Zone1 Is the promise of a good afterlife the greatest motivation for…

[ding]

It may not be an 'either/or' situation. It can easily be both. Examples: Do I eat vegetables because I like them, or because of the health they provide? Answer: Both. Do I bake bread because I like to bake or because homemade bread is the best? Answer: Both.

I'm betting you can go through your own life and find "both" to be the answer to many things.

Do I lead a God filled life because I love God or because it brings greater meaning/benefits to my life? Both. The same can be said of my best friend: Were we best friends because we loved each other or because we had such great fun together and could always depend on one another during the hard times? Both.

I appreciate your thoughts but if I do things that are self serving it tends to undermine the authenticity and or sincerity of the act.

 

[Meriweather]

I appreciate your thoughts but if I do things that are self serving it tends to undermine the authenticity and or sincerity of the act.

Mutualism. Different species (or individuals) can benefit from each other. It's a part of nature and human interactions. I think of it as a beautiful design. A long time ago I noticed how impossible it is to do something for God without Him showering gifts back. A familiar adage: What goes around, comes around. While it can be seen as selfish as doing something beneficial to another will bring benefits to oneself, I don't see it as undermining authenticity or sincerity. In fact, take in the sheer humility in accepting the fact--and living with it.

I can't remember the story I read as a teen. The first character does a good deed for a second character who had no way of returning the favor. In enters a third character and that third character some how paves the way for for the first character to follow and live his own dream. Years later, the second character finds the first character wishing to thank and repay the first one for his kindness, saying it made all the difference in his life. The first character says, "I cannot accept any repayment from you. I've been repaid, and I've already used up that re-payment."

It goes back that everything we have to give comes from God. Humility. Anything we get back (and we will) also comes from God. When an opportunity presents itself to us, it should be humbling to us that we bless and thank those who were placed on the same path as we travel. Whether they know it or not, they will be bringing blessings/ repayment upon us. They are the true givers with a blessed place in God's creation. We are the receivers and that should humble us.

 

[Woodznutz]

You're interested in what motivates a person to be an atheist but you're not ready to ask any atheists to find out. Your faith isn't strong enough to bear finding out.

Atheism isn't a religion and so no two atheists need to have anything in common other than a lack of belief in mainstream Christianity. My own lack of belief had grown stronger in the fact that the bibles have been compromised by the need to remain believable in the face of modern science.

Hence, stories such as Jonah and the big fish has the effect of driving away atheists who are intelligent enough to need an explanation that can be convincing. Christians don't have an answer.

It's always going to be like asking an atheist to buy a car on faith, that has no steering wheel, no brakes, and no wheels. Christians can't supply the missing parts because, as with the big fish, there's no agreed upon answer.

Why would any clear thinking atheist ever accept Christianity on that lack of a common basis of understanding?

You're tossing the baby out with the wash water.

 

[Donald H]

I don't think she is interested in that at all. I know I'm not. That's between them and God.

She says you're wrong. Speak for yourself. No two Christians will agree on everything. The Catholic church sealed the fate of their flock by granting them the right to interpret the biggest and most fundamental questions in their own personal ways. Hence, even creation and Genesis can be discarded.

In other words, there is no truth. [\b] The question of there being a god isn't worth the time of any clear-thinking person.

Christians can't even tell we atheists whether there really was a Jonah and the big fish. Even worse, they can't even agree anymore on whether there was an Adam and Eve!

Stop living the lies.

 

[ding]

She says you're wrong. Speak for yourself. No two Christians will agree on everything. The Catholic church sealed the fate of their flock by granting them the right to interpret the biggest and most fundamental questions in their own personal ways. Hence, even creation and Genesis can be discarded.

In other words, there is no truth. [\b] The question of there being a god isn't worth the time of any clear-thinking person.

Christians can't even tell we atheists whether there really was a Jonah and the big fish. Even worse, they can't even agree anymore on whether there was an Adam and Eve!

Stop living the lies.

Don't be silly. Of course there is truth. God is truth.

And wisdom is not given to just any jackanape.

