Misty
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Posts: 1
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Post by Misty on Nov 20, 2014 10:36:56 GMT -6
Greetings everyone, today during lunchtime, i took the liberty of writing down a short list of questions for atheists to answer. Often in God-related debates, atheists are the ones presenting most of the questions while it is up to the theists to address those questions in a fair manner. And i suppose that's fine since it's ultimately the theists job to explain why belief in a God is reasonable and since by default, we are all atheists - beliefs are acquired through culture and education. I myself had had numerous discussions with atheists and many of them tend to avoid answering my questions by making unsophisticated and derogatory remarks. This is not to say that many atheists are vile or immature individuals, no not at all. It's more than okay to have a critical attitude toward something, especially something that may seem unworthy of following. So to cut to the chase, here are few questions i have had in mind for the past few days: 1) How sure are you that your atheism is correct? what if you were wrong...? 2) Do you believe your atheism is a justifiable position to hold? 3) Must God be known through a scientific method for you to affirm his existence? 4) Do you think most faithful people are delusional or unintelligent for believing in a God of a certain religion? I'm always open for give and take dialogues, so feel free to ask me as many questions as you'd like. But first, i'd much appreciate it if you address several of my questions first Thank you for reading!
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Amaretto
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Cave, cave! Deus vadet.
Posts: 10
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Post by Amaretto on Nov 20, 2014 21:16:48 GMT -6
I must start by saying I am not an atheist. I'm not sure what I am most days lol. I believe in the existence of a higher power, but I also don't think I could understand it enough to name it or quantify it's existence with titles. However, the majority of my friends are very open minded atheists, and they helped me put together some answers for you. 1) We can't be. But just like some believe in God, we believe there is no God. If we're wrong, I guess we'll figure it out at the end of the road. 2) We believe it is the only position to hold, much like many people believe their faith is a justifiable position, the only position to hold. 3) We will affirm his existence when he does. A lot of atheists would love to believe in a higher power. They just have seen no evidence of it in their lives. That's what a lot of us would accept. 4) Nope. Religion gives people peace. It lets them feel better to believe there is a reason for the wrongness in their lives. We look at more earth bound sources for our problems. (other people, ourselves, etc.) We find peace our own way. Everyone I talked to had a different way of doing it. Of course, all of them added, most religions sound ridiculous if you sit back and listen with some objectivity. From the Asutru who believe the world is carved out of a dead giant that sits in a tree that holds all the worlds, to Christians who believe half our our species was made from a rib and people can rise from the dead, to the Druids who believe stones can heal and trees can talk, and so on, it can sound a little strange. I am curious, are you religious? And if so, why? And if not, why not?
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Post by Zoe Thanatos on Nov 20, 2014 23:35:55 GMT -6
I am an agnostic Christian, but I will take up an atheist view of the matter for the sake of a good debate, because it's interesting to see the views of others.
1) Atheists are usually incredibly inclined to use science to prove their points, thus, since you can't prove that it exists, to them, it doesn't.
2) I don't understand the context of this question, if by justifiable you mean do atheists have a moral code like Christians do? If you could rephrase the question that'd be great.
3) If God could be proven scientifically in our current physical word, atheists would not exist.
4)This last question is determined by what kind of atheist you are, and is determined by the individual, not the generalization. There are plenty of atheists who are assholes that will think deists are unintelligent. Just like there are Christians who believe atheists are morons. Some people are just assholes. Doesn't really have to do with the religion.
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Post by ExistentialExistence on Nov 20, 2014 23:46:12 GMT -6
(Disclaimer: I cannot, not be sarcastic. Yes, I realize that's a double negative. STFU.)
I am an agnostic, but I was an atheist. Why did I switch? Well, because reasons.
1. I'm pretty sure. If not, then, oops. 2. Well, I think it's more justified than the third crusade or ISIS or loads of the other religious incidents caused due to misguided religious principles. So, in summary, if you're clever and misguided enough you can pretty much "justify" anything, regardless of whether or not you're religious. 3. To quote Nietzsche: "Science has no consideration for ultimate purposes". Of course, he also loathed Christianity with a burning passion. Soooooooooo... 4. I think most PEOPLE are delusional idiots. So...yes? Essentially, if you think your way is right with no consideration for other possibilities and no tolerance for other people's perspectives then, yes, they're idiots.
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Amaretto
New Member
Cave, cave! Deus vadet.
Posts: 10
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Post by Amaretto on Nov 22, 2014 9:48:40 GMT -6
I have a question for you two. You both say you're agnostic. What does that mean to you?
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Post by Zoe Thanatos on Nov 22, 2014 19:07:47 GMT -6
I have a question for you two. You both say you're agnostic. What does that mean to you? I believe that we no matter how hard we try to better ourselves, read a bible, or study religion, that we will NEVER be able to comprehend or really know what God is. I am an agnostic Christian because despite that belief, I believe it is the Christian God that created the universe.
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Post by ExistentialExistence on Dec 7, 2014 0:41:32 GMT -6
I have a question for you two. You both say you're agnostic. What does that mean to you? I believe that if there is a God, then he's probably not one that human beings have written about in any religious text, considering human beings have been around only a couple hundreds of thousands of years and we've only been able to write for significantly less time than that {and even today we can hardly write at all thanks to the lovely American education system}. So, that said, to define God in a book to me would be like somebody defining the reason behind every scientific discovery in the history of ever in a book based 2000 years ago in the past in a place not exactly famous for it's scientific enlightenment and that would just be ridiculous. So, I believe if there is a God, he's probably just the universe because it's the only thing we know of that's omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and is completely infallibly true if that's true...then I guess science is my religion? So, yeah. There you go. Hope that answers your questions.
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Amaretto
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Cave, cave! Deus vadet.
Posts: 10
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Post by Amaretto on Mar 6, 2015 20:25:02 GMT -6
Thanks It does. Many religious tags mean different things to different people, no matter what Webster says, so I am always curious.
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