Atheist vs. Theist

Why I'm glad I'm not christian anymore

Because of this stupid inane drivel

 

 

RobbyPants's picture

The "omnis"

The standard idea most Christians (actually, most members of the Abrahamic religions) posit a god that is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent. Where do these notions come from? Is this actually biblically supported, or is this just some bit of assumed theology tacked on after the fact? There are plenty of examples in the Bible of God appearing not to have these qualities, so it seems like cherry picking to ignore them, unless maybe you claim God was sandbagging, or something.

 

 

Omnipotent: There is the explicit mention in Judges that says he couldn't defeat an army with iron chariots (although, I've heard defenses that this is a translation issue). There is him not being able to find Adam and Eve in the garden. Also, there's the whole notion of Christ's "sacrifice"; either it was completely unnecessary, or God has some weird limit to his power where he is unable to forgive people without some sort of sacrifice happening.

Omniscient:  Again, looking for Adam and Eve and not finding them. Presumably any time he becomes angry with his followers. If he could see the future, it seems insane to get angry at the time the event comes to pass. Also, it would have been wholly preventable.

Nothing but Jesus

Ok lets start here.....In 2005 I was stationed out in Hawaii, and going to pick up my 'then' girlfriend, i side-swiped a bus and drove away. I lied to my command about it, and everything got found out. I faced non-judicial punishment (losing rank and pay), as well as a felony conviction on the civilian side. The night after I got back from the police station, I got on my knees and cried out to God, committing myself to him. This girl I had been dating had pulled me away from the church, and I ran back. After that there was no NJP, just 5 written counselings, and on the civilian side i just had to pay court costs. ONLY JESUS.

In 2006, the morning after watch, i ran into some friends that wanted to go to the beach. We ended up at this really high cliff and the dude jumped, then we went to a lower one (like 10 ft) and I jumped. I had no swimming gear. I couldn't beat the current and I got scared. I called out to God and prayed for my life.  I got to the side of the cliff, got swept into it by a wave, and got knocked out. By God's grace there were rescue swimmers training around the corner, and they saved me. ONLY JESUS.

WHY NOT JESUS

Jesus is the most rational thought known to man. The creator of the world took on flesh, and died for our sins so we don't have to. All we need to do is Repent and turn to Him. Its not difficult. I have not been the most perfect person in the world. I've had secrets, i've done things I shouldn't have. But I turned to Christ and He has truely blessed me. I have a truely blessed marriage and beautiful baby girl. I have a stable job to support them. Right now I teach life skills to Navy recruits that have trouble adapting to military lifestyle. The trend I see is children that are fatherless, orphans, foster children, and homeless. I share with them my passion to live the life I intend to live, and all of them are "blown away" with amazement because it is the polar opposite of what they have come to know in their own lives. Serving God, providing for my family, being a good father to my daughter, managing finances so my wife doesn't have to work so she can raise our daughter properly. There is no denying that a household dedicated and living for the Lord has a stronger, more solid foundation, than a household that is not. I have had approximately 5-10 students a week since March (minus holidays of course) and I have only had 1 student that had a strong background in faith, and she came to me because she was frustrated that she couldn't pass her fitness assessment.

The Lord is amazing. Being able to share what I have has truely blessed these recruits.

Michael A Thompson's picture

Have to side with the Christians here:

 I'm an atheist but as the saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".  I abhor centralized power.  When you centralize power it ALWAYS benefits the powerful.  Here is a letter my father sent me about a conversation between a lawyer and the FHA regarding a loan:

RobbyPants's picture

Heaven and theodicy are not compatible

The typical Christian view of Heaven is not compatible with the common approaches to reconcile theodicy.

When dealing with theodicy, most Christians try to solve the problem with some combination of saying that free will justifies all bad decisions people make (and the existence of Hell!), and that we have to suffer in this world because we need to know suffering to appreciate paradise (because they say so). So, based on the two above assumptions, we have to be allowed to be jerkwads to each other, and we have to suffer in order to appreciate Heaven, but that's okay, because Heaven is infinite and totally worth it, and also because of [mysterious ways].

