Why do you care?

[Mister Agenda]

I, for one, don’t want to see the world turned into the old Soviet Union or 1950’s China. That’s why I’m opposed to it. And I don’t want to see individuals lead down a spiritually dead path. But I come in here for the stimulating conversation.

Maybe you should consider posting on a communist forum? And I see you've answered the thread: we're all here for the stimulating conversation.

It’s a warning, not a wish, and I didn’t invent Christianity. So, it’s not that you don’t agree with me; it’s that you don’t agree with Jesus Christ, and I happen to think the teachings of Jesus Christ are true.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you're not Jesus Christ. Maybe you think you're qualified to pass judgement when he is silent, but in civil discourse you can't evade responsibility for your words because you're quoting someone else. Your words or someone else's, if you say it and maintain it's true, it's yours. And we've already heard the warning, you know that, so you know we've been warned, so there must be another reason to repeat it. I think the reason we hear it so much is because some Christians relish the idea that if we don't convert to their way of thinking, we'll suffer forever.

That’s not true. What do either one of those have to do with the evil you perceive in the world? Because you do realize you’re leaving out one other attribute: omniscience.

I left it out because it's irrelevant. If omniscience keeps God from achieving his goals without the existence of evil, then God is not omnipotent.

That wouldn’t be God, and we both know it. I have no doubt you’re right about the movement to tone down the omnipotence, but it doesn’t wash philosophically or logically given the definition of “God” with a capital “G.” And I must admit, I cringe whenever I hear Christians say that God did not invent evil, people did. Or that God is in a war with Satan and will eventually win. God created good and evil.

All I know about God is what I hear, and there seems to be a lot of disagreement on the matter. I take 'em as they come. I agree the description you give is pretty mainstream, and I think more Bible-based. However, I've read your work on another forum, and the defintion you propose there would be considered heretical by many Christians.

Atheism will eventually destroy any society in which it is allowed to reach a critical mass, if you will. I don’t know what percentage that would be, nor do I know how long it would take to, say, destroy English society. But it would. Once a society bases its laws on atheism, then only the powerful rule because they are powerful and that becomes dog-eat-dog. There is no stability, there is nothing but civil unrest.

So, there’s that.

Mere assertion. And since all societies can be divided into those that have been destroyed and those that haven't been destroyed yet, it's an unfalsifiable one.

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If we are right and I believe we are then what kind of people would we be by keeping to ourselves the love of God and the salvation He offers through His Christ and those who believe in Christ. Personally I'm glad christians took the time to share with me. I'm not concerned about you believing in religion, actually I would rather you not, christianity is not a religion it is being part of a family. This is from a person who has spent many years in the church and I know personally that most christians do not really hate atheist, they do not trust atheist because they do not know atheist, because you guys will not talk about your thoughts and reasoning. The distrust between both sides will never completely disappear but we could find better grounds to relate to each other on.

The thing is, before you can convince us God loves us, you have to convince us he exists. That's a rough row to hoe, because most of us have experienced many efforts to convince us that we didn't find convincing and your challenge is to come up with something more effective than anyone before you has.

I agree that the more people know about us, the fewer misconceptions there will be about us. We're making progress in that area. We're in kind of a Catch 22 right now: people are prejudiced against us because they don't know us, so if we're 'out' we're subject to prejudice, which discourages us from being open about our position. One of the purposes sites like this serve is to make us feel more comfortable about being open atheists. I'm one myself, although I don't go around telling everyone, I tell anyone who asks me the truth, I organize the local freethought society, my FB page has enough clues...but I have to admit, that I would probably set my FB page to private if I had to look for a new job.