Common Atheists' Myths

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/atheists_myths.html ^

[truthfinder9]

Introduction

I know that Christians are supposed to be the ones who believe a lot of myths. However, the vast majority of atheists believe myths such as religion is the primary cause of wars, and the vast amount of atrocities have been caused by religious people, the Bible has been vastly changed over the centuries, Paul invented Christianity, and the list goes on and on. Find your favorite myth below and read the article so that you won't embarrass yourself in the future.

Atheists' Myths

• Atheists have Proven God Does Not Exist. Right? - Only if that god is not the God of the Bible
• Religion is the Cause of All (Most) of the World's Problems - Religion is not even close to being the leading cause suffering in the world. In fact, atheists have been responsible for most of it within the last 100 years.
• Are Most Wars the Result of Religious Belief? - Religion is implicated in less than 7% of all wars over the entire written history of mankind.
• Is Christianity a Made-up Myth Written by the Disciples? - Now really - would the disciples write about all their shortcomings, make the Christian church into a female, design heaven with no sex in it, and say that they were going to be married to Jesus in heaven? I don't know about you guys, but this is not what I would have written if I had made up the Bible!
• Paul Invented Christianity? Is the Founder of the Christian Religion Paul of Tarsus or Jesus of Nazareth? All Paul's core teachings were also taught by Jesus and the disciples, and are even found in the Old Testament.
• Misquoting Jesus: Does Bart Erhman Prove the New Testament is Corrupt? - Contrary to Erhman's claims, the New Testament canon was established in the early second century, and scribal errors/changes did not affect any significant Christian doctrine.
• The Christian Church Was Never Really Persecuted - Were all the reported persecutions of Christians were made up by the Christian church?
• The Bible Has Been Changed Over the Centuries From the Original? - Sorry, the manuscript evidence doesn't support this idea at all.
• Jesus Christ as God and the Trinity Was Not Invented Until the Fourth Century? Contrary to the claims of The Da Vinci Code, even secular sources indicate that Christians worshipped Jesus Christ as God no later than 113 A.D.
• This Joyful Eastertide: A Critical Review of The Empty Tomb (2006) - Has the resurrection been proven false? )
• The Universe Just Happened Without Any Need For a Designer - For all those who expect to win at lotto!
• There is No Evidence For the Fine Tuning of the Universe - The cosmological constant (dark energy) shows this belief to be false
• "The Lost Tomb of Jesus": Have the Bones of Jesus Christ Been Found? Only if Jesus had his ossuary inscribed when He was 2 years old!
• Omnipotence is Logically Impossible? Atheists attempt to define God out of existence through illogical arguments
• The Universe is Eternal - Contrary to atheist's claims, the majority of scientists state as fact that the universe had a beginning.
• Only Stupid People Believe in God - A large number of famous scientists believed in God, many being devout Christians
• The Roman Catholic Church's Condom Policy is Responsible For the Spread of HIV and the AIDS Crisis in Africa - Actually, HIV infection rates are lower in Catholic-dominated countries!
• The Myth of the Flat Earth by Jeffrey Burton Russell - The "history" that Christians taught a flat earth was not invented until the 19th century. (off site)
• People are Basically Good - Proof to the Contrary
• Jesus didn't really die on the Cross? - The old swoon theory doesn't hold up to historical/medical reality.
• Hitler was a Christian? - This seems like a no brainer, but there are free-thinkers who think he was. (off site)
• Jesus and Adolf Hitler - The new (and improved?) German Jesus (off site)
• Are Atheists and Theists Morally Equivalent? Aren't atheists morally superior to theists?
• Atheism Doesn't Lead to Immoral Behavior - Or Does It? In theory it doesn't, but in practice...
• Atheism and Humanism Provide Hope for the Future - The ultimate "hope" of atheism is eternal entropy as the universe loses all ability to perform work, and all life, consciousness, and knowledge is eternally destroyed.
• The Bible Teaches a Flat Earth Covered by a Solid Dome
• Teaching Religion to Children is a Form of Child Abuse? Dawkins's hypothesis is falsified.
• BLOODLINE: Serious Documentary or Hollywood Hoax? - by Gordon Franz MA
• Debunking Dawkins: The God Delusion
  • Debunking Dawkins: The God Delusion Chapter 1: A deeply religious non believer - Deception, lies, and misrepresentations.
  • Debunking Dawkins: The God Delusion Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis - Failure to support debunked assertions, quoting out-of-context, and a desire to escape moral accountability.
  • Debunking Dawkins: The God Delusion Chapter 4: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God - Richard Dawkins' Ultimate Boeing 747 argument is shown to be formally fallacious.
• The Universe Just Created Itself Out of Nothing - Why Stephen Hawking is wrong about God not creating the universe.
• Book Review: The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris - Sam Harris claims that science can determine human values, but just resorts to ranting about religion.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

