Fair question. I'm not an atheist, but perhaps I can answer your question on their behalf. Why care? Maybe some would say they care because they have judged the Christian religion by its fruit. They see the abuses, the guilt trips, the dashed hopes and failed promises, and they would like to see that bad fruit come to an end.
Now, in their view, I think, the "fruit" is an unavoidable result of religion, and the only way to stop the fruit is to end religion. Yes I know, in your view, the bad fruit is from people who aren't getting it right. Blame imperfect people, don't blame God! And you have a point. I certainly don't claim that all Christians are bad people. Quite the contrary, most of the Christians I know are good folks. And I (and the atheists) shouldn't judge the whole lot based on some bad apples. Pardon the metaphor mix, but I, for one, am trying not to throw the baby out with the bath water. (Despite how it may appear, from some of my posts! )
Why am I posting this? I dunno. Just food for thought, I guess. Not out to change anyone here into atheists, that's for sure. Just hoping some may start trying to see things from another point of view, which sometimes gets lost in the arguing and fighting over whether God exists. That very concept seems kind of weird to me, now I think about it. It could be an interesting discussion, looking at the merits of both sides of the question, weighing the evidence etc., but some on both sides would rather just fight, trying to prove they're right and (even more importantly, it seems!) the other side is wrong.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
I think alot of these people are sincere people who were involved with "Christian" churches that didn't preach the whole truth. They were told they should feel different and they didn't. So, they wrote off God instead of searching for what there heart was after.
Fair question. I'm not an atheist, but perhaps I can answer your question on their behalf. Why care? Maybe some would say they care because they have judged the Christian religion by its fruit. They see the abuses, the guilt trips, the dashed hopes and failed promises, and they would like to see that bad fruit come to an end.
Now, in their view, I think, the "fruit" is an unavoidable result of religion, and the only way to stop the fruit is to end religion. Yes I know, in your view, the bad fruit is from people who aren't getting it right. Blame imperfect people, don't blame God! And you have a point. I certainly don't claim that all Christians are bad people. Quite the contrary, most of the Christians I know are good folks. And I (and the atheists) shouldn't judge the whole lot based on some bad apples. Pardon the metaphor mix, but I, for one, am trying not to throw the baby out with the bath water. (Despite how it may appear, from some of my posts! )
Why am I posting this? I dunno. Just food for thought, I guess. Not out to change anyone here into atheists, that's for sure. Just hoping some may start trying to see things from another point of view, which sometimes gets lost in the arguing and fighting over whether God exists. That very concept seems kind of weird to me, now I think about it. It could be an interesting discussion, looking at the merits of both sides of the question, weighing the evidence etc., but some on both sides would rather just fight, trying to prove they're right and (even more importantly, it seems!) the other side is wrong.
I wish there was an emoticon for "hitting the nail on the head"! I think you've nailed it, Timmy. Religion has given the church a bad name, and the church doesn't always seem too bothered by it. It's a shame really.
Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. To commemorate, I placed a sign on my office door that simply says, "The Chicken!" It has sparked a lot of questions and has given me an opportunity to share my faith with passersby - some I had never met before yesterday.
Explanation? Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Easy! The chicken came first. God created the animals first, but gave each of them the ability to reproduce. Same with the trees and the grass, etc. He created them as mature and placed in each of them their seed so that they could reproduce. I have two people interested in Bible studies during lunch and I'm starting today... AT WORK! Folks, we need to take advantage of EVERY opportunity - even the birthday of a perceived enemy of God and champion of atheism. Romans 8.28.
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Instead of studying to make sure what we believe is supported by Scripture, we MUST study the Scripture to see what IT TEACHES... then BELIEVE THAT!
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2.15 KJV
The "Freedom From Religion" group does have a pertinent gripe at times, but usually just in the social context and not in the legal arena where they constantly take their squabbles. I think this ad campaign is also misguided.
I've read just about everything that Charles Darwin has ever published including many personal letters and correspondences. I read nothing that gives me the impression that he would have supported this campaign and in fact, if he were alive today he would probably scold these people in some Victorian fashion by which 200 year old gentlemen would have scolded the rascals of their day.
Darwin is to be praised as a naturalist and as an apparently kind and well spoken human being. He is no substitute for Deity - nor even for the speculated absence of Deity. His ideas about natural selection do not remove God from the discussion despite the attempts by many to do so.
Darwin himself accepted, with reservations, the label that had been coined by his friend Thomas Huxley - agnostic. They had concluded that there was simply not enough evidence in the natural world alone to empirically assert the existence of God. Ray Comfort, whose writings I have also read, is in error with his billboard labeling Darwin an "atheist." Darwin considered atheism in a philosophical manner and ultimately rejected it on philosophical grounds.
Dan Barker at FFR and the folks at WorldNetDaily almost seem to have been imbibing the same substances as Joaquin Phoenix. Everybody's getting everything backward - you'd think it was a Friday the Thirteenth, or something.
Re: Secretary threatened after daughter mentions J
So they threaten to fire the mom for something her daughter said? That seems so fair..........NOT!!!!!!! I would want to know which of her "friends" turned her in for the email.
That seems the only likely way the school authorities found out about it.
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 KJV
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