I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. – M. Cole
First, no surprise at all that a Christian professor does not allow comments on such a silly post. Amazing how theists think that they can teach atheism to their students and not once actually interact with a single live atheist.
I would dearly love to sit in on such a course, although I’m sure I’d be buried by the strawmen.
Unsurprisingly, Justin doesn’t mention atheists and their arguments “It will not dignify the dogmatic scientism of a Richard Dawkins or Neil DeGrasse Tyson, pretenders both to atheism’s tiara.”
There’s a tiara? Aw, no one told me that I should be getting a tiara. Shucks.
So, per Justin, there is no discussion about atheist nor are there apologetics offered. So what’s left?
More than most versions of Christianity, Orthodoxy loves their magic sounding words. Bafffling with bullshit is strong with them. “Apophthegmata” only means a collection of clever sounding sayings aka aphorisms, maxims, proverbs. It does not mean that said pithy sayings are true. They are not limited to Christianity. There are quite a list of Apollonian/Delphic ones and funny how they are awful close to the various proverbs and commandments that Judaism has. Ah, humans, always having similar things since they make civilization work better. No god needed.
It appears that they start with a saying from some saint “Keep thy mind in hell and despair not.” Having no idea what it means, it is little more than a written Rorschach test. Justin makes up his version, that thinking about a place of eternal torture for those who disagree with a god is a way of not being despairing”. The problem is despairing of what? That this religion is incoherent and is only made up by humans in their own image?
Justin is right that the bible repeatedly says that everyone else but the believers are wrong. No evidence of this, but lots of baseless claims of eternal torture, death, punishment for believing in the “wrong” thing. Alas, no one can show what the right way is, and we have hundreds, if not thousands of different TrueChrisitanities™. Every theist is sure that the others who don’t agree with him deserve punishment, just like a toddler thinks that anyone who doesn’t do what he wants deserves punishment.
Then Justin goes into this thing about idolatry, which is not atheism and which seems to be quibbling about which is the right version of Christianity. It also includes the common attempt by various Christians to insist to other Christians that their pictures and statues aren’t “idols” but “icons” or whatever other term they want to make for art that they often claim does miracles.
It is very amusing that Justin thinks that he can borrow weapons from atheists to attack other Christianities. He forgets he turns those weapons on himself since most, if not all religions, use the same arguments.
Now, I do wonder why he calls various philosophers, mostly agnostic to atheist, the school of small things (école du soupçon; soupçon: a little bit, a trace). He thinks that they are the “fiercest minds”, which usually means, they are the ones that Justin thinks he has a chance again, but must inflate how fierce they are to make himself seem important.
Then we have a torrent of big words for no reason: Praxis: action. Sacralize: make sacred. So we have him only saying “Who would deny that Christian action glorifies poverty and makes it sacred?” Funny how Jesus did exactly that, but a wealthy church is upset when they are called on their wealth. “Who would deny that often enough theologians limit the meaning of the unusual idea of revelation: something that is revealed by God to humans?” Justin, theologians can’t agree on much of anything, including their need limit nonsense in a desperate attempt to make sense out of nonsense.
and well, what the hell this mean is anyone’s guess “That the inversion of value on Golgotha does not sometimes hypocritically vest power in a cassock?”
There is a claim of “Judeo-Christian motives” in atheism. Christians do have the need to imagine themselves the origin of everything. Alas, humans cared for each other long before some ignorant agrarians on the eastern Med invented a story that they and only they came up with it. I had no idea who Feuerbach was but he has quite a bit more to say than the silliness of the “scandal” of the incarnation, something invented by Christians to try to make their religion seem unique. I rather like this quote from him: ““Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.””
It’s pretty funny to see a theist insist that Nietzsche “really is” affirming “deranged affirmation of the way and the truth and the life” Where is that in his works? Well, Justin can’t quote a thing that supports his claims. As for Freud fulfilling a prophecy? Well, again, no. Christians love to claim that their “prophecies” are being fulfilled when said “prophecies” were things happening back when the nonsense was first voiced/written. One other example of this is the Christian desperation to cling to the “prophecy” of people mocking their nonsense. That was happening 2000+ years ago too. The claim of “but but you are speaking against our imaginary character so that makes him real” always fails.
