(September 28, 2013 at 12:36 am)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: Well you failed to address me, (correct me if I'm wrong as it may be buried)
I was a christian until I was 21, and I have met people that deconverted at much older so I do not understand your assertion about atheists leaving religion at 13-14, as many don't. Infact when I was 14 I was a hardcore jesus freak. As for rational, have you spent any time on religious forums? I do on one and currently have my account on moderator approval because I said hell, that is hardly rational.
In fact often the conversation on here is surprising rational and mature compared to other forums I have visited. The thing about atheists on INTERNET forums bitching about christianity is because most are American, and in America a lot religion gets shoved up ass then in other countries, where people don't care as much because the religious there are not trying to do things like have creationism taught in schools. Also in the other cases outside of that are generally countries where they terrible Internet infrastructure or have such oppressive situations that you get shunned or even killed for saying you do not believe, or both.
I also do not understand why you assert that atheist's do not understand the nuances of the text, as many including me in many cases do; or for that matter why would I want to convince that some whim of mine is true? I want the truth no matter what it is, but as that is no one has provided evidence of a god. Believing something because you want it to be true is just plain stupid and does not well, be it religion or anything else.
How many atheists did you ask wither they are anti-theists? Why are bible contradictions not valid reasons to question the validity of the bible? How do you overcome the euthyphro dilemma? How many have you ask about their hatred of religious people? I certainly do not hate people because they are religious and I think that it is safe to say that many here do not.
Now finally why are earth were you scared by intellectuals?
I might have failed to address you, and I'll grant it. I intend to make no universal claims that exclude exceptions; there's always somebody who deconverts aged 95. But that's several standard deviations away from the mean. If you think I'm wrong in assuming the mean of the bell curve is at around 13-14, I'm wondering what you think the statistical mean is.
I also honestly don't feel like religion gets shoved down my throat. Granted, I've lived most my life on the east coast, two years in the midwest and six months in the "Bible Belt". Most religious people have been super-nice to me. Especially when I was in trouble and needed help. Lost, needed help moving boxes, car broke down, etc. The most reliable place to get help is church, in my experience.
Maybe it's just families or particular close-knit communities that are problematic? What do you think?
