent, that's cool, just fund the Church with your hard earned cash so we can use it to mask child abuse scandals.

Thanks!

Hey there God-
Just checking in with you.
You know, it's funny.
I've wanted to talk with you all my life.
There are a million questions I've wanted to ask you, and a slew of minor miracles that, if you had the time or inclination, I would have asked you to put on your list.
And now that you're actually here and talking with me; now that, at long last, I have the opportunity to say all that I've wanted to say, and ask all I've wanted to ask...I can't think of a single thing.
Not a single f*cking thing.

 

[God]

Hey there God-
Just checking in with you.
You know, it's funny.
I've wanted to talk with you all my life.
There are a million questions I've wanted to ask you, and a slew of minor miracles that, if you had the time or inclination, I would have asked you to put on your list.
And now that you're actually here and talking with me; now that, at long last, I have the opportunity to say all that I've wanted to say, and ask all I've wanted to ask...I can't think of a single thing.
Not a single f*cking thing.

If you want to know where you stand on my naughty/nice list, you're quite firmly on the naughty side. Your Google history is shocking! You'll be getting coal at the end of this life! Ho ho ho!

 

[Libre]

If you want to know where you stand on my naughty/nice list, you're quite firmly on the naughty side. Your Google history is shocking! You'll be getting coal at the end of this life! Ho ho ho!

You think my *Google history* is the most shocking thing I've done?
Hee hee.
I guess there are things you DON'T know after all.
That's a relief.

 

[scott-atkinson]

Ho ho ho!

When did God turn into Santa

Question for you God; do you look like Charlton Heston with a beard?