This to me, borders on the height of irrationality. Let me give my views, look at some common responses, and answer to those.

By definition, under Atheism, this is the ONLY life we have, therefore, every second is precious. Why would you waste precious time debating about a being you don't believe exists? Isnt it a real waste of your life?

I have been told that under Atheism, the meaning of life is subjective. That is, you give your own meaning to your own life. If playing the piano gives meaning to the pianist, then so be it. If playing baseball gives someone meaning, then good luck to them. If helping friends and family gives you meaning in life, then good luck to them. We cannot tell them it is wrong. It is subjective and gives them meaning. If Christianity gives people meaning in their lives, then who is anyone to tell them no? Why spend time arguing something that gives people meaning in their life?

Now, here are some of the common objections I get.

"Religious get tax breaks, they shouldn't." , Well, a major function of the Christian Church is charitable works. Like every other charity, why shouldn't the Christian church also get tax breaks as a major function of their work is charity.

"Because they impact on policy". Well, I agree church and state should be separated, however, why just like every other person, don't Christians also have the right to voice their opinion? Aren't people all for freedom of speech? Doesn't everyone have a right to voice their opinion? However, once this goes to govt, it becomes more of a question of politics rather than philosophy/theology.

"Religion stuns scientific thought / discovery", well some of our greatest scientists have been Theists. Science is the study of the natural world. The gospels do not tell us that we should not observe the world. Under Theology, God gave us rational minds to observe the universe. Science is built on the very foundation of Christianity. Dr Francis Collins was the director of the genome project to find cures for disease.

These are just a few.

Because we like eating babies.

Next question?

Number of reasons really:

1. Christianity and Islam in particular are very keen to convert anyone and also as an atheist we appear to be fair game. Also worth bearing in mind there are an awful lot of Christians and Moslems out there (with a wild variety of interpretations of things).
2. Religious mis-information and the dangers to education. I don't really need to expand on this - Intelligent Design in biology classes - really?
3. Religion varies from one individual to another and from one branch to another. Some accept science and that's fine - science continues. Some, however, don't and that's a problem because those people are extremely vociferous and can do real damage to our development.
4. Religion effectively was above criticism for hundreds of years. You could attack a man's politics and no-one turned a hair, but mention his faith and things got very sticky. Since 9/11 that has changed. Religion is now fair game, as it should be. You can believe what you want to - but if you put it out there expect to have to defend it.
5. Related to 4, above, atheists have largely remained silent throughout history. In previous times to be an atheist openly was to court death. Now that the gag has been removed you have to expect some over-exuberance from the newly free.

That'll cover it for now.

I don't personally, I prefer to leave that sort of thing to noobies and others still sorting things out. To me it got really old and repetitive.

Because so many people keep telling us their version of whatever god it is they worship exists and, further, that it hates us.

But really, we never actually get past the first question; "What's a god?"

(October 2, 2013 at 8:43 am)max-greece Wrote: Number of reasons really:

1. Christianity and Islam in particular are very keen to convert anyone and also as an atheist we appear to be fair game. Also worth bearing in mind there are an awful lot of Christians and Moslems out there (with a wild variety of interpretations of things).

Is this really a big problem? How is this any different to getting phone calls from people trying to sell you something?

2. Religious mis-information and the dangers to education. I don't really need to expand on this - Intelligent Design in biology classes - really?

Intelligent design is the philosophy of scientific findings. For example, the finding of the complexity of cells via scientific discovery, is it designed? This is a philosophical conclusion rather than scientific. Furthermore, what is wrong in looking at alternative views?

3. Religion varies from one individual to another and from one branch to another. Some accept science and that's fine - science continues. Some, however, don't and that's a problem because those people are extremely vociferous and can do real damage to our development.

Why should religious not embrace science? I certainly do. Science is the study of the natural world. People think science and religion are at odds, but I think they are not. I will write a thread on this.

