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A Believer's Thoughts on Faith
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 (June 28, 2022 at 1:41 pm)rlp21858 Wrote: i do believe that for some who follow atheism, their decision comes from a misunderunderstanding about some things, and perhaps from provoking by the Church, so i hope i can add some information that may be missing. I am a former Christian believer, having been born & raised in the faith. I abandoned my Christian beliefs after becoming convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a religious nut, whom the Romans crucified due to sedition against the Empire. 
Deesse23: i believe that life is to be lived not by trying to "be right", as deemed by another, but by what we believe to be right. but i believe there are many believers doing the former instead of living the latter by faith.
Nudger: i'll really need to know more about what members here believe and why to answer this. i'm starting to wonder if i know exactly what atheism is, so a definition (in one's own words) would also be helpful. Orbit: the fears i faced were the faith-based fears that many who follow Christianity are afraid to face (evolution, Darwinism. other religions, etc). perhaps no big deal for others but they were for me.  (June 28, 2022 at 3:51 pm)rlp21858 Wrote: i'll really need to know more about what members here believe and why to answer this. i'm starting to wonder if i know exactly what atheism is, so a definition (in one's own words) would also be helpful.I think you'll get as many different answers as you would with "christian". For me personally, I generally use the word "skeptic", as 1) this is all sort of new to me and 2) the term "atheist" in general society tends to bring exactly the sort of assumption you put forth of "following" something. I lost belief in christianity because, after finally really examining it for myself, I found zero evidence for it textually, theologically, logically, or any-other-ly. I am therefore a skeptic (atheist if you prefer) about it the same way I'm a skeptic about ghosts, fairies and unicorns. There's nothing to follow. It's an absence of following, with nothing to prove. (June 28, 2022 at 3:51 pm)rlp21858 Wrote: Deesse23: i believe that life is to be lived not by trying to "be right", as deemed by another, but by what we believe to be right. but i believe there are many believers doing the former instead of living the latter by faith. We feel about God in the same way that you feel about the ISM, the Invisible Sock Monster, who scours the World, taking one (and only one) sock of a pair from dryers, washers and other places everywhere. (June 28, 2022 at 3:51 pm)rlp21858 Wrote: Nudger: i'll really need to know more about what members here believe and why to answer this. i'm starting to wonder if i know exactly what atheism is, so a definition (in one's own words) would also be helpful. That's the start of the trouble. Atheism isn't about what people believe in, it's about one thing they don't believe in. Gods. How likely do you think I am to be mistaken about whether I do or don't believe in gods?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
  (June 28, 2022 at 6:14 pm)Huggy Bear Wrote:(June 27, 2022 at 8:27 am)GUBU Wrote: In response to the OPs long line of bovine excremen,t all faith is is something you hold to be true despite evidence to the contrary.*emphasis mine* You’ve got it exactly backwards. Atheism - the lack of belief in gods - requires no evidence. Atheism is not a positive belief, theism is. GUBU essentially defined faith as holding a positive belief in spite of evidence to the contrary. I don’t need evidence to not believe in something. Theists manage to believe in something without evidence. If you can take from this that atheism qualifies as an article of faith, I suggest you re-read Hume. Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
(June 28, 2022 at 6:14 pm)Huggy Bear Wrote:(June 27, 2022 at 8:27 am)GUBU Wrote: In response to the OPs long line of bovine excremen,t all faith is is something you hold to be true despite evidence to the contrary.*emphasis mine* Prove that Invisible Unicorns don't exist.
Grand Nudger: well, i do think you'll have to tell me what you believe a god is.
TheJefe817: thank you for the definition. it sounds to me like atheism is just a state of disbelief then. if possible, could you share some of your textual, theological, or logical findings that made you lose faith in Christianity? Jehanne: there's a huge amount of flexibility possible in what one's image of God can be, as taught by the Bible, but often believers try to force their image of what God is on others. is there any aspect of what is commonly called God that you do believe? (June 28, 2022 at 7:09 pm)rlp21858 Wrote: TheJefe817: thank you for the definition. it sounds to me like atheism is just a state of disbelief then. if possible, could you share some of your textual, theological, or logical findings that made you lose faith in Christianity?I started typing some items and deleted, because it would be multi-book length to do any of it justice. Suffice it to say I started examining "evidence" put forth by theists and found every single item lacking when viewed objectively (that is, requiring anything other than simply faith). Every. Single. One. If I had to pick one that started it, the reliability of the bible. Once that fell, the dominos followed quickly. And that set of doubts required nothing external - the bible itself was enough. Poke around here and you'll eventually find many of the resources I've absorbed subsequently - both pro and con. I continue to search because I would love to be proven wrong (Well, maybe. If god is as described in the bible, I would rather he did not exist, honestly), but so far, no dice. |
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