christian looking to understand athiests

[Cyberman]

well its been great discussing with everyone i now understand your point of view a little more. 
i am a 14 year old pastors daughter and i know if i mentioned that earlier i probobally would have been shot down immediately. 
thank you for the discussions and i will be praying for all of you

For what purpose are you intending to pray for us, and why is it necessary that we are aware of the intention? Won't it work - for a given value of 'work' - if we don't know about it?

[Crossless2.0]

Right. Then there's that part about Christians failing to provide compelling evidence or arguments.

Both the evidence and arguments have been provided throughout history.  You atheists just come up with excuses for not accepting them. The Holy Spirit is reaching out to you but you will not listen.

I suppose, in the end, this is how it always has to go with you Christians. The fault isn't in the source material, the lack of good evidence for the historicity of your more outlandish claims, or the obvious chicanery hidden in your philosophical arguments. The fault lies with those who don't buy your story. Of course.

With every passing week, you sound more and more like Drich. He manages to go full retard without the neo-Scholastic posturing. Perhaps you should give it a try too.

[Longhorn]

well its been great discussing with everyone i now understand your point of view a little more. 
i am a 14 year old pastors daughter and i know if i mentioned that earlier i probobally would have been shot down immediately. 
thank you for the discussions and i will be praying for all of you

For what purpose are you intending to pray for us, and why is it necessary that we are aware of the intention? Won't it work - for a given value of 'work' - if we don't know about it?

Actually, a study done on prayer shows not only that it doesn't work, but can be the cause of performance anxiety if the person prayed for is aware of it. Thanks a lot -_-

[Javaman]

Checkmate robvalue!

Did you see the car before you paid for it?

So your god answered your prayers by degrading someone else's eyesight to the point where they were no longer allowed to drive, thereby compelling her to sell off her car at discounted price?

Did nobody think to pray for this woman's eyesight to improve?

he did not degrade a womans eyesight she was very old and frankly there were other reasons why she shouldnt drive. dont blame God for natural physical aging.  if he healed every single thing that was uncomfortable or inconvienent in anyones life he really would just turn into an automatic wish machine.  i believe she is also selling her house soon to move in with family so she wont need the car

Your explanation makes no sense. If you truly want to understand atheists, you'll need to figure out why it makes no sense.

[Mister Agenda]

 
i believe that God always answers prayer.  but the answer isnt always yes.  and i know you believe that its all just chance if my prayer is awnsered but its happened so many times that it cant be a coincidence. 
also i dont believe in the big bang because of how far fetched it is.  its an idea made up by people looking for any other explanation other than God.  
it takes WAY more faith not to believe that there was a creator of the universe.  if one single mistake had been made in the big bang the whole world could just collapse.  the idea that there was just a bang one time millions of years ago that created this perfect earth just takes a lot of faith in nothing to believe

You can't help what you believe about your personal experiences, we all have filters based on our histories and capacities.

You are not qualified to evaluate how far-fetched a cosmological theory is. Your opinion on the matter is unscientific and close to worthless. Many Christians use the Big Bang as an argument for God, claiming that it is the moment when God said 'let there be light'. It has nothing to do with whether or not there is a creator God. If there is, it is responsible for the Big Bang. The theory was devised to explain scientific findings like the red shift of distant galaxies and cosmic background radiation. It certainly wasn't 'made up' to get out of acccepting your particular theology.

You must be using a novel definition of the word 'faith' if it takes more of it to accept things for which there is compelling evidence than to accept things for which the evidence is hearsay and miracle claims that can't be demonstrated to be real. You seem to consider faith not to be a virtue, something it is bad of which to have 'too much'. I'm inclined to agree, but I thought you were supposed to be a Christian.

No one knows how many 'bangs' there were. For all we know, ours coult have been the billion trillionth 'Big Bang'. And there's no reason to believe that it could have occurred in any other way than the way it did, and some reason to think there's only one way it can happen.

[Mister Agenda]

If God answers prayers, does that mean his initial plans for everyone were suboptimal and he needed advice?

no because God created us with a free will and unless we ask him he cant change things that happen in our lives or our choices

He can't? Pharoah begs to differ.

[brewer]

You might be beating a dead horse. I think the young lady has flown.

[Mister Agenda]

i am not here to convert anyone im just here to discuss the differences between the two views. i wont preach at anyone im just awnsering questions that are being asked. if you think im a self-righteous smug then i suggest you completely forget about this thread because it has no meaning to you

msid, you've kind of already shifted from asking qeustions to critiquing our answers. Like telling us the degree of faith we have to have in order to accept well-grounded scientific conclusions. If you don't want to argue, just don't argue.

[Mister Agenda]

because of free will
if i told you that praying isnt nessecary and that God will just make your life however he thinks is best you would say that hes being controlling and we are just puppets. 

if you dont ask he wont help because you chose not to pray and therefore you dont want his help

God seems to send rain to the believer and nonbeliever (or other believer) at the same rate. That is, how much God helps or doesn't help seems to be independent of whether one prays or to whom. We can detect statistical anomalies. Christians don't have any such in their favor. Why would God deviate from his perfect plan to accommodate a sinner, admittedly unworthy? By definition, if God is perfect, his plans are perfect, and any change from what he was going to do anyway would only make things worse. Morally speaking, a perfect God with a perfect plan should never answer prayers, just stick to the perfect plan.

[The Valkyrie]

Hello.

I'm an atheist because I've found no reason to believe in any deities.

I find the claims to be just that, with no supporting evidence and any "evidence" presented to be weak or not the type that should convince anyone (appeals to authority, personal revelations, and the like).

Don't bother praying for us. All evidence shows that prayer doesn't work.