Atheism vs Christianity

[King_Arthur]

Wow, so if there is a God, do you think he/she would want us arguing on a gaming forum ? If you feel there's not a God then why even began to argue ?

The fact is...We'll never know. Not in the physical form atleast. All these topics do is start controversy and arguing. One person makes a good point about God being real, then another makes another point about God being fake. Endless...

I think IMO that we need to stop trying to push each other to one side or the other and just leave it alone. Nobody's winning. lol

Religion does not deserve to be attacked, cause if done then religion will attack back and then we're right back where we started. If you believe in something, who the hell are you to force someone else to believe it as well ? Some of my best friends don't believe in God and I do, we never try to force are beliefs onto each other though. But Gr has been producing these kind of topics for years, so why even bother... I guess it is MISC.

 

[white-noise]

The atheists that i know always attack Christianity but find it inappropriate to attack Islam. All of a sudden if you attack Muslims you're viewed as prejudice? Sounds pretty stupid if you ask me.

Even this thread is called Atheism vs Christianity instead of Atheism vs Religion.

As a Christian, I'm tired of seeing atheists constantly attack my faith when their belief is against EVERY religion, not just one. They either don't understand the term Atheist or they're just rebelling against mommy and daddy who took them to church when they were a child.

 

[UrbanMasque]

Attack, lol. Its simple you debate what you know. There are no former Muslims turned atheists here - so i wouldnt expect that POV. There are plenty of christians turned atheists - thats why an overwhelming majority of people see the flaws in Christianity.


Also, kill the head - and the body will die. Christianity, Juddaism, and Islam for very similar. If you bring people to the realization that there probably isn't a god in one religion you discredit the others. The reason why atheist don't talk about Judaism is because 1- No jewish person has ever called me a sinner, tried to convert or "save me", or held up a sign reading "God hates fags" - those pleasant people are usually Christians. 2- Juddaism and Christianity are the most intertwined of the 2 religions - so pick the one doing the most damage and ...begin debate! The reason why people dont debate Islam b/c people don't know enough about it to render a verdict , but being from the outside looking it - its a ridiculous religion to being with - wise men said don't argue with fools.

What? People have attacked in the name of "religion" but "religion" as a concept has never attacked anybody.
.

Stal im soooo disappointed in you - that really makes no sense... its like saying Nazism/ The National Socialist movement as a concept never hurt anybody - but what the people did in the name of Nazism is Foul..


WickedLiquid - I wish people would put down religion and pick up humanity. People do the most atrocious & irrational things to each other especially when they feel they have god on their side.


The most troubling thing, to me, about religion is its intolerance of other religions and other lifestyles.
If religion left me to my own devices - i would not care if YOU spent 20hrs in a church or mosque or temple giving them all your money. I wouldnt care that you and your family wait until marriage to have sex, or what your wore, the second you step out of that box and try to influence others to do the same - THATS WHERE THE PROBLEM BEGINS.
Ask yourself - if you weren't born in a Christian household or even in America - would you be a christian, would you have "found jesus" if you were in Sri Lanka? or a little girl in Iran? I dont think so. You have been indoctrinated with Christianity since you were a kid.

 

[white-noise]

Attack, lol. Its simple you debate what you know. There are no former Muslims turned atheists here - so i wouldnt expect that POV. There are plenty of christians turned atheists - thats why an overwhelming majority of people see the flaws in Christianity.

i get what you're saying but to say no to God is saying no to every religion, not just Christianity. There are many flaws in Islam but Atheists won't touch on that, it's ridiculous. If you say no to God you are saying no to countless beliefs and views on how life began and you're calling billions of people wrong. Such a bold statement since nobody truly knows how we began on this planet. It all sounds egotistical to me.

I believe God created the Heavens and the Earth, why can't I have my faith? Why must Atheists constantly bash my religion without even bothering to bash others? They're not going to win me over, they're just going to make me think their goal is to piss me off by acting childish.

 

[DocMoc]

1- No jewish person has ever called me a sinner, tried to convert or "save me", or held up a sign reading "God hates fags" - those pleasant people are usually Christians.

