why are you an atheist?

Well well, eloquent aren't we? If you knew anything about history you'd see most of the Bible's content and events were paralleled by substantiated historic events. It even made refrence to Ceaser being alive during the time of Christ and has many references to Egypt and Ethiopia.

Yeh, that's because the Bible was written while all this was taken place. Sherlock Holmes has many factual details about London durring the 1900's and thereabouts, but that doesn't mean that Doyle's stories are an acceptable, proven historical source. No more so the Bible.

Originally posted by Gregory
Yeh, that's because the Bible was written while all this was taken place. Sherlock Holmes has many factual details about London durring the 1900's and thereabouts, but that doesn't mean that Doyle's stories are an acceptable, proven historical source. No more so the Bible.

Mmm...that is true but that does not mean its fiction. The Bible is far too consistent to be deemed strictly a historical source. There were thousands of locales, generations and explanations taken into consideration. And in my opinion a sovereign and omnipitent figure sounds much more logical and probable than some big bang that iniciated existence. And if we evolved from apes as Darwin suggests why are there still apes around??? How come our ecosystem is perfectly balanced and our bodies so intricately designed? Do you think you, your family and ancestors are all results of a cosmic anomaly?? I think I was designed not regurgitated.

But in many ways, the Bible is not consistant. When does Jesus drive the money-changers from the temple? Is it at the beginning of his career (John) or the end (the other Gospels)? What is the name of the tax-collector Jesus dines with? Is it Matthew (Matthew) or Levi (Mark and Luke)?

That type of thing doesn't prove that the Biblical stories are false, of course. You can find sources that disagree about modern events that we know happen. But it does indicate that care must be taken if it is to be used as a historical source.

I'm not an evolution expert, but I can answer your question about why apes are still around. Basically, why shouldn't they be? Apes were a very wide-spread animal; one group of apes evolved into humans; this didn't make the other apes any less able to survive. As for are bodies, they're not, objectively speaking, that well-designed; we have an organ and a pair of teeth that don't do us any good and cause all end of trouble. But I think we shouldn't turn this into another evolution thread.

Originally posted by Gregory
But in many ways, the Bible is not consistant. When does Jesus drive the money-changers from the temple? Is it at the beginning of his career (John) or the end (the other Gospels)? What is the name of the tax-collector Jesus dines with? Is it Matthew (Matthew) or Levi (Mark and Luke)?

That type of thing doesn't prove that the Biblical stories are false, of course. You can find sources that disagree about modern events that we know happen. But it does indicate that care must be taken if it is to be used as a historical source.

I'm not an evolution expert, but I can answer your question about why apes are still around. Basically, why shouldn't they be? Apes were a very wide-spread animal; one group of apes evolved into humans; this didn't make the other apes any less able to survive. As for are bodies, they're not, objectively speaking, that well-designed; we have an organ and a pair of teeth that don't do us any good and cause all end of trouble. But I think we shouldn't turn this into another evolution thread.

You are right. We did take things out of context. Religion and divinity are such hot button issues.

But I still think the Bible is consistent enough to be a true series of events.

I do not,
There cannot be a God. No way.

Its kinda hard for me to explain my thoughts so just go with me.
The concept of a god makes it impossible. Everything that was said about God MUSt be true. If I say God Wears purple pants and dances like a monkey, than it must be true. This is becaue if you deny it you imply that you know more about an inknowable thing than I do. Thats impossible. Theregore religion is hypocritical.

oh one more thing. You CANNOT use the bible as the only justification of God, that like using the Harry Potter books to prove the existance of Wizards and Harry Potter. It just don't work!

We know that a man by the name of Jesus existed, that he had many followers and that he was killed.

That's about it.

The rest is all filler.
The bible is laughably ridiculous!

...
Back to the god topic.

I think that 12 billion of years ago, "god" created the big bang and everything thereafter fell into place as by his design.

I believe that we're on our own. The creator chooses not to, or cannot interfere with anything. Meaning that he wrote his program and now it's running, no changes.

