I'm sure this has been covered plenty, but I'm a newby. ( But not an athiest basher)
What drives one to Atheism, or perhaps evolution. Is it that one rejects God, then finds comfort in something else, or do you look at evolution and determine it to be closer to the truth?
Or, are there athiests who also reject evolution, and just don't know what to make of life.

I call Poe.

Evolution has nothing to do with atheism.

Evolution is a scientific fact.


Atheism is a non belief in deities.

I don't believe in deities because there's absolutely no convincing evidence for the existence of such beings. The claims I always hear are personal appeals, quoting holy books to prove the deity they depict, arguments from emotion or ignorance.

*sigh*

Well my acceptance of science had nothing to do with my leaving Christianity. I thought that evolution and cosmology were how God expressed his transcendent will. So the phrasing is somewhat off here.

There are two questions, why I am not a Christian anymore and why I am an atheist. These are different questions and the answers are different. For the first the answer is my study of history and of biblical literature.

My first attempt at college I majored in classics. I focused on the history of the Roman Enpire around 100BCE to 200 CE. In this time there were a lot of people who matched parts of the Jesus story. They were not exact but they were close enough that you could see the origin of the mythology growing around them. Lots of apocalyptic teachers were walking around at the time. But of this specific one, Jesus, there was no mention of a single individual that matched that description.

To make it worse I traced the literary origins of the Old Testament. This was devastating as well, for once you get to the beginning of where it begins it becomes indistinguishable from its current form and other stories floating around at the same time. How could I believe the book was divinely inspired if it was not appreciably different from any other? How could I believe Jesus was divine if he was no different from any other and indeed could not be located at all?

As to why I am currently an atheist, I think the concept of God is not well enough defined to make a judgement call one way or the other. Most people won't clarify what they mean and those that do often have gods which are impossible. I am open to being wrong but I need more than mindless generalities that add up to nothing. If provided with a solid definition and reasonable evidence I would likely change my mind.

I'm not athiest, I don't consider myself even slightly more athie than anyone else let alone the most athie. Assuming you mean 'atheism', it's simply a response to theism. Hence 'a-theism'; 'not theism'. That really is how it works. Present your god claims, we will assess them. If we find them compelling, we may even alter our position to accommodate. Evolution, the fact that biological species change over time, has no direct bearing on the atheist position, but depending on the context may threaten a theistic one.

What's driving me to atheism?

Currently that would be Porsche 911; borrowed from a friend. A 997 to be exact. Tooling around Orange County, sitting all pretty like. Owning those freeways like a boss baby. I got the leetle dog in the back and his head go up and down. Driving me straight to atheism! Or, Hell!

Also, "your"....really?

(December 2, 2015 at 10:15 pm)The_Empress Wrote: I call Poe.

Poelo

(December 2, 2015 at 10:33 pm)JesusHChrist Wrote: What's driving me to atheism?

Currently that would be Porsche 911; borrowed from a friend. A 997 to be exact. Tooling around Orange County, sitting all pretty like. Owning those freeways like a boss baby. I got the leetle dog in the back and his head go up and down. Driving me straight to atheism! Or, Hell!

Also, "your"....really?

(Do you live in Orange County, JHC?)

Evolution is not really opposite to god. It has a mountain of evidence for it, which is why it made it to a scientific theory. If the bible disagrees with it, then that's the bible's problem. What drove me away from god is a lack of evidence, some things in the bible that are blatantly false, and some things I find immoral. It's just not something I can follow in good conscience.

You can be a christian and believe that evolution happens. You can be an atheist and not believe in evolution or the big bang.