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Defining Atheism & The Impossibility of God's Existance OUR ARGUMENTS Lets define Atheism (a=lack of, theism=belief of a god). . Therefor, someone who has lack of belief in a god, would be an Atheist. Like it or not, EVERYONE is an atheist one way or the other. Stephen Roberts once said, "I contend we are both Atheists. I just believe in one fewer God than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all other possible Gods, you will understand why i dismiss yours." By definition, if you say you do not believe in Yahweh, Allah, Judah, or Zeus, or whomever, you are an atheist.. “Lack of a belief in a god” is “not believing in any god”. Which is different to only believing in one God. The opposite of atheism according to this definition would be someone who believes in a god. Therefore, as someone with belief in a god, I am not an atheist. How can I be an atheist, and the opposite of an atheist, at the same time? It is not possible! Atheism, a dictionary definition, is belief that there is no God. But that is not of real importance. What is important, is the ability to be able to distinguish reality from primitive supernatural fantasy. There are two kinds of Atheists (strong and weak). There is also what is called an Agnostic. A weak atheist would say, "There is no evidence of God, so i do not believe in him." Thus they do not believe, because they have not seen, much like a unicorn, or dragon for example. A strong atheist would say, "There is no God, period." Strong atheists do not "disbelieve", but rather flat out deny the existance of God. An agnostic would say, "I do not know if god exists or not." Agnosticism (a=lack of, nosis=knowledge). Agnostics feel that you cannot deny, nor confirm the existance of God and that it cannot be proven, which makes them similar to weak atheists. What a person believes does not change God. For example because Agnostics don’t believe God exists it does not prevent God’s existence. If you have not made a choice about God’s existence he will treat you as though you don’t believe in Him. Which means you must face the full judgement of God. Here is God’s opinion of Agnostics : ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’ (Revelations 3:15,16) Don’t think that God is going to let you off just because you are a fence-sitter. ‘Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ (John 20:24 –29). AS people who are living 2000 years after Jesus death and resurection, we do not get to witness this event with our own eyes. We are forced to rely upon the reports of others who were there. In the same way, we rely upon the reports of others to prove the existence of histoircal figures, such as Napolean. Thre is much more reliable evidenc eabout the death and resurrection of Jesus than the evidence that Napolean ever existed! (www.christiananswers.net) I challenge you to disprove the resurrection, because I have faith in the evidence! . ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11:1). Most atheists are weak atheists. So what do i consider myself? I lean towards being a strong atheist being that I deny any existance of God based on universal facts and evidence. What is my evidence? Reality mostly. Lets take the christian (and Jewish) God of Yahweh for example. He is supposed to be the "perfect" god. The definition of perfect is, "complete, having no defect or fault, imperfect, flawless." If something is perfect, it is complete and needs nothing else. So how then did this perfect god create such imperfect humans? If something is perfect, nothing imperfect can come from it. Therefor, a perfect God who creates imperfect humans, is not possible. Humans were supposed to have been God's crown of his creation, created in his image. However, these humans spoiled the original perfection by choosing to disobey god. The only imperfection, is the God who created them. The chrisitans objection to this arguement is Freewill. That humans chose evil, and God had no control over this decision. This arguement is weak, considering that God is omnipotent, so the assumption that freewill is necessary for happiness is not true. Why would God create beings capable of ruining their own happiness? Not possible. Why didn't God create humans who did not have the ability to choose from evil, but maybe several good options? God did create perfect people (Genesis 1:31). As said, perfect can also mean complete, referring to our complete and perfect relationship with God, not tainted by sin. Imperfection occurred when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil (Genesis 3:2-7). Verse 4 and 5 says, ‘‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’’ God is perfect, not naive. He knows good and evil, and he chooses good: ‘God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all.’ (1 John 1:5). We gained the knowledge of good and evil after we were created, but we choose evil. God knew that we would choose evil if we gained this knowledge, and therefore die. (see Genesis 1: 16,17) He did give us several good options – an entire garden full of them – with one tree leading to knowledge, which we chose to use for evil. If the tree of good and evil had not been placed in the garden, then we would be a slave to God; we would have no choice to either obey or disobey him. God is omnipotent. He is all knowing. He knew even before He created us that we would rebel against him. So why did he bother to create us at all, if he would be so grieved by us? (Genesis 6:6) The answer to that is Gods love. We were not created because God needed us for anything, because He is perfect. We were created because Gods love is so good that he wanted to share it with us. Even after we ate from the tree, God still provided for us by giving us clothes to wear (Genesis 3:21). So God knew that we would be disobediant, but he planned for us to be reconciled to Him so we could share in this love, even before creation (John 1:1-4). God made us perfect. He knew that we would become imperfect, so He gave us Jesus so we could be perfect again. God is supposed to be all knowing, be able to see the future. Why didnt he see his own imperfection? You would think he would have known that it would have been better if humans werent born (The bible even says that in Genesis 6:6). If god is a compassionate being, then why did he create humans which he knows are doomed to suffer? See above… Why make the imperfect humans he created suffer in hell forever for sins that occur in such a short lifetime? That is unjust. Christians believe that people that do not believe in and accept the gospel of Jesus, will perish in eternal fire. It seems that this person has the ‘hollywood’ idea of Hell, of fire and a guy dressed in a red suit with horns, hooves and a big fork. Hell is actually separation from God, where sinners ‘will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power.’ (2 Thessalonians 1:9) This is not an Adam Sandler movie, this is reality! What about those people around the world who never heard the Gospel of Jesus? Or those who were raised in different cultures and different religions? No just God would ever judge a man by his beliefs, rather than his actions. ‘How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they had not heard?’ (Romans 10:14). God acknowledges that people who have not heard the gospel can not be expected to believe it. It is not clear in the Bible how God will judge these people, however God is just and loving and merciful. According to the bible, god experiences emotions (anger, sadness, happiness, ect.). A god who knows everything and knows the future cannot have emotions. We humans experience emotions from the element of surprise and new knowledge. For instance, a man who has a wife who is cheating on him will experience anger and sadness only after he has found out. Since god is omniscient and ignorant of nothing, there is no surprise, or new knowledge gained to which he would react emotionally. Humans show anger when something is wrong and cannot be fixed. God is perfect, can fix anything, therefor would have no anger. It is not possible for God to have emotion. When an event does not surprise you, it does not mean that it does not result in an emotional reaction. I know that you are going to die one day. It won’t surprise me when it happens, especially if you die of an illness which, say, gives you two weeks to live. When you do die, I will be upset.
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