I have no idea why we're here, or if there is any meaning behind anything.
But I think as the human race advances maybe we can reach the point where we can "call god" and ask him ourselves! 😂
Billions of years from now of course!

I think god is good. He's given us life and a beautiful planet. There's nothing like this happening anywhere else. There are no aliens, we're it.
We need to charish our planet and help eachother.
Stop wasting our time on prayers!

That's just my opinion.

Originally posted by Tex
We know that a man by the name of Jesus existed, that he had many followers and that he was killed.

That's about it.

The rest is all filler.
The bible is laughably ridiculous!

...
Back to the god topic.

I think that 12 billion of years ago, "god" created the big bang and everything thereafter fell into place as by his design.

I believe that we're on our own. The creator chooses not to, or cannot interfere with anything. Meaning that he wrote his program and now it's running, no changes.

I have no idea why we're here, or if there is any meaning behind anything.
But I think as the human race advances maybe we can reach the point where we can "call god" and ask him ourselves! 😂
Billions of years from now of course!

I think god is good. He's given us life and a beautiful planet. There's nothing like this happening anywhere else. There are no aliens, we're it.
We need to charish our planet and help eachother.
Stop wasting our time on prayers!

That's just my opinion.

Mmm...easier said than done.

I know.
But many people live their lives for a heaven that might not be there.
We need to make Earth as heavenly as possible.

Becasue when we die that's probably it.
No afterlife.

Originally posted by Tex
I know.
But many people live their lives for a heaven that might not be there.
We need to make Earth as heavenly as possible.

Becasue when we die that's probably it.
No afterlife.

Originally posted by sonofasaiyan
Well well, eloquent aren't we? If you knew anything about history you'd see most of the Bible's content and events were paralleled by substantiated historic events. It even made refrence to Ceaser being alive during the time of Christ and has many references to Egypt and Ethiopia. So don't go stabbing in the dark and making generalizations. You assume out of sheer ignorance that the Bible should be dismissed because contemporary society has become too full of itself. If you choose to believe its only "BS" go ahead you won't be the first nor the last to feel that way.

Oh my GOD! It mentioned CAESAR?! It has to be true! Never mind the fact that this part could just as well have been added AFTER these events, or that the person who wrote it could have been making half of it up, this totally proves everything in the Bible! 🙄

If you knew anything about history, you would know that most of the Bible wasn't even written during or withing a short time of the events it describes. The Bible is great, you can go on and on about how convincing it seems by itself, but once you consider the aforementioned, and the fact that there are literally no references to Jesus in other historical texts of the time... Wellll that complicates things a bit doesn't it?

I am an atheist because I see nothing in this universe that cannot be explained without the presence of anything supernatural. I used to be very Christian, until I woke the hell up and realized that "god" had never once answered my prayers. I did every single goddamn thing you religious nuts tell me to do when I say "I don't believe in god", and none of it worked. So either god hates me, or he/she/it doesn't exist, at least as you portray it. Then I did some research on the actual history of the Bible, and well...

Originally posted by sonofasaiyan
Mmm...that is true but that does not mean its fiction. The Bible is far too consistent to be deemed strictly a historical source. There were thousands of locales, generations and explanations taken into consideration. And in my opinion a sovereign and omnipitent figure sounds much more logical and probable than some big bang that iniciated existence. And if we evolved from apes as Darwin suggests why are there still apes around??? How come our ecosystem is perfectly balanced and our bodies so intricately designed? Do you think you, your family and ancestors are all results of a cosmic anomaly?? I think I was designed not regurgitated.

We didn't evolve "from" apes as you describe it. In fact, rarely ever do species evolve entirely into another species. Rather, some of them "break off" of the rest of the population, and each new species goes their separate way. Sometimes one of the two becomes extinct, sometimes they don't. We are far from perfect, as are all other organisms on this planet. "Functioning" and "perfect" are not synonyms, after all. There is a kind of locust which has a set of nerves that starts at the head, goes down to the end of the animal's abdomen, and then loops back up to its wings. There is no longer any need for these extra nerves, they merely take up space and use up valuable resources.

