How Do You Deal With Atheists?

[lorelaih]

My faith at the moment, is not really strong at all. Somedays it's almost as if atheists are the devil & they are slowly pulling me over to their side with their negative views & science crap. I often wonder if they have more proof about God not existing, VS god actually existing. I wonder if I have missed something. I wonder if they know something I don't know.

This scares me, alot.

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Why are you not an atheist?

I keep praying to God to help me out of this. But everyday I sit around obsessing over the situation.

Advice please?

 

[freeport]

My faith at the moment, is not really strong at all. Somedays it's almost as if atheists are the devil & they are slowly pulling me over to their side with their negative views & science crap. I often wonder if they have more proof about God not existing, VS god actually existing. I wonder if I have missed something. I wonder if they know something I don't know.

This scares me, alot.

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Why are you not an atheist?

I keep praying to God to help me out of this. But everyday I sit around obsessing over the situation.

Advice please?

Peace, joy, and love in my heart... besides knowledge of God (though even the wicked spirits have that).

Evil is temporary and passing.

Nobody feels so much pain as it appears.

Otherwise, I blame everything on the Devil.

 

[wayfaring man]

Hi l ,

... Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. <---> Romans 10:17

Spending time reading Scripture , especially The New Testament , helps a lot .


I like watching nature shows , but find it incredibly ridiculous that many of the otherwise intelligent biologist / scientists talk about creatures in a manner which suggests they created their own abilities to adapt and reproduce . If they were that adept at biometric engineering , we'd be crawling around in their sandbox , instead of them in ours !

And then some say , well with time anything's possible ... now they're getting warmer , because with infinite time comes infinite possibility , and one of God's names / titles is " I AM " , which by definition means - self-existent , without beginning or end , by extension , The Eternal , The Everlasting One ... so yes , with God all things are possible ... But God is more than all time , or timelessness , yet at least there's a bit of a common thread there .

When around others who believe contrary to us , ( once that's been made clear ) , it's good to show some respect , preach through actions , more than by words , and try to find something both can be agreeable on ... if there's no room for being agreeable then steer clear whenever possible ... there's plenty of other people with whom we can agree with on a many things ... dwell on / stay close to those folks and those subjects , much more than on the conflicts and the contrary .

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. <-----> Philippians 4:8

May The Lord Be Pleased !

wm

 

[wayfaring man]

Why are you not an atheist?

Advice please?

Frankly , I don't believe in atheists . I've met people who claim they are atheists , but their words are not convincing to me ; because I thus judge , that anyone so deep in denial that they cannot even admit the possibility of God's existence , is in no place to describe themself accurately .

Furthermore , when people who claim to not believe in God , do practice godly disciplines , they are believing in God , though perhaps without recognizing that God is in every good and right desire , idea , or action .

Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that does good is of God: but he that does evil hath not seen God. <-----> 3rd John 1:11

Additionally , many so called atheists , believe they don't believe , because the only representations ( by others claiming to believe ) , they've been exposed to are rather unbelievable .

Which is why it's good to seek God's Face directly through The Testimony of Jesus , and not look to other struggling people for your evidence of The Divine .

May The Lord Shine Brightly , into our lives , The Truth of God Almighty !

wm

 

[XQzzII]

"Evolution is no longer a hypothesis. [...] How in the world could there be any science in scripture? There can not be. [...] The scriptures are not teaching science. it is very hard for me accept not just a little interpretation of scripture, but a fundamentalist approach to religious belief. It's kind of a plague: Presents itself as science and it's not." (Father George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory)

Most religious people don't really understand science and atheism (not that atheist would understand religious people any better, but still). It's not like it's wild guesswork. It OBVIOUSLY works. And I see the proof for god in science. Imagine that: the rules of mathematics and physics apply everywhere in the universe, at any time. There is no explanation why that would have to be the case, but miraculously it is.
The bible does not justify itself to be completely taken literal (especially the old testament). Actually I've never even heard of somebody proposing it here in Europe, it really is regarded as a ridiculous idea where I come from. It's the same thing with Jewish laws and Jesus. God does not reveal everything all at once. Remember in "Back to the Future - Part 3" when Doc Brown tells the people in the Wild West about cars, they didn't believe him for one second. We're not ready to know everything and maybe will never be. Science examines the world we life in and thus contributes to our understanding of God. There is absolutely no conflict between science and religion unless you want to provoke one by mixing them up.