And David Bentley Hart is just another Orthodox philosopher e.g. someone with baseless opinions that he wants to pretend are universal truths.
Again, Justin tries to claim that someone, Dostoevsky was the “greatest” in his claims, but only to try to make his supposed “victory” over him sound better. We have no examples at all of these supposedly great “renderings” at all from Justin. We only have Justin insisting how wonderful he is for showing this fellow wrong. This is indeed appropriate for Justin to quote this ““God will forgive your unbelief, for you venerate the Holy Spirit without knowing him.” Since again, Justin tries to claim that everything is in debt to his religion, when it isn’t. Justin just needs to pretend that everyone “really” agrees with him.
Unsurprisingly, Justin does not teach atheism to anyone. He teaches a strawman that Justin invented. He teaches the false nonsense that everyone really agrees with Justin. We do not.
In a classic final attempt to protect himself, Justin tries to claim that “spiritually immature or intellectually unserious” are unfit to take his course. Aka, if you expect to ask question and not agree with him, don’t apply because he’ll just make excuses on your supposed faults, not his.
Let us consider the pig. Actually, let us consider 2000 pigs somewhere in Palestine, supposedly a couple of thousand years ago.
“5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits[c] begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood.” Mark 5 NRSV
The more popular versions say “13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea” KJV
So we have 2000 pigs somewhere in Palestine. It rather obviously wasn’t a Jewish community that JC was wandering around in. Gadara is a town in what is Jordan currently. It has cliffs for pigs to plummet from but that’s about it. It seems like a rather nice town. And if it had 2000 pigs feeding it, then it certainly would want an idiot who put demons into them and then drowned them to leave.
As usual, we see just how impotent Jesus aka God aka Dad is against demons or chief demon, Satan.
The bible repeatedly says that the message from JC was only for the Jews.
“24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.” So why was this character here?
well, because the bible and its books are made up by different people who wanted to make up different things, just like Christians now. These were written long after the supposed events and the audience was thinning. Jews didn’t believe in a messiah who failed in fulfilling the prophecies, so Christians had to find other people to convert.
So we have grudging Christians finding a new audience. “19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. 20 But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus.” Acts 11
Funny how a Jewish messiah has become something else invented by humans who need external validation and need *anyone* to agree with them. This is typical of any cult.
I’ve recently been crossing swords with a Roman Catholic, Christina Chase. She has a blog and I commented on a poem she wrote. Then we ended up chatting in the comments. This gave me a chance to become more familiar with Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholics. This is evidently the last of the discussion (her prior response). Ms. Chase is under a deadline for her next book.
It took some research that I wanted to keep, so I’ve plopped it up here. As usual, much of this is a repeat of tearing apart of the usual apologetics.
And thus it commences:
So, Christina, what did happen if you weren’t just one more Christian who went back to her religion when she realized she was mortal? It seems that you left your religion, perhaps because of your illness, realized that it wasn’t any different and decided that you needed an afterlife since one wasn’t that great.
And nice attempts to claim you are trying to be “fair” to me when you also try to claim that I’ve lied e.g. “made crooked”. It is no surprise at all that you will pick and choose what to reply to. That is typical for Christians when hard questions are answered and is your right. If subjects are addressed in your books, then you should be able to tell me where.
You did claim that atheists only make emotional choices. Shall I quote you? “I do sense that you may have experienced some real pain or grief, and if that is so, you have my sympathy. Pain and grief can easily make us angry. I’m sure that you must be aware that you are coming across as a stereotypical angry and embittered atheist, but you may not understand that this is not productive to your cause. I won’t treat you like a stereotype, however. You are a unique, individual, unrepeatable human being.”
Indeed, Christina, you repeatedly make false statements about atheists “ I enjoyed being an atheist because it was so simple, and because, with no meaning to life, I could simply do as I please.”
