First let me say that I do respect you, I appreciate your words and your respect given to myself on this thread. I do respect your opinion, but I will never respect your religion. There are far too many reasons for my lack of respect to list here on Mr. Casey’s blog.

Second, I am not an angry Atheist in the respects of being treated wrong by a certain faith, people of a faith, or any one person of a faith in general. As a matter of fact, I am received quite well in many circumstances. I have never had a faith to lose in the matters of religion. I have questioned religion and its fallacies since I was a little boy. I remember growing up as a young man and listening to adults claim supernatural abilities, supernatural interventions, and many other superfluous religious claims growing up and thinking these people were delusional and could not be serious… Ever since I can remember questioning faith, the only reasons given to me to not question faith is fear, and fear alone. Not love, not respect, not logic, not actual reasoning, and certainly not evidence to point to a god or god-creator. (Please understand I mean this in the most respectable way possible, no disrespect or vitriol intended)The fact that you have let yourself remain brainwashed into your adult years is something that you have to deal with, as I have to deal with my reasoning to be a rational and moral Atheist in a world full of irrational, and immoral theists spreading their teachings through fear and archaic superstitious threats.

While it is on my mind, the reason for my disdain towards my father is due to his drug and alcohol abuse, nothing to do with his theological world view. This happened in my early 20′s.

Lastly, the way that this mythical figure, Jesus the Nazarene, was nailed to the cross begs the question, how was he nailed to the cross? Historically, if this purported story is true, how would one be nailed to the cross? You have many claims of stigmata showing people with holes in the palms of their hands, and the tops of their feet. When historically, and proof provided by archaeological evidence suggests that the nails would have to have been nailed through the wrists, and then through the ankles of the victim. This may seem minor to yourself with so much faith in something that is so far-fetched… but to me, this is something that needs to be addressed. The people of your faith worship the idol of the cross, and at times, the dead man hanging on the cross, so why are you singling this man out to suit your hypothesis?

You say that you wished that I believed as you do. I am glad that I do not. I live a more full-filled and moral life as an Atheist who helps his fellow human because he feels a secular moral obligation to, not because of supervision. I prefer rationality, and reality, over hope for something that just doesn’t exist.

JT

I am glad that you believe that I believe, I just wish you believe WHAT I believe. I can see neither one of us is going to make any kind of headway in our controverting.

You say I have arrived at my conclusion by presumptions based on my own personal needs, and then proceed to call me delusional, postulating brainwashing, guilt, and lack of choice (would this be destiny?). It is clear that one of us is acting vindictively against the other side. You have baselessly called me delusional, when you cannot prove my beliefs as being such.

I, on the other hand, have told you I respect your opinion as well as those of others’ who have not shown favor upon my viewpoint, multiple times. Perhaps I am not the only one who has shaped my beliefs based on my past, as you have pointed out in one of your first posts your disdain for your “ignorant” father, who happens/happened to be a Southern Baptist preacher. Perhaps there is an underlying psychological issue that drives your incessent persecution of religion. Perhaps this hatred of God, as you are a self-proclaimed atheist/NON-theist, is driven by a scarring childhood experience.

Look at the effects on Darwin after losing a daughter at an age too early for him to comprehend. He who grew up in a faith-based home and referenced the Bible and creation in his earlier works, at this moment of his darkest hour turned his back on God and sought to destroy the faith that he so-long held on to. Perhaps you have similar circumstances. This a question only you can answer…

It is not my place to judge, and I humbly bow out of this race. You have the floor, so to speak, for final arguments. I bid you farewell, and thank you again for your willingness to serve this country for my freedom, inlcuding freedom of religion. Peace be with you.

Then you say, ” Science and its theories are, in and of itself, a form of religion.” Science, nor Atheism are religions. Religion is based solely on faith. Science is based on facts and evidence. Two very distinct things. Saying that Science and Atheism are religions is saying that not playing baseball is a sport.

Then you say, “Also, I asked why I WOULDN’T hold my faith as truth given my testimony, the change in my life upon accepting Christ to seeing the hand of God move to answer my prayers (either you call me a liar on this one or you chalk it up to coincidence).”
Honestly, I do believe that YOU believe this. You do believe that the laws of nature were suspended so that Mary would be pregnant with infant Jesus, the laws of nature would be suspended many times to suit the miraculous claims of Jesus, and then the laws of nature would be suspended again for his resurrection. There isn’t a doubt you believe that. But I feel that you a presupposing your hypothesis that a god exists to suit your own personal needs. You are delusional. You feel these things are true to coincide with your life. Why? Brainwashed? Guilt? Lack of choice? Only you can answer that question. The fact that we can pick out shapes in our genetic codes and say “god did it”, isn’t anything new.