 

[Sketcher]

I'm not an atheist because God revealed himself to me.

Also, nobody can disprove God. You cannot prove that someone or something does not exist according to the rules of secular argument, which these people supposedly play by.

Atheists generally claim that they're smarter than Christians, but that has more arrogance than substance. There are a lot of very intelligent Christians both today as well as in centuries past. Some of them even used to be atheists! And by contrast, a lot of atheist arguments against Christianity don't truly look at the evidence we have for the faith and judge it objectively - it takes at least as much faith to believe some of their alternate explanations as it does to believe what we teach.

"The Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel (a former atheist) just begins to scratch the surface of what I'm talking about. Give it a read, and read some of the books and other works by the authors it references. There's a lot more to apologetics (defense of the faith) than that, too - Norm Geisler, Josh McDowell, and others are also well worth reading. From a more philosophical standpoint, there's C.S. Lewis and the books he had written. There's a lot out there for you which puts their claims in perspective. These people are not nearly as smart or as right as they claim to be.

 

[wonderwaleye]

My faith at the moment, is not really strong at all. Somedays it's almost as if atheists are the devil & they are slowly pulling me over to their side with their negative views & science crap. I often wonder if they have more proof about God not existing, VS god actually existing. I wonder if I have missed something. I wonder if they know something I don't know.

This scares me, alot.

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Why are you not an atheist?

I keep praying to God to help me out of this. But everyday I sit around obsessing over the situation.

Advice please?

At most you are a new babe in CHRIST. You know little about your faith and are looking for a shortcut to who knows where.



GOD knew you and sends a warning to you:




2 Timothy 4:


3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;







1 Peter 5:


8, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.







1 Timothy 4:


1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.







Colossians 2:


8, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.



If you are going to be part of the KINGDOM of ALMIGHTY GOD you MUST GIVE IT ALL TO GOD.






GOD demands that you give HIM your WHOLE heart, mind, strength, and soul. That means you go in prayer and tell GOD that you will do this and from that moment on seek GOD in all your decisions. After this is complete GOD will know. For HE searches the heart. HE will then send HIS HOLY SPIRIT ( ANOINTED-BORN AGAIN- SAVED ). For it is then that you shall receive the MISSION GOD has for just you and supply all your needs, even what you have not the ability to have.






Pick up GOD'S ROAD MAP to the KINGDOM of ALMIGHTY GOD ( BIBLE ) and start reading the NEW TESTIMENT till the next time you read it you will already know what IT'S going to say. For then it's locked in your heart to draw from for the rest of your life. You will NEVER be sorry you did.






Do yourself a BIG FAVOR and Start right now!!!



LOVE


steven

 

[freeport]

Of course, there are many children of Satan who use scripture to prove their arguments about how "evil" everyone else is.

And they just show really how evil they are.

They do not get this though everything goes wrong for them... and their own hearts know no peace.


Personally, I view them as sordid clowns.

 

[AMR]

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Try to keep in mind what the Scriptures have to say about the unsaved:

• 
  [*]is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9).
  [*]is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23).
  [*]loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19).
  [*]is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12).
  [*]is helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6).
  [*]is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).
  [*]is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
  [*]cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14).
  [*]is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:16-20).

This should set the frame of reference by which they operate. Rarely do I cast pearls before the entrenched. Once someone that has been clearly and carefully presented the Good News to the lost, it is time to move on, shaking their dust from your shoes.

