(May 4, 2014 at 11:45 am)aces Wrote: I was raised christian. I now believe though that God doesn't really exist, never did.
Where I live this belief is really not tolerated or accepted. In fact I have a church at BOTH ends of my road.
While I'm 95% certain there is no God 5% of me is still like what if there is and I die and go to Hell? But then if a God loved you so much why would he allow you to burn in hell.
Pascal's Wager.
http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?t...%27s_wager
Quote:Last night a friend looked at me like I had 2 heads because I told her I don't believe I will see God in Heaven because he doesn't exist. Her response was there is proof he walked the earth.
What "proof" did she offer? Or did her "evidence" stop at the bolded statement above?
What she did was offer you an unfounded assertion that (probably) wasn't backed up by any actual evidence, she merely made a statement that was intended to shut you up. I assume she didn't have anything else to say; not being there when the conversation took place I could be wrong in assuming that she didn't have more to follow this statement up with, but it would be incredible if she offered anything other than "Jesus, duh!" which, itself, is another unfounded assertion since it's far from proven that Jesus was real, let alone that he really performed miracles.
Quote:At that point her boyfriend stopped the conversation and changed the subject.
Sounds like he was uncomfortable.
Quote:How do you prove or disprove that God existed?
You don't. You evaluate the available evidence and try to dispel yourself of any confirmation biases you might be bringing to the table which, as much as it sucks, means listening to both sides of the argument and evaluating each based on their evidence.
Spoiler:
Quote:What do you believe happens after you die?
You get cremated or buried and your family (hopefully) mourns your death but remembers the good times you spent with them.
Quote:First, if there was a god how could he allow such misery?God never gives you more than you can handle, that's bs.
1) Problem of Evil - http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?t...em_of_evil
2) Yes, it's BS.
Quote:Which makes me think, so every religion has different beliefs but they will all get you to Heaven because they are all correct? That can't be possible either.
Exactly.
Quote:Any advice for me?
About what?
How to deal with Christians? Learn about the actual development of the Christian religion, not the crap a preacher will tell you, they lie (or stretch the truth).
How to be an atheist? Sounds like you're on the right track. Keep asking questions and do your best not to fall into the same confirmation bias loop that they do and just assume that they're wrong and that gods aren't real. Evaluate the evidence as critically and in as unbiased a manner as you can.
(May 4, 2014 at 11:53 am)aces Wrote: Can you suggest any good books for me to read?
Not The Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is my new favorite book about historical Christianity. It's a response to The Impossible Faith by James Holding where he (Carrier) goes point by point through the claims Holding makes and describes how fallacious Holding's claims are, how he quote-mines his sources and misrepresents his sources' arguments and points, and how he flat out lies about matters of historical account, while presenting well-researched historical arguments against Holding's thesis.
Also, Bart Ehrman's books Lost Christianities and Forged are good.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
