Hi Gadfly, I said only that they make me uncomfortable. I would think they are misguided, naive, arrogant perhaps but not "evil". Misguided because Christ himself said "love your neighbour" and I don't think the behavior of many evangelical activists is loving. They love their god, their faith and their church, perhaps, but often behave as though they hate everything and everyone else. Naive because any "one true path" doctrine has no understanding that the customs and beliefs of billions of other people in the world may have a great deal of wisdom and insight to offer. Arrogant because it is a one-way message: Do things my way and you will be saved, refuse and you are damned no matter what you believe.
All I can do is repeat that good and evil are not a problem for me and try to reassure you that my lack of concern with religious morality hasn't inspired me to do harm to others. If anything it makes me feel more compassionate and caring toward the whole of humanity and less likely to do harm than I would be if I thought some people were "evil."
I think you hit the nail on the head with your "hardheadedness" comment. I don't like that quality in atheists either!
I have enjoyed the conversation. The point you recognize about hardheadedness is a point that applies to all of us at one time or another. Human behavior is predictable and when confronted with new information the typical response of a person with a philosophical or religious mind is to be skeptical. The first thing Moses said when he first met God on the mountain was to say, "Who are you?" and God said to Moses, "I am what I am." My first response to this statement would have been, had I been Moses, would have been to think God was being evasive and not willing to reveal who God really was. But when you think about it, as an eternal God, he would be so great and powerful that to reveal Himself only a small amount would have blown Moses from here to the end of the universe. Therefore, the answer Moses received from God was very reasonable and appropriate. After all, look what God did with the big bang!
I have heard atheist and non-believers say in their argument against God that if God is all knowing and wise, why does He not just reveal Himself? Well, the above may not be a complete answer to the legitimate question that the atheist ask about the omnipotence of God, but it is a start.
Why do I bring this subject up? It is because you have been offended by the impatience of many Christians and evangelist who have apparently lashed out at you without hearing what you have to say. If God is all knowing and we have the truth, we can afford to listen to you. Consequently, to protect yourself from true bigotry, you stopped listening to all Christians.That is the reason you say this:
They love their god, their faith and their church, perhaps, but often behave as though they hate everything and everyone else.That is what I did too at one time, stopped listening. Finally, I thought things through for myself as much as was possible. And here is where I am today. a fundamentalist Christian.
When I read your sincere comments about people who turned you off and hardened your position, I thought, that is not what all Christians are like and indeed most Christians are not like that, but many of the ones you met and knew were like that. When I first came on this forum, I myself acted somewhat like that. But what I really think is that we all should be like God in that He wants to reason with us. You are correct, we have not done good enough job in expressing theist beliefs and you have a right to recent us.
There are reasons, like there was with Moses, why people do not know all there is to know about God. Another mistake in my prejudice towards atheist is I assumed, science atheist have settled on the belief there is no God, this meant atheist had given up the search for truth. That, to me, would be evil but I do not think that is true.
Both you and Mball have given me enough information about the issue of good and evil that I see it is not a great problem for either of you. However, you have not completely satisfied 100% the requirements to philosophically explain the existence of good and evil. For that matter though. I am not sure anybody has accomplished this 100%. So, if I may, let's move on.
It seems to me that atheist would rather not conclude there is a difference between matter and spirit. that there is matter and that there is spirit. Mball, if I have read him correctly, however, does believe these are separate, especially when it comes to mind (spirit) and matter. If you would, please comment on this to provide me with an adequate view of what atheist believe in this regard.
GadFly
