So why are you an athiest?

[Allie]

I have always wondered at people's stories, and I would like to hear yours. What would make a person so angry, sorrowful, or unconvinced as to not believe in God?

I come to you in the most humble of circumstances, I am still very young. I probably have less knowledge of the Bible than most people on this site do, but I would still like to contribute to these interesting conversations; Won't you please tell me your story?

[Goat]

I found that there were different historians who recorded Jesus (or mentioned Him, sometimes obscurely) into their works, and that the Bible(the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is considered by many (most?) good proof. I agree that the Gospels are good proof--why shouldn't they be?

Firstly, a historian writing about someone doesnt make that person real. It takes much more than that!

As for the gospels, they were written up to 100 years after the death of Jesus. How well could you tell a story after 100 years?

I would hardly count that as good proof!

This is particularly true since the authors of the various gospels had some theology they wanted to teach. That does not make then an objective source at all.

[Allie]

People are born not believing in God. I want to know what would make a person so lonely, so desperate, so rejected, and so gullible that one would want to believe in a loving and divine parent figure that will never abandon you, and believe so without evidence?

I have already responded to someone who said something along the same lines as this. I said that I added the word 'unconvinced' for the people who do not classify themselves as sorrowful or angry. And please, don't disrespect me, I won't disrespect you.


For those of you who disagree with me on the proof of Jesus' existence:

I agree with the vast majority of the Biblical Scholars, you can hardly scoff at me. I think there is enough evidence to prove that he existed, and so do almost all Biblical Scholars. I'm sorry if that upsets you, but it is my view.

I went to many different sunday schools as a kid. That was back in the 70s.. maybe it was even a New Zealand thing, I don't know, maybe it was more prevalent thinking at the time. I can't recall what sunday schools taught what but I remember stories of evil people who did horrible things to Christians and they were always referred to as atheists. It made me afraid of atheists and it became a dirty word up there alongside such words as "Nazi", "Satanist", "Paedophile" etc etc.

Oh, I see.. So wow, you really had a not so good point of view! Definitely wasn't your fault, though. Hmm.
At least you know better now.


So everyone, I think I'm going to leave this board for good. I meant to when I made my second board, but I forgot to announce it. So now I'm announcing: I will appear on this board no longer, unless someone asks me to.

Bye everyone, I'll see you around.

[daedalus 2.0]

I have always wondered at people's stories, and I would like to hear yours. What would make a person so angry, sorrowful, or unconvinced as to not believe in God?

I come to you in the most humble of circumstances, I am still very young. I probably have less knowledge of the Bible than most people on this site do, but I would still like to contribute to these interesting conversations; Won't you please tell me your story?

Why are you a Theist? What made you stop believing in Santa but felt some compulsion to still believe in a god? (Assuming you don't believe in Santa.)

But more specifically: why do you believe in a god? When you search for those answers, you will become an atheist.

[Loffler]

People are born not believing in God. I want to know what would make a person so lonely, so desperate, so rejected, and so gullible that one would want to believe in a loving and divine parent figure that will never abandon you, and believe so without evidence?

I have already responded to someone who said something along the same lines as this. I said that I added the word 'unconvinced' for the people who do not classify themselves as sorrowful or angry. And please, don't disrespect me, I won't disrespect you.

My response was but a minor modification of your original post. If you weren't being disrespectful, then neither was I.

For those of you who disagree with me on the proof of Jesus' existence:

I agree with the vast majority of the Biblical Scholars, you can hardly scoff at me. I think there is enough evidence to prove that he existed, and so do almost all Biblical Scholars. I'm sorry if that upsets you, but it is my view.

Biblical scholars believe this because it is their job to believe this. Christian biblical scholars obviously aren't going to reach the conclusion that Jesus didn't exist, since they're Christians first and scholars second. Their opinions can be dismissed outright.

Furthermore, what does it even mean to say a guy named Jeshua lived in Israel 2000 years ago? That was a very common name, and Jewish cults were forming left and right. I'm sure there were a ton of Jesuses.

So everyone, I think I'm going to leave this board for good. I meant to when I made my second board, but I forgot to announce it. So now I'm announcing: I will appear on this board no longer, unless someone asks me to.

