How hard do you have to try to be an atheist?

[SomeRandom]

Some people's views of evolution Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved

That's not atheistic though.
Nor does that make The Theory of Evolution atheistic in nature. This is like saying that because children believe that Fairytales are possible, the Grimm's collection are non fiction at some point. Like what?

Honestly all it really says about God/s is they are not necessary to understand the mechanisms we observe in ToE. Which is true. That's not being an atheist, that's being apathetic.

Also you do realise that a creator God is not necessary to be theistic, right? The Jains alone prove that. A theist can have indifferent or uninvolved God/s in their belief system/s.

 

[Spiderman]

But if God designed the strawberries and the people to the degree you’re describing, then these (often life-threatening) allergies must be deliberate features designed by God, no?

I'm not saying they were designed by God.

I don't believe every disorder is designed by God.

But God could prevent a lot of things and he doesn't, which makes me think God is cruel

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I'm not saying they were designed by God.

I don't believe every disorder is designed by God.

But you ARE saying that strawberries were designed by God.

But God could prevent a lot of things and he doesn't, which makes me think God is cruel

But if something as complex as an allergy can arise inadvertently without God's design, why would tasting good require God's design?

And I'm really speaking to your point: you claim that strawberries have been optimized for people. I'm saying that since strawberries sometimes hurt and even kill people in non-negligible numbers, they don't seem that optimized to me.

 

[Spiderman]

But you ARE saying that strawberries were designed by God.


But if something as complex as an allergy can arise inadvertently without God's design, why would tasting good require God's design?

And I'm really speaking to your point: you claim that strawberries have been optimized for people. I'm saying that since strawberries sometimes hurt and even kill people in non-negligible numbers, they don't seem that optimized to me.

I was not saying strawberries are optimized for everyone. I was saying as an atheist, strawberries were an example of something producing within me a question, that maybe it was designed to give the average person pleasure to their taste buds, as well as nutrition... I was simply pointing out that various things in life caused me to question atheism... I was not trying to support the idea that strawberries are good for everyone.

 

[Polymath257]

I disagree. When science is trying to declare how the world and creatures were created, the help of an intelligent entity working with the mechanisms of science, and possibly authoring them, is relevant to the topic at hand.

Not if it can be explained without that assumption.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

When you were an atheist, or if you are an atheist, do you ever have to try hard to be an atheist?

Is it hard for you to not believe in Leprechauns or Bigfoot?

I don't see chimpanzees or any other apes evolving... whatever the other apes invent, was the same thing they were inventing thousands of years ago.

The human and chimp lineages split about 5 to 8 million years ago, so it isn't that surprising that we haven't seen much relative change over the last few thousand years. A thousand years is just 0.02% of the total amount of time since those lineages split.

What we do see is that every individual is born with mutations, and that mutations continue to accumulate in every population alive today. There is nothing stopping these mutations from accumulating and producing change.

Also, not every lineage is under selective pressure for increased intelligence.

It was hard for me to be an atheist, when I can't find a single person on the planet who is half chimpanzee and half human. There really should be a chimpanzee out there that is more advanced than the rest at least, who invents something more new or something that resembles civilization.

We find half human, half apes in the fossil record:

As an Atheist, it was hard for me to believe that evolved chimps wrote a fairytale, that influences and governs more than 2.2 billion Christians, and 1.8 billion Muslims, in a massively powerful way.

But it was easy to accept creationism even though it lacks any evidence whatsoever?

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

I was not saying strawberries are optimized for everyone. I was saying as an atheist, strawberries were an example of something producing within me a question, that maybe it was designed to give the average person pleasure to their taste buds, as well as nutrition... I was simply pointing out that various things in life caused me to question atheism... I was not trying to support the idea that strawberries are good for everyone.

Fruits are sweet so that animals eat them. The seeds work their way through the digestive tract and are then deposited well away from the parent plant in a pile of fertilizer. It's an evolved strategy.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

There would have had to be a process of one species transforming into another, otherwise, such a theory simply is not possible!!

Observed Instances of Speciation

Some More Observed Speciation Events

We have directly observed speciation occurring in the wild and in the lab.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

It becomes atheistic in certain perceptions....and many are insisting that there was no intelligent creative force assisting the process

Where is the evidence that there is an intelligent creative force assisting the process? You seem to just assume that this force exists with no evidence to back it.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

I've heard a lot of people describing the evolution Theory in a way that supports an atheist bias

Do you mean a bias towards objective and verifiable evidence?

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

I was not saying strawberries are optimized for everyone. I was saying as an atheist, strawberries were an example of something producing within me a question, that maybe it was designed to give the average person pleasure to their taste buds, as well as nutrition... I was simply pointing out that various things in life caused me to question atheism... I was not trying to support the idea that strawberries are good for everyone.

The better tasting strawberries are eaten at a much higher rate than bad tasting strawberries. This means the better tasting strawberries have their seeds spread at a much higher rate. This is called natural selection.

 

[ecco]

Some people's views of evolution Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved

You could say with equal audacity...

• Some people's views of Germ Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.
• Some people's views of Atomic Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.

Why do you single out evolution?

 

[ecco]

Previous PopeADope comments...

I believe in evolution theory to a certain extent....up until the point it becomes atheistic

It becomes atheistic in certain perceptions....and many are insisting that there was no intelligent creative force assisting the process

Some people's views of evolution Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved

More accurately, you believe in science up until the point it conflicts with your religious beliefs.

You are no different than anyone else.

I don't believe science conflicts with my beliefs...

You really are confused, aren't you? Read and try to understand your own comments.

The only people who put a god in evolution are people who must cling desperately to the idea of GodDidIt.

You cannot accept evolution without GodDidIt because "you believe in science up until the point it conflicts with your religious beliefs."

 

[ecco]

... there have been many scientific and medically documented miracles

I'm still waiting for you to produce evidence for one.

 

[ecco]

... I was saying as an atheist,... caused me to question atheism...

Please stop stating or even suggesting that you were ever an atheist.

 

[Audie]

You could say with equal audacity...

• Some people's views of Germ Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.
• Some people's views of Atomic Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.

Why do you single out evolution?

Why wont you get an answer?

 

[Audie]

Please stop stating or even suggesting that you were ever an atheist.

Seriously.

 

[Audie]

I'm still waiting for you to produce evidence for one.

This is Nobel prize stuff, so maybe he wants to keep it under cover
till then.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You could say with equal audacity...

• Some people's views of Germ Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.
• Some people's views of Atomic Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.

Why do you single out evolution?

I’ve never seen any mathematics that invokes a deity either.

 

[Spiderman]

Previous PopeADope comments...

​

You really are confused, aren't you? Read and try to understand your own comments.

The only people who put a god in evolution are people who must cling desperately to the idea of GodDidIt.

You cannot accept evolution without GodDidIt because "you believe in science up until the point it conflicts with your religious beliefs."

You could say with equal audacity...

• Some people's views of Germ Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.
• Some people's views of Atomic Theory are atheistic, because they teach that no intelligent guiding force was involved.

Why do you single out evolution?

I don't believe science when it starts suggesting that a single cell organism mysteriously came into existence in a way that can't be explained, then started mutating into fish, reptiles, amphibians, rodents, birds, mammals, and eventually you...with no intelligent plan or guide other than scientific mechanisms that mysteriously exist for some mysterious reason...sounds like a load of horsesh*t to me!

I see no evidence that a species can mutate into another species in any living creature alive in the 21st century.