Question:
To believe the fairy tales and myths of the bible is like having a childish mind that never grows up.?
Falmaata T
2010-05-10 23:39:22 UTC
To believe the fairy tales and myths of the bible is like having a childish mind that never grows up.
There are those who call themselves atheists because they don't believe in God but they have no idea why they disbelieve. Many of them were just never exposed to religion as children and thus never indoctrinated. There are also those who left for emotional reasons rather than logical ones and thus can easily return to religion for emotional reasons. Neither of these are true logical atheists and so I am quick to denounce the claim that they were atheists who converted. They were very weak atheists who probably had never heard a real logical reason for disbelief and could not have formed one.
Many of them were just never exposed to religion as children and thus never indoctrinated. There are also those who left for emotional reasons rather than logical ones and thus can easily return to religion for emotional reasons. Neither of these are true logical atheists and so I am quick to denounce the claim that they were atheists who converted. They were very weak atheists who probably had never heard a real logical reason for disbelief and could not have formed one. I have heard weak atheists come to me with some often refuted bit of Christian apologist garbage like liar, lunatic, or lord or irreducible complexity like they had found something that had made them rethink Christianity. I am always shocked by this and when I refute these arguments and suggest they read up a bit on the logical arguments against Christianity I always wonder what would have happened had I not been there. Not every atheist is an intelligent one.
ymm right?
ex-muslim.........................................;,; young atheist!
Nine answers:
Mark E
2010-05-11 00:02:33 UTC
Here are two points to your headline question:



There is a difference to the accounts in the Bible to fairy tales and myths. The first is that Bible make a myriad of historical references, many of which are provable. For example, Genesis 12 states that Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldees. You can go and look at the ruins of Ur today because it was discovered in the 1930s and yes, the Chaldees were a people in history. You can even make a historical case for Abraham being a person in history. But this does not mean you can prove that God exists or that God told Abraham to do this or that. But, it does mean that there is a historical element to the Bible that places it apart from fairy tales and myths.



My second point is without an intelligent designer, one is forced to believe that the universe was spontaneously generated. We now laugh at the idea of spontaneous generation this being disproved by Pasteur who opened up the whole field of micro biology over 100 years ago BUT it is now science to believe that a whole Universe can spontaneously generate. What the athiest believes is that 'nothing' or an undefinable 'something' exploded and all the ingredients to make this Universe, including the ingredients necessary for life in all its complexity came into being. The natural selection of Darwinian evolution has proved to be an inadequate mechanism to generate new species and the later idea of mutuations being an adequate explanation, has been steadily eroded with the increased knowledge of genetics.



So, in summary. It makes a lot more sense scientifically to believe in an intelligent first cause for the Universe. For the Universe to explode into being without any cause sounds a lot more like a fairy tale to me.



Edit:

Respectively I suggest you read a wider range of sources. It sounds like you got your rebuttals from a skeptic. Nazareth was not founded 200AD...Mark is a reliable record and has not been altered...it was the first Gospel written. You say the Bible was tampered with from the beginnng: Give some examples. Please give some references in relation to Pilates words changing...I suspect that there are none. In regard to Clement...are you talking about Clement of Rome or Clement of Alexandria. I have read all of Clement of Rome's material but never seen this reference.



Edit 2:



Mark wrote first (tradition says he wrote as instructed by Peter). Matthew wrote second and there are some similiarities here. Luke opens his book up with this statement:



"1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught."



Here he is freely acknowledging that he has other sources and he has spoken with eyewitnesses. What's the problem? He is an historian who is trying to accurately put together an accurate record of the life of Jesus.



It is also likely that Luke knew Mark personally (see 2 Timothy 4 written by Paul).



John wrote much later...probably in the 80's and his Gospel is nothing like the other three. (Interestingly, a portion of John;s Gospel is the oldest known manuscript of the NT being dated as early as 100AD...also interestingly this is the passage about Pilate's words :)). It is known as the Rylands fragment.



Have you ever read the Gospels? The consistency between them far outweighs the small inconsistencies, some of these being explained as a different viewpoint for a different audience (ie Jew vs Greek). But doesn't the small inconsistencies show that there was no collusion? If these writers knew each other (which I think they did) and they were making it up, there would be total agreement between the writings.