As a Christian, it is obvious that I contend there is an underlying faith behind my beliefs. You posted above that I “say that Christianity can answer life’s questions better than science. How so?” I have examined all of my previous posts, and have yet to find where I made that assertion. Nevertheless, I will have a go at it below. What I did ask you, on the other hand, is how believing in the Bible could be construed as dangerous? Also, I asked why I WOULDN’T hold my faith as truth given my testimony, the change in my life upon accepting Christ to seeing the hand of God move to answer my prayers (either you call me a liar on this one or you chalk it up to coincidence). However, I don’t know if you can argue the fact that there are cases out there where someone with a terminal disease is given a time frame, only to go back later and the illness is nonexistent. I know of people who are living more than 10 years past the date the doctor’s gave them as the longest they could expect to be alive. When these cases arise and we see things that go against science (or the order of nature), it only makes sense to assume that it was something “supernatural” that allowed those things to happen.

Now, on to how Christianity can answer life’s questions better than science. First, let me point out that religion is “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe…” Science and its theories are, in and of itself, a form of religion. Having said that, I still believe that science backs-up Christianity for the most part. The big-bang theory makes perfect sense, other than the part of it where it says everything was created from nothing. To me, there was a point in time where everything came into being, but that’s when God spoke them into creation.

These aren’t the serious life questions that you have asked about above, though. A big life question for me is, “What is my purpose on this Earth?” or “Why am I here?” Science can never answer these for me. The Bible can. Scripture tells me it is for the glory of God, and it even spells out for me how I can attain this purpose.

It is clear that more and more science and medicine are backing up Scripture. Take a look at the picture of recently discovered laminin, the glue that holds all things together. Compare that to 1 John: 1:1-4. I know, I know… yet another coincidence.

“I would agree that people have done some very foolish things in the name of religion, gods, and God, but on the other end of the spectrum you have Stalin and Hitler.”

Everyone knows that, Stalin, was an Atheist, but Hitler? Hitler was a Catholic, and even had support from the Catholic Church and Pope during and after the Holocaust. The Catholic Church helped move thousands of German and Italian war criminals to South America. Hitler, was an outspoken and devout Catholic. Why would you say that he was an Atheist?

You can watch all the debates you want. You can claim to be a Christian and hold on to the theory of it bearing no facts all you want, but at the end of the day what is reality. We as a society have to grasp some type of reality to dwell within it. In other words, as Sam Harris asks, “What does religion assert that science and philosophy cannot prove with facts today?” Religion is humanity’s first attempt at science and philosophy, a sad and baseless one, but a valid attempt.

There are way to many obscene things that a Christian must accept, that an Atheist does not. Like prayer. Prayer is useless and quite frankly sad on so many different levels. Prayer takes away from the person or persons being wronged and it also takes away from society actually being proactive to take care of things in society. Take Facebook for example; people see starving children or victims of Hurricane Sandy and hit a like button when they see a bowl of hot soup or a firefighter rescuing someone… as if hitting that “Like” button will somehow beam help to those people! As if being on your knees and talking to yourself will let someone know that you are sorry for spreading lies about them behind their back. Nothing fails like prayer and the only victim-less crime is blasphemy.

So, you say that Christianity can answer life’s questions better than science. How so?

I say the following out of the utmost respect, as I am sure you have put a LOT of time and thought into your beliefs, just as I have. You say the Christian viewpoint “is an intellectually lazy position to take” and that I should “explore the prospect of higher truth than those 66 books where most fundies get ALL of their answers.” Please tell me what you have to offer me…

As I have indicated, I have listened to about every debate between the leading thinkers from the other camp, and I have not heard anything that should sway me from my core beliefs. Even Dawkins himself will say he cannot say for certain there is no God, he just cannot comprehend the thought of a higher being.

And if by higher intellect, you mean that this world and the vastness of the universe was formed from nothing and by nothing, that is the pit of all thinking, the most depressed form of intellect I could imagine, and to me is senseless and does not stand to reason (I realize there was some redundancy there). I am not saying this is what you believe, but it seems to be the consensus among scientists today. What position do you have that makes more sense than a Creator? If you see an extraordinary watch with a flawless design, I would hope you would assume there was something behind those moving parts that put them together. Hold your hand out in front of you with nothing in it, close your fingers over the palm of your hand, wait a second or two, now open. Did you get anything? And how crazy would you be to assume you ever would?

No, I will hold firm to my faith, defending it if necessary, and press on to take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of me, all the while, respectfully putting up with those who claim intellectual supremacy when they have nothing close to an answer, much less a better one.