I question anyone who calls themselves former atheists. What evidence can you provide to other atheists to convince them a God exists that actually gives a crap about what happens on this insignificant little rock when looked at on the grand scale of the universe?
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I have said many times on this forum, and I truly believe, there will NEVER be ANY evidence for God. He wants us to love Him on FAITH. If you have evidence, you don't NEED faith. If you have FAITH, you don't need evidence.
If He gave us evidence, that would be like giving students a test, but handing them the answer sheet at the same time. There would BE no atheists if there were evidence. Evidence is a physical thing. Faith is from the heart. The two are not compatible.
Now, THIS is what I am talking about when I say that we have GIVEN you the answers to many of your questions, but you deny those answers. You keep on asking for evidence, even when you have been told that there IS none. You guys all agree there is none, right? So I guess the part you WON'T accept is that we have FAITH.
Well, you can deny that answer all you want, but it is the truth - we don't want or need evidence because we have faith. You may not like it, but it IS the answer.
How's that faith work for ya in a court of law? Oh wait it doesn't. That's why evidence is important.You're making a claim that something exists. You need to have the evidence to back that up.
The two will never be "compatible" because one is based on fact derived from evidence gathered using logic and reason. The other is based on beliefs that people have because it makes them feel better about life, thinking someone is watching over them and helping them through tough times when they need it, and it serves as something to comfort them about death, because they view it as the beginning of another life instead of what it really is, the end of your existence. If more people realized you get one life, one chance, make it count, we would be a much better society because of it. With religion, many people believe they can fumble through their time on this rock till they die, then their true life will start.
The "truth" my friend is based on fact that requires (it's not optional) evidence. You don't need evidence because you are gullible and believe in something a few men wrote less that 2000 years ago. I know exactly what your faith consists of, and if you took the time to read your holy book and think for yourself, you too would see through the fallacies that are contained within it. The burden of proof doesn't lie upon us to disprove the existence of your god. The burden of proof lies upon anyone who believes in this God to prove he exists.
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Loki, you are missing the POINT. No, faith does not apply in a court of law. Evidence is vital when it comes to day to day life in this world. Evidence is the basis of science. Evidence is a physical, concrete thing.
Faith is NOT of this world, it is not physical, and no, it is not scientific.
But faith DOES play a part in the emotional, and for Christians, spiritual life, of almost all human beings. We have faith in our friends. We have faith in our spouses. We have faith in ourselves. There is no amount of evidence that can PROVE that faith is justified. Yeah, so your spouse has never cheated on you - there is no way you can PROVE that will never happen in the future though. So your friends have always helped you in the past. That doesn't mean that they always will. So you have always made it through no matter how tough it was at times. That doesn't mean you will NEVER fail.
All of those times past that your faith in these things HAS been born out is simply anecdotal evidence and would be rejected by science. Does that mean you can no longer have faith in these things?
Faith in God cannot be justified by evidence either, but it is real to us. And THAT'S what I mean when I say it is the truth - not that YOU have to accept that our faith is justified, but that to US it IS. The TRUTH is that we believe for what is to us, very good reasons. The truth is, you don't. But to keep asking us WHY we believe in spite of the lack of evidence is so redundant.
GOD WANTS US TO LOVE HIM THROUGH FAITH, AND FOR THAT REASON, THERE WILL NEVER BE EVIDENCE.
It is NOT true, however, that Christians feel OK about fumbling their ways through life. A true Christian wants to do God's will in all things, and that means sometimes going against our instincts to do what is RIGHT, rather than what we secretly, selfishly want. Being a GOOD Christian is hard work! It means denying our own wants and needs sometimes, in order to work for the good of others.
I'm not saying there aren't atheists who do the same thing, but to say that Christians have it easy, or to imply that we don't have to "get it right" in this life is so very far from the truth!