Should I become an atheist and why?

[Wootah]

Should I become an atheist and why?

What are the benefits, practices, beliefs? Any good conversion stories?

[Shem Yoshi]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #142]

you are straw manning Christianity, i would suggest you read the New Testament, and I will point you to the post I responded above (#150)

also, to try and not get off topic (like i sometimes do), i want to point back to my original thought. Which is this:

it doesnt matter what you believe if atheism is true.

What if you are convinced a woman is evil, or not good, or wrong, for whatever reason? And that you should stone her? Maybe she is trying to brainwash people against you, teaching them of supernatural things?

Well what is the truth?

Shoot on atheism, it might even be beneficial to eat her. Nutrients for the body, like any animal... Good way to survive... Eat your enemies...

[TRANSPONDER]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #142]

you are straw manning Christianity, i would suggest you read the New Testament, and I will point you to the post I responded above (#150)

also, to try and not get off topic (like i sometimes do), i want to point back to my original thought. Which is this:

it doesnt matter what you believe if atheism is true.

What if you are convinced a woman is evil, or not good, or wrong, for whatever reason? And that you should stone her? Maybe she is trying to brainwash people against you, teaching them of supernatural things?

Well what is the truth?

Shoot on atheism, it might even be beneficial to eat her. Nutrients for the body, like any animal... Good way to survive... Eat your enemies...

Those ideas strike me as more likely to come from some kinds of Fundamentalist creeds than from humanist thought or morals. however, your post is so remote from any kind of atheist thinking that it is not going to make any impact on us, even those not familiar with decades of Bible - believers telling us what atheist thought ought to look like, as though they had any idea, even if it might appeal to some believers, though I reckon most Christians posting here are better than that.

[JoeyKnothead]

What if you are convinced a woman is evil, or not good, or wrong, for whatever reason? And that you should stone her?

She just catches em and throws em back.

Maybe she is trying to brainwash people against you, teaching them of supernatural things?

Naw, folks just take a normal dislike to me.

Well what is the truth?

That which is.

Shoot on atheism, it might even be beneficial to eat her. Nutrients for the body, like any animal... Good way to survive... Eat your enemies...

Naw, that's just a euphemism, but some Heinz 57 might be in order.

[Clownboat]

you are straw manning Christianity, i would suggest you read the New Testament, and I will point you to the post I responded above (#150)

I have read the book from cover to cover. I know it better than you think.

it doesnt matter what you believe if atheism is true.

False, as life has consequences, even if Allah is not real. Surely you agree.

What if you are convinced a woman is evil, or not good, or wrong, for whatever reason? And that you should stone her? Maybe she is trying to brainwash people against you, teaching them of supernatural things?

Shem, please never, no matter what you might think, ever stone a women. I beg you! Even if there are no gods, there will still be consequences. Ironically, it is belief in gods that would allow such behavior.

Well what is the truth?

Nonsensical question. Please be more specific.

Shoot on atheism, it might even be beneficial to eat her. Nutrients for the body, like any animal... Good way to survive... Eat your enemies...

Can you make the connection for how not believing in any of the available god concepts would lead a person to become a canabal?

You don't believe in Vishnu, so why are you not eating people?
You don't believe in Allah, so why are you not eating people?
Surely you see the absurdity of your assertion?

[Shem Yoshi]

you are straw manning Christianity, i would suggest you read the New Testament, and I will point you to the post I responded above (#150)

I have read the book from cover to cover. I know it better than you think.

Well then you ought not strawman Christianity. If you have read the New Testament, you arguments certainly dont suggest that is true.

it doesnt matter what you believe if atheism is true.

False, as life has consequences, even if Allah is not real. Surely you agree.

I certainly believe life has consequences, truth is objective, morality comes from above, and there is purpose to our lives. It is consistent with my beliefs.

That said, I can understand that people would like to appeal to truths like that, as our world is built on foundation of truths like that.

But lets assume God doesnt exist, and "love your enemy" is nothing more then a teachings of the man Jesus...

Why not "eat your enemy" instead? Jesus taught humility, long suffering, and died for people who were against him. But on atheism you would not assume these values..

To die for someone who is against you... You dont get to assume that value...

Surely you enemy is not for your good.. the consequences of eating your enemy would be you eliminating your enemy, survival of the fitness, and be nutrients for your body for your own personal good.

What if you are convinced a woman is evil, or not good, or wrong, for whatever reason? And that you should stone her? Maybe she is trying to brainwash people against you, teaching them of supernatural things?

Shem, please never, no matter what you might think, ever stone a women. I beg you! Even if there are no gods, there will still be consequences. Ironically, it is belief in gods that would allow such behavior.

I would suggest that you stop straw manning people to establish a working debate.

