christian looking to understand athiests

[msid]

Only explained by god? What's a god even?

Yeah, to be "explained" by something you can't see or detect in any way whatsoever is a pretty poor kind of explanation.

i know i will probobally never convince you to believe that it was God who do those things but i will always know its true and believe.  do any of you believe in the big bang?

[Redbeard The Pink]

i see that most of you believe what you do because of lack of evidence that there is a God.  Personally i am a christian because of all the evidence ive seen and the ways ive seen him answer prayers.  ive had people come up to me and pray for problems that i was having that i hadnt told anyone.  ive had many prayers awnsered in ways that could only be explained by God.  I also completely understand everyone heres point of view

Ah...the "Answers to Prayer" argument.

The problem with prayer is that it functions entirely on confirmation bias (and usually a not-so-small portion of self-hypnosis). It's kind of like fortune telling you perform on yourself. You send a question/request up like this little balloon, then start staring at the sky. Whatever falls back is a sign from god.


If your desired outcome happens (bonus points if it seems unusually expedient and coincidental), then YAY! God answered my prayer! He exists!

If your least desired outcome happens, god is testing your faith. He has a plan for you, and he works in mysterious ways. Your hardship is all part of his mysterious plan, like to teach you a lesson or something, and if you just keep believing and keep trying to learn your lesson, then maybe he'll ease up eventually, and when he does, you'll know that he exists.

If some other random outcome happens that's somehow favorable and/or seems to lessen your focus on whatever problem it was, then YAY! God answered my prayers in ways I never could have imagined! Showers of blessings! God exists!


Are you seeing the problem here? Regardless of the outcome, it's always interpreted as god's doing, and therefore evidence that god exists. It's the exact same thing as Tarot and Astrology; you're set up with an expectation that's so vague it's could be met by a mere stretch of one's own imagination.

And yes, I believe in the Big Bang, and Evolution, and that the Universe is billions of years old. Why, don't you?

[Spooky]

hello,  i am a born again christian who is looking to understand and discuss your reasons for being an athiest. i am NOT here to argue or change your mind.

Honestly?  At the end of the day, even if your god did exist, it/he/she is a complete douche-bag.

[Whateverist]

Yeah, to be "explained" by something you can't see or detect in any way whatsoever is a pretty poor kind of explanation.

i know i will probobally never convince you to believe that it was God who do those things but i will always know its true and believe.  do any of you believe in the big bang?

I wouldn't express it that way.  I'm not 'invested' in the big bang.  It is merely a logical supposition given what experts understand about the observed universe.  If they change their mind based on new evidence, my mind will be changed too .. assuming some one of them will put it into layman's terms for my benefit.  I simply have nothing invested in the matter one way or the other.

[msid]

i see that most of you believe what you do because of lack of evidence that there is a God.  Personally i am a christian because of all the evidence ive seen and the ways ive seen him answer prayers.  ive had people come up to me and pray for problems that i was having that i hadnt told anyone.  ive had many prayers awnsered in ways that could only be explained by God.  I also completely understand everyone heres point of view

Ah...the "Answers to Prayer" argument.

The problem with prayer is that it functions entirely on confirmation bias (and usually a not-so-small portion of self-hypnosis). It's kind of like fortune telling you perform on yourself. You send a question/request up like this little balloon, then start staring at the sky. Whatever falls back is a sign from god.


If your desired outcome happens (bonus points if it seems unusually expedient and coincidental), then YAY! God answered my prayer! He exists!

If your least desired outcome happens, god is testing your faith. He has a plan for you, and he works in mysterious ways. Your hardship is all part of his mysterious plan, like to teach you a lesson or something, and if you just keep believing and keep trying to learn your lesson, then maybe he'll ease up eventually, and when he does, you'll know that he exists.

If some other random outcome happens that's somehow favorable and/or seems to lessen your focus on whatever problem it was, then YAY! God answered my prayers in ways I never could have imagined! Showers of blessings! God exists!


Are you seeing the problem here? Regardless of the outcome, it's always interpreted as god's doing, and therefore evidence that god exists. It's the exact same thing as Tarot and Astrology; you're set up with an expectation that's so vague it's could be met by a mere stretch of one's own imagination.

And yes, I believe in the Big Bang, and Evolution, and that the Universe is billions of years old. Why, don't you?

 
i believe that God always answers prayer.  but the answer isnt always yes.  and i know you believe that its all just chance if my prayer is awnsered but its happened so many times that it cant be a coincidence. 
also i dont believe in the big bang because of how far fetched it is.  its an idea made up by people looking for any other explanation other than God.  
it takes WAY more faith not to believe that there was a creator of the universe.  if one single mistake had been made in the big bang the whole world could just collapse.  the idea that there was just a bang one time millions of years ago that created this perfect earth just takes a lot of faith in nothing to believe

[robvalue]

If God answers prayers, does that mean his initial plans for everyone were suboptimal and he needed advice?

[msid]

hello,  i am a born again christian who is looking to understand and discuss your reasons for being an athiest. i am NOT here to argue or change your mind.

Honestly?  At the end of the day, even if your god did exist, it/he/she is a complete douche-bag.

 what makes you say that?

[tjakey]

The Christian who isn't interested in converting anyone is going to end up trying to defend his beliefs, and thus end up trying to convert after all. Once he discovers that isn't happening he will have to admit that his beliefs can't be defended and, if he is any kinds of honest, have to abandon them. More likely he will conclude that we are simply too dumb, to set in our evil ways, or too blinded by the world, to understand his "truth" and will go away even more lost in his illusion. Given that he appears to be convinced that a god is actually answering his prayers, I suspect preaching is about to commence, then he will go away with a self-righteous smug.

There really isn't any other way this can go.

[Whateverist]

Not to mention that one man's prayers may be in opposition to another's. Is it really fair to ask God to let your football team win at the expense of another Christian's favorite team?

[msid]

If God answers prayers, does that mean his initial plans for everyone were suboptimal and he needed advice?

no because God created us with a free will and unless we ask him he cant change things that happen in our lives or our choices