Hello Tim.

1) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emotions

2 a : the affective aspect of consciousness : feeling b : a state of feeling c : a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body

2) We? Come from? Um, I came from my parents. Then, I came from China. I assume you came from your parents. Where did our species come from? Um, well, we evolved.

3) It's advantageous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w0FiwfyUMM

4) None of it is "perfect."

Why does it seem to fit together? Well, because we all belong in the same universe.

5) The ten commandments are not a perfect law system. About half of it is pure religious BS. 

Every other law system fails? Oh, do you have an example of a government currently successfully running a country using the ten commandments?

6) Define "God." Define "chaotic." 

7) How do you know he is? I don't hate Jesus.

8 ) Ditto, ever heard of suicide bombers? They're Muslim. Ever heard of monks setting themselves on fire as a form of protest? Yeah, those are often Buddhists.

9) Man, almost every single one of your questions is a loaded question. Not that I'm surprised or anything.

What is biblical truth? How do you know it's the truth? How do you know Mormons and.....Catholics(???) are trying to change it? How do you know they're wrong?

10) What is sin? What consequences? How do you know it has consequences?

11) How do you know they have an emptiness? What emptiness? How do you know it needs to be filled with Jesus. Oh, anecdotal evidence? Oh, you mean they use Jesus as an emotional crutch!! Okay. 

12) Why do you assume there is always a drastic change? Why do you assume the change is good?

13) Um, because that city exists?

14) I'm not sure if I'm "hell bent." Nevertheless, I spend time on this topic because it is important to me. I don't see why it matters whether I'm a proponent or skeptic of the claim in question.

Dear Tim,

The stupidity of your questions makes baby Jebus cry.

Respectfully,

KSMB

Because otherwise we would not have any drive to do anything much or react strongly to danger (fear), reproduce (love, lust, etc),, and so on.

Creatures not driven by such basic reactions would be far less successful than those so driven. Emotions are the manifestation of such built-in mechanisms we inherit from our pre-human ancestors. 'Reason' does not automatically give us a drive in any particular direction, and we can't afford to take the time to reason through how we should react to every situation, particular if it is immediately dangerous.

From our parents, from a long chain of ancestors stretching back to the earliest forms of primitive life, which emerged from accumulations of complex molecules, which developed under the influence of some source of energy, such as heat and light from the sun, thermal energy from inside the earth.

Not all creatures do have sexual reproduction. Evolution can only take place when there is a way for mixing and spreading genetic material and any useful mutations that occur in it throughout the population. Bacteria do this by directly exchanging genetic material, large animals have to have some other mechanism. Sexual reproduction based on two sexes seems to be the simplest and most effective way to do this, more than two sexes would not be necessary and would be more complicated.

Species with such mechanisms evolve and adapt more quickly and efficiently, so have come replace those that didn't.

Bad question - there are no 'perfect' systems in reality. I don't see what that list has to do with the question.

The 'animal food chain' is an inevitable product of evolution of multiple species, I don't see how the concept of 'perfection' applies there.

The other items are simply un-anticipated consequences of our actions, which could be seen as consequences of our inevitably finite and 'imperfect' abilities to understand the complexities of the world in which we find ourselves.

The 10 commandments are not a remotely perfect or even good system of laws. They don't even prohibit rape, torture or slavery, yet make a 'sin' of merely finding a woman other than your wife attractive.

It isn't. There is a mixture of order and chaos, and no God.

He isn't.

They aren't. Have you not heard of Muslim suicide bombers?

The Bible is a very confused and contradictory document, so people keep trying to interpret it in different ways to try and make sense of it.

Most actions have consequences, but many people have actually got away with serious crimes, so 'sin' does not have inevitable consequences.

They don't. Some people feel that way, but I and many others here can assure you from personal testimony that it definitely does not apply to all people.

There is not always such a drastic change, but it is hardly surprising that if you make a major change in how you view the world it will change your behavior. All you are asking here really is why do people seem to change drastically when they make a drastic change in there beliefs? It would be surprising if they didn't, especially since such changes are often driven by major crises or tragic experiences.

Because the Bible was written by people in that area who knew that those places existed.

We actually have NOT found some rather significant things, such as signs that there was a village or town called Nazereth at the time of the supposed birth of Jesus.

