~25% of Americans do Not Believe in God

[JimBowie1958]

Why is it a shame that people don't believe in something that has been made up simply to explain away stuff we don't quite comprehend and to control the people?

The primary 'shame' here is that atheists continue to deny that they cannot compete in the Market Place of Ideas.

This 'study' is pure horse manure.

First it uses the broadest definition of 'atheism' that is so broad it is actually wrong. Atheism is not merely a lack of belief in God, it is an affirmation that God does not exist. Those who claim to not know if God exists are agnostic, not atheist, but the atheists like to shoe-horn agnostics into their camp to build their numbers.

Why do they do this dishonest sleight of hand? Because it is rather embarrassing, I suppose, to be outnumbered by people who believe in Big Foot?

Also, this study is statistical mumbo-jumbo trying to get a tea leaf reading on how many people have doubts about the existence of God without actually asking them. They ask simply how many of a group of statements do they believe is true and then do a statistical analysis to magically find that 25% or so of their test subjects do not believe in God. It could be that one of their 'innocuous statements' was widely misunderstood and therefore not agreed with and the statistical analysis simply assumes that the objection was in regard to a belief in God rather than a statistical anomaly involving the conditions of the test.

The group of people who might disagree with a simplistic statement 'I believe in God' could be people who believe in Allah but do not regard Allah as the same as the Christian God, or might be a person who believes in a 'Higher Power', but not necessarily the Christian God, etc. There are literally an infinite number of reasons why someone who believes in a concept of a higher power would say that they disagree with 'I believe in God'.

This study is really a joke that proves nothing other than that atheists desperately want to think that more people have fallen for their horse shit than really have.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Jesus sent a message to me in the form of a potato chip in a Lay's bag that was in the image of the Virgin Mary! I tried to sell it on Ebay, but they won't list edible items like that. She was delicious!

Another atheist demonstrating their total ignorance of the topic.

Amazing how atheists like to wallow in their own stupidity.

 

[JimBowie1958]

He is absent and has been for a long time. He no longer walks with people. We have to go with faith now, and some just refuse to embrace it (faith).

God is not absent, though I can understand how some may feel that way.

He does not speak directly t people as He did before the Great Flood, or at least we can no longer perceive His 'speech' to us.

Perhaps as we have become more focused on verbal communication in humanity's evolution we lost the ability to *feel* our intuitive truths so well any more?

I know I feel like God communicates to me intuitively, and I have known others who feel this communication as well. What we do with it is the real question for us, I suppose, but it is not an audible voice we hear. It is more like the memory of a voice.

To hear Him, we have to slow down, clear our minds and hearts of what is dominant and simply open ourselves up to Him. Many need a device to help them, like a Rosary or flipping pages through a Bible and reading what is found. I am speaking of an intuitive Voice we are trying to hear, which I think is legit and exists, but the best way to try to 'hear' God is to study the Bible and think with the mind God gave us to understand what He has already given to us.

God bless you Gracie, and if you look for God's Voice may you find it. He promised that you will.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Why is it a shame that people don't believe in something that has been made up simply to explain away stuff we don't quite comprehend and to control the people

So now you're changing the subject to global warming

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

He is absent and has been for a long time. He no longer walks with people. We have to go with faith now, and some just refuse to embrace it (faith).

God is as near to you, as you are to Him. Are you? If not, why not?

 

[EverCurious]

No disrespect to the believers, I think such belief's are a good thing and I'd much rather stand in line with Christians than those of no faith.

However, humans have an innate need to believe in "something" for those who turn their back on belief in a higher being, they must compensate with fanatical belief in other things - like the SJW issues, the idea that D's are good and R's are evil, etc. Their "group think" has become their religion, or one could say that religion is the other side of the group think coin. The sheep must be led, it is the nature of mankind. My only issue is when the shepherds are wolves in disguise. My analogy; I am indeed a wolf, but I will defend His sheep from those who wish to mindlessly devour them. The great Shepard may eventually kill me, but I am okay with such a sacrifice to protect the innocent flocks.

 

[Geaux4it]

Permit me to give you, briefly, 8 reasons God desires all believers to share their faith.

