To the theists: Why don't you...?

Question

...exhibit the same about of skepticism or use the same critical thinking skills towards your religious beliefs as you do towards every other aspect of your life? You wouldn't "take it on faith" when I tell you there's an invisible dragon in my garage that's going to eat up all the bad kids in my neighborhood, would you? You wouldn't just loan your life savings to a stranger without some sort of collateral or a signed contract with terms for paying the money back, would you? You wouldn't just accept that there's a magical unicorn who's going to bring you good luck if only give ME some money to buy him some apples to eat, would you? Then why are you so convinced a god you've never seen is going to burn you forever in a place on no map that no one's ever been to if you don't listen to his son, whom no contemporary historian had ever made mention of and about whom he have no firsthand knowledge -- only hearsay accounts from dubious sources?

Answer 1

Carol M said it all they choose to delude themselves because they don't like the facts, but they must know deep down that it's BS
as for Tube Dude's evidence, more delusion I reckon!

Answer 2

A God we've never seen??? I am using my critical thinking when I view the world around me: there's no way in this entropic mess of a world that we're an accident. I'm studying science and you just can't convince me that I am a product of chance and am therefore an accident. With all the stuff that has to be just right or not at all, it's easier for me to believe in an all-powerful being, who's mighty hand is clearly seen all around us, than in a chance occurence for which there is no evidence.
Somethings we just accept in faith and trust. If you had a daughter and she needed a loan, you wouldn't make her sign some official paper that promised she'd return the money in a certain amount of days, right? Because you trust her since she's proven her trustworthiness to you before. God has proven to me that He exits and that He is trustworthy; I can't ignore the evidence that I see. Not everything can be studied by science...
not evolution, not creation, and maybe not even God since we can't see His physical being, but that doesn't mean we can't believe in what we can't see. Denying faith denies evolution.

Answer 3

I did, long time ago. Mind you, I was an atheist long before I was a Christian. I, too, thought Christians were brainwashed, mindless, idiotic, ignorant, hateful, and unlearned. I learned every question I could find to throw them off base, to get them to question their beliefs, and to get them to stop believing in such nonsense.

And I took the words of scientists for fact without question. It was always taught to me, "Evolution is true", "The Big Bang is true", "Haeckel's Theory of Recapitulation is true" (mind you, this was only about 15 years ago when I was taught that), "Dead matter to living matter is false, but non-living matter to living matter is true". I had no reason to question it, because those who were knowledgable said it was true.

When I was an atheist, I did a science report debating whether Creationism or Evolution was true. At the time, I hated Christianity with a passion, and wanted so much to prove that Evolution was right, I wound up not including various facts that would have made Creationism to seem a viable conclusion. In the end, Creationism had a stronger arguement than Evolution... but I threw out all the major Creationism facts I had, and filled in the 'blanks' of evolution with mere conjecture.

I did all the critical thinking I needed to about my religion way back when I was an atheist, when, 14 years ago, I too was cutting and pasting the "100 Objections to Christianity" so often I started knowing it by heart. And even now, I still question, and I will always question. The difference is, is I don't shut out the right answers anymore simply because I don't like them. I look at them carefully, and see whether it's simply a popular belief, or whether it holds water.

Oh, I know of at least four contemporary historians who did indeed make mention of, and had first hand witness accounts of Jesus walking about on the earth : Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Sure, they may be 'biased'... but if you got to see what they saw, and you were a historian, wouldn't you be a little biased too? I mean... I would think that even if the (forgive the pompous intro) Superfluously and Scientifically Respectable, Pliny the Elder-Brother of the Younger wrote "and I saw Jesus breaking the loaves and fishes, and feeding the multitude. No mere man could do this. He must be the Son of God as was proclaimed", an atheist would be *really* hard pressed to believe he's not biased. ...but yet, a simple document of Jesus' existance would not suffice either, since it is a real rarity for an atheist to come to believe in Him just because Josephus or Tertullius or whomever says that He existed.