Or that there ever was an Exodus from Egypt, or even that there ever where a large number of Israelites as slaves there.

Because we believe that the best way for individuals and societies to thrive in an increasingly complex world is to understand reality as accurately as possible,  and we find that belief in God seriously gets in the way of such a purpose - 'God' is inconsistent with logic and reason, and is the opposite of Truth. Belief in such things leads people to believe in many crazy things and to ignore very important things we really do need to address, such as over-population, and effective measures to control diseases such as AIDS.

1. neurochemicals, bioelectric activity

2. "the normal biological function known as sex." (Inherit the Wind)

3. Otherwise the process described in answer 2 wouldn't work.

4. Too much of the universe is trying to kill us to call this system perfect.

5. The 10 commandments were plagiarized from other codes of law.

6. Everything with God isn't exactly orderly - or haven't you looked around lately?

7. I don't hate Jesus for the same reason I don't hate Santa Claus - fictional characters don't offend me.

8. Christians aren't clean in the "killing others for God" department.

9. The people who wrote the thing couldn't get their stories straight. Don't blame other forms of Christianity fpr the Bible's problems

10. What consequences? Ask Jesus to forgive you until you want to do it again then repeat. If Ted Bundy did that he'd be in Heaven, yes?

11. Not true.

12. Some change for the worse - look at Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart.

13. The Spider-Man comics are set in NYC - Is Spidey real?

14. Why are theists so bent on dodging questions instead of providing evidence for God's existence?

You mean physically? Cause in that sense emotional sensation can be described as a cascade of chemical reactions in various organs in the body.

Oh m'gosh.. how awkward.. didn't your Dad give you "the Talk" yet?

Fortunately there are books on the subject at your local library, check it out.

Some say it's justified by the biological advantage of genetic diversity. ie, dual parentage organisms would have evolved larger systems more rapidly which in turn would increase the chance of overcoming faults in the mutation to build a thriving creature. In a single parentage line it's more likely that the faults overcome the organism before it establishes.

I think this is fairly sound reasoning.

Why is it so suprising to you that there is a system which supports life in place where life appears?

Of the (now) 8 planets in our solar system ours is the only one apparently biodynamically equipped to support the form of life which we are, and evidently, those other 7 planets aren't inhabited by life that we recognise at all. This gives us reason to conclude that if the physical systems of earth were not, exactly as they are, we wouldn't be here to question them being so anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Earth's environment is conducive to our life form and our life form is conducive to earth's environment, it's self explanatory why they are found together.

Er... I think RRS is more a matter of being hell bent on pointing out a lack of sense in believing that there is a god. Disproving certain precisely defined entities can be done but God isn't one of those so it's not really the aim here.

oh, and just to be fair, i should add that even as i typed the statement that there's weird shit down there in kiwi land, i was enjoying my typical central european breakfast: a roll smeared with pork liver pate.

We are glad you are not afraid of us like many theists, and we are glad you can find humor being here. BUT, you DO have the label theist under your name. We could pick apart your claims as easily as we do any other.

Just the other day I was telling my Christian co workers about Pineapples deconversion from her claim "The universe is a giant consciousness". They responded, "That was nuts to believe that"

BUT, I wanted to shout at them, MIND YOU I LOVE THEM, but ARRRRGGGGGG!

When anyone makes claims about thinking beings OF ANY CLAIM, beings with no physical body, I want to scream!

You do not have the word theist under your name because we hate you. You have that label because you have some sort of belief in beings with no physical body.

So I find irony when you laugh at our sarcasm of theistic claims when you have the word "theist" under your own name. Having said that, I am also glad you take it in stride without taking it personally, regardless.

My deity has the same physical parameters I would use to describe a human consciousness so I guess that you've missed most of what I've said about my beliefs to think that I am professing belief in a non-corporeal entity.

I can half understand, but maybe also you've attached too much stigma to the theist label yourself. I mean, I wear a theist label but I'm not religious, not affiliated or adherent to any religion, I do not preach or proselytise, I have no dogma, I follow no creed that isn't essentially secular humanism anyway, I use the scientific method for inquiry, I do not rely epistemically on faith or any mystical practice (though I freely admit to employing them on occasion in the pursuit of knowledge), I don't believe in "one book to rule them all" and I take absolutely no issue with people questioning mine or any other notion of a deity or spiritual existence.