“Then, something unexpected happened that caused me, as a lover of truth, to no longer be an atheist. “
Unsurprisingly, you do again try to claim that I’m just another “angry and embittered atheist”. Funny how that is repeated even when you claim that you are sure I’m not. Why is this? For me, it seems to be this is all you have to try to imply that atheists never can have any other reason. And yep, atheists do have to often tell theists tht they didn’t become an atheist out of anger because people like you keep trying to spread that lie. You are one of the atheists who finds she must make that assumption.
Do explain how a being that harms others as your god is described do to in the bible is not a “vicious bastard”? Does genocide qualify? Does drowning animals to get revenge on humans qualify? I use words to have impact not because of my feelings. I knew that you would find the term vicious bastard applied to your god to be questionable. I did it to ask you these further questions. What would you call someone who committed genocide, killed children for what their parents did, allowed a family to be killed so he could show off to an enemy? Since none of this happened, I cannot be emotional about it. But I can certainly look at it as an empathic human, much the same as I can empathize with characters in things like Star Wars where genocide happen.
I have corrected you. Did you listen? Well, you repeated the same nonsense about atheists.
Let’s look at your words about love “You and I know that you can’t scientifically prove the nonexistence of a personal God. You may believe that the burden of proof falls on me, but do you use a method of doubt in every aspect of your life? I don’t think so, because if you did, you would not have written that you can see love through the actions of human beings. Humans can lie, humans can even lie with their actions. I’m sure you don’t have loved ones in your life get a brain scan to make sure that the right parts of their brain are lighting up to give evidence of what we call affection before you believe that they love you. Maybe you do want to do that, I don’t know. Like it or not, sane, intelligent, normal human beings go by faith quite often in our daily lives — not blind faith. Faith based in reason.”
So we have you claiming that people who love me can lie to me, and that I somehow have to have faith that they don’t to believe them. I do not, since I can see that they love me. It is not faith, it is evidence. I never said cannot, Christina as you claimed “I believe what I see,” you continued. “and one can not see love easily.” “ Go back and read it again “Humans can lie. Per the bible, so can your god. And nice to see you try to claim that people are lying to me if they say they love me. It’s not faith, it’s trust. I believe what I see. And one can see love easily. If you can’t tell if someone loves you, that is your problem, not mine. Your belief aka faith in a magical god is not based on reason. It is based on hope and desire for something better than you have now.”
Did you intend on misrepresenting what I said? I hope not.
You have said this directly “As I told you, I was briefly an atheist. I was a thorough, true atheist for less than a year. Then, something unexpected happened that caused me, as a lover of truth, to no longer be an atheist. “ The “as a lover of truth” doesn’t need to be in there. Why is it? No, my love of truth didn’t lead me to atheism. Evidence did. I followed the evidence; I didn’t have a presupposition of some “truth” to fit the evidence to. The claim of a “lover of truth” implies baselessly that others aren’t concerned with the truth aka if this happened to you and you didn’t accept it, then you aren’t a “Lover of truth”.
Many theists of all faiths claim what you do, feelings of some “infinite”. Now, do you believe them if they do not agree with the source? Why or why not? I do have to wonder that this feeling does seem to be assigned to your god, since that is what is familiar with you. What shows that this feeling is from the version of the Chrsitian god you grew up with rather than some other god?
Feelings of awe seem to happen to most people. Why think it is from some entity? Humans can make feelings appear with just electrical current. No god needed. And now you try to claim this “do not expect you to understand this or to even want to understand this in your current state.”
What is my “current state”, Christina? Your assumption of anger and bitterness?
I did not contradict myself, Christina. I do not do what I want, because I do not believe in free will, and I know that somethings I want aren’t the best for me or society. I don’t think you know what I mean at all. Penn Jillette contradicts you, and the Christian nonsense that non-chrisitans just don’t want to obey their god, that we are ravening thoughtless creatures.
