Frustrated athiest asks why do you believe in God?

[Wildswanderer]

But you are right about growth being high in Latin America, but that is probably due to population growth. It is clearly not conversion:

That exactly what it's due to... people are leaving dead Catholic tradition for the real gospel.

 

[Subduction Zone]

No I didn't forget your false accusation.

No, you were the one that made the false accusations. Don't they teach the Ninth Commandment any longer?

 

[F1fan]

That exactly what it's due to... people are leaving dead Catholic tradition for the real gospel.

So the "real Gospel" began in the late 1500's with Martin Luther? So there was no legitimate Christianity for all that time, in your judgment?

 

[Subduction Zone]

That exactly what it's due to... people are leaving dead Catholic tradition for the real gospel.

Hardly. But that may explain your confusion. Catholics are just as real in their Christian beliefs as yours are. Perhaps more so.

 

[Subduction Zone]

So the "real Gospel" began in the late 1500's with Martin Luther? So there was no legitimate Christianity for all that time, in your judgment?

There were some serious problems with the Catholic church before the Restoration. Heck, there are some serious problems today. And the Restoration was not pretty. Both sides practiced extremism and it was too easy to be killed for the believing in the wrong brand of Christianity. Oddly enough many fundamentalistic sects pretend that the Catholic Church never cured their major wrongs of that time.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

No, I am dealing with anger and frustration (which does not stem from atheism) in a more practical way. It's frustrating talking to faceless, straw-man internet trolls with no brain and therefore no foundation for sound logic and reasoning. It's less frustrating to know I'm talking to real people with hopes, dreams, and ideas. With values and goals, some very similar to my own. People who have very logical and understandable reasons for their actions and beliefs.

Everyone is real, not just those with whom you may have more affinity, but it is natural to enjoy company more with those you do have than those you do not.

I wish you a happy life, which btw to my way of understanding can only come about from understanding what and who you really are in the context of infinity and eternity, ie., the bigger picture.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

So we will be judged by an evil judge. Why should we go along with his wishes?

Forgedaboutit!
Maybe he'll give you an offer you can't refuse.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

The ruler of the universe, the one who created you and has the right to do whatever he wants to do with you, can not be judged to be evil by your human whims. He allows you to continue to exist every second and you should have some gratitude for that.

Sounds like something a North Korean propaganda channel would say to its subjects about the Dear Leader.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Right has no meaning whatsoever in a godless universe.

Obviously I don't agree with that, but let's go with it.

It has no meaning in your god universe either, by your own admission.
Instead, in your god universe, there is only OBEDIENCE.

In that universe the strongest survive and that's that... so might does make right if there's no God.

Really, all these posts I read from you... you might as well be talking about North Korea.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Not if you have the ability as creator to know who needs killed to make better world.

So why is Putin still alive?

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

You said God was immoral so you would not want eternity with him. Why not? Everyone is immoral to some extent.

But not everyone is a genocidal, infanticidal, homophobic, slavery condoning, petty, jealous maniac.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

We are self aware.

The other great apes are self-aware also.

We perceive ourselves as souls not just physical bodies

Read my signature.

 

[Wildswanderer]

So the "real Gospel" began in the late 1500's with Martin Luther? So there was no legitimate Christianity for all that time, in your judgment?

Not what I said. There's a lot of nominal catholics that kind of inherited it because it's been the traditional religion of their family... that's not faith unless you make it your own. Ritual vs real experience, and real experiences of supernatural power are winning.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Hardly. But that may explain your confusion. Catholics are just as real in their Christian beliefs as yours are. Perhaps more so.

Not if it's just "tradition, tradition!"
Lots of people from ritualistic churches don't actually believe, it's just what their family has always been, so they might go twice a year for appearances sake.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Sounds like something a North Korean propaganda channel would say to its subjects about the Dear Leader.

Only if he said it it would be untrue because he didn't create you and doesn't have any rights over you, as opposed to the all powerful benevolent being that did.

 

[Wildswanderer]

It has no meaning in your god universe either, by your own admission.
Instead, in your god universe, there is only OBEDIENCE.

No there's also love... which is who God is and why he's worthy of obedience.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Read my signature.

There isn't one.

 

[Wildswanderer]

The other great apes are self-aware also.

Yeah I'm sure they all study philosophy and religion...

 

[Yazata]

In a way I think the more absurd the concept the more attractive it is for more conservative believers.

I assume that you are talking about theological conservatism there. And theological conservatism means adherence to and being guided by tradition. So to the extent that modernist orthodoxies deviate from that tradition, theological conservatives are going to find themselves out of step with those later beliefs.

We don't see liberal Christians attracted to YEC.

Instead we find theologically "liberal" Christians battling to reinterpret and reinvent the tradition in terms of whatever beliefs are popular in their own time and place.

The danger in that, as the theological conservatives see it, is that tradition becomes 'Whatever we want it to be'. The tradition is drained of all of its historical (and arguably revealed) content. It ceases being a guide to contemporary life and instead becomes just another expression of contemporary ideas.

Little remains except the tradition's name, like the Cheshire Cat's grin in Alice.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Not if it's just "tradition, tradition!"
Lots of people from ritualistic churches don't actually believe, it's just what their family has always been, so they might go twice a year for appearances sake.

Really? You should not be throwing stones since your particular version of Christianity appears to be making the same sort of errors that the Catholics made in the time of Galileo.