Replies

Just because you say something is a myth does not make it so.

Of course not. But as a free person with no presuppositions, I can weigh the evidence and make the determination as to what is more likely.

Is it likely that mankind suffered under war, pestilence, disease, early death, and ignorance for hundreds of thousands of years, until Heaven finally says:

"Hmm, maybe it's time to get involved. And the best way to do that would be a solution that copies the other religious human blood sacrifice myths and scapegoating rituals that exist from Peru to Israel to the Far East, and we'll have it happen in a middle east backwater of already credulous people (not in China which was a much more advanced society), and it will work so that God sacrifices himself (or his son), to himself, it order to appease himself."

Perhaps one day you'll have the luxury of looking at Christianity from the outside in; only then can you really grasp the archaic gruesomeness of the idea.

Absent the Holy Spirit, people reject Jesus Christ. They hate him; the world that crucified Christ hated him. The fallen state of man is such that he hates and rejects God and his Law Word.

You don't even really understand the fundamentals of unbelief. I don't reject the God of Abraham or Jesus any more that I reject Zeus and Allah. They are all manmade religions when the evidence is considered in a universal context. If Christ existed, and I had lived during that time, I would not have hated him, and I would have spoken against the torture and murder of an eccentric preacher, and supported his right to say whatever he wished. Regardless of your subjective opinion, I had no say in, nor did I take part in, killing Jesus.

So you don't want to be punished. You reject the punishment. You even reject the reward ! I've heard children do this, as well as adults. I didn't want the ice cream anyway ! I hate ice cream !

Actually the opposite is true. It is childish to think that it all comes out well in the end because some father figure will make it all right. Like Paul said, when I was a child I thought as a child. Now I've put away childish things and understand that the world works in a certain manner, a manner which is perceivable by observation, and it's my responsibility to live in a way that minimizes suffering of others, because I can accept a world with less suffering is preferable to one with more suffering.

It is not childish to want to have a say in the justice system in which one lives. In fact, it's one of the prerequisites of a free man living in a free world. The authoritarian celestial dictatorship of monotheism is surprisingly unconservative and anti-liberty.

What's left out is the whole story of the two lives. This is an oversimplified hypothetically unjust situation, regarding which you then proceed to speak for God and say what his judgement would be, and that he would judge the situation unjustly. Even though God's Word says the penalty for such an offense would be death in a Christian nation.

The story of their two lives is irrelevant if what Christ said was true. He is the only way. It doesn't matter if the abused atheist kid spend his entire life volunteering to feed homeless children, and did nothing else, just like it's irrelevant that the priest hypothetically kept abusing until the last few seconds of his life, when he finally repented. They're both judged on their thoughts at the time of their death; the thought being do they accept Christ as their savior?

Don't start going all wobbly on your own doctrine.

In order to believe in God, one has to be convicted of one's own sin.

That is very, very painful for people to experience.

It isn't difficult or painful at all to know one is a very imperfect primate. Like all other homo sapiens I was "designed" with huge adrenal glands, a smaller than needed frontal lobe, and destructive urges as well as constructive ones (not to mention the beautifully 'designed' appendix and wisdom teeth, which had to be removed), and it's up to me and no one else to make sure that I live a life parallel with the happiness of my family and those around me.

To those who realize it, the lack of cosmic justice forces most to understand the tremendous responsibility to make sure that this life is a good one, instead of throwing it all to the wind and living like a libertine. Probably explains why the prisons are not filled with atheists.

Like that scene in Zero Dark Thirty where the head CIA analyst says "If you thought there was some secret cell somewhere working on this, I want you to know that you are wrong! This is it. There's no working group coming to the rescue. There's nobody else hidden away on some other floor. This is just us!"

Coming to the realization that this is what the evidence shows, my first feeling was a tremendous air of responsibility, not "Ice cream!".

it's my responsibility to live in a way that minimizes suffering of others,

When I had some athiest friends, years ago, and was moving in that direction, I didn't feel I had any responsibility towards people I didn't know. Is that a new athiest law ? What's this "my responsibility" ? What cosmic force gives you a responsibility ? Kids starving ? I laughed my butt off when Sam said "why don't you feed him, Bob, you're only five feet away !".

because I can accept a world with less suffering is preferable to one with more suffering

Why ? What does the suffering of other people have to do with you if you didn't cause their suffering ? Yer guilt-trippin' me man.

I live a life parallel with the happiness of my family and those around me

Family is important to many people; criminal families always live by that rule. Blood is thicker than water. Found that out the hard way.

forces most to understand the tremendous responsibility to make sure that this life is a good one

Eat, drink and be merry ! Let's define what's good, and make sure we live up to it. We'll hold our feet to the fire.

instead of throwing it all to the wind and living like a libertine

Why not ? What's wrong with living like a libertine ? Who appointed you arbiter of taste ? If I was an athiest, I'd be offended that you want to subject me to your particular moral standards. A good athiest should be able to do whatever they want as long as they abide by their own rules. Like you like to take care of your family. That's fine for you, but other athiests may hate their family, and maybe want to simply express themselves, or get rich and live the good life with good friends. I hope you're not one of those self-appointed moralists in athiest's clothing.