NC, sorry to overstep my boundaries. I am not at your level. I should know my place. I wasn't trying to " debate " I just wanted to know what you believe evolution to be. You have answered that, and it sounds reasonable, slow change over time. I guess my real question is the origin of life itself. Life had to come into existence to evolve/adapt. Where did that imaginary group of lizards come from? I don't think it was by chance. That is why I am not an atheist. I will remove myself from this conversation.
Why aren't you an Atheist?
by Bloody Hotdogs! 697 Replies latest jw friends
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King Solomon
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.
Your narrative of "atheists as having no hope" is false: I know that's what you'd LIKE to believe, but it doesn't make it true.
You'd think an ex-JW would be able to see the inherent exploitation by offering false hopes and promises of everlasting life, a pet lion, peace and security, end to crime, blah, blah, blah, etc? Have you never understood that con-men tell their patsies what they WANT to heard?
People like NC and I are realists, which means we prefer to see the World as it IS, not as we'd LIKE it to be. Sometimes the World is beautiful, and full of hope and love, but other times it is ugly and terrifying (as when religious extremists commit their acts). I prefer a cold sober reality to a nice fairy tale any day: of course, I can handle MY reality (where some cannot, and resort to narcotics, booze, etc).
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Christ Alone
KS, so you grow old and die. I'm glad you have hope for only a few years at best. I can't imagine knowing that I will become dirt for the trees would be a happy view of the future.
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tornapart
I'm not an atheist because I can't look at anything in nature without feeling awe and fascination and I cannot bring myself to believe it didn't have an intelligent designer. I'm not an atheist because I love God. I can't prove he exists to anyone else any more than they can prove it to me that he doesn't. To me he is very real.
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King Solomon
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tec
Your logic is so odd its hard to know here to begin.
I thought it was pretty simple. Just an exact reversal of your own statement.
I have come to my conclusions, based on evidence available to me... but you would not consider my conclusions to be 'without faith'. I would agree with you, actually, but I wondered at your own reasoning.
Now if you said no god exists... without proof of the truth in your statement... then you might be exercising some faith of your own, in that idea. Because you would not KNOW this. You would only think so.
You assert there is a whole other dimension which you call "spirit" which can't be detected by human senses or scientific investigation. An ultimate being exists in this other world who is intimately involved in everything that happens in this physical world, in fact he/she caused it all to come into being.
Well, I would not state that cannot be detected... because otherwise we would none of us be having this conversation. But as yet, cannot YET be detected through scientific investigation, yes, i would agree with that.
(I would not state that God is intimately involved in everything that happens in this world, though... He has nothing to do with the evil that man commits against his fellow man)
I thoroughly investigate all sorts of versions of this claim and find the evidence to be unconvincing in the extreme and in response you assert that I must have as much faith as you.
I did not assert that. I asked a question.
And finding evidence unconvincing for a God and saying there is no God are two different things. (Stating that you will not believe in something without further evidence - nothing wrong with that... is also not the same as telling someone else that they have no evidence because you have not seen or measured that evidence for yourself.)
Might i also ask how you investigated all sorts of versions of this claim? You don't have to answer; just curious as to what manner of investigation you did.
Peace,
tammy
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jamesmahon
I think Atheists and Believers can be very black and white..
Given one of these believes there is a god and the other does not believe there is a god I am not sure how they could be anything but black and white on this issue. What I think you are getting at is that believers and non-believers seem to argue and you don't like it and think they should all get on.
Well, as a starter, when
- my kids can go to school and not be encouraged to bow their heads to some christian god (and if the christians on this board think this is ok then how would they feel if the local iman came in and encouraged their children to pray to Allah?)
- leaders in the west stop making decisions to go to war having 'spoken' to their god
- church leaders get no place in the legislature of my country by default
I will consider stop arguing with believers.
But even then if someone chooses to come onto a messaging site and debate that is their right to do so and my right to argue with them. Why do you have a problem with that? Do you think that no theist (or atheist) has ever changed their mind because of debate? your contribution to this thread has been 'neither side has proof so they are just arguing from faith'. This is just junk. Both sides have evidence and we all try on both sides, as well as we are able, to challenge that evidence.
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OUTLAW
Outlaw - you talk as if there is no real evidence to consider either way.....Cofty
Hey Cofty..
Thats exactly how I feel..Maybe there is no God..
Maybe God is the sum of everything and not a single being..
Maybe theres a God and he`s doing a shitty job..
He Just sits in front of his Big Screen and Watches..
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...OUTLAW -
cofty
I'm not an atheist because I can't look at anything in nature without feeling awe and fascination
I am an athiest and I look at everything with awe and fascination.
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" - Douglas Adams
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NewChapter
then I think it's silly and Watchtower-esqe.
Uncalled for. But I'm not going to read the book, so I was asking if what they call 'god' could also be described as 'agent'. I gave a bit of my reasoning and questions. It's something that would be on my mind if I delve deeply into this, because I think children have a tendency to think that things are provided on purpose, since that is a lot of their experience. I don't care to read it, but if you want to bring out the points, I can discuss it to an extent.
I may poke around a bit, now.
...OUTLAW