New here
Hello from the UK!
I'm new here... I'll start by making it known I'm a theist -- A Christian to be exact.
I'm not a YEC or a fundamentalist or anything like that. I generally consider myself to be open-minded (although many atheists would probably consider an open-minded theist to be an oxymoron). I've been watching these forums for some time and will say that for one to be a theist of any sort and post here is likely to invoke hostility. With this in mind, I don't expect to be treated nicely and I'm okay with that. Not everyone here seems to be mean though.
I like a good debate, thought I'm not the best debater in the world, nor am I that eloquent in writing, but I'll try my best to respond comprehensively.
So...there you have it.
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist. -Blaise Pascal
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Welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy your time here. If you have any issues or you feel you're being treated unfairly don't hesitate to contact me.
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Thanks... You, BobSpence1, Brian37, and others seem like pretty reasonable people.
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist. -Blaise Pascal
It's nice to meet an open minded theist and since you realy don't expect to be treted nicely I have a new set of handcuffs and leather straps I'm aching to try out on someone. You do understand discaplin don't you?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Welcome to the forums.
An open minded theist is a theist on his/her way to becoming atheist. Many on this site were open minded theists at one time.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
I'm not a hardcore intellectual or anything, I pretty much just use a common sense approach in everything. I'm not a particularly eloquent writer either though at times I like to pretend =)
Have fun on the forum.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
Welcome to the board. It sounds like you have an idea of who are some of the members. GOOD. Good time to come, some engaging open threads (ex. Florida pastor Terry Jones’s Koran burning ..).
Welcome to a great board and hope that you are indeed open minded so that thy faith may die to reason.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Welcome to the forum, Wowzers1.
That's good. It's certainly not an oxymoron; however, I will just say that anyone who is truly open-minded would be willing to amend their beliefs when they are shown to be unjustified. So, a hypothetical question, if we demonstrated that you had no good reason to be a Christian, would you still be a Christian?
Oh, we are going to do something much much worse than be mean. We are going to be skeptical and question.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Welcome to the forums.
An open minded believer is just one step away from seeing reality.
Should you take the blue pill or the red pill.
Personally I will treat you nicely, your beliefs OTOH not so much.
____________________________________________________________
"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
First off welcome.
Secondly, this is about the claims you make, not you the person. What you call "hostility" we call being blunt and blasphmous. This has nothing to do with you, merely the claims you make.
We have never met you in person. We also within our day to day lives outside the net, have loved ones, family members and co-workers we love who do believe.
And everything here we do is in a context.
IF for example a theist claims "My god is going to kick your ass", yes, we would be "hostile" to such a claim. Western societies don't value dictators, so why would I bow to a god that threatens me.
AND it isn't that I actually believe in such a threating god, but the concept as a claim is abhorrent.
BUT, if you view your god as a "kumbia, cant we all just get along" god, certainly that make you as a person as having a more inclusive attitude about others, but again, even in this case, even if we end up liking you as a person, an individual, we will not give your god claims a pass.
Put it to you this way,
Your claims are going to get knocked around here. SOME will be more library about how they exchange with you, and others, like me, don't like a long dance when it comes to debate.
BUT like I said, you need to treat you and your claims as two completely separate issues. We have other theists here, whom I like personally, but cant stand their claims.
No different than the fact I love my own mother, even though I cant stand that she is Catholic. I still love to spend time with her and she has been the best mother in the world to me.
GOT IT, your stay here all depends upon you and if you take what we say personally about your claims, which are not a personal matter, then you will be miserable here.
Treat us all as individuals and treat your claims as a separate issue and don't take our bluntness or blasphemy personally.
Hope that helps.
Welcome once again.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Welcome to the forum!
Brian gives some very solid advice. You might actually catch criticism from some of the theists here as well.
Stay open minded and feel free to offer up anything you would like to talk about. We don't only scrutinize theists, but we question nearly every post, and are just as critical to eachother, it helps us think outside the box.
We are not here to pick on theists, ooop, not all the time at least. Just be ready for alot of questions.
Have fun, and stay open minded!
mr. O
"Whoever feels predestined to see and not to believe will find all believers too noisy and pushy: he guards against them."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Absolutely we DO criticize each other. Just because we are atheists does not mean we agree all the time on all issues.
We very on lots of things. Politics, economics, sports, media, likes and dislikes. No different than any other label. The only thing atheists have in common is a lack of belief in god/s. Other than that we do vary on lots of issues. And we don't give each other a pass merely because we share the same label.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Welcome to the form.
Hope you enjoy your stay here.
The difference is all in the manner one says it, I think. I think a hostile comment would be something "You're a dumbass for believing in God" or something like that. I must admit, that sometimes theist ask for it though... I've seen it happen on forums over and over...
I'm not expecting anyone to agree with me... or give my beliefs a "pass". I just hope to not come across as a quack as many theists do... but then again, to many atheists, being a theist makes one a quack.
I just hope that at the end of the day we're not blowing ourselves up for what we hold dear -- or provoking others to commit violence either.
Thanks!
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist. -Blaise Pascal
welcome to the forum, hope you have fun.
No, you're not, at all.
It's because you people keep saying it, and not understanding it, and doing the opposite of what you say.
The stereotype is well earned.
It's clear in the threads that you're in, that you are nothing but a liar, so spare everyone any false hope.
You've proven to be 'garden variety'.
I don't know why you all think there's something 'special' about any one of you.
There's not.
You're like carbon copies of each other.
You people are patently stupid.
Atheists don't 'hold dear' their disbelief in your fairy tale myth, anymore than the Loch Ness monster.
Your holy babble, and your militant priests have really done a voodoo number on your skulls, and made us 'villains' for for not assimilating.
As such, we're made to be your enemies, and now the conflict is becoming more mainstream.
And I'm glad you have.
The disease of religious brainwashing needs to be exposed.
I keep asking myself " Are they just playin' stupid, or are they just plain stupid?..."
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy" : David Brooks
" Only on the subject of God can smart people still imagine that they reap the fruits of human intelligence even as they plow them under." : Sam Harris
Have fun here. You're always going to get questioned when making assertions that aren't freely confessed. It's the baggage that comes with the bible that does my head. The underlying fallacy from force being the main one.
Bullies use aggression as a form of proof in the schoolyard. The idea the master of the universe might use violence in place of coherence is just too much to bear.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck