Atheists, I'm really begging you.?

Question

I have been asking a lot of questions both on Yahoo and just with people I know in general.. practically begging you to convince me of your argument. But I haven't heard anything compelling enough to sway me. All you have said so far is that there is no evidence to support Jesus or any other religion for that matter. Okay, that's fine. But that isn't enough to convince me, because there are other things that cannot be proven with physical evidence but are still in existence, and which many atheists believe in and probably practice daily, such as love. We can't prove it, but we feel it, and we know its there, even though there is no possible way to explain it. Comments?

Great answers, thank you. Can you focus more on the idea of love existing without physical evidence? It is my understanding that chemical reactions cause feelings of pleasure or displeasure, but I didn't know that a chemical actually makes you LOVE someone else. I don't believe that is true. How can a chemical in your brain determine whether you love, and beyond that, WHO you fall for? There have been people I have fallen in love with that I would have never expected to, because we didn't share the same beliefs or hobbies. These are the types of occurrences that I feel are not able to be explained by science but still happen.

Quote from answers:
EDIT: Even if science has not yet been able to fully explain a particular matter, why would you assume that it never will, especially since it is an ever expanding knowledge base, and brain chemistry is one of the areas where we are only now beginning to make headway?

To me, this sounds like a great argument FOR Christianity. Just because science cannot prove God exists now, why would I assume it never will? lol..

Another quote from answers:

Love is an emotion and deals with chemical reactions within your brain and it can be measured. Trying to compare love and the concept of a god is silly.

I would argue that from a Christian standpoint, the whole idea of God is based on LOVE. So, you can't say that comparing the two are silly. Some Christians would tell you if love exists, God exists. I don't love my mother because of dopamine. I love her because she is my mother and she treated me well.

Answer 1

Nobody should have to 'convince' you of atheism. It's a conclusion you must come to yourself.

You are still a sheep, looking for a shepard. Best of luck to you.

Answer 2

Actually, we CAN prove and explain love -- the neurological and chemical changes that occur in the body have been studied extensively and are well documented. And emotions and thoughts, while you may not be able to hold one in your hand like you can a rock or an apple, are more or less universal and are experienced the same by everyone.

But what of religion? If god or the spiritual realm exists, why can no two people agree on its properties or nature -- even among people who DO believe? Why do the tenets and rules of religions change over time to reflect the shifting cultures and mores of the societies that practice them? After thousands of years of examining the evidence, why can we not find ANY "miracle" or occurrence that didn't turn out to have a much more prosaic explanation, or that couldn't be faked just as convincingly? And more importantly, why do most organized religions actively discourage skepticism or a critical examination of the evidence? If the scripture is based on FACT rather than belief, shouldn't the results be the same whether you've made up your mind ahead of time or not?

Some others have recommended books like "The Blind Watchmaker" and "The Demon-Haunted World"; and if you sincerely haven't already closed your mind to new information, I'd strongly encourage you to take a look at them...

Answer 3

I'm sorry but Love is a very provable concept. I am quite certain you can find many examples of love in action. That is an observable phenomenon therefore you have proof it exists. Not so with God.

But more important than the lack of evidence is the improbability. It is not LIKELY there is a god. If a more LIKELY and simple reason for something exists (like natural selection rather than talking snakes and made from dust) then that is the logical reason to accept UNTIL evidence to disprove it or a MORE like explanation comes along (unlike religion which demands one continue to believe regardless of discoveries or new facts. The Earth goes around the Sun no matter how hard you believe it does not).

Answer 4

I am guessing from your question that you are a Christian. Why do you want so badly to be 'swayed'? I may be presumptuous but it really sounds to me like you already doubt your beliefs or you wouldn't want to be convinced that they aren't true. I could be wrong and perhaps you are just curious if we have a valid reason for not believing in God. If you are truly interested I suggest you read one of the following books because there is no way any of us (atheists) could explain to you in a paragraph on Yahoo Answers why we don't believe. There is such an overwhelming amount of reasons that I personally don't believe that I could probably write an entire book about it myself.

End of Faith by Sam Harris
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

(I suggest Sam Harris to start off with because many people don't really know how to take Dawkins.)

Answer 5

I don't need to convince anyone, but I'll present a couple arguments to you.

33% of the Earth's population is Christian. 1 Billion of those are Catholic. The other half is splintered between Orthodox, Anglican/Episcopal, mainline protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, JW, Mormon, etc.

Right off the bat you have 66% of the world denying Christ's divinity. And the rest of y'all can't get together and decide what about the Christian faith to privalege most.

