Do xians think atheists have a mental disorder?

Davebuck said:

...It's not a choice. Do you agree?

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Davebuck said:

I'd say that you cannot choose. You either believe something, based on your knowledge of the world and previous experiences, or you don't. It's not a choice because you couldn't 'force yourself' to believe me.[/QUTOE]This is quite true..worldviews can stand between faith and have for centuries..Faith is not about what is "seen" in this world.

Davebuck said:

A third way to look at it is, could you personally, right now, choose not to believe in Yawah? I bet you couldn't. Sure, you could choose to stop going to church and tell people you were an atheist but I bet in the back of your mind you'd be feeling guilty because you'd still believe Yaweh is watching you. Or, right now, could you choose to believe thor exists? No way!

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No I could not choose not to believe in Christ since He has impacted my life. Thor though has never answered my "calls" or any other such gods..and not going to church does not mean that someone is not a Christian.

Davebuck said:

Nah, I think you would stop believing, not by choice, but if you continuisly saw more evidence or arguments that made you doubt the existence of Yaweh. Or, perhaps if your criteria changed for what counts as evidence or reasonable proof. Then you might stop believing. But, it wouldn't be a choice.

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This of course would not change my faith in Christ. This of course may make no logical sense whatsoever, but faith is something so very personal that no amount of evidence would convince me otherwise..not meant to be a challenge or anything of that sort..just an explination

Davebuck said:

That's my thought experiment and analogy regarding 'choosing' to 'not' believe.

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I would be deeply convicted if I tried to believe that God did not exist...I cannot try to not believe..the heart is what lies at this matter.

Davebuck said:

Oh, and, just to make the point more clear, if some god or demi-god appeared to all of us today and showed us all kinds of powers and explained everything clearly, and maybe showed us the history of mankind so that it explains everything we know today, then I couldn't help but believe. I couldn't choose 'not' to believe!

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Christian faith is spiritual, and we are warned against any other comming "as a god"..If something like that happened we would probably go into hiding or be persecuted for unbelief in the so called demi-god. Christ is our only Messiah...

Davebuck said:

Do you see what I mean?

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Yes.

Davebuck said:

But thanks for giving me your answer. It's nice to know you don't think atheists are dillusional.

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I do not think atheists are delusional.

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Davebuck said:

they can also accept that the reason christians don't believe in other deities is the same as why atheists don't believe: because there is no evidence.

Christians have atheist tendencies too. It bridges the gap to show similarities between groups.

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Davebuck said:

Everyone knows that if a person came to a shrink and said she sees ghosts all the time or that animals talk to her or that she is Joan of Ark, she'd be diagnosed with a schizoprhenic disorder.

We also would say the same for someone who doesn't think cars or other everyday objects exist. Even more relevent to my point, there are some folks who think they are fat when the are grossly underweight. They have a body imaging problem. Their beliefs do not match reality.

So, do xians think that non-believers have some type of mental disorder.

Or, do most xians understand it to be perfectly reasonable to doubt the stories of Yaweh?

Sincerely,

Dave

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