If one changes its meaning to be about belief, and not knowledge, then IMHO it loses all meaning. I think if we use words, but offer no clarification, then it is reasonable to infer the dictionary’s primary definition is what is meant.
Yes, though of course we wouldn’t have known we were atheists or agnostics.
Since I am an atheist, I lack a belief in a god. But since you claim to be a theist, then you must have some concept or definition of your god. I can not define your god, you must.
Once you have offered your definition of your god only than can we get down to a healthy debate.
That becomes confusing. “Happy” is an adjective which describes the quality or state of a noun. For example, a happy person. A “theist” is a noun".
If you corrected your grammar and used a noun, then I would agree with your proposition.
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Right, I certainly lacked a belief in god when I was born. I suppose I had no knowledge about god either so also agnostic.
I once agreed to debate a pre-suppostionalist online (that I met here). They opened with a question of something like “why did you stop believing in god”. I told them I was born without that belief, so I’d have to start believing it before I could stop believing it. At this point I was accused of lying; that everyone is born believing in god.
The “debate” lasted less than 60 seconds. Ever since then I’ve wondered if this is how many of the theists I’ve spoke with feel about the matter, and that the only important difference with this guy is he was bold enough to confront me about my “lies”.
You also might notice that he had constructed a scheme were I was guaranteed to be a liar. If as he insisted: everyone was born with the knowledge that god is exists; then even saying you are an atheist kind of makes you a liar.
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Provide me proof that a words entomology had bearing on its mean.
Granted that is a poor analogy. How about love?
Thank you. That is helpful.
Did you not read my post about neurotransmitters in the brain?
Apparently he didn’t read about how Moses met God and his burning bush. It’s funny when an Atheist knows more than a Christian does about the Mythology behind their bullshit religion.
Exodus 3:2-4 NIV
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
I already explained that etymology explains the provenance of a word, in this instance it has no bearing on its current definition? Etymology is fascinating no doubt, but word definitions can and often do change over time. We were discussing its current definition.
In my horribly jaded experience; most Christians could not fill a 3"x5" card with what they know academically about Christianity. Leading me to speculate that an 8 year old who spent 5 minutes reading an article on Wikipedia; probably knows more on the subject than the median Christian (on this topic); simply because the 8 year old will be better informed.
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It has not my my intention to debate the existence of God—at least not yet. I am a simple layman in terms of philosophy and theology.
But, I suppose I should get it over with if I’m going to hang around—so Sheldon get ready to demand proof 
I offer my belief on God because I have been ask by you (who I believe is a site administrator) to proved it. I also do so to introduce myself to AR. Base on the response to the meager claims I have thus far offered. I expect to be overwhelmed by this—but I hope not. anyway, I ame overwhelmed and I don’t respond, to anyone, I apologize in advance.
This is about as succinct as I can be:
I believe God is an eternal being of pure intelligence that is a part of all things in a way that humans cannot perceive. I believe God created material, energy, time—all things that we can directly perceive, all things that we can indirect perceive (love, hope charity, intelligence) and things that humans can’t perceive (things of the supernatural). I believe God is all powerful all knowing and perceived all time as if it were present. I believe in the Trinity that the Father is Love, Jesus is our spiritual teacher who died for the salvation of all humans, and the Holy Spirit is a liaison between the temple and the supernatural.
So I might be that guy some in AR love to hate. I beg your mercy. I’m her to learn a greater perspective, witness Jesus—if necessary—but NOT evangelize or act as a subversive troll.
You are correct, that is a poor analogy. How about Love?
Sorry, still learning how to reply correctly.
Science can’t measure “happiness” directly—duh (-;
There’s no metric. But I grant you that it can measure people’s perception of happiness via an index. In that science can observe correlations between neurotransmitter release (or application) to the brain, and the increase activities in the brain that are associated with a feeling of he happiness. And can substantiate the correlations via statistically verified repeatability.
Do you believe because your parents claimed it existed or was this something that you decided on your own?
There’s no contemporary or historical evidence that Jesus or anyone in the Bible existed. So just asking why you believe in something on blind faith when there’s no evidence supporting it’s existence?
You’re talking about it as if it were a “fact”. I think you need to provide evidence.
