Is Atheism Depressing?

[Uncensored2008]

the torah IS the entire bible.

the other comment was a bible reference in terms of what one is told to do...

The Torah isn't even the entire old testament - much less the entire bible, you ignorant git.

 

[Politico]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

 

[Thunderbird]

And as for what is wrong with Jesus, the main thing is that he never existed. There is no more evidence of an actual Jesus than there is for an actual Spiderman.

Sorry, but thems the facts. Paul existed, there are LOTS of documents about him - but Jesus? Not so much.... The Sanhedrin didn't bother to document his trial and execution, nor did the Romans, of course Pontius Pilate was NOT the governor of Judea at the time, so that did throw a monkey wrench in the whole thing.

The Pilate letters are from a Novel and the Josephus reference is a long proven fraud by the Catholic Church.

I have to say the Jesus "birthers" are mostly a bunch of loons and non-scholars. The Jesus = Myth/ Jesus = Horus set are just good for a laugh.

1) Paul spoke of Jesus as an actual historical figure.

A lot of examples. Here's Philippians 2:

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

2) Scholars that have looked at the literary form of the Gospels and the wealth of (often corroborated) details (names, places) contained therein recognize that the evidence for the existence of Jesus is at least as strong as the evidence for other well-known historical figures.

quote: Having shown that the Gospels were intended to be read as history as well as theology, France reveals a significant weakness of the Jesus Myth. Even if written later than the modern consensus, the Gospel authors' intent to write history combined with the confirmed accuracy of many of their references and characterizations show that they are better explained as ancient biographies of a real person who has left behind traditions of his deeds and teachings rather than an entirely mythical creation.

LINK

quote from classical scholar Michael Grant: …if we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus’existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned… To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ myth theory. It has "again and again been answered and annihilated by first rank scholars." In recent years, "no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus" or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary.

quote: "The majority of recent specialized studies," writes Evangelical biblical scholar Craig L. Blomberg in Making Sense of the New Testament, "has recognized that the closest parallels are found among the comparatively trustworthy histories and biographies of writers like the Jewish historian Josephus, and the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides".

quote: Various modern archeological discoveries have validated specific details found in the Gospels:
In 1961 a mosaic from the third century was found in Caesarea Maritima that had the name "Nazareth" in it. This is the first known ancient non-biblical reference to Nazareth.
Coins with the names of the Herod family have been discovered, including the names of Herod the king, Herod the tetrarch of Galilee (who killed John the Baptist), Herod Agrippa I (who killed James Zebedee), and Herod Agrippa II (before whom Paul testified).
In 1990 an ossuary was found inscribed with the Aramaic words, "Joseph son of Caiaphas," believed to be a reference to the high priest Caiaphas.
In 1968 an ossuary was discovered near Jerusalem bearing the bones of a man who had been executed by crucifixion in the first century. These are the only known remains of a man crucified in Roman Palestine, and verify the descriptions given in the Gospels of Jesus' Crucifixion.
In June 1961 Italian archaeologists excavating an ancient Roman amphitheatre near Caesarea-on-the-Sea (Maritima) uncovered a limestone block. On its face is an inscription (part of a larger dedication to Tiberius Caesar) that reads: "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judaea."

LINK for preceding two quotes

3) quote about Josephus: The most important extra-biblical references to Jesus are found in the writings of Josephus. Although some have questioned the authenticity of the passages, modern scholarship has rightly recognized that one of them is completely authentic and the other, though embellished by Christian scribes, provides an authentic core of material confirming much about Jesus.

LINK

4) Please note that the scholars mentioned above are Jewish and secular as well as Christian. The scholarly consensus rejecting the Jesus = Myth theory exists in spite of an academic establishment sometimes unfriendly to Christian belief.

5) Last, and least, conspiracy theories like the claim that Jesus = Horus are just zany and entirely worthless.

 

[koshergrl]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Yes, at least we have a reason for sharing our faith...the great commission. It's actually a part of the faith.

But if atheism is simply absence of belief in God, one wonders why they feel compelled to attack and ridicule those who do believe.

 

[dblack]

The book analogy reflects my views on the mind, and the 'afterlife' pretty accurately. A book is a temporal recording of a story. But the story doesn't cease to exist if the book is burned. As long as other books hold the text, or the story is 'recorded' in the minds of intelligent beings - or even encoded into computer data - it continues to exists, continues to interact and affect the world. People are similar.

Very few of us will be remembered past a couple of generations. Our children and grandchildren will remember what they perceived of us. But what it is to be you, will cease to exist at the moment of your death.

If you confine your definition of a person physical material. But the point I'm making is that we aren't that. In terms of the analogy, people are stories, brains are books. Even our volition, arguably, lives on after death in the hopes and dreams of those we've inspired.

I suppose this view sounds like rationalization, and weak tea at that, for not believing in a traditional, supernatural afterlife. But that's not the intent. It's actually more than that: a recognition of the non-physical nature of the human mind.

 

[rightwinger]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Yes, at least we have a reason for sharing our faith...the great commission. It's actually a part of the faith.

But if atheism is simply absence of belief in God, one wonders why they feel compelled to attack and ridicule those who do believe.

Why do you attack and ridicule those who do not?

 

[Capstone]

[...] Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Not to speak for the Atheists or the Vegans (I'm a meat-eating pantheist, after all.), but those godless vegetarians have a long way to go to achieve the heights of annoyance leveled by organized religion (at least here in the US).

 

[jillian]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

compared to evangelicals?

