Your reasons for being athiest or christian etc...?

Hay all, haven't been here for ages, but I've got a favor to ask.

If everyone who believes or doesn't believe in God (that's everyone lol) could you please post the name of your belief and why you believe it. Please don't cheat and just write, I'm athiest because everything else is wrong. I'm looking for real answers. If you could help me out on this then it would be greatly appreciated. Also could you write the belief that you are against the most and why. Here's an example:

I'm a Christian, because I've tested the truth of the Bible, and the truth in Christians, and found it not to be lies. The beliefs I am against the most are the New Age beliefs, as they involve eastern mystecism which borders on all out witchcraft.

Note that was just an example. I don't want a debate about that, I just want to know what you people believe.

Thanx heaps.

CyA's

 

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I do not believe that there is an immaterial spiritual realm or mechanism that would allow spirits/souls/gods to operate since I cannot find any evidence that supports such claims. This does not mean that such a realm does not exist but I do not see any value in asserting that one does exist without some factual support.

That is clearly a lack of belief in effectively anything religious or spiritual. Based on that position I have adopted a positive stance towards life and the future by assuming that everything is material/physical and will live accordingly unless someone can ever demonstrate anything to the contrary.

One of the basic and common aspects of virtually every religious belief is an expectation of life beyond death, i.e. a desire to be immortal and eternal in some form. I am no different in that I also do not wish to die. My approach is to look to science and specifically biological and technological solutions as a way to solve the problem of involuntary death. This position is otherwise known as transhumanism.

 

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Re: Re: Your reasons for being athiest or christian etc...?

 

I am Pagan, because I believe that all answers to life's spiritual riddles can be found in nature and within. I don't really believe in multiple gods and goddesses as many Pagans do, but I don't have a problem with seeing the myriad facets of the All in that way (and I'm sure the All doesn't really give a hoot either). Since every one of us is a part of the All, we can each access its wisdom and power in whatever way suits us (e.g., meditation, prayer, spells, etc.). Another reason I chose Paganism is because Pagans do not proselytize, nor do they dictate to one another how they must believe.

I am most against Christianity because it discourages free, logical and rational thought in its members, and instead it breeds foolishness, intolerance and hatred. It is built on lies, death, violence and bloodshed, and it has maintained its hold on the people over the centuries through the use of fear tactics. But if all of this wasn't bad enough - its members feel compelled to infect everyone else within their reach with the Christianity meme, and then act like martyrs when you tell them in no uncertain terms that you are not interested, and you explain to them why not when they press you for a reason. They are so smug in their certainty that they have found the "One True Religion," they just can't believe that anyone who has ever heard of Jesus wouldn't immediately fall on their knees to worship him.

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Markx,

Were your comments to M*W serious or sarcastic? I can't tell.

 

I believe in a loving God who has given people the freedom to accept her or reject her. To me the story of Christianity is compelling and unique. Additionally the message of Jesus as told in the Gospels is so simple and radical that I believe it must be true.

I am annoyed by Atheists who claim logic is on their side when it is obvious that there are no known truths and all reasoning is based on faith.

I dislike very much Christians who: define god in their image, have made Christianity into some legalistic nightmare, most especially the Christian idiots with the bumper stickers that say, “God is Pro Life”. I am sure there are people from all religions and non religions that are as self righteous as bible thumping Christians but it grieves me to see the bigotry proclaimed in the name of my God

 

Religions offer the illusion of wisdom yet instead beguile the gullible and the naïve into believing only the emptiness of desire.

Only wisdom has value and the truly wise never admit to belief in anything since everything can be doubted.

 

Katazia:

Not being wise myself I must ask for some clarification. Do the wise not believe in anything or do they believe but keep their beliefs to themselves?

 

Cris, I generally concur with your perspective, but don't understand your insistence on the lack of an "inner world" only based on my analysis of the following question: "how visible is the meaning of your thoughts?" It IS visible to you. Since you are the only one to whom it is directly visible, does that exclude it from consideration?

In my opinion, you can biochemically explain away the form of the thoughts, but you cannot capture their meaning, their essence except to allow for the existence of the abstract.. which doesn't physically exist. It is simply "felt" by the POV. It is consciousness from the perspective of itself and is as of such self-defining and logically fragile, yet exists nonetheless. How is this not self-evident?

In the scope and medium of the mind, how are assertions limited only to the impression of that mind of itself, possibly invalid (unless deemed so BY that mind)? Does not one necessarily create one's own meaning and as such, the existence of a world existing only internal to that individual, at least in the moment that it's happening?

 

Mshark

The boundary between belief/desire and speculation is often blurred. To maintain a constant vigilant discipline is to ignore the real frailties of human nature. The self-check is to realize the doubt.

 

Wes,

You are creating two when there is only one. The meaning of your thought is simply another thought. Thoughts derive directly from physical constructs. I don’t see any problem.

I do not understand the question.

Of course such things physically exist. They are physical constructs somewhere in your brain, as is every thought.

For example imagine a set of ropes that are arranged in a criss-cross pattern forming a net. Does the net exist or not? It is after all just a collection of ropes, i.e. the physical constructs. Rearrange the ropes in a different fashion and the net magically vanishes and a rope bridge appears. Does the bridge exist or not?

Of course the net is real and so is the bridge. In the same way a neural network can form to represent a thought. The thought is real but can be transitory, just like the net or the bridge.

Does that help.

 

It is my impression that you are only looking external to the physical construct, looking at it's external shape. There is nothing to hold a direct correlation between that, and the experience of being inside that shape. With the abstract, there is as of yet not direct correlation between form and function in terms of internal experience. There even be HIGH correlation but you're basically claiming 100%. Having presumed the abstract, that seems unwise to me. I'll give it some thought.