When it comes down to it, I share very little with the average theist of the western world. I believe in a god because I have concluded from a fair bit of in depth philosophical and scientific inquiry that one is both possible and likely to exist, as described, essentially, by the ancient and sacred traditions of man.

Thanks Brian, as I always said, I'll cop the theist badge cause I am a theist. I believe in a god compatible with the traditional religious texts. That's all it takes to be one, so I am one, no quibbles.

What are emotions?

Emotions are your body's (and brain's, which is a part of your body) chemical reaction to special hormones, called neurotransmitters, being released. I don't care how religious you are, if you don't believe in neuro-transmitters, go take some Prozac or Ritalin and watch what happens to your emotions. NEXT!

Where did we come from?

Nobody knows! I really cannot understand why this is such a difficult concept for the faithful to grasp. Scientists have theories like evolution and the big bang, but these are sketchy and offer a rough estimate that is continuously being refined over time. The bigger question is, beyond scientific applications covered by astronomy, geology, anthropology, etc - why does it MATTER where we came from? There are MILLIONS of questions about this world to which most people are completely satisfied with not having an answer. How many stars are there in the sky? How many hairs do you have on your head? An age-old trick religionists use to sell people on the importance of their beliefs is the presupposition that our origin has some sort of spiritual significance, and that their religion exists in response to it. Please give me one reason why I should *care* where we came from without quoting a religious text, seeing as that is the response so there had to have been some reason before it originated.

Why are there 2 different sexes?

For 9/10 of the time that life has been present on earth, there was no such thing as gender. Single-celled organisms - bacteria, protists - reproduce by splitting themselves in two, like cells, and even later life forms like fungi and plants can at best be said to carry both genders within each organism. Hence, 2 different sexes only exist in animals. As to why, the question to pose for anything that occurs naturally isn't "why is it there?" but "why has it stuck around?" Evolution science shows us a myriad of examples of traits of life that have not withstood the test of time. The concept of gender clearly has a number of evolutionary benefits and hence once it occurred, it caught on like wildfire, resulting in the dominance of animals on this planet. I'm not an evolutionary scientist myself so I'm not sure what these specific advantages are or what competing systems there may have been that are now extinct, but you should consult scientific resources if you are interested as I guarantee you there are answers to these questions other than "intelligent design."

Why is there a perfect system? (Animal food chain, hole in ozone, global warming/cooling)

As with the question of genders, I'm not a geologist or anthropologist so I don't have specific answers, but in case you haven't noticed, the system has a tendency to "perfect" itself. Geological systems and biological communities react to the forces that act upon them. Not all of them act in a way that preserves their existence, just like not all organisms are perfectly equipped for evolution. BUT, the ones that react in a way that is self-preserving withstand the test of time, which is why the majority of the systems you see now seem to have a "perfection" to them. Even in the Christian theory of the world being 6000 years old, how could a system that does not respond to changes in a self-preserving way still exist 6000 years after conception?

Why are 10 commandments a perfect law system? (every other law system fails)

Now you won't get any argument from me that every law system fails, but how exactly are the 10 Commandments exempt from this as a law system? Show me a society that followed the 10 Commandments as a law system and had no break-downs?

Why is everything apart from God chaotic?

Everything that occurs naturally is in some way chaotic. The geological and biological evolution systems I described above can be said to have an element of chaos to them, as well as the course of human history and society. However, most MAN-MADE things are not chaotic. Architecture and the math it is built on are not chaotic, which is why we have buildings and bridges that stand for decades and we can reasonably predict if they are not safe and have a propensity to collapse. Electric signals sent down a wire can be controlled and not chaotic, which is why we are able to communicate over the internet. Hence, this division suggests that god's non-chaotic definition makes him likely to be man-made rather than natural, I say "suggests" because correlation does not imply causation.

