to atheists.... NOT A BASHING QUESTION?

Question

first i am not trying to convert or bash please dont take it that way. i have a friend that is atheists and he has given me some answers but i only know one so i will ask you....
a lot of itmes you all give christians answers such as, where is the science, why doesnt paryer work? have you evern SEEN god, things like that. well i knwo that some of your questions are easily answered just by having faith. but some can not be. so i am asking you to tell me things of why christianity is not real. i woudl also liek to say that i am a christian and have been for many years, i am not giving up my faith, just wondering what the atheists think...

and if you would like a reply with my answers just ask, i wont bother you if you dont ask

wow i am blown away from the answers here. i can make sense of just about all of them. thank you all for your information and thoughts.

Answer 1

To put your mind at rest, I don't personally feel bashed. But to answer your question, we would deny that the questions you pose are "easily answered" by having faith. I mean, if it works for you, then great, but having faith BY DEFINITION means that you believe in the complete absence of anything that could be called evidence. Fine. But atheists can't do that. And it's not that Christianity isn't "real". It's just that we have no reason to believe in a god. We don't need the threat of punishment to behave in moral ways and we're perfectly capable of defining our own moral path. The absence of evidence for god in combination with the MASSES of evidence for non-religious explanations for our existence puts God out of the picture. We don't believe in God because he offers no evidence for his existence and serves no purpose as an imaginary being. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Here's my issue with it: the deity in the Bible is not very loving. Oh yes, I know the passages where it says he is, but if you look at the things he does and way he sets things up, it doesn't jibe. That was what caused me to question it in the first place.

My personal opinion is that all religions, including Christianity, have some great wisdoms in them worth taking to heart. But I don't believe in deities, rather in a spiritual energy or essence for which deities are metaphors, created in an attempt to define the indefinable.

There are some concepts that transcend all the rules, strictures, and tenets of religion, and are universal human ideas. These things are from what you would say is God.

But I think the more we try to define God, the farther we get from the truth.

I have absolute faith and trust in Love. If you see that as God, you're right. But I'm not going to personify it and say it walks around saying this and that. It doesn't work.

Answer 3

The Bible has stories in it about talking serpents, talking donkeys, suicidal pigs, men rising from the dead and floating off into the sky, walking on water, a world wide flood, the sun and moon standing still, and on and on. It's clear to me, these things do not happen. A bunch of anonymously written ancient texts recording rehashed pre-existing legends makes an absurdly noncompelling argument.

Next, the god of the old testament is more wicked than almost any human who has ever lived, and goes bipolar lovey dovey in the NT. Even if there were gods, it makes no sense for them to so irrational or to obsess over the minutia of human behavior.

Regarding faith, why should faith be considered valid in religious contexts when it is universally considered stupid in every other context? Faith is not a valid mean of determining a position.

Finally, and most importantly, if you study the history of religion, you will clearly see that Christianity evolved from astrotheology. Are we honestly to believe that the constelations are gods?

Answer 4

Respectfully I'm afraid i must disagree with you on one major point. Faith is not an answer, it's something you hold on to in the absence of an answer.

What atheist's think should be inconsequential to you as a steadfast christian. Our position is that there is no evidence to support the hypothesis of any gods, and there is plenty of evidence to be found that renders god unnecessary. One of the biggest gripes i have in Christianity is it's holy text. Take a good hard read through it. All i have been able to glean from it is egotism, violence, and sketchy moral role models not the least of which being god himself.

Take a look at the book of Job for instance. Christians always praise this text because it reassures them that no matter what god will always be on their side as long as they have faith... I see it in quite a different light. Satan may be the instigator in this story, but god is the real criminal. The whole premise of the story is the grand egotism of god and how, when threatened, god will resort to the most despicable of acts to prove his point to someone who's view should be inconsequential to him, namely Satan. Satan kills Job's family... but only after permission is granted by god. And while we are on the subject of killing in the bible god lays quite a bit of smack down in the bible... over 1 million deaths can be attributed to this character, in contrast, I've already named the handful of people Satan is responsible for killing... and god had his hand in that cookie jar as well.

You have to weigh the implications of your religion against what you know to be true, and what you know to be decent and moral. The morality of the bible is staggeringly appalling.

