I was have a conversation with a Theist earlier today, and I admit I was stumbling slightly(Only recently have I become a full-fledged Atheist) when he brought up the notion of our consciousness as strong evidence for the existence of a particular deity. This immediately struck me as absurd, and I brought up the fact that this is the result of us being the most intelligent, highly evolved species on this planet--this is what you would expect from such a species. But he refuted saying that no, this is a completely unique trait that no other species even comes close to having. I haven't done much research into this, but I thought that other primates had shown, to some degree, a sense of "self". (Showing some primate a mirror, ect)

Part of the "CLICK"

I am amazed to see how many "groupies" there are. The lord gave up himself for us. We are all sinners and nothing can change that. You may think it is cool to reject your savior but it will not benefit you. In the dark when your alone and scared or some thing bad happens you will call on the lord god and ask him for help. Think about it.

Many people that love you and that don't even know you are praying for you. You might not like that idea but we will continue to pray for you. Jesus is our savior and he loves you.

This is purely for curiosity, and my expectation is that athiests have an internally-consistent answer. Still, I'm curious.

Can an athiest provide evidence of the human mind, i.e. sentience?

I've taken part in only a handful of threads here, and the constant demand is evidence or proof of God - so far physical, observable evidence. I don't (yet) know of any physically observable evidence supporting sentience. I am assuming that atheists commonly accept sentience as fact.

So, where did he go wrong?

Well, it so happens that before arriving on the forums today and reading Glamourkat's whole thread on whether or not homosexuality is a choice, I also read (out of pure coincidence) about the experiments on flies to determine the possible "gay gene", which have been remarkably successful, in the sense that we now know for sure where the gay gene should be located, it's only a matter of time until we isolate it ("we" as in the people interested in actual development of humankind). So I'm pretty much started when it comes to gay people.

However, this has left me very very cold. In nature, we have quite a few better examples that should be discussed about. I'm talking about persons that are perfectly naturally developed, except for the sexual organs, which, for certain reasons, are the opposite of what should be (I'm not going to post a picture).

Really it seems every time I get near one I get dumber by the second.

Well, I got i nto a discussion with this girl in my drawing class.  I meantioned some of the nasty parts of the Bible, about the sexism, murder, bigotry, etc.  She says that since they were in the Old Testament, that they should be excluded since Jesus came by in the new one.  However, doesn't the Old Testament still have verses that Christians believe?  She told me she believed in Adam and Eve instead of evolution, and in the 10 commandments.  Correct me if I'm wrong (I might be), but weren't those meantioned in the Old Testament?  How can you toss out part of the book witho

 First off there is no evidence of life just an "Earth-like" Planet that could theoretically sustain life.

Hear me out. There are people that I'm sure you dismiss the claims of alien abductions/sightings etc... Now this got me to thinking, wouldn't it be irrational to assume that we're alone in the universe so to speak? With all the galaxies and stars and the like I feel it would be extremely improbable that there isn't a single planet in the universe besides us that can sustain and does sustain life.

Now this is the part that got me thinking. We may never know. Not in my generation, not in the one after that and so on. But aye there's the rub, we have no evidence for or against aliens and probably never will. But in a universe so big, is the absence of evidence evidence of absence? You can probably see where I'm going with this is the absence of evidence of God such evidence for absence? You may laugh and scoff at the alien abductioners or UFO sightings, but does that mean there is no alien live in our galaxy let alone Universe? So you debunk creationism, old Earth believers etc... is that really enough proof of God's absence?

Big News guys!... An extrasolar planet with earth-like conditions has been found! OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO BE RIGHT!

Smell that Intelligent Designers?! That's VINDICATION up your nostrils! BOO YAH!

Before I delve into trying to answer questions various people here have been asking, I'd like to know if there's currently anyone actively representing where I'd be coming from. (I tend to spread myself thin...) I noticed already that many of the things I'd argue against -that other christians hold- seem to be up as assumed notions for the debates. I assume thats because you/we are dealing with majority opinion here. Well, on to what I've got.

I'd like to know if there are any active christian posters who refute the modern notions of heaven, hell, souls, and a Jesus that serves as a facet of some schizophrenic god.  I'm happy to work with biblical text for those, even if only to provide you  ammunition against the christians pushing torture and how special they are
Historical questions/dialogue I can do a little with. I'm no expert. I actually have some questions of my own from things I've seen claimed here.(I'd love to grab that book I imagine some of it may be in, but I'm not doing the challenge hehe) I do have a little knowledge from my own study and the people I've studied under.
Logical and philosophical questions about God are in abundance here, and I can do those. Most of them start from arguments of ignorance on the believers part, though, and follow up with technicalities leading further away from reality.