Your response is fair enough, Kat, but I'm still bothered by the way many people of faith will arbitrarily ascribe all the good in life to God while chalking off all the bad to "free will." Plus (to state the obvious), your take on Christianity is one only a portion of Christians share. If more did, I wouldn't consider Christianity dangerous.

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Originally posted by DrStrangelove:
Atheism and the rejection of revealed religion are totally independent of eachother.

I think it's fair to say that Atheism and rejection of religion as a whole go hand in hand, and I also think it's fair to say that most Atheists don't believe in the concept of revealed religion at all. So even if Atheism and rejection of revealed religion are not synonymous, they usually go hand in hand.

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This article is only convincing to atheists in my opinion.

Yeah, his work gets that a lot. He's something of an extremist, but in a world where half of Americans believe the apocalypse will occur within their lifetime, I find him refreshing.

Anyway, come on, people. I posted this in the hopes some of you would get riled up. Overall, I'm disappointed.

Kat makes a few good points there, about God. And against the athiest reasoning.

That article is not so much a "atheist reasoning" as it is a denoucement of blind faith. Atheism and the rejection of revealed religion are totally independent of eachother. The author laments about being rejected for "Believing in reality". I think the Christian or Muslim will think the same way if placed in the minority role.

Atheism is NOT a moral and intellectual nesseccity. In fact at this point I think it's only moderately less threatening than organized religion. This article is only convincing to atheists in my opinion.

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As much as atheists whine about Christians pushing their views on people, they do the exact same thing

I kind of look at that like (some) black people hate racist jokes about blacks, and then make racist jokes about whites. "It's ok because it's a minority" basically (which is wrong, but hey what are you going to do).

And a God who has the same love for me as he does for a child rapist/murderer...well I don't want any of that love.

And that article is very good, bravo.

Excellent, Aguagon. Like clpo, that's basically why I don't believe in god.

Reason be praised! Aguagon, that article pretty much sums up what I believe. Not quite, because I'm not an atheist, but almost.

This is what you're missing the point of:

Of course there is pain. Of course there is evil. There will always be torture, rape, and murder. And there will always be good. There will always be charity, and love, and overwhelming compassion. That is the work of God.

I believe that God exists. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with that. It is easy to think that God makes people think one way or another, but God represents something different, something comforting for people. If you don't believe in God, when you die, you are gone. End of story. You never have a chance to see the people who died before you. You don't get second chances at all. That's really depressing.

You could claim that God makes people biggots, but he does not. People's interpretations of God make them biggots. The church, occasionally, can make them biggots. But you fail to realize all the religioius charity in the world. All the unification that comes from knowing "we're all Christians, we're all God's children, we're all in this together." Sure, there are wars fought over religion, but that is not God's work. That is the work of people. People are human. God is not.

You can easily choose different passages in the bible that advocate biggotry, or violence, or whatever. But that isn't God. God loves everyone and everything, equally. Period. I challenge you to find a bible verse that contradicts that.

God is not "impotent or evil." He lets things take their course. He lets mistakes be made. He lets humans be human.

Honestly, atheism is somewhat hypocritical in a sense. Okay, I just contradicted myself. Atheism is not hypocritical. Atheists are often hypocritical. Just like Christians tend to push their views on other people. As much as atheists whine about Christians pushing their views on people, they do the exact same thing. While Christians threaten Hell, atheists threaten a life of ignorance.

Either way you think about it, it doesn't really matter who's right or wrong. We just have to accept each other for our disagreements.

So, I sound preachy, but, so do you. So.. yeah.