Why aren't you an Atheist? (page 18)

jamesmahon

No outlaw. You have a lot to learn about relativity. The best you can say is that you are moving relative to something else, but you cannot prove that it is you moving rather than the object that you appear to be moving away from. Unless you are telling me you know of a way to determine absolute motion in which case you might want to also tell me how to make a perpetual motion machine and we can share the nobel prize.

OUTLAW

Outlaw - I never took you for a pedantic, black-and-white sort of person. I'm surprised.....Cofty

Hey Cofty..

I think Atheists and Believers can be very black and white..

They both hold to their beliefs very tightly..

I simply don`t know and I admit it..

A side note my friend..

How are you?..Feeling good?..

....................... ...OUTLAW

Christ Alone

Then why didn't God create us so that we HAD to believe in him, just like we HAVE to breathe?

The lack of biblical understanding in a so-called Doctor is astounding. The Bible talks about this throughout the entire book. Faith AND Free Will has been discussed for as long as we had biblical writings. You can't take away the "Free Will" argument by simply stating that God should have given better proof. Who would want people to HAVE to love them or believe in them? Maybe a dictator would like everyone to be REQUIRED to believe in him and respect him. But that's not normal. God prefers us to come to Him because we love Him. Creating us so we HAD to believe in Him negates faith. Faith is an important part in our relationship to God.

God does not want anyone to believe in Him without faith. Faith is inextricably linked with TRUST. God wants us to trust Him as our life giver. He doesn't make it easy by coming out and saying "Fine guys, here I am, believe in me." He asks us to search for Him and He will be found.

King Solomon

I'm an atheist, and it doesn't bother me if people say it's a type of faith.

Just gives me a good chuckle.

Well, of course it is: it's a faith based on knowledge, whereas religious faith is based on hope. Even the Bible defines it as being based on hope

Heb 11:1 "Faith is the assured expectation of things HOPED for"

Christ Alone

Also back to the "we are born to believe in God" line of thinking...

If atheism is the natural way for humans, then why did it take so long for it to develop? Atheism is a relatively new invention. The natural course of life was for man to have God in his life (one way or another). Higher criticism is new. Atheism took a LONG time to develop. I'm not talking specific belief in God here. I'm talking about mans historically natural need for the spiritual.

cofty

Outlaw - you talk as if there is no real evidence to consider either way.

Christ Alone

Yeah, many atheists tend to dislike hope. Nice to see you follow suit, KS. Such a happy way to live. No hope. Die at 80 and become dirt. Life may be grand now, but when you get close to that 80 mark, it'll start haunting you. No hope.

King Solomon

The lack of biblical understanding in a so-called Doctor is astounding. The Bible talks about this throughout the entire book. Free Will has been discussed for as long as we had biblical writings. Who would want people to HAVE to love them or believe in them? Maybe a dictator would like everyone to be REQUIRED to believe in him and respect him. But that's not normal. God prefers us to come to Him because we love Him. Creating us so we HAD to believe in Him negates faith. Faith is an important part in our relationship to God.

Thank you for proving and reinforcing my point (which apparently you missed in your haste to respond): Barrett was simply talking THEOLOGY, not science, and simply wrapped a theological question in a faux-fur scientific wrap.

OUTLAW

No outlaw. You have a lot to learn about relativity. The best you can say is that you are moving relative to something else,

but you cannot prove that it is you moving rather than the object that you appear to be moving away from.

Unless you are telling me you know of a way to determine absolute motion in which case you might want to also tell

me how to make a perpetual motion machine and we can share the nobel prize.JM

James..

I can tell you with absolute certainty..

The General Store is stuck where it`s at..And..

I`m going to have to drive to get there..

.............................. ...OUTLAW

Christ Alone

KS, interesting that the NY times article that you refered to does not completely debunk the books claims. In fact it ends with:

"No matter how much science can explain, it seems, the real gap that God fills is an emptiness that our big-brained mental architecture interprets as a yearning for the supernatural. The drive to satisfy that yearning, according to both adaptationists and byproduct theorists, might be an inevitable and eternal part of what Atran calls the tragedy of human cognition."

No where does it claim that we do not have a need for God. Obviously the writer believes it is tragic, but it IS a human need.

Why aren't you an Atheist?

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