Being an atheist (or rather, pantheist), I am kinda sick of explaining the above to christians who are supposed to know something about their religion.

Thanks for the comments I have been studying the Bible for years now not just reading but studying really hard I put alot of time and effort in it. I don't take anyone's word and make it my belief my dad was a pastor of a church but now he's retired he  always taught me to read and believe for myself. The church world today makes me sick Christianity is meant to be forgiving to others and love one another and these days you just see alot of bigots. Anyways I am praying for all of you that God will touch your hearts and lead you to him Peace and Hope he will give you. Peace and God Bless.

Thank you, as long as you don't outsource your thinking to us!

daddymatt33ih, 

Please!  Use some formatting (paragraphs) and punctuation.  Your posts are exceptionally hard to read.

Thanks!

On the other hand, welcome to the forums!

The difference between an atheist's ever evolving belief in Science and a religionists unwavering semi-disturbing faith in "god" is that we don't need faith. We keep an open mind. If something in Science is disproven, we alter our stance and move on, keeping an open mind in case things are proven to be different in another way. It used to be that eating lots of meat was the healthy thing, that there was no such thing as an "unhealthy fat". Now we know that just isn't so. People used to think the Earth was flat, that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Now we know that isn't so. Science evolves, and with it, so do we. ^_^ It's nice that you are trying to understand us, but you still aren't quite there.

 When talking about the god you believe in, you don't ever stop to consider what an infantile creature it apparently is? Shouldn't a god be above all these silly humanoid emotions of jealousy and vanity?

Goescrunch see the problem is you don't really understand the nature of God. The Bible tells us that

we are made in his image and his likeness. What that means is we look like him and that we have the

same carachterisics such as emotions happy,sad

mad etc. I am very open minded when it comes to

change within doctrine of the Bible but my mind can never be changed about the existance of God.

Here's a question for you If you had or have a child that was deathly ill and the doctor told you he/she had one month to live but there's a new drug that could save her life but there not %100 it will work. Would you take the chance and give your child the drug to save their life.

The same question applies to God it might not be one month that you will die but the fact is you are going to die. Why take that chance you could recieve life forever. Peace and God Bless

I'm sure Hell is just as real to some people as God is to you.

Adam

you make no sense  Why don't you elaborate some more.

I am sorry but this is where I have to cut you. Whatever Bible says is irrelevant to people who have no foundation and/or need to accept it. I can quote you, for example, Donald Knuth as a supreme authority of "doing things right". I bet you've never heard about him. Just because I would have quoted him does not mean neither that he is right, nor that he is qualified to opinion on "doing things right", nor that you have to accept whatever he says. I guess you could say that you can not compare work of man with work of God; but we don't know for a fact that Bible is a work of God, and all historic and scientific evidence, along with rational analysis operating on facts, point to the fact that Bible is anything but work of God. This, in essence, is the position of atheists, and it is a bad move to discard it in the very first lne of your response.

Again, we only have Bible's word for it. Answer this: why is god male? And if God is male, why would he put the sexual crave of lifetime into men while commanding them to opress it? What is the rationale of creating life to not only opress it but also have it opress itself? And on top of that, how come so many men these days prefer to have sex with other men, or better yet, with both genders?

You do not have to rely on the Bible - or any other specific doctrine - to retain faith. For example, the following is entirely possible (random theory): there is God, and people are lying about him in word and writing, and he is not happy about it. If you remove Bible as your point of origin, and consider for a moment that there are other religions, some of them mentioning multiple gods, and some not one at all, you will see that you have the intellectual power to decide for yourself what is true and what is not, especially in light of the fact that you can't help but notice that there are decent, honest people in all religions and all denominations, except perhaps in openly insane cults like Scientology.

Disclaimer: I am a pantheist. I, too, do have faith. However, I am hoping to give you a perspective from atheists' viewpoint since atheism is a better friend of my faith than Christianity or Islam or Judaism.

Absolutely.

No, it does not. Let's rephrase the question with proper analogy and you will see for yourself how absurd it is:

If you had or have a child that was terminally ill and the doctor told you he/she had one month to live but there's a very old drug that may save your child but can not be seen, has not been seen by anyone, does not have any reliable evidence that supports either its theory or even its existence, was not invented by anyone in particular, so far has not demonstrably saved anyone, and you have to sacrifice your lifestyle, your intellectual honesty and your personal integrity to try it out, would you?

Despite the absurdity of the question, many people would say "yes" when faced with situation like that, and the meaning of that is: only desperate people develop irrational hopes. And atheists know that irrational hopes make your fall so much more painful. How is that different from making a pact with Satan, conceptually?

Why take the chance that people are lying to you and are trying to manipulate you into obedience, all while taking your money, brainwashing you to reject established scientific facts, depriving you of your sexual identity, replacing your own intelligence with that of their making and turning you into an obedient sheep that mindlessly repeats what it's been told to repeat?

Besides, ask yourself honestly.. would you really want to live forever?

Actually yes I would like to live forever, life is precious and I enjoy it I know we all go through bad times in life but that makes the good times that much better.

God is neither Male or Female he has no need for sexuality. The Bible tells a man to take pleasure in his wife. God wants us to enjoy sex with our wife's.

As a Christian my life is in no way opressed I do many things other people do like, Sports, outdoor activities and many other things. Sure I don't go to parties and get drunk or the bar's but I don't see the fun in that. I used to go to parties and bars and I became an alcholic I was drinking a 24 pack a day as soon as I got home I would start up. Enough about my life.

I agree with you there are good people out there that don't nessasarily have my viewpoints.

I don't know anything about Scientology haven't had a chance to look into it are they really crazy.Peace and God Bless

I want to believe that it is possible to live in such a bliss in the world of today, for one must be truly ignorant to the suffering that surrounds them. Point is, life does wear you out. Some people can indeed carry the joy throughout their entire life, but in the end they too get tired and seek peace. This is what I see in the world and this is what I am learning to accept. Then again, your perspective must be different.

Yet you say he has no need for sexuality. And yet again, Bible tells, Bible tells not to, and that's all there is to life, isn't there?

Then I am sorry to say that you must have been a vulnerable person, and I hope you did not replace the natural process of exploring and healing oneself with prescribed faith, because you might have found peace but lost your humanity.

Please take my word on this one: never, ever let yourself be around a scientologist. Whatever happens, distance yourself from these people.

I indeed agree that there are alot of sufferings in this world. I would have to be blind and ignorant if I said there isn't. It hurts me to see people suffer. Us that live in America don't really know how well we have it we are a very spoiled people.

Look at the kids in Africa that are dying from starvation, Aids, and mylaria. I get joy in life knowing that God has blessed me with a nice home a beautiful daughter and a loving wife and that I can help those that are in dire need of help. Helping those in need brings joy to my heart when you see a smiling face of someone that recieved a need brings tears to my eyes. That's what life is all about loving each other.

There's alot more to life than sex. The Bible tells us not to have sex before marriage. But we are allowed to have sex according to God with our wife's.

You say that I was vulnerable maybe so I am from a very small farming community. My high school class was 67 people. There was nothing to do growing up no movie theatre no kind of entertainment so partying was all we had to do and everyone partook in the fun.

It's true I have found peace but lost my Humanity I don't think so I actually enjoy life more now than I used to.

Tom Cruise is a little wacky so I will take your word for it. I have really enjoyed our conversations you sound like a pretty nice guy. All people can get along it takes a little tolorance and some respect.

Well my wife is calling my daughter is asleep and I might just go sin according to you.Ha Ha. Peace and God Bless.