True Believers

[bhsmte]

Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity

Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity: John W. Loftus: 9781591025924: Amazon.com: Books

Here are a few more:

Clergy Project

 

[Colter]

And of the billions of people in the world, what does this tell us exactly.

I am sure you don't want me to remind you, many more people are leaving religious beliefs, as opposed to latching onto religious beliefs.

I realize that statistically people are leaving religion and frankly it's because baron formalized religion has failed to hold their interests. But this wouldn't be the first time in history man got cocky and worldly or that religion was forced to change or die. Terrible destruction is yet to come by mans own making, it's a cycle. The dead end of materialistic science will also lead man to search deeper, think harder.

 

[bhsmte]

I realize that statistically people are leaving religion and frankly it's because baron formalized religion has failed to hold their interests. But this wouldn't be the first time in history man got cocky and worldly or that religion was forced to change or die. Terrible destruction is yet to come by mans own making, it's a cycle. The dead end of materialistic science will also lead man to search deeper, think harder.

Well, the current flow of people (in the last 50 years) just so happens to coincide with many more people getting exposed to knowledge, they didn't possess before and this has had a dramatic impact on what type of beliefs they can reconcile in their own mind.

You can't stop the education train, it just keeps rolling along.

 

[Colter]

Here are a few more:

Clergy Project

here's a few more:

List of converts to Christianity from nontheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Colter]

Well, the current flow of people (in the last 50 years) just so happens to coincide with many more people getting exposed to knowledge, they didn't possess before and this has had a dramatic impact on what type of beliefs they can reconcile in their own mind.

You can't stop the education train, it just keeps rolling along.

They will find the weakness of so called knowledge and return to a better quality of religion. The doctrines of death just are not appealing to everyone.

 

[bhsmte]

They will find the weakness of so called knowledge and return to a better quality of religion. The doctrines of death just are not appealing to everyone.

Depends how good someone is at suppressing reality.

 

[quatona]

"Former Atheist Academic Who Rejected God and Believed ‘Smart People Don’t Become Christians’ Reveals What Changed Her Mind Entirely".

People change their convictions? Bummer! Now, if I only knew what this could possibly be meant to be an argument for or against...

Then again, she doesn´t even seem to make claims of the "born again" kind. So I guess when it comes push to shove she isn´t even acknowledged as a TrueChristianTM.

 

[quatona]

List of converts to Christianity from nontheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cool, I´ll make sure to jump on the band-waggon asap.

 

[Davian]

Knowing the presence of God is innate in the "reality response" to universe reality, but when one becomes fully invested in sin and then iniquity (deliberate rejection of deity) they loose their ability to distinguish truth from error. They are reckoned among the dead.

"There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the universe philosophic viewpoint sin is the attitude of a personality who is knowingly resisting cosmic reality. Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or maladjustment to, universe realities. But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine reality — a conscious choosing to oppose spiritual progress — while iniquity consists in an open and persistent defiance of recognized reality and signifies such a degree of personality disintegration as to border on cosmic insanity." UB 1955​

From what I gather, 'sin' is a human construct, a "disease" for which only certain religions claim to have the cure. No religion, no sin.

 

[Davian]

The inability or unwillingness to share the inner life with God is the main feature if the Atheist faith.

You really fail at telling people how they think.

Tell me of the faith I have in the absence of extraterrestrial aliens visiting Earth, how my plane won't disappear into the Bermuda Triangle when flying over the Atlantic, that it wasn't gremlins that maliciously switched off the power bar behind the stereo, but one of the kids, or a cat.

Do you do this in real life, go around and tell people what they are thinking?

 

[Colter]

Depends how good someone is at suppressing reality.

How do you know that you aren't just imagining reality?

 

[Colter]

Something for those who come and those who go:

"Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul — the morontia self — will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity." UB​

 

[Davian]

"Science is a quantitative experience, religion a qualitative experience, as regards man’s life on earth. Science deals with phenomena; religion, with origins, values, and goals. To assign causes as an explanation of physical phenomena is to confess ignorance of ultimates and in the end only leads the scientist straight back to the first great cause — the Universal Father of Paradise." UB 1955​

Unfalsifiable religious dogma. Not science.

 

[Davian]

The progress of science leads to the elimination of previously held false theories, the progress of religious evolution leads to the mortality of false God concepts. Both of these developments in the evolution of the cosmic economy served the purpose as the scaffolding for emerging truth.

If we had a record in a series of books spanning thousands of years of all that so called science speculated about concerning the material world, it would look just as convoluted as the current Bible book list.

Translation:

There is a mess of books and theories discarded by the self-correcting nature of scientific methodology.

The bible is a mess.

 

[Davian]

Former Atheist Academic Who Rejected God and Believed ‘Smart People Don’t Become Christians’ Reveals What Changed Her Mind Entirely



Former Atheist Academic Who Rejected God and Believed ‘Smart People Don’t Become Christians’ Reveals What Changed Her Mind Entirely | TheBlaze.com

Was it evidence that changed her mind?

 

[bhsmte]

How do you know that you aren't just imagining reality?

Well, I tend to rely on objective verifiable evidence. You know, the kind you can see, touch, measure and verify with outside means.

This tends to increase the probability (quite substantially), that I am accepting reality, as it is.

 

[Davian]

They will find the weakness of so called knowledge

What is "so-called" knowledge, and how does it differ from regular knowledge?

and return to a better quality of religion.

Like your particular religion, for example.

The doctrines of death just are not appealing to everyone.

What is a "doctrine of death"?

 

[Davian]

Something for those who come and those who go:

"Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings​

On loan? From whom?

for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence.

How was this "potential" established?

Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul — the morontia self — will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above.

the spirit-morontia energy system? What is that? Does that come in bottles or in tablet form?

Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity." UB

Someone else telling me what I think. Fail.

 

[Davian]

How do you know that you aren't just imagining reality?

Solipsism fails.

If the "reality" that I appear to be experiencing is imaginary, or a simulation, but I can still experiment on it and in it, and make reliable predictions, the difference is moot.

 

[PsychoSarah]

From the day that evolutionary man first became conscious of will God became responsive to the faintest flicker of faith.

Even if that was proven to be true, it wouldn't guarantee belief in the "right" god