Seriously, guys, can't you see anything ridiculous about your faith?

Question

I really wish that you believers were "faking it" and didn't believe what you say you do. I can't understand how anyone could be satisfied with the intellectually bankrupt state of "believer". Aren't you even interested in thinking for yourself? Why are you content with letting people dictate to you what to think? (parents, clergy, the bible, etc)

Answer 1

I am an atheist but really, drop it. Let them believe in whatever.... it won't kill you. What if someone were to say:

"Seriously, guys, can't you see anything ridiculous about having no faith?"

The question is very closed minded.

Answer 2

We have every reason to base our thinking on the Bible's truth. The Christian God was very careful to prove Himself when He had the Bible written. It is different from every other book. In it He predicts the future. No other book does this with accuracy. God names names, dates and places so we can check out history and see that He was right. He even gave us the very words someone would say centuries before the fact!

If you were God and you wanted to communicate through a book, you would put things in there only a God could know, such as the future. If you wanted everyone to know that you were going to come in person, you would explain what you were like so you would be recognized. You would put in the city of your birth, where you grew up, what kinds of deeds you would do, your temperament, your purpose, even how you would die.

God did all that in the Old Testament. It was all in book form 400 years before Jesus, the Son of God, came. The New Testament gospels follow Jesus and point out some of the places where He fulfilled the prophecies.

“Daniel 11, written in the 6th century B.C., gives an amazingly thorough account of Alexander’s Grecian kingdom, divided first into four competing factions after his death. It predicts details of the struggle between the Ptolemy and Seleucid empires for a period of 160 years, right down to the advent of the Roman Empire. That is why the skeptics used to claim that the book of Daniel could not have been written before 164 B.C., but now we have proof of a much earlier writing text.

“The prophet Isaiah (44:28) gave the name of a king not yet born and of a kingdom not yet instituted and of an event that would not take place for another 150 years. He predicted that a king named Cyrus would commission the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus did come to the throne in Persia, and in the first year of his reign in 538, he issued a decree that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt. (See 2 Chronicles 36:22-Ezra 1:1-3. This prophecy described in the Bible is confirmed by the discovery of a Babylonian inscription.)

“Daniel actually gave the time when Christ would come into the world and die. Daniel (9:24) predicted that Messiah would be cut off (die) 483 Hebrew years after the issuing of the Persian decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Artaxerxes Longimanus issued that decree on March 5, 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8), granting the Jews permission to rebuild Jerusalem’s city walls. This, too, is confirmed by archeological discoveries. Four hundred eighty-three prophetic years (360 days to a year) and seven days later, Jesus was crucified as predicted, How could a prophet accurately predict the date of Messiah’s death hundreds of years before it took place, unless he was the ‘voice’ of God as he claimed?”

Thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, we know with certainty the above prophecies date before the occurrence of actual prophesied events.

He has proven His existence perfectly and wonderfully. The Christian God is the true God.

Answer 3

Unfortunately there are a lot of weak people in the world. Many uncreative people flock to preachers on the pulpit. Also most people don't like things they cannot explain, hence another need for religion. They don't like not being able to explain what made the universe or what is beyond it, or how it came to be, or if it's a small part of something so immense, the human mind can't begin to fathom. Religious people don't like those unanswered questions

I totally feel and can see where you are coming from especially with all the exposed scandals running rampant in religious organizations

Personally I think it's insulting the way they always represent god as a human figure or some angry man in the guy, and they also show renderings of his son as a a 1960's hippie. How dignified and respectable, and polite is that? --- NOT

Answer 4

1. No. I don't see anything ridiculous about my faith.
2. I do think for myself. That's why I was a skeptic for most of my life, but wasn't satisfied with what I had found. I CONTINUED to search, even after I became an atheist. I kept my mind open to ALL possibilities.
3. No one dictates to me what to think, how to think, or WHY I think that way. If I hadn't found sufficient evidence to support the Bible, I wouldn't believe in it.

Have a little respect. Lots of intelligent people are religious.

Answer 5

I should just ignore this question - but I'm going to say a few things. You are incredibly arrogant and ignorant for presuming that all believers are "intellectually bankrupt." I know a lot of extremely educated, curious, and probing believers who most certainly can think for themselves. To make judgments about ANYONE'S belief system is bigoted. It takes all kinds, and you should respect and celebrate differences. Maybe you could even learn something. Also - you give nothing to substantiate your opinion. What is ridiculous about the faith to which you so caustically refer? You aren't asking a question - you're trying to make a point. If you had asked a specific question - something about the faith that doesn't make sense to you - I could respect you.

You are small-minded.

Answer 6

Why do you think that believers are intellectually bankrupt? Or that we do not think for ourselves?

Don't we all, to some degree or another, follow someone else's ideas? Are you not a fan of Dawkins or Hume or some other atheist or non-Christian?

Your argument is lame because it appears all you are interested in is insulting us out of our ignorance; shaming, if you will. Are you truly curious about faith? I would like to think you are, but your question suggests otherwise.

I hope one day that you will open your mind to a true discussion about this. If you are right about faith, then you have nothing to fear from a debate. Until then, please leave your insults at the door.

Answer 7

We all have a variety of things dictating our lives-what we think, what we feel, what we eat and how we dress. Advertising is a muliti billion dollar industry that uses psychologists to advise them on what techniques to use to target different types of audiences to buy their products. Films and television also use psychological techniques and manipulation to engage the audience. The question is who do you want telling you what to do and for what purpose. I can guarantee that the person asking this question is being manipulated like everyone else by the media, entertainment industry, advertising and government, not so that they have a happier life but often to make money for other people. This type of manipulation is far more subtle than religions who are more in your face so to speak and for the most part is for the benefit of making the individual happier. You don't have to give money to churches etc but can feel good about yourself because of religious teaching. The advertising industry etc doesn't care how you feel as long as you do what they want you to do, buy, buy, buy.

Answer 8

religion and spirituality is usaly set up in in the subconciose at an early age and may manafest at eny age during a psycotic break as a religiose or spiritual experiance brought on by eny number of psycilogical trigers.
your question is a waist of time and would just be the start of pointless argument.
just accept people, religion is a part of many of them,you can not just run round expecting people to chainge unless you have some thing better on offer.
i would preffer the compny of chanting monks or singing cristians to that of the mean and sarcastik who,s egoes are built on looking down on others.

Answer 9

If you don't believe in the existence of a supreme being, it is your choice.
Choice?
Isn't that what the God gave us to begin with?

How can someone exercise 'choice', that is given by God, yet turn around an claim that their benefactor of this ability doesn't exist? Sounds a little eccentric to me.

If you point towards Darwinism, then why are there still apes?
Why can I still step on ants?
What caused these species to simply stop evolving into the rulers of this planet and use us for food?

It is questions like this one that do nothing more than entrench my belief in a creator.

Answer 10

Perhaps you didn't mean to, but I think you've indicated the main problem. If you seek God, you are likely to find a moral authority that will often oppose what you want to do. You want to be free of that authority, be it God or parents, so that you can live your life as you want.

Consider the possibility that you have subconsciously manipulated your intellectual position so that you won't have that authority over you.