Each point is a clickable link for you to learn more:
A 300 Year Gap
A God Who Performs Miracles is Evil
Adding Epicycles to God
Begging the Question: Miracles and Nature
Believing in God is Immoral
Bogus Probabilistic Judgments and God
Can Atheists Be Moral?
Can We Find Evidence for the Divine Properties In ...
Coherence and Atheism
Confusing Possible with Probable and Having a Righ...
Dawkins' Law
Deal With It
Did the Believers Believe?
Does Sin Corrupt our Ability to See God or Does th...
Does the Atheist Need to Respond to Faith?
Does the Theist Have a Moral Advantage Over the At...
Don’t like my tone? Am I being rude?
Everything is to the Glory of God
Fine Tuning's Fatal Flaw
Fitna, documentary about violence, hatred and Isla...
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Gibberish? Non-Cognitivist Speech Act? or Seriou...
Giving God A Free Pass
God and Suffering
God Blind Spot
God Doesn't Do Miracles, full version
God is Not a Watchmaker
God or Gratuitous Evil?
God Wouldn’t Leave Room for Agnosticism, There Are...
God Wouldn't Do Miracles
God's Evil
Grave robbers or Magic?
He Has No Brain, So God Doesn't Exist
Heroism and the Duty to Rescue Demonstrate that th...
How Big Would God's Universe Be?
How Probable is God?
How the Surreal becomes Commonplace
If There is a Satan, then There is No God
Incoherent: I Believe Because It Makes Me a Moral...
Is He Keeping His Distance? Or Is He Just Not The...
Is Heaven Guilt Money?
Is Religious Education Child Abuse?
Isn't "God" Just Another Word for New Age Nonsense...
Jerry Falwell: Exploiting Religious Tolerance and...
Knowing Your Own Mind About God
Miracles Make It Harder to Prove God is Good
Miracles Prove That There Is No God
Monkey Morality or Goodness Isn't Magical
Moving On
No Moral Truths? No God.
Non-Cognitive Religious Utterances Produce Beliefs...
One of Several Ways to Prove the Negative
Perfect Word of God? Reliable Historical Document...
Possible, Possible, Possible: Overdrawing the God...
Proving the Negative
Putting the Fox in Charge of the Hen House
Reasonable Belief, Proof, and Uncertainty
Reining In the Fallacious Human Belief Machine
Religion is a Mind Virus
Religious Memes and Rational Autonomy
Remembering God
Sam Harris: The Problem with Atheism and Being Sp...
Science Always Replaces Supernatural Explanations
Science is Not A Religion
Self-Deception: Religion and Science are Compatib...
Should We Believe that Jesus was Resurrected?
Sinking the Raft I’m Standing On
Stephen Pinker: Instinct for Morality
Textual Exegesis Will Not Solve Religious Problems...
The Believer's Moral Double Standard for God
The Burden of Proof is on the Atheist
The Burden of Proof is on the Atheist Redux
The Double Standard of God’s Goodness
The God Urge
The Hidden Costs of Religious Belief
The Inductive Problem of Evil Argument Against the...
The New Ten Commandments
The Paradox of the Soul-Building Defense of Evil
The So-Called Right to Believe: Confusing Hoping ...
The Super Evil Challenge
There Is No Psychic Contact with The Dead
There is No Right To Religious Belief
Top Ten Suggestions For Performing Better Miracles...
Treating Religious Affiliation as Ethnicity
Trying To Be Moral Through The Distorted Lens Of T...
Videos: Dawkins, and Gay Scientists Isolate Chris...
Washing in Blood, Human Sacrifices, Cannibalism, G...
We Are Wired to Resist the Truth About Pointless S...
We Don't Have the Right Dataset to Make the Design...
What If the Lie Really Is Good For Us?
What Would be Evidence for Life After Death?
What Would Change Your Mind?
What Would Make the Atheist Happy?
Wide Atheism: There Are No Gods Whatsoever
You Don't Really Believe In Miracles
You don't Really Expect Us To Believe That, Do You...
4 Important Modern Atheists Discuss Their Work
500 Dead Gods
Oh dear.
ReplyDeletePaul Ray
I certainly hope you didn't expect those of us who are Christian to address each of these, your "cut and paste" points.
