What Christianity or ANY religion sounds like to an atheist watch!
youtube.com — Christians don't seem to realize that convincing an atheist of God's love is like trying to convert your pet cat into a toaster - it won't work, it will never happen, and you'll just end up with fur balls all over the carpet. Here's what the bible sounds like to atheists - Atheist Eye for the Christian Guy you might call it.
Autotoxic- 24 diggs
- digg it
- slothlovechunk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2This is awful, and I'm as atheist as they come.
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -13/+5http://www.ex-atheist.com/spirit-of-jesus-christ.html
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THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
by
A.S.A. Jones
Jesus Christ didn't come for the righteous; He came for the morally crippled, like me. I had taken my atheism to its extreme and had effectively destroyed my conscience in the process. If men are but animals, then there is no reason for them not to act like animals, and if this life is a meaningless product of chance, then morality is an illusion. I no longer even thought of murder as being wrong; laws were established to prevent it, and most people would agree that it was wrong to murder, but why? People would say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I saw two things wrong with that statement. First of all, I was to the point where nothing mattered to me and I didn't really care what happened to me. If I were to get knifed or beat up, it was all the same to me. Feeling pain reminded me that I was alive. I'd deal with the pain, and if I got killed, I wouldn't have to deal with anything. Secondly, there is no logic in that statement because there is no guarantee that we will get treated the same way that we treat others and, therefore, there is no reason to treat others well. Even the punishment for murder lost its meaning; A meaningless life spent behind bars is as meaningless as a life spent elsewhere.
I got to 'know' Jesus Christ through reading the gospels that described Him. What more is a man than the sum total of his character and actions? These are things that can be made known to us through the written word and it was through text that I gave my trust to this beautiful character of Jesus Christ. He restored to me that which my reason had destroyed. While some people think that Jesus was just a good man, that position is inadequate; the concept of water can't put out a fire. It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, when one acknowledges Him as God, that gives meaning to the law, and that provides us with the motivation and strength to keep the law. The law has no meaning when it is taken outside of the context of divine authority.
HYPOCRISY OF ATHEISM
Almost every religion attempts to establish a 'spirit of the law', but atheism seeks to destroy the spiritual. In doing so, it chips away at the very thing that allows a good and ordered society to exist. The atheist is taking the morality of mankind for granted, unwisely forgetting the influence that religion has had in creating the culture in which he now lives. It isn't that atheists haven't any morals, but that they have no logical reason for having a preferable set of ethics.
Let's say that you find yourself stranded forever on a deserted island with one other individual. This other person is frail and of no practical use for your mutual survival. He is a loud mouth, an instigator, and he eats a lot. He even steals some of your food and the food supply is scarce. He's totally defenseless and a nuisance. Give a logical reason for not killing him.
An atheist criticizes a Christian for having an illogical belief in God, yet he can produce no logical reason for not killing this man. He can try to give a reason such as, "He is my genetic brother," but this doesn't stand up to logic. Why would it be wrong to kill your genetic brother? There is no logical reason, but you can see the atheist trying to give a spiritual reason. He is actually resorting to the 'brotherhood of man' as a reason not to kill this man. This is a spiritual reason, not a logical one. On the other hand, a Christian can simply use his 'illogical belief in God' to provide a very logical reason for not killing the man; "My Lord tells me to love him. My Lord wouldn't approve of me killing him." An atheist can't defend his own illogical belief without being a hypocrite when he criticizes belief in God as illogical.
BLAMING IT ON GOD
Skeptics are very fond of pointing out the news in which Mr. John Bornagain murders his family of five, all in the name of God. They use this as an example of what faith in God can lead to. Obviously, Mr. John Bornagain is misusing his Christian faith as an excuse for doing the very type of thing that it is meant to prevent, however, skeptics will use this as good reason why the Christian faith must be destroyed. Logically, this argument fails; A hammer can be used to fix things or it can be misused to destroy things, yet no one would suggest that we throw away all of the hammers. Atheists will claim that no one ever kills another person in the name of atheism, but this is an absurd statement because there is no personification of atheism by which to attach a name. The only reason an atheist needs to give for committing such an atrocity is, "Because I felt like it."
Marx saw religion as an obstacle to the perfect communal society, and therefore strongly advocated atheism as part of his philosophies. This principle, among others, drove Mao Tse Tung to kill around 20 million of his own people in China. This makes him responsible for shedding the blood of more people than any other single human being in the history of the world - certainly worse than Hitler. It is just as easy to attribute this behaviour to "killing in the name of Atheism" as it is to describe the Crusades as killing in the name of God or Christianity.
The sort of attitude displayed by Marx isn't that far removed from modern anti-Christian atheists, who see Christianity as a threat to their way of life. Consider the words of Richard Dawkins, author and professor: "Those of us who have for years politely concealed our contempt for the dangerous collective delusion of religion need to stand up and speak out. Things are different now." (http://www.ffrf.org/dawkins.html). Incidentally, it is very amusing to see Dawkins, at this site, attack various religions for labeling each other and pointing the finger at each other, while he blindly labels religious people and points his finger at them.