Our ecosystem is balanced because that's the way it evolved. If we were too close to the sun, or too far away, we would not exist at all. If there were a different mixture of gasses in the atmosphere, everything would work very differently, but rest assured that it would still work.

"There are no aliens, we're it."

This is, of course, pure speculation. It's almost mathmatically impossible for there NOT to be intelegent life somewhere out in the infinite reaches of space. I find it hard to believe that among the billions and billions of planets in space, there is not at least one other one with a civilization.

Originally posted by sonofasaiyan
We can't make earth heaven. It's not possible. We are barely surviving as it is. Everyone thinks that there will be some magical juncture in the not so distance future that will make earth a utopia and its not coming. And I can't prove there is an afterlife and you can prove there isnt one.

So instead of trying to make it better, seeing as its "impossible" you just sit around and wait for god to intervene.

You figure earth is just a pit stop on the way to heaven.

Earth will probably never be a utopia, but peace and harmony is not impossible. Religion itself is a major obstacle to peace.

Originally posted by BackFire
"There are no aliens, we're it."

This is, of course, pure speculation. It's almost mathmatically impossible for there NOT to be intelegent life somewhere out in the infinite reaches of space. I find it hard to believe that among the billions and billions of planets in space, there is not at least one other one with a civilization.

Oh yeah, well Dracula's coming tonight!

The universe it unfathomably huge, I find it VERY hard to believe that we're the only intelligent life...hell, that we're the only life at all.

Why am I atheist? Well, I was raised Catholic, and used to be fairly religious. But, I am (and always have been) a very scientifically minded person, and I question EVERYTHING. I questioned pretty much everything in the Bible (and let me tell you, the other people in my church and my CCD teachers HATED me because of it), but of course no one could answer my questions. I began to question whether or not God existed, when finally -- when I was about 10 years old -- I decided that I did not believe that a God existed. And that is why I'm athiestic.

DR> adding on to yours. Humans are not made perfect. Appendixes and male nipples are an example of evolution. and that we are imperfect non god created beings.

So you assume that other than the gosples, no ancient writer mentions Jesus Christ.

Pontious Pilate, procurator of Judea who condemned Christ to death, wrote of those extraordinary activitys to Tiberius Caesar in an apparently well-known account that has been referred to by several other personages. One Christian apologist, some years later, writing to another Caesar, encouraged him to check with his own archives and discover from the report of Pontius Pilate that these things were true. In a long report, after describing the miracles of Christ, Pilate states: "And him Herod and Archelaus and Philip, Annas and Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered to me, making a great uproar against me that I should try him [Christ]. I therefore ordered him to be crucified, having first scourged him, and having found no cause of evil accusations or deeds. And at the time he was crucified there was darkness all over the world, the sun being darkened at mid-day, and the stars appearing, but in them appearing no lustre; and the moon, as if turned into blood, failed in her light."

Another secular writer, Thallus, in A.D. 52, writes about the sun's failure to give light from noon until three o' clock and says this must have been due to an eclipse. However we know that Christ was crucified at the time of Passover, which was the time of a full moon, and there cannot be an eclipse of the sun at the time of a full moon. Yet this writer felt he must offer some naturalistic explanation for the phenomenon of the sun's ceasing to give it's light.

Among the secular historians and writers of antiquity who refer to Christ and Christianity are: Tacitus, the Roman historian; Suetonius; Pliny the younger; Epictetus; Lucian; Aristides; Galenus; Lampridius; Dio Cassius; Hinnerius; Linbanius; Ammianus; Marcellinus; Eunapius; Zosimus.
Others have written whole books against Christianity including Lucian, Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and ajaulian the Apostate. Numerous others, including Jewish writers, have written about Jesus Christ.

So concluding the fact that you assume things.

Originally posted by Tptmanno1
DR> adding on to yours. Humans are not made perfect. Appendixes and male nipples are an example of evolution. and that we are imperfect non god created beings.

You're assuming that god actually created man and woman in his vision on the spot. Arm here, leg there, nipple here, etc.

But what if evolution was part of his design?

Do you believe the big bang was just a chance happening?