OK, you dont believe in God;Do you agree that you have a spirit?
A part of you that will go on to eternity?
If the answer is Yes,how then do you justify not believing in God when the only two choices are believe in God and be with Him in paradise or not believe and be tortured by Satan?
2007-01-04 17:41:56 · 38 answers · asked by Maurice H 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why do you assume that those are the only two options? That's very closed-minded of you. Personally, I don't consider either of those options to be at all rational.
2007-01-04 17:43:28 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 10⤊ 1⤋
> Do you agree that you have a spirit? A part of you that will go on to eternity?
no.
> "If the answer is Yes,how then do you justify not believing in God when the only two choices are believe in God and be with Him in paradise or not believe and be tortured by Satan?"
How did you leap from having a spirit to the existence of a god and a satan, and a paradise and a hell, and the criteria for arriving at one or the other?
Maurice, you are not very good at thinking about things. Please stop.
2007-01-04 17:49:08 · answer #2 · answered by eldad9 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
As for myself, I'm agnostic. That makes a big difference in my answer. What I *believe* is simply a convenience to make sense of the world. What I *know* is that everything metaphysical is conjecture at best and (so far) unknowable. The short version is I understand the ramifications of moral and ethical behaviour (the basis of what religion is supposed to tell us), but I do not need a supernatural nanny to supervise me. I don't know what caused the spark of life, or why I'm self-aware. You don't either. The question itself is far from neutral. What I go by is simply what I can actually say, and that is I cannot presuppose knowledge. There is no proof of God, Satan, or any other supernatural item- no unicorns, no ESP, no auras, etc. What I can say is that mythology was used to explain how the world works, same as religion- after all, religion is simply a mythology that is believed.
What you want, by the structure of the question, is an argument that brings people to abandoning Atheism and embracing Christianity.(I am assuming you are Christian by the sentence versus a different religion. My apologies if I am incorrect; you didn't say.) Athiests want the same thing- if you believe faith healing is an example of the miraculous healing power of God, how come they can heal everyone but amputees? I say you're both barking up the wrong tree. We use the concept of a 'spirit' to help understand ourselves. The problem is we get sloppy with our speech and jump from theory to 'fact' without the typical intervention of proof.
2007-01-04 18:08:56 · answer #3 · answered by wanfuforever 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If those are the only two choices how does do you explain living in paradise on earth? For me a full moon and a fat J are my idea of paradise. To believe that God would allow me to be tortured for ever is disrespectful in my opinion. The God I know isn't concerned with whether or not my meaningless existence is spent worshiping or smoking, so why should I?
2007-01-04 17:51:38 · answer #4 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not an Atheist but I have to explain what I think about what you are asking...yes, we have a spirit but our spirit is our energy & when we die the energy may last for awhile around us but it will soon die with us unless you believe it goes into someone else such as a newborn child & then it will live on but still not inside you. That's what I think most Atheist think that or they just don't believe we have a spirit at all. It doesn't mean they hate God or worship Satan or anything like that. Just that our energy dies with us or that we don't have one. Everyone has a right to believe in their OWN beliefs without having someone push what they think is right on them~
2007-01-04 17:45:37 · answer #5 · answered by Jaysangl 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, I do not believe in a soul or spirit. I do not believe that there is a part of tus that continues forever.
Even if there is one, God & Satan are not the only choices -- to you they are because you hold them as truth. The hindus hold over 330 MILLION deities, and countless paradises and perditions, not to mention reincarnation.
2007-01-04 17:45:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Ahhhh yes. The Gospel of fear strikes again. The Good news of the eternal torturer. What a lovely and gentle loving way to coax the non-believer back into the gardens of paradise.
Do you have ANY clue that this wonderful sermon you just gave is precicely the thing keeping so many people from believing in your brand of God?
Keep it up and you'll be guaranteed empty seats forever!
2007-01-04 17:45:25 · answer #7 · answered by Deirdre H 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
1) It's atheist not athiest.
2) I, as an atheist, do not believe in the concept of a soul/spirit - we are only a set of chemical reactions - and thus I believe I (and everyone else) will not live on for eternity. When we die our chemical reactions stop. We are dead. We don't go anywhere else and there is no afterlife.
2007-01-04 17:50:06 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Maurice, you seem to be missing the main point. Those are NOT the only two choices at ALL. They just happen to be the only two choices YOU believe in. It's possible that when you die your spirit simply becomes absorbed by the universe and continues in an unaware state for eternity. You dont know. You WONT know until you die, and if there is no afterlife, you wont know then either. You can decide to believe the bible, your parents, your teachers, your minister,whoever, but you wont ever KNOW until it happens, or fails to happen.
P.S. I dont happen to believe in a 'spirit'. Thats the supernatural, and I just dont buy it.
2007-01-04 17:46:58 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
First of all, e before i ... atheist.
Second ... no, I don't agree I have a spirit. There is no proof, evidence of anything resembling a reliable fact to say I do. I have a functioning brain with active neurons, that will shut down and stop sending signals to the rest of my body when I die. That's it.
I don't have to settle with your two choices either. I don't believe in any God, and I don't believe in Satan. But then again, I also don't believe in unicorns, Santa Claus or the tooth fairy.
2007-01-04 17:44:19 · answer #10 · answered by Jaded 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I knew a guy that said he was an atheist and something happen one day and I heard him yell "Oh God!". I ask him how could he yell that if he didn't believe in God. He had no answer. Don't know what ever happen to him either. Wonder where Madeline Murray O'Hare is now. She founded the American Atheists and she was responsible for prayer being taken out of school. She, along with her Granddaughter and son disappeared from their home in Austin, Texas. I'm going to do research now, because I wonder if they ever found them? Now I'm curious!
2007-01-04 17:59:34 · answer #11 · answered by texasblueslady 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