Questions for Atheists

deise go deo

housetypeb wrote: »

Where did the world come from?

Clouds of gases and dust gathering and condensing at a single point?

housetypeb

deise go deo wrote: »

Clouds of gases and dust gathering and condensing at a single point?

I know that, my 8 year old son knows that, I am just wondering whether the OP knows that or does he think god made it in six days in 4004 bc.
So far, he says god exists but has given no evidence for that.
He also says unicorns might exist but are unlikely-this despite all the evidence from books with unicorns in them.
My kids alone have at least 10 books with magic unicorns in them! so they must be real.

robindch

housetypeb wrote: »

Clouds of gases and dust gathering and condensing at a single point?

I know that, my 8 year old son knows that, I am just wondering whether the OP knows that or does he think god made it in six days in 4004 bc.

Hey, my four-years-and-one-month old arrived in early last Sunday morning, plonked herself on the bed beside me, and demanded to know "is it very hot inside the earth"? So we spent the next hour youtubing cutaways of the earth and moon, and volcanoes of course

5uspect

robindch wrote: »

Hey, my four-years-and-one-month old arrived in early last Sunday morning, plonked herself on the bed beside me, and demanded to know "is it very hot inside the earth"? So we spent the next hour youtubing cutaways of the earth and moon, and volcanoes of course

Awesome!

Mark Hamill

sebastian4jc wrote: »

You are just DECLARING that there is no evidence. What evidence have you even considered?

I used to post quite a bit in the christinaity forum, and I still in the islam forum. I've had many discussions with many different theists and considered and debated many classic theist arguments (eg Pascals wager, cosmological argument, teleological argument etc). I've considered quite a bit of evidence, both specific to certain religions and just general musings on the idea of "god". How much evidence did you consider before becoming a christian?

sebastian4jc wrote: »

You people are just so closedminded.

Says the person incredibly closeminded to the possibility that we have examined a lot of offered evidence and found it wanting.

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Can any of you even tell me what answers atheism provides?

Atheism isn't about giving answers. All atheism does (if you can even say it does anything beyond saying "i dont believe in god") is dispute the "answers" religions give. The basis, for a lot of atheists,nof this dispute is based on science and logic however, and science and logic have given us every usuable answer we have.

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Belief in God explains more about the world than atheism ever could e.g. we know where the world came from it didn't just come from nothing.

Who ever said it came from nothing?

Galvasean

sebastian4jc wrote: »

You people are just so closedminded.

I've been waiting 14 pages for an opportunity to post my favourite video on the subjet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69TOuqaqXI

Ickle Magoo

robindch wrote: »

Hey, my four-years-and-one-month old arrived in early last Sunday morning, plonked herself on the bed beside me, and demanded to know "is it very hot inside the earth"? So we spent the next hour youtubing cutaways of the earth and moon, and volcanoes of course

My five year old was watching the Simpsons and at the bit Bart was kneeling down hands clasped asking for a new bike turned around confused and said "Why is Bart asking his bed for a bike?"....

:pac:

5uspect

The youth of today.

Galvasean

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

My five year old was watching the Simpsons and at the bit Bart was kneeling down hands clasped asking for a new bike turned around confused and said "Why is Bart asking his bed for a bike?"....

:pac:

TBF asking abed for a new bike makes about as much sense as asking a God

Ickle Magoo

Galvasean wrote: »

TBF asking abed for a new bike makes about as much sense as asking a God

I know, that's what made it so funny...his innocently literal question unpolluted by theism and my cynical atheism came to the same conclusion. :cool:

deise go deo

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

I know, that's what made it so funny...his innocently literal question unpolluted by theism and my cynical atheism came to the same conclusion. :cool:

Something I have been wondering about, As im sure your aware it can be quite difficult when an atheist tells their religious parents about their lack of belief,
How would you react if in years to come your son found faith?

eblistic

deise go deo wrote: »

Something I have been wondering about, As im sure your aware it can be quite difficult when an atheist tells their religious parents about their lack of belief,
How would you react if in years to come your son found faith?

I've been asked this question a few times but only by religious people. It's an odd one. It seems to me the religious mindset is more prone to worry about this kind of thing (maybe?).