I think what you are saying is technically amounts to a direct refutation of quantum consciousness as presented by Penrose and the likes on that there link someone gave a while back.

 

Wes,

Of course in my simple example you are the ropes. I.e. you are the sum total of your neural networks.

 

Test tube answers...

Quote Answers
"I'm a Christian, because I've tested the truth of the Bible, and the truth in Christians, and found it not to be lies. The beliefs I am against the most are the New Age beliefs, as they involve eastern mystecism which borders on all out witchcraft."

How did you test the truth of the Bible and the truth in Christians, so that you are entirely convinced that there are no lies?

What is your definition of "New Age Beliefs"?

 

Re: Re: Re: Your reasons for being athiest or christian etc...?

 

answers

I believe that everything is energy and that everything has a consciousness. Not a human comsciousness, but a consciousness related to the particular existence. I don't rule out an existence of a God, or a higher/collective consciousness that holds all the other ones toghether.
I don't have a name for my belief, but have come to this perception by meditating, thinking, feeling, investigating..well, living basically. It's the conclusion I can draw from my expereinces in this life as the form I am in.

 

Hi all.

I wrote this for a friend this week. It sums up why I am a born again Christian.

I grew up in the countryside of rural Long Island. My childhood memories are filled with catching frogs, eating wild raspberries and that kind of thing. From early on, I saw nature. Somehow in all of that, I began to see a supernatural hand behind it all. Eventually the years past, and my faith in God changed as I grew up, but I never doubted His existence. I began to study science, the life sciences in particular. As I learned about the details of Creation, I saw more clearly the Hand of God. I could not look at nature and see anything random like a godless evolution, even though it was taught to me. There was just too much order in the universe for it to be anything but God. Look in the sands at the tide mark on the beach. Sift it out, and look at the minute shells you find under a microscope. Magnificent creation of God.

Still though I did not believe in Jesus. To me, He was just a “great man” a “prophet” and nothing more. I searched the scriptures in vain for Jesus to say He was the Son of God, or God Himself. A friend in high school once told me that there was more than one way to God and I would find that in the New Testament, Acts so she said. I read that book so much and never once found that passage. Did I doubt my friend? No, I doubted my ability to find it. I read the truth, the truth that there is only one way to God, through Jesus, but I did not understand. That disbelief continued for many years.

I am in my early 20’s. I pray to God, but not in Jesus’ name or recognizing Jesus. I do not believe in sin, or in hell. I long for God though. At this time I became engaged and then the engagement fell apart. Broken hearted, on a moonlit beach in Mexico, I decided to end my life. It was easy, listening to the gentle waves of the Gulf of California. My friends had paired up for the night, leaving only me, alone. I nearly drowned as a child. It seemed fitting that I should chose to go out into the water and swim until I could not swim any longer. The water was warm, inviting. There were sharks, but it would only be a moment of pain, then oblivion.

As I rose to my feet, a drunk stumbled over the rocks around the small fire we built on the beach. He began speaking to me, quite frankly annoying me. He was a preacher’s son, staying at the cottages down the beach. He talked to me, 5 minutes, 10, 20, I don’t know. By the time he was done I was angry, my sense of loss was gone. I would not commit suicide that night or any other night. I was ready to fight my pain.

Don’t get me wrong, I did not accept Jesus as my savior that night, but I knew even then that God stopped me from killing myself. He was there that night. He sent that annoying preacher’s kid to stop me the only way possible from the sin of taking my own life.

Around 30, I am studying my chosen profession in medicine. For spring break, I decided to go to the Caribbean. While there I was assaulted. I needed to be tested for HIV among other things. This was a frightening time for me. I tried to tell my friends but could not. How do you speak of something so terrible as what I went through, and the fears that followed? I prayed to God, as I always have, seeking Him, yet never hearing His responses. I prayed so hard while I waited the necessary time limit until I could be tested. I was clear, no infection of HIV. I went to the local old mission (San Xavier del Bac) and thanked God in prayer.

A few months later, I am interning at a hospital and one of my coworkers asked me out to a bible study date. I agreed. Afterwards he told me that he doesn’t date anyone who isn’t a Christian because of the whole unequally yoked thing. So in my apartment, I got down on my knees and vaguely remember saying, crying “So this is what you want from me Lord? To believe that Jesus is really your Son?” Then crying, uncontrollable crying, recognition of all of my sins, and there are many. Things that I can never bring myself to ever tell any of you. I felt like a tornado had swept through me.

The next day, at work, even though I still felt all shaken from what had taken place, another coworker said that he had never seen such a look of peace on anyone’s face before. That is when I knew for certain that the events of the night before were real, that I was a part of God’s kingdom. How else could someone see peace in my countenance given the whirlwind of emotions I felt? I was saved by the grace of God and the sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

For the rest, look at me now, 14 years later. I have a relationship with God. He has worked miraculous changes in my life. I am still sinful, but I am not the same person I was before. My prayers are heard, and I see God’s Hand working in my life, more than ever before. I have seen the Holy Spirit working in my life too, leading me to do things I could never accomplish on my own. I understand the scriptures better. The Spirit guides me in my walk with the Lord. I have the relationship with God I have always longed for, and His assurances of my eternal salvation. I thank God for His grace and gift of salvation.

 

chalcedony,

So basically you became a Christian because of a sexual attraction to a Christian coworker who refused to date a non-Christian? I'm kind of curious how that story ended, if you don't mind sharing?