Are atheists considered anti-Christ?
Give a reason for your answer.
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Some are anti-Christ or rather, anti the Christian religion in most of its forms.
Others agree with the ethics Jesus was said to have advised, but do not believe that he was a son of a god, nor that he rose again.
Many would point to the fact that there is no evidence to support the existence of a man called Jesus born of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. The Roman records do not mention his birth, trial or crucifiction. Neither do any Hebrew writings of the time. Though they may simply have been lost.
The new testaments were written two generations after the reported time of the death of Jesus. Meaning there is no certainty that they are valid.
Did Jesus really tell a disciple to steal him an ass so he could ride like a rich man into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Was it a colt, jack, jenny, or jenny with foal at foot? The gospels disagree.
By that time there were many sects, each promoting a different angle or interpretation.
It was a quickly growing cult because it asserted that the poor and meek would be first in heaven and the first last. It also asserted acceptance of the rule of law (pay Caesar what it Cesar's, ie taxes, etc). It promoted equality between men and women, between slave, servant, master and all people. It forgave sinners. It promoted turn the other cheek, forgive thine enemy, and love the stranger and your neighbour (anyone nearby). All this appealed enormously to those who were oppressed because it offered hope in the afterlife.
But the fighting between sects as to whose version was the truth or would prevail had already begun, even before any writing of the gospels, and before Timothy had begun writing St Paul's epistles for him.
From the time of Constantine, the early texts were selected with a political agenda (population control), and many, such as the Gospel of St Thomas, were repressed and hidden.
But atheism is not just denying Jesus and Christianity. It usually denies all forms of religion or beliefism.
For atheists there is no god. Any who pretend to be prophets or messiahs are either pretenders with a guru complex, or very wise men trying to reduce the amount of suffering in the world.
Some atheists allow that there [i]might[/i] be some kind of universal consciousness - not a god as such but something akin to the Vedantist idea of[i] atman[/i].
But in general, atheism is usually a rejection of belief in any kind of god. Possibly a more accurate term would be non-theism.
Most atheists accept science's concept that existence came into being with the Big Bang, that nothing existed "prior" to that singularity because there was no before - literally no time or place. We accept the theories and evidence for evolution. We accept that we don't know everything, never can know everything, but that knowledge is growing at an exponential rate as we develop new tools and methods with which to test theories.
Others agree with the ethics Jesus was said to have advised, but do not believe that he was a son of a god, nor that he rose again.
Many would point to the fact that there is no evidence to support the existence of a man called Jesus born of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. The Roman records do not mention his birth, trial or crucifiction. Neither do any Hebrew writings of the time. Though they may simply have been lost.
The new testaments were written two generations after the reported time of the death of Jesus. Meaning there is no certainty that they are valid.
Did Jesus really tell a disciple to steal him an ass so he could ride like a rich man into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Was it a colt, jack, jenny, or jenny with foal at foot? The gospels disagree.
By that time there were many sects, each promoting a different angle or interpretation.
It was a quickly growing cult because it asserted that the poor and meek would be first in heaven and the first last. It also asserted acceptance of the rule of law (pay Caesar what it Cesar's, ie taxes, etc). It promoted equality between men and women, between slave, servant, master and all people. It forgave sinners. It promoted turn the other cheek, forgive thine enemy, and love the stranger and your neighbour (anyone nearby). All this appealed enormously to those who were oppressed because it offered hope in the afterlife.
But the fighting between sects as to whose version was the truth or would prevail had already begun, even before any writing of the gospels, and before Timothy had begun writing St Paul's epistles for him.
From the time of Constantine, the early texts were selected with a political agenda (population control), and many, such as the Gospel of St Thomas, were repressed and hidden.
But atheism is not just denying Jesus and Christianity. It usually denies all forms of religion or beliefism.
For atheists there is no god. Any who pretend to be prophets or messiahs are either pretenders with a guru complex, or very wise men trying to reduce the amount of suffering in the world.
Some atheists allow that there [i]might[/i] be some kind of universal consciousness - not a god as such but something akin to the Vedantist idea of[i] atman[/i].
But in general, atheism is usually a rejection of belief in any kind of god. Possibly a more accurate term would be non-theism.
Most atheists accept science's concept that existence came into being with the Big Bang, that nothing existed "prior" to that singularity because there was no before - literally no time or place. We accept the theories and evidence for evolution. We accept that we don't know everything, never can know everything, but that knowledge is growing at an exponential rate as we develop new tools and methods with which to test theories.
Sharon · F
@hartfire [quote]We accept the theories and evidence for evolution.[/quote]
Just to clarify. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, like all scientific theories, is a complete and consistent explanation of the evidence. Scientific theories are not just vague ideas as in the everyday use of the word "theory".
Just to clarify. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, like all scientific theories, is a complete and consistent explanation of the evidence. Scientific theories are not just vague ideas as in the everyday use of the word "theory".
@Sharon I agree. We have more than enough evidence to accept the Theory of Evolution and nothing to show it to be not so. The main advances have been enlargements of the theory. For instance, competition for survival within a specific environment is not the only active principle. Another is cooperation, symbiosis, and other forms of mutual benefit between species, for instance, between buffalos and tick birds.
Adstar · 56-60, M
@hartfire
[quote]Others agree with the ethics Jesus was said to have advised, but do not believe that he was a son of a god, nor that he rose again. [/quote]
And thats one of the defintions of an Antichrist..
(1 John 2:22-23) "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? [c=4C0073][u]He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son[/u][/c]. {23} Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also."
[quote]Others agree with the ethics Jesus was said to have advised, but do not believe that he was a son of a god, nor that he rose again. [/quote]
And thats one of the defintions of an Antichrist..
(1 John 2:22-23) "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? [c=4C0073][u]He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son[/u][/c]. {23} Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also."
Sharon · F
@hartfire Sorry, I wasn't arguing against you, I was just trying to clarify the meaning of the word "theory" in science.
We have more than enough evidence to know evolution is a fact. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection explains how evolution works. You're right that the theory was needed later refinement, many theories do when addition evidence is found that the current theory can't explain. One you might know about is how Newton's theory of gravity was unable to explain the orbit of Mercury. Quite simply, Newton was wrong. His theory was good enough for most purposes though and the maths. is a lot simpler than Einstein's theory - which was able to explain Mercury's orbit.
We have more than enough evidence to know evolution is a fact. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection explains how evolution works. You're right that the theory was needed later refinement, many theories do when addition evidence is found that the current theory can't explain. One you might know about is how Newton's theory of gravity was unable to explain the orbit of Mercury. Quite simply, Newton was wrong. His theory was good enough for most purposes though and the maths. is a lot simpler than Einstein's theory - which was able to explain Mercury's orbit.