Why is Jesus hated above all else? (Martyrs, persecution, finding tomb of Jesus, evolution, RRS)

Jesus the man, presuming he existed, was hated by the existing authorities at the time because he challenged the status quo with which they ruled. As for Jesus as a religious concept, I really don't see how he is hated "above all else." Anti-religionists tend to dislike all religion equally, and if they especially oppose Christianity in North America, it is only because it is the predominant faith here. As for dissenting religious faiths, if they do dislike Jesus, they are no more singling him out than Christians single out other religious entities. More than anything, I think Christians like to equate "hating Jesus" to anything that doesn't agree with Christianity, another age-old sales strategy to make dissention appear hostile. The theory of evolution, which you use as an example of "Jesus hate," does not say a word about Jesus. In fact, there are people who believe in both evolution and Jesus. The Fox News strategy of "If you don't agree with the president, you are a terrorist" is not going to score you any points in a logical debate.

Why is are Christians only people willing to die for their faith? (Muslims kill others, Buddhists kill themselves)

HAHAHAHA! Ever heard of Muslim "suicide bombers?" Ever heard of the Crusades? Ever heard of the Spanish Inquisition? Every major religion has been used to sell people on killing themselves and others in the name of faith at some point, although no religious text actually prescribes this.

Why do people always try to change biblical truth? (Mormons, catholic’s)

Biblical "truth?" Are you familiar with the concept of "hearsay?" If I go to court, and bring a paper on which I wrote down something I claim you have said, the jury is not going to take my word for you having said it unless I can prove to them that the words are yours. Ditto for the Bible. Do with it what you want, but unless you yourself heard it from god's lips, you have no logical reason to believe it is the word of god even if the MAN who recorded it claims it is. One standard for anyone to take a scientific finding seriously is that the experiment conducted to find it has to be replicable. That is, if I do the same experiment that a scientist did 50 years ago, I will find the same result. SO, unless you are claiming that I can climb up on Mount Sinai and hear god's voice telling me the 10 Commandments, please don't refer me to "Biblical truth." For that matter, the Catholics were the first massive Christian establishment, others came later, which is why they are called "Protest"ants. So, who changed what is a good question.

Why does sin have consequence? (Ted Bundy, people in Hollywood)

Again, proof? A lot of people who do things that are considered "sinful" do end up experiencing a great deal of suffering. However, how does this prove that their suffering is a consequence of sin? In the example of Ted Bundy, what about the 1000s of unsolved murders in the history of the United States, and the millions in the history of the world for that matter? If religion is predictable and works on a rule of consequence for sin, shouldn't every murderer have suffered the same fate as Ted Bundy? Irresponsibility seems to have a greater trend of consequence, whether its for mass-murderers or "people in Hollywood" by which I can only assume you mean celebrities who live destructive lives. However, I don't need religion to tell me that drug abuse, financial irresponsibility, and committing violent crimes all have the capacity to destroy human lives. Christian concepts of "sin" do overlap a bit with this list, but people have known that lack of responsibility is destructive for millenia before Christianity was coined, so it is safe to assume that those who coined it were trying to encourage responsible lives by including these rules.

Why do all people have an emptiness that can only be satisfied through Jesus?

I have no such emptiness, and seeing as I'm a person, "all people" do NOT have said emptiness. NEXT!

Why is there such a drastic change in people after they accept Jesus?

Why is there such a drastic change in people when they DENY Jesus (like, someone who was raised Christian and realizes its ridiculousness)? Why is there such a drastic change in people the first time they have SEX? Why is there such a drastic change in people the first time they shoot heroin? Special plea, anyone?

Why do we keep finding things that the bible has talked about since the beginning? (Finding city from OT)

Because the Bible, although written by man, does have some true historical references that have been lost in other historical sources. How does finding a city mentioned in the Bible imply that anything else mentioned in there is true? I have been to San Francisco several times, and there are scenes in The Vampire Lestat that take place there. Does that mean I should start believing in vampires?

Why are you so hell bent on disproving God instead of proving something you believe in?
 

This is perhaps your only relevant question, but there is a definite answer. We are bent on proving to humanity the ridiculousness of faith based belief because said belief is contrary to human survival, both as individuals and as a species. As I have discussed in several answers in this post, the system of the universe can be said to operate with a certain degree of predictability, and the evolutionary survival of anything that exists in it, including a person or a species, depends on that entity's capacity to conform to the system's nature. Adding faith-based beliefs to our perception of the world is dangerous because it is bound to make us behave out of sync with evolutionary demands. From crashing planes into the World Trade Towers, to health-damaging self-flagellation, to laws against scientific research (ie: stem cells) that can prolong life and cure disease, to the spread of illness due to refusal of modern medicine and contraception, to overpopulation due to the bellief that god has ordained us to multiply, the list of ways in which faith-based beliefs negatively affect humanity as a whole is a mile long. Religiosity is NOT some private moral code that is the individual business of whoever holds it - it is a dangerous mass-belief in a delusion that causes whole societies to act out of sync with reality.

