My brother is an atheist and I asked him one day how he can explain the world, the people, the living things, birth, etc. He said something very profound I thought......... "It just is".
Something to think about.
by Nicolas 56 Replies latest jw friends
My brother is an atheist and I asked him one day how he can explain the world, the people, the living things, birth, etc. He said something very profound I thought......... "It just is".
Something to think about.
It is not uncommon to feel uncomfortable with the tiny and limited anthropomorphic images and ideas of "God" that have been handed down to us. Yet, at the same time there is a haunting awe experienced around life, nature and existence. This can be confusing.
Could our inner conflict simply be the result of inner wisdom that already knows that the true Source of all things is infinitely more than our beliefs and interpretations of It?
Perhaps being an "atheist" who no longer cherishes man-made gods, is not such a bad thing, but rather a giant step towards what we seek -- or a step by That, which seeks us.
i consider myself to be somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist. after all to disprove that there is a deeper meaning to the universe seems as impossible as to prove that there is one.
I was an atheist for 20 years and quit. There is no rational reason to believe in god, but there is no rational reason to believe that the universe is strictly rational either. I sense the underlying existence of whatever it is that James Thomas is trying to describe. That's as far as I'm willing to commit myself, but it's quite a ways from being an atheist.
I am agnostic for the same reasons as most other posters have described:
Agnosticism seems the only honest stance on this issue, to me.
SNG
seattleniceguy: What about my theory with Santa Claus? Isn't it true that if you can accept the evidence that god is somewhere in the universe, without any proof, you could also as well, accept that Santa Claus is living somewhere in the north-pole?
My brother is an atheist and I asked him one day how he can explain the world, the people, the living things, birth, etc. He said something very profound I thought......... "It just is".Something to think about.
Just because one atheist can't articulate things doesn't put us all in that boat. If a person took the time to study Geology, Anthropology, Biology.. even Psychology many of the things in your list could be 'explained'. The exact moment that time began (if it has a begining) is debatable, but so is the explanation as to where 'God' came from.
Agnostic.
The Bible said that God would be all things to everyone someday.
I take that to be the logical conclusion of theological thinking. It always comes down to individual needs. If you don't need a God, then why should he impose himself on you?
I do need a God, I have a reasonable amount of faith in him - does that make him imaginary? Does it make a real difference to YOU whether my God is real to me or not, as long as He is telling me to Behave Peaceably, as Far As It Is Possible For Thee? Does it make a difference to ME whether YOU believe in God or not, as long as your disbelief is not giving you moral permission to act like a beast? Nope. Not one whit.
Therefore, those who can behave without belief in God will probably never need to meet Him. Those who need a little more intervention can expect to run into him fairly regularly. Just a thought.
That was a roundabout way of saying that I am not an atheist, not a Bible believer either. I believe in God, but I also think that if you needed Him, He wouldn't leave you alone. Ergo, if He ain't bugging you, then you probably can get along just fine without him.
It's people that insist they are atheists but get jealous of those who believe that confuse me. As much as believers who insist that everyone needs to believe in order to be "saved", whatever that means. As if our belief could possibly affect an omnipotent God and his Judgement of our behavior. It's what we DID, not what we wanted to do or what we said, that condemns or lifts us up.
I certainly do NOT believe in Jesus. I don't think he existed, I don't think he did half the things they said he did, and I think he died for his own sins, and I think that he didn't come back from the dead, and I am positive that he AIN'T coming back anytime soon. I mean, would you?
CZAR
As Euclide said, during the antiquity: "What is affirmed without proof, can be denied without proof". Also Charles Baudelaire said: "God is the only being who don't even need to exist, to reign". Finally John Lennon said in one of its song that "god is a concept by which we measure our pain".