Why Do Atheists Return to Theism?

by B_Deserter 145 Replies latest jw friends

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  beksbks

  Journey on,

  I am actually finding this humorous

  Yeah.....we're all hilarious, aren't we.

  Nooooooo, no, not really.
• 

  lonelysheep

  Who has so little regard for our journey to those beliefs or our right to hold them, that she tells us smugly that we will eventually grow out of them? Then when we try to explain sincerely where we stand, we are told again, that most of us are actually just playing at this, and will one day change our minds.

  WOW..........

  God is capable of being outgrown, as most one-sided relationships are. You learn not to go back to him/her. So much easier in this case as this thing has never even bothered to show up for anything or respond in any type of way! Doing so equates to being a glutton for self-inflicted mental punishment.
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  MsMcDucket

  Ms. McDucket, you are quite insulting and condescending. This is why I am posting on this thread. I am rather tired of this type of attitude from those like you towards people who know there is a God. I am not saying believe. We know. Just like you know you are a woman, a human being. Now, nothing we say or do is going to convince you there is a higher power. That's fine. But you can stop with the condescending insults. That's basically what I'm trying to say.

  Oh cry me a river! You're have been nothing but condescending throughout this whole debate! Are you on a Salvia trip? You love to hear yourself talk even when you sound stupid.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  Who has so little regard for our journey to those beliefs or our right to hold them, that she tells us smugly that we will eventually grow out of them?

  You say I am being smug. I guess since you can't hear or see me, so then you've decided I am being smug. I am telling you that I don't believe most of you will remain atheists. I don't feel smug about it at all. It's my feeling that you will return to theism because of my experience of many years of seeing people come and go from agnosticism or atheism. I've seen too many of these threads where the non believers come across in their own eyes as enlightened and speak to people who believe in a higher power as if they are idiots. And this same kind of spirit comes across in the threads that deal with evolution as well.

  Just as I tire of my very fundamentalist Christian or JW relatives coming across as superior, I tire of the same from some atheists/agnostics here at JWD. And like it or not, something help you, you just might find yourself among those who do believe again one day. Nothing smug about it. Just a strong possiblity. And if that happens, I'm sure you won't appreciate thread after thread that treats you in a condescending way. I'm one who stands up for the underdog. And the way things have swung at JWD the past few months, believers have definitely become the underdog. And at the same time, treated like they are fundamentalist, evangelical christians for speaking up to you.
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  FlyingHighNow

  Oh cry me a river! You're have been nothing but condescending throughout this whole debate! Are you on a Salvia trip? You love to hear yourself talk even when you sound stupid.

  I'm disappointed in your childish responses. I had thought you more mannerly and gracious than those.
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  MsMcDucket

  I'm disappointed in your childish responses. I had thought you more mannerly and gracious than those.

  I've been tired of yours! You haven't been gracious. You want me to be? Stop being foolish!
• 

  hamilcarr

  Just as I tire of my very fundamentalist Christian or JW relatives coming across as superior, I tire of the same from some atheists/agnostics here at JWD.

  I hope you know there's nothing superior or more human about theism either, so there's no logic in your prediction atheists will turn again to theism.
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  VoidEater

  This distinction between "know" and "believe" is interesting to me. I think people that use this distinction are usually trying to talk about the difference between taking in information in a mental way, as opposed to experiencing something. I wonder if that's true here? Or, is there some other way in which "know" is being used that I'm not picking up on?

  I do think some Atheists become Theists, and some may go this route due to an experience of something beyond their normal human frame of reference (which might be labelled a "sprititual" or "divine" realm).

  And, yes, some seem to access this "something bigger" through Salvia [Divinorum] - or fasting, or going walkabout, or meditating, or praying, or whatever other ritual seems to place their consciousness into this realm.

  What we have, however, is a lack of real world evidence for Theos (despite delightful speculation, supposition and assertion), and the inherently subjective nature of experiential narratives - "personal reality", if you will.

  OK, whose turn was it? Something about, "No, you're being more rude"? ;-)

  EDIT: fix typos
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  cognizant dissident

  Absolutely not. I told you that you cannot go to sources like Billy Graham or Pat Roberson for reliable statistics on atheists obviously you did not read my post thoroughly I said that your using an athiest for your source on statistics is about as credible as someone using roberson or graham> you need unbiased sources>

  I did read your post thoroughly and I find the logic flawed. Herein lies the problem. As another poster pointed out, and you and I both agreed with, every person alive has a bias of some sort. If every believer in God is excluded from being able to gather statistics on the number of believers in the world because of their bias in favor of belief, and every non-believer in God is excluded from gathering statistics on the number of believers and non-believers because there bias would cause them to skew the statistics in favor of their non-belief, then every single survey/study on the numbers of believers vs non-believers would have to be excluded as everyone falls into one of those two categories: believer or non-believer.

  This is the beauty of science and objective statistical analysis. If carried out with correct methodology, it will exclude the bias of the one conducting the study rendering their belief system irrelevant to the results. This is point I am making which you seem to have difficulty understanding. I'm guessing you have never taken a course in quantitative methods.

  Cog
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  FlyingHighNow

  Cog, you and I are speaking of different types of biases. Some examples of unbiased polls would be the US census or the gallup poll. An independent company that contracts polls could be an unbiased source. To ask an atheist or hardset born again Christian for an unbiased poll about atheism or born again christians would be suspect in its results. You can argue that it doesn't matter to you. But I doubt you'd hold a poll done by the 700 Club on atheism in the same regard as the Gallup Poll.

  I just noticed on NVR's thread about atheism, that he launched it in a very rspectful, rational, non argumentative way. He wasn't patronizing to any of us who don't share his views. I thanked him for that. I truly appreciate his way of expressing himself without calling others names or laughing at them.There are ways for believers and none believers to discuss these subjects with taste and respect. That's what most of us who have belief in a higher power would like to see: discussion without it degrading into disrespect.