All a parent can do is try their best to educate their children on where religious notions came from and help them develop their critical skills. Allow them to come to well thought out conclusions of their own in their own good time. Parents simply can't tell their offspring what to think (though some seem to disagree, they're usually not atheists).

So in the unlikely situation that my child ends up faithful, so be it. I'd be happier for them if they didn't but as long as I'm sure they've thought it through there's not much I can do about it.

Ickle Magoo

deise go deo wrote: »

Something I have been wondering about, As im sure your aware it can be quite difficult when an atheist tells their religious parents about their lack of belief,
How would you react if in years to come your son found faith?

Wouldn't bother me at all - I just come from a family in which it's very much the norm for parents not to baptise/christen and leave their offspring to follow their own spiritual path...whatever that may be.

I should perhaps add that I'm an atheist not because I've ever been theistic and lost my faith but rather because I never developed any kind of belief in the first place. If evidence exists that convinces my kids then I look forward to having some great discussion and debates about it - and everything else - like I had with my folks/family. :cool:

ColmDawson

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

My five year old was watching the Simpsons and at the bit Bart was kneeling down hands clasped asking for a new bike turned around confused and said "Why is Bart asking his bed for a bike?"....

:pac:

*wipes away a tear*

There is hope for our future after all.

sebastian4jc

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

Ickle Magoo

Atheism is just a lack of belief in a god - why would it provide answers? The best possible explanation is the most honest one - we don't know. You don't know, I don't know, the egyptions didn't know, the ancient greeks didn't know, etc, etc...

Belief in god doesn't provide any answers, it's just a neat way of avoiding asking the question...why would we ever have to know anything if we can just put it all down to "it was god that done it"?

And just out of interest, if you have THE answers, how come your answers are different to most of the rest of the world's religions?

Zombrex

sebastian4jc wrote: »

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

So what is important to you is having a comforting answer irrespective of whether it is true or not.

That would explain why you have a hard time understanding atheism.

Ghost Buster

Wicknight wrote: »

So what is important to you is having a comforting answer irrespective of whether it is true or not.

That would explain why you have a hard time understanding atheism.

No. This explains it.

TwoShedsJackson

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Belief in God provides answers to important questions.

Such as?

Mark Hamill

sebastian4jc wrote: »

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

So after all the responses you get, this is what you respond with? Really? You are like the people who link to what they claim is a creat pic of vid, but it turns out to be Rick Astley singing "Never going to give you up".....T Rolling I think its called....

Anyway, your nonsense here is based on the idea that a response is the same thing as an answer, and to contradict an answer you need an answer yourself.

Firstly, a response is not the same as an answer. If someone says "who made the universe" and I said "I did", that can only be counted as a response, as an answer would be expected to explain something and generally be supported by evidence (and note that that is true even if I follow up "I made the universe" with the technically true statement "you cant prove I didn't made the universe").

Secondly while alternative suggestions for answers are generally preferable than just contradicting something, its still perfectly acceptable to point out that someone elses answer is flawed without then offering a correct answer yourself. Basically, atheism doesn't need to be right for theism to be wrong.

Lastly, and this seems to be a major problem you have with understanding atheism, is that atheism is not a reason for anything, its a position you end up in if you satisfy the basic definition. It no more is supposed to offer answers than not supporting football is supposed to entertain you.

sebastian4jc

Wicknight wrote: »

So what is important to you is having a comforting answer irrespective of whether it is true or not.

That would explain why you have a hard time understanding atheism.

Again, yet another atheist trying to twist my words. I didn't say anything about comfort at all. So if atheism doesn't even provide any answers (by people's own admission here), what is your justification in taking up a position which doesn't provide any answers? How do you explain that? Are you just content with not knowing? Is that it?

King Mob

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Again, yet another atheist trying to twist my words. I didn't say anything about comfort at all. So if atheism doesn't even provide any answers (by people's own admission here),

Sebatian what answers does not believing in ghosts or unicorns provide?

sebastian4jc wrote: »

what is your justification in taking up a position which doesn't provide any answers?