“So to continue, you also wrote: “We are just as compassionate, law-abiding and caring as any theist.”That’s a good point and I do not disagree. “
Do you agree with me on this? You said this “I enjoyed being an atheist because it was so simple, and because, with no meaning to life, I could simply do as I please.” You seem to think again that only you have real love, Christina “ I did what pleased me (thankfully, it pleases me to be generally good) without thinking about any kind of eternal me or what it actually means to love divinely.”
If you think I need the benefit of the doubt, then I have to again wonder about your assumptions about atheists.
Atheists aren’t nihilists, Christina. Many Christians feel that they need to claim that to vilify us. Humans do give meaning to life. Our worldviews that we’ve created do. No gods needed. Yes, I do mean that me, as an atheist who has meaning, shows that your claim that meaning only comes from your god is wrong. You have yet to show that there is “divine love” or that your god supplies it. You seem to be only inventing that term to feel special and superior. Yes, I do think that it does take arrogance and a neediness to declare that I need you or your god to love and be loved. You are doing it right where you claim “God is needed to know the depths of divine love”
I am here to demonstrate that Christians aren’t above reproach, and that they make harmful and false claims and to confront them about those claims. Society has mistakenly assumed that gods are true and that if someone claims worship something, that makes them better than anyone else. Religions have encouraged this by making baseless claims on how they are the source of all love, truth, goodness, etc. I aim to kick the legs out from under those false claims. Will I be successful? Well, religion is losing ground because people can speak out now, and not be completely terrified that some theist will try to kill them, lock them up, etc for being “heretics”.
I have shown that the claims of Christians about having some objective truth are false. I believe that you need to hope that some magical afterlife exists. You are rather like Joni Eareckson Tada whom I read about when I was young. I can very much understand that you must hope that there is a reason for you being disabled. I think you would be better off dealing with reality than a forlorn hope. However, I can understand that it is a harsh reality and a hope is very appealing.
No, no help or harassment needed. Only an example to push against.
If we are limited, then what makes you think you have the right answer when claiming a god exists?
I think Rumi is a very interesting poet. I’m also interested mysticism but alas have yet to see evidence that any of the claims of theistic humans are true. It’s all humans trying to convince others that their opinions are supported by some powerful being.
There is no evidence of your god or that it is outside of space/time so we don’t need to consider human confusion evidence or not. We just have to see that as soon as humans can’t show evidence, then their gods immediately become mysterious and vague. Just how does an entity be outside of space/time, know when to start something, Christina? Christians just try to say “we don’t understand but my god has to exist”. A non-christian has to point out “no your god doesn’t have to exist and why shouldn’t we understand?”
Saying you are a member of the Catholic Church doesn’t mean much anymore since schism is there too. Every Christian wants to claim that they are the “catholic” followers of Christ. None can show this to be true.
“We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”
1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,”615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!”616”
Seems like your sect is indeed saying what you say it is not “Contrary to the common belief that you expressed as nonsense, the Catholic Church does not teach that everybody who isn’t Catholic is absolutely going to Hell. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 846-856.)” For most of its existence, the RCC claimed “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” Then Vatican II came along and evidently God was mumbling at some point, since it was declared “though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.””
Then we have Roman Catholics saying this “Can only Catholics go to heaven? – The Leaven Catholic Newspaper” “I think we would still say there is no salvation outside the church,” he continued, “but what we mean by that is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, as he said.“He’s it. So, if there’s salvation, it’s in him.“If I am saved, I am saved by Jesus Christ and no one else.”
The problem here, as I’ve mentioned before, is that Christians do not agree on how JC is “the way, the truth and the life”. Each of you has your belief that your version is the only way to correctly follow Christ and you define “grave sin”. “But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves”. Christians do show that they hate each other when they say that they deserve eternal torture.
The Lumen Gentium also says “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.” This is also interesting “THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PRESENCE AMONG OTHER CHRISTIANS Eleuterio F. Fortino” on the vatican’s website.
