How to talk to an atheist (and you must)

Townhall.com ^ | January 24, 2005 | Mike S. Adams

[PleaseNoMore]

I wondered the very same thing... :o)

[Stone Mountain]

True atheists are pretty rare. At least in the places I have lived. Most people that I meet who think they are or claim to be usually turn out to be agnostics.

Please check out post 537 - which of these do you consider a true atheist?

[missyme]

Well I guess we can say this People who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of GOD and some people beleive he is not

WHY? because they come to an understanding of what they choose to believe from a religious point of view.


I beleive in Jesus Christ first because of a personal experience I had in knowing him after that what was in the Bible about him made me a believer. It was a choice.

Denying the exsistence of GOD is warpped and I feel sad for the people like MM that have no use for there soul other than fish eating there bodily flakes.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

Why are you so complacent in defending MM Atheism?

I'm not defending his atheism. I'm defending his right to it.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

I wondered the very same thing... :o)

Great minds, etc. :-)

[SedVictaCatoni]

It didn't do so well in Israel at its creation, but it was a big hit in Rome and Greece, where the panoply of deities was getting tedious.

Roman society at the time of the emergence of Christianity was actually suffering from a widespread religious vacuum. During the reign of Augustus, which wrapped around the beginning of our era, the Emperor tried desperately to revive traditional Roman religion, much of which had been forgotten or was essentially ignored by his contemporaries. His attempts succeeded largely in politicizing religion - Romans of a century earlier were happy to worship Jove because they revered him; Romans of the first century A.D. were happy to worship Augustus because it scored political points.

Christianity burst into this spiritual vacuum the way that Islam is doing in modern-day Europe. Other cults (such as that of Isis, Cybele, Mithras, etc.) did so as well; over the course of the next four centuries, Christianity defeated all rivals and attained near-monopoly on Roman religious practice.

It is therefore inaccurate to say that the Romans adopted Christianity because their complex religious traditions had grown "tedious" or because they were burdensome. It's more accurate to say that they adopted Christianity because they no longer found their traditional practices meaningful, and had drifted into agnosticism.

[MineralMan]

"Is there a little masochism lurking beneath that very controlled surface? ;-)"

I'll have to get back to you later. I need to take my hair shirt out of the dryer and pick up my scourge at the leather shop, where it's being repaired.

[MineralMan]

Read up a message or two....[grin]

[missyme]

Do you defend the right of a woman to abort her babies?
Do you defend the rights of homosexuals to Marry?
And you defend the right of Atheists?

My question to you is does GOD defend those rights?

[annalex]

I just don't feel that our government should be getting involved in matters such as what is obnoxious or what is blasphemous.

Ah, OK. Surely not this government. I can accept this as a statement of what modern governments are unable to do due to the cultural limitations. In principle, however, it should not be difficult to delineate between merely obnoxious and grossly insulting.

[missyme]

I understand...I know I have to work on those issues I have in getting or letting people upset me, I am a sinner and I need GOD daily and for eternity.

[annalex]

[The Christian Canon is] the product of a committee

True. That committee is the Catholic Church, which canonized the Christian oral apostolic tradition.

[MineralMan]

Another good analysis, I think. By tedious, I meant that polytheism was no longer relevant to their society. As knowledge grew, it was tough to believe in those oh-so-human deities. So, we're both right, in a way.

Christianity was tailor-made for Rome, and of course, for the rest of Europe, as Rome went a-conquering. A perfect fit.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

LOL I think you've earned a reprieve from the self-flagellation.

[MineralMan]

"Do you defend the right of a woman to abort her babies?
Do you defend the rights of homosexuals to Marry?
And you defend the right of Atheists?
"

Oh, missyme, you're confused again here. The first two have to do with actions. The last has to do with belief. There's a big difference between having an abortion or two gays getting married and disbelieving in deities. Beliefs are not actions; they're just beliefs.

[Stone Mountain]

In principle, however, it should not be difficult to delineate between merely obnoxious and grossly insulting.

Perhaps in principle, but it's never going to be possible in practice... Heck, they can't even come up with a good definition of porn, let alone something as nebulous as obnoxious!

[MineralMan]

"True. That committee is the Catholic Church, which canonized the Christian oral apostolic tradition."

Well, sort of, anyhow. They canonized part of it, at least. There's lots more that didn't make it into the New Testament, it seems.

The biggest puzzle to me is how the heck they decided to include Revelation. There's an oddity for you.

The RCC assembled the New Testament out of bits and pieces, moving them around and fiddling with them until it matched up with their beliefs at the time. It's a great story, and one that has affected Christianity enormously.

I wonder if the historical Jesus would recognize what has become of his teachings...

[MineralMan]

Awww...do I have to stop. It hurts so good.

[MineralMan]

Alas, I must hie me away from this thread, for I have kitchen duty. It's been fun, but let's not continue it into tommorow, OK?

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

I read that somewhere....[grin]

[mugs99]

The best place to look is the people who knew him best. The early church.

That opens a can of worms. Saint Irene Ignatious of Antioch is one of the founding fathers of Christianity, yet he writes about his trip to visit Jesus in Afghanistan. He attempted to talk Jesus into returning to lead the church founded in his name. Jesus refused.

When you follow that lead, you find that Jesus died an old man of 100 in India. He was wed to Mari and had many children. The decendants of his followers, still to this day, pilgrimage to his tomb every year.
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