jayleew
It's not, but my experience is not unique I'm not that special. There has to be other Chrisitans that are either trapped in the religion that need to be freed, ...
My point is, essentially you haven't changed.
...or perhaps I can be enlightened by a theist of sorts into the truth.
Later on you explain your how your road to this current enlightenment was due to your own endeavours,. But now you lay down an impossible gauntlet, most probably to protect yourself.
No, present tense: I default (or digress) to atheism now.
I was refering to original meaning of atheism, not the cult we experience today.
I consider the option that I was atheist all along, and there is no way that is possible because of my experiences, my heart's desire, and my conviction were so strong I remember moments of time in my service to the deity: God.
A man may think he loves his young and beautiful wife, then later decide to leave her because she has become fat, and older.
What he thought was love was pure lust, or coditional love at best.
When i stopped doing that and acknowledged the doubt (facts of reality based on experience and knowledge) as a live option, that started me down the path to enlightenment of life.
Then that whole experience played a (real) part in who you are today, hence everything is reality, because reality is how things actually are.
Yet you deny your past, and embrace your present.
And in your past you denied your now present and embraced your now past.
If God exists, how can the quality of life improve?
So God doesn't exist (in your thinking) because your life has improved?
What purpose does that serve, especially when I repeatedly asked for faith?
A materialist doesn't understand what faith is.
The very act of repeatedly asking for faith confirms this.
Does an ardent consumer of Big Macs really have compassion for cows, despite going all gooey when he sees a cute calf?
I did this in the last days because of Pascal's wager seemed logical enough.
Believing in God only on your terms, is atheism.
"I don't believe in God because there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of such an entity"
I gave God years of my life and years of chances to prove itself, but reality cannot be denied and shut away. It was unhealthy to me, and likely is unhealthy to others who are like I was.
You didn't give anything to God, it was all for you.
And when you didn't get what you wanted, you upped and left.
And why does God require belief to be saved.
We require belief.
And we require the knowledge and understanding of what we are being saved from.
Alot of us just want to bypass stuff, and demand that God
show Himself now, becoming atheist when their wishes aren't met.
This kind of thinking comes about through arrogance and ignorance,
or just plain not wanting to surrender.
For me, I would have to lie to myself to believe.
Now you don't have to lie, because you are more true to yourself.
That's good. But don't make the mistake of thinking that your position is the only way to go.
All you have acheived in actuality is to become more honest to yourself.
Even when I wanted so bad to believe and be delivered from the state of existence,
the situation did not improve over the years.
The husband wants so bad to love his chubby ageing wife, because that's what he's supposed to do.
He tries with all his might, but the truth is he doesn't know how, because she is chubby and ageing.
Eventually he leaves her.
He's being true to himself, but the whole circumstance is based on falsity.
Him being true to himself is only the first step in his journey.
And the last straw is how is it fair when God itself is at least partially responsible for who I am today,
if it exists. It is at least partially responsible for my unbelief.
You are now more true to yourself.
Why would God want to force something on you (faith, belief), when in your heart you don't really want that.
You are now in a position, where for the first time (it sounds like) you are happy with your life.
But what do you do?Y
You jump on the "let chant down God" brigade.
How do you know God was not responsible your first step?
If we are to believe that God exists, we must believe that it is capable of influencing life and does.
If we are to believe God exists, then accept we don't know anything outside our puny existence.
So, if we are to believe in God, we must accept that chances are good that our lives were shaped by experiences and knowledge that we gained by being in the right place at the right time and that was influenced by God, especially for the first 10 years of our existence when we had little say in choosing the experience.
That's not believing in God.
That's trying to work everything for yourself with no knowledge and understand of reality.
Ulltimately creating your own version of reality, and believing it to be true.
According your position in this life, you have been given a lifeline, don't mess it up.
If you are interested in God, then seek Him out earnestly.
If you conclude He doesn't exist then give real reasons, don't jump on some cultish style bandwagon,
otherwise you would have learned nothing.
Don't make the same mistake as before.
jan.