Going for simple...

1: Physiological response to stimulae.
2: Our parents.
3: Because it worked.
4: Perfection is a delusion. No system is perfect.
5: See 4.
6: Error: You presuppose god, but your subjective term is inadequate to define it. Question has no substance and therefore no answer.
7: Error: You presuppose jesus, and further claim he is "hated above all else". Without evidence to support these claims are valid, your question has no substance and therefore no answer.
8: They aren't. Most religions prize self sacrifice for martyrdom. That's part of why they are all a threat. Most religions also prize the destruction of opposing beliefs, which is why you're here: to destroy opposing beliefs, or lack thereof.
9: Because the bible isn't a source of truth, people make things up to make sense of it.
10: Every act has consequence.
11: Error: See 6.
12: Because they embrace insanity instead of reason. They give up responsibility and productive lives for myth.

Chemical reactions which have the tendency to drive our action, often more attributed to instinct than self awareness.

Personally, I came from everywhere. I'm a military brat.

The evolutionary advantage of sexual reproduction is incredible as it allows the combinations of two different sets of DNA which increases mutation rates per generation thereby greatly accelerating descent with modification. Single celled asexually reproducing populations existed for billions of years before life could finally evolve away from such a painfully slow process. During such time, the mechanisms that allowed for mutation between generations were very few and far between, so evolution was incredibly slow. As soon as a mutation occurred which allowed for sexual reproduction, mutations occurred in between every single generation.

By what standard are you judging perfection? What does perfection entail exactly? A system that is stable and doesn't change? The answer in this case would be no with the exception of universal constants such as the speed of light in a vacuum. Perhaps even mathematical equations are a perfect system, since math doesn't change, even if its methods do.

Do you know of any societies which based everything they believed in on the 10 commandments alone and otherwise had no other laws? How perfect is the ten commandments exactly? It doesn't mention rape, slavery, oppression, harming others, destroying other's property, and many other things. It does however put particular emphasis on keeping a particular day of an arbitrary seven day week holy. In fact, 40% of the ten commandments have absolutely nothing to do with morality or protecting people, but rather to satisfy the ego of your God. And not once in the history of man has the first four commandments benefitted any society in a practical way. No sir, the 10 commandments are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

Everything apart from anything that we imagine to be perfect is chaotic. That's because everything that exists is chaotic and the only things that are not are things that we imagine. Strange how accurately God resembles other figments of our imagination, isn't it?

Then, whether or not something is chaotic is also pretty subjective. The only reason we can attribute chaos to anything is because there are so many variables involved that it's too complicated to be comprehensible for our little brains. But then again, everything happens as a reaction to something else, so in a way, nothing is chaotic. Everything is perfectly structured and predictable, but there are just to many variables for our incomprehensive minds.

So no, everything isn't chaotic. It's just chaotic relative to what we're able to predict.

Uhm... he's not.

You've got to be joking.

Because people believe the Bible, and if you control what people believe, you control the people.

Sin, by definition, is a transgression against God. So I don't believe in sin. But for lack of a better word:

Everything has consequence. A butterfly landing on a flower has consequence. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every single event from your choice of shoes this morning to the formation of the solar system has consequence.

That's funny. I had an emptiness as a christian that could only be satisfied through knowledge. And after some time and thorough study, it lead me to atheism, and I feel so far less empty then when I was a christian. Before you ask a question about any supposed fact, you'd better make sure your fact is right.

The same reason there is such a drastic change in people after they lose their virginity, attempt suicide, recover from an addition, experience a death in the family, change their religion of any kind, graduate from school, or get potty trained. Anything that changes your perception of the world, real or imagined, has the potential to drastically change you.

The bible isn't entirely fictional. Most stories have a basis on something real, since any decent story has to connect to its readers at some level, otherwise it would be incomprehensible. This is something known as cultural relevance. For example, there was indeed a Roman Empire, there were Israelites, there were egyptians, and Patmos is a real island. However, just because there were real greeks, doesn't mean that there was ever a city of Troy. Just because there are bats, doesn't mean that there is a Batman or a Gotham city.

