My Visits To Church

by serotonin_wraith 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BurnTheShips

  Those religions are dead now. The modern ones can still be researched, without searching for a god.

  Why won't you search for a god? Why do you close that inquiry off? Billions of people have found something along that line of inquiry. Are you so closed minded?

  I think I'll do more of this kind of thing. Instead of debating the same old points over and over in forums with closed minded people

  I got your PM today. You are the one that's closed minded, it seems to me. You repeat the same thing over and over again like your brain is stuck in a closed loop.

  YHWH=Thor=Zeus=Ra=Hathor.

  Over and over again.
• 

  serotonin_wraith

  Why don't you go to the bottom of the garden and search for faries?

  Because there is no good reason for believing in faries in the first place.

  I'm open to faries being real, as I am to a god being real. But with just as much reason for believing in either, I don't go 'searching' for it. The reason I lump all the different gods together is because there is no more reason to believe in one over another. If there were, everyone would believe in one god.

  If I really were close minded, I wouldn't answer challenges to my atheism. I do go out of my way to try and answer every point, such as 'How did humans get here?' 'Where do you get your morals from?' 'What have you got to lose by believing?' I go through it all, but I've found that even after giving the answers, there'll be another question to try and stumble me, rather than people saying 'Yes, that's not a good reason to believe in a god, I won't use that one again with anyone, otherwise it would be like trying to trick them.'

  On the other hand, even after going over this with people, I hear a very close minded statement most of the time from them. "Well okay, even if there is no good reason to believe in a god, I have faith and that's that." The ultimate form of close mindedness is when no information can make any difference to your beliefs. My beliefs are open to change, and if someone ever provides a good reason for believing in a god, I will. It's as simple as that.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  "Well okay, even if there is no good reason to believe in a god, I have faith and that's that." The ultimate form of close mindedness is when no information can make any difference to your beliefs. My beliefs are open to change, and if someone ever provides a good reason for believing in a god, I will. It's as simple as that.

  Belief in a Deity(s) is natural and reasonable. You don't have to believe, but you have no grounds to assert that it is unreasonable.

  http://philofreligion.homestead.com/plantingapage.html

  Oh, and who said I don't believe in fairies?

  Burn
• 

  serotonin_wraith

  To hold a reasonable position, one needs good reasons.

  I have yet to hear one.
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  BurnTheShips

  To hold a reasonable position, one needs good reasons.

  I have heard many. Plantinga as I linked earlier is an excellent start. Here is an essay of his. I recommend it to you, not to convert you, but so that you understand.

  Convince me there is no God, against my strongest rooted intuitions and passions, and I will join you. Show me that my life will be better, that you will replace what I hold close with something that will ennoble me, will make me more godlike than I am, and I will embrace your nothingness. Convince me. But don't insult my intelligence.

  Burn
• 

  Zico

  Preaching in the Churches? You're like a modern day Apostle Paul! :)
  
  Are you intending to go to any non-Christian temples/synagogues? You might find it interesting to converse with some Muslims/Jews/Buddhists etc...
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Are you intending to go to any non-Christian temples/synagogues? You might find it interesting to converse with some Muslims/Jews/Buddhists etc...

  I doubt it. The subject here is "familiar" with Christianity. Familiarity breeds contempt apparently. He would rather flog a weakening religion in his country than face a growing foreign virulent one. I doubt he will be visiting any mosques soon. Allah's boys don't listen so politely. ;-)

  The apostle Paul at least put his money where his mouth was-and paid the ultimate price.

  Burn
• 

  serotonin_wraith

  I'll go over the essay in a day or two for you. I'm resisting full on detailed debates online at the moment because I need a rest from it. My post history is full of them anyhow.

  You want me to prove a negative. It can't be done. Russel's teapot, the flying spaghetti monster, things like that cannot be disproven either, but that's no support to believing in them.

  It isn't my job to pack you up in cotton wool because you're afraid of death. You shouldn't believe things because they make you feel better. If you're poor is it better to fool yourself into thinking you're rich, or to deal with the problem of making ends meet? As comforting as the lie would be, it's not a reasonable position to hold.

  You seem to have a very negative view of this life. Why can't you find joy, peace, fulfillment etc here on planet Earth, instead of waiting for it in some future afterlife there's no reason to believe in? You said before that you wouldn't like it if we were born simply to die. That's a horrible way to look at things. We're born so that we may live. So live. You're damn lucky to be here in the first place. It amazes me that there had to be a CONTINUOUS chain of life stretching back over BILLIONS of years on a planet where 99% of all species have gone extinct and countless sperm and eggs don't get to create life so that you could be here now, complaining that if you don't get to live forever, your life is pretty much pointless.
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  serotonin_wraith

  Zico,

  I've only been to three so far, (Mormons, Salvation Army and Baptist are quite diverse to start with!) but I will be researching other places of worship. I just have to travel out of my way to reach them as I'm in a more Christian area. The majority of Muslims are peaceful, so I can't see a problem if we get talking about our differences of opinion. Like I said, I'm discussing the issues with PEOPLE WHO WANT TO, not standing up and shouting over their services and forcing my side.
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  Sirona

  Why would an atheist go to church? To seek out a god?

  No more than a historian seeks out Ra or Hathor by researching Egyptian religions.

  OR an atheist could seek out Ra or Hathor.

  Those religions are dead now.

  Oh no they're not!

  Sirona