Preaching threads belong in the religion folder. Shame on you for trying to put it into politics.

Read much- This is the 'Current Event' forum

-Geaux

 

[JimBowie1958]

No disrespect to the believers, I think such belief's are a good thing and I'd much rather stand in line with Christians than those of no faith.

However, humans have an innate need to believe in "something" for those who turn their back on belief in a higher being, they must compensate with fanatical belief in other things - like the SJW issues, the idea that D's are good and R's are evil, etc. Their "group think" has become their religion, or one could say that religion is the other side of the group think coin. The sheep must be led, it is the nature of mankind. My only issue is when the shepherds are wolves in disguise. My analogy; I am indeed a wolf, but I will defend His sheep from those who wish to mindlessly devour them. The great Shepard may eventually kill me, but I am okay with such a sacrifice to protect the innocent flocks.

Great post, though I am a believer and I think that the facts support belief rather than unbelief.

There are few honest broker atheists any more.

I have personally known only one, and the rest are the sort that would have embarrassed Bertrand Russel.

I get the impression that Bertrand Russell and his Theistic acquaintances, like CS Lewis, would have no problem with your position as described here.

What do you think of CS Lewis conversion BTW?

The Most Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis's Journey to Faith | C.S. Lewis Institute

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

I am indeed a wolf, but I will defend His sheep from those who wish to mindlessly devour them. The great Shepard may eventually kill me, but I am okay with such a sacrifice to protect the innocent flocks.

Youre a lamb, struggling to find its way

 

[Geaux4it]

Famous Atheist last words

-Geaux
====================

Caesar Borgia: "While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die, and am unprepared to die."

Thomas Hobbs political philosopher "I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark."

Thomas Payne the leading atheistic writer in American colonies: "Stay with me, for God's sake; I cannot bear to be left alone , O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? "I would give worlds if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. 0 Lord, help me! Christ, help me! …No, don't leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of Hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one."

Sir Thomas Scott, Chancellor of England "Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty."

Voltaire famous anti-christian atheist: "I am abandoned by God and man; I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months' life." (He said this to Dr. Fochin, who told him it could not be done.) "Then I shall die and go to hell!" (His nurse said: "For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness."

Robert Ingersoll: "O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!" (Some say it was this way: "Oh God, if there be a God, save my soul if I have a soul, from hell, if there be a hell!"

David Hume, atheist philosopher famous for his philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion, he cried loud on his death bed "I am in flames!" It is said his "desperation was a horrible scene".

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor, and who, like Adolf Hitler, brought death to millions to satisfy his greedy, power-mad, selfish ambitions for world conquest: "I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!”

Sir Francis Newport, the head of an English Atheist club to those gathered around his deathbed: "You need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! …Oh, that I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever!, Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”

Famous Atheists Last Words Before Dying - Religion - Nigeria

 

[JimBowie1958]

Permit me to give you, briefly, 8 reasons God desires all believers to share their faith.

Preaching threads belong in the religion folder. Shame on you for trying to put it into politics.

Read much- This is the 'Current Event' forum

-Geaux

Mamooth is allergic to religion, it would seem, as well as reason and faith.

 

[Old Rocks]

I find your assertations of the validity of your religion no more convincing than that of the Muslims, or any other religion. Simply, there is no evidence that I can see of an afterlife. And certainly no evidence of prayers being answered when major evils are being done.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

I find it weird how something that isn't supported by shit is believed in by 75% of this country.

Because it is hard to let go of beliefs that have been enshrined in your head since the day you were born

 

[EverCurious]

I'm no lost sheep, I'm agnostic. I just don't believe in the book of arrogant wolves. The true power of God stretches far further than the blue confines of this Earth.

If I were a star then I would be a part of you all, so to the warmth of God touches all things. Existence is true glory of His work. We are but a quiet expression of His love for life.

 

[JimBowie1958]

I find it weird how something that isn't supported by shit is believed in by 75% of this country.

