You don't CHOOSE to be an atheist any more than you CHOOSE that you don't believe in Santa Claus [Spirituality & Religion]
Feel free to share your reasoning.
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
Carazaa · F
You might not be able to chooses to be a believer but you sure can choose to [i]not[/i] be an atheist. If we don't know where we came from a person can say to themselves, I don't know so therefore I have two choices, one is to believe we were created, the other to believe there is no God at all and we are made from nothing. An atheist thinks there is no god because I can't see him, and I choose to believe in Evolution instead because to me I have some visual evidence now, never mind the bigger questions I wont think about them now and I choose to ignore them. A smarter thing would be to think, maybe there is a God, and I choose to accept some ambiguity. I am open to more information if some day I find out there really is a God and then I will believe in a God.
@Carazaa
The atheist withholds belief in that which cannot be demonstrated and places their trust in that which can be shown to be real.
Can you explain to me why it is [i]smarter[/i] to decide based on lack of evidence to the contrary (a logical fallacy called argument from ignorance) that gods are real?
And don't get it twisted. Most atheists acknowledged that a god [i]could[/i] exist. We just find that there is currently insufficient reason to reject the null hypothesis.
The atheist withholds belief in that which cannot be demonstrated and places their trust in that which can be shown to be real.
Can you explain to me why it is [i]smarter[/i] to decide based on lack of evidence to the contrary (a logical fallacy called argument from ignorance) that gods are real?
And don't get it twisted. Most atheists acknowledged that a god [i]could[/i] exist. We just find that there is currently insufficient reason to reject the null hypothesis.
Carazaa · F
@Pikachu
oh, these phrases that are used to confuse the ungodly, and convolute the truth of the clear evidence of a loving God, arguments from Ignorance, and logical fallacies that you use.
Satan is deceiving you like Eve in the garden dear.
I will repeat myself, but I don't mind, because I love answering your questions 😉
1. There is no lack of evidence of God in nature. God himself says "[b]The firmament declares My Glory" So there it is, see!
[/b] You can choose to argue that there is no proof, but you are wrong. Any intelligent person looking at the ocean, stars, moon, sun, flowers, trees, a baby, can see God. And don't say How? because it is plain to see. And then we can use our intelligence to understand that if we can't just miraculously come up with a watch unless we know how to make one, then the world has to have a creator from the beginning that is more intelligent than us, regardless of evolution or not. It is totally irrelevant that animals adapt to environment, or the earth is young or old. Those things are interesting but should never detract from the logical conclusion that God made the universe perfect, not by chance but by his [i]word[/i] it came about. He said it, and it was so. That is how it happened.
2. The Bible is a prophetic book, that has come true. I had no idea what my life would look like but I sure knew that there would be terrors, and greater and greater earthquakes, and greater and greater floods, and greater and greater famines, and greater and greater plagues, and more selfishness, and new religions, and knowledge increasing rapidly and Satan in churches deceiving people in the last days. It is so shocking that I saw nothing like this 50 years ago and all of this happened right after the Israelites were gathered back to their homeland. And the Gospel has gone out to the whole world. It is amazing! I believe we are very close to Jesus coming back to judge the living and the dead.
3. God changes hearts today. He changed my heart. It was a miracle. I have spiritual eyes and understand how Holy God is, and how sinful I am. When someone is born again they change forever. I am not talking about calling oneself a "Christian" and going to church. I mean they leave their life behind, and follow Jesus wherever He calls them. When someone says I know God personally, they mean it. If they are not loving, and put Jesus first in their life they are not born again and never was.
oh, these phrases that are used to confuse the ungodly, and convolute the truth of the clear evidence of a loving God, arguments from Ignorance, and logical fallacies that you use.
Satan is deceiving you like Eve in the garden dear.
I will repeat myself, but I don't mind, because I love answering your questions 😉
1. There is no lack of evidence of God in nature. God himself says "[b]The firmament declares My Glory" So there it is, see!
[/b] You can choose to argue that there is no proof, but you are wrong. Any intelligent person looking at the ocean, stars, moon, sun, flowers, trees, a baby, can see God. And don't say How? because it is plain to see. And then we can use our intelligence to understand that if we can't just miraculously come up with a watch unless we know how to make one, then the world has to have a creator from the beginning that is more intelligent than us, regardless of evolution or not. It is totally irrelevant that animals adapt to environment, or the earth is young or old. Those things are interesting but should never detract from the logical conclusion that God made the universe perfect, not by chance but by his [i]word[/i] it came about. He said it, and it was so. That is how it happened.
2. The Bible is a prophetic book, that has come true. I had no idea what my life would look like but I sure knew that there would be terrors, and greater and greater earthquakes, and greater and greater floods, and greater and greater famines, and greater and greater plagues, and more selfishness, and new religions, and knowledge increasing rapidly and Satan in churches deceiving people in the last days. It is so shocking that I saw nothing like this 50 years ago and all of this happened right after the Israelites were gathered back to their homeland. And the Gospel has gone out to the whole world. It is amazing! I believe we are very close to Jesus coming back to judge the living and the dead.