At http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Catalano/quotes.htm, Dawkins compares religion to a mental infection; "The patient typically finds himself compelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as 'faith.' " Someone should inform Dawkins that what he has described is also known as a 'conscience'. In effect, he has just compared having a conscience to having a disease. I'm forever amazed at the stupidity that pours from intelligent men when they try to destroy Christianity.
These statements, referring to religion as a 'dangerous and collective delusion', and coming up with a theory that religious people have been infected by thought viruses, are not far off from those of Hitler concerning the Jews. How much of a step is it from identifying a threat to your way of life, to taking steps to remove the threat? It is this way of thinking that gave birth to the Mao Tse Tungs and Stalins of this world.
MORE ATHEIST HYPOCRISY
I've had skeptics tell me, "You were never really an atheist." When I produced people who could vouch for my past, they then said, "Well, you may have been an atheist, but you couldn't possibly have been an INFORMED atheist." These are the same people who will sneer when, after pointing out to you that Hitler was a Christian, you make the comment, "He was never a REAL Christian."
I always get a kick from skeptics who say that Christianity is evil and then criticize me, when I am guilty of bad behavior, for acting, 'unchristian'.
One of the most stupid comments that I hear coming from the 'more intellectual than thou' crowd is, "Religion is the opiate of the masses and serves no purpose except to make the masses content, thus preventing riots." Well, unless the person saying this lives in a castle with a moat around it, if they truly believed that statement, they would not utter it.
THE HYPOCRISY OF GOD?
Years ago, there was a fiery crash that claimed the lives of a woman and her children, returning from a church function, here in Greensburg. I used to use such tragedy to try to demonstrate to Christians that their God had failed them. Didn't God say that He protected the faithful from harm? Wasn't God being a hypocrite when He allowed such things to happen?
After I found truth, I realized that God does protect the faithful from harm. He gives strength to those who believe so that they can remain positive, even in the face of tragedy. God protects the only thing that is of any significance in this life - He protects the soul from the bitter and hopeless thoughts that can destroy it for the next life. He protects us from evil by keeping us from becoming evil. It was ridiculous of me to think that Christians weren't aware of God not protecting them from adversity. I couldn't see that God doesn't consider physical death to be harmful because I was blind to the things of eternity.
Focusing on the eternal allowed me to fully invest my love in other people. I had always been afraid to do that because it made as much sense as investing in the stock market, knowing that it was going to crash.
CHRISTIAN HYPOCRISY
Christianity permits only one direction of finger pointing, and that direction is aimed at us. We know that what is in our hearts can only be known by God and maybe ourselves, through His grace. While we are told to discern between all things as being either good or bad, we must realize that only God is in a position to judge souls. Two young women may both have abortions for similar reasons. One of them may think, "It's only a fetus and I have a right to my own body. No one is going to tell me that I was wrong in acting within my rights." The other may think, "God, what I did was wrong - forgive me. I wasn't strong enough to deal with any of this is. Please give me faith to face whatever life gives me." In God's eyes, the second woman may achieve a position of absolute righteousness, because He may see her heart as being right, but in the eyes of the church, the same woman is a hypocrite. The practical matter concerning abortion is that one mindset justifies and approves of the selfish act and the other recognizes it as a selfish act, and admits wrongdoing. Just as Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of his people's hearts, today we have laws that permit abortion for the same reason. The difference is that, today, we argue that there is nothing wrong with abortion and divorce; we justify what the law permits.
I've noticed that when my faith is troubled, my thinking becomes lazy and I am prone to succumb to my base nature and not to that of Jesus Christ. We live in a time when we are barraged with a constant assault on our faith. Children's shows, such as the cartoon 'Tarzan', or the movie 'Atlantis', contain in their dialogue statements that compare our faith in God to believing in fairy tales. Scoffers and an increasingly vocal, atheistic community surround us. If we really believed in the God that we profess, I would think that we would take Him a little more seriously than we do. We know that we are all hypocrites because of the high standard that we value, and because of that, we should never say, "Look at us," but, "Look at Him." Yet we also know that something is very wrong when those claiming to know and love Jesus go about their lives as if they didn't. We can't complain about atheists being lost in the dark when we're the ones who are playing with the flashlight.
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Christianity is a beautiful and flawless piece of music composed by God. Sometimes, the musicians attempting to play it hit a few wrong notes or play it off key. Some make such an awful noise that they cause their audience to run away from them, holding their ears. But every now and then, a musician who is practiced in their Christianity plays the music and it is glorious and wonderful and sweet. We shouldn't fault the composer when unpracticed musicians play His composition; a composition should be judged when it is played by the best, not the worst.
= unquote =- enharmonix, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Very nice and well reasoned. Why not submit it? I'd digg it.
- spinchange, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3I second that.
- presto, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5I too was an atheist and God saved me when I wasn't even looking for him.