 

[ding]

Atheism isn't a religion and so no two atheists need to have anything in common other than a lack of belief in mainstream Christianity.

That's quite the Freudian slip.

 

[ninja007]

Death (my opinion) is one of the worst motivators to become a person of faith and/or to follow Jesus. Reading and praying also fall short as there are dry periods in each of these. In reading, discerning is also a problem as often what is understood is not the same as what the author meant.

The best motivators for waking up faith and taking up a religion: It teaches and disciplines one to live rightly and justly according to the Way of God, the Laws of God instead of, "I did it my way." The best reason for atheism is the brushing aside of God's ways, because atheists see their own ways as preferable. Considering the number of divorces, abortions, lies, cheating, and sniping...so do many people of faith.

So you disagree with Jesus when he talked about hell alot more then heaven?

 

[Meriweather]

So you disagree with Jesus when he talked about hell alot more then heaven?

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God 126 times, versus the debatable number of 70 that he may have been speaking of hell. For example, notice the times he was referring to Gehenna (the city dump). Those who wish to focus on the verses about hell, should do so. Those of us who wish to focus on the versus discussing the Kingdom of God should do so. Who do you believe has chosen the better part?

 

[sealybobo]

…bringing people into one’s faith? Or for believing in God? What best persuades people that religion has something very real to offer them and their lives?

In death, the collection of atoms of which you are composed (a universe within the universe) are repurposed. Those atoms and that energy, which originated during the Big Bang, will always be around. Therefore, your "light," that is, the essence of your energy — not to be confused with your actual consciousness — will continue to echo throughout space until the end of time.

Your light has Ben around since at least he big bang. More likely your energy has been around forever because there never was a beginning. Think about that. Time before the big bang did exist. Believe it or not.

Now that that’s been established, it is also true your energy will continue to exist for an eternity after you die.

But your consciousness will die when you die.

Remember what it was like before you were born? Like that.

 

[Meriweather]

In death, the collection of atoms of which you are composed (a universe within the universe) are repurposed. Those atoms and that energy, which originated during the Big Bang, will always be around. Therefore, your "light," that is, the essence of your energy — not to be confused with your actual consciousness — will continue to echo throughout space until the end of time.

Your light has Ben around since at least he big bang. More likely your energy has been around forever because there never was a beginning. Think about that. Time before the big bang did exist. Believe it or not.

Now that that’s been established, it is also true your energy will continue to exist for an eternity after you die.

But your consciousness will die when you die.

Remember what it was like before you were born? Like that.

And that motivates you to live how?

 

[sealybobo]

And that motivates you to live how?

Tells me to appreciate the time I have. Don’t cope and expect things will be better in the afterlife.

 

[Meriweather]

Tells me to appreciate the time I have. Don’t cope and expect things will be better in the afterlife.

If the time you have has no purpose, what are you appreciating?

 

[sparky]

Faith is something that requires no proof to subscribe to or bow down to

One can't buy it, sell it, bottle or can it, that's why it's 'faith' ~S~

 

[ding]

Faith is something that requires no proof to subscribe to or bow down to

One can't buy it, sell it, bottle or can it, that's why it's 'faith' ~S~

Do you have such a faith?

 

[Meriweather]

Remember what it was like before you were born? Like that.

Also, consider this: How much detail do you remember of your life? Go back to elementary school and see how far you get writing out a daily journal of everything you did each day. We forget a lot more than we ever remember.

 

[sealybobo]

If the time you have has no purpose, what are you appreciating?

There doesn’t have to be a purpose. The Big Bang happened. It led to you being born. What was the purpose?

One day every human and other living thing will die. We will become another mars. Everything you did meaningless.

 

[ding]

What was the purpose?

To exist.

 

[sealybobo]

To exist.

That’s deep

 

[ding]

That’s deep

As in obvious?

 

[BreezeWood]

Do you have such a faith?

what is the fruition of yours, christian bible ... columbus discovered the americas by faith - whatever has christianity its bible ever accomplish of its own accord.