Well what is the truth?

Nonsensical question. Please be more specific.

Shoot on atheism, it might even be beneficial to eat her. Nutrients for the body, like any animal... Good way to survive... Eat your enemies...

Can you make the connection for how not believing in any of the available god concepts would lead a person to become a canabal?

You don't believe in Vishnu, so why are you not eating people?
You don't believe in Allah, so why are you not eating people?
Surely you see the absurdity of your assertion?

What I see is people are appealing to Christian values, like we ought not stone people, and appealing to ideas of objective morality as if they are coming from above, but on atheism neither is true. It is perfectly rational that someone would like to borrow such ideas of truths, for our foundations lay on such ideas, but take those truths away and reduce our understand to materialism and natural selection, and survival... Maybe eating your enemy is the "best" thing you can do.

[JoeyKnothead]

But lets assume God doesnt exist, and "love your enemy" is nothing more then a teachings of the man Jesus...

Why not "eat your enemy" instead? Jesus taught humility, long suffering, and died for people who were against him. But on atheism you would not assume these values..

Why is it when we remove the idea of God, Christians jump on all manner of heinocity?

We can only -ahem- thank the gods the Christian has a religion to grab a hold of.

To die for someone who is against you... You dont get to assume that value...

Just as you don't get to assume the values of a group you obviously know so little about.

Surely you enemy is not for your good..

Which is why I don't go to church.

the consequences of eating your enemy would be you eliminating your enemy, survival of the fitness, and be nutrients for your body for your own personal good.

I don't eat my enemies because I don't go about killing em.

Maybe if Christians held to the same standard of not killing their enemies, they wouldn't have to go about fretting the cannibalism.

[Purple Knight]

[Replying to Purple Knight in post #147]

Best get about finding that airtight reason. What position do you think would best serve you in this quest?

The position that God exists but I don't believe it so it would be dishonest for me to try to use it. If only I were religious, people would have to respect my beliefs and by extension, my rights, if I say God gave them to me, because then the idea that I have rights is a belief, and everyone has to move aside for those.

But it's like being gay. I ain't.

[Shem Yoshi]

[Replying to JoeyKnothead in post #156]

You assume killing is wrong, and Christianity teaches killing is wrong, but the fact of the matter is, is that people kill all the time and are even seen as justified in a lot of the situations. You debate as if these values are objective, but you CANT assume killing is wrong.

What if someone is going to kill you? Often times people will justify killing another person. You do not have the grounds to assume killing your enemy is wrong.

Now lets go to an extreme of morality.. What if you went to die for someone? For what reason would you give your life for another person? Especially if materialism is true, a very rare situation would anyone give there life, if for any reason at all.

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die."

But what did Christ do?

"8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Not only did Christ give his life for other, he gave his life for people who were actively sinning against him. He said "love your enemy", "bless them who curse you". and "pray for them who deceitfully use you".

They call the message of the Cross foolishness, but God established the peaks of righteousness with Christ. "The message of the Cross is foolishness" "but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1). "for the weakness of God is stronger then human strength"

You dont get to assume these values. It would be foolish to die for someone who is actively sinning against you.

But the disciples took these teachings, and they shaped the west.

"10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment."

I understand that you would like to appeal to the fact that killing is wrong, but you dont have the grounds to assume killing is wrong, people do it all the time and people justify themselves doing it.

[Shem Yoshi]

Acting like it is ridiculous, doesnt establish that it is actually ridiculous. For example you know what "imaginary numbers" are? They were given that name by René Descartes as a derogatory term because he just asserted it was a ridiculous concept. source .

But just assuming, or asserting something is ridiculous doesnt actually make it ridiculous. Hundreds of years after Rene, as we should all know, imaginary numbers have gained widespread use and have been used in mathematics to solve many mathematical problems.

Why not eat your enemy? Why should we assume it is wrong?

[JoeyKnothead]

You assume killing is wrong, and Christianity teaches killing is wrong, but the fact of the matter is, is that people kill all the time and are even seen as justified in a lot of the situations. You debate as if these values are objective, but you CANT assume killing is wrong.

Yet Christians kill.

What if someone is going to kill you?

Whomp em over the head with a bible?

Often times people will justify killing another person.

Like Christians did when attempting to annihilate the Jews.

You do not have the grounds to assume killing your enemy is wrong.

Nor do Christians have the grounds to declare it right.

Now lets go to an extreme of morality.. What if you went to die for someone? For what reason would you give your life for another person?

Too vague to answer.

Especially if materialism is true,...

Do you deny the material world exists?

...a very rare situation would anyone give there life, if for any reason at all.

Please cite references and / or numbers.

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die."

But what did Christ do?

You can't even show he ever existed.

...Snip the sermon...