Answer 5

I would really suggest you seek the atheist forums. not beause I am unwilling to answer but that this is a limited forum and your question deserves more respect than that.
history of the Bible http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm
A general statement http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/
a good start on evolution http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/home.php
another strongly worded view of Jesus
http://skeptically.org/newtestament/id13.html
this is a logical analyses of the arguments that are usually presented http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm
some satire http://www.pirromount.com/jesus/commercials.html
If you are feeling persecuted, you are not alone http://www.faithfreedom.org/index.htm
If you look at even a few of these then you will be ready for Invisible Pink Unicorns, Purple Oysters of Doom or 6,000 year old Flying Spaghetti Monsters. By that time you will have links to every forum you might have an interest in.

And just for fun;
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=090c3bbef175fe5d3025122dde3cd323.912535&cache=1

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHpkVStpw4U&mode=related&search=

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==2456

If any of these offend you then I appologise right up front. That is not the intent. If I tied you into the full bore atheists you might hit the same unforgiving extremists that are everywhere else. Best to be prepared. You might also want to look up the FSM, The Invisible Pink Unicorn. etc. They are all spoofs that draw their power from pointing out how illogical arguments about religion are by using the same arguments to support totally absurd statements. but you should read them and make contact for yourself.

Answer 6

I'm not an atheist; I'm more of a deist, but I want to answer:

The things Christianity asks of you are based on using your imagination to convince yourself that Christianity is true. You have no more "proof" about what you believe than Muslims have in what they believe, or Native Americans have in their beliefs, or any other faith: everything you think is true, although based on a book, is between your ears. You are expected to simply have faith and not question things too deeply, to just content yourself with the belief that God knows best and that he isn't supposed to be understandable by the human brain. You believe God has a personal, loving relationship with human beings yet never makes himself known to anyone (literally), never communicates to anyone (clearly), and expects everybody to believe in some sort of supernatural awareness of his presence which you have to convince yourself is there. You believe God created a hell and allows souls to go there, yet you can't see the terrorism in that doctrine or comprehend that "God" really can't be anything like you imagine him to be, that you've been conditioned to believe.

This is the part that turned me off Christianity bitterly: while pretending with intense passion that its deity is perfect beyond words, in reality and in truth it paints God as an evil entity hiding in the dark.

My two cents.

Answer 7

It is unfair for non-christians or non-religious people alltogether to have to defend their position on being an atheiest. Why? Because there has been no proof of religion. You can say Christ existed - but before him, You had Jews in in the area. And in the rest of the world, you had Hinduism. Then Christianity came around. Soon after that, Muslims came around.

But all the major world wars were caused by religion, including 9/11. Some of the biggests issues these days - Homosexuality, Stem Cell, Abortion, DARFUR (africa), 9/11, Taliban . . .. all this stems from religion.

Christians want impose their belief onto others. Atheists don't care to impose athiesm. The Framers of the constitution never wanted churces and states to fraternize. But abortion is WRONG apparently and stem cell research is WRONG. Same sex marriage is WRONG. Gay people adopting is WRONG.

So, when all this is imposed on people, esp atheists, its hard to sit back and say "ohhh, o.k., Christianity is the path of life, but never mind Catholics caused 9/11 by the pope and his crusades trying to erradicate muslims". And this religion, which no body can agree upon, whould then dictate my life and what my wife can do with her body? Or who my gay friend can marry?

Answer 8

There are a select few of atheists on here that give the rest of us a bad name. These are the people who are just as intolerant as the next fundamentalist christian. We all know that everyone in the world cannot agree with one another. Our beliefs will never be the same. Which is why we must tolerate eachother and quit pushing our beliefs onto others, and just tolerate them. If they want to believe there is a God, let them......but they should respect our lack of belief also.

Answer 9

Why should we have to do that?

Simple logic should tell you what can't be answered and what can be.

-A stick that turns into a snake.
-A child born of a virgin woman
-water that turns into wine
-a man walking on water
-the parting of a sea
-a man coming back to life three days after he died
-there are more but you get the point

What part of that is logic to you? What makes you think any of thats possible? Instead you point fingers and say things like "God did it" so that it makes sense to your own head. Even though none of it's possible.

You already know the answer to the question you asked. You just don't want to admit it.

Answer 10

In as much as I was not around to see how everything came into being (and neither were you),I say, "I don't know ..... YET!" To assume that some god, my less than intellectual ancestors made up, instantaneously farted the universe into being, is absurd. Faith is the excuse to believe the absurd, it is the excuse for ignorance and if ignorance is bliss, religionists must be having never-ending explosive orgasms.