XPost: sci.archaeology, sci.astro, alt.messianic   
   From: Kenthz@comcast.net   
      
   Doug Weller wrote:   
      
   > 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.   
      
   Explain this imagined 'incorrectness'?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)