The justification is: there is nothing to suggest the existence of god.
Notice how instead of actually giving us the evidence we all asked you for you're dodging the question

sebastian4jc wrote: »

How do you explain that? Are you just content with not knowing? Is that it?

Well you see we know we don't know, and we aren't believing in something that lets us pretend we do.
So I assume because your accusing us of being content not knowing that you are not so content, therefore you believe in God?
Isn't that exactly the comfort thing?

Ickle Magoo

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Again, yet another atheist trying to twist my words. I didn't say anything about comfort at all. So if atheism doesn't even provide any answers (by people's own admission here), what is your justification in taking up a position which doesn't provide any answers? How do you explain that? Are you just content with not knowing? Is that it?

Why would you assume everyone took up a position? I've never been anything other than an atheist....

Not sure I'd say I'm content with not knowing, I'd like to know the answers but I'm certainly content with not just resorting to making up the answers so as to have some, regardless of validity or truth.

Dades

sebastian4jc wrote: »

what is your justification in taking up a position which doesn't provide any answers?

Can you not understand that one doesn't have to take a position that gives an answer?

You take a position that you believe most represents reality.

It's okay to not know. It's okay to have mysteries that we still have to solve. Religions have provided answers for infinite things throughout history that have since been shown to be nowhere near the reality, so if there's one thing we know it's that the answers are not to be found in a religious text written by a man eons ago.

Zillah

sebastian4jc wrote: »

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

Atheism gives answers, just not ones you like:

Q1 - Is there a God?

A: Probably not, and certainly not any of the Gods described by religion.

Q2 - What happens when we die?

A: As far as we know you just die.

Q3 - Am I special? Does someone, somewhere, always love me and protect me no matter what?

A: No.

Q4: Why is there something other than nothing?

A: We don't know. Maybe 'nothing' is impossible.

Q5: Does some force ensure that a moral balance is maintained in the world no matter how badly we run society?

A: No.


Most people get really upset and uncomfortable when contemplating these answers and so, like you, turn to something else. Something ridiculous. But reassuring.

Zombrex

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Again, yet another atheist trying to twist my words. I didn't say anything about comfort at all.

You said it provided answers to important questions. So you need an answer, irrespective of whether it is true, because the question is important. Correct?

sebastian4jc wrote: »

So if atheism doesn't even provide any answers (by people's own admission here), what is your justification in taking up a position which doesn't provide any answers?

My justification is that saying "I don't know" is that this is better than making something up. An answer that is false is worse than no answer at all.

You apparently disagree, which again is probably why you have a hard time understanding atheism.

sebastian4jc wrote: »

Are you just content with not knowing? Is that it?

It is better to be honest and say that we do not know than pretend a lie is true, since a false notion of reality is of no good to anyone, no matter how comforting it may initially seem.

krudler

sebastian4jc wrote: »

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

What answers to atheism claim to provide? none. Not believing in a god doesnt mean you know for certain how the universe works, yet religious minded folk are so quick to point out the "arrogant atheist" stereotype, atheists dont know how the world came to being, its the religious types who claim they do, yet atheists are the ones who are supposedly arrogant :rolleyes:

What answers are provided by believing in god?

whydoc

sebastian4jc wrote: »

And it's just as I suspected. You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

Yes, they neglect apparent facts just not to beleive

Mena

Wicknight wrote: »

It is better to be honest and say that we do not know than pretend a lie is true, since a false notion of reality is of no good to anyone, no matter how comforting it may initially seem.

I know it's implied but I'm just going to come out and say it anyway (and it's directed at Seb4Jc). Admitting that we don't know something is the starting point for discovery, as opposed to being force fed obvious untruths and swallowing them whole so as to wrap ourselves in a warm blanket of assumed certainty.

sebastian4jc

it is trying to twist my words if you're trying to imply something like comfort when I said no such thing. I believe in God because it provides answers. Atheism (by your own admission) doesn't provide any. I'm all about getting the best answer to understand things. This atheism doesn't even provide any of those so why would you take up a position like that.... which doesn't even explain anything at all? Why you people so content just to live in ignorance, it astounds me really.