I hate to be like what every other Christian you probably see on this site is like. I hate to leave because I could argue all day against your points.
Isn't it a strange coincidence that practically all Christians who claimed to be "open to questions" and who would love to "argue all day against [our] points" have to leave all of a sudden and are just to busy to be able to continue posting if their arguments get shot down one after the other?
But that's irrelevant since it's pretty apparent everyone on this site is already very determined in their beliefs
I seriously wonder what you expected? That people would convert en masse?
That we never ever heard these arguments before and that there would be no responses countering said arguments?
We're open minded but that does not mean we gobble your arguments up without thinking. Open mindedness doesn't mean that you can't defend your point of view.
and it's obvious that many (not all) just have a blatant hate for religion/God in every way.
And here it's getting ridiculous. Nobody is hating God here. We don't believe in God. We don't hate entities we deem fictional.
I'd rather say that you are not used to having your arguments countered and properly examined. Posting on an atheist board certainly leads to different results than posting on a christian board where at least half the thread will consist of "You're so right! Bless the Lord!" no matter what you actually said as long as the last line reads either "so God did it" or "that proves Jesus was real."
And, let's face it, your arguments were lousy. I'm not even saying this in a mocking way; they were simply bad. Your tries at presenting extra-biblical contemporary sources for the existence of Jesus are more than enough evidence of that.
First you list a Christian apologist and saint as nonbeliever who backed up the empty tomb story (Gee...I still wonder how that particular mix-up could have happened...

) then as your second attempt you try to sell us a medieval Jewish parody of the gospel as "contemporary" and "historical" evidence and last but not least you try to drop the bomb on us with accounts of Tacitus and Josephus (of which the former is dubious and of which the latter is a known forgery).
And you seriously wonder why your arguments were met with contempt at best?
Claiming that Muhammad, Jesus, and Siddhartha are all made up is just ridiculous.
I think you have not understood my argument at all.
I even further clarified it in my response to Azdgari.
Most atheists will not deny the possibility that an actual human was the basis for a particular myth but there is no evidence that the aforementioned religious figures existed
as described by the respective religious texts.
Even if all these people were real that wouldn't make any of their religions true, but people feel the need to try and disprove their very existence because of their strong ill-will toward religion.
Emphasis added.
I'd rather call it a strong determination to find out the truth and reality. Just because many people believe something as a given does not mean it is that way.
You base your life on ancient writings. Doesn't that alone warrant that these writings are subjected to the same, if not even greater scrutiny than "normal" historic texts that make extraordinary claims?
This clearly marks someone who has lost all open-mindedness and true research and resorted to accepting and investigating anything that could even possibly show religion isn't true.
Quite the contrary.
It is a sign of open-mindedness to look at all kinds of research and not just accept the status quo.
And I can't help but wonder what it says about your open-mindedness when all you brought forth in defense of your position are forgeries, parodies and biased sources and you run when you get called out for every single one of them?
It's not searching for the truth, it's just finding ways to claim God isn't the truth.
If there existed scientific evidence in favor of God's existence I'd happily present that, too.
There are people on this site whom I feel would have a reasonable conversation/debate and be open-minded. But far too many post comments that aren't even worth responding to and that attack parts of Christianity they know nothing about. I understand not believing in God, but attacking a religion you don't actually understand is just sad.
Let's be honest here, even the posts you responded to you haven't actually answered.
That you are unable to answer the questions, which in turn makes the discussion uncomfortable for you, is not our fault.
At least search for the truth and not additional ways to insult people.
Did it ever occur to you that we are doing just that? And that "the truth" does not happen to be what you believe in?
Which incidentally might also be the reason why you find the responses to you so outrageous?
I know that some users are going to make fun of me and claim they hurt my feelings, but you didn't. Go ahead and make fun I really don't care.
For someone who doesn't care you certainly tried very hard to write a post that says you actually do.
I enjoy debating and seeing other people's beliefs but when people aren't even willing to be reasonable it's just frustrating.
I'm sorry that I have to correct you on this but there is a difference between "being reasonable" and "being gullible."
To say it bluntly, you expected us to be the latter. You could not hold yourself up in this debate because practically all your arguments have been shot down rather quickly.
I don't doubt that you enjoy debating but I do doubt that you have debated with many people before who have insisted on you backing up your arguments properly or who called you out on the fallacies you use. The way you handled replies pointing out such things is evidence for that.
And I would stay on despite the frustration but unfortunately I don't have enough time. Maybe I'll comment on posts occasionally but I just didn't realize the time committment holding up this post would require. I'm sorry to bail on you guys (and girls) but my time here is over
Happy camping!
When you started here I thought you could bring something new to the table. After all good Christian members are few and far between.
Well, let's just say that after your "mistake" with Justin Martyr I already knew it would be disappointing. And that you "suddenly" discovered you don't have enough time to continue posting here did not really come as a surprise.