Your Opinion On Atheists

[Martin W.]

I get bummed for the people I care about that are atheists... but I understand why they struggle... they look at the world around them and see so much pain and suffering and can't understand how a loving God could let it all happen...

Hi Robbie
I snipped part of your post and reproduced it above, My comment is not directed at you , but I want to add some of my own experience with atheist friends and family. I am talking about otherwise good and decent people (who do not believe in God) .

Here is what I try to do and it gets them thinking .......

1. I do not get all mushy about some loving God who just lets things bad things happen in the world. He has heard that all before. It still makes no sense to him. He cannot reconcile a cruel world with a loving God. I side with them , and tell them I do not blame them for avoiding a God like that. And I mean it.

2. I tell them it is sometimes wise to be an atheist , there is a lot of religious nonsense in the world , I tell him we should all be very cautious and not buy into every religious claim around. I tell him he is wise to be skeptical and careful.

3. I agree with them that a loving God would not preside over a world full of pain and suffering and just let it keep happening.

4. I tell them if there really was a "loving God" he would end this broken world and start over with a new world.

5. At this point I have agreed with the atheist , I defend his thinking , and I am sincere. Yet he knows I believe in God. Go figure.



In summary , I am agreeing with the atheist (and I meant what I said to him) , I have not argued or debated with him and I leave it at that. I have endorsed his position , yet he knows I am a christian.

If he should ask for an explanation . , I first tell him it is hard to explain in everyday words but I give a dry , non-religious overview approximately as follows:

-- God hates this broken down world as much as we do .
--He has made a decision. It is over. It has ended.
--He is not a loving God. He is a destroyer. He will destroy all that is not good.
--He has decided to start over and make everything brand new.

--OUR problem is that we function in time . He does not. He is in eternity (a place without time)
--we get to see the thousands of years play out , he only sees the instant decision he made earlier.
--the thousands of years that play out gives you and I the opportunity to get in on the new deal.
--that is the reason we are still here in a cruel world.

--This "Loving God" we talk about refers to his love for everybody , including the atheist.
--but we have to want it. It is our choice. We are the judge of our destiny.
--Stick with the destroying God that you say you do not believe in , and you will have him
--If you want the loving God , and the new deal , you have to re-consider your atheism.
--its your move my friend. Any more questions ? I am very busy. Don't waste my time.

--In other words I put him in charge , I let him be the God of his own destiny ,
--I have never met anyone who does not want to determine his own destiny.

It makes the God that the atheist does not believe in , seem worthy of more consideration.
Often they do reconsider..

Atheists are more often just practically minded , than anti-God.

Sometimes intelligent straight talk goes farther than the mushy lovey stuff.

Besides , they have heard it all before anyway ............

 

[lawrance]

Atheists in high positions of government should not be constitutionally so and i think it is, but hear in Australia we have a trash can, full on atheists prime minster.

This people have their own position on what is moral as it suits them.

As they are like putting a 5 year old behind the wheel of a car as they are to short sighted and to narrow minded to comprehend to have licence so that ther lot will only lead to devastation.

I don't tolerate them as they definitely do not tolerate Christianity and that is a fact !
.
This is more so nowadays as it use to be as i find people are now so hostile as they think they know it all because they are so TV educated just because they watch some hour long show and come out so educated and full of hatred that they will not listen at all as their mind has been made up.

Mainly most of them only look to short sighted nonsense and bag all Christians and put us in the same boat as child molesters and anything they see as bad as if it all has to do with Christianity.
A lot think if they can get rid of Christianity then all the worlds problems will be gone and there will be no more wars as it's the cause of them all. ( how foolish ! )

The fact is you are for or against Christ end of story.

I makes me so angry to seen these criminal fools leading us as a country to devastation and damnation.

All hail to the great ego individual god of idolatry & the NWO because it's coming.

 

[IanLC]

Atheist or Christian we are all human and created and sustained by the true and Living God YHWH! Many Atheists that I have met are not so friendly and disrespectful to my beliefs. It is amazing that they spend so much time denying that there is a God while in doing so they find out that there is! But I have to hand it to them it takes more faith to be an atheist that it does to believe in Jesus Christ. I can not fathom the thought of being here with out a purpose and that I am some intellgient animal. i find that in all ways degrading! But It's your beliefs! Atheists like Christians and all people have their faults and flaws and good things!

 

[Canuck]

Being an atheist myself, I must say that there are atheists who piss me off. I know some atheists who think and act as if they are smarter than everybody else (including other atheists who don't have physics degrees o.0) and some who are also anti-theists (something I disagree with), but I also know atheists who are tolerant and accepting of others' beliefs. What I have experienced is that many atheists are just fed up with the anti-science, homophobic, in-your-face type of religion(s). Many of them are perfectly tolerant when it comes to people holding personal beliefs and not proselyting to them.

I personally have no problem if somebody is religious (one of my best friends is Mormon ). I only have a problem with intolerance in general. So when somebody (be they religious, atheist, agnostic, etc.) is judging somebody based on a single characteristic, I get frustrated and fed up (especially if that intolerance is based on misinformation or ignorance).


@aspen: Thanks for the welcoming words ^.^

 

[martinlawrencescott]

Most online Christian board interested Atheists have already heard this.

Psalm 14[sup]1[/sup] Only fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
not one of them does good!

