Jacques Taillefer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brian Cearlock<\/a>, I gave my life to Jesus years ago and took it back many years later. I was a Christian, and now I'm an atheist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think I can use Facebook Evangelism as a means to learn. It's not the same as real life evangelism because on Facebook, like correspondence, you get to take your time to think and research. This started when Brian said … Continue reading
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I started to be uncomfortable with this way of thinking during a discussion with a friend who was studying theology and philosophy. Slowly I began to realize that any devout follower of any sect or religion had precisely the same state of mind that I had and that there was no way to know who was right or wrong. A devout sect member KNOWS that he holds the truth precisely as I KNEW I had the truth. The truth seemed to be relative and subjective.
It was challenging. It took me over ten years to get out of it. Remember that I believed doubt was a tool used by the devil. When doubt came, I was praying God to push out the devil. But at the same time, I realized that doubt was also necessary to get out of a religious sect. I could be in a religious sect. I then realized that doubt was the one thing I couldn't eliminate.
Today, I doubt everything, and yes, I always doubt my atheism. I could be wrong.
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Top fanJacques Taillefer<\/a>Timothy Law<\/a>\u00a0I don't mind at all. I would love it.
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In a way you are right: \"If we were not conscious of our existence and of our death we wouldn\u2019t have this need to believe in God.\" Man does create god, in fact, men created many gods. But these would only be false gods by definition, whether because of the fear of death or not. That doesn't really put a dent in the denial of God's existence. By the very definition of God, it would make more sense that God created us in His image, than we create God in our image. What some called \"evolved quality\" in man is actually the likeness and image of God in us. I'm not denying science, but the theory of evolution with or without God in the picture still have too much unanswered questions - you can't just conclude the ifs and maybes, educated guesses and statistical extrapolation as science. 99.999% still does not equal 100% certainly. Faith yes maybe, but not science.
I think we fear death not just because we value our existence, but because we know we did not live up to certain standards, might as well call it God's standards. So in fact, it's not \"we mostly believe in God because we fear death\" but rather \"we fear death because we ALL believe there is some God out there\". And we try to drink ourselves from this worry by making up false gods with our mental gymnastics = whatever feel good beliefs, whether it's in denials or whether it's to do certain sacrificial rituals. However, that doesn't mean there is no true God, just because you see so many false gods around and sometimes even in churches.
As for the problem of evil, the Bible reveals that the sufferings in the world are not just because of our sin, but the just CURSE on mankind due to Adam's fall, which I believe you are aware of, which does not excuse children\/infants from being sinners. We are all born sinners. Just like mosquito larvae are all \"born\" disgusting blood-suckers. The wages of sin is death, so it's just a matter of different timing for everyone: some die younger, some die older, but nonetheless, all sinners should die in their sins as sinners, regardless the time, regardless the method of death, no one, not even children\/infants are truly innocent. However, because God is all-loving, we are given the opportunity to do something about it, to care for the more helpless sinners and such, and witness some minuscule drop of God's love in this cursed world. If God is God, then He is beyond space and time and they therefore are mere creation of His we are in. We are but temporal characters in His story, endowed with His likeness and image, and according to the Bible, apparently love us enough to sacrifice Himself in place of our sins, that is if you still care enough about all this, to be reconciled and spend eternity with Him, which is why He created you in the first place.
All I see is only more joy and beauty in knowing God, nothing is forced. In fact, those who end up in hell for eternity are really their own choosing in their nature since birth. Ultimately, hell is really just where you don't want to have anything to do with God Himself, and God respect your free will enough to oblige.
Hope I'm not talking to much here, not my usual FB thing to do. Meanwhile, enjoy your day and weekend!!!<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"