Those who do acts such as that are not Christians, in my opinion; even though they may attend a Christian church. Therein lies the biggest problem: Ones faith is simply not determined by what congregation you attend or by what label you attach to yourself. It is determined by how you live your life and how you interact with others.

Those who preach fire and brimstone to "sinners" are themselves ripe with sin, and that hypocrisy is what everyone else watching sees and by which they make their judgment.

 

[Chris_Crime]

white-noise: +200 hot points

 

[MikeyVassallo]

Urban, I'm disappointed in you. Religion is an abstract concept. Start holding people accountable and not concepts.

Also comparing an ethos like believing God to an ethos such as the National Socialist Party held is borderline mental.

 

[Insectavamour]

"I am a false prophet, God is a superstition."

 

[WickedLiquid]

White Noise can win a debate AND she's got Fake Plastic Trees in her sig?

GR just got more enjoyable!

 

[maca2kx]

Attack, lol. Its simple you debate what you know. There are no former Muslims turned atheists here - so i wouldnt expect that POV. There are plenty of christians turned atheists - thats why an overwhelming majority of people see the flaws in Christianity.

i get what you're saying but to say no to God is saying no to every religion, not just Christianity. There are many flaws in Islam but Atheists won't touch on that, it's ridiculous. If you say no to God you are saying no to countless beliefs and views on how life began and you're calling billions of people wrong. Such a bold statement since nobody truly knows how we began on this planet. It all sounds egotistical to me.

I believe God created the Heavens and the Earth, why can't I have my faith? Why must Atheists constantly bash my religion without even bothering to bash others? They're not going to win me over, they're just going to make me think their goal is to piss me off by acting childish.

I've stayed out of this topic so far (but am pleased with how the vast majority of it is mature and thought out) but here's my opinion:

I am an atheist and it has taken me several years to come to this conclusion. I have never been strongly religious but I didn't close that door until I was about 18. Generally speaking I don't attack theists of any sort unless they say something completely ridiculous or attack the atheistic view. I suppose that I am saying billions of people are wrong but I do that when I say that Big Brother is nonsense, most mainstream music is shit and the Dan Brown books are ok reads. I also acknowledge that these are all opinions, just as my opinion regarding god and religion. I don't see it as egotistical to believe that we just happened and aren't part of some divine plan.

I also think that many people who write off religion are only writing off organised religion rather than the concept of god. I cannot believe in the Christian god, nor can I believe in the god of many other religions and while I don't believe in a higher power at all I find it more likely that one could exist outside of those described in holy books.

I understand that most Christians (and other theists) would like to be left to their faith and that's fair enough but the problem is there are those who demand others believe the same as they do. This goes for certain atheists too and, of course, the most obnoxious are usually the loudest. You don't want to be attacked by atheists just as much as I don't want to be accosted on the street by Jehovah's Witnesses but both of these things happen due to the extreme volatility of the subject.

So perhaps you need to look at the bible bashers who insist on knocking on strangers' doors to ask "have you found Jesus Christ?" since they are the Christians most atheists come into contact with.

Sam

 

[WickedLiquid]

Very nice Maca.

Most agnostics lean towards Atheism. But I'm one of the few who lean towards the existence of a God. Mainly because I honestly believe that nobody knows anything and since nothing can be proven it's better for our lives to have a purpose than saying there's nothing out there and we'll all just decompose six feet under when we die.

I actually believe it's an optimistic way of thinking about what we don't know. You can say religious people are day dreaming and living in a fantasy world, but you can't prove it (not you specifically Maca).

But what it all comes down to is freedom of choice! Let's all just be lucky we live in a country where we have the freedom to denounce God or accept him. Instead of living in the Middle East where you would get decapitated for saying Allah is a jerk.

Also, as you may or may not be able to tell from my sig, I'm very big into Philosophy which ties in to me being agnostic. Because Philosophy deals with questions that have no specifc answer.

 

[Chris_Crime]

I have a faith in God that I don't fully understand, though admittedly I'm not searching for answers to questions I've never asked; it's just there, and it feels like it always has.
What I can understand, however, is why one would want to question and sometimes even destroy my faith.
It's why I believe we're as complicated as we are simple.
Examples will hit you in the face everyday, but faith and religion are always holding us to a higher plateau.