Because it is hard to let go of beliefs that have been enshrined in your head since the day you were born

I was an atheist until my junior year in high school. But I converted when I finally read the evidence in support of a belief in God. I discovered then that very few atheists really understand the opposite point of view or the arguments on favor of belief. I had never even heard of the Ontological Proof or the Teleological Proof of the existence of God prior to that.

Atheism is not an indicator of intelligence and education. It is an indicator of apathy and ignorance.

BTW, I am sure no new born has a belief in God due to his parents teaching him that, silly.

 

[JimBowie1958]

I'm no lost sheep, I'm agnostic. I just don't believe in the book of arrogant wolves. The true power of God stretches far further than the blue confines of this Earth.

If I were a star then I would be a part of you all, so to the warmth of God touches all things. Existence is true glory of His work. We are but a quiet expression of His love for life.

But He is trying to speak to you.

Do you want to understand what He is trying to tell you?

You can; it is up to you.

 

[Montrovant]

Some people use this argument. The Universe is SOOOO complex that it MUST HAVE been created by a God. This line of reasoning is ridiculous, because then God must be so complex too that he MUST HAVE been created by some higher being, and that higher being too must be so complex that it must have been created and so on and on and on, until you have to ask, wait, it's can't be so.

You have demonstrated quite well with the above rant, that you do not have the slightest idea what the Argument from Design is or means.

'Design' does not equal 'complexity', dude.

Have you never heard the argument of "irreducible complexity" used by some creationists or intelligent design proponents?

 

[Montrovant]

Why is it a shame that people don't believe in something that has been made up simply to explain away stuff we don't quite comprehend and to control the people?

The primary 'shame' here is that atheists continue to deny that they cannot compete in the Market Place of Ideas.

This 'study' is pure horse manure.

First it uses the broadest definition of 'atheism' that is so broad it is actually wrong. Atheism is not merely a lack of belief in God, it is an affirmation that God does not exist. Those who claim to not know if God exists are agnostic, not atheist, but the atheists like to shoe-horn agnostics into their camp to build their numbers.

Why do they do this dishonest sleight of hand? Because it is rather embarrassing, I suppose, to be outnumbered by people who believe in Big Foot?

Also, this study is statistical mumbo-jumbo trying to get a tea leaf reading on how many people have doubts about the existence of God without actually asking them. They ask simply how many of a group of statements do they believe is true and then do a statistical analysis to magically find that 25% or so of their test subjects do not believe in God. It could be that one of their 'innocuous statements' was widely misunderstood and therefore not agreed with and the statistical analysis simply assumes that the objection was in regard to a belief in God rather than a statistical anomaly involving the conditions of the test.

The group of people who might disagree with a simplistic statement 'I believe in God' could be people who believe in Allah but do not regard Allah as the same as the Christian God, or might be a person who believes in a 'Higher Power', but not necessarily the Christian God, etc. There are literally an infinite number of reasons why someone who believes in a concept of a higher power would say that they disagree with 'I believe in God'.

This study is really a joke that proves nothing other than that atheists desperately want to think that more people have fallen for their horse shit than really have.

If theism is a belief in the existence of god or gods, then atheism certainly can be defined as not believing in the existence of god or gods. Many people may see atheism as a denial of the existence of any god rather than a lack of belief in any god, but that doesn't make it the only valid definition of the word.

I agree that the process used to come to the 25% number does seem like a stretch.

 

[Montrovant]

Jesus sent a message to me in the form of a potato chip in a Lay's bag that was in the image of the Virgin Mary! I tried to sell it on Ebay, but they won't list edible items like that. She was delicious!

Another atheist demonstrating their total ignorance of the topic.

Amazing how atheists like to wallow in their own stupidity.

How do you know he is atheist and not agnostic, or perhaps simply of non-Christian belief?

 

[mamooth]

I was an atheist until my junior year in high school. But I converted when I finally read the evidence in support of a belief in God. I discovered then that very few atheists really understand the opposite point of view or the arguments on favor of belief. I had never even heard of the Ontological Proof or the Teleological Proof of the existence of God prior to that.

So you actually didn't understand those "proofs" are exercises in various logical fallacies? That's probably because you were young and untrained in critical thinking.

If you're so brilliant, give us some of these proofs. Convince us with your "logic".