AMR

 

[connman]

My faith at the moment, is not really strong at all. Somedays it's almost as if atheists are the devil & they are slowly pulling me over to their side with their negative views & science crap. I often wonder if they have more proof about God not existing, VS god actually existing. I wonder if I have missed something. I wonder if they know something I don't know.

This scares me, alot.

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Why are you not an atheist?

I keep praying to God to help me out of this. But everyday I sit around obsessing over the situation.

Advice please?

In Luke 21: 8 - 19, Jesus talks about troubles and persecutions. (Recommended you read up on that scripture)

For Christians to be persecuted by non-believers is normal and inevitable. Rather than feeling bitter over it, take it as blessing-in-disguise. Why? This is a good opportunity to share the Good News. Of course it's easy say than getting it done, that's where prayer comes in.

Jesus also said not to worry on defending yourself when people testify against your faith. Rather let God be your witness and He will give you such words and wisdom that even the wisest man on earth won't be able to refute or contradict what you say.

I have an atheist friend myself, but one thing I believe that one day God will reveal Himself to him and he'll get saved. For that will continue to love him and have a good fellowship with him until he receives salvation from God.

 

[Ric von Hemal]

What's interesting is that a lot of what atheists believe hinges on things like the theory of relativity, the idea that the universe is a fixed space, etc. Welp, we can find that the theory of relativity hinges on the idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light... however, I believe students at Cambridge University(I may be wrong on the school) developed a filter that accelerated microwaves at 3.36(???) times the speed of light... theory busted when you look at what makes or breaks any theory from a scientific point of view. Plus, scientists are now learning that the universe is expanding, which suggests a beginning to it(Divine design?) I can't put links up yet, but look up the website God And Science. O R G... Mods, I hope this slides, as this site answers a lot of questions on how to deal with atheists, muslims, and other er, umm... folks.

 

[Morghaine]

MOD-HAT ON!

<imagine funny hat picture here>

Please review the FSG's found stickied at the top of each area in Edification.
You are to respond to the Original Post only.

Mod-Hat Off!
​

 

[Sketcher]

What's interesting is that a lot of what atheists believe hinges on things like the theory of relativity, the idea that the universe is a fixed space, etc. Welp, we can find that the theory of relativity hinges on the idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light... however, I believe students at Cambridge University(I may be wrong on the school) developed a filter that accelerated microwaves at 3.36(???) times the speed of light... theory busted when you look at what makes or breaks any theory from a scientific point of view. Plus, scientists are now learning that the universe is expanding, which suggests a beginning to it(Divine design?) I can't put links up yet, but look up the website God And Science. O R G... Mods, I hope this slides, as this site answers a lot of questions on how to deal with atheists, muslims, and other er, umm... folks.

That doesn't sound right to me. I have yet to talk to an atheist who claimed he was an atheist because of Einstein's theory of relativity. Now, sometimes atheists will make claims based on these assumptions, but there is always a deeper reason why they are atheists. Science is just the hedge they surround themselves with after they get there.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

.

 

[Emmy]

Dear lorelaih. Since you admit, that your Faith is not very strong, try to avoid arguments about Religion, especially with Atheists. Try and change the subject, or find an excuse to leave. Always remember though, our God is Love and Jesus died, that all may live. Many of us might have been Atheists, at some time before. I say this with love and humility, lorelaih. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[hikingchick77]

Atheists usually don't get far with me, and based on the fact I am a scientist and question everything, I usually start asking them, ok how do you feel we got here then. Then after they tell me, I ask...what was here first then, the chicken or the egg...someone HAD to have put them here. I never saw a chicken just magically appear, or an egg for that matter. If they did, I would never have to go grocery shopping again.

The logic just doesn't make sense for atheism when you really think about it, and challenge others to explain how we got here then. Atoms and genetic matter, even in its more infantiale stages, does not just magically appear.

I get discouraged with all the atheists about in the world. Some nice guys wanted to date me who were atheists, and I had to refuse because their niceness was not founded on Faith, or believe that Jesus died for our sins and we should repent.

