How did you become an atheist? - Page 14

On April 25 2013 23:39 wherebugsgo wrote:


not according to the Bible-the Bible states numerous times that the world has corners.

On April 22 2013 23:16 Tyrran wrote:
I grew up religious.

I always had a huge interest in science, math, physics and all this neat kind of stuff. When i was 14 or so, i decided that science was incompatible with religion and decided to become an atheist.

I then learned that it is not true at all, that the bible is not supposed to be a science book, but instead to convey a message, and that science and religion complement each other nicely. I learned that religion is not a set of rule, but instead a guide to help you make your own decision. So I went back to being a Christian.

I wish you good luck on your own path

On April 26 2013 05:16 Birdie wrote:

hahahahahahahahahaha

OK so in English whenever people say "I've been to the four corners of the earth" we're referring to the literal corners of the earth and we believe that the earth is a flat plane?
hahahhaha that made my day.

On April 26 2013 06:11 Feartheguru wrote:


Exactly, everything wrong in the bible is just being misinterpreted. You gotta understand that if it makes sense it's the word of god, if it's wrong silly atheists are not understanding it right. These idiots don't attend our bible studies, we actually know how to read it properly.

On April 26 2013 07:02 HardlyNever wrote:


I'm not sure if this is a troll post or what. You don't know how to read the bible properly, because you aren't reading the bible. Unless you read Aramaic or perhaps Ancient Greek, and somehow can get your hands on an original copy or a copy that is known to be uncorrupted (which doesn't exist) you are reading a heavily edited, translated, and mutated version of the original text. Which is of course, the infallible word of god (it just needed editing, because it was too infallible).

The four corners thing was dumb on his part, but there are plenty of things in the bible that don't make a lick of sense. Including:

1. Virgins having babies
2. People walking on water
3. Various "miracle" healings

These things don't make sense because they can't happen. "Miracle" is not an answer. Miracles don't exist. And if your "evidence" for miracles is your heavily edited, translated, and mutated bible, then I seriously question your intelligence.

On April 26 2013 12:28 wherebugsgo wrote:


It wasn't dumb on my part.

If I were wrong there wouldn't be entire sects of Christianity devoted to literal Bible interpretation. Just google flat Earthists, or young Earth creationists. These people actually exist. You know how I know? I've met at least a dozen of them personally!

The Midwest is full of evangelical fundies. Many of them really do take the Bible literally. In fact, there are probably more of them than atheists in this country. Many of the Christians who have posted in this thread are exceedingly liberal in comparison.

On April 26 2013 13:05 HardlyNever wrote:


Just as someone who studies ancient history, I'd wager there are more people who believe the earth is flat now than there were pre-1900.

The guy was right, the whole idea of a "flat earth" is a pretty modern invention. Every time I see people in an ancient context reference the world/earth, they do so in an orb/sphere (in latin they would call it terra orbis). Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth fairly accurated back in the 3rd century BC. Now that I think about it, I've never actually seen anyone reference the earth as flat in a sense that they actually believe it was flat (in an ancient context).

I'm sure somewhere out there in the past there were people who honestly believed the earth was flat, but they are by far the exception. Even in the common parlance of the time, the earth was always a sphere (even if they had the geography wrong).

It was very ill-informed on your part.

On April 26 2013 13:58 wherebugsgo wrote:


How is it ill informed? It's not wrong. People use the Bible for justification of these ideas. Whether or not it is more popular today is irrelevant and honestly almost impossible to prove.

If the Bible is being used as justification for these ideas now it's not that far fetched to expect that it could have been used as justification for it in the past. That's been true for geocentrism and ideas about the Earth being a fixture in the universe, and both of those things today are considered "literal" interpretations of passages that are simply "metaphorical" in nature, according to modern Christian apologists.

Anyway, the philosophers you are referencing are Greek. By the 3rd century AD the knowledge was widespread among Christian leaders, but the only real information we have are from people who were actually literate at the time. In fact, there are figures who still probably held that the Earth was flat (Christians at that) even into the 7th century. An example is this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_of_Seville

His encyclopedia taught a view widely interpreted as the Earth being circular, but flat.

So again, I am not ill informed. You're making assumptions and not providing your sources. Not my problem there.