It is easy for Christians to snap down on Atheists because of verses like this, however if we look at all the verses that make one a fool, we all fall in that category in one way or another by the light of scripture. However, this one specifically identifies God's perspective of the wisdom of the atheistic mindset as a whole.

I am repeating this scenario the way I heard it, but it sounds right to me...

In order to say there is no God, one must have all the scientific evidence necessary to say such a blanket statement. If someone says, there is no gold in China, one would have to search through every piece of dirt in China and take his entire life to prove there in fact is no gold in China, whereas all you need is one speck of gold dust in all of your search to prove that there is in fact gold in China. That is why the line between Atheist and Agnostic is so thin.

 

[ajdiamond]

Life got alot better for me when I realized I didn't need to form an opinion on everything.

 

[Canuck]

In order to say there is no God, one must have all the scientific evidence necessary to say such a blanket statement. If someone says, there is no gold in China, one would have to search through every piece of dirt in China and take his entire life to prove there in fact is no gold in China, whereas all you need is one speck of gold dust in all of your search to prove that there is in fact gold in China. That is why the line between Atheist and Agnostic is so thin.

The thing is, most atheists do not say, "there is no God". We simply do not believe that one exists. Nobody can claim that there is/isn't a god because the very nature of the supernatural makes it impossible to prove/disprove. That is why, whether somebody is a theist or an atheist, the only logical/rational label one can give oneself is "agnostic theist" or "agnostic atheist" (I give myself the latter label).

Besides this point, think for a moment about what you wrote. You said that "In order to say there is no God, one must have all the scientific evidence necessary to say such a blanket statement." Isn't the same true in order to say there is a god? Doesn't one need to have absolutely all the answers about everything before one can confidently say that there is a god? (I.e., one needs to know about all possible natural explanations before attributing a supernatural one.) Otherwise, aren't you holding atheists to a standard that you aren't holding to theists?

 

[THE Gypsy]

The thing is, most atheists do not say, "there is no God". We simply do not believe that one exists. Nobody can claim that there is/isn't a god because the very nature of the supernatural makes it impossible to prove/disprove. That is why, whether somebody is a theist or an atheist, the only logical/rational label one can give oneself is "agnostic theist" or "agnostic atheist" (I give myself the latter label).

Isn't that more of an Agnostics point of view?

Besides this point, think for a moment about what you wrote. You said that "In order to say there is no God, one must have all the scientific evidence necessary to say such a blanket statement." Isn't the same true in order to say there is a god? Doesn't one need to have absolutely all the answers about everything before one can confidently say that there is a god? (I.e., one needs to know about all possible natural explanations before attributing a supernatural one.) Otherwise, aren't you holding atheists to a standard that you aren't holding to theists?

Good point.

 

[martinlawrencescott]

I guess I don't quite get it. To know there's a human existence, all you would need is something as small as a single strand of DNA. We believe in the preexistence of many species that no longer exist due to fossils. More evidence would increase knowledge about the subject, but isn't necessary in the mere proof of existence in general.

 

[veteran]

Atheism is simply a self-centered position. That's what makes it attractive to some. It's a position for those who think to be whatever they want to be, and whoever they want to be (according to this world), and not have to worry about suffering any consequences for it, and especially not after they die. It's really a default belief in this present world and trusting in the things of God's creation instead of The Creator Himself.

 

[Episkopos]

...we are to love them...

 

[aspen]

Atheists are the Yang to the Fundamentalist Yin. They are opposed to each other in a dulistic battle and are a lingering part of a past age called Modernism. I pray for a Christian awaking and movement away from this type of reaction to, and engagement with the world and nonbelievers.

 

[JPPT1974]

I always look at it this way as a Christian. As you can agree to disagree. As you can respect. As even if you may not like what they believe or agree in. And vice versa. Still respect and agree to disagree. Leave it at that.

 

[aspen]

I agree that we are called to love them.

 

[Groundzero]

I was thinking of a joke recently,

The epitaph on an atheist's gravestone: Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and nowhere to go.
:)

 

[Caffus]

Dosent an Atheist mean...they know there is know God? If so they do not exist. Or does it mean they think there is no God?
I dont understand how anyone could think there is no God. We are here so someone made us. But I have no anger towards an "Atheist" I have pity.

 

[veteran]

Really no such thing as an atheist. That's just another word like 'confused', 'ignorant', 'blind', etc. Reason is, because God hasn't revealed Himself to them, yet. He will, in time. So if they refuse to hear The Gospel, leave them alone and let them believe whatever they want. We know their tune will be change when Christ returns.

 

[aspen]

I think we are all capable of making a decision to follow God or reject His love. Atheists can only love people through their false selves - without God, all love is self-serving.....no matter what it looks like from the outside.

 

[tcross.us]

I have two t-shirt designs that have a play on the word Atheist. If you look at this word closely, you will see that Atheist has two t's in it which the letter "t" in the alphabet also represents the cross if you use a typestyle that has a solid line down and a solid line across. Therefore, an atheist has double crossed God. The other design is broken down this way: "a t heist" (a cross heist). Either way, atheist are people that just don't understand God's word. They are blind to God's truth. Christians don't hate atheists, we just feel sorry for them. We pray that somewhere in their journey through life they see the crosses in the word atheist and realize they are living in real lies... Blessings!!!

 

[Episkopos]

Atheists are simply un-believable. :)