Im now Athiest

[Shia Majority]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

People can come up with an Image of God however they want to.

I find him to look like Ashton Kutcher nude but still wearing a fabulous scarf.

[North Breifne]

The Roman Catholic Church, the Church started by Christ. We should look to it too see how Christian Prayer should be conducted.

oh you mean the very church who's leaders started the crusades? who set up the inquisition which killed tons of people just because of their beliefs? no thanks.

The Crusades are iffy, if you look into their history, the weren't meat to persecute beliefs, they spiraled out of control. The inquisition was a defensive manuver as well.

i just didnt like the fact that the bloodbath that turned into. and as for the inquisition being defensive i dont mean this like to sound like im challenging you but could you explain what you mean by defensive? i dont understand what you mean.

Well the Catholic Church originally established the inquisition to try and force the Caliphate out of Spain which had posed a significant threat to Christian Europe. They also used it to root out false prophets and later against the Reformationists. Defense of the institution.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

Not true. Human brains are practically hardwired to spontaneously create gods. I mean, you have hyper-active agency detection, you have decoupled cognition, you have selective reasoning, you have intuitive dualism. Everything about how the brain is structured leads to the development of religions. This is why every culture ever has had some supernatural beliefs.

[Bramborska]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

[Penguton]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

People can come up with an Image of God however they want to.

I find him to look like Ashton Kutcher nude but still wearing a fabulous scarf.

Notice the quotation marks. I meant image as in the idea of God. i should have clarified better sorry.

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

[Penguton]

Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

Not true. Human brains are practically hardwired to spontaneously create gods. I mean, you have hyper-active agency detection, you have decoupled cognition, you have selective reasoning, you have intuitive dualism. Everything about how the brain is structured leads to the development of religions. This is why every culture ever has had some supernatural beliefs.

The human brain is "hardwired" to try and apply order to our environment. Unfortunately, nature is not orderly. It is in fact chaotic. The concept of beings who control the natural processes of the world, such as the Greeko-Roman pantheon, is one way of applying order to chaos. But with science improving our understanding of the natural world, these beliefs become unnecessary.

[Bramborska]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

This is embarrassing. The Book is not the only articles written on Jesus of Nazareth or God. The Bible as we know was created by the Council of Nicaea out of a very large field of applicants. Without the Bible, or any of its books, we would still have a Judeo-Christian monotheistic entity.

[Xeevok]

Okay okay...I just had to throw this out there...

If you're atheist, sweet. If you aren't, great.

I have two things to say about that:

1) Your reasons for being an atheist are pretty shitty. For one thing, you obviously don't know the Bible, or at least understand what it was saying. No, it's obviously not factual stories, but you missed the point of what the Bible was saying and what God was doing. Furthermore, the fact that you had to have the stories of the Bible explained to you by someone else goes to show that you probably weren't a very good Christian in the first place.

2) It really shouldn't matter. People, quit arguing about religion, who is right and who is wrong. None of you guys know for sure. I consider myself pretty religious, and if you come up to me and tell me that you're atheist (sometimes this has been the very first thing people tell me), well, I won't really have anything to say to you. Not because you're atheist, but because you told me something that I didn't really even ask you about. Religion is a very personal thing, like it or not.

Keep it all to yourselves.

Thought I'd throw in my two cents...

By the way, Hi everyone!

This is my first week on this damn site, and it's not half bad.

As an atheist, I say you're damned right. Religion is very personal, and theism, atheism, agnosticism, ignosticism, solipsism, and any other -ism that I missed should be kept inside. If you would like to discuss with others that's fine, but the idea that it should be brought up every time the chance comes is annoying. People don't just come up (most of the time) and spread their favorite color or their favorite food. Why then, is religion so touchy? Anyway, now I'm ranting and there are multiple theories for that I suppose but yes: Religion = personal or amongst friendly debates/groups. Now I'm going to go drink my third cup of coffee......

[Penguton]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.
And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

This is embarrassing. The Book is not the only articles written on Jesus of Nazareth or God. The Bible as we know was created by the Council of Nicaea out of a very large field of applicants. Without the Bible, or any of its books, we would still have a Judeo-Christian monotheistic entity.

Well, considering that the TaNaKh(Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), which are the three "books" that make up the Jewish faith predates the Council of Nicaea by about a thousand years the Judeo-Christian god existed way before Christianity. My point is not that without the Bible itself we would have no concept of God. In fact you don't even need to have a written medium. My point is that without a cannon, with out a belief structure with which to define what God(or Gods) is, there is no basis for one(or them). Nature does not inherently give us the notion of God. It is a human creation.