More Answers

• Answers for Atheists and Agnostics
  • Criticisms of God's Character from Atheists and Agnostics
  • Criticisms of God on the Basis of the Existence of Evil and Suffering
  • Religion is Stupid
  • Bad Christians
  • Bible and Science Criticisms
  • Answers to Bible Contradictions
  • Skeptics' Objections to Christianity
  • No Evidence of the Supernatural?

[James C. Bennett]

It’s the inability to differentiate between the suffering of the father and the suffering of the innocent child by the said deity that makes it unable to fit the definition of perfect justice, mercy and kindness. This is my personal disagreement that I am yet to find a satisfactory reconciliation for.

In my view, an innocent life was made to suffer greatly for absolutely no fault of its own. Fallen or not, the suffering of the child was wholly due to a said divinity inflicting it upon it. That is immoral, and unjust.

Reciprocal punishments are never just, because they are never equal in penalty. A life for a life is meaningless and unjust because it amounts to punishing the innocent. For the individual child that lost its life, what was its recourse? Another life? Remember, it too suffered unjustly. An eye for an eye, and the whole world will be blind.

[kosta50]

That's easy. I define God as that being possessing the traits revealed in Christian scripture

Why should I accept that as the official truth any more than the definition of someone else?

[kosta50]

circlecity, I lived in Japan for six years and they have their own morality which is not based on the Judeao-Chirsitian God, but on the fabric of the society. That which is perceived as tearing the social order apart, creating insecurity, panic, fear, etc. is considered bad and that which doesn't as good.

The crime rate in pagan Japan is much, much lower than in Christian America. I have seen women walking home after work at 1 AM. Where can you see that in our cities? Their first graders walk home after school.

When we reach that state of morality, call me.

[caww]

I think if you would do a study of sin it might be helpful....God’s instructions are there to ‘protect us’ because no one knows the destructed course of sin as much as God does. which is why we are given the perameters of life and how we should live it.

Also a thorough study of David’s sin and why it was so grievious.

I do know that sin will always touch those in our life we most love though we foolishly think we can protect them from it. Comes to mind now..”Be sure your sin will find you out”.

In David’s sin there were many things which led up to that.. where He could have stopped the path he was on. In the end it cost two people their very life’s and positioned others to be part of the deception...who were also impacted. Let’s not forget the wife of the man David had killed...and what that ment to a woman in that time.
The list can go on but look closer at this...and how God views sin.

[caww]

Below is a good place to begin in understanding the death of David’s son...perhaps this will help.

http://www.apologeticspress.com/articles/3400

[reasonisfaith]

“Another problem is that you can’t have an entity create something without the entity itself being under the realm of time.”

This statement is false.

If the entity created time (which is highly plausible if God as Omnipotent Creator is true), he could have excluded himself from being subject to the realm of time.

[reasonisfaith]

One of the most common signs that a person is losing an argument is his attempt to obscure definitions.

[circlecity]

W"hy should I accept that as the official truth any more than the definition of someone else?"

Obviously you will choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I was asked to provide a definition and I gave one. I ascribe the definition I do because it is the only one that comports with and explains human experience.

[circlecity]

"circlecity, I lived in Japan for six years and they have their own morality which is not based on the Judeao-Chirsitian God, but on the fabric of the society."

The Japaneese morality is the exact same morality as the Judean-Christian morality. What they choose to ascribe it to is another thing all together but the social mores and intrinsic moral values of right and wrong are the same. That they may do a better job as a society of living up to them is of no moment as to what they are or where they come from. I note that from 1900 to 1945 Japan was one of the most vicious, cruel barbarous societies on earth. Ask China or anyone that survived the Bataan death march. The same essential morals - fixed objective morals - are placed in every man's heart by God, whether they choose to acknowledge him or not. The Bible says most men will choose to deny him and will run from him.

[kosta50]

I appreciate your definition, but I didn't ask for a definition. I asked what is God (deity), not what you define as one. If I ask what is the sun, and you say it's a star that is not your definition but description of what the sun really is., not what you believe or hope it might be.

[circlecity]

"I asked what is God (deity), not what you define as one."

