A friendly Christian sent me a message

[Simon Moon]

"I am surprised they responded to you as much as they did.

Really, pages of posts.

By the way- the silver fox experiment (a poster referred to) was done by adding selective breeding to the mix (intelligence) so that is a bogus way to
try to prove evilution.

What do you think evolution is? It is environmental pressures acting on populations of organisms selectively breeding out attributes that hinder survival and reproductive fitness, and breeding in attributes that help survival and reproductive fitness.

The only difference between the silver fox example, and natural selection, is what is doing the selection.

And the speckled moth thing has been debunked. The moths do not behave as the so called scientist claim.

Actually, the English moth observation has been confirmed.

Statler Waldorf (a brilliant Christian poster here) has a signature that says it all: "There is no God" "And I hate him"

He's not brilliant, and he's wrong.

Evolution is the greatest hoax in history and it is clung to because the only alternative is Creation.

Evolution has been observed. It is a fact.

I also suggest looking on youtube for Ravi Zecharia for amazing insight into Christian and atheist thinking.

I've seen several debates with Zecheria. He's a bigot and has no idea what 'atheist thinking' is.

[No_God]

What a shitty way to live your life.

[Esquilax]

Atheists send me links that make it seem like there's no God, then Christians send me link that make it seem like there is.

So take a look for yourself; you are your own person, you can come up with your own conclusion without either side telling you what to do. Look at the evidence, see what both sides are able to demonstrate, not just what they tell you. People can say anything they want, and words are cheap, but evidence doesn't care what anyone says. It shows the truth.

Look for what can be demonstrated, for what you can detect. If someone is telling you about a thing that you can't detect, how would you ever know it's there at all?

I was once talking to my dad about how God didn't really make sense and then in the middle of our conversation he said the Lord told him in his mind to NOT talk about this stuff with me. I once brought up the evil stuff God did in the Bible to my mom and after trying to pass it off as just the law she said "Are you trying to ruin your mother?". I agree the Christian God makes no sense, but these people I love and trust so much make it out like it's the most certain fact on this planet.

Those people might be making it out to be certain, and you're right to love your parents of course, but don't you think it's telling that they're the ones attempting to shut down conversation and silence your ability to ask questions through guilt? Who are the ones encouraging you to look for yourself, and who are the ones trying to force you down one particular path.

Love your parents, by all means. Trust them to do what they think is best for you, because they aren't bad people, most likely. But they are fallible, as are we all, and it seems increasingly likely that they have a bias here that might prevent you from getting closer to the truth if you bow to it. They're your parents, not your owners; if they don't want to have these conversations with you, you can have them on your own. Just learn, read everything you can, from both sides, and ask questions.

[Rahul]

My whole worry is that I'll pick the wrong thing. What if I'm an atheist/agnostic and Christianity's right? I'll go to hell! What if I'm a Christian and something like Islam's right? I'll go to hell! The fear of hell is what keeps religion relevant to me.

The same concern led me to being an Agnostic Atheist. I got into an argument about if you could fall from Salvation.

The guy I was arguing with was from a protestant denomination that believed you could. I was Southern Baptist so didn't believe you could.

After looking at contradictory verses in the bible that supported both points of view I started really thinking on it. Because this was pretty important. I didn't want to make a mistake and end up in hell.

After a few years I realized there was no hell and it was all a bunch of BS.

[Esquilax]

My whole worry is that I'll pick the wrong thing. What if I'm an atheist/agnostic and Christianity's right? I'll go to hell! What if I'm a Christian and something like Islam's right? I'll go to hell! The fear of hell is what keeps religion relevant to me.

If that's your concern, then you're in exactly the same amount of danger no matter what you pick, and worrying about it isn't really going to change it. What matters is living the best life you can here, so that no matter where you end up, you've got something to show for it.

And hey, if you do end up in hell, you'll be in good company.

[JesusLover1]

My parents say they talk to God. I see no reason for them to lie. It's a psychlogical nightmare because I know there's so much evidence against it. Right now I feel like God exists because my parents feel his presence, but he's testing our faith by making EVERYTHING point to him not existing.

[SteelCurtain]

JesusLover,
You have to make up your own mind. This is what I was talking about when I was saying I thought your parents/people around you are fostering your OCD. I don't mean they do this intentionally. When they fire off lists of reasons a mile long knowing that will overwhelm you. When they tell you things like "do you want to ruin your mother," or "you'll go to hell if you don't worship the right way," these things are abusive to a normal person, but to a person who suffers from OCD, (i can slightly empathize, I have OCPD) that is just nasty. And I don't think anyone in your life would do this on purpose (at least I hope not), but this is not good. Your parents have conditioned you through your OCD to rely on trusting people to tell you what/when/how to live that you are not equipped to make decisions on your own. It sounds this way, (again this is all conjecture from what you've shown us here) and it makes me sad.

Try just tackling little things one at a time. Read about evolution from both sides. Try not talking to anyone with a presupposition about it. No Christians, no atheists. Try to approach it as objectively as you can. Formulate your own opinions. Do not be a slave to your disorder.

[Simon Moon]

My whole worry is that I'll pick the wrong thing. What if I'm an atheist/agnostic and Christianity's right? I'll go to hell! What if I'm a Christian and something like Islam's right? I'll go to hell! The fear of hell is what keeps religion relevant to me.

I got the solution for you.

Rotate weeks for every theistic belief. Start with Hinduism (since it it the oldest religion), the next week move to Zoroastrianism, then Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam, then Mormonism. Don't forget Sikhism, Taoism, Scientology, etc.

This way, you give yourself a fighting chance of dying while believing in the correct god.

Or...

You could have a bit of intellectual integrity, and withhold belief in ANY of them until they are able to produce demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument to support their extraordinary claims.

[Esquilax]

My parents say they talk to God. I see no reason for them to lie. It's a psychlogical nightmare because I know there's so much evidence against it. Right now I feel like God exists because my parents feel his presence, but he's testing our faith by making EVERYTHING point to him not existing.

Given enough time and conviction, people can feel the presence of pretty much anything, and feel that it communicates with them too. Human minds are very, very fallible in that respect; we've reached the point where we can induce an out of body experience in a person by pretty much poking them with a stick, which should demonstrate just how weird our brains can get.

But your parents' conviction is not evidence of god, it's evidence of conviction. You could actually test it, if you wanted to: write a three digit number on a piece of paper, lock it up somewhere they can't get to it, and ask them to ask god what the number is. Chances are, you'll get some excuse about not testing god rather than a numeric answer, which should give you some hints about how divine their communications actually are.

But again, that's not lying, necessarily, it's just being mistaken.

[Jacob(smooth)]

You have to make up your own mind.

Isn't that interesting.

The recurring theme of the heathen atheist scum (no offense), is to make up your own mind, draw your own conclusions.

Same from at least one christian (me) for slightly different reasons.

Other people seem to be telling you to believe what they tell you, or pointing you other people you should believe on youtube and shiz.

What do you think? What would you think God would want you to do?

This, my friend, is called growing up. And yes, it hurts like a cast iron bitch.