Well, I feel like your proselytizing your Christian beliefs in the above sentence that I quoted and this is an Atheist forum, not a Christian one. So you’ll find little support here for your superstitions.
On my own. I was agnostic for 47 years.
I get that, and don’t blame you for being suspicious. I found this site via a Christian / Atheist Google search. It appeared to welcome both. I will leave if unwanted. I wish to expand my world view not evangelize.
I was a Christian until I was 17 and I’m 35 now, there was a lot of factors in me walking away from the religion. I already lacked belief in the concept of deities and there was no evidence even though Christians do claim that there is. I really wanted every reason to believe in it as you do. Not a single Christian presented me with a valid and single reason to continue. Instead of people giving evidence and offering reasons.
They offered religious threats like “You’ll go to hell.” “I’ll pray for you.” “You don’t believe because you don’t want to believe” " You don’t need evidence because God is everything and everywhere you look there is God" and on and on they went. Just words. No actions.
I was already having issues at home. A shit relationship with my mom and even shittier one with my step father who wanted me gone. Both claim they are Christian.
and when I did go to church. The people there were judgmental, sanctimonious, homophobic, and when the service was over. They were not friendly at all. I know a lot of Christians with the “fuck everyone” attitude and treat you even worse if you’re not on board with their superstitious bullshit.
My father taught anthropology, evolution, and sociology at a college in Arkansas. So he contributed to me becoming an Atheist as I grew up. He loved the study of archaic humans which heavily conflicted with the book of Genesis in the Bible. Then I saw some more things in life that made me gravitate away from religion as a whole.
Because when you pick through the Bible. The stories are silly and are full of plot holes. It’s obvious men wrote it. Even if you look at where the Bible came from. You’ll see that it’s man made. And then you start listening to how Christians talk. They come off crazy about angels and demons and preaching and judging like the 7th Day Adventist asshole that I had to put up with years ago at my place of employment.
So I came to the conclusion that any religion with a deity in it is fictional and that it was a lie. Because I’m going to need physical and undeniable evidence. Not a book written by men claiming that there is a deity that created everything and claiming Jesus or Moses is real when there is no evidence.
The longer I’ve been an Atheist, the more apparent that the religion from my point of view as I see every religion is man made and therefor in my eyes is fake. It is fictional to me. It is just as real as Marvel’s Avengers are.
By all means stay.
So, since God is all powerful, all knowing, and perceives all time as if it were present, nothing should come as a surprise to him, as he knows what will happen. So then why does God regret making man in Genesis 6:6?
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
There are at least two possible conclusions. 1. that God could not see this coming, which means he is not all powerful, all knowing, and can perceive all time as if it were present, and you have to remove at least one of the attributes. Or 2. that what leads up to the Noah story is bollocks, i.e. that the Bible is wrong on this one. Or both 1 and 2.
Thank you.
I listen to a lot of religious radio, and they talk a lot about what atheists believe, and much doesn’t jive with how I felt when I was agnostic. I also find a shirt-load (to quote the “Good Place”) of varying interpretation of the bible.
I had assumed that all Christians needed to believe the Bible as literal facts. An 8k yr old earth and a pair of every type of land creature coming to one spot on earth and getting in a boat. Balderdash for sure!! But I heard that Catholics don’t require the literal interpretation of Genius, but also don’t reject it either. Well, Catholic was not something I was willing to become. But I was interested in Lutherans.
One day I go meet with my brother-in-law’s Lutheran Pastor. We talk and I telling him that I was surprised to find the Catholics allowed and interpretation of Genesis that was somewhat consistent with evolutionary theory. Well he became rather irate with me and told me that I can’t rewrite the Bible to fit my belief. I told him I see he’s very passionate but his church is not for me and walked out as he continued to scold me about wanting to rewrite the Bible.
I study about Martin Luther and his role in the Protestant Reformation, because I think Lutherans make him out as more of a reformation hero than he might actually have been. And I found that there is truth in that. I’ve also looked at the Catholic side to see if he’s as much of a villain as they portray. I find, not so much. But still there is a rather wide difference in interpretation between these two Christian denominations.
One of my biggest hurdlers to becoming Christian was believe in Satan and hell. I always consider them scare tactics.
So I get where your coming from. And thanks for sharing your perspective with me.