Yes, I am an atheist. I believe in no gods.Moreover, I'm an agnostic athesit,that is, one who does not claim that gods don't exist. A lot of believers can't understand those words and convert them automatically to "He believe's there's no god."Your an atheist right. Atheism is the doctrine or belief that there is no God or disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings. (Dictionary.com). The non-existence of God or there is no God is something you cannot prove right?
Bill Maher said it well: "I’m open to anything for which there is evidence. Show me a god and I will believe in him. If Jesus Christ comes down from the sky during the halftime show of this Sunday’s Super Bowl and turns all the nachos into loaves and fishes, I’ll think ... “Oh look at that, I was wrong. There he is. My bad. Praise the lord!"
That's agnostic atheism.
Of course not. Argument is only for those who wish to be believed or wish to learn, who wish to convince or be convinced.I do not need to prove that to you. That is already proven to me
I don't discount the possibility of a deity existing, but I do reject the claims of those saying that they have experienced a god. I understand their experience even if they don't. You might find that arrogant and provocative. Other have. They don't like being told that something sacred to them is a misunderstanding of a mental state, and they really object to other people thinking that they understand the minds.But if my experience in meeting God was not a once off event and people from all over the world starting claiming the same experiences then your argument loses its weight and empirical evidence although not proving the existence of God starts proving that the existence of God cannot be discounted due to replication.
And of that's not good enough for you, recall your own words above. I don't need to convince you of what I believe. I'd be happy to give you my argument, but I'd expect you to reject it out of hand. I've been a Christian, and I saw God then. I was sure that I was in the presence of the Holy Sirit during church services. It happened after I entered the Army. And then I was discharged from the military, returned to the opposite coast, and could never reproduce the experience my first congregation and pastor after visiting a half dozen other congregations, and the truth of what I had actually been experiencing and mistaking for a god became apparent to me.
No, it's the result of the greatest marketing campaign in the history of man, nearly two millennia long and still going. Paul was the first to market Jesus in earnest, then Constantine at the point of a sword. The Catholic church arose and its chapels then basilicas and cathedrals began cropping up everywhere like a fast-food franchise. Waves of crusaders, missionaries, conquistadores and inquisitions spread and enforced the faith. The Gideons put a Bible in every hotel room. With broadcast media, the televangelists began marketing Jesus. There was an ad for Jesus in the last Superbowl.You talk empirical evidence but it is all around you and you simply ignore it. Today there are over 2.6 billion Christians in the world today from nearly every country in the world today most professing to have met God? That must be an amazing coincidence in your eyes.
I don't care how many of those 2.6 billion say they've seen or experienced a god. I don't believe any of them.
How many billion hamburgers has McDonald's sold? They used to say, but stopped years ago. They also specializing in franchising and marketing. It doesn't mean the burgers are good, just acceptable and accessible.
So did I. I just gave you the summary of how that turned out. Did I mention a disastrous marriage based in a perceived message from the Holy Spirit? I married her because I felt the Spirit calling me one day with her on the barracks steps as crepuscular rays shone down from heaven. It was a spiritual experience, and I made an irrational decision based in it. I don't allow myself to think like that anymore.I thought to give faith in Gods Word and repentance of me sins a try to see if God was real as faith and repentance are Gods conditions for finding Him through His Word.
He can. And if his conditions and reveal don't meet my standards for belief, then there's one more atheist in the world, as such a god should understand. Personally, I need more than a book that many men could have written containing internal contradictions, errors of fact in science and history, and unimpressive prophecies featuring a deity that makes moral and intellectual errors. It's not a god revealing itself there. It's people from the past expressing their worldview under the assumption of the existence of a tri-omni god.If there was a God (I say that on your behalf I know there is a God) then why can't he set the conditions on how and who he chooses to reveal Himself to? The scriptures are how we find God.
Scripture is not support for any religious belief. I have no reason to believe anything from that source. Neither do you by my reckoning, but your standards for belief aren't mine.those scriptures was only provided in support of what I have been telling you from the beginning. That is according to the scriptures, no one can see or know God if they continue to seek God in their sins and unbelief
Why do you bother? I don't care what you believe. I care about what you know and can demonstrate.This section of your post reminds me of the scripture in Hebrews 10:26-31 that says;
Wrong with it? No other method generates demonstrably correct ideas. All other methods can be collected together and called some form of faith-based belief, including accepting scripture uncritically.there is nothing wrong with critical thinking
No, you are in bondage to (the concept of) sin, and you're projecting your fears onto me. I am free of that now. Sin, devils, and hell are for believers to worry about.We are all in bondage to sin. Which is defined in the scriptures as breaking Gods law and not believing and obeying what Gods Word says. I believe deep down inside you have no peace and the burning question "What if I am wrong?"
"To the philosophy of atheism belongs the credit of robbing death of its horror and its terror." - Joseph Lewis