Atheism - A Question of God

Writer: Dennis Sweatt - June 08, 2013
 
Derived from my discussions with Christians, I have constructed a thesis based on what the believers believe about non-believers.

'Christian Conservative' dogma: “The difference between believing in God and not believing in God is the simple distinction of assigning a cause. Those that believe in God believe there was a causative agent that set forth the miracle of creation, which spoke the universe into existence. Those that don't believe in God conversely believe all that exists is simply a matter of accident.”  

Atheist non-dogma: "No claim can be made there is a God, as no claim can be made there isn't one. The origin of the universe is still in question but measurable causes such as thermal dynamics, expansion, redshift, and entropy are extensively more acceptable than an unproven deity.

A theory is the highest form of understanding and intentionally questioned and peer-reviewed in the avoidance of absolutism.

Absolute claims require absolute evidence and no one is absolutely sure of the origin of the universe."

This is one of those dividing assumptions that create a chasm between your theologies’ and the rest of us.

As atheists, we are open to causation for the universe, just not some spaghetti monster in the sky value to creation. Perhaps there is a prime mover of all things but do you actually believe sheepherders in the desert are the arbiters of this knowledge?

Men wrote the bible, it isn't the WORD of God; it is the assumptive hearsay of men. If God is infinite, then the creation of the universe wasn't a miracle, it was just on the 'to do' list.

“The Bible was not handed to mankind by God, nor was it dictated to human stenographers by God. It has nothing to do with God. In actuality, the Bible was VOTED to be the word of God by a group of men during the 4th century.

According to Professor John Crossan of Biblical Studies at DePaul University the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (274-337 CE), who was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity, needed a single canon to be agreed upon by the Christian leaders to help him unify the remains of the Roman Empire. Until this time the various Christian leaders could not decide which books would be considered "holy" and thus "the word of God" and which ones would be excluded and not considered the word of God.” 

Source: http://www.deism.com/bibleorigins.htm

Christians, you have formed an assumption, based on zero research, that those atheist ' nonbelievers' believe we are here by chance. But most egg heads and philosophers do not think the universe was an accident. You yourself are an atheist, although perhaps unaware of it.

"The truth is, you know exactly what it is like to be an atheist with respect to the beliefs of Muslims. Isn't it obvious that Muslims are fooling themselves? Isn't it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe has not read the book critically? Isn't it obvious that the doctrine of Islam represents a near perfect barrier to honest inquiry? Yes, these things are obvious. Understand that the way you view Islam is precisely the way devout Muslims view Christianity. And it is the way I view all religions." Sam Harris – Open Letter to Christians

I was there 

Grace Baptist church, Tracy California; saved, devout, baptized of my own volition, as religious as any of you from the age of 10 to15yrs old. I went to church camp, choir, summer school, events, baptisms, sermons.

I left the church because of blatant hypocrisy, but I did not leave the 'indoctrination' until I was 45. That's how long it took to overcome the fear of it, and like a tumor remove the guilt of god.

If a man was actually allowed into some kind of heaven, a passing through the veil, Christians I have met would fall far short of the requirements described in the scripture they call holy.

Where is the Christian man who will suffer even 20 days, let alone 40, in the desert in meditation to contemplate this holy father?

Devotion was lost when Christ was presumably crucified for our sins. The Christian has but to apologize to his invisible father figure and begin anew. How is this considered moral accountability?

Easy Peasy

I have been told that I am already saved because of my baptism.
Are you kidding, I winked at a Lotto Machine and won the whole jackpot?

I tell just about everyone within listening distance, I am atheistic and take the time to explain how they are the ones who are lost, and why. They call me the angry atheist but when you are the only one standing in a field of lost sheep and they are all wearing iPod's from heaven with the music turned up to 10, it gets frustrating.

There's no devotion because there isn't any worry about ascension.

Why would there be, it's all taken care of for me?
This is the easiest religion on the planet. Perfect for recruiting (!)
But listen to them go on about the war on Christmas like they are real martyrs, oh how they suffer from the thorny crowns of their imagination. Jesus was beaten to within an inch of his life and the best you can do to stop the decline in Christian followers is to bitch about a commercial holiday. Jesus would be so proud.

Infinite regression

How could the universe have begun unless God had sprung in action?
But who sprung God?
Which came first, the spring maker or the spring?

Perhaps what we really worship, and what we actually fear, is the infinite. Maybe the forever is so scary we were forced to create a father figure to tell us it will be ok.

But if we had created God in the now, would God have been a woman?

Wouldn't it be far more soothing to be coddled out of our dread of death by a motherly figure instead of a grumpy grandpa with a white beard and ironically white skin who would drown mothers, infants, the elderly in a great flood, out of a rage?

Of course, you may actually have faith, an unshakable belief that ‘He who is I am’ is everywhere, watching over you.

Maybe you have faith because you have an unanswerable question.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

If it cannot discover the claims to existence of the objects of its questioning, it will deny them all reality, the mere formulation of the problem already implying an inclination to negative solutions.

But in so doing it will become void of all positive content and, finding nothing which offers it resistance, will launch itself perforce into the emptiness of inner revery. 

Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)