Posted on 05/04/2014 12:34:25 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Legendary conservative columnist George Will says he is an atheist. […]
“I’m an amiable, low voltage atheist,” Will explained. “I deeply respect religions and religious people. The great religions reflect something constant and noble in the human character, defensible and admirable yearnings.”
“I am just not persuaded. That’s all,” he added. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Many have had their doubts just as Thomas, but as the Bible is read and digested, it’s hard to believe that it was all concocted.
In many ways non-believers are allies in rejecting the nanny state, militant Islam, and statism, but are run off because they don't agree on theism with the majority of conservatives.
It should be pointed out that I don’t have any faith in pundits. They’re the movie critics of the political world and I pay them about as much attention.
I’m thinking about the people who don’t even think about “God” on our money or in our pledge of allegiance. They don’t worry about nativity scenes or people saying “Merry Christmas”.
However I do think a lot of conservative atheists are actually agnostic or they wouldn’t have any moral grounding or show any sense of real conservatism. Better safe than sorry agnostics.
I'm fortunate enough to be a Christian.I'm willing to converse with agnostics but have no respect for atheists.
I do.
Not in general, but in positions of punditry or power.
Imagine our country if it had been created by atheists.
Look at our country now, now that it is run by atheists (and Satanists).
Oh I hear you about pundits in general and agree…..but simply, what I found kind of strange was that Will said precisey he “had never been persuaded” to believe. It is astonishing that CS Lewis, Isaac Newton and some of the other great apologist intellectuals have not persuaded him.
Then gain, I believe in the doctrine of Election (Biblical version).
You and millions of others. I don’t judge, and I think you overestimate the concern that believers have. Most Christians are, sadly, fatalists. They assume your path is laid out before and that your belief or non-belief has already been decided. Now, this is wrong, of course, but it’s just their knee-jerk assumption about God’s plan. In sober moments they admit that this is wrong, but like most 21st century humans they don’t have many moments of reflection. I only council non-believers that many truly agnostic people are smart enough to realize that prayer can only help, and a nose in the Bible is edifying regardless of belief. Do these as an atheist and consider just how impressed the Flying Spaghetti Monster will be...?
True, but I would not term the atheists in charge now those of the “live and let live” variety. LIberals, of course, are not “live and let live” by definition…..
Quite a few atheists are libertarian.
My limited experience with them is that they align with liberals because they find the overenthusiastic religiosity of many conservatives even more repellent than they do the statism of liberals.
While I happen to think that’s a pretty stupid reaction, since AFAIK no conservatives have any plans to try to force them to worship, I can understand it.
Occasionally I feel almost the same way. About a year ago I attended a two-day technical class in my line of work. The instructor was engaging and highly knowledgeable.
But he also insisted on embedding his right-wing political views and evangelical beliefs throughout the presentation. While I agreed with most of his actual views, I found his pushing of them in that context offensive. I came to learn about technical issues, not his opinions, whatever they might be.
DNA mutates and self-replicates. A theistic god who intervenes in writing every single protein sequence, instead of them being constructed based on a set of natural laws is more of the Islamic tradition, where Allah intervenes in every leaf that falls and every drop of water that drips.
I am one of those low-key atheists and take exception to your statement. I'm as die-hard a conservative as any on this board.
“Most Christians are, sadly, fatalists. They assume your path is laid out before and that your belief or non-belief has already been decided.”
Not “most Christians”. Few true Christians are in that TULIP/Calvin camp.
Of course those skeptics will answer with the question where did God come from? Did God just spontaneously come into existence? Ultimately both questions are unanswerable.
Personally I believe in God, just not in any revealed religion. I also believe people have an innate ability to connect with God through some mechanism we don't really understand. It's also my opinion that we can no more understand God than an ant can understand us. So the experience is distorted by the culture and knowledge available to those who experience it. I'm sure I'll get all kinds of Biblical quotes and theological arguments telling me why I'm wrong, all of which mean little to a non believer.
By the same philosophy, creator sets up process of DNA creation, process takes over.
That's still deism, not theism.
Creation doesn’t require theism.
I think Derbyshire calls himself an agnostic, not an atheist, but I’m not sure about that.
The basic parameters are still set by the living, or sapient. Computers did not build themselves nor their initial operating code write themselves.
The only etymological difference between so-called “deism” and “theism” is the origin language (the former Latin, the latter Greek), anyhow.
Doesn't mean it doesn't contain good lessons though, although reading it from the perspective of trying to understand Bronze Age man's attempt to figure out the world instead of "this is God's word and I HAVE to believe every word or I'm damned" is much more enjoyable.
Now you have.
It definitely runs people off. That’s why I’m thankful that the Tea Party has persisted as a broad encompassing of overall disgust at the growth of government despite the attempts of WND-type folks who tried to hijack it into some sort of religious revival.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.