ReplyDeleteYou probably also realize that they have been argued the other way, and neutralized to the satisfaction of many Christians.
Perhaps you were looking to make major impact, but I've seen a lot of this material before, when I was agnostic.
BB
Of course not Bob. I fully expect Christians to carry their delusions of grandeur and self-righteousness to the grave.
ReplyDeleteIf some should wake from their self-inflicted mind control induced stupor though . . . well, that'll be the day, won't it?
I like that you watch out for us, and try to stimulate us to think. But, wake up to what? Eternal oblivion? I think there is something better in store for us than that.
ReplyDeleteBB
I'm sure you do Bob, that's why it's called "wishful thinking".
ReplyDeleteHey Bob!
ReplyDeleteHere's an honest question: Have you ever applied the outsider test to your faith?
Interesting article, Aggie, but dreams and NDE's really had nothing to do with my current state of mind.
ReplyDeleteDaily guidance, peace, joy, and tranquility do, though. Those are things that are nice to have around rather than uneasiness, worry, and a sense of purposelessness.
But, it's all cool. I remember when I was agnostic, how it used to just anger the crap out of me that people would or could believe in God. I thought Christians were deluded, and/or not fully sane. I even felt sorry for the cooler ones.
From my own experience, I'd have to say that God keeps knocking on the door until we answer. And, yes, miracles can happen to keep us alive during that time. I was nano seconds away from death a number of times, and even survived a propane explosion about 16 years ago when I was still in the depths of agnosticism, without so much as a singed hair.
Whenever a massive bomb is dropped, such as these 100 reasons, there is always the chance that some might think that Christianity couldn't possible survive such an attack. This could be especially true for a young high school or college student who is not yet philosophically grounded. But, all of the individual components of this bomb have been carefully taken apart by Christians, and logically explained, one piece at a time. The Christian view point is not totally without merit. I suspect that this material is of more value and reassurance to you atheists than it is damaging to those of us who are Christian.
BB
The article had nothing to do with "dreams and NDEs", although they were mentioned, as an example. You simply chose to overlook the part of the article that made you uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteLet me state it for you plainly, and ask again, whether or not you have applied the outsider test to your faith:
The outsider test of faith requires that the believer examine his/her belief as an outsider, i.e., as one who may not believe.
Now, if your Christian faith really was as strong as you insist to everyone within earshot of an ex-CoG blog (I still think you're mostly just trying to convince yourself), you should have no qualms about applying the outsider test to your faith.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteThe mind can conjure up many deceptions when we dream. It is just that, when we dream. Self deception. Most of the time it is unresolved issues.
I would love to believe that there is a "God" type of figure that gives a shit about me but logic dictates something different. I believe we once (over at the PT forum) talked about what the Buddhist believe. I would give superior odds to them as to having any real "truth" over what Christianity has to offer. However, if someone wants to embrace Christianity it is their business. I really don't care. I could never stop the march that has continued for two millennium, nor would I chose too. I stick with exposing Armstrongism to those who would seek out the name HWA on an Internet search. I contributed to this monster religion and will see through it to destroy further growth of this brain cancer!
Questeruk, since it was the ruling class that invented religion to start with, I'm not surprized that they still own it.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad that we are finally down to the last God or two or three and all the other thousands of invented gods are now dead.
BB referred to the 100 reasons as a bomb. Then he said
ReplyDelete"...all, of the components of this bomb have been carefully taken apart by Christians, and logically explained, one piece at a time."
This statement cannot be proven anymore than the existence of his god.
I would dare him to take just one of those components and refute it logically in favor of the theist. And I don't mean to throw an apologetic website at us.
I would also wonder if he would care to tell us what element of atheism he found that caused him to turn to the dark, absurd world of Christian belief.
He has mentioned these:
1. "Eternal oblivion"
2. "Uneasiness"
3. "Worry"
4. "Sense of purposelessness"
Somewhere along he then decides to stop thinking that way and embrace make-believe.
Actually his decision is what millions of theists have done. They choose to think happy thoughts. That is why the choice is so easily refuted. It's all so-- subjective. (Note to BB--it's not a four-letter word.)
Ex-Android, you have put your finger right on it. Believers are believers simply because they WANT to be.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing whatever to do with logic or rationality or any kind of reasoning at all - it's simply a "comfort zone" where they hide from the facts of real life.
