(October 12, 2017 at 8:55 am)RayOfLight Wrote: Those who read my thread on the Introduction section know that I'm struggling with my Christian faith. However, I'm not calling myself Atheist yet, even though there are days when I really want to, but try to hang in there for a bit longer.
Don't worry about calling yourself an atheist. That's just what believers will call you once you stop being one yourself. There is no doctrine to master in order to be let into our ranks, all you have to do is leave theirs.
(October 12, 2017 at 8:55 am)RayOfLight Wrote:
Two scenarios that usually come to my mind when I think of regarding two issues, 1) The theory of Evolution, 2) Jesus existence and his followers in the first century.
The first, being the guy of "hypothetical situations" which I'm known to family and friends, I wonder if the theory of Evolution was ever "proven" wrong, even though so far barely any of that happened, but considering that science demands that any hypothesis be falsifiable, there is a small chance that the theory of Evolution may be turned upside down, but as I said, this is just a hypothetical situation. So, based on that, does it follow that the creation story in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) is true? Would your atheism be "shaken" if such far stretching hypothetical situation ever became a reality? And why?
If you're deciding between evolution and creation then you're thinking about origins. Do you think it is a given that we should all know how we got to where we are today? I don't. It is fun to speculate and thanks to science we at least know how life forms change over time. But how life gets started? That isn't known in such detail as to make replication trivial.
Now we are free to claim life started with creation or the opposite. We can do so loudly and with bravado. That however won't make the matter any more certain. No one is entitled to know exactly how life got started here billions of years ago. But science offers the best hope of ever finding out.
(October 12, 2017 at 8:55 am)RayOfLight Wrote: The second issue regarding Christ's existence. I'm less enthusiastic to accept the claim that Jesus never existed. A good number of historians agree that he lived, also considering what I learned so far about history at university, we can't be 100% sure, after all, history is subjective. History is based on records from people who have their own agendas and biases, and it is a fact that they chose what or include and not include in their writings, it doesn't follow that something didn't happen or a person didn't exist just because some writings don't include such event or person. Also, there are chances that in the future we may find a good and reliable evidence for people that believed never to have existed. Therefore, it is safe not to be so "sure." What do you think of such argument?
Does it matter if Jesus did or didn't exist? Do you assume that if he existed then he performed miracles and was a god? I wouldn't. I frankly don't care if there was someone by that name around whom the stories collected or if he was created completely by fiction. But I do know there is no good reason to think he was a god and did magic.