Your claim that you haven’t made a study of miracles seems very strange for someone who said she prayed for her god to heal her miraculously. To not want to know why it fails seems unusual. Why does one need to be a specialist in miracles to discuss them? You seem to be trying to take refuge in the “sophisticated theology” idea, that there has to be some truth in baseless claims, if one just studied it “enough”
I find it quite specious when you say you don’t know if you’d be happier in a whole body. It’s rather like someone saying “I don’t know if I’d be happier if I won a million dollars”, when that person has no chance of willing a million dollars. It’s a fox and the grapes argument.
Your life is easy thanks to human ingenuity. And one can know about patience and empathy without suffering constant UTIs, etc. I used to work for an an agency that regulated nursing homes and have read many case histories on people who are afflicted as you are.
Yes, Christina, with no exceptions. As I have already stated, it does have be for believers and surprise, that doesn’t happen either. And there is not one place where JC says these prayers have to be per this god’s will aka plan aka reason to know that there is no free will in your bible.
This is one of the big reasons I do take the time to show how ignorant Christianity is. You must always blame the victim for this god’s failure. Someone doesn’t have the “right” faith, prayer, sect, etc and this god won’t heal them. Consider this, if I was omnipotent, and omniscient, I would heal them. I’d heal you. I wouldn’t need misery or pain to teach people.
Yep, there is indeed that story where JC, like any charlatan, cannot do miracles because people don’t believe enough. I’ve had plenty of Christians claim that their god needs powered up and I’ve also had plenty of wannabee mystics claim that they can’t do their magic with unbelievers around. They ran away too, just like JC.
So much for omnipotence. And do read your bible, Christina:
“4 Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.” Mark 6
and the same story in “57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.” 58 And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.”
still doing miracles in both.
I’m finding it amusing that you now only seem to have complaints about how I cite verses. I’ve read the chapters too and yep, they are still about healing physical problems. Yep, the chapters mention other things, but not in the context of what is being claimed about physical healing and answering every prayer with what is prayed for. Those verses in John 14 are still about healing and any prayer being answered: “1 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me[e] for anything, I will do it.” John 14.
No one has said you must respond to me or respond quickly. You are responsible for what you do.
Unsurprisingly one of the folks over at Answers in Genesis, aka cowards who want to attack other theists and non-theists, have quite a strawman argument over at their website, trying to convince people to agree with them. Of course, they are cowards since they don’t allow comments on their lies.
But we can provide them some here! This is from Bodie Hodge, an mechanical engineer, who thinks he is ever so special. Why do creationists get engineers and scientists who have no grounding in evolutionary theory? I would hazard a guess that it is because they are susceptible to the argument from authority, and think that anyone with a degree, and who agrees with their myths, should be believed. Sorry, dears, it doesn’t work like that. I wouldn’t take my child to a diesel mechanic and I would take my car to a pediatrician, no matter how much I liked them.
This will be an exercise in how some Christians lie, desperate in their need for external validation.
“Are you tired of all the evil associated with the philosophy of atheism — Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and so on?1 After all, most murderers, tyrants, and rapists are not biblical Christians, and most have rejected the God of the Bible. Even if they claim to believe in the God of the Bible, they are not really living like a true Christ follower (who strives to follow God’s Word), are they?
Do you feel conflicted about the fact that atheism has no basis in morality (i.e., no absolute right and wrong; no good, no bad)? If someone stabs you in the back, treats you like nothing, steals from you, or lies to you, it doesn’t ultimately matter in an atheistic worldview, where everything and everyone are just chemical reactions doing what chemicals do. And further, knowing that you are essentially no different from a cockroach in an atheistic worldview (since people are just animals) must be disheartening.”
Unsurprisingly, we have Bodie starting off with a lie. There is no “philosophy of atheism”. There is also no morality of atheism. Atheism is a conclusion that there are no god or gods (theists are atheists when it comes to gods other than their own). It has no worldview attached to it. Atheists have all sorts of different worldviews. I’m mostly an Epicurean in worldview. Some are far-right idiots, some are far left liberals, some are Randians, etc. And some atheists are megalomaniacs who happen to get into power. Now, since I’m an atheist, and not a megalomaniac, and have no desire to commit genocide, that is not part of atheism. It’s part of megalomania. Bodie tries to claim that all atheists are evil in the moral sense. He has no evidence and thus is ignoring his own religion when it says do not bear false witness, e.g. don’t lie.