Now, lemme ask you this. It seems you want to make an arguement from silence. If you are an atheist and supposed rational thinker, then I can assume that you believe in evolution. If that is so, then I can safely assume that you believe in alien life (for where there is liquid water, there is life).

Now, given that scientists have discovered over 200 planets, and an unknown abount of planets exist in this massive universe of ours, that is 10-15 billion light-years across, if not more, logic insists there must be other life out there (since, if there is life on one planet, and an uncountable number of planets out there, there must be life on another, if not many more).

But because you have never seen such alien life, it, therefore must not exist. Because you have never seen alien technology, it too must not exist. Because you have never heard alien language, it too must not exist. Because no respected scientist has seen one either, it must not exist, and any scientist who has indeed seen one must be called into question and doubted for their reliability, irregardless of their respect or not (and once there is a shred of doubt or human failure, they have lost all respect).

And with this in mind... SETI keeps on looking for life, though it must certainly not exist because it has not been seen by just a handful of people's belief.

And trust me... I am convinced that God is real, not because I can see Him, but because I know Him. If the unrepentant masses of mankind could see Him, they'd do the same thing they did to Jesus... look Him straight in the face and say, "You're a liar".

Answer 4

Do you honestly believe that we haven't given everything a skeptical eye? Why do you think we are so different than you? You're also not considering the interaction we experience with God. I know you chock it up to coincidence. Not all of us were born Christians or believers. Some of us used to be athiests. We aren't stupid. We aren't uneducated. We didn't all start out with happy lives and a problem free upbringing. We've found and experienced something you haven't. Why fault us?

Answer 5

Love = God = Heaven

Ever felt love, in a large way love is God. I can feel him and I can feel when I do wrong. Although my Priest has educated us that this is your conscience working, and your conscience is not always in line with Gods plan.

Absence of Love = Hell = Devils domain

I do not claim to understand serial killers. However, TV has brought to my attention that a serial killer will not instantly become a serial killer. He (she in rare case) will first kill things like bugs --- stepping away from love . Once this thrill is gone, they will kill animals; small at first, then increasing in size (moving further away from love). Eventually, they will try to kill a human (VERY far away from love). They will repeat getting bolder each time. Then they tempt society by purposefully leaving tracks to their identify. This is because they're begging to be brought back to the innocence that they once had before purposefully killing bugs. They long to stop living away from love, and then use their actions to get attention so they can experience love.

This is only showing the "Here and now".
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I do take religion as I do other things in my life. I have lived without it. Compaired it to other religions (but never EVER concidered leaving the Catholic Faith), and somewhere in my soul, I find me happiest when I take the steps provided by Catholic Church. This opens my awareness to what is outside of the here and now (which is like saving in my retirement account).

Answer 6

I do. DON'T GENERALIZE!!! And yes I would risk my money for a stranger. Actually I risked my rep and some money. I believe in unicorns and dragons...just not your interpretation of them.
OH and BTW I question my faith every day and come up with the same answer: liberal Catholic is the faith for me. So why don't you ask a sensible question??

():-D
shadowgirl

Answer 7

There have been many who have had mystical encounters. The only way to approach the answer is through those who have gone before. Spiritual encounters require a degree of openess and receptivity to being one with God.

Answer 8

Contemporary historians?? Like the ones contemporary to Christ?
The extra-Biblical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is verified by the following contemporary historical evidence sources; Flavius Josephus, Thallus, Phlegon, Pliny the Younger, Cornelius Tacitus, Suetonisu and Mara Bar-Serapion. You can verify more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ at http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/rhjesus.html

Answer 9

Because I choose not to, for me it is a whole other aspect of my life other than logical, critical thinking. Faith is by definition believing what you can not see, touch, or taste, or reason. Sometimes I choose to use logical critical thinking, others I choose to act on faith.Why don't I ? just a choice.

Answer 10

That's the problem with making sweeping blanket statements based on ignorant assumptions: you end up looking a little silly.