leonheartmm
Senior Member
What I meant by humbling oneself delt with commitment to God--in effect to have a relationship with God--instead of living as one wishes without consequence; this has nothing to do with feeling special--to highten ones persona. Such notions are self-imposed, and are often (more times than not) triggered by selfishness and/or pride. I think you are oversimplifying my statements; affirming a transcendent creator and belief in life after death--being a soulish creature--are knowledge that man is inherently born with. Environments and cultural upbringing do not teach such terms; I remember as a child pondering these things, but no one taught me this. It just came naturally, and I think all mankind experiences this mechanism; to what degree depends on the persons evironment and cutural upbringing. The thought of a transcendent creator and life after death--being a soulish creature--was present at birth. How can you deny this?[/size]
atheism does not mean living without thinking of consequences, there are as many good atheists as there are bad atheists. basically, you do not need a reason to be good to others and yourself. atheism as i said before does not have much to do with selfishness and pride, you are merely trying to rationalise spite against atheists and trying to define them as bad selfish people who know that god is true but the only reason they do not beleive in him is due to their ego. that is a complete lie but if you so wish, you can beleive it and feal comfortable in your own little reality. enviornment and upbringing COMPLETELY teach such things, everything from language to the notiona of trinity to jesus dying on the cross to a heaven and hell are taught by society. that is why people in different society beleive in different thigns and the things they beleive in are mostly the same as the society around them. i can deny this because i was taught these concepts and i did not know them before that nor wud have ever guessed. i challenge you to produce people who have never ever heard of christian concepts in their life and yet beleive in all the basics of christianity.
Exactly, but this directly (or indirectly) affirms knowledge in a transcendent creator! People don't get frustrated and/or angry with Santa Claus or the Flying Sphagetti Monster; because mankind, inherently, has no connection to them. They are false.
no it does not, they blame god first and then realise that god is not what he was supposed to be, then they question the idea that well, if god isnt good/fair or watever, because of whats happened to em, then why am i so sure that he is everything else he claimed to be. then they becaomse atheists because they let go of the basic conception of god altogether. ofcourse they still might have hate or anger towards him but that is an emotional responce, not an intellectual one. they do not get afraid of all the other things because they were never taught they existed, if they had, then theyd be afraid of em, just like greeks got angry with their god etc. countless examples.
When people assume belief in a transcendent creator, they are assuming belief in something that surpasses life in the physical realm. Purple unicorns are comprised of testable "physical" attributes. Having belief in purple unicorns--in light of scientific and historical evidence--would be most absurd. Do you see the difference?
not really, invisible purple unicorns also surpass life in the physical realm,, as they do not exist in the physical realm when your looking for them. just like shiva or brahma or zeus or allah or medusah. no difference, they are all untestable hypothesis with no logical evidence to suggest them. and please, do not confuse beleif in mysticism/things that trancend this physical world and christianity, they are two different things.
I respectfully disagree; all man is inherently conscience of a transcendent creator; if someone wishes to be intellectually lazy and ignore what they know naturally--that there is indeed something transcendent of life itself--than that is their choice; but despite what people of this caliber profess, they all know that a transcendent creator exists. That is precisely what I believe there is no such thing as an atheist--just people having a hard time managing the truth. When push comes to shove--namely death--the atheist will face the music. This has happened time and time again. My grandfather professed to be an atheist all his life; but on this death bed, he expressed faith. He was in denial his entire life, but not in this last days.
untrue. no1 is concios of a trancendant creator unless they are told about such things. it has nuthing to do with being intellectually lazy. abd again, you are mixing trancendance with christianity, they are two different things. also, i happen to be one of those people, yet i do not NATURALLY know anything about god especially not of a specifically CHRISTIAN god. that is just a very convenient self delusion. also, the said TRUTH has time and time again been proven to be self contradictory and illogical.
and the last part is disproven propaganda. most atheists do NOT convert at the time of death. maybe your grandfather did but that is irrelevant. no1 said that being an atheist can not be scary just like staying clean of drugs doesnt make life easy. atheists can get scared too of the possibility of dying, they just dont invent delusions to get around the fact.
I became a Christian about 5 years ago. God Himself, science, and history lead me into faith. With all in mind, as I studied, it became apparent, that all atheists ever provided were philospohical arguments, and that lacked persuasive power in the long run. To me, the arguments were fueled by emotion, not evidence.
not true, atheists provide arguments from physical sciences, history, anthropology and logic as WELL as philosophy. infact it is FAITH in god which is fuelled by emotion and lack of evidence.
Aside from this, just to make a general statement about theology: having God incarnate in the flesh to give a living account, then to sacrifice Himself (as to ensure eternal life) was beautiful to me; on a deep level--on that I cannot put my finger on--it filled the void. A void that no on taught me to feel and/or experience. I was born with it, and I think that all man--to whatever degree--is born with these very feelings and experiences that I speak of.
and to some, strapping bombs on themselves and blwoing themselves up in the middle of innocents is beautiful. while to others beleif in wicca is beautiful, it fills many viods. yet, is that true?
That is the human condition, and it is not taught and governed by the environment. Where does that come from? And why is it present? All humans need are food, shelter, and the ability to procreate, right? For so many in the world, these things provide material to survive in life, having nothing to do with "living" life--to feel alive! Are you and I to assume, that we humans--despite our human condition--yearn for nothing?! I find that hard to swallow, and so do atheists.Check out this thread--a little Q & A--that I opened that questions how humans experience life.
www.killermovies.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-467745-naturalism-v-theism.html [/B]
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curiosity is a human condition, yes. so is being egotistical and self deluding to find a comfortable reality. we do yearn for many things, but that does not mean those thigns will happen{like a person whose lost a loved one yearns for the revival of said loved one} . and there are plenty of reasons to beleive that there is MORE, just no reasons to beleive{and reasons infact to NOT beleive} the specific type of MORE set up by most theists and christians. i myself definately beleive that there is sumthing more, i have seen evidence for it, both in the physical world and in so called "philosophy" {a lot of which is really logic and not vague attempts at PROFOUNDNESS}. yet it isnt the MORE that christians talk about.
n thanks, ill check out the question and answers section when i get time.
peace.