What 'critical ways' do the Gospels contradict each other? Why not give some examples.
Ceisiwr
2010-05-10 23:57:43 UTC
I don't think I'd say that my Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu friends and acquaintances had childish minds. Many of them are highly qualified professionals.



I was brought up in the Catholic faith, my mother being from a Baptist community. They were both liberal in their attitudes that their children should have the freedom to decide whether they believed. This is the context that freed my mind to doubt what was at the time deeply part of my life, and it was a happy life; but there were other factors.



I was religious as a child, and have always been interested in religions, mythology and science.



I realised in mid-teenage that faith was based upon nothing but itself, that science explained nature satisfactorily without needing supernatural beings, and that religious beliefs were no different to those of ancient beliefs in gods and goddesses.



When I first had doubts about my faith I thought that maybe this was a test of my faith, which was an idea planted in my mind by those teaching us about our faith. So I made the effort to accept it even more so. But the doubts came again, and I wondered what would happen if we took faith out of the equation; the world and nature still made sense, so I saw no reason to get back into it. And my understanding is that there's no theoretical or mathematical need for a god or gods, and there's no valid evidence of it or them; so there's no reason to believe. At the time this was difficult intellectually and emotionally (I was a teenager, after all).



That was over 40 years ago, and my escape from faith has freed me to embrace what science has to offer, which I consider far more plausible than belief in the supernatural, and is the nearest we can get to the truth about how nature and the universe work. I've felt a sense of freedom ever since, and am happy and at peace with this; at least as happy as when I was religious, but probably more so.



I still have an interest in religions, mythology, folklore and related matters, and am fascinated that people still believe in things that to me are clearly just not true.
Mags
2010-05-11 00:02:30 UTC
My mind is not so childish that I needed you to 'ask the question' twice using exactly the same words. I understood it the first time. Repeating yourself does not make your words more valid. The reason that there is a question mark already placed for you is because you are meant to ask a question, rather than make a statement. Someone might report you for rant because of your contribution.



Read Romans 1:20. These words tell you that all human beings should be able to accept a creator God. No-one at all should be in doubt that one supreme being created all that we can see. That is the minimum of belief which God expects from every human being that He has made, regardless of their place of birth and other things they are taught.



It is born in a human being to want to know where they came from and how it happened. It is not a person's faith which is ridiculous but the idea that ALL could have come from nothing without God's help.



God said "Let there be light and there WAS light". That is far more convincing that a belief that it just happened.
DNAunion
2010-05-10 23:47:22 UTC
I think it is correct to say that children are implicit atheists, not atheists. They have not consciously rejected belief in God. I think "atheist" should mean an explicit atheist.



Also, just so everyone is on the same page, a weak atheist is not a person who clings to atheism weakly, and the slightest evidence could sway them. A weak atheist is a person who does not believe in God: a strong atheist is a person who claims there is no God. A weak atheist can very much be a well-informed atheist who has logically and rationally examined the evidence for and against and with resoluteness rejects the claim that God exists.
Frizby
2010-05-11 00:00:12 UTC
Only for those who cant see the light, even fairy tales are derived from truth and situations the world has known..



If say I gave an atheist something tangible regarding the existence of God they would then believe in him..



Now how can atheists believe that all Christians have nothing tangible regarding the evidence of God, whether or not atheists can fully digest what is shown by Christians..



I believe we all whether atheist, Christian, Muslim, Jew or any other religion arrive at our conclusions due to what our minds conceive to be tangible otherwise we would never believe or accept anything..
excellent
2016-10-01 03:43:15 UTC
Just for a laugh... It would be comfortably mentioned this fashion too: devout enthusiast why do you men suppose in Fairy Tales i imply develop up? Seriously why do you men comply with reasonable stories like if i do not suppose in creationism god is gonna get me come on please develop up and feature a way of truth Material and power made the arena and thats last i are not able to make it up and nobody would have made up clinical legislation so give up studying the ones false fairy stories, and tale books motive there filled with fairy stories and skim a few reality just like the clinical stories. Does atheists have horns, tails, and bring pitchforks?
Deof Movestofca
2010-05-10 23:45:53 UTC
I have yet to come across an argument against Christianity that was truly logical.
Chris
2010-05-10 23:41:20 UTC
I am a creationist.



But i have to say, most of us dont know **** about science.
Secular Penguinist
2010-05-10 23:46:45 UTC
Welcome young atheist.


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