Now, that being said, what is Heaven? Well, most Christians think it's eternal, and it's perfectly good, and everyone "lives" there in perfect happiness. Sweet! This does sound like it's worth it! Although, not everyone goes to Heaven. Some people make the wrong choices and go to Hell. Sometimes, your friends and loved ones even go there, and that's sad. So, are you sad in Heaven that some of your friends won't be there (and are currently suffering like crazy)? Nope! It turns out, you're not aware of this because you've forgotten about them, or it doesn't bother you because of [reasons]. Okay, I guess. That seems like a bit of a non-answer, or like I'm not even myself anymore, but hey! Eternal happiness!

RobbyPants's picture

"True" omnipotence invalidates theodicy

So, I was posting on another forum and got into a debate about omnipotence being logically impossible. The other poster responded that an all powerful god could even violate the laws of logic without it being a problem. I then pointed out to him that all of the current approaches to resolve theodicy (reconciling a world ruled by an all knowing, all powerful, all good god with the existence of suffering and evil) rely on some level of limits to God's power. As soon as he posits a god that can violate logic, he only leaves room for a god that is a monster.

Here was my response:

 

Marty Hamrick's picture

Religious Tourette's Syndrome?

   I've noticed now four times on four separate forums where Christians debate Atheists that you'll get a post like a banned member here called "Bismillah" wrote a while back in response to one of Dana's posts.

Quote:

 

I want to jerk off and cum in your mouth.

 

This was after he had written a somewhat literal reply to the thread topic and Dana had rebutted it. In another debate forum there was this post from a guy who was fond of posting apocalyptic conspiracy theories.

Quote:

I want to fuck you in the ass.

These always come after a female has made a reply to their post and they get repetitious until, if the mods are doing their jobs,they get blocked and banned. What's going on here? I've seen this as a regular thing now on several atheist vs. theist debate forums, it always comes from someone claiming to represent the Christian side of the argument. Is it some misguided atheist or some other anti Christian worldview wanting to "sabotage" the Christian side or are we seeing a pattern of mental illness here? Could it be a combination of ill theistic thought combined with years of sexual repression coming out through the impersonal buffer of the internet?

Whatever it is, I've noticed it to be a pattern coming from what appears to be four separate and independent sources and it seems to have cropped up fairly recently. Thouhgts?

Colombian singer Shakira was becoming an Agnostic, but regained her belief

In an interview from Elle magazine

 

Shakira wrote:

I think, if you can prove the existence of God, it can only be proven through love. I even had lost my faith for a while. I was becoming as agnostic. And it was really hard, because I was always very religious, and for a few years, maybe because—it sounds so corny—I was not feeling the love like it was supposed to be, I started to think that there was no God. And suddenly I meet Gerard and the sun comes out.

 

 

 

 

emotional reasoning much?

 

 

RobbyPants's picture

Why is Jesus' death considered a sacrifice?

Growing up Christian, the single most resounding things I heard was talk about "Christ's sacrifice". He died on the cross to save our sins. His sacrifice provided our salvation. What great love God showed through this sacrifice. 

Now, this is often compared to lots of Old Testament sacrifices, where people had to set one of their goats on fire because God liked how it smelled. This makes sense to be classified as a sacrifice, because the goat herder had one less goat. Regardless of whether or not this goat burning made any sense or was necessary in the strictest sense is beside the point; it was a sacrifice.

So Jesus comes, spreads the good word, pisses off the people in charge, and is summarily executed. But then it's revealed that this death was a sacrifice and it was to atone for our sins. This is also why we don't have to burn goats anymore (does God still like how that smells?). The problem is, three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and eventually went up to heaven. This is constantly reaffirmed in Easter services every year. "He is risen! hallelujah!" and "Our God is a living God!" So, everyone accepts that he's not actually dead. How was that a sacrifice. Sure, he suffered for three days, and I'm sure that wasn't fun, but it was only a sacrifice in the sense that he sacrificed some of his happiness.

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