Edit: I'm sorry, you misunderstood my initial post. I was not arguing about the Judeo-Christian God specifically, I was talking about ALL gods in general.

[Ashmoria]

Well, considering that the TaNaKh(Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), which are the three "books" that make up the Jewish faith predates the Council of Nicaea by about a thousand years the Judeo-Christian god existed way before Christianity. My point is not that without the Bible itself we would have no concept of God. In fact you don't even need to have a written medium. My point is that without a cannon, with out a belief structure with which to define what God(or Gods) is, there is no basis for one(or them). Nature does not inherently give us the notion of God. It is a human creation.

yes

and your point is embarrassing

without the bible we would have a DIFFERENT basis for a concept of god. even for a CHRISTIAN concept of god because there were dozens of books rejected for inclusion in the bible that would make a dandy alternative scripture.

[Bramborska]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

This is embarrassing. The Book is not the only articles written on Jesus of Nazareth or God. The Bible as we know was created by the Council of Nicaea out of a very large field of applicants. Without the Bible, or any of its books, we would still have a Judeo-Christian monotheistic entity.

Well, considering that the TaNaKh(Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), which are the three "books" that make up the Jewish faith predates the Council of Nicaea by about a thousand years the Judeo-Christian god existed way before Christianity. My point is not that without the Bible itself we would have no concept of God. In fact you don't even need to have a written medium. My point is that without a cannon, with out a belief structure with which to define what God(or Gods) is, there is no basis for one(or them). Nature does not inherently give us the notion of God. It is a human creation.

The "Judeo-Christian god" existed before Christianity? Hmm, interesting proposition.

Also raises the question "if God is a human creation and the only influence in our world is mechanical, then everything must come from 'Nature,' right?"

[Penguton]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

This is embarrassing. The Book is not the only articles written on Jesus of Nazareth or God. The Bible as we know was created by the Council of Nicaea out of a very large field of applicants. Without the Bible, or any of its books, we would still have a Judeo-Christian monotheistic entity.

Well, considering that the TaNaKh(Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), which are the three "books" that make up the Jewish faith predates the Council of Nicaea by about a thousand years the Judeo-Christian god existed way before Christianity. My point is not that without the Bible itself we would have no concept of God. In fact you don't even need to have a written medium. My point is that without a cannon, with out a belief structure with which to define what God(or Gods) is, there is no basis for one(or them). Nature does not inherently give us the notion of God. It is a human creation.

The "Judeo-Christian god" existed before Christianity? Hmm, interesting proposition.

Also raises the question "if God is a human creation and the only influence in our world is mechanical, then everything must come from 'Nature,' right?"

Yes, the God that is shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims was created original by the Hebrews. While each religion has slightly different variation, the God is the same.

Perhaps my philosophy cap is broken, or I've just been staring at my monitor for too long, but I'm having a problem understanding the question.

[Bramborska]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

And you've reached a new pinnacle of ignorance if you think "The Book" is the only text that "paints an image" of 'God.'

Without the Bible(or Torah) to create the initial concept of the Judeo-Christian God, there wouldn't be a concept of him. That was my point. Without the oral mythologies of the Greeko-Roman pantheon there would exist no concept of Zeus or Mars, etc.

This is embarrassing. The Book is not the only articles written on Jesus of Nazareth or God. The Bible as we know was created by the Council of Nicaea out of a very large field of applicants. Without the Bible, or any of its books, we would still have a Judeo-Christian monotheistic entity.

Well, considering that the TaNaKh(Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), which are the three "books" that make up the Jewish faith predates the Council of Nicaea by about a thousand years the Judeo-Christian god existed way before Christianity. My point is not that without the Bible itself we would have no concept of God. In fact you don't even need to have a written medium. My point is that without a cannon, with out a belief structure with which to define what God(or Gods) is, there is no basis for one(or them). Nature does not inherently give us the notion of God. It is a human creation.

The "Judeo-Christian god" existed before Christianity? Hmm, interesting proposition.

Also raises the question "if God is a human creation and the only influence in our world is mechanical, then everything must come from 'Nature,' right?"

Yes, the God that is shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims was created original by the Hebrews. While each religion has slightly different variation, the God is the same.

Perhaps my philosophy cap is broken, or I've just been staring at my monitor for too long, but I'm having a problem understanding the question.

