This Thread Has Been 'Locke'd for Introduction

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Does this mean that LostLocke has been found?

Welcome

[pocaracas]

I put my money on the fine tuning argument...
Until then, welcome.

[Tonus]

Welcome to the forums.

Eventually I came to a point in my life where I honestly didn't care if I was right or not.

That seems like the right mindset for a return to theism.

[Faith No More]

Welcome.

Pardon my cynicism, but I can't help but roll my eyes every time I hear a theist and their "I used to be an atheist" story. I'm not saying yours isn't valid, but I've heard enough fake ones that I have to question them all.

[fr0d0]

"This Thread Has Been ' Locke ' d for
Introduction"

That's terrible!

Welcome anyway

[Locke]

Welcome to the forums.

Eventually I came to a point in my life where I honestly didn't care if I was right or not.

That seems like the right mindset for a return to theism.

Hahah I see what you did there.. A better way to explain it would be to say I came to a point where I was willing to admit I was wrong.

EDIT: The fine tuning argument?

[pocaracas]

EDIT: The fine tuning argument?

yes, The Fine Tuning Argument

[Locke]

Oh gotcha. I mean, it's an interesting argument, but in the end it's true that an infinitely collapsing and reforming cosmos with always fluctuating variables could eventually spit out something stable, and it could of happened to be us.

I get the sense most of you think I joined this forum to go on some crusade to prove atheism wrong. No.. I joined this forum to continue my search for truth and try to find anything that can convince me God isn't real. Thus far, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that no matter where I go, some guy who lived thousands of years ago pinned it on the head when he said, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

A good friend of mine and I partied and drank together for years, and when I switched my life up it kind of severed our relationship to a point, since he wanted to party still, and I decided I wasn't about that life anymore, so we simply spent less time hanging out. We ended up in the same NROTC unit together, and one time he invited me to his apartment. After watching a movie, he said he had some questions about God, so I told him to shoot. He ended up being very condescending, but he had done a decent amount of research and he had a lot of topics to question me about, from transubstantiation to multiple universe theories. Some questions were easily answered, others I said I wasn't sure but I'd look into it.

A few months later we had a chance to talk about for about 3 hours (he brought it up again), and having looked into the topics in the downtime, I was able to answer all his questions. At the end of it all, he got kinda quiet, thanked me for answering it all and said he wasn't interested, but told me to keep inviting him to church. I've known him half my life, so I felt comfortable prodding him a little; I asked him, if he were really so interested in the concept of God, and if he had taken the time to research so much, why drop the subject after his questions were answered? Surprisingly, he just told me he was probly wrong, and he knew it, but he didn't want to stop living the way he was living.

It was kinda profound, but I can definitely respect his honesty, so I decided to leave him be. A month later he runs into me on campus and goes off on me because I haven't been inviting him to church anymore.. He says it's my job to save him. Whoaaa hold on...
So I talked to him about it for a minute and realized he was under the impression that a Christian's duty is to save Atheists from certain destruction, or whatever. Like he had it in his head that he was gonna do everything in his power to go against Christianity, and somehow I was gonna drag him to heaven or something.

Now I don't want to assume things, but after the few posts I've read here, I kinda get a similar vibe. As a Christian, it is totally not my job to save anyone; that's between God and that person. On the other hand, if anyone wants to hear about it, I absolutely have an obligation to pour into them, and I've learned to appreciate that (though most people just like to waste my time). I can also see that quite a few of the people hopping on here and professing Christianity are really just here to argue and talk smack, and they really aren't living it out. I've also noticed there seem to be a lot of misunderstanding from the Atheists and the 'Christians' both on what the Bible even says, which is expected since most people who profess Christianity do so because they want it to be true, and never really study the Bible and for the Atheists.. well, why bother to read a book you don't believe?

If that's the case after all, then I do enjoy writing and would love to put up a few threads to clarify some foundational stuff, have some conversations and learn new things, and on the subjects I don't know enough about I'd like to learn them. I do not, however have any interest in bickering and dukin' in out with a bunch of Atheists.

I hope that clears things up.. or at least, if I misinterpreted the vibe, I hope you're all on the same page as I am.

Thanks

[ITChick]

Why did you have to post that in introductions? We have to try our best to be nice here!

Anyway, still looking forward to your evidence. We have asked for it for years and the best we have gotten is: "you can't have a creation without a creator!".

Oh. And some stuff about giants. But that is a story for a different occasion.

Edit: can you open a post in another forum where we can ask you questions (so I can decide if I should put you in my "loony" bin or my "peter" bin (I miss Peter!)). Going to sleep now, but looking forward to picking this up tomorrow.

Please don't be another sock...

[Tonus]

I've also noticed there seem to be a lot of misunderstanding from the Atheists and the 'Christians' both on what the Bible even says, which is expected since most people who profess Christianity do so because they want it to be true, and never really study the Bible and for the Atheists.. well, why bother to read a book you don't believe?

While I have numerous disagreements with the Christians here on Bible interpretation, I don't get the impression that they do not read it or know what it says. Likewise I'm pretty sure that many atheists are, like myself, former Christians who read and studied the Bible. While confirmation bias is sure to play some part in how we perceive and understand the message of the Bible, it's also pretty clear that the book, to put it very mildly, is open to interpretation.

Feel free to ask questions, answer questions, and let us know what you believe and why, and hopefully we can do our part in return. But I think you'll find that most of us, atheist and theist alike, have a pretty good grasp of what the Bible contains. But only I know what any of it actually means.