Looking for religious information, especially Christian

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I mean, I very nearly became agnostic at one point until things happened. Wouldn't qualify as scientific proof though, just anecdotal.

I consider myself more of an atheist than an agnostic although I’m technically an agnostic atheist. I wouldn’t say that I’m agnostic about fairies or the Loch Ness monster. I’d say that I don’t believe in them.

Even if one drained the loch, people could (and would) claim there was some portal to another dimension or maybe Nessie has the power to turn invisible - stuff that can’t be disproven.

Still, I am open to valid evidence and being proven wrong, but belief wouldn’t necessitate worship.

I don't know whether he's a con man or is just somehow innocently running a strange kind of double-think in his ideas. But I've found one YouTuber who thinks he's fallen foul of cognitive dissonance in his defense of Young Earth Creationism. Unfortunately for me, her knowledge of cosmology greatly exceeds mine, and it would take me a long time to evaluate her assertion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMRCLpKCXIk

This may be easier:
https://biologos.org/articles/light-mat ... ason-lisle

Believing in things is more fun and less depressing than believing in nothing.

At least that's how it works for me.

Atheists like to ask for evidence of a God, which is a bit like asking for evidence of love.

God is more to do with the emotional side of oneself, and feeling connected to God. The theology of the bible whilst important to Christians, doesn't necessarily mean that Christians don't place more importance on the bible than the concept of the existence of a God itself.

Sometimes one or the other is more important for a Christian. This can be applied to other religions too, in their different forms.

Living life as an individual biological container, and concluding, based on a sole experience, that God does not exist seems very limited in scope, to me. Rational folk in my experience are more likely to conclude that there may or may not be a God and that they don't know the truth.

A lot of atheists are skeptics, which is cool.

Atheists don't have to believe - leave them to their peril.

I find Christians to be generally more happy folk than non-believers. If you look for evidence on the benefits of theological belief, there are documented, positive benefits for the mental health of believers and such.

Hope is a powerful force in life.

I have respect for how intellectual many atheists tend to be, I can say that. Logic is important to me, and questioning is a sign of critical thinking. I do think a lot of atheists are rather egotistical as a result of that and militant ones are annoying, but I have also met plenty of pleasant atheists who live and let live.

Yes.

Every religious person has met the annoying atheist.

But there are plenty of nice ones, too.

Being an atheist doesn’t mean that one doesn’t have hope. I hope and strive to improve my present and future. I don’t live my life for an afterlife which may never come.

Religion leads to a great deal of unhappiness although it doesn’t always, obviously. The point is that it’s not just a force for good in the world.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 25 Dec 2023, 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Human beings are awful to each other and will use whatever they can to perpetuate that. Maybe they aren't intending to be awful, cuz most things are backed by good intentions. But you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions

What exactly do you mean by a "militant" atheist?

If they aren't actually taking up arms on behalf of atheism, perhaps "evangelistic atheist" might be a better term for the annoying ones?

I've noticed that when atheists express their viewpoint sometimes, including the reasons why they feel or think as they do, religious folk view it as "annoying" or "militant." I'm not saying that they can't be annoying or that collie hasn't experienced it. It's just a trend that I've observed.

Usually comes with lots of browbeating and verbal abuse along the lines of "I'm more intelligent than you [R worded] Christians"

Also some atheists describe themselves as "antitheist", which means they want religion outlawed. Not just "I don't believe in God", but "I don't believe in God and I want you to get jailed for believing in God"

Last edited by colliegrace on 25 Dec 2023, 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe, but I'm talking about people who adamantly insist that religious folk are "stupid f***s" and treat us as such

I was actually thinking more along the lines of the USSR who forced people into atheism under the threat of violence and execution.

That should be a perfect example of "militiant" atheism.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people who left fundamentalist Christianity to become either atheist or more of a liberal Christian (hush, I'm a liberal Christian myself) bring the fundamentalist attitude with them, just leaving the specific beliefs behind.
That is to say, they retain the cult-like "all or nothing" mentality.

For instance, I'm very much LGBTQ affirming, but a lot of other LGBTQ affirming are unwilling to hold space for those who are stuck in non-affirming faith..... while forgetting that most of them started out there themselves.
Like, look.... I'm a non-binary asexual lesbian. I get it. But I firmly believe we are called to love everyone, including LGBTQ-phobes. (No, that doesn't mean allowing them into LGBTQ safe spaces.)