Bye everyone, I'll see you around.

I've been posting on forums for 8 years, and the one constant is that people who announce their departure always come back.

[daedalus 2.0]

Oh, my! How will we ever go on! Another ill-informed Xian has decided not to engage the ugly atheists! I guess she showed us!

[Fallibleone]

If I am understanding correctly, I think she means 'thread' when she says 'board'. Personally, I am rather puzzled as to why she would start threads and then leave them almost straight away.

[nygreenguy]

I agree with the vast majority of the Biblical Scholars, you can hardly scoff at me. I think there is enough evidence to prove that he existed, and so do almost all Biblical Scholars. I'm sorry if that upsets you, but it is my view.

It depends on who your scholars are. And just because he existed, doesnt mean he is who the bible makes him out to be.

[Loffler]

If I am understanding correctly, I think she means 'thread' when she says 'board'. Personally, I am rather puzzled as to why she would start threads and then leave them almost straight away.

Many Christians aren't accustomed to people questioning their knee-jerk statements.

[PC1]

Allie describes herself as being "very young." I don't think she deserves to be scolded for deciding to drop out of a thread.

People are born not believing in God. I want to know what would make a person so lonely, so desperate, so rejected, and so gullible that one would want to believe in a loving and divine parent figure that will never abandon you, and believe so without evidence?

That's one of the worst loaded questions I've seen in awhile.

Firstly, a historian writing about someone doesnt make that person real. It takes much more than that!

That's the basis for almost every ancient historical figure--written words. What more could you ask for? Dozens of followers who were so certain they went to their deaths proclaiming this as true?

As for the gospels, they were written up to 100 years after the death of Jesus. How well could you tell a story after 100 years?

I have to disagree. The most liberal estimates tend to be 100 AD. That certainly doesn't preclude earlier dates. According to Wikipedia, they were written somewhere between 65-100 AD. From what I can tell, the methods of dating the gospels are highly variable and speculative, but I'm no scholar.

The early church fathers Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp quoted passages of 25 of the 27 books of the New Testament between 95-110 (Jude and 2 John not being referenced). Since Clement was in Rome and Ignatius and Polycarp were hundreds of miles away in Smyrna, the original New Testament documents had to have been written significantly earlier, otherwise they could not have circulated across the ancient world by that time.

Now consider the following (which I've copy-pasted from an earlier post of mine on this forum):

"Say your a devout Jew living in the first century. The center of most facets of your life in Jerusalem, especially the temple, and has been that way for thousands of years. Most of the newest temple was constructed when you were a child. For your entire life you have attended services and brought sacrifices there to atone. Why? Because you and your countrymen consider this temple the earthly dwelling place of the God of the universe, the Deity whose name is so holy you dare not utter it. You begin to follow Jesus, who claims to be the long awaited Messiah. He performs miracles, teaches profoundly, and befuddles the priests in charge of the temple. He predicts his own death and resurrection. He also predicts that the temple will be destroyed before your generation passes away. This is viewed as an outrage, Jesus is convicted of blasphemy and crucified on the eve of the Passover. Three days later you and his other followers see Jesus alive and well, as he predicted. Forty years later, your temple is destroyed just as Jesus predicted, along with the entire city and thousands of your countrymen.

Question: If you and your fellow followers write accounts of Jesus after the temple and city were destroyed in 70, aren't you going to at least mention that unprecedented national, human, economic, and religious tragedy somewhere in your writings, especially since this risen Jesus had predicted it? So thats the problem. Theres no absolutely no mention of the fulfillment of this predicted tragedy anywhere in the New Testament documents. This means most, if not all, of the documents must have been written prior to 70. It is not an argument from silence because the New Testament documents speak of Jerusalem and the temple, or activities associated with them, as if they were still intact at the time of the writings."

[Loffler]

Allie describes herself as being "very young." I don't think she deserves to be scolded for deciding to drop out of a thread.

People are born not believing in God. I want to know what would make a person so lonely, so desperate, so rejected, and so gullible that one would want to believe in a loving and divine parent figure that will never abandon you, and believe so without evidence?

That's one of the worst loaded questions I've seen in awhile.

The other being the nearly identical question in the opening post, which this question was based on and was a response to?