4. Religion effectively was above criticism for hundreds of years. You could attack a man's politics and no-one turned a hair, but mention his faith and things got very sticky. Since 9/11 that has changed. Religion is now fair game, as it should be. You can believe what you want to - but if you put it out there expect to have to defend it.

We don't have to defend our world view anymore than Atheists have to defend their view.

5. Related to 4, above, atheists have largely remained silent throughout history. In previous times to be an atheist openly was to court death. Now that the gag has been removed you have to expect some over-exuberance from the newly free.

What does that have to do with now?

That'll cover it for now.

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(October 2, 2013 at 8:44 am)Fidel_Castronaut Wrote: Because so many people keep telling us their version of whatever god it is they worship exists and, further, that it hates us.

Really? Well, I cannot speak on behalf of Islam or Judaism, but the doctrine of Christianity is clear that God loves sinners.

But really, we never actually get past the first question; "What's a god?"

Creator of the universe, life and source of all moral goodness.

You haven't understood what intelligent design is. Its creationism with another name = denial of evolution - God made everything as it is 6,000 years ago.

That can be in a religious studies class - not in science class.

Other than that:

I am ruder to salespeople than I am to the religious when they come knocking at my door.
That YOU think religion and science are not at odds is fine - but you don't speak for all theists.
Actually both theist and atheists have to defend their world view if they put it out there. If you keep it to yourself - no problem.
Re-read point 5 - you didn't get it the first time.

(October 2, 2013 at 8:56 am)max-greece Wrote: You haven't understood what intelligent design is. Its creationism with another name = denial of evolution - God made everything as it is 6,000 years ago.

That can be in a religious studies class - not in science class.

Other than that:

I am ruder to salespeople than I am to the religious when they come knocking at my door.
That YOU think religion and science are not at odds is fine - but you don't speak for all theists.
Actually both theist and atheists have to defend their world view if they put it out there. If you keep it to yourself - no problem.
Re-read point 5 - you didn't get it the first time.

"The theory of intelligent design is simply an effort to empirically detect whether the "apparent design" in nature acknowledged by virtually all biologists is genuine design (the product of an intelligent cause) or is simply the product of an undirected process such as natural selection acting on random variations. Creationism typically starts with a religious text and tries to see how the findings of science can be reconciled to it. Intelligent design starts with the empirical evidence of nature and seeks to ascertain what inferences can be drawn from that evidence. Unlike creationism, the scientific theory of intelligent "

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(October 2, 2013 at 8:56 am)max-greece Wrote: You haven't understood what intelligent design is. Its creationism with another name = denial of evolution - God made everything as it is 6,000 years ago.

That can be in a religious studies class - not in science class.

Other than that:

I am ruder to salespeople than I am to the religious when they come knocking at my door.
That YOU think religion and science are not at odds is fine - but you don't speak for all theists.
Actually both theist and atheists have to defend their world view if they put it out there. If you keep it to yourself - no problem.
Re-read point 5 - you didn't get it the first time.

In all honesty, how many times does a Mormon or Jehova's witness knock on your door? Where I am , maybe once every 5 years. Is that really such a big problem in your life?

Religion, particularly the christian one, has caused millions of deaths and pain throughout history. It is a poison that corrupts everything it touches. To a christian, the truth of their beliefs don't matter, its whether they feel good. Otherwise you tortino, would be fine with slavery, rape, murder, genocide, infanticide, stoning. (I'm assuming you aren't fine with those)
And then the arrogance of the intolerance of religion. Doesn't the bible say to kill non-believers? And then they try and dictate the way I live my life, based on their cherry picked version of their religion. Thats why we debate the existence of god, the idea of god is dangerous. Its also intellectually lazy, just saying goddit has no explanatory power at all. They locked a man in his house for years because his new ideas conflicted with theirs. If the world had stayed as religious as it was during the middle ages, we would not have developed at all. We would be standing in our own waste, disease ridden, living in huts and dying at the ripe old age of 40.

Back to the O.P.

Q. Why do atheists spend so much time debating the existence of God?

A. They don't!