We also have Bodie claiming that murders, etc aren’t “Biblical Christians”. Now, you may ask, what exactly is a “biblical Christian”. That is a term used by Christians who want to pretend that only their version is the right version of Christianity. This also allows them to create the circular argument that only biblical Christians don’t do certain things because they are biblical because they don’t do certain things. However, Bodie forgets that his god kills humans, kills children for something they didn’t do, demands genocide and commits it, etc. These must objectively good things if this god does them and if objective good morality comes from this god as many, if not most, Christians claim. If they are not good if a human does such things, then our Christians have a morality based subjectively on who does an action, not the action itself. Since many Christians do claim that that their god has some right to do with humans what it wants, they end up with a morality that is no more might equals right.
So, no, Bodie, we are not tired at all. You have nothing more than lies and strawmen.
“Are you tired of the fact that atheism (which is based in materialism,2 a popular worldview today) has no basis for logic and reasoning? Is it tough trying to get up every day thinking that truth, which is immaterial, really doesn’t exist? Are you bothered by the fact that atheism cannot account for uniformity in nature3 (the basis by which we can do real science)? Why would everything explode from nothing and, by pure chance, form beautiful laws like E=MC2 or F=MA?4”
Atheism is not based on materialism, though they can be often accepted together. Atheism is based on logic and reasoning. If there is no evidence for a claim, there is no logic or reasoning to believe that claim. Bodie disbelieves in other gods very likely because of no evidence. So, is his disbelief illogical and unreasonable? I suspect he would deny that. One often finds arguments like this offered by theists because they have difficulty in considering their claims from an outsider’s point of view. John Loftus has some great books on this idea.
There is plenty of material truth. Theists often get into this problem that they need to claim that their god is “immaterial”, and thus they must claim that “truth” must also immaterial since they have no evidence for their god. By doing so, they end up in solipsism, which is always amusing.
Again, since Bodie has no idea what atheism actually is, he also tries to claim that atheism doesn’t explain the uniformity of nature. Atheism wouldn’t do that; but the sciences can. Physics is fine with the universe being uniform, and the Big Bang Theory provides an idea why it is that way. We have no idea if the BBT was by chance or not. Creationists also terribly ignorant about the most basic science; the BB is not an “explosion” (even a mechanical engineer should known that but willful ignorance and lies do make a man silly). Physics can be as apparently eternal and universal as any god is invented to be. There is no “random chance” as creationists claim in the universe. We don’t have a cat in the hat bouncing around altering reality. And formulas aren’t “beautiful”. They just are. Poor Bodie, he tries to evoke emotion on math and physics to imply some magical god is needed.
So, no, Bodie, not tired of anything you mention since all you claim is false.
“Do you feel like you need a weekend to recoup, even though a weekend is really meaningless in an atheistic worldview — since animals, like bees, don’t take a day of rest or have a weekend? So why should atheists? Why borrow a workweek and weekend that comes from the pages of Scriptures, which are despised by atheists? Weeks and weekends come from God creating in six literal days and resting for a literal day; and then the Lord Jesus resurrected on the first day of the week (Sunday). And why look forward to time off for a holiday (i.e., holy day), when nothing is holy in an atheistic worldview?”
Ah, the appeal to emotion from a cult member. This is nothing new at all. “Come with us, you’ll feel better”. Alas for Bodie, I have had a great weekend. I got to use a chainsaw for the first time since a branch was ripped of our tree by the windstorm. I also had a great steak and was working on my art for a show I was accepted to.
It’s always hilarious when a Christian tries so hard to claim responsibility for things they had nothing to do with. Weeks and weekends do not come from their god, which ever version they believe in. Those came from unions (watch the conservative Christians clutch their pearls). Other religions have days they claim are holy, but no one outside of that religion cares about them. Christians can’t even agree on what their holy day should be, so it’s very silly of Bodie to claim that his god is responsible.
