Welcome!

[His Name Is John]

It seems to me, that new members rarely post a introduction thread anymore. As such I am making this thread as a way that new members can say hi, and get to know a couple of people on the forums.

So to all the new members:

First of all, hello!

Second, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 416 by Tcg]

Welcome to the forum!
You and I share much in common as far as losing our faith.

[Tcg]

[Replying to Clownboat]

Thanks for the welcome, Clownboat!

[OnceConvinced]

Hello all. I am a former Christian who has been an atheist for about 12 years now.

Welcome! You are in good company. There are many of us who are in a similar boat. I lost my faith nearly 10 years ago now and have considered myself an atheist for the last 2 years.

In my youth I studied for the ministry and worked in a variety of churches.

I have had a similar upbringing. I was in children's ministries at the age of 16. Later, as an adult I was a cell group leader. I have been through many denominations of churches throughout my life.

For most of my adult life however, I worked in the tech world.

I work in software development.

I began to have serious doubts about my faith and found that most if not all of the questions I asked about the Bible and God had no logically satisfying answers.

Same here. No logical answers and still no logical answers. Many Christians like to think of people like us as rebellious and just wanted to sin, which for me is farthest from the truth. I desperately wanted to keep my faith, but unfortunately there was simply no way I was able to keep a hold of it.

Losing my faith took a number years

Took me about 5 years to get over it. Lots of crying out to God and getting no help.

and was a process not a one time event. During the years that I have been an atheist, I have been shocked to see the mistrust many people have of atheists and how often atheism is misunderstood and misrepresented.

Isn't it appalling? But then it's not surprising really. I was brought up to believe that atheists were horrible immoral people. Up until I was about 11 or 12, I thought there were no atheists in my schools as no one seemed to be as bad as the ones we heard about in Sunday school.

People continue to spread lies about atheism. You will see threads here at the moment, where one is saying an atheist world would be one where life was not valued and where murder would be wanton and another who is trying to misrepresent atheism with so called dogma which atheism does not have. With those sort of beliefs its no wonder atheists are suffering so much persecution.

You will find it a continuous battle on this site to enlighten theists that atheists aren't as bad as what they think. But we have to continue the good fight and spread the good news that atheists are decent people too.

[Tcg]

[Replying to OnceConvinced]

Thanks for the welcome, OnceConvinced! From what you have shared, it is clear that our life experience has many parallels.

Many of the opinions about atheists I have heard from theists have nothing to do with actual atheists. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, but one of the primary reasons as I see it are that if they accepted the truth that atheists simply find the arguments for god to be woefully lacking, they'd have to consider the fact that their belief is quite simply not rational.

I have attempted to present the truth about atheists and atheism on the internet for about a decade now. I'm not sure what positive effect it has had, but I sometimes feel committed to continue the battle. All too often, it is clear that a rational argument is useless because so many theists base their belief on emotional desires, not rational conclusions.

[FWI]

[Replying to post 1 by His Name Is John]

Greetings, to you as well.

I consider myself a theist. Yet, my belief in God is in the singular, not dual or triune. I am a long time student of the bible. However, I do not support “sola scriptura� and hold to premise that God writes His laws and ways into the minds of His followers. But, the bible is a valuable reference tool. I guess this makes me sort-of a maverick, who is not affiliated with any religious organization.

So, I look forward to expressing my positions/opinions, as well as, considering the positions of others.

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 421 by FWI]

Welcome to the forum!

[FWI]

[Replying to post 422 by Clownboat]

I blame man for codifying those rules into a book which allowed superstitious people to perpetuate a barbaric practice. Rules that must be followed or face an invisible being’s wrath.

This could be true...But, he left out the opposite perspective: Follow the rules and blessings beyond the imagination can be experienced...

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 422 by Clownboat]

I blame man for codifying those rules into a book which allowed superstitious people to perpetuate a barbaric practice. Rules that must be followed or face an invisible being’s wrath.

This could be true...But, he left out the opposite perspective: Follow the rules and blessings beyond the imagination can be experienced...

Could be true? What part of that statement is not true?
Perhaps this would be a good debate topic for you to start?

[FWI]

[Replying to post 424 by Clownboat]

Could be true? What part of that statement is not true?

The whole statement is based on conjecture, not facts or ones opinion verses another's.

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 424 by Clownboat]

Could be true? What part of that statement is not true?

The whole statement is based on conjecture, not facts or ones opinion verses another's.

Of course some of it is. This person starts the statement with, "I blame man for..." after all.

There are facts as well though, like how man has codified rules into religious books before. See any of the holy books for an example.
The invisible beings are the god concepts of such holy books, and if they are not invisible, then I would like to be made aware of this so I can amend my thinking.

I'm still curious as to which parts of the statement are demonstrably not true.