No matter what you believe, this goes for everyone, you are in the overwhelming minority of people on Earth today and in an even more overwhelming minority of people who have ever lived.

Shear probability dictates that you are wrong, no matter what you believe.

Now, I present Homer Simpson's wager:

Homer said: " But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we just make God madder and madder."

Assuming at least one of the 6.8 billion people on Earth is correct about the question of God.

How do you know that you go to the right church, let alone subscribe to the right religion?

Which would anger a jealous God more: going to the wrong church, believing in the wrong faith, or being an atheist?

If probability dictates that you're gonna choose incorrectly anyway, why not choose the freedom of atheism?

Now, I know this argemnet can't convince *you* to be an atheist. But can it shed some light on why others might be atheist?

Another way to say it is, as soon as you understand why it is that *you* reject thousands of other gods/holy people, Zeus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Vishnu, Thor, Ba'al, Odin, Ra, etc, you can understand why I reject Yaweh. We are all atheists in one respect or another, I just go one God further in my disbelief.

Answer 6

You will never get the answers you want. Stop searching for "The Answer" and just live your life as a good person. If you want to believe in God, then do so. But you will never find your answers to science and god on yahoo answers. So stop stressing about it. If you are such a strong follower of the lord then why do you search for it to be denied. Atheists will never be able to give you the proof YOU want. Just like you will never be able to give them the proof THEY want that god is real. I think it's time to move on.

NH BARITONE!!! Holy Crap...good writing. You are gifted, now go write your novel. I loved your answer. I give you best answer and 100 thumbs up for that one.

You too RUN JAMES RUN!

Answer 7

nicely, you look generalising and making assumptions on your pals behalf. Why do you think of they have low self-self belief? only because of the fact they're Atheist? looks very assuming to me. There are some smug Atheists who're not quite begging for interest yet they certainly prefer to be heard, and there are some Theist... notice my wording right here some theists, who do not prefer to pay attention the certainty approximately particular components of the genuine international, because of the fact out of concern of their concept device being threatened . a number of those human beings won't pay attention to a notice of the evolutionary concept, because of the fact it is going against their non secular ideals, and then attempt to act so clever with the aid of guessing what its all approximately. Had they have listened in the 1st place, possibly they may well be a lot greater cautioned? If particular Atheists look "begging for interest", it somewhat is only for some particular theists to open their ears and pay attention the certainty. yet on the different hand, we don't precisely flow door to door merchandising Atheism or carry forth in the midst of the line approximately Atheism

Answer 8

Love is an emotion and deals with chemical reactions within your brain and it can be measured. Trying to compare love and the concept of a god is silly.

Answer 9

Love is a chemical reaction in the brain. Certain physical and emotional elements cause the reaction in the brain, hence the feeling of love.

There. I just explained love in layman's terms.


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The biological aspect of love:

Lust is the initial passionate sexual desire that promotes mating, and involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen. These effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months. Attraction is the more individualized and romantic desire for a specific candidate for mating, which develops out of lust as commitment to an individual mate forms. Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side-effects such as an increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years

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You have memories (physical and emotional elements) of your mother treating you well, hence you brain releases dopamine. If your mother treated you badly, it would release the anger chemicals. Yes that's how it works.

Answer 10

"because there are other things that cannot be proven with physical evidence but are still in existence, "

You don't see the direct contradiction in that? Really?

You're trying to have it both ways - to say "it can't be detected" and at the same time "we feel it and we know it is there".

In fact love can be detected and measured and love is real.
Gods, on the other hand, show no sign of their existence at all. "God" is not at all the same thing as "love".
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"Can you focus more on the idea of love existing without physical evidence?".

Well, no, because love exists WITH physical evidence. It's not simply having certain chemicals in the brain, but it goes along with having certain patterns of neural firings representing the loved person/object/animal/whatever.

You seem to simply assume - without reason - that science cannot explain love. I don't see any reason to assume that.

Science also explains why people believe in gods. The correct explanations of course do not require those gods to exist. We clearly understand why people would falsely believe that gods exist - it's no great mystery.
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"So, you can't say that comparing the two are silly. Some Christians would tell you if love exists, God exists".

I'm sure that some would, but of course they'd be wrong. Comparing the existence of love with the existence of God IS silly.

Answer 11

This question goes both ways. Ultimately, you believe what you believe. No one can convince you otherwise if you are set in your ways... but neither can you convince others. Why should they try to convince you, anyway? You are the one that says something exists. The burden of proof really falls on you. So I am a little confused what your intentions here are. You believe what you believe. Why do you even care what atheists think?