In that case God did choose to leave some of us without it. Interesting...
Perhaps, being omniscient, He knew how you'd treat it.
If we start off by accepting certain Christian principles as valid, if only for the sake of discussion, then one of the most important is the concept of free will.
You are free to think that, but unfortunately you are a part of a minority group on that one. Faith is not a choice, it is given to us by God.
For what it's worth, I would also note that faith is not a one shot deal and you are done. It has to be lived and acted on every day -- and that can be remarkably difficult to sustain.
Um... well... not really. (I'm treading very lightly on this thread, by the way!). If we start off by accepting certain Christian principles as valid, if only for the sake of discussion, then one of the most important is the concept of free will. In this particular instance, what I would say is that, first, God does not offer mankind faith, nor did He give it to anyone. What He did give in this regard is free will -- and in the matter of faith, we are, each of us individually, free to believe and have faith, or free not to do so. For what it's worth, I would also note that faith is not a one shot deal and you are done. It has to be lived and acted on every day -- and that can be remarkably difficult to sustain.
Ofcourse, atheism is just as silly as theism because you can never be sure of either, nor prove it.
Yes, that is what religious people love to tell each other: It is so hard what we're doing, we're so cool that we can do it nevertheless, and now we're better than other humanbeings (extra choirboy in heaven as a reward!)
There is a good reason I'm treading rather lightly on this thread; no one is going to convince anyone else.However, with regard to the above quote. It is not true; if a Christian says "we can do it nevertheless, and now we're better" etc. he or she is committing one of the worst sins in the book: pride. A Christian would say no we can't do it, but we are trying out hardest, day by day, to do as best we can do.
No, it's not.Firstly, pretty much anybody calling themselves an atheist actually means it as atheist agnostic and secondly, what is more stupid: to call something which there is no evidence for completely implausible, or completely plausible?
My point is that saying 'a belief is not true' is also a belief. So if you're more like a scientist, its better to say that we just dont know.
Again, the argument of atheists is not actually that they know the truth with 100% certainy, but rather that since 'certain claims' are backed by zero evidence, there is no reason to believe them.
Yes, that is what religious people love to tell each other: It is so hard what we're doing, we're so cool that we can do it nevertheless, and now we're better than other humanbeings (extra choirboy in heaven as a reward!)Actually, following some vague religion that most people around you believe is the easy way out. The stubborn ignoring of contradictions and counterevidence is THE biggest flaw of human psychic (and proof that the all-creating god was everythign but a genius): This is why people vote for Putin, Erdogan, Teaparty republicans and why religion has been for almost any war the number one tool to get enough supporters.Ofcourse, atheism is just as silly as theism because you can never be sure of either, nor prove it. But it would be nice if more people realized that their belief in a religion or god is just that, a 'belief', and that it is therefor pointless trying to convince other people.Btw i think the best thing for world piece would be to create a country especially for religious extremists who cant keep their opinions to themselves: Put all those terrorist muslims, colonizing jews, evangelist christians, teaparty members and other human beings who battle for the best spot in afterlife, in that country and provide them with weapons.Maybe that would free up a bit more money for music education
First, I claim that faith in the supernatural is not rational, even though it is widespread; all religions contain elements that a neutral and critically thinking observer would reject. Including mine. And, especially yours. <g> (We all worship the same God, you in your way and I in His.)
You reply that God made you believe. That doesn't really respond to the problem, does it?
Surely God can make us believe in anything, however irrational;
so God encouraging faith must be meaningless in reference to how rational that faith might be.
Secondly, isn't the idea that God makes us believe an irrational idea in and of itself?
But we don't see god presenting his supernatural powers like a burning bush all day in public do we? So what reason is there to discuss his supernatural powers if it isn't even relevant to our worship?
Because it makes great movie material !
That experiment has already been done and has not lead to world peace. It is called the U.S.