On April 26 2013 14:18 HardlyNever wrote:


I gave you a source that proves the ancient world knew the world was round. Where are you getting that Isidore of Seville taught the earth was flat?

A TO map is still around earth. In fact, that is why you see all those images of people holding orbs with the cross coming out of the top, that is the earth. Again, the geography is inaccurate, but they still think of the earth as round.

On April 26 2013 07:02 HardlyNever wrote:


I'm not sure if this is a troll post or what. You don't know how to read the bible properly, because you aren't reading the bible. Unless you read Aramaic or perhaps Ancient Greek, and somehow can get your hands on an original copy or a copy that is known to be uncorrupted (which doesn't exist) you are reading a heavily edited, translated, and mutated version of the original text. Which is of course, the infallible word of god (it just needed editing, because it was too infallible).

The four corners thing was dumb on his part, but there are plenty of things in the bible that don't make a lick of sense. Including:

1. Virgins having babies
2. People walking on water
3. Various "miracle" healings

These things don't make sense because they can't happen. "Miracle" is not an answer. Miracles don't exist. And if your "evidence" for miracles is your heavily edited, translated, and mutated bible, then I seriously question your intelligence.

On April 26 2013 15:47 ETisME wrote:

umm.. you are wrong then
virgins can have babies, it happened before. I can't find a really reliable site since I learnt about it in high school and the teacher told us about it.
these are the best two sites I can find.
http://answers.reference.com/wellness/prolific/can_a_virgin_get_pregnant
http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/f6-sex-puberty/t95169-such-thing-pregnant-virgin/
it all really just depend on what you mean by virgin. But it is completely possible.

There is also "miracle" healings. Though it is not exactly what it says it is but there is such things. Even up till today, there are many who are "blind", cured by priests. If I remember correctly, the person is not blind in terms of biological issues but it is caused by psychological factors and thus can be cured by priests.

Personally I think most of the miracle healings are just psychological effects. hypnotize has achieved some really strange stuff as well such as the person has red marks over the part where he is hypnotized that that part is getting burned.

most people in here also thinks not christian = atheist. disproving christian bible doesn't make you one
Atheist is basically a group that completely reject the idea of god. For myself, I don't believe in christian god but believe in a god who created everything.

On April 26 2013 16:15 ETisME wrote:
I do understand the difference between atheist and theist. Problem is that most people here how have rejected the idea of a Christian god and think of themselves as atheist, which I think is a bit reckless.
I meant to say I am not christian but I am not Atheist earlier.

and yes you are right on those points. Just wanted to point out that those cases in bible is not completely mind blowingly impossible.
I think most christians should put more doubt onto bible as well since Church has an enormous power to influence what is in the bible and what's not (in the ancient time anyway).

On April 26 2013 12:57 koreasilver wrote:
Fundamentalism is a very modern invention within the history of Christian thought. It's interesting that Augustine stressed in his The Literal Meaning of Genesis that it would be an error to read the Genesis creation account as taking place over a literal seven days. Many Christians did continue to think that the world was 6000ish years old well into the 19th century but scientific discovery into archaeology was very primitive. Fundamentalism is a misnomer really, as they have the pretense of being some original, untainted, "fundamental" form of Christianity when they are a very modern invention that doesn't quite square up to the early church patriarchs, the middle age scholastics, or the development of Protestant thought in Europe into modern times.

I certainly am not a liberal theologically. I am quite orthodox for the most part.

On April 26 2013 08:42 Barrin wrote:
How did I come to not believe in the existence of gods or deities?

I'll spare you a book and just say: because that's the default position.


edit: Man that was anticlimactic, I was hoping for such a thread on TL for a long time.

On April 26 2013 19:22 Birdie wrote:

Augustine didn't think that the Genesis creation took 7 days, he thought it was instantaneous. That doesn't mean he thought the world was older than 6000 years or so (less at his time of course). And the reason he thought it was instantaneous was because in the Book of Sirach (not part of the Biblical canon, but held as inspired Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox (capital O) churches) it says that God created all things at once, and at the time Augustine lived, the Catholic church was dominant. So he would have considered the Book of Sirach to be canonical, and in the light of it, decided that it was not 6 days that God created the world in, but in but a moment.