The two are the same. And the answer I gave was as detailed as could be possible - and it was God's defintion of himself. If God is as I answered then all man could ever know of him, by definition, is that which he chooses to reveal. Finitium non capax infinitium. (the finite cannot comprehend the infinite)

[kosta50]

The Japaneese morality is the exact same morality as the Judean-Christian morality

No it's not. Their concept of right and wrong is completely different.

What they choose to ascribe it to is another thing all together but the social mores and intrinsic moral values of right and wrong are the same

What intrinsic moral values?

I note that from 1900 to 1945 Japan was one of the most vicious, cruel barbarous societies on earth. Ask China or anyone that survived the Bataan death march

Different society, different morals. Slavery was not considered immoral by many, if not most Christians for centuries. Then, all of a sudden epiphany! Polygamy was not considered immoral in biblical times, why is it now?

The same essential morals - fixed objective morals - are placed in every man's heart by God, whether they choose to acknowledge him or not

Is that fact? Because it's in the Bible? Fine, if you want to believe it, that's your prerogative, but just because you believe something doesn't make it universally true. If you are going to make statements of faith as statements of fact you better have some hard evidence to prove them.

[Skooz]

bump for later

[LowOiL]

Good luck. BTW, all the provided links say "does not exist on this server."

You have to recode the HTML to work on FR and that takes a ton of time. You can simply go to the web site referenced at the top of the original poster's article and follow to the web site and ALL the links work there.

Someday post a complicated post on FR with lots of links and see how well it works for you.

[Cyclops08]

An atheist is a finite creature. He cannot know everything.
So the atheist, armed with that lack of knowledge must take —a leap of faith— to say there is no God.

With the atheists I’ve come to know the issue was never one of unbelief, the underlying issues were always: REBELLION.

Some atheists are cool with things.
But the others, who hate and seek to quell all expression of faith, those are the one who actually believe in God, but are furious that God doesn’t do things their way. This type will shake with rage if you stand up to them and demand they embrace diversity.

[kosta50]

The two are the same.

No it's not, because "God" means different things to different people. That means "God" is whatever people believe God is, not necessarily what, or even if God is.

I gave was as detailed as could be possible - and it was God's defintion of himself

In your mind. You have no proof that that is God's definition of himself. It's what you and some people choose to believe. Other people believe something else, and they believe their faith is the true faith just as I presume you do about yours. That doesn't make it true.

If you said "I believe God is such and such" that would be one thing, but to make it a matter of fact is another. But then I didn't ask what you believe God is; rather, I asked what is God (what is divine), and you told me what you believe God is.

I don't doubt or have problems with your faith. But you seem to think that just because you believe something it must be true.

[circlecity]

" Their concept of right and wrong is completely different."

Really? of the 10 Commandants, numbers 5-10 deal with how man should relate to man - which of these do the Japanese reject? None. They acknowledge all of these because they intrinsic to every man's heart.

"Different society, different morals"

And what is the difference post 1945? It's the introduction of western Christian culture.

"Slavery was not considered immoral by many, if not most Christians for centuries."

It was Christianity, based on Christian morals, which led the fight to abolish slavery in every western society. Polygamy has immoral since Adam and Eve and this was reiterated in the 10 Commandments and the teachings of Jesus. It was always immoral. That's why God finally wiped out Israel and the Jews spent 70 years in Bablylonian captivity - they refused to follow God's commands. The inability of individuals or even societies to live up to the fixed morals of the creator does not mean the absence of the same. Every polygamist in the Bible suffered for it.

If you are going to make statements of faith as statements of fact you better have some hard evidence to prove them.

I do have hard evidence. Although every epistemology must start with certain unprovable axioms, (even empiricism) even these can be corroborated by human experience itself. The evidence is there for anyone who truly wants to look at and for it.

[circlecity]

"I don't doubt or have problems with your faith. But you seem to think that just because you believe something it must be true."

And you are agruing that because others don't believe it, it can't be true. If someone chooses not to believe 2+2=4 that doesn't make it false. You can't "prove" the entire creation wasn't created 5 minutes ago with everyone's memories created as the now are. That doesn't mean I have to accept this could be true. We can't "prove" any of the basic axioms of logic or the basic axioms of Euclidian geometry. But we accept them as true. There is fixed truth, whether one chooses to accept it is up to them. And they suffer the benefits and consequences of their decision.

[Notary Sojac]

"Only a few years ago, people who thought God too good to punish in eternal flames an unbaptized child were considered infamous."

Robert Ingersoll, 1876

[Logic n' Reason]

". . . but the only gods I do know of are man-made."

I agree.