Is God dead? Atheism finds a market in U.S

Reuters ^ | 10/18/06 | Michael Conlon

[PrepareToLeave]

Sounds like maybe it was the Christians that turned you off. How close am I? Well, just for the record, I'm out of "religion" too. Religion is man made and in many cases a reflection of the greedy ones who run them. Jesus didn't like religion either because of the hypocrisy of it, remember?

A relationship (hope that word doesn't turn you off) with the One who made you and knows you inside and out is not religion. I left for awhile too. Studied everything I could find, Eastern religions, whatever. He's the one who thumped me on the head. I wasn't interested in "giving up" my miserable out of control life. But, I was desperate. My exact words to Him were "Okay, I'll try this, but don't do anything drastic!" No sooner did the words leave my mouth, he opened my eyes to Him and His presence. I've never been the same and it's all because God grabbed me. It was something no man or religion could ever do. Totally supernatural. But like the Morpheous (sp?) said,"I can only show you the door, you must choose to walk through it".

[Just mythoughts]

NO I am not LDS, don't know much about LDS, and the Bible starts with Genesis not Matthew as per John 1:1 In the beginning.... which is what Genesis means and Moses the law giver was the penner of Genesis. How many years did Moses walk on this earth after Adam was created???

[Just mythoughts]

Step forward in time, we hear alll about Jacob/Israel but NOT one word about his brother Esau who sold his birthright and was NOT allowed the blessing, yet totally absent in awareness this day and age.

Think it a bit odd that Christianity for the most part are confused about these two brothers?

[Just mythoughts]

Ah but what does that word 'angels' mean, say from the Hebrew?????? Isn't there a reference to do not bow down to me I am a fellow messenger???

[Just mythoughts]

Elsie, Jeremiah is told that before he was born he was ordained, appointed, now that is predestination no matter how you cut it.

Do you think there is a 'soul' factory in heaven?

[antiRepublicrat]

Sounds like maybe it was the Christians that turned you off. How close am I?

Pretty far away. I was not in a "fire and brimstone" environment, as it was filled with pretty good, pleasant Christians. It was a personal thing, achieved with introspection and study, including reading the whole Bible (they are somewhat right, it can be a factor in changing your life).

As far as organized religion, don't get me started. I have absolutely no problem with people having personal belief in a deity. If it makes them better and happier people, all the better -- and it can have that effect. I do have problems with organized religion, as it invariably gets dogmatic and corrupted, and all too often likes to exercise its accumulated power.

No, I did not experience that in my Christian days either.

I left for awhile too. Studied everything I could find, Eastern religions, whatever

I've been gone for a very long time now, and there is no sign of me going back. By the time I was studying Eastern religions, and Islam too, it was only for academic interest (I still have a pretty large library of religious books, including Christian apologetics). I never searched for another religion.

I am happy and fulfilled where I am. If the direction you found makes you as happy and fulfilled as you sound, I am honestly glad for you.

[antiRepublicrat]

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Indoctrination is not always permanently successful. How else did we get all of those Soviet dissidents?

[jennyp]

Today, "morals" are a religious pagan philosophy of esoteric hobgoblins. Transfiguration is a pantheon of fantasies as the medium of infinitization. Others get derision for having an unwavering Judaic belief in Yahweh or Yeshua, although their critics and enemies will evangelize insertion of phantasmagoric fetishisms into secular law.

Alan Sokal redux.

[stands2reason]

I am Gnostic. I have no "faith." I KNOW.

I KNOW God exists.
I KNOW I have an immortal soul.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Alan Sokal redux.

Who dat?

It is actually my own copywritten material. They are ideas I got from reading things like Kierkegaard, Hobbes, Locke, Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, etc... Are you literate enough to even guess as to who they were? I doubt it...

[ml1954]

They are ideas I got from reading things like Kierkegaard, Hobbes, Locke, Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, etc... Are you literate enough to even guess as to who they were? I doubt it...

We are all very impressed. However, what you have read is irrelevant. Didn't what you read tell you this?

[hripka]

The theory of evolution has relevance neither to the current discussion nor to flipping a coin 50 times.

The title of this thread is 'Is God dead? Atheism finds a market in U.S,' I am trying to show that for life/order to exist, there has to be an intelligence behind it, i.e. God is not dead.

Please reference the calculations that you used to derive a probability greater than the probability of receiving heads on 50 coin flips.

