You must be a smart man....Einstein said this: "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own--a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human fraility. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature. "
The Christian view of life is pretty accurate. The Athiest view of life is a pretty accurate view of how Christians view an atheist's view of life. But then of course Christians seem to be threatened by Athiests probably due to their own insecurity in their faith.
Einstein was not thinking about Extinction, and the Natural Laws which demand all species adapt to the changing Realities which unfold moment by moment.
Before Genetics, this survival after death has always been something difficult to understand. Today, we KNOW from scientific experiments using the MRI techniques that we all have an Unconscious mind that was here before. It contains a record of all our previous "visits" into the living world, and is full of instincts which aid and guide us. That Unconscious mind actually rules over us all and is collective, the sum of all the other Unconscious mind in the living humanity we become a part of then leave,... until we are "born again."
Perhaps Einstein should have either read up more on what God said about His creation, or just stuck to physics. God does not reward and punish the object of his creation; He offers two paths to choose from. YOU have the choice. God gave you a mind to think through your actions. God set standards that make sense, and boil down to a simple premise: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. The Ten Commandments are rooted in this one premise. God put us here to either say yes or no to Him. If you say ‘yes’ you ARE rewarded; if you say ‘no’ YOU have made the choice knowing full-well the consequences. This is no different than a parent who bears a child and sets rules for that child and outline the consequences for violating those rules. Is there some sort of cruelty for a parent to have children and set rules for their lives? Are parents deranged because they dare to establish moral standards? Why would it be any different with God?
Would be neat if you could post an example.... aside from a post from one member of the forum, of course. Unless you're the type to generalize so greatly. By default, atheism is no threat to Christianity. However, if you look at the constant barrage of threads in this forum.... Look at page one of the forum.... 95% of the threads are from known non-believers, atheists and Christianity haters. Then... click on any of those threads and they are mostly populated by like-thinkers high-fiving each other on their Christian insults and childishness. It sure seems there are a ton of non-believers trying their hardest to convince others (and often themselves) that there is no God. Who is threatened by whom ? just sayin'...
like a deadbeat dad that never comes around and then says to his kids, love me or I will lock you in the basement for eternity... he gave them a choice whoopee some Christians would say this dad is the best dad ever.... . .
Very clever. The only problem might be that atheist do not like being pegged as anti god centric. Most like to think they live their lives with no, or very little, consideration of god. No more than most people think about unicorns anyway. The only problem being intrusive theist who try to cram their pointless faith down innocent atheist throats.
A dad that calls out to his child over and over “I am here for you, all you have to do is come to me” and that child rejects the dad over and over is not a deadbeat dad. Eventually the dad goes silent. Man has rejected God time and time again while God has tried to reach man. Man has cut the hand off of the one that feeds them.
and still that dead beat dad gave them a choice... love me or I will lock you in the basement for eternity... he gave them a choice whoopee
Wrong. Being an atheist means rejecting specific claims that a god does exist. Not all atheists care about the religious debate but the ones that do-do not spend time thinking about god they spend time thinking about religions and their effect on society and humanity.
There are no true atheist, actually. Since we cannot prove a negative for the non existence, then non belief requires a measure of faith. Just like theism does, to believe or not believe without proof is a matter of faith. And that lack of proof either way leads to some serious insecurity issues with both about their belief/non belief. I rather believe in possibilities based on probabilities. If someone wants me to believe in their god, then I need a clear definition of what that god is. If you define him/her/it as an omnipotent, omniscient god like the one of the bible, I will have trouble reconcile believing in a all knowing and powerful god that created such an imperfect existence for us. If you define god as a computer programmer and we live in a simulation, I'd be more incline to believe that is 'possible'. I'd rather not dwell with proving or believing that there is or is not a god. Seems like such a waste of mental energy. I rather explore what is truth, over what I 'think' is truth and searching for what only validates it.
Well, anyone can think about things other than theology most of the time, including most theist. Agnostics are less bothered by the whole issue for sure, but that doesn't preclude the fact that many atheist would choose to dwell on other things. Not believing in something does not make it a big issue in most cases. Not believing in unicorns, dragons, and other fantasy creatures does not effect anyones life much. I do not think being uncertain makes it any more or less of an issue. Maybe unicorns and dragons exist in a parallel universe, who knows?
Lol Yes God does Yes and then depending on how you choose God rewards or punishes you. Free will is an illusion but even if it wasn't, even if you could provide one shred of evidence to support the idea of free will it doesn't matter. God as you say gave us our minds, he created them, molded them into what he wanted them to be, he is far more responsible for our actions than we ever could be and the "choices" he gives us aren't much of a choice. Act the way he wants you to or burn in hell forever....hmmm what should I choose? Did God copy off of others then because that standard existed in many cultures without Gods influence and long before his best selling book came out. Also its kind of interesting that God would adhere to this standard while condoning slavery and genocide. The ten commandments are laughably inadequate and well....laughable. Wow this is fun. So if you say no to him then who are you? Are you someone born before the revelations? Are you someone born in another culture where you will never learn about the revelations, where you will never hear his word? Are you mentally incapable to understand his word? Or are you someone who was unwilling to believe in him on terrible and laughable evidence? Also I love how you emphasize knowing the consequences, oh yes we know the consequences of not believing in the all loving God, you burn in hell forever. I'm still waiting for you to support your idea that "God does not reward and punish the object of his creation" because so far all you have been doing is supporting it. Lol, no different huh? Do parents hold their children, physically talk to them and care for them? Do they teach them in real time the lessons they consider worth learning? Or do parents create their children to look, think and behave exactly as they want them to, and then leave them alone with an obtuse book for them to figure out on their own? I had no idea that when I became a parent I became no different than God, which I guess is a good thing for you because if i was different than God in a great many ways your argument would be a joke. No but there is one for abandoning their children or mentally abusing their children or torturing their children for not listening to them. In fact I'm pretty sure if they tried to drown all of their children in a massive flood because they weren't being good we have a law against that as well. Who said it should be different for God? The argument is that Gods morality is (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up. Most parents have an inherent morality that trumps Gods every day of the week and twice on Sundays. "Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?" Robert G. Ingersoll
I won’t waste any more time on this except to say that when you invent something of your own, I’ll come around and tell you how your invention survives and dies. I mean, I am far more qualified to do so than the inventor – right?
So it's okay to make blanket statements about all christians now even when you don't know their motivations? Let me know when I'm supposed to take atheists seriously.
By the inventor do you mean the God who is all knowing, all powerful and who cannot make mistakes? If so I hope you're not trying to draw a comparison between that God and anything humans do. Why can't you address things said to you? Why can't you carry on the debate?
If one is a Christian their motivations must be their faith right....otherwise they wouldn't really be a Christian would they?
That's over simplifying it a bit. Their are many reasons a person may be a christian. And they're are many types too. Some are staunch, others are more energetic, some are even outright horrible christians. But the only thing I saw in that post was something that was meant to disparage christians simply because they choose to believe.
Just like how if a guy pulls a gun on you on the street and demands your money or else he will kill you, if you choose not to give him money, that counts as a suicide.
A "dad" that never shows up in person...or even calls....but is simply TALKED ABOUT glowingly by one of the other kids who have also never seen him or heard his voice... is a deadbeat dad.