And with his hilarious claim, then I guess we should be thanking the moon, Tyr, Odin, Thor, Frey/Freya, and Saturn on every other day of the week. I of course look forward to any day I can do what I want. No god or Bodie needed.
“For professing atheists, these questions can be overwhelming to make sense of within their worldview.For professing atheists, these questions can be overwhelming to make sense of within their worldview. And further, within an atheistic worldview, atheists must view themselves as God. Essentially, atheists are claiming to be God. Instead of saying there may not be a God, they say there is no God. To make such a statement, they must claim to be omniscient (which is an essential attribute of the God of the Bible) among other attributes of God as well.5 So by saying there is no God, the atheist refutes his own position by addressing the question as though he or she were God!”
No, these “questions” aren’t overwhelming at all for atheists. Bodie relies on ignorance, lies and fear to try to get people to agree with him and give him that external validation he so craves.
Most atheists, except for maybe the aforementioned megalomaniac atheists, do not think we are gods. We don’t pretend that we can affect the universe with magic, like, ahem, some people we know.
It is no problem at all to know that Bodie’s god and all of the other gods that humans have invented don’t exist. There is no evidence to show that the essential events that these gods supposed did happened, and we can show that entirely different things happened on any particular date that a theist might want to claim that these divinely caused events did happen. Bodie’s god is not some worm under a rock on Ceti Alpha V. It has quite distinct attribute per the bible and Christians, so it wouldn’t be hard to miss. I don’t have to be omniscient at all. And considering what the bible says, neither is this god.
“Do you feel conflicted about proselytizing the faith of atheism, since if atheism were true then who cares about proselytizing? Let’s face it, life seems tough enough as an atheist without having to deal with other major concerns like not having a basis to wear clothes, or no basis for marriage, no consistent reason to be clean (snails don’t wake up in the morning and clean themselves or follow other cleanliness guidelines based on Levitical laws), and no objective reason to believe in love.”
Now, Bodie has to repeat the theist claim that somehow atheism is a religion/faith: “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious(relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity) attitudes, beliefs, and practices” Faith: 2): belief in the traditional doctrines(a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief) of a religion – merriam webster He does this to try to convince a non-theist to not show that his beliefs are baseless.
His desperation shows through quite nicely here; “Let’s face it, life seems tough enough as an atheist without having to deal with other major concerns like not having a basis to wear clothes, or no basis for marriage, no consistent reason to be clean (snails don’t wake up in the morning and clean themselves or follow other cleanliness guidelines based on Levitical laws), and no objective reason to believe in love.”” His attempt to claim we atheists also have no reason to wear clothes or get married, or be hygienic, and not to be in love are quite histrionic. Let’s see: frostbite, secular (originally based on religion) laws to follow that silly but still have to be followed, infection and my own delicate sense of smell, and well, love doesn’t depend on Bodie or his god. That’s something we humans seem to have as an emergent property from our brains, and honestly, who cares if being in love is subjective or objective? Bodie and his god aren’t needed since all humans do it (except for the megalomaniacs again, and probably psycho- and sociopaths) Humans care for each other; and we can be pretty sure other animals do too. My cats seek me out even when I don’t have food for them or a warm spot to lay. They like to be around me. I like to be around those I love. Who is to say it’s not the same? Oh and snails clean each other’s shells. Nerite snails are notable for this, but others do it too. It might just be because they are hungry and there is algae there, but they all get cleaned.
BTW, Levitical laws about cleanliness weren’t about hygiene, they were about offending this god (aka pathetic men) with human stuff, like menstruation and poop (we don’t want god to walk in our poop “12 “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. 13 And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. 14 Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.” Deuteronomy 23) These were the ignorant people who thought that skin diseases could be cured by bird blood.
“Are you weary of looking for evidence that contradicts the Bible’s account of creation and finding none?6 Do the assumptions and inconsistencies of dating methods weigh on your conscience when they are misrepresented as fact?7 Where do you suppose those missing links have gone into hiding? Surely the atheist sees the folly and hopelessness of believing that everything came from nothing.