 

[jillian]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Yes, at least we have a reason for sharing our faith...the great commission. It's actually a part of the faith.

But if atheism is simply absence of belief in God, one wonders why they feel compelled to attack and ridicule those who do believe.

people should only "share their faith" when it's welcomed... not when people aren't interested.

 

[amrchaos]

Let me understand this correctly.

If a belief makes you feel better than what you know, embrace delusions?

Is this why you embrace your religion? Because it is a happy deluion?

 

[koshergrl]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Yes, at least we have a reason for sharing our faith...the great commission. It's actually a part of the faith.

But if atheism is simply absence of belief in God, one wonders why they feel compelled to attack and ridicule those who do believe.

Why do you attack and ridicule those who do not?

I don't start threads about the stupidity of atheists, nor do I go to atheist sites and attack the posters.

Anyone who has been on this site, or who has ever belonged to a christian site, knows that is the standard, and not the exception. When I post views that progressive loons don't like, the first thing they do is attack my religion. On the other hand, when you post one of your many lies, I don't say retarded things like, "You're a bad example of an atheist, you lying sack of shit". I just point out that you're a lying sack of shit and move on...

Which usually prompts you to post something ridiculous like "You're a horrible Christian for pointing out the fact that I'm a habitual liar".

 

[Thunderbird]

If a belief makes you feel better than what you know, embrace delusions?

No.

But maybe atheists are the deluded ones: What is the “fine-tuning” of the universe, and how does it serve as a “pointer to God”?

 

[Thunderbird]

people should only "share their faith" when it's welcomed... not when people aren't interested.

Atheists sometimes murder those that don't submit to atheism.

Chinese Police Proudly Record Their Torture of Christians

quote: Sister Ma and her family were sound asleep one night in May 2001, when Chinese Public Security Bureau police burst into her house and arrested her, her son and her daughter-in-law. The police left her 5-year-old grandson alone with nobody to take care of him. A 27-year-old woman, a friend and fellow Christian named Yu Zhongju, dropped by the house during the raid and was also arrested.

According to interviews with members of Sister Ma’s house church and statements smuggled out of prison, dozens of church members were arrested at the same time and beaten with clubs, jolted with cattle prods and burned with cigarettes. When they fainted, buckets of water were poured on them to revive them. Interrogators stomped on the fingers of male prisoners and stripped off the clothes of young women prisoners and abused them.

“They used the electrical prods on me all over,” Ms. Ma said, fighting back tears. “They wanted to humiliate us.”

Additional details about Sister Ma’s arrest and torture were learned by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who reported on November 26, 2002, that police in a remote region of China had interrogated a woman named Ma Yuqin, but their efforts seemed unsuccessful. Kristof wrote: “She never broke when she was tortured with beatings and electrical shocks. Even when she was close to death, she refused to disclose the names of members of her congregation or sign a statement renouncing her Christian faith.”

While the physical abuse was almost unbearable, the mental torture was even worse. Throughout her ordeal, Ma Yuquin could hear the sounds of her son being tortured in the next room. They could hear each other’s screams-additional incentives to betray their friends and their faith. Recalling this, Ma Yuquin began to sob. “They wanted me to hear (my son’s) cries,” she said. “It broke my heart.”

According to VOM sources, Sister Yu was beaten to death while in custody.

 

[amrchaos]

But no christian ever put to death a non-christian due to his faith or refusal to convert to Christianity, right?

 

[PratchettFan]

I think the vast majority of atheists are under the power of Satan. I feel sorry for them. They don't not believe..they are highly motivated to attack.

And that's sad, because they have been given the opportunity of salvation, and are rejecting it with both hands....and then complain because the world is an unhappy place. The world is unhappy because people reject God.

And I think you are completely wrong. OTOH, I think it is ok for you to be completely wrong.

But you have to admit, it is kind of sad.

No. Not even a little sad. We are all guessing here. So it is not the guess which is important but whether or not the guess feels right.

 

[PratchettFan]

No, I really won't.

If I'm wrong, I'll die peacefully as well (unless a so-called "atheist" has a say in my demise)...there will be no "wtf"....

If there were an opportunity for wtf, then it's because I am right...in which case it won't be me that is surprised.

Unless, of course, it turns out you had the afterlife bit right but the God all wrong. You pays your dollar, you takes your chance.

 

[PratchettFan]

I'm not wrong.

And in that, atheism is depressing. I know a lot of atheists who think they have it figured out, and I know they will be begging in the end...which makes me sad.

Being sad is a sign of depression.

 

[PratchettFan]

Not depressing. Annoying like vegans. Seems if you don't believe in God or eat nothing but lettuce it is necessary to tell every fucking person you meet about it.

Speaking as a vegan, I dread whenever the subject comes up - but it always does. I turn down something and people want to know why. Then they want to know why I am a vegan. They seem fascinated by my eating habits.

 

[Dreamy]

Isn't a depression biological/chemically based not religiously based?

I would be curious however if there has been any studies done comparing people's moods depending on their faith or lack of faith.

 

[Thunderbird]

But no christian ever put to death a non-christian due to his faith or refusal to convert to Christianity, right?

Can you provide a current example? Many current examples of atheist intolerance - torture and execution of those who refuse to submit to atheism.

New Reports Tell of Executions, Torture of Christians in North Korea
New reports from former North Korean eye-witnesses indicate that the totalitarian government tortures, executes Christians and people related to the faith.

50,000 Christians tortured and abused in North Korean prisons