...I am now atheist.

[ARTHANASIOS]

There are many opinions about the existence of evil and religions usually have two ways of dealing with it:
1st) God has no power over human's free will. In other words, God can't stop a person A from killing a person B because He would interact directly with the free will. In other words, God wants to help, but He can't when free will interferes.
2nd) Afterlife. This world is a test in every religion. Because of that, both good and evil things happen in this world, but in the end the good people are going to go to heaven and evil ones will fall into hell. In other words, evil in this word doesn't really matter, because justice will prevail in the afterlife.

 My point of view: I am an Orthodox Christian. However, i don't really care about afterlife, because a true believer loves the whole world as much as himself/herself, so he/she does the right thing because he/she likes it and believes to it. A true believer doesn't think "I have to do this because I will go to heaven, I mustn't do that because I will burn to hell" (in fact, this is self-interest and not true love), he/she rather thinks "I will do that becaue it is the right thing to do, I love people, so I am going to help people". I also don't care about evil deeds of others, because I don't really think I should judge them (since I am imperfect too), but I should persuade them to stop instead. Furthermore, despite of all the evilness in the word, I shouldn't think "everyone is evil, let me become evil too!", but I should try to remain faithful to the righteous way of altruism. That's my point of view and I think it is probably right (however, I have to admit I fail to live through my beliefs).

[artimies7]

There are many...
*wonderful snip*
...through my beliefs).

Love your neighbor!

[memimemi]

2nd) Afterlife. This world is a test in every religion. Because of that, both good and evil things happen in this world, but in the end the good people are going to go to heaven and evil ones will fall into hell. In other words, evil in this word doesn't really matter, because justice will prevail in the afterlife.

Not true.  Taoism, Wicca, Satanism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, and others, view this world as a thing to be reveled in, not as some sort of test.

Just a point of order.  Beware of assuming that other religions mirror your own - there is splendour in diversity!

[ARTHANASIOS]

2nd) Afterlife. This world is a test in every religion. Because of that, both good and evil things happen in this world, but in the end the good people are going to go to heaven and evil ones will fall into hell. In other words, evil in this word doesn't really matter, because justice will prevail in the afterlife.

Not true.  Taoism, Wicca, Satanism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, and others, view this world as a thing to be reveled in, not as some sort of test.

Just a point of order.  Beware of assuming that other religions mirror your own - there is splendour in diversity!

With "this world is a test in every religion" I was reffering to major, widespread, monotheistic religions, not to idolatric or not-so-known ones. Thanks for the correction.

[summerz88]

I really don't like talking about this because even christianity doesn't suggest that you should force you views on others, merely to help them "see the light."  (P.S. where ever I use quotes you can change this word to what is relevant to almost any religion)

I don't believe in any form of organised religion.  Any form of organised religion gives "power" to certain people, saying that you should follow religion X and that this person will help guide you, to my knowledge no scripture of any religion claims you should follow these people unless they are actual prophets, yet almost none of these people claim to be prophets, so if you believe in any particular religion 90% of their "men of the cloth" are misleading you even if its not intentional, because they can't truly know "god's" plan and intentions.

I believe that there is some form of "god" and "he" is the creator, I believe that such an entity would be capable of creating the universe, with what we call "science" and that evolution is merely his greatest tool (that we know of).

[memimemi]

I really don't like talking about this because even christianity doesn't suggest that you should force you views on others, merely to help them "see the light."  (P.S. where ever I use quotes you can change this word to what is relevant to almost any religion)

I don't believe in any form of organised religion.  Any form of organised religion gives "power" to certain people, saying that you should follow religion X and that this person will help guide you, to my knowledge no scripture of any religion claims you should follow these people unless they are actual prophets, yet almost none of these people claim to be prophets, so if you believe in any particular religion 90% of their "men of the cloth" are misleading you even if its not intentional, because they can't truly know "god's" plan and intentions.

I believe that there is some form of "god" and "he" is the creator, I believe that such an entity would be capable of creating the universe, with what we call "science" and that evolution is merely his greatest tool (that we know of).

Well said, summerz88; very well said, indeed.