In fact, why would an atheist care to live one moment longer in a broken universe where one is merely rearranged pond scum and all you have to look forward to is . . . death, which can be around any corner? And in 467 trillion years, no one will care one iota about what you did or who you were or how and when you died — because death is the ultimate “hero” in an atheistic, evolutionary worldview. Of course, as a Christian I disagree, and I have a basis to see you as having value.”
Bodie does try hard again when he tries to convince people that there are no contradictions in reality about the bible’s two contradictory creation stories. That’s funny since they can’t even keep the order of creation straight in the bible itself. Alas, Bodie is lying again. We have plenty of evidence of evolutionary change and that organisms have gotten more complex as time has gone by, depending on environmental stressors. We do not show animals starting out how they look now. Alas, again, Bodie depend on lies and fear to try to get atheists to agree with him. We have plenty of “missing links”: List of transitional fossils – Wikipedia
Dating methods aren’t wrong, but they do have limitations; and it’s grand fun to see creationists accept them for things they think support their nonsense e.g. the shroud of turin, dates for lumber in Egyptian buildings, etc. Dating methods are often dependent on physics, and if physics is consistent, Bodie’s magic god can’t exist. That’s why theist often get upset with dating, and when the dating methods show that their claims are wrong when they make up a date that their god did something.
Since we don’t know if everything came from “nothing”(and do define that), there is a problem with Bodie’s lies again. It seems that physics has no problem with something coming from a vacuum. And there is nothing morally bad about coming from nothing. Bodie tries so hard to play pretend that the universe is “broken” if it is the way it is which is always funny when creationists also love to claim how perfect the universe is in its “fine-tuning”.
Just because we die doesn’t mean we have no value. Why would it? Death is part of life, we die to make room for others. They have value too. I don’t need to pretend that I somehow deserve to exist forever. It’d be fun if I could, but until I get that titanium body that I can download my brain into, it’s not likely to happen.
As for Christians thinking that humans have value, well, their god certainly doesn’t; so if they support its actions, they don’t. It has no problem in killing humans constantly, either intentionally or by hold back its supposed healing magic. This god only values humans in its need to be stroked.
Now, we get where Bodie thinks that by spewing bible verses, atheists will be so overtaken by their god that we’ll agree with Bodie. His religious book is no more true than any other theist’s. He cannot show that what he has invented from his magic decoder ring is any more true than the next Christians who contradicts him. He tries so hard to claim that atheists can’t believe in truth or lies. Ummm, why? We can see reality and point out when someone is misrepresenting it along with other humans. Christians don’t agree on what is their truth or what are heresies, so there’s no reason to believe them. They just can’t seem to get that great big stamp of god approval. Some authority that can’t get it through to its believers what it wants.
As usual, our Christian wants to define what a “consistent” atheist is since he knows he is lying about is. He must make an atheist that does what he want, a very classic strawman. Atheists do not tell you that you have no value. That’s a lie from Bodie.
Bodie wants to claim original sin makes you need his cure. But why would a god who promised never to hold children to account for their parent’s sins, hold every human in account for two people who weren’t their parents (and didn’t exist)? Happily, I do not feel that anyone should die for me and what I do.
Bodie is right, he has a need, aka a reason, to proselytize his faith. Not that JC commanded him to, but that he can’t stand to be shown wrong. He must be right in all things, and well, he isn’t. He needs someone to continually tell him he is right.
Atheists have a reason to point out that there are no god or gods. Believe in them causes existential harm because of the ignorance that humans claim to be “objective truth” when it is not. And we have plenty of basis for logic and reason. It’s how the world works. No gods involved that we have to shoehorn into things to invent a job for magical best friends who agree with you and supposedly protect you. Of course, the last salvo is more fear and ignorance. He must invoke the “end times”. Since Christians have to reup their subscription to the end times ever generation, they aren’t show much luck. The most logical response is to laugh at Bodie and his complete failure.
I do note that poor ol’ Bodhie doesn’t follow his god’s commandments. They don’t stop at the first ten, dear Bodie. I’ll save you a seat in hell.
Club Schadenfreude 