Atheists are Damaged

That’s correct, Skrit. We here have NEVER witnessed anything even remotely resembling sarcasm emitted from that chirpie little beak of yours. I, for one, will go on record as saying you are a prime example of rock-steady sincerity. You are a pillar (pillow?) of genuine heartfelt empathy. A virtuoso of earnest candor. And as a fellow member who also refrains from the use of sarcasm, I applaud your mighty efforts to remain forthright in the face of logic-lacking lollygaggers.

Oh, really? You think so, huh? Hmph! Shows how much YOU know. :triumph: If you had ever bothered to pay attention to the important articles in “U.F.O. Weekly” (which is published every two months), then you would know that copper actually helps FOCUS the alien radio waves into your brain. Only the molecular structure of tin can disruptively scatter the beams effectively in every-which-way directions away from the brain activity localized in the Paula Abdugotta. Geeez… Get a clue already. :roll_eyes:

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This exact video is the first thing I thought of, too.

The second was, “argumentum ad baculum used on someone who grew up principally in a government housing project and having a military history must be nothing other than a pure use of sarcasm.” :grin:

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That was exactly what I was hoping for. Of course it never came to pass.

The very incarnation of Satan himself.

Im not sure I buy his story about him being an Atheist for 28 years. He’s probably been a theist his entire life who went through a “crisis of faith”. I just cant take those who bounce back and forth seriously. You’re either an Atheist or you’re not. I don’t see any middle ground. No one ever goes back to believing in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus once they conclude they’re fictional fairy tales.

Speaking from experience when my ex wife gave me an ultimatum; re-convert or divorce. I went to church with her and I tried to make myself believe in it. I told myself in my head “it’s real” over and over. I sat through the sermons in church trying to make myself believe. I couldn’t. All I felt was anger and that it was all bullshit. I hated it. I found myself asking myself: “How is any of this real? Look at the stories. They’re so fucked up and silly. Really? Why do people believe in this shit? If it were real we wouldn’t need hospitals or Science.”

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I fully agree. When one declares themselves a previous atheist turned theist or agnostic in their profile instead of just theist or atheist alarm bells go off.

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I tried going back to it for my ex wife. I lied to myself and felt if I acted and pretended enough that I could convince myself.

In the end. I couldn’t do that to myself. I couldn’t lie to myself. I could not go back to believing something that I was SURE in my mind that it was fictional and fake.

I needed to see the things the Bible claimed in action like seeing people demonstrate miracles and a booming voice from the sky ordering people what to do. I need objective evidence of some kind. All Christians have are pretty words and threats.

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Problem is, theists don’t understand fallacies. You have to baby walk them through each fallacy. You can’t just say, 'That’s ‘Circular Logic’ or, 'That’s a strawman." They will not have a clue as to what you are talking about. You have to know the fallacies well engough to explain them to a 5 year old.

Sheldon, has the best argument on the site and he uses the same one every single time. It’s not that he is incapable of following the theists down their rabbit holes, he certainly has the ability; however, in most cases he just does not bother. Occasionally he will let his wit play and tie a theist in knots but generally he just does one thing. He asks a question: “What objectively verifiable evidence do you have for the existence of God?” He knows full well that there is no objective or verifiable evidence. ‘God’ is an unfalsifiable claim. As long as you know that the next words out of the theists mouth are lies, you are always on solid ground. It does not matter where they go.

Evolution: Evolution has nothing to do with God or Atheism. If evolution is 100% wrong, you still have no evidence for your god claim.

The Bible: The bible is the claim, not the evidence. It’s a book of old stories with no eye witnesses. (Carful about getting into forgeries and edits you can be asked for evidence and you will be sidetracked into arguing the bible. Don’t do this.) The bible makes claims, it does not provide evidence.

Analogy and argumentation: You don’t need to know anything. You can not argue a god into existence. That would be like arguing a unicorn into existence. You don’t even have to listen to apologetics until you are familiar with them. First Cause Argument; So your saying there is a prime mover, lets just say I give you everything, the universe had a beginning, everything has a cause. How do you get to God? You still have to demonstrate the existence of the god thing. How did you rule out natural causes. How did you rule out Eric the Rainbow farting unicorn… This is a god of the gaps argument. You can put anything in the gap to fill it and still there is no evidence god. God must be demonstrated.

