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(April 25, 2015 at 9:19 pm)Iroscato Wrote: Yes, our life ultimately is meaningless in this 14 billion year old, 160 billion lightyear wide, 100 sextillion star-containing cosmos. And yet here we are. We may as well have some fun in the MAYBE 8 decades we get inside of it all. As for being immature...I confess, I give into my inner child from time to time (who's seen Avengers 2 yet, by the way? It was AMAAAAAZING OHFGBWHFBSDHB), but at least I don't think there's an all powerful deity looking after me and making sure everything is alright.
Was the bolded meant to be factual or hyperbole?
A number I got from the top of my head. Might have been off by a few (tens of) billion, but the point stands. The cosmos is fucking huge.
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(April 25, 2015 at 9:40 pm)professor Wrote: I see what you guys mean about nasty Christians.
True believer, if you ever come back you need to have a big apology ready.
I am finding you increasingly likeable, proffy...
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(April 25, 2015 at 8:52 pm)True Believer Wrote: ... You are all nothing but chemical reactions. You'll die and quickly fade away from the mind of the world. You know this is true. Does that sit well with you?
...
Actually, yes, it does sit well with me. I am far from alone on that:
Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terrors for him who has thoroughly understood that there are no terrors for him in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.
The year 1800 was not a problem for me, back when I did not exist. And the year 2200 will not be a problem for me either, when I no longer exist.
Also, whether it sits well with you or not, that is your fate as well. You will die and cease to exist, the same as me. You, too, will be forgotten. How you feel about such things does not change the facts.
As for the rest of your post, your hypocrisy is amusing. You claim that atheists want to feel superior by insulting others, and yet you do precisely what you say atheists do, wasting your time insulting people. Are you secretly an atheist with a droll sense of humor? Or are you a hypocritical moron?
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
(April 25, 2015 at 8:52 pm)True Believer Wrote: You only want to mock and scoff. You have no peace. A person with a life doesn't spend time on atheist forums to puff up their ego in an attempt to blaspheme a god they don't believe in anyway.
I don't know about that. I enjoy this forum a great deal. I enjoy debate and I enjoy the company of like minded people. And yes, it's kinda fun to poke fun at Christians from time to time. You are easy targets mostly. But I don't go to Christian sites to do it. I wait for you to come here.
Quote:You're immature, and your life is meaningless according to your own beliefs. You believe you are nothing more than time, chance, and chemical reactions. You have no meaning and no hope, therefore, you seek out meaning by trying to feel as if you know something more than others, or that you have the canny ability to disprove an argument.
Oh my, I have no hope. I didn't realize that until you said so. *snort*
Quote:I pity you, simply because I've been where you are. I contemplated suicide when I was an atheist, because I simply couldn't escape the fact that deep down, I felt life was utterly cruel, meaningless, and empty.
I'm sorry you contemplated suicide. I'm also sorry you couldn't find meaning in yourself. What meaning exactly does Christianity provide? Being made by a god, even if you are made my one, is not a purpose.
Quote:Atheists often scoff, "My life has meaning. I love my friends, spouse, kids, etc." That's a delusion. You are all nothing but chemical reactions. You'll die and quickly fade away from the mind of the world. You know this is true. Does that sit well with you?
It's scoffing to find meaning in your own life? Really. Well, if so I guess I am scoffing, because I do find meaning.
And yeah, I away I'm going to die. So are you. Making up fairy-stories about an afterlife, won't change that any.
Quote:I believe in God. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my conversion, because your intent is clearly only to puff up yourself with pride (one of the worst sins), and to feel like a know-it-all. A wise man once said this: "A true Christian testimony is worth a library full of arguments."
Um? Who came to gloat at who here? Really. You are here making an unhappy, ugly, nasty, sounding ass of yourself. I don't visit Christian forums to tell them that they are idiots. It would be nice.
Quote:I know that when I found the truth, it changed my life. I know that I have peace. I know that I have meaning and a creator. I don't have to waste my time trying to mock others, create goofy avatars, or show my immaturity and pride. I've got a life, and I like to help others in my spare time to find the truth that I've discovered myself.
