(May 29, 2011 at 10:39 am)reverendjeremiah Wrote: Example: If Sam Harris just came up and said "I have left atheism for Christianity", I would SERIOUSLY doubt his claim. Most especially if he published a book series on it.

Sam can't go back now. He denied the holy spirit on camera, and there is no forgiveness for that sin.
He might as well just sit back and enjoy the fruits of his infideism, cause he sure as shit's fucked anyhow.

We do not have the authority to accuse someone of having committed the unpardonable sin. To do so would be to condemn the person as forever lost, without hope of redemption. Christians do not have the knowledge or authority to make such pronouncements. Only God and the person knows who has committed the unpardonable sin. Remorse is a sign of conviction. Sufficient remorse would indicate presence of the Holy Spirit.

You know SW if you put your hide tags inside of your quote tags it would be easier for the reader to see who you were quoting, and which arguements were referenced towards them. Just a suggestion.

Quote:I see your point G-sprite, but I somewhat disagree. The Reformed position is that all that are truly saved persevere to the end. So it logically follows that those who fall away were never truly saved.

Do you have any examples you can give where Christians lied about being atheists prior to their conversion?

There is a difference between the person being sincere and 'being saved'. What I tried to say is that when someone (de)converts others might say 'well I guess he was always just faking a bit anyways'. I person can sincerely be a Christian, but still change their minds later. A person can also sincerely be an atheist and change their minds later on. See my point?

As for examples of 'atheists becoming believers', I can't give a 'famous person' example out of the top of my head. But I have seen Christians on forums like these before proclaiming they had been atheist until they saw the light. Upon further questioning they'd reveal that they had spent a period of their life hating god and blaming him. That is not atheism - if you're hating god and blaming him (as opposed of disliking religion itself) you are still believing in him. That is the point where they misunderstood atheism.

(June 2, 2011 at 7:03 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: If people could not come up with the concept of Yahweh on their own, then where did the concept come from in your opinion? Christians don't believe that all of the attributes of the God of the Bible would just naturally be known to someone on an island. However, His existence, power, and glory are attested to by His creation (Romans 1), so that much should be naturally known. Does that make any sense?

Your Yahweh evolved from gods like Ra and Baalal, which is another strike against your religion.

If god is all powerful why did people have other gods for thousands of years before he was thought up.

(June 2, 2011 at 7:03 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: If people could not come up with the concept of Yahweh on their own, then where did the concept come from in your opinion? Christians don't believe that all of the attributes of the God of the Bible would just naturally be known to someone on an island. However, His existence, power, and glory are attested to by His creation (Romans 1), so that much should be naturally known. Does that make any sense?

either you have purposefully missinterpreted my post or you are an idiot.

My piont was that although people might have found something to worship it would not be Jahweh, jehova or whatever its decided to call it today.
They may worship a lump of rock, their ancestors, cargo, trees, volcanoes, bodies of water.

The idea of this yahweh person happened just once, but was spread quite forcefully by an invading army, (the israelites) and this mutated into the strange beliefs of christians, but it is not the belief that people come to independantly when left on their own it takes a lot of history and tinkering to build the amount of bullshit that christianity contains.

If the religious evolution happened again there probably would be religion, but it would not look like christianity or islam or any of the others because of the complex interplay and development.

This makes atheism the most consistant regligious position. non belief is non belief.