Miracles: None have held against scientific inquiry. In the end, if science can not explain this or that then the proper thing to say is “We don’t know.” and not ‘God done it.’ You still have to show that there is some sort of evidence for the God thing.

It always breaks down to, show me the efidence. Demonstrate the existence of the god thing with clear, objective, verifiable, facts. (It can’t be done.)

All you need do is dig your heels into the dirt and say, ‘Show me your god.’

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Yep

Yep

Yep

Yep

Yep
All salient points.

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I personally think that a lot of theists consider themselves to be more intelligent than most other people, so they think that being an atheist means that we’re all stupid compared to them.
Whenever we challenge their belief systems, they’re not prepared to have to answer any real questions. Like it’s been said who knows how many times on this forum, the Bible is a book of stories, it’s not proof of god, or anything else for that matter.

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All of this has been interesting, but there are valid reasons for wanting to study it.

For example, I believe (I am not the first person to suggest this idea, but possibly to use this idea in this context) that the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is a religious re-telling of a story about a power struggle that occurred when Man transitioned from hunting and gathering into agriculture.

There was a recent news blurb-about a story that was run in a peer-reviewed journal-discussing a myth that predates the Behring Land Bridge (“Behringea”) that started in Northern Asia, made it across the land bridge during the last Ice Age, and went in the other direction and survived with certain stories told by the Hellenic Greeks.

Which is why a similar story told by the Iriqouis and Creek Native Americans matches certain Greek myths

They’ve even gone so far as to tie in some ancient Ice Age cave drawings in France to the myth, which involves either 1 or 3 hunters chasing a large mammal on a hunt, and the event is marked forever in the sky by the Big Dipper.

So, I do find the Bible interesting. I remember when Carl Sagan discussed the !Kung-San people of Botswana and South Africa, and how hunter-gatherers have much more leisure time than agricultural societies, and how they are matriarchal.

I see elements of all this in Adam and Eve. Women are bad, and need to be controlled, so Eve tempts Adam in the story, which is how men snached political power away from women during the transition from hunter-gather to argriculture. They were naked, which means that–as hunter-gathers–they needed to carry nothing because nature always provides.

I also think this story describes slavery, as Adam and Eve were forcibly removed from a plentiful “garden” to till and work the ground.

And so on.

Firstly, the short version that is in most bibles was taken from a much longer version. You might want to look at the longer version first.

Next, I can’t even imagine how many ways the story has been interpreted over the centuries. A transition myth would just be one more added story.

The story I always liked was the psychological yarn. Man losing self-awareness. Put into the garden and told not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (This is what the Buddha taught. There are also teachings mimicking this throughout Christian literature. ‘Judge not lest you be judged.’) The knowledge of gook and evil, calling this bad and that good, is dualistic thinking. It is also the cause of most ignorance in the world. Nothing judges like religion. Right/wrong, Good /Evil Heaven/Hell God/ Satan. By eating the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil, man condemned himself to black and white thinking, to ignorance.

There are thousands of interpretations, adding one more to the pile really isn’t going to matter much…

It’s been done.

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All they need do is mention Evolution and I jump on this one. 90% ot the time they don’t even know the distinction between evolution and cosmology.

My sweetie has a temper… Nooooooo! I don’t believe it.

Hey, that reminds me. I missed my sweetie at the Iowa State Fair this year. Hey White, That girl you beat out the last 5 years finally won first place. Sorry you couldni’t make it.

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I love how she sorta almost trips -
I would have face-planted.

Purely objective I am sure.

Perhaps you could explain how you think believing in unevidenced superstition repairs this?

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I’d rather be damaged than broken.

11 days and counting, is it safe to call troll yet? :wink:

Well, your in luck then!

I’ve been damaged in many ways over the years. Both physically and otherwise. Happy to say I’m still (somewhat) functional, though. :grin:

Doorways. Have you ever really considered them? Amazing things doorways.

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