"Judeo-Christian" god isn't a functioning theological term. It's a way for the New York Times to oversimplify some significant differences between the Christian and Jewish faith. At best, and I mean at best, it's an easy way to sound smart in anthropology class. I sincerely doubt that many Jews would accept the Triune God; with one of them being Jesus. Likewise, I doubt that many Christians believe that 'God' had only a moderate amount to do with the "prophet" Jesus.

Anyhow, if God is a human creation; God (in the sense of being a metaphysical, higher plane, spiritual entity) doesn't exist. If God doesn't exist, then the potentiality that there is only the mechanical world increases (in my opinion) to near certainty. Since there would then be only the mechanical world, all of our thoughts must come from Nature. Which brings up the question, how does Nature not give us the notion of God (by your own definition)?

And if you're wondering, yes, this is a really old argument repeated by too many theologians.

EDIT: Spelling and grammar is hard.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

The human brain is "hardwired" to try and apply order to our environment. Unfortunately, nature is not orderly. It is in fact chaotic. The concept of beings who control the natural processes of the world, such as the Greeko-Roman pantheon, is one way of applying order to chaos. But with science improving our understanding of the natural world, these beliefs become unnecessary.

Nature is orderly. It obeys rules. The rules can lead to systems that exhibit topological mixing and density of periodicity (the mathematical criteria for chaos), but it still has order.

Ultimately, the human brain is not necessarily set up to make order out of the world, but to assist in survival. Since humans live in social groups, the human brain is largely geared toward solving social problems, which leads to its anthropocentric bias, and the creation of religions.

[Elil Hrair Rah]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

I haven't seen one logical religious statement on here. It kinda goes like this every time:

Religious person: "Well I believe in 'god' and I believe "he's" good.
Non-religious person: "Which one?"

Religious person: "Which one what?"
Non-religious person: "God."

Religious person: "Well, my 'god' of course. He's the only 'god' and all other religions will rot in hell."
Non-religious person: You mean you want ill-will to come to somebody just because they don't believe in your religion?"

Religious person: "Yes they're heathens. We should kill them today. Only my religious symbols should be allowed everywhere. I'm the majority."
Non-religious person: "Doesn't some of the less hypocritic parts of your religious texts say you shouldn't kill? That you should turn the other cheek? That you shouldn't judge?

Religious person: "You don't have to take religious text word for word."
Non-religious person: "Well weren't those texts supposedly the words of your 'god?"

Religious person: "Yeah, so?" I'm religious, I don't need to give facts or make sense. How are you so sure 'god' doesn't exist, huh?!"
Non-religious person: Well there's disease, death, murder, hate, evil, natural selection, evolution of animals, thousands of other gods, science, radiometric dating, fossils, who would make a 'god', fear of the unknown, folklore, myths, cosmology, etc."

Religious person: "Well, you should pray and read more religious texts. I feel sorry for you."
Non-religious person: "Please don't feel sorry for me, it should be I feeling sorry for you."

[Communist Balkania]

I used to be christian but due to a debate with my friend whos athiest he showed me the true facts like how the bible contradicts itself like for example god supposedly gives us free will, well no thats not true considering the bible tells us to do things or else were going to go to hell which when I thought about it didnt sound like free will what so ever. Also God is supposedly merciful, well in the bible he killed all of the first born children in egypt because he was mad at the pharoah...tht doesnt sound merciful that sounds like a phsycopathic maniac I mean why not just kill the pharoah rather than kill
innocent children.

And as for 7 deadly sins

Pride- Pretty much goes along with the envy becausde god says hes the only true powerful god and there are no others who have his power.

Laziness- well god sits in heaven all day and watches people, its not like hes walking around earth spreading his name around or proving anything.

Greed- God supposedly made humans to worship him and him alone, he also supposedly made the whole universe for himself. Thats sounds like greed to me, I dont knwo about you NSG.

Wrath- He killed new born children and flooded the earth killing everyone supposedly, sounds like wrath.

And he fits into the other ones as well.

Then theres also the fact that who made god? The bible says he infinite which is impossible, he couldnt have just popped up randomly and started making everything. And also God is supposedly All knowing and knows our future and knows whats going to happen. Well then why did he make lucifer if he knew he was going to rebel when he made him. Why did god let hitler be born if he knew he was going to kill jews. Also why did god even make earth and humans to worship him if hes just going to take us back into heaven I mean thats just stupid. Also my friend brought up how theres 1000's of religons which were just made up by humans as a way of control or liek the greeks did a way to explain things they didnt understand. Like how anyone can just make up a religon and makes some rules in order to enforce it.

