Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mercedes on May 18, 2013 at 7:05am

sorry I didn't understand what troll or poe meant. I am simply here to ask questions. If I am not welcome here then I will happily leave. It might be better.

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Permalink Reply by Dienekes on May 19, 2013 at 2:45pm

One thing to remember about people on boards with differing opinions: most of those people don't acknowledge that other people have lives and don't sit at their computers 24/7 waiting to respond to anything thrown at them.  If someone posts something toward you and you don't answer within just a few hours, oft times they will call you a troll or a coward.  Please ignore these people.  It is just their impatience.  I would suggest that you take one of the few valuable things out of your religion and practice patience and forgiveness with rude and irrational people.  (No offense intended, Adam, I'm not trying to point you out specifically).  Most of us understand that you are here to try to understand why you should open your mind to the slightest possibility that your belief system might be invalid. 

Not to use it as an excuse for rude behavior, but some of us have kind of short fuses sometimes because we are used to true trolls that come in to chat areas like this just to pick a fight rather than question anything, and often they come in pretending, at least at first, to be asking "honest" questions, only to try to twist the answers to use against the people who actually are trying to be honest and open in trying to get them to understand.

So, please just ignore anyone who attacks you personally.  Which is NOT the same as someone who might appear to be "attacking" your ideas.  All ideas are (or should be) open to debate.  If your idea or belief can't stand up to scrutiny, you should seriously consider WHY you believe such a thing before putting it out to the public to be shredded.

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Permalink Reply by Strega on May 17, 2013 at 2:38pm

Maybe she has to check with her 'source' or pastor first...

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on May 17, 2013 at 4:54pm

Hopefully, she's off studying and realizing she put her money on the wrong horse, er, god.

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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on May 17, 2013 at 5:23pm

Everyone, please do refrain from name-calling. It's against the guidelines. (posting as Think Atheist admin)

Also, Mercedes has been deluged with responses so she may not be able to respond to everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Alan C on May 17, 2013 at 5:54pm

Hear, hear, this is a place of quiet contemplation and education (sometimes!)

We should be encouraging young people like Mercedes to come here and question us.  It might cause enough curiosity to put her on the first steps to questioning her faith, it might not, but the last thing we want is for people like her having what her pastor/priest said would happen confirmed.

We are good, fair and peaceful because we want to be, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Adam on May 17, 2013 at 7:44pm

I believe she has said before that she is 25 years old, she is even older than me, so I don't really think she is as young and naive as you might she think she is. I can understand your confusion because her discussion style perceives her to be a lot younger than she is.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on May 17, 2013 at 8:43pm

Actually, sometimes rather boisterous contemplation, but I suppose any kind of contemplation is better than none at all.

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Permalink Reply by Magnus Mayus on May 17, 2013 at 7:17pm

"Why do atheists ask for so much proof to believe in God?"

I am an atheist and I do not ask for proof of a God because I don't believe there is one. I don't think that any true atheist asks for proof, ever! We don't think there is anything so why would we need evidence to believe in something we are convinced doesn't exist? Free will only comes into the equation as a matter of being able to think for yourself and not have others dictate to you what you should do with your life under the threat of punishment.

Furthermore, I am in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. I build robots that function and mimic human behaviour. So to apply your logic I am a GOD. I create things, they 'live', they even 'think', and they do my bidding. I would assume that if what you believe in is right, they will eventually 'worship' me and offer me prayers so I will provide them with the energy they need to live.

Let's turn the question around - do you go to the doctor or see a nurse when you are ill? Why? If you pray and there is that God of yours, s/he would surely make you better, no? Ok, I admit, this was a hard one - try this: If that God created all mankind and told them to love one another, why are you so against homosexuals? After all, they love each other and that is what God wanted, is it not?

No my dear friend. God is a convenient excuse for people to either cover their own misbehaviour (God told me to...) or to comfort when they feel fear (dark, alone, hearing noises), and sometimes to explain things to the simple minded that is too hard to explain (God made the Universe).

You can believe what you will. Atheists will never ask you why, because they know better...

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Permalink Reply by Dienekes on May 19, 2013 at 2:55pm

I would slightly change your first assumption.  Rather than (or possibly in addition to) "not" asking for proof of a person's deity, I think it would be fair to say we are certainly willing to examine any proof presented that a deity is actually real.  The one caveat would be that we certainly expect extraordinary proof, since it is an extraordinary claim.

The problem is that the "proof" would have to rectify or counteract all the evidence that is currently against the concept of a god or gods (which is mammoth). 

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Permalink Reply by Matt Giwer on May 17, 2013 at 7:26pm

Proof is only for math and logic. The issue is the absence of evidence for these gods of yours.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Slark on May 17, 2013 at 8:57pm

Atheists ask because there has never been an answer.

 

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