I can agree with nobody knows nothing (as mentioned above), and that's why I have my faith. Unquestioned, unwavering. So I lean more one way than the other. big deal!

Seriously, I wish I had it in me to damn another for their beliefs, or question their motives. So what part am I lacking?

tl;dr
I think the worst part about both atheism and organized religion is their commercial appeal. Those doing the marketing shouldn't. There's a place and time for anything, but not a message board. It cheapens both sides of the personal choice, the choice you should seek out and not the other way around.

 

[argnoth]

I used to be a really strong Christian and I would've defended God to my final breath. Or so I thought. This was before I watched all four of my children die, one by one. Now I can't say I don't believe in God, because I was far too close to Him for me to all of a sudden say it was a lie. But I do believe I had misconceptions about Him. I don't think he cares, his 'favor' is completely arbitrary, nothing you can say or do can really change how much he favors you. So for some of these reasons I now call myself agnostic. I can't claim that I follow God, but I do think he exists, I've seen too many things spiritually otherwise that would be foolish of me to claim otherwise.

I still believe that God does 'Love' everyone, but because he doesn't love one person more than he loves another, he will not favor any of them more than another. This would include followers and non-followers. Followers just need one another to tell each other that everything will be alright. So they want everyone to be a follower. I've wasted enough of my life trying to rely on Him saving me or helping me & what is left of my family.

 

[MikeyVassallo]

Aaaaand topic.

Should we archive this one?

 

[Wes]

I couldn't be bothered to read this entire thread. Only the first page and everything on this page.

But it looks like everyone is doing a lot of stereotyping.

There are respectable Christians, and then there are annoying ones who tell you you're going to hell.

There are respectable Atheists, and then there are rebellious teens who only want to bash Christianity.

There are respectable Muslims, and then there are hijackers who crash planes into the WTC because God commands it.

It seems most of you have issues with one side because of a certain group of people who represent it. You shouldn't judge a religious or Atheist belief based on a particular group of people you find annoying.

This next part is about my personal religious views so if you're one of those TL;DR fellows, you may want to skip it.

My family is Catholic, and I agree with the message behind Christianity: Forgiveness. However, I don't believe the stories told in the bible with the exception of Jesus Christ. It's questionable whether Jesus truly was the son of God, however Jesus was a Carpenter and a poor man. He came to realise how unjust the world was and how the poor suffered while the rich lived in comfort by taking advantage and always having their way. He fought for a world where the poor can have freedom and are not slaves to the rich. He tried to attain peace in a world of violence. And for that, the powers that be crucified him. But his passion to fight for the little guy and giving the power to the people still lives on in our hearts. He also showed us that someone who is able to forgive is in fact the bigger man. And for this I am glad to be a Christian and believe in that message.

 

[rubicon7]

good to see i can leave for the weekend and this topic is still spinning its wheels and gone nowhere

i don't get the consistency of "one should never tell another what to do" when it comes to this type of debate. isn't that just telling somebody what to do?

Stal brought up a good point earlier. religion isn't really so bad for the most part, i would think even atheists would agree with that, right? i mean, love your neighbor, don't steal, listen to your parents, honor your spouse, give to the poor. pretty good things. now, have people come in and mucked it all up? repeatedly. but i'm not sure if that's religion's fault as much as that people tend to be pretty crummy in general, religious or otherwise.

if people want to say that religion lends itself towards being repeatedly misused and is thus more trouble than its worth, well, a beam of wood can easily be used to thwack somebody over the head. it also can hold a house up. should we discard beams of wood because of their propensity for thwacking?

but then there's that whole issue of "well does god/s exist?". and yea...somehow i suspect nobody here on GR has the definitive answer to that one. except for whomever posted saying they discovered the logic that showed god plainly to be false (i forget their name).

 

[LawnGnome]

One day, Shatner will found his own sci-fi religion and unite the world.

 

[DocMoc]

Should we archive this one?

A good idea. The topic has run it's course.

 

[telefono]

"God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet."
Wolfgang Pauli

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

i like cheese.

annnnnnnd end topic