Also in the bible it says the Anti-Christ will be the one who trys to unite the people in the world, why the hell would a man whos trying to do good and unite everyone be the Anti-Christ, my opinion is the churchs dont want people to be organized they just want us to be stupid and go to church and give them money and listen to bullshit.


Also why is it a sin to have sex before marriage when were just doing what are bodys were designed to do, I mean the first humans didnt wait to get married before having sex, the male would just see a female and then bam have sex with her. Me and m friend had this discussion for like 3hrs and at first it was a debate but then soon it became a conversation and he helped me undertsand that basicly believeing in god is like how children believe in Santa. If your good you get rewarded if you dont then you dont get rewarded. We talked about other reasons to why god cant be real I just dont feel like typing all of them up and Im sorry if I offended anyone before when I made the "How can you not be christian forum" It was stupid of me to even believe in a imaginary guy so again Im sorry if I offended anyone on that forum about "How can you not be a christian"

OH MY SCIENCE WE HAVE A NONBELEVER!

Scienceluah

[North Breifne]

The human brain is "hardwired" to try and apply order to our environment. Unfortunately, nature is not orderly. It is in fact chaotic. The concept of beings who control the natural processes of the world, such as the Greeko-Roman pantheon, is one way of applying order to chaos. But with science improving our understanding of the natural world, these beliefs become unnecessary.

Nature is orderly. It obeys rules. The rules can lead to systems that exhibit topological mixing and density of periodicity (the mathematical criteria for chaos), but it still has order.

Ultimately, the human brain is not necessarily set up to make order out of the world, but to assist in survival. Since humans live in social groups, the human brain is largely geared toward solving social problems, which leads to its anthropocentric bias, and the creation of religions.

When was the last time you sat in a Chemistry class?

[Zeyad]

Don't become an atheist just because the Bible paints an assholish image of God. That's a great reason to reject the Bible's image of God, but it's not a sufficient reason to declare yourself atheist...you need to do a lot more thinking about your beliefs before you'll be fully and consciously godless.

Umm, this is a very illogical statement. Without the Bible/Torah/Koran there is no "image" of God. Without a religious text there exists no bases for a God.

I haven't seen one logical religious statement on here. It kinda goes like this every time:

Religious person: "Well I believe in 'god' and I believe "he's" good.
Non-religious person: "Which one?"

Religious person: "Which one what?"
Non-religious person: "God."

Religious person: "Well, my 'god' of course. He's the only 'god' and all other religions will rot in hell."
Non-religious person: You mean you want ill-will to come to somebody just because they don't believe in your religion?"

Religious person: "Yes they're heathens. We should kill them today. Only my religious symbols should be allowed everywhere. I'm the majority."
Non-religious person: "Doesn't some of the less hypocritic parts of your religious texts say you shouldn't kill? That you should turn the other cheek? That you shouldn't judge?

Religious person: "You don't have to take religious text word for word."
Non-religious person: "Well weren't those texts supposedly the words of your 'god?"

Religious person: "Yeah, so?" I'm religious, I don't need to give facts or make sense. How are you so sure 'god' doesn't exist, huh?!"
Non-religious person: Well there's disease, death, murder, hate, evil, natural selection, evolution of animals, thousands of other gods, science, radiometric dating, fossils, who would make a 'god', fear of the unknown, folklore, myths, cosmology, etc."

Religious person: "Well, you should pray and read more religious texts. I feel sorry for you."
Non-religious person: "Please don't feel sorry for me, it should be I feeling sorry for you."

I'd have underlined the entire...Thing, you have going there, but that'd be even more annoying.

Really, the only thing I thought of when I was reading this was of the the mythical Brazilian wax. I've often heard it discussed and talked about (personally) but've never actually seen it before. Most of that time it's because either that particular person(s) have no idea what they're talking about and are just blowing it from what they've heard someone else comment about, or that I've just had the (mis?)fortune of not being in a area to see it.

That made me think that I either live around some very reasonable religious people, or there's a lot of people blowing it out of their fanny (teehee). Maybe its both?

[Wamitoria]

Wow, I thought this thread was dead.

[Angleter]

Wow, I thought this thread was dead.

It was, it's now a zombie. Everyone left in annoyance 10 days ago when they read EHR's stupid 'all religious people are murderous idiots' reposted for the umpteenth time. MODS!

[Eternal Yerushalayim]

Blah, blah, blah and blah. And don't bring religion into sex, just think of the consequences(aka aids).