What do believers mean when they say, "God gave us a choice to believe or not?"
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What do atheists believe happens after death, considering that we are only here for a short time? It seems that if there is no hope there is nothing to be here for.
Yet most atheists I talk to have the EXACT opposite philosophy to this, in that our "short" life here means you have EVERYTHING here to live for. Because it is the only life you have.
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Originally Posted by Marakorpa
If an atheist says they do not believe in God or gods, does that mean that they know there is a God or gods not to believe in?
Some of them sure say that. The VAST majority of the ones I talk with however say that it merely means they see no reason to think there is one. Nothing more than that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marakorpa
What do atheists consider to be the origin of life? Which according to you would be the same for all Atheists, right.
Why would it be the same for all atheists? The only thing that is the "same for all atheists" is that we do not see any reason to think there is a god.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
So, you don't know, and are like "all atheists are different" to deflect this fact?
So in your world telling the actual truth is deflecting from facts? That explains a LOT for sure.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
There will never be a knowledge position.
You can see the future too can you? You, like me, have absolutely NO idea what the future evidence might be. The only honest course is to comment on the evidence we have NOW.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
Ignoring even this fact is taking leave of logic entirely.
Except the equivalence fallacy is YOUR logic failure, not someone elses. Basically all you are saying "Because I can identify X as designed, everything else must be too".
There is a spirit realm which you say do not exist , as the eyes which God created man did not have eyes to see into the spirit ........ I seen a video on line where this man said he talked to a alien from a UFO and his interpretation was the alien disappeared in thin air which means it was a fallen angel which only from the earth as fallen angels can never leave into outer space ....... See this man who does not believe in God , but he believes in what he saw because the alien fallen angel showed himself in the natural realm of man ....... God did gives us the free will to believe or not as God requires people have faith and people to love God , so if people will not love God then there is no need to know God
^ Who is the "you" here? Since you did not make it clear who you are replying to, I can only assume it was my post before yours. However I did not make the claim you just said I did. so it is not clear.
Again I have to repeat however that if YOU can choose with "free will" what you want to believe or not.... that is great for you. But it does not mean I can.
This is one of those things I see posted here frequently: Because God loves us, he gave us the free will to accept him or reject him. It's a choice. If we choose to believe in him, we go to heaven. If we choose not to, we go to hell (or at least, we don't go to heaven).
Belief, for me, has never been connected with choice and free will. My beliefs are formed based on what my mind perceives to be the preponderance of evidence. I believe that, if I let go of a pencil, it will fall to the ground, based on my past experience of letting go of pencils and my knowledge of gravity. I believe that, if I confide something sensitive and personal to Joe in the sales department, he'll use it against me, because he has a history of doing so. I don't believe that the earth will stop rotating at midnight GMT, because there's no reason to believe that. I can't choose to believe otherwise--not without knowing I'm lying to myself, anyway. But that's not really belief, is it?
All of my experience and searching have led me to believe that the Judeo-Christian version of God doesn't exist. There's no malice in my conclusion. I wish I could be certain that there's some sort of afterlife, but I can't.
I'm not going to use my lack of belief to commit atrocities, though. That is where choice comes in. I can't choose whether I believe something to be true or not, but I can choose how I'm going to behave based on my beliefs.
Historically, there have been many people who believe in God yet choose to behave in un-Christian ways. To put a metaphoric spin on things, that seems to make more sense when applied to the notion of "rejecting God" than lack of belief does: "I believe in you, but I reject your authority over me."
That's another thing I don't understand: why some people think that belief in God (or lack thereof) trumps one's actions during life. I can be the worst sinner on earth, but if I accept God and repent on my deathbed, I'll be "saved." Conversely, I can live my life according to Christain principles, but if I miss the technical detail of not believing in God, then I won't get into heaven.
Anyway, can someone here who thinks that belief is a choice explain why they think that?
It is a simple way to blame the victim for anything that happens to them because THEY could change it so easily juts by professing faith in an ancient fairy tale..
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