[BluePriest]

Yeah, I used to be christian, but now I'm atheist.

The only problem is that the overly religious zealots in this world keep shoving christianity down my throat, and this guy managed to turn me away for good.

Sigh. And it's just not him.
People on facebook/youtube are being extremely ignorant to actual science. There are countless adults who believe god pulls everything to the ground, and not the sky, but could pull to the sky, when we know that won't happen cause of gravity. Some people don't even believe in the theory of evoloution, even though any sane person would believe in them.

No, I'm not hating on christians who are normal, I'm hating on the stupid, ignorant, dumb christian zealots who will proceed to shove their religion down my throat while being the extremely narrow minded people they are.

I am  ashamed of them.

(Insert "I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ON THIS PLANET ANYMORE." meme)

 Im tired of the "I dont believe in God because I dont like the idea of it" or "I dont believe in God because christians are illogical" statement. No offence, but you have to come to reality if you think something doesnt exist just because you dont like its followers or the idea of it. Thats perhaps one of the least scientific things there are.

On a side note, We dont actually know what causes things to pull down. We call the force gravity, and we know (this isnt exactly right, but Im just trying to make a point) that it pulls things towards the center, but we dont know why it does that. For all we know there is a God that follows order that pulls things down based on the mass of the object that they are on. I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS im just saying, that there is no proof to the contrary. inb4burdenofproof

As to the whole good vs evil and why do bad things happen, darkness is simply the absence of light. Evil in the world is simply the absence of God in them. Point to terrible things "christians" do such as the crusade, and I once again say the absence of God. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I have on my car.


I may be oversimplifying things because Im remembering a conversation I had with a friend, so I may be taking certain things for granted that I shouldnt.

On to the evolution link posted
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-the-lab.html

The bacteria stayed bacteria. That is all. I see nothing unbiblical with that.

[ARTHANASIOS]

 Bluepriest actually has some very good points there. The truth is that faith is personal...

[OldTrees]

I may be oversimplifying things because Im remembering a conversation I had with a friend, so I may be taking certain things for granted that I shouldnt.

On to the evolution link posted
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-the-lab.html

The bacteria stayed bacteria. That is all. I see nothing unbiblical with that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-domain_system
Bacteria is as broad as Eucaryota which contains both plants and animals. So saying the bacteria stayed bacteria is conceding too much.

Did the E coli stay E coli? No.
"the inability to use citrate is one of the traits by which bacteriologists distinguish E. coli from other species."
From a brief search, I had to go up to the Family "Enterobacteriaceae" to find citrate digesting relatives.
The family "Equidae" covers all equines from Zebras to Donkeys. This mutation is akin to a common ancestor of Zebras and Donkey's starting to split into the two separate species.
However the equine stayed an equine.

[BluePriest]

Im really not big into Evolution debates these days. People see what they want in it. To put it in simple terms, and now with an added addition to clarify, bacteria stayed bacteria. Meanwhile, if a poodle turned into doberman over 315k generations I would be equally unimpressed and unswayed in my stance.

ACtually, upon further review

However the equine stayed an equine.

sums it up well. Its just something that doesnt amaze me, and something that I once again, dont find as evidence for any evolutionary changes that I feel like would cause me to question my faith

[BeefSupreme]

As someone who's been on both sides and is now not on either, I've come to the belief that there are both complete assholes and genuinely nice people in both theism and atheism.

The problem is that many religions, especially Christianity, have a 'join us or you're doomed to eternal suffering' mentality that does not have a counterpart in atheism, thus making theist stupidity, for lack of a better term a lot more harsh than atheist stupidity.

I also recently converted from Christianity to Agnosticism.
My logic: Christians shove their religion down my throat and most are ignorant to their own religion.
Atheists are also (a lot of the time) shoving their beliefs down my throat whenever religion is brought up.
The ONLY thing we know FOR SURE is that we DON'T know for sure.

[destruct]

The ONLY thing we know FOR SURE is that we DON'T know for sure.

We know that God exists.  Here are five ways to prove it (see link).  Post if you find anything wrong with the logic. http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasfiveways_argumentanalysis.htm