I believe in knowledge and truth. So disproving God is something I believe in provided that the truth is that God doesn't exist. Of course there are a lot of other reasons, but I can see that wasn't the point of your question.

 Wow.  How'd I miss this the first time around?  I love answering lists of questions from theists!

Evolution's way of getting us to do things, especially when they aren't strictly in our best interest as individuals, but contribute to the overall good of the species.

You and I were both born after somewhere in the neighborhood of nine months of gestation inside a female human's uterus.  Our genetic material comes from a male and female who copulated, and whose sex cells joined together.

The flippant answer is that some event or another led to the formation of two sexes.  The more genuine answer is that we're not completely sure how the entire process of separation into two different sexes occurred.  We do know that there are significant benefits to two sexes over one, and that any number of potential intermediate stages would be beneficial, so there are a lot of good possibilities on the table.  We just haven't figured out which one makes the most sense yet.

You should also be aware that there aren't just two sexes.  Many animals don't follow the human model of being born into a discreet sexual identity and staying in it for their whole lives.  There are lots of animals who change sex during their lifetime.  Some have essentially three sexual identities, and others exist in essentially hermaphroditic sexual states.  The notion that two sexes are somehow the best or only mode of reproduction represents a very non-scientific perspective.

In other words, the diversity of sexual identity we see on earth is consistent with the prediction of diversity through natural selection.

I'm guessing at what you mean here.  This isn't a well worded question.  There is no perfect system.  That's just a myth.  Evolution works because it takes a shotgun approach.  It rolls a billion dice, and comes up with a few million wins and lots and lots of losses.  An intelligent designer could come up with a much better system.

They aren't.  Of the ten commandments, one is impossible.  We can't control our desires, only our acting upon them, and coveting is a desire, not an action.  It's telling us not to do something we can't control doing.  

Of the remaining nine, four deal with things we are or aren't supposed to do with regard to a deity for which there is no evidence.  Curiously, of the 1900 or so societies studied by anthropologists, the vast majority have done quite well for themselves (law-wise) without the commandments about God.

The remaining five are no-brainers, and don't really get into the nuts and bolts of legal distinctions.  They're just broad categoricals that pretty much all humans acknowledge as true without the need for referencing the ten commandments.  The one about honoring your father and mother is a bit dodgy, as well, since the elaborated conditions for such honor, as laid out in the old testament, include things like getting stoned for talking back to your parents.

Oh, and there are three different versions of the Ten Commandments, so even the Bible couldn't figure out which one was correct.

Well, I don't see any proof that God exists.  Why is everything chaotic?  It isn't, really.  The universe does tend towards entropy, but there is order within closed systems, and in general, even entropy can be predicted to some degree.  So... um... yeah.

I hate raping children more than I hate Jesus.

Um... do you watch the news?  9/11?

Primarily because the bible is irreconcilably contradictory, and many of its claims are just downright false.  Some people just can't handle that much cognitive dissonance, so they try to change it to make it make sense.

Sin is a nonsense term.  Doesn't exist.  Actions have consequences, and one of those is punishment from society when an individual has harmed society.  It's pretty logical.

They don't.

Sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn't.  There are also drastic changes in people who visit meat packing plants.  (Many of them become strict vegans!)  Sometimes, we go through life changes, and they are drastic.  

For the most part, we don't.  In the last fifty years or so, more of the Bible has been proven false than true.

Personally, I don't try to disprove god.  I don't see any evidence for him, so... I don't believe in him.  It's as simple as that.

WHAT????   Haha I laughed so hard when I read the first sentence of this I scared my dog!  Sounds more like a bad trip than a creation story.  O.o

darlin', you can change your religion anytime you want, just as easily as you can change your point of view on anything else.  no paperwork need be filed.

Shan, if you'd like to keep those friends and you really want them to stop pressuring you to go to church and stuff, I don't know how you can do it without coming out as an atheist.  If you decide that you can tell them about it, maybe you could try something like this but say it in your own way, of course:

"I like hanging out with you guys but I really don't want to go to your church any more.  I don't want to offend you and I value your friendship but I need to be honest with you about something: I don't believe in God and I don't think that's going to change.  So, I hope you understand and I hope you can respect my point of view and I hope you care enough to still be my friends even though I won't be going to church any more."

