Storm and Silver Starfish
I was NOT trying to defend the notion that God exists. I was trying to motivate full fledge Atheists to prepare and produce sound evidence for their beliefs. As previously stated, many people on these forums have nothing intelligent to say, only words of deceit. I'm a Christian. Your an Atheist... so be it. I'm not trying to engage in a tug-a-war match. I'm trying to have safe and constructive conversations about our vast beliefs.
By saying, "Prove it!", I wasn't speaking directly to you. I was speaking to forum members to present their case. You happened to pick up on it first. Please read my messages carefully. If I was out of line in any of my messages, I apologize. Moving on.
Whoever stated that people are raised to believe certain things is (to a small degree) correct. However, it's dangerous to sterotype! That's not a fair statement. All apologetic books I have regarding Christianity were written by Atheists who converted to Christianity. If what you say is correct, how do you explain such a thing? Yes, I have ex-Atheist teaching me about Christianity! Read up on C. S. Lewis or Lee Strobel. Also, check out Josh McDowell or Jack Van Impe.
Christianity is based on fact, not what ones parents or neighbors think. Yes, as a child your parents do have a great amount of influence on you. If you were raised to be Republican, you may grow to be a Republican. But, it's not true in all cases. The fact that my father may be a Baltimore Ravens fan doesn't subject me to gaurantees that I'll be one. Frankly, I may not give a crap about Football all together! The same can be said about religion.
Point is, people tend to discover and experience things on their own as they mature and grow as adults. We all have minds with power to reason, and analyze facts.
C. S. Lewis, an Atheist who set out to disprove Christianity became one in the process.
In the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. Consequently Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. "Dark" would be without meaning. - C. S. Lewis
As for people being punished and killed over defiance to religion; maybe so? So much non-sense goes on in this world that I'm not even going to begin to prove you wrong. Your probaly right. And if by chance you were wrong, I wouldn't know better... because I lack knowledge on that topic!
On the same token, time and time again throughout history, Christians have also been martyred for their beliefs.
Let's start over.