As an agnostic I see both sides, atheist seem to aswell, why dont christians?

Question

ok just off the answers to my last question, it seems to me that atheist know their stuff, they can see it drom both sidea, so why don't christians do the same, do christians ever really look at it from the side of the opposition?

I call myself an agnostic atheist

Answer 1

you are right about most atheist, but not all. like every other thing in life there are idiots and there are extremist and then there are people who can empathise with each others perspective, but it is equal on both sides. I have lots of Christian contacts and quite a few christian friends away from YA. I don't think of myself like a proper Atheist, in as much that through science we can't rule out the possibility that the big bang was not caused by an Omnipotent being of some sort, we don't have the answers, thus we can not make assumptions. What I do know is that the God of the bible is pure fiction, the bible itself is the word of man, therefore I am agaisnt its power of influence on my fellow man. I always say that if you believe in a God, he will believe in you. You don't need religion to have that relationship.

religion has become a profit based organisation, their path to enlightenment is filled with pitfalls and dead ends, follow your own path it is the only way

some christians are rude, some atheists are rude, some atheist are rude to the rude christians, and some christians are rude to the rude atheist! we all get attacked, that is why I promote the emancipation of the conscience, this freedom from the subjugation that is religion, will be the only thing that saves us all.


EDIT; no1home; what kind of people do you think we are, of course we grasp the meaning of sin, but we see them as a sin of humanity and not a sin against God! we are not all heartless people who have no morals or understanding of principles, we are still human beings with empathy and understanding of what is evil and good. you are one of the christians that gives you all as bad name, why do think you can only learn morals from the bible?

Answer 2

I'm agnostic as well, and I don't think the majority of either side see's both sides... at least not in these here parts of the internets. Just getting most atheists to acknowledge that some amount of faith or trust, no matter how miniscule, is still required to believe in evolution is like pulling teeth. No... it's worse than pulling teeth.
UPDATE: I came to the R&S section with the expectation that Christians would be the preachy ones with their nose in the air, and I was shocked to find the opposite was true. Admittedly, I just started coming to this section, but in the two questions I asked, I received a lot of self righteous and downright nasty answers from atheists. They tend to get really defensive in a beehive sort of way, and there's a lot of self-congratulation amongst them. I've also questioned Christian beliefs in the past, and actually got nothing close to the negative, hateful or arrogant responses as I did from atheists. Well... maybe arrogant and self righteous, but not even close to nasty.

Answer 3

What I find interesting is that so many people view atheism as the opposite of theism and somehow agnostics as some kind of middle ground when this is clearly not the case.

From the meaning of the word you can see that atheism is a neutral state or middle ground. Even many atheists seem to be completely confused about the meaning of such a simple word that literally defines itself. The prefix 'a' meaning not or without the word literally means not a theist. While some atheists may also be anti-theists it doesn't mean all or even a great percentage are. And the word definitely doesn't mean that.

Having said that I can understand all sides of this and as far as taking people to task I'm actually more tough on other atheists. I think what might surprise most theists is that the majority of atheists I know including myself don't even think about religion in the course of an average day.

I'm certain I know at least 50 atheists and none are sitting around wringing their hands and plotting against anyone's religion. We're not contemplating what sin to commit today. For the most part we just want to pay our mortgages raise our kids live our lives in peace with no one forcing their religion onto us.

We don't care what members of a religion think or do as long as it doesn't involve making us follow their religion. Trust me every atheist in the US has heard your message because it's impossible to avoid. There literally is nothing you can tell us we haven't heard. In fact I could probably tell most christians things about their religion they don't know. Not bragging but I studied ancient Greek and Hebrew in college and have read more of the original texts than probably 90% of the christians here.

I get it. I know what you're saying but I'm without theism. And I'm going to stay that way until the extreme evidence exists to support the extreme claim. In other words like every other atheist only god could show proof of god. To the theists out there. It's not that we don't believe god because hasn't said anything to us. It's that we don't believe you when you believe you speak for god.

Answer 4

I agree. I am an agnostic too...
I have to admit I side with Atheists more then Christians too, especially spending a few days in this category! But most Christians are fantastic people who respect other beliefs without the need of conversion. Its only the select few that stand out, and come out aggressive and judgmental.

Answer 5

I am christian and love science. I accept things that are logical and also that which is not tangible. After all, are math, thoughts or feelings tangible? Yet, they exist. Genius/Intelligent Christians are not oxymorons, like some may have you believe. There are some that realize that all "they" tell you about God is not necessarily true.
He is merely a guide, not interfering too much within our lives. We make the misery ourselves, not Him. Once one can get past that distinction, the truth becomes even clearer. Strangely enough, the farther you delve into science, the more you realize the probability of a creator. Something to ponder. Please, however, know that there are Chrisitians who see the "whole" picture, and not just hell fire and brimstone.
FYI: 2/3's of scientists believe in a creator.

Answer 6

If you could see both sides so well, then you wouldn't be making generalizations based on a biased and skewed sample such as "the answers to my last question".

Also, where is the control group? And what was the sample size, your z-score, the Standard Error, the mean etc?

Assuming your question was the independant variable and the responses are the dependant variable, have you controlled for other possibilities such as people responding more than once under different IDs? Have you examined and matched peoples responses based on age, gender, socioeconomic status etc?

Has this study which is strife with methodological problems been replicated? Is it even possible to replicate it since it has not been standardized?

Your assessment appears both invalid and unreliable.

Answer 7

I can see both sides, well enough to know which is the right side and so I try to stay on it and appreciate that there are 2 sides to every arguement. In fact I often find it helpful to look at opposing arguements because they expose gaps in my knowledge and holes in my thinking, once identified I can use this new information to my advantage.
But it's not about information and arguements it's about the truth, people want the truth, that's what I want and if new information comes to light which challenges my faith or reinforces it, then I will look at both.
As a Christian I have a certain assurance in my heart which seems weak to the rationalist but in the same way that you know your friends and love your family, I know that I belong in the Family of God and in the body of Christ. Church is home to me.

Answer 8

You'd have to be brain dead not to see that religion causes conflict. Everyone has their own or learned belief systems which they never question. They're afraid to question in case their beliefs are undermined in some way. And they can all be undermined if they are examined carefully - even the Atheist. Science can not give one example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome. Neither can religion give a proper definition of what God is with all it's contradictions and distorted texts throughout the centuries. For those of us who are looking for the real answers, we can only live in hope.

Answer 9

I was once a child Christian, then I became agnostic until God moved my Jeep fifty feet without leaving tracks in the snow. Now I follow the new covenant since God showed me that it was the way. I see more than two sides and as long as anyone thinks there are just two sides, they are enmeshed in the Good or evil mindset; fooling themselves into thinking they don't believe in God.

Answer 10

Faulty premise. Atheists cannot see both sides of the fence because they believe with conviction that there is no God. They claim that they don't believe anything without proof, and believing there is no God, or Teapot, qualifies.
Agnosticism is the only rational answer, but I, like you, call myself an Atheist anyway.
Most Atheists used to be Christians, so of course they see the Christian platform. They struggle with Muslim, and Buddhists, though, because they can't quite grasp what's on the other side there.