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originally posted by: AfterInfinity
a reply to: DarknStormy
But the joy of being a Christian atheist is the inherent ability to use your disbelief of the Christian god to ignore whatever scripture you choose. I wonder if Windword flips a coin each day to decide which side plays the dominant role?
originally posted by: DarknStormy
originally posted by: AfterInfinity
a reply to: DarknStormy
But the joy of being a Christian atheist is the inherent ability to use your disbelief of the Christian god to ignore whatever scripture you choose. I wonder if Windword flips a coin each day to decide which side plays the dominant role?
People can believe what they choose and be good people regardless but the Bible doesn't see things that way and when it comes to the crunch, the Bible is the lone authority when speaking about Christianity, even higher than any man and his opinions and I say that as my opinion being nothing also in the grand scheme of things.
originally posted by: windword
a reply to: DarknStormy
Jewish people don't loose their Jewish heritage because they break Levitical law.
According to you, anyone who isn't a Christian must be a Satan worshiper then? Whatever, I don't believe in Satan any more than I believe in the Christian god.
But, I'm not an atheist.
1. You are an atheist only as far as the Christian god is concerned.
2. You are an atheist who borrows ethical elements from Christianity.
originally posted by: windword
a reply to: DarknStormy
LOL! What the heck was that? A joke right?
originally posted by: windword
a reply to: AfterInfinity
1. You are an atheist only as far as the Christian god is concerned.
Yes! Now you're getting it!
2. You are an atheist who borrows ethical elements from Christianity.
How can one separate those things that informed them, during their formative years, of what was and wasn't acceptable behavior in family, school, work and church situations? As an adult I can look at the tenets that were instilled in me as a child, and decide, using my adult critical thinking skills, if they're worth hanging onto. Some are, some aren't and some need to be tweaked to fit my personal world view.
Gods are not natural laws, like thermodynamics. Someone presents some god to me, and I get to decide whether I believe in that version or not.
I was raised with the idea of the Christian God. I'ts the Christian presentation of god that I was indoctrinated to believe in without question, not every other god that anyone else has ever thought up. It's that indoctrination and that version of reality that I specifically reject. It really isn't that hard!
The god that I believe in is the god inside of my mind, not some other god out there on some list of gods from which I have to choose one or two to believe in in, order to conform to your tiny little world view.
Seems a little strange that you can choose whether to believe in something that is supposed to be as real as your right arm. Can you choose to not believe in your right arm?
You basically "switched off" your beliefs in regard to the Christian god, but based on the same principles by which you first invested in that god, you are now investing in a DIFFERENT god as though the change of god changes the foundation of that investment entirely, even though you are in fact using the EXACT SAME principles to validate your faith in this other deity.
The fact that the properties and character of an almighty being can change so drastically based on a simple whim speaks volumes for the nature of that god.
Right! Like I "switched off" believing in the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause!
I don't believe god is a deity. There may be deities, but none of them are the god that Christians describe. That god/deity doesn't exist.
de·i·ty noun \ˈdē-ə-tē, ˈdā-\
: a god or goddess
I don't believe in an "almighty god". I am neither a theist or a deist.
Any definition using words to describe what god is diminishes what god is.
originally posted by: halfoldman
a reply to: windword
I'm less consciously atheist or agnostic in the daily struggle of things.
I'd like to think there's somebody watching over me, but then I hear of kids with AIDS and cancer, and I think if a good God won't hear their innocent cries and ease their suffering, then what are my chances?
One thing that also makes me doubt is when people pray before a sport's match.
I think that's such a show, and the "God" of the losing team can surely not be real, or He just didn't care.
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists
originally posted by: windword
a reply to: AfterInfinity
No. I'm not a theist. I don't believe that god is person or an entity at all.
the·ism noun ˈthē-ˌi-zəm
: the belief that God exists or that many gods exist
God is not separate from me. I'ts not separate from the universe. You are god and I am god, but, we aren't 2 different gods, we are part of the whole, which is god. God doesn't exist separately from any of us, it is a collective, not independent, consciousness.
God did not create the universe but arose from the universe as did you and I.
Pantheism is the belief that the universe (or nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god.