Without any disrespect when I look at the bible sometimes I think WHAT?????
A certain verse I remember finding at random "Dash your childrens heads against a rock"
I thought what a load of rubbish what relevance is that to anything? And the bible can appear to contradict itself or not make sense sometimes, but take from it what you will. I beleive in Jesus because he touched my heart and I've never looked back since.
My parents were atheists, my friends that I grew up with since the age of 5 were mostly christians and would constantly try and get me to go to church but I laughed and said not for me thanks I aint no bible basher.
My parents seperated when I was about 10 and my mum started going to church around the time of the divorce and she would tell me how good it was. I used to think what a load of rubbish, she is only going because she is down and needs some hope and friends to be with her. It's all false hope, wishful thinking, fear of dying blah blah blah..
I eventually agreed to try church at the age of 13 and when I got there it wasn't too bad the people there were not as freaky as I'd expected and there is no way they'd ever brainwash me in a million years. There were some pretty good looking girls there too, so I began going every week purely to socialise.
I used to take make fun of the vicar, the hymns, I was so immature I used to come up with my own alternate lyrics for the songs that had sexual inuendos in and did not take it seriously whatsoever!!!
When I reached the age of 16 I was still going to church and still NOT beleiving AT ALL!
I used to go out at weekends to the pub to do a bit of underage drinking and I used to smoke weed nearly everynight I thought it was brilliant. When I was high it was a higher state of concious This is what life is all about I thought. I was happy I had good friends, money, alcohol, drugs etc. I smoked weed solidly for a year and had some real laughs best time of my life (so I thought) I didn't need God I felt like I already had the fullness of life!
When I was 17 there was a Christian weekend away that the church was organising I had been to tons of them before and they were a good laugh, just thought this would be the usual routine. I had not taken any drugs that weekend or had any alcohol and when we arrived on the Friday night there was a speaker giving his testimony about how Jesus had saved his life and the amazing things he had done for him. I actually heard him out because he seemed like a cool bloke and felt a little moved. I spoke to my youth worker who said he'd pray for me. I didn't think anything else of it.
Then the next night he was talking again and doing the old cheesy routine that scares atheists "If you want Jesus in you life then come to the front" That was never me, I didn't want Jesus and there was no way you would get me at the front even if I did cause I was pretty shy and also too bothered about what people thought of me.
A minute later I was at the front??? Weird I know but thought I'd give it go and I felt like I was on autopilot. Anyway this guy prayed for me and asked Jesus to come into my life and even though I was not looking for him or felt like I needed him I accepted the offer. What did I have to lose?
The feeling that rushed through my body when I accepted Jesus is something that I will NEVER be able to turn my back on I felt the touch of God and do you remember me saying how good and high I felt from drugs? Well this was a million times greater and it was a NATURAL high! I was truly transformed and so were my friends who were also there that night.
After that instead of meeting up to hit the bong we met up to read the bible NO kidding! I will never turn my back on God he has changed my life!
The reason I'm telling you all this is because I was once 100% atheist and thought I had it ALL!
God Bless! - victorycig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6No more manifestos, please :)
- theorphan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Just because two people can type a lot of words about a silly thing doesn't make it true. God Bless? Which one? Pick one (or more) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deities and get back to me. If you can prove that YOUR god is any more valid than any of the others in that list THAT would be a miracle!
- Autotoxic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Wow you guys are terrible, i dont see how posting an 800 word essay and saying god bless is supposed to change the fact that religion is a joke
- Azur2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Religious people can get a feel for how an atheist feels about religion by thinking about his own feelings for something big, complex, and utterly fictional - like Tolkiens "Lord of the Ring" trilogy. Now imagine people who not only thought Gandalf, Sauron, and Bilbo were real, but were organized in immensely wealthy societies who were exempt from paying tax, and had the right to pass laws concerning you (like, say, forbid you from wearing rings).
Then imagine that many of them had not actually even read the Ring trilogy, but relied on what official Tolkien-interpreters told them about the books.
Finally imagine that these people were in the vast majority, making up >80% of the population - and that they considered you an evil, immoral, person for NOT believing in the utterly fictitious piece of literature which is the Ring trilogy.
That's the REAL atheists eye for religion. - steeel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5800 word essays of absolutely no evidence of a god whatsoever.
- Azur2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Religious people can get a feel for how an atheist feels about religion by thinking about his own feelings for something big, complex, and utterly fictional - like Tolkiens "Lord of the Ring" trilogy. Now imagine people who not only thought Gandalf, Sauron, and Bilbo were real, but were organized in immensely wealthy societies who were exempt from paying tax, and had the right to pass laws concerning you (like, say, forbid you from wearing rings).
- ordep, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Religion is a neural virus. Think about how much time and money you've wasted on your church, are you really better off? Instead of bowing to a work of fiction you could take actual practical steps to improve your life and the lives of your family.
- AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1that guy doesn't really have good speaking skills, it kinda takes him forever to say things, but it was pretty funny if you think about it.
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