On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 07:35:55 -0700, in sci.archaeology, Roy Jose Lorr
wrote:
>Mark Isaak wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:40:57 -0700, Linda Lee wrote:
>>
>>
>>>[...]
>>>Since fear of God (and God's punishment) is the reason many atheists
>>>reject God, yes, a night spent experiencing the supernatural would
>>>probably be a very terrifying night for such people.
>>
>>
>> You are greatly ignornant on the subject of atheism. Fear of God's
>> punishment could be a reason for rejecting God, but rejecting God does
>> not equate to disbelieving in God. In fact, one logically must *not*
be
>> an atheist in order to believe in God enough to fear him.
>>
>> On the other hand, rejection of God can lead, over time, to ignoring
God,
>> which can become a sort of atheism by default.
>>
>> On the third hand, fear of God's punishment is an extremely rare reason
>> for rejecting God. At least, I have never heard of it happening. A
much
>> more common reason for rejecting God is hatred of God for what he has
>> done. Usually this happens when people who are raised to believe that
>> God is Good have bad things happen to them, despite their sincere
>> prayers. The God they were promised was demostrably not there. Of
>> course, the problem is more with the promises than with God, but it's
not
>> like "God is good" is a fringe belief.
>>
>> Getting back to atheism, there are three main reasons (that I know of)
>> why people choose it. The first is similar to the above reason for
>> rejecting God, except more impersonal. The theists say that a God has
>> certain qualities which people can observe, those qualities are not
>> observed, ergo God does not exist.
>>
>> The second is probably the most common. Quite simply, there is no
reason
>> philosophically to expect a god. Yes, there are plenty of so-called
>> proofs of God, but they were debunked centuries ago. Today, they are
>> only used by the faithless to try to convince themselves.
>>
>> The third reason is the main reason why I became an athiest: the
theists
>> showed me, by their words and actions, that atheism was the morally
>> superior position. Consider, for example, Nomen's quote: "I truly
>> believe someone has to be insane not to believe in God the Creator ..."
>> I simply do not want to be around someone filled with as much bigotry
as
>> he is.
>>
>> Note that I am not saying that these are good reasons, nor am I trying
to
>> convince anyone. I simply offer these observations in hopes that they
>> help you understand atheists better.
>
>Atheists believe in God. The belief is inherent in the
>human condition... cognizance demands it. There is no
>choice in the matter.
What planet does this guy come from?
The only choice is in choosing to
>accept or reject Him. This is a moral decision based on the
>strength of the individual's dependence on their base
>desires. Those who accept God are prone to be discomforted
>by those lower desires and would suppress them when they
>can. Those who reject God tend to feel discomforted when
>they are advised by conscience to put limits on expressing
>those same base desires freely at their own discretion.
>
>Formal religions are based on the natural defense mechanism
>that promotes collectivization of like attitudes toward
>man's imagined perceptions of his own and the world's
>fallibility. Some religions make their deity so much like
>themselves that their adherents see themselves as gods,
>empowered by the convenient but false tenet of Relativism,
>to do as they will regardless of any constraints imposed by
>God's absolute morality. Among the man is god religions is
>the religion of Atheism.
That may be part of your belief system, but it isn't correct.
Doug
--
Doug Weller --
A Director and Moderator of The Hall of Ma'at http://www.hallofmaat.com
Doug's Archaeology Site: http://www.ramtops.co.uk
Amun - co-owner/co-moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amun/
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