 

[Ric von Hemal]

Twistedsketch, I agree that not all atheists hang on relativity... some just don't want to believe, so that they won't be held accountable for their sin. But in reality, we're all worshipping something, be it God, buddha, our own intellect, the neighbor's cattle, whatever. I think it's interesting that atheists are so unrelenting in their idea that there is no God... sometimes I wish the body of Christ had that same steely resolve.

 

[Sketcher]

Twistedsketch, I agree that not all atheists hang on relativity... some just don't want to believe, so that they won't be held accountable for their sin. But in reality, we're all worshipping something, be it God, buddha, our own intellect, the neighbor's cattle, whatever. I think it's interesting that atheists are so unrelenting in their idea that there is no God... sometimes I wish the body of Christ had that same steely resolve.

Well hey, a cornered animal is the fiercest - especially when that animal is the human ego. Small wonder people have a hard time matching that kind of intensity.

 

[heron]

Rarely do I cast pearls before the entrenched.

try to avoid arguments about Religion, especially with Atheists.

there is no path from hypothesis/theory to law, at least in the scientific method.

atheist fundamentalism is rampant as well. ... they are not interested in dialogue.

a cornered animal is the fiercest - especially when that animal is the human ego.

Usually these discussions begin as a challenge for you to prove something. But they come with assumptions that you will not be able to prove, and come with no desire to find out your answers.

If I sense that someone really is willing to listen, then I will answer questions. Otherwise, I just sit there and let them talk.

Sometimes they create their own counter-arguments, because friends who bring it up are not completely atheists. They have memories of having believed once, or have explored religions with interest. They behave like they want to be spiritual people.

I do not want to set up an environment where my friends become my enemies, or opponents. That is not what Christianity is to me. I don't think anyone should work so hard to destroy any faith -- it is intolerant of how much a faith walk means to a person.

Of course there are scriptural instances where the apostles challenged other faiths, but these discussions occurred in arenas that were acceptable for debate and comparative philosophy. Your living room can be an equally acceptable spot, but don't feel like you have to defend God. He can do it on His own.

I consider the most important thing, is to not transform into a different person during these discussions. Be yourself.

Coming back with pat answers will seem lame to them, and they will be even more convinced that you have bought into mind manipulation or irrational belief systems. Pablum for the masses. That is not the Christianity you devoted your life to.

 

[seashale76]

My faith at the moment, is not really strong at all. Somedays it's almost as if atheists are the devil & they are slowly pulling me over to their side with their negative views & science crap. I often wonder if they have more proof about God not existing, VS god actually existing. I wonder if I have missed something. I wonder if they know something I don't know.

This scares me, alot.

How do you not let the Atheists get to you & your faith?

Why are you not an atheist?

I keep praying to God to help me out of this. But everyday I sit around obsessing over the situation.

Advice please?

Are you actually encountering atheists who are attempting to get you to de-convert everyday and/or frequently? I don't count on-line. If you're encountering people like this on-line it is because you are likely looking for them. You can turn off the computer. You don't have to keep dealing with people who are attempting to constantly harrass you to believe as they do.

I'm also failing to see what science has to with believing in God or not. As far as science proving or disproving God- we all will be waiting a long time for conclusive evidence for or against that from the scientific community. Can you prove that people have emotions or can feel? We know that we do- but can you prove it? Science hasn't done that either. Science is very useful, but it is as limited as the people who posit the theories and attempt to prove them (or disprove them). Someone could come along tomorrow and turn everything we thought we knew about science on its head- that's what's so cool about it- however- it is also why we shouldn't let it guide our faith. Science is a tool and I'm all for it.

Also, just because one is an atheist- it has nothing to do with whether or not they actually know anything about science. Atheists are no smarter or more logical than the rest of us- and some are even quite uneducated and ignorant about as many things as some of the religious people that are often complained about ad nauseum on-line.

As far as why I am personally not an atheist, you may click on my profile and read my blog entry here at CF which should answer your question more in depth.