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Does atheism even really exist?
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Just a point. Some people truly are raised to be atheists. I don't have any statistics on this, but it might be more common than one thinks. It is certainly my background and those I was acquainted with. The option to believe in a supernatural power was not really on the table. We were taught all forms of religion, was nothing more than a way to control the masses or for the weak minded. We didn't ridicule those "poor deluded people", but we certainly wouldn't have wanted to identify with them.
Writing this now I can't believe how ignorant I was, while ironically thinking I was being so smart. There is an element of elitism in it.
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I think it was a brain or some science symbol? Catholic was the Jerusalem cross, Eastern Orthodox was tri-bar cross, Lutheran was Luther’s rose, from what I recall
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Nice! The old format brings back a lot of memories!View attachment 373640 This was the atheist symbol.
View attachment 373641this was the Catholic symbol.
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And this was me in 2011. lol .
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Tuur
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When someone says they don't believe God exists, unless they've given some indication otherwise, I have no grounds to say that they don't sincerely believe that. If someone basically says "God disappointed me and now I don't believe," then I question whether they really believe there is no God. If they don't believe God exists, how can they be disappointed in Him?
Worship of other things with the understanding that it's not a deity isn't a belief in God. Many atheists seem to worship intellect; all seem to say "There is no being higher than mankind," but that's not claiming intellect or mankind is a deity. Believing what one worships ceases to be at death seems like a sad substitute, but if someone believes what they honor will cease to be, can that be called a deity?
Worship of other things with the understanding that it's not a deity isn't a belief in God. Many atheists seem to worship intellect; all seem to say "There is no being higher than mankind," but that's not claiming intellect or mankind is a deity. Believing what one worships ceases to be at death seems like a sad substitute, but if someone believes what they honor will cease to be, can that be called a deity?
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stevevw
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I think fundementally there are no true atheists. I don't think its possible because the realm in which belief itself lives can never be rationalised into reality or not. It just can't. It would be like trying to rationalise love or beauty.
You can give some pretty good rationalisations. But it never fully explains the full aspect of why someone is an atheist or not or a believer in God or some transcendent being or aspect.
Most people including 'No religions' believe in the soul. Some aspect of life beyond the objective world.
Studies have shown that religious belief comes easy and naturally to kids and is a natural human disposition. That rationalising belief away is actually harder to do and takes more effort to instill.
Even then there is this inclination to make gods out of everything and believe in all sorts of transcedent realities.They are just modern versions in super heros and Avatar Disney fantasy worlds.
You can give some pretty good rationalisations. But it never fully explains the full aspect of why someone is an atheist or not or a believer in God or some transcendent being or aspect.
Most people including 'No religions' believe in the soul. Some aspect of life beyond the objective world.
Studies have shown that religious belief comes easy and naturally to kids and is a natural human disposition. That rationalising belief away is actually harder to do and takes more effort to instill.
Even then there is this inclination to make gods out of everything and believe in all sorts of transcedent realities.They are just modern versions in super heros and Avatar Disney fantasy worlds.
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Ivan Hlavanda
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According to Romans 1, God does not believe in atheistsYou may have read this thread title and thought "of course atheism exists, my coworker is an atheist" or something like that.
No, your coworker just calls himself an atheist, but in reality he just worships lower gods than Christ (such as video games, anime, porn, money, etc
Here is the scripture I see as backing this up:
“Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” - Philippians 3:19
In my opinion, as someone who is neither a priest or a theologian, this shows that all atheists worship their own god(s), which dismantles many pretentious atheist arguments such as "I just worship one less god than you do" and "religion is inherited", etc;
Scripture does not really define what atheism is aside from it being foolish so I wanted to make this thread to ask if we as Christians should even believe in such a thing as atheism
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Atheism is the non belief of any gods.You may have read this thread title and thought "of course atheism exists, my coworker is an atheist" or something like that.
No, your coworker just calls himself an atheist, but in reality he just worships lower gods than Christ (such as video games, anime, porn, money, etc
Here is the scripture I see as backing this up:
“Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” - Philippians 3:19
In my opinion, as someone who is neither a priest or a theologian, this shows that all atheists worship their own god(s), which dismantles many pretentious atheist arguments such as "I just worship one less god than you do" and "religion is inherited", etc;
Scripture does not really define what atheism is aside from it being foolish so I wanted to make this thread to ask if we as Christians should even believe in such a thing as atheism
- The term "atheist" isn't used in the Bible, but the concept of practical atheism is described as "the fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1).
The apostle Paul warns the Philippians in Philippians 3:18-19 about false Christians who are "enemies of the cross of Christ" because they live "earthly things" and "set their mind on earthly things". He describes these individuals with sadness, saying he tells them about this "even weeping". Their ultimate fate, Paul states, is "destruction".
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zippy2006
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First I would note that the word 'worship' is simply not used, even in the translation you have provided. You seem to have imported that word.
On the other hand, your argument from Philippians 3:19 is interesting given the word 'theos'. In one way I think the answer is simple: if by "God" we mean what Tillich meant, then there are no atheists. If by "God" we mean the current dictionary definition, then there are atheists. Given that atheists themselves use the word in the latter sense, I'm not sure your argument works.
But your rejoinder would be that Scripture tells us what the word 'god' really means, and in Philippians 3:9 we see that it can apply even to a devotion to food. I think the problem with this is a premise that I critique both here and here. To put it succinctly, the English 'God' does not have the same meaning as the Greek 'theos'.
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