If you find it easier, do it in IM or texting or something. 

Some people find that their "friends" dump them when they come out as an atheist, so there is some risk involved, as you probably already know.  Real friends won't dump you over that, so I hope you have some of those.

 I turned into an atheist before I reach teen age... It started I think when I was 4 or 6...

I never knew the word till last year... but I always doubted god since I was little... when I was around 7 I blamed him for creating me, and I blamed my parents for not killing me... because I was suppose to have an older sibling but my mother had abortion... lucky for me (NOT) I was not killed...

I faced death a million times already!!! hehehe... but never killed... ah.. what a pain...

Emotions are responses to stimuli based on past experiences.  The brain has been mapped out to the point where we know which part of the brain is responsible for which human emotions.  If we create a lesion through that part of the brain, we lose the capability of conveying that 'feeling' ever again.  Emotions are a product of evolution and largely based on input received from your body's external receptors.  They allow us to react to situations with potential adverse effects.  They are key components to survival.

We all came from our own mother's wombs.  We were not created in the womb... rather we were assembled there.  Every piece of what is now 'you' used to be 'not you' for as long as we can date.  All of the individual ions, proteins, fats, and assorted materials that allow your consciousness were not 'created' just for you.  In fact, it's highly likely that most of what you are made of used to be a part of bear, or monkey, or rock, or steaming pile of dinosaur crap. 

Nothing that is 'us' is a newly created thing.  Not to get all hippie or anything, but we came from the earth, the water, and the air.

Because through natural selection, mammals evolved into 'two sex' entities.  Why?  Someone schooled on genetics could probably give us an idea, but I would guess it has to do with propagation of species.  Two people's DNA is better at creating a genetically unique individual than just cloning yourself.

That being said, there are far more living things on earth that are asexual organisms in comparison to the two sex organisms that we are used to seeing.  Bacteria, amoebas, etc.

What?  How is that a perfect system?  Global warming/cooling forces massive quantities of animals to adapt to their surroundings or die.  Conducive to evolution? yes.  Perfect?  Hardly.

It is not necessarily a law system.  There are no repercussions for breaking said rules/laws.  If there were commandment police running around, things would be mighty different.  And every other law system doesn't fail, you just fail to see the imperfections in the 10 commandments. 

What?  I am chaotic?  This computer is chaotic?  Time is chaotic?  Gravity is chaotic?  Math is chaotic?

I don't hate Jesus, because I don't think that Jesus is a historical figure.  That being said, I hate Christianity because it is a fallacy that indoctrinates more than half of the country I live in.  Religion in itself has caused millions of deaths in our history. 

I hate Hinduism, etc just as much as I hate Christianity.   Buddhism, not so much.  They don't kill people.

A muslim in a suicide bombing may be killing others, but do they not kill themselves as well?  The Crusades killed a ton of 'others', right?  But since that was a long time ago it shouldn't count?

I guarantee Lutherans think that whichever branch of christianity you believe in is changing biblical truths.  It all matters what side your on.  Just because YOU believe it doesn't make it an absolute truth.

Why do good things have consequences? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_and_Effect

Every action has a reaction.

Says you. 

Ignorance is bliss

Because religious beliefs are a gigantic part of who you are.  I think I have changed markedly in the past 8 years.  I have gone from a skeptic (yet believer) of Jesus to a full blown atheist.  Giant, life-altering decisions are bound to have life-altering consequences.

See: Cause and Effect

De Donde esta el Jardin de Eden? 

The science that we are so hell bent on proving indirectly disproves the Christian God.  I'm sure Darwin didn't wake up one day and say "Hey, let's figure out a way to disprove God!".  No, he discovered natural selection and evolution and then inadvertently went, "Holy Shit!  This God stuff can't be right."

Chemical reactions which have been selected by evolution because of the reactions they create in the individual. Fear causes one to flee something which endangers it, while love creates and strengthens bonds between individuals.

Africa, about 150-200,000 years ago.

Because when the mutation of sexual reproduction came about, it was so genetically advantageous that it stuck.

