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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 2:32 pm
I read some conversion stories online and needless to say I was less than impressed with their arguments. Not one of them was convincing. Usually it was something as lame as "And I thought to myself, what if there was something greater than us out there?" So that means that you have to grab a bible, throw a cross around your neck, and start persecuting gays?
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 3:33 pm
I don't take those types seriously. If you can be swayed by a crappy book and threats of damnation then you obviously didn't take a real good look at the evidence for anything.
No creator in the heavens above (I am the lightning)
Rest your weary mind
No demons in the furnace below (I am the frenzy)
I have realized I AM GOD
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Yeah, the other half seemed to consist of Pascal's Wager. OK, so what if Islam were the one true religion?
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Exactly. Like the old saying goes.... Christians don't believe in how many thousands of other gods, we just go one god further.
No creator in the heavens above (I am the lightning)
Rest your weary mind
No demons in the furnace below (I am the frenzy)
I have realized I AM GOD
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 3:55 pm
(This post was last modified: September 26, 2013 at 4:03 pm by ManMachine.)
(September 26, 2013 at 1:37 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: I'm to be honest, I go to a Christian forum every once in a while to kick the hornets nest a little, however many Christians on there claim to be former atheists. I do not understand how a atheist could covert,as the is full of logical holes and moral atrocities, and the apologetics arguments are full of logical fallacies.
A fairly recent research poll identified that a large percentage of atheists still held onto metaphysical beliefs. Not religion, obviously, but some would believe certain inanimate objects or rituals would bring good or bad luck, for example. Some atheists would exhibit ritualised behaviour because they believed that if they changed their behaviour then this would affect other things.
The assertion that there are no deities itself requires a leap of faith. If we use scientific theory as a standard (and I'm not suggesting you need to at all) then logic and reason will tell us that while there is no evidence for the existence of deities there is no evidence against it, agnosticism is the logical position using this reasoning. Flying Spaghetti Monster fallacy aside (Reductio ad absurdum) it is as much a leap of faith to assume there are no deities as it is to assume there are.
If we consider this then it is easy to see that it is a bigger jump from agnosticism to religion than from atheism to religion.
Atheism places no demands on the atheist to demonstrate reason for the assertion that there are no deities. I often see scientific theory used in this forum and by other atheists but that is not a reasonable position to argue from and remain stoic on the issue of evidence or proof, because the moment you go down that path you make a hypocrite of yourself.
The switch from atheism to religion is just a minor shift in ones' systems of belief.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 8:08 pm
I have much to say on this and not much time. I used to be an atheist. To me physical reductionist systems fail to account for some of the most salient aspects of reality. It was primarily an intellectual decision, but soon became much more.
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 9:02 pm
Careful...we give Christians a hard time when they trot out the "not a True Christian" line, we don't want to do the same and say "not a True Atheist".
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RE: I do not understand former atheist's
September 26, 2013 at 9:03 pm
^^ Seems like we had a mind meld.