50 heads in a row equals odds of 1 to 5.63 times 10 to the 14th power. (I hope I figured that correctly.) Your body by itself contains 100 trillion cells (100 million million or 100,000,000,000,000) or 10 to the 14th power, much less the high complexity within each cell, much less the complexity of the entire ecosystem.

I have a list in front of me describing 47 separate physical processes, all of which have have to be set just right, or life would not exist, from physical constants, to solar system position, to earth position, to earth composition, etc.

The previous paragraphs have over 150 words. They weren't random. (Intelligent??) The 1000 monkeys banging on a typewriter theory can't account for your questions or my words.

[Jorge]

and no I don't fear Hell any more than I fear Hades, Jahannam or Di Yu. Do you fear those other places?

I believe in Christ. You can gamble your eternal destiny on the claim He is a liar.

If that's what you want to do.

[Jorge]

"So according to you God and Jesus Christ are both liars, and Jesus never really died at all."

I just read the book. Three days after his "death" Jesus is up and walking around. Forty days after that, he's running the show.

What are you talking about?

There's nothing in the Bible about "Forty days" after Jesus died, "running the show".

Nice for a day's worth of torture and a relatively quick "death." You might try reading the Bible one of these days and actually thinking about what you are reading, rather than just accepting what you've always been taught. God likes thinkers.

Are you trying to make me laugh on purpose or WHAT?

You post nonsense that doesn't even appear in the Bible and think people are stupid enough to accept it? And think YOU are an authority on the Bible?

You are either an idiot or a liar.

[Jorge]

Your comment is simply another data point of the knee-jerkiness of the fundamentalists on this forum. Most of the old-time Christian "thinkers" are gone now, probably driven off by the same shrillness that's reduced FR's posting base and made the quarterly Freepathons take longer and longer each time.

What is this incoherent mess supposed to mean?

The Gospel of Christ dying for mankind's sins, is something you call "knee jerk" fundamentalism?

What are you talking about?

[jwalsh07]

No, but Nietzche is.

[hripka]

The Golden Rule. It's really just that simple for us atheists.

Beyond the question of the Golden Rule's source, then its all just a matter of self-preservation for atheists? I won't hurt you if you won't hurt me? What if the other fellow just doesn't Believe the same as you?

In a godless (dare I say Darwinian) world, murder or more specifically genocide would be tolerated, accepted, promoted. Read Ann Coulter's "Godless", chapter 11. If you are godless, and you believe someone/some group is bad, it isn't that far a reach to do something about it to benefit society. Boy we haven't learned much in 70 years!

[hripka]

I think that you are missing the depth of Christian beliefs that were present/needed at our founding.

There is some quote by (one of the Adams?) stating that our form of government is only meant for a Christian, moral people. (I probably mangled this, but its close).

We are living on a reservoir of Christian faith that founded this great nation. Sadly, that reservoir is declining, hopefully it can be turned around.

[aNYCguy]

And yes: the Omniscient had to learn to say "Ma-ma."

Rarely are formal logical fallacies quite so overt as in your post.

The statement "X and not X" is self-contradicting. If you're going to tell me that I must abandon any semblence of rationality to "get" your point of view, I'll pass.

[Dimensio]

The title of this thread is 'Is God dead? Atheism finds a market in U.S,'

I am aware of the title of the article. No mention is made of the theory of evolution, neither in the title nor in the text of the article itself.

' I am trying to show that for life/order to exist, there has to be an intelligence behind it, i.e. God is not dead.

Even if you were able to demonstrate that "there has to be an intelligence behind" life, you have not demonstrated either that this intelligence is divine or that it is extant at present.

50 heads in a row equals odds of 1 to 5.63 times 10 to the 14th power. (I hope I figured that correctly.) Your body by itself contains 100 trillion cells (100 million million or 100,000,000,000,000) or 10 to the 14th power, much less the high complexity within each cell, much less the complexity of the entire ecosystem.

This has no relevance to your previous claim, which was that "The odds of the world happening with all of its order is Many Many times" the odds for acheiving 50 heads ond 50 coin flips. You have provided no calculations to support your assertion.

I have a list in front of me describing 47 separate physical processes, all of which have have to be set just right, or life would not exist, from physical constants, to solar system position, to earth position, to earth composition, etc.

Please reference some of these physical processes, and explain how you have determined the improbability of all of them occuring simultaneously at some point in the universe. Also explain how "argument from incredulity" is not a logical fallacy.

The previous paragraphs have over 150 words. They weren't random. (Intelligent??) The 1000 monkeys banging on a typewriter theory can't account for your questions or my words.

This has no relevance to your previous claim.