Are most atheists as rude as so many of the posters on this forum? Or is it the forum's anonymity that makes it easy to belittle others? Maybe it is just because we cannot communicate our tone of voice very effectively through computer text? Or maybe it is people who are weak in their personal lives but OH MY they can be outspoken on the internet? Or possibly ALL forums are full of vocal people wanting to make themselves heard, and I have just not been on forums much?
No one is really being rude. They are being direct because they have done this fifty times in the last week alone. You see all theists really only have a few arguments that they use to support their claims. All of these arguments fall into one of three categories. They are either irrational, based on ignorance, or really, stunningly stupid. No theist has yet put up an argument that doesn't fall into these categories, at least not one that I've ever heard. Yet they keep repeating these same arguments over and over again constantly as if saying them enough times will alter reality enough to make them not pointless delusion. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. The arguments are as worthless now as they have ever been.
So what you get with atheists, is you get a group of people that have to be subjected to the same inanity day after day, as theists try to prove their beliefs with the same arguments that have been overturned for years. Everytime it is definitively shown how completely wrong they are, they shake their heads and repeat the arguments over again with no evidence for why they should be believed or taken seriously. Then after they've been shot down repeatedly they resort to dodging and making circular statements and otherwise wasting time.
It's like a really annoying game of whack-a-mole.
So after a while you start to develop a noticeable lack of patience for dealing with such things. Especially when it's obvious that the person you're talking to isn't going to offer anything more intelligent or well thought-out than the ten others you talked to that day. So, to put it bluntly, I and many others lack a certain degree of patience for this sort of thing. Especially when the person makes it clear that they're not going to be any different than every other theist you talk to.
Not all Christians are like the few vocal (can I say extremists) that are on the news.
It's more than a few. If it was just a few then they couldn't cause as much trouble as they do.
We don't believe in bombing abortion clinics or protesting outside the church service of a soldier killed at war.
You do however, all support the same belief system that they feel gives them the licence to do those things. You support the mentality of ignoring reality in deference to a desire to believe in the irrational and illogical. You pick and choose what reality means rather than taking an honest approach at looking at the world. You favour a system of beliefs in which it is impossible to determine fantasy from reality and puts every idea, no matter how stupid or dangerous on the same level. The difference where it matters is actually very slight.
He was a friend to all including women, children, prostitutes, thieves, liars.
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. — Luke 19:27 1
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war”, “His eyes were as a flame of fire”, clothed in a vesture dipped in blood“, and “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”" Revelations 19
Jesus was a racist man who preached hatred and violence. Jesus messages of love where only for jews in regards to his fellow jews. For anyone who would not follow him or who was not a jew his was a message of utter hate and contempt. Let's do a little experiment. Go through the new testament and count how many times you see a non-believer portrayed or even talked about in a positive light.
In fact, most Christians I know would not bemoan a life of Christian living if, when they died, they found out there was no God and they were slipping into a big black hole of nothingness.
So what? So some people are comfortable living their lives in a comfortable lie. That has no basis on whether the belief is true. It certainly doesn't make it any less reasonable to believe it in the first place. Also this is a supposition on your part. You don't actually know how they would feel if they found out at the end that they had wasted their lives like that. They don't know either since they already believe it won't happen. It's not something that one can really say until it's happened. So again, what was your point?
Living a Christian life is fulfilling and a joy--no regrets.
Delusions often seem fulfilling until you realize that they're delusions. More to the point, lots of things can be fulfilling. You're stil not making any sort of point. You're just dancing around spouting completely meaningless platitudes that are entirely subjective.
Of course if non-believers end up at the portal of death and find out there IS a GOD, well, I would expect there might be a few regrets (no scientific proof of regrets, just my theory).
Pasqual's wager has already been done by the others so I won't bother. The one thing that I will point out that you have illustrated beautifully the basis of your entire faith. Fear.
There is nothing in this statement of yours but the implication of a threat. It is what you are basing your life on. The fear of what might happen. However what if the Wiccans are right? Or any of a thousand other religions? Why don't you fear those consequences as well?
Fear is basically the only weapon that religion has in it's arsenal.
Personally, I don't worry about it. Because I think that there's something worse than hell, and religion embodies it. Capitulation. That, in my mind is worse than hell. Knuckling under simply because I was terrified would be a true death as far as I'm concerned. If god has proof I'm always open to it and I'll judge it fairly. But I won't simply accept what is told to me because a bully says he'll bloody my nose.
God is not a myth because he didn't answer your prayers or because He doesn't act like you think He should.
No god is a myth because he doesn't act like he himself says that he should.
And you know, there's that whole utter lack of evidence thing as well.
"If God is real, why do people suffer? If He loves people, why are children molested and people murdered and children die?" If we as finite people with limited knowledge cannot understand how other finite people with limited knowledge behave, how could we even assume we understand how God works?
But you do assume to understand how god works. You've made assumptions already and all over the place. You assume that he sends people to heaven and hell. You assume that god tells you to do certain things and not to do others. If god cannot be understood, then everything you believe is meaningless. By your own admission you don't actually know if it's true, nor can you ever know.
The same udnerstanding that you use to tell us that we can't understand god is the same understanding that you use to form the basis of your entire faith. So which is it?