They may be good systems, but they are far from perfect. If the food chain was "perfect" then starvation would not exist, but it does. I don't think they are perfect systems by a long shot. They are systems which have enabled our evolution and survival, but they could be much better in many ways.

How can you call any "Law" system which doesn't cover rape "perfect"? The 10 commandments are so far from perfect, that is a non-argument.

Wow... epic fail...

Wow, talk about a martyr complex. Why do you think that Jesus is hated any more then any other fictional character who's tales have helped inspire horrible crimes against humanity. Oh wait...

I can guarantee you I hate real people who have a negative impact on the world a lot more then fictional characters and their negative impact on the world.

Really? Is this a real question? Wow!

My only response to that is that it is one of the most idiotic, unfounded claims I have heard in a while, along with Jesus being the top hated guy EVER! sigh...

Because none of the book is true, so they try to keep as close to reality and keep up with the times as best as they can while still being religious. If they don't do it, they will hemorrhage followers and will be a dead religion. What happens though is the religious denominations keeping up with science end up pushing their god so far into the gaps between naturalistic explanations for things, you never see it.

When people hurt other people, there may be consequences, there may be none. No cosmic ones though. We are not that important, nor are we center of the universe, says the "arrogant" one.

Bullshit. No evidence presented. You have no basis in reality for this claim.

Cults will do that to you. It isn't just Jesus.

Dude, wow...

The "Holy Babble" has been so wrong on so many things, much more then correct, and by making a statement like the above just shows your ignorance of the book. What about the "Holy Babble" talking about bats being birds, the world being flat, or rabbits chewing cud.

We show people the lunacy of god belief because soul peddlers world wide are exploiting people's natural fears so that they may maintain control over them as mental slaves. People are not slaves to any god(s), they are slaves to the human's who claim to be that god(s) earthly mouthpiece, and I won't be happy until every individual is truly free.

So yeah, those would be my answers to that kook.

And now for my triumphant return! Hi everybody!

I assume the dictionary definition isn't satisfactory. Want my opinion: they're a system of chemical reactions and electrical potentials which result in feedback loops within the brain which in turn result in various motivational and reinforcement learning mechanisms which in turn our conscious minds interpret as emotional states like love, anger, fear, etc.

I came from England. Or did you mean why do we exist? I exist because my parents bumped uglies one day in the mid 1980's, but I try not to think about that too much.

Mathematician not a biologist, so I can't tell you. Suspect it has something to do with having diploid chromosomes. Most animals do if I remember my school biology lessons. Somebody more biologically inclined can probably give you a better answer, in fact they probably already have.

Is there? Only ones I know are on paper. Notwithstanding the difficulties of defining a 'perfect system', do you not see the error in claiming the existence of perfect systems whilst pointing out anomalies and undesirable feedback loops?

See above, also I strongly disagree with every aspect and interpretation of the implied statement in that. I particularly dislike the notion that the 10 commandments, which are ignored by most of the world population, are somehow exempt from any reasonable definition of 'failure' that I can think of. Some bits of them I'll grant are fairly universally accepted, like not killing people, but those bits are really stating the obvious.

Question predicated on a false premise and an unclear definition. There is no god, and what do you mean chaotic?

I don't hate Jesus. I'm doubtful of his existence, and quite certain that there was no human parthenogenesis or child of imaginary being scenario going on.

I'm fairly sure that islamist suicide bombers can be said to be dying for their faith, however misguided it is. Not aware of Buddhists killing themselves, but religiously inspired suicide would be dying for one's faith by definition.

Because they don't think it's truthful, or because it serves their interests, or very probably both.

It doesn't. Crime does. Very important conceptual difference.

I don't. Disproof by counterexample is the best kind of disproof.

Major personality change is a common side effect of brainwashing.

We have? There's a few major historical events which are recorded in there, and mostly in dozens of other contemporary sources, but most of it is tribal myths for which there exists not one jot of evidence.

Oh I try. One of my hobbies is trying to prove Goldbach's conjecture. In the mean time, I try to disprove false statements and attack malformed arguments which fall short of a reasonable standard of proof. Also, in natural science you can't prove, only disprove.

I don't really see a distinction between proving true statements and disproving false statements, the end result is the same: the overall number of statements definitely known to be either true or false is increased. I like to think that makes the world a better place.