3. God changes hearts today. He changed my heart. It was a miracle. I have spiritual eyes and understand how Holy God is, and how sinful I am. When someone is born again they change forever. I am not talking about calling oneself a "Christian" and going to church. I mean they leave their life behind, and follow Jesus wherever He calls them. When someone says I know God personally, they mean it. If they are not loving, and put Jesus first in their life they are not born again and never was.
@Carazaa
[quote]these phrases that are used to confuse the ungodly,[/quote]
No, carazaa. These are just labels which describe a recognized failure of logic.
To be clear; using a logical fallacy does not mean that you are [i]wrong[/i] it just means that your conclusion does not follow logically from your premise.
These are not "phrases" which are applied only to theology. They are [i]tools[/i] which are used to parse logic from illogic.
[quote]God himself says "The firmament declares My Glory" So there it is, see![/quote]
lol good one, carazaa. 😏
[quote] Any intelligent person looking at the ocean, stars, moon, sun, flowers, trees, a baby, can see God. And don't say How? because it is plain to see.[/quote]
This is not an argument, carazaa. This is a declaration of faith.
You have [i]declared[/i] that any intelligent person must agree with you because you believe your conclusion is obvious.
I can say the same thing: You can argue that there is proof of god but you're wrong. Any intelligent person can recognize that life is not designed.
Do you see what a pointless statement that is? It offers no substance, only a demand that one person accept the proclamation of the other.
If you wish to actually debate the fine-tuning argument or the cosmological argument then we can certainly do that.
If you think stars and flowers and trees are plainly the work of a god, explain how.
[quote]The Bible is a prophetic book, that has come true.[/quote]
And yet people have been claiming that these prophecies are fulfilled for literally millennia. Throughout history, christians believed (just as you do) that they were seeing the signs of the end times. And yet here we all still are.
I seem to remember you bringing up a city being demolished which fulfilled prophecy but when i pointed out that this city had been destroyed a number of times and asked which one was prophecy fulfilled, i don't think you gave me an answer.
[quote]God changes hearts today ... When someone is born again they change forever. [/quote]
But people who have devoted their lives to your god fall away every day too. My own brother was born again and later realized he didn't believe any more.
In your faith framework, you can dismiss that as them not being true christians but that only holds water if i first accept your faith framework as legitimate.
You're telling me that god changes peoples hears but i'm just seeing people falling in and out of belief.
In short, being an atheist is not a choice i've made. I can't [i]choose[/i] to believe in a god any more than you can [i]choose[/i] to believe in santa.
[quote]these phrases that are used to confuse the ungodly,[/quote]
No, carazaa. These are just labels which describe a recognized failure of logic.
To be clear; using a logical fallacy does not mean that you are [i]wrong[/i] it just means that your conclusion does not follow logically from your premise.
These are not "phrases" which are applied only to theology. They are [i]tools[/i] which are used to parse logic from illogic.
[quote]God himself says "The firmament declares My Glory" So there it is, see![/quote]
lol good one, carazaa. 😏
[quote] Any intelligent person looking at the ocean, stars, moon, sun, flowers, trees, a baby, can see God. And don't say How? because it is plain to see.[/quote]
This is not an argument, carazaa. This is a declaration of faith.
You have [i]declared[/i] that any intelligent person must agree with you because you believe your conclusion is obvious.
I can say the same thing: You can argue that there is proof of god but you're wrong. Any intelligent person can recognize that life is not designed.
Do you see what a pointless statement that is? It offers no substance, only a demand that one person accept the proclamation of the other.
If you wish to actually debate the fine-tuning argument or the cosmological argument then we can certainly do that.
If you think stars and flowers and trees are plainly the work of a god, explain how.
[quote]The Bible is a prophetic book, that has come true.[/quote]
And yet people have been claiming that these prophecies are fulfilled for literally millennia. Throughout history, christians believed (just as you do) that they were seeing the signs of the end times. And yet here we all still are.
I seem to remember you bringing up a city being demolished which fulfilled prophecy but when i pointed out that this city had been destroyed a number of times and asked which one was prophecy fulfilled, i don't think you gave me an answer.
[quote]God changes hearts today ... When someone is born again they change forever. [/quote]
But people who have devoted their lives to your god fall away every day too. My own brother was born again and later realized he didn't believe any more.
In your faith framework, you can dismiss that as them not being true christians but that only holds water if i first accept your faith framework as legitimate.
You're telling me that god changes peoples hears but i'm just seeing people falling in and out of belief.
In short, being an atheist is not a choice i've made. I can't [i]choose[/i] to believe in a god any more than you can [i]choose[/i] to believe in santa.