Christianity make have changed your life. But your post isn't a commericial for it. It sounds like Christianty changed you from a mean spirited unhappy atheist, to mean spirited unhappy Christian.
Quote:Does atheism liberate you? From what? From meaning? From purpose? Or liberate you to sin? For what? Does sin not bring about death? Does sin not cause misery and pain?
Sin is really not a possibility for me. Sin is doing something god prohibits. I don't think there is a god to prohibit anything. But yes, doing things the hurt others, being selfish, not living up to responsibilities: those things hurt. If believing god causes them not to hurt, than beliving in god is dangerous.
Quote:Does atheism liberate you to think freely? Do you think Christians, before their conversion, didn't also think and ponder all religions and possibilities? If I find truth, what more is there to search? If I discover the answer to an equation, why keep working on it? It is solved.
Actually, I was never a believer. But no, I don't think picking a religion would answer all life's questions. It wouldn't actually answer any questions at all. Beliving you have an answer is not the same as having one.
Quote:The mystery of this life is solved for me, and my daily walk with God proves it. I seek nothing more. I have peace. I have a life. I have purpose.
Sounds rather shallow, but OK, have fun with that.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
(April 25, 2015 at 9:40 pm)professor Wrote: I see what you guys mean about nasty Christians.
...
I noticed long ago that whether someone is basically kind or cruel, polite or rude, has very little to do with whether the person believes in a god or not.
I almost wish that were not the case, so that cruel people could be converted to kind people, or rude people to polite people, more easily than is actually the case.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
(April 25, 2015 at 8:52 pm)True Believer Wrote: You only want to mock and scoff. You have no peace. A person with a life doesn't spend time on atheist forums to puff up their ego in an attempt to blaspheme a god they don't believe in anyway.
You're immature, and your life is meaningless according to your own beliefs. You believe you are nothing more than time, chance, and chemical reactions. You have no meaning and no hope, therefore, you seek out meaning by trying to feel as if you know something more than others, or that you have the canny ability to disprove an argument.
I pity you, simply because I've been where you are. I contemplated suicide when I was an atheist, because I simply couldn't escape the fact that deep down, I felt life was utterly cruel, meaningless, and empty.
Atheists often scoff, "My life has meaning. I love my friends, spouse, kids, etc." That's a delusion. You are all nothing but chemical reactions. You'll die and quickly fade away from the mind of the world. You know this is true. Does that sit well with you?
I believe in God. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my conversion, because your intent is clearly only to puff up yourself with pride (one of the worst sins), and to feel like a know-it-all. A wise man once said this: "A true Christian testimony is worth a library full of arguments."
I know that when I found the truth, it changed my life. I know that I have peace. I know that I have meaning and a creator. I don't have to waste my time trying to mock others, create goofy avatars, or show my immaturity and pride. I've got a life, and I like to help others in my spare time to find the truth that I've discovered myself.
Does atheism liberate you? From what? From meaning? From purpose? Or liberate you to sin? For what? Does sin not bring about death? Does sin not cause misery and pain?
Does atheism liberate you to think freely? Do you think Christians, before their conversion, didn't also think and ponder all religions and possibilities? If I find truth, what more is there to search? If I discover the answer to an equation, why keep working on it? It is solved.
The mystery of this life is solved for me, and my daily walk with God proves it. I seek nothing more. I have peace. I have a life. I have purpose.
You have come here to scoff at us, for scoffing at the likes of you? My life has plenty of meaning, because I give it meaning. I wouldn't expect someone else to tell me what my life's meaning it. It doesn't bother me that I likely won't be famous. In fact there's a thread on this forum where we talk about how eternal life would eventually become a nightmare, regardless of how it starts.
I honestly do think many christians didn't explore all other religions before joining theirs. I'm sure most people took what their parent's and community taught them, or they'd suffer punishment. Not all, surely, but most.
My atheism liberated me from letting my life be guided by a book. A book of horrors for the first two thirds, and some slightly nice things in the last thirds.
if you want to use theism to give your life meaning, that's fine. I do wonder, if you studied other religions too, why settle on christianity?
Poe's Law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."