“What defines an atheist?” The question gives me grief;
Do they actively deny my God, or merely lack belief?
I’m told that I should ask one, but I think that’s rather odd—
There’s no need to ask the godless when I’ve got the word of God!
There’s a line in Psalm 14 on what the fool says in his heart,
So we know that they are foolish, but that’s only just the start—
There’s a couple lines in Romans, showing God won’t be denied,
So the simple explanation is… the atheists have lied!
If you want an honest answer, then you have to ask the King:
Some claim they’re non-believers, but there’s really no such thing.
Circularity Context, after the jump:
My magical content aggregator sent me to a site, the Creation Education Center, to a helpful article “is it even possible to be an atheist?” I must admit, I expected something else. I expected some version of “atheists deny god, but have they really looked (at all the myriad versions of god) in order to deny?” I was wrong.
Of course, they did need to establish that atheism can’t possibly be defined by a lack of belief, which they initially tried with hand-waving. I’d cut and paste a quote, but (maybe one of you can tell me how!) their page will not allow me to cut and paste their words, and I have better things to do than to retype them. Anyway, they eventually noted that they don’t need to ask atheists what they mean, or what they believe, because The Truth (all of it, apparently) is in the bible. So they pull out half a dozen verses from their book, and conclude (ok, this is worth typing out:
So, are there people on this planet who claim to be atheists? Yes. Are these people atheists in reality? No… not according to God who knows better than we do, because He created everyone to begin with and He tells us that “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:9)
Somebody certainly is higher.
So, no need to ask atheists what they think. God knows better than they do, and the bible is inerrant.
Oh, yeah, I suppose I don’t need to tell you, their site does not allow comments.
Mine does, though.
lol that made my day, thnx!
I had no serious problem highlighting, copying and pasting the following:
Though it was difficult to see the fact that I’d highlighted the text, due to their wacky design decisions.
I won’t comment on the content of that page (ouch it burns) but they are not actually disabling copy and paste (at least not in Safari on the Mac).
They are just munging the selected text color and background via css so you cannot tell that you have anything selected (I didn’t know you could do that, so I guess since I learned something, this experience has been a net positive?).
I blindly click-dragged from the start of the article to the end and was able to copy it successfully.
Strange–I was using Safari on Mac, and tried three different times–including once to Word just to see if it was something strange here at FtB. No go any time. I must have been doing something wrong–or perhaps I have trained my computer to have standards.
Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image…Exodus 20:4-6
You shall make an ark….you shall make two cherubim of gold…Exodus 25:18
HUH?
PROOF the buy-bull was written by and FOR humans to extract resources from others.
Maybe these guys have got it backwards: the verses cited say that there are no fools.
Of course, then their own interpretation disproves that…
No problem cutting and pasting with Firefox 13. With Chrome, it’s hard to tell that you’ve selected the text, but you have.
Sometimes sites use Flash to display text and that’s impossible to capture. (Well, I used to have a utility that could sometimes OCR it from the screen but that stopped working ages ago. And this is one of the many reasons I loathe Flash.)
Other times, if your browser supports looking at the source code (it’s a right click option for me in Firefox & Chrome), you can capture the underlying text with its HTML code. But then you have to edit out all the extraneous stuff.
“Therefore, I believe that all the Bible conveys is true. I know the atheist does not accept this, but this is my starting point and everything that I personally believe must be rooted in, and consistent with, God’s Word.”
It is normal cut and paste just really hard to see the highlighted part due to the black background.
So this guy must, MUST believe: Leviticus 11:20-23
“All winged insects that go on all fours are detestable to you. Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to hop on the ground. Of them you may eat: the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, and the grasshopper of any kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you.”
Stay away from 4 legged bugs…if you can find any. And stay away from the edges of the earth…the batbirds…don’t build your tower too high…etc etc
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no god; the wise man says it on the Internet where someone might actually read it.”
No fool I.
I love how they actually consider ASKING atheists what defines them, and then rejecting that tack. Guess that means WE get to decide what a Christian is–since they keep missing the mark and declaring folks no “true Christians” right and left.
Trying to debate a psychotic is like trying to teach a pig to sing, and anyone who proposes a debate that requires you to accept an axiom system that is full of contradictions is masturbating with a sack of macadamias.
What does an atheist believe? Well, I can only speak for myself, constrained as I am as all humans are. I believe my mother loved me every moment for sixty years until she died. I believe I love my children. I believe that I like shades of blue and green and brown (they being so familiar and all) and I believe that I’m going to be OK, mostly.
I’ve no concrete proof for any of these things outside of the testimony of the principals involved; those still living, that is.
For everything else it is, in my mind, a combination of probability and assumption. For most things I assign some degree of probability based on evidence, knowing that additional evidence pro or con is just the turn of a page or a mouse click or a real life demonstration away. For the remaining most things my degree of conviction is a hash of hope, fear and my personal druthers. This, of course, covers only those things I’m aware of. There are likely more things that I neither believe in or suspect. Such is life.
I only believe a few things. Everything else is kind of provisional, subject to change without warning.
Oh. Another thing I believe. When I read the essays of Issac Asimov I just know (tee hee) that I really am the Gentle Reader. Ain’t faith a mystery?
I have yet to see an atheist site/page/blog/channel that does not allow comments. But there must be some confidence lacking atheist out there with something to say, there just has to be, no?
These sorts of screeds kind of suggests that they are not scrawled for a serious inquiry or point of debate but as a clarion call come dog whistle to the prejudices and fears of the jebus droolers which read these sites avidly…most looking for and appreciating random confirmations.
They are written as corroboration of a delusion that has already defined the phenomenon as the most dangerous to the delusion, not for any precise analysis of a reality.
There is no surprise that atheism is viewed as a negative influence.
With the xian religion in free-fall of both numbers of bums on seats and relevance to a generation with knowledge at their finger tips…it is the one thing that acts like a palpable beacon to the unconvinced of the traditional boasts of cult dogma therefore they must try and stifle, belittle and lie about it, it is a survival trait…and it is a battle they are losing.
That is why I have yet to come across such literary circle jerks that in any way shape or form actually relate to the reality of atheism.
After a discussion with door to door salesman from a particular church here in town, we were apparently the inspiration for the next weeks’ Church sign.
It said, “God doesn’t believe in Atheists therefore Atheists do not exist.”
At first, I was angry, because I clearly do exist, but later I came to think of it as a badge of honor.
Right on! Or, amen!! Also, too.
Others have already answered your copy/paste question, but I’ll but this here for future reference.
Most browsers will have a “view page source” to look at the HTML code, so you can always copy/paste from there and edit out the HTML tags. The only site I know of that disables copy/pasting is snopes.com. they use a bit of JavaScript to prevent you from highlighting. You can get around it by disabling JavaScript in your browser and reloading the page.
bevstapleton @ 14
Their mental processes are similar to children and juveniles…a kind of stunted mental development forever locked at 7-10 years old.
Anything that frightens them they put hands in front of their eyes to pretend it is not there.
And atheism really terrifies them…that is obvious!
I love it!!
The Bible is used as “proof” for the Bible!
And people wonder why we don’t believe.
OverlappingMagisteria:
Hope you have some way of finding my thanks. Turning off javascript works! There’s a site I visit fairly frequently where I always have to go to source & then strip the junk off in order to copy clear. Tried turning off javascript & simple cut-and-paste worked like a charm.
Thank you. A new tool in my armatorium.