Atheist vs. Theist

stuntgibbon's picture

2011! The end (again!)

Sometimes I turn on Xtian radio for the lulz when I'm in the car.  I caught a bit on Family Radio today, where Harold Camping (the old coot in the video) is predicting the END of the WORLD on October 21, 2011. 

A bit from his Wiki page mentioning the same:

 

Hambydammit's picture

Theists: It's irrelevant that you don't care.

 My new biggest pet peeve from theists happens in conversations about evidence for God.  Here's the typical exchange.

Theist:  Blah, blah, blah, blah, God, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Atheist:  So... what evidence do you have for your belief in God?

Theist: Offers one of the following:

     1. Intuition

     2. Kalam/Cosmological/First Cause

     3. Complexity of design

     4. Personal experience of "miracle."

     5. Argument from wonder

     6. insert any of the other twenty invalid arguments for god here.

Atheist:  Well, that's not evidence.  Those are bad philosophical arguments.  I was asking for actual evidence.

Theist:  Hey, guess what.  I don't care that you don't like my evidence.  I still love you.

 

Here's an example off of my favorite atheist blogger, Greta Christina's website:

Quote:
Hey Greta-

One thing you might be discounting in your pre-conceived notions of us "God-fearing peeps" is that some of us really don't care if you believe in God or not.

Adroit's picture

"If you don't believe in God watch this"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m989v49WNsw

An old TEC 'friend' sent me this link on facebook.

 

To which i replied, "an atheist professor failed at breaking a piece of chalk, or this story is fake."

 

How am i even supposed to argue against someone who uses heart-warming stories as a basis for their belief?

 

 

 

TheJollyNihilist's picture

A Non-Christian's Twenty-One Theses

1. The Christian religion posits an all-powerful, omnipresent god who cares greatly about human beings as a whole and, indeed, who is concerned with each of us as individuals. Yet, in scrutinizing what is alleged to be god’s magnificent creation, the most conspicuous fact given by observation is god’s utter absence from it. If god exists, he is a silent, inert sluggard who cannot be bothered to make his existence manifest, despite the fact that, in biblical times, he was full of wonders, miracles and prodigies.

2. The Bible, which, according to Christians, is the inspired word of an omniscient god, does not contain the slightest shred of internal evidence to support that contention. Indeed, every single sentence in the entire tome could have been written by any first century commoner with the rare talent of literacy. Men’s ignorance in biblical times was so comprehensive as to be rather shocking; the Bible fully captures, and credulously regurgitates, the ancient ignorance of its time.

3. On Christianity, god is interested in human salvation, and the religion quite clearly holds that salvation is achieved through saving faith. It is interesting, then, that god has not been more proactive in disseminating this rather important point, given the fact that, even now, there are remote places that the Christian message has not yet penetrated. Christianity’s slow spread by the efforts of man indicates god, if existent, does not much care whether his message is heard.

paisleyartmachine's picture

2nd law of thermodynamics argument

Hello everyone. I am a self-described Atheist. Recently I have been attending meetings of our church group on my college campus. They have been hosting weekly sessions where they show videos from a series titled 'The Truth Project' which is a well produced and obviously well funded lecture series in which a christian apologetics 'professor' supports Christianity as academically valid. I was curious about the arguments that Christians might have so I thought that I would learn a little bit more about it.

I have been through about 5 weeks now, and am surprised by how convincing some of their arguments are. The one in particular that has been frustrating me is their argument about the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the entropy of the universe. They state that our universe is slowly reaching an equilibrium in which heat will spread out across the emptiness of space and create an even temperature which is too low to support life. They argue that this indicates that the universe must have infact had a beginning and that it is impossible for the universe to have simply always existed because the universe would have reached this equilibrium by now.

I am no student of astrophysics, and when I am presented with this argument I don't know how to respond. Is this true? Does science indicate that the universe is slowly reaching an equilibrium with no hope for the recollection of matter and energy to cause another big bang? Is it true that science indicates the universe had a beginning?

What does this mean?

Personal Experience

So I was reading the TEC thread (scary stuff) and it reminded me of a religious experience I had when I was a teenager.

 

When I was probably 13, my family experienced a series of tragedies that included the deaths of multiple relatives, most of them very young, some of them my friends.  My parents were worried about my mental state and so my dad took me to a church where a bunch of church men layed hands on me and prayed in the middle of an empty sanctuary.  Just me, like six guys and a bunch of prayer and physical contact.  I remember lots of tears and feeling unusual heat coming from their hands on my head and shoulders but not much else.  I don't think it ever came up again after that day.

 

So, touch of God or psychosomatic pressure?

Parallel's picture

I Renounce Agnosticism

After long contemplation I've considered all plausible scenarios and not one would make sense with the presence of a god or gods. Unless these questions can be answered I see no way of there being a god.

- What are gods made of? Atoms? Energy?*

- Where are gods? Be specific.*

- How do gods interface with our world?*

- Why do gods interface with our world?*

- Do gods think?

- What does a god look like?

- Does a god live?

- Does a god die?

- If a god dies, how is he omnipotent?

- Are gods omnipotent? If so, most religions are lies.*

- Are there many gods? Or is there one god?

* = Important.

I've done a post with questions like this before, but now I'm expecting answers. I'll add questions when I think of more. And hear me out theists (mainly Christians) humans are not divine.

Parallel's picture

OH I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!

Lovely title there eh? Well:

 

Why do we bother arguing with Christians and Creationists?

Lil' Disclaimer: I'm not regarding ALL theism, just Christianity.

If you're dumb enough to believe in Christianity you won't understand science and if you will, chances are you haven't read the bible fully. We have no means of convincing them they're idiots because they'll just stare blankly at you with a drool hanging out of their mouths and then when their brain starts working they come up with some completely contradictory snappy remark. I vote we give up on Christians all together, if they want to sacrifice their "free will" for fantasies I say let them.

Peppermint42's picture

God is Love

So this thought occurred to me while I was posting in another thread.  I had asked a theist if he only loved his family because God made him love them, and that kind of set off a spark in my brain.  So my question to theists is this:

 

If God is Love, then without him would we all be indifferent to those who currently mean the most to us?  Or worse, would we be actively harming them?

 

Think about it.

Science Reason Rationality's picture

Atheist Professor VS Muslim Student

Hello Everyone,

A Muslim just send an email to me with a long story in it. Please read the below shortened and edited except of a probable made-up debate between an Atheist professor of philosophy and a supposedly intelligent Muslim student. This is a story being spread around the Muslim community to strengthen their faith. I did not paste the full story here because the rest of it are not relevant and are simply psychological manipulation. I think it's better to get straight to the point and address the issue at hand. So please do help in sharing your thoughts, points and ideas on what would be the best possible educative response that I could give in return. Most appreciated...

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