Skully,
The fact that an atheist must consider himself on equal par with the supreme being in order to know that atheism is true is beyond dispute. This cannot be changed. It is a fundamental requirement of the atheist position. It is a fact.
Atheists suffer from the same cognitive dissonance as JW's do. Both believe things that on the one hand is demonstrateably false but simultaneously accepted as true. For the witnesses it is (among other things) the doctrine of present truth. That doctrine certainly deserves the characterization of a train-wreck of the mind. Likewise, the atheist on the one hand knows (and so does everyone else) that he is not omniscience so as to truthfully declare there is "no god" and yet he goes on to view his position as true and assume other positions are just as empty of evidence as his should there be some conflict.
that their opinion is automatically above those with whom he or she may disagree.
The highlighted portion of that definition could be applied to you.
No it cannot. And here's why: I truly don't mean to offend here, but this is a prime example of the atheist narcisism that the Oxford professor wrote about in the link above. Because atheists must assume their own omniscience (something they know isn't true) to support their position as truth, they naturally assume that others are just making stuff up as they are. They really think others are just like them.
We don't hear them because they don't exist.
This is narcisism.
We Christians are saying WE KNOW Christ is fully alive, lives inside of us, and interacts with us most every day depending on how much we live by the spirit. We are saying that we have been freed from sin and don't have to fake it anymore as a JW. We are saying that our lives prove it. We are saying that the Spirit of God (that still small voice that definitely wasn't there before our re-birth) makes certain scriptures jump out at us to give us a message directly from God. We are saying that that same spirit grabs our attention when from the mouth of one of God's collaborators in his kingdom speaks something from God at times.
We are saying that some of us have spoken in tongues for days on end and some of us, either in the spirit or not we cannot tell, have been whisked up into heaven itself.
These are all common experiences of Christians, and are not generally spoken about in public because of fear of ridicule. Shame on them. I have personally experienced all of the things that I have mentioned. If a Christian doesn't know for sure where he will go at death, then he likely may not be saved. IF THERE ARE ANY in this position reading this, I advise for you to ask God to show you and to make you certain that you are one of his children. This is what I did about a year after getting saved and God delivered big time. And why wouldn't he? Can you imagine a father not communicating with his own Children?
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, ... crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
1 John 5:6 And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, ...the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
2 Corinthians 13:6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life,
There is no guesswork in the life of a Christian of whether or not there is a God. When God speaks his presence directly into our spirit and into our life, faith is not needed. Faith comes into play by trusting in God, the God who has already revealed himself to us.
Anyone can come to know God through faith in his son Jesus Christ ALONE. Maybe, just maybe by some wild stretch of the imagination could it be that atheists simply don't want to know if God exists or not?
I believe that the average JW knows that many of his beliefs (not proofs mind you) are just nonsense and that he believes other people's nonsense can't possibly be any whackier than his. This is another reason x jw's make good candidates for atheism. Same template.
I for one will face down any atheist, and any JW anytime, anywhere and tell them that proof is available. You can know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhbwwe0nn1I