Of course, I prefer to call it the twilight zone but that's just me.
"I sort of wonder the reaction of several parties who contribute t this blog – Corky himself, Paul Ray and several others."
ReplyDeleteI'm Canadian, so I really don't have a dog in this hunt. The few minutes I did see of the speech though, I kept thinking the same thing:
"Didn't you people shoot the last president you had who said stuff like that?"
Maybe it's just me........
Ah, so many requests involving my time. But, the bottom line is that I believe we're in a situation of endless objections. It really wouldn't matter whether or not I did a thorough job of addressing or dispelling one or more points of "the bomb." It wouldn't make a single person here accept Jesus Christ. Just as the forum postings of the Christians over nearly ten years were not what finally shook me from my own agnosticism.
ReplyDeleteI need to prioritize my time, and see a couple of obvious choices in front of me. I can either waste my time, continuing to make points to atheists and agnostics which cause them to mock, and therefore do not lead them to Christ, or I can spend my time learning more about Jesus and developing a relationship with Him and with Father God. That may seem selfish, but it's not my job to open peoples' minds. It's God's job.
All I know is that I have found quite a bit of healing over the past months, and no longer have the built up anger or the bitterness of spirit that I had not succeeded in shaking even though I'd left Armstrongism in 1975. And that, is not imaginary, subjective, or delusion.
BB
Looks like BB is unable to handle the challenge. He couldn't "prepare to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you."
ReplyDeleteWe don't know which flavor of Christianity he follows so maybe the Biblical quote is meaningless.
Anyways, BB has picked up his god and left the field. We wish him well.
Think as you wish, EA.(pun intended, get it?)
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge difference between assisting others in their quest for the Lord, and answering endless questions from those whose minds have been made up long ago.
There is another quote from Jesus regarding answering people and I I could post here, but I've made it my practice not to behave as some other Christians typically have. It's neither my place, nor my desire, to be judgmental or to assign names.
You might think you won. I'll let it be at that.
BB
Well, when I was a Christian my mind *was* made up as yours is now. I had no questions as that meant doing the hard labor of actually critically thinking. My handlers never encouraged that course. "He who thinks, stinks" was the old dictum.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't consider myself as having "won." But just one time I'd be happy to hear a theist say, "Y'know, he's got a point there."
Miracles can happen. One happened to me. No one during my Christian journey would have considered I'd ever have turned to the enlightenment of atheism. They are still shaking their heads. But I do know how I got from there to here. I had to challenge the stuff that was in my head. How did it get there? I was born an atheist.
That is, I lacked a belief in any of the gods men have created. All the god stuff was placed there by others. At a time when I was weak, frightened, psychologically prepared or emotional, I listened to those that wanted to manipulate me for whatever reason. I swallowed the bait. I became a Christian.
I think that you should give yourself some credit. You decided that you didn't like the way you were thinking when not a theist. So you changed. You attribute the change to finding a god. You adopted the false view that you were unable to direct your life.
You became a Christian. It's interesting that I found it in rejecting any gods--I'm an atheist.
So, since we both have happy thoughts, maybe different ones, we are left with those flowing from either some god or from our own human capabilities. And the struggle goes on. Either there are gods or no. I don't have the problem of having to prove any of the gods exist. Now there is truly a happy thought!
To many people i think its just nice to think there is a "heaven" where we will meet all those who are dear to us and in this place we will enjoy eternall bliss.
ReplyDeleteThey also like to think that they are special and God is watching them. And whenever things get bad they have someone they can rely on.
I think most people would want this. But wanting and believing are 2 different things. I think its sad that people have to delude themselves thinking this is true just so that there life doesnt feel so empty or angry like BB here explained.
I know the feelings that BB explained but im not going to lie to myself and accept a God just because i want to feel special.
Yeah, I know those feelings Bob was talking about too. But, like you, I don't use them for an excuse to accept religion as a means of escaping reality.
ReplyDeletehow much ever documentation and material you provide, believers will still believe in religion despite them not having authentic material.
ReplyDeleteMFW we have a religious debate when all you need to do if you dont like it is close the page. Good Job guys. (religion fails)
ReplyDelete