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Why All Atheists Should Start Embracing God

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Category: Religion & Ethics

Via: xxjefferson51 • 11 years ago • 40 comments

Why All Atheists Should Start Embracing God

According to a recent Pew Research Center study, the number of Americans who don't affiliate with a specific religion has grown to 56 million in recent years, making the faith group researchers call "nones" the second-largest group in the nation behind evangelicals. Christianity is still the dominant faith in the country by a fairly large margin but the ranks of Christians have declined as the number of people with no religion has grown, the survey claims. While the decline in Christian affiliation is dominant among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are being seen regardless of race, gender or level of education.

American atheists, who relish the idea of an ever-growing secular society celebrate this trend and continue to fight for a God-less America. It may appear as though they are winning this battle as the nation becomes more and more secular by the day. We live in a country where people should be free to believe or not believe as they wish. But atheists and secular progressives should be careful what they wish for.

Nothing gets under the skin of atheists and secular progressives more than the idea of God. Here we go again with these right-wing religious nuts, they think. "In God we trust", one nation under God", "endowed by our Creator" are all tenets of the creation and history of our great nation. These beliefs make the secular left, who dream of a God-free utopia, cringe with disgust.

To the non-believers, the idea that we are "endowed by our Creator", is just another way of saying that we are free people and should be embraced by every single one of us. One need not believe in God to embrace the idea of God as it pertains to the freedom of man. One need not believe in God to embrace the notion that we are not subject to anyone or anything but a higher power. One need not believe something exists to embrace the idea of it and recognize its value to society. No king, dictator or any mortal man shall have control over your person. You are only responsible to God, whether you believe he exists or not. http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/06/13/musings-average-joe-why-all-atheists-should-start-embracing-god

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

"One need not believe something exists to embrace the idea of it and recognize its value to society. No king, dictator or any mortal man shall have control over your person. You are only responsible to God, whether you believe he exists or not."Do you even read the garbage you post? Tell me that this excerpt is even remotely coherent. You can replace the word "god" here with literally any other imaginatory concept and it would make just as much sense, which is to say no sense at all. Who is this "king, dictator or mortal man controlling your person?" All I see is someone trying to shove the idea of a shamelessly baseless concept down peoples' throats.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

One can not embrace something that does not exist.

Freshman Silent

LoneRanger01 11 years ago

Am I the only one who sees the irony in this rant from Flame,.... he rants on how fake and unreal the Christian is then he uses the scriptures to tell them how they should act......

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pat wilson 11 years ago

I thought it was agreed not too long ago that we would not seed articles that proselytize...

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

Christians spend enormous amounts of money on buildings, real estate, staff, legal issues, etc., in order for them to do what their savior said should be done without any of that stuff. It's a HUGE contradiction. The poor die routinely from conditions that could have easily been fixed with the kind of money that is spent on their desire to defy their lord and savior. Damn right churches are filled with spiritually sick people.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

I know it in the same way I know there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy. I grew up.

There is no god. I don't just think it. I don't just believe it. I know it.

Professor Guide

Krishna 11 years ago

Am I the only one who sees the irony in this rant from Flame,.... he rants on how fake and unreal the Christian is then he uses the scriptures to tell them how they should act......

Comment removed for COC "PersonalAttack" "Six"

Do you mind cutting this out?

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

LOL! For someone who advises ignoring you he sure puts out the bile. ;-)

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pat wilson 11 years ago

obviously

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

My lady is an agnostic, recovering catholic. She kicks herself when she thinks of how all the thousands of dollars she and her former husband gave to the church was spent. The church built an addition as soon as they fleeced enough money to cover it. Meanwhile, down the street from it is an intersection that is a popular spot for panhandling.

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

I spent the day relaxing in Annapolis, MD today. There was an old couple standing at the busiest intersection near the water, and they were trying to force eye contact with anyone in earshot and shouting directly at people. They had signs that said FEAR GOD and JESUS SAVES SINNERS. We were eating lunch al fresco, so they were within view the whole time. It was noisy so I couldn't hear what drivel was being violently hurled at the walkers and drivers, thankfully, but it was clear that they were proselytizing. They arrived normally, probably drove from home. They looked fairly healthy, and no different than anyone else in the crowd. My lady and I discussed how strange it is that that isn't considered a mental illness. If they had been yelling at people about a Flying Spaghetti Monster, they would have definitely been identified as mentally ill - but since they were shouting at people to give their lives over to an invisible, non-communicative, omnipotent, omniscient, infallible entity that loves us all unconditionally (even though he once murdered the entire earth), they're just part of the natural landscape.

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

Who do you suppose I am "responsible to"?

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

There's one thing that god, Jefferson, and compassionate conservatives have in common. They don't exist.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

Ultimately I am responsible to me.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

Though please don't tell my wife that!

Professor Expert

Kavika 11 years ago

''but the ranks of Christians have declined as the number of people with no religion has grown, the survey claims. While the decline in Christian affiliation is dominant among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are being seen regardless of race, gender or level of education.''

XX, did you ever stop and think why the above is happening? Instead of trying to convert atheists to Christians, why not figure out why so many Christians are Nones.

It would seem to me that would be the logical thing to do. Your logic escapes me.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

I don't think a whole lot of people are officially becoming agnostics or atheists, as much as they are becoming people who just don't care. Who have decided the religion has no place in their life. I guess that is atheistic, though I doubt that they'd say they are if you asked them.

Sophomore Quiet

Randy 11 years ago

I know that there is no god.

Are you certain there is one?

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Larry Hampton 11 years ago

That isa mostpertinent point. Fundamentalism is failing quickly, and evangelicals as a whole are directionless.

They need a swift kick in the ass.

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Randy 11 years ago

I think it's because so many of them stopped beingevangelicals and became politicians instead.

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pat wilson 11 years ago

It's a mistake to even engage, all you hear is incoherent nonsense. Ain't nobody got time for that !!!

Professor Quiet

pat wilson 11 years ago

We as a society decided to turn the mentally ill out onto the streets 30 years ago or so. It's no surprise to see people acting out their anxieties in public.

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Larry Hampton 11 years ago

LOL!

Well, no though.

:~)

As someone who was raised a Fundy I can tell ya it's fallin' apart from the inside. A lot of it (most of it imo) is exactly the kind of corruption that has been mentioned in the comments here. Indeed, the central message of Jesus to feed the poor and take care of the widows and orphans, is not being done by many, many Christians. And for that we should be ashamed, humble, and repentant. Pop Christian leadershipin America has become the modern day equivalent of the sons of Eli...

¹² Elis sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord . ¹³ Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priests servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled ¹⁴ and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. ¹⁵ But even before the fat was burned, the priests servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, Give the priest some meat to roast; he wont accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.

¹⁶ If the person said to him, Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want, the servant would answer, No, hand it over now; if you dont, Ill take it by force.

¹⁷ This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord s sight, for they^{[ a ]} were treating the Lord s offering with contempt.

1 Samuel 2

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Hal A. Lujah 11 years ago

When god makes it obvious that it exists, like it did in the fables of your bronze aged fantasy doctrine, then I will change what I believe. However, thousands of years of dead silence, invisibility, and no end to human suffering says that's not going to happen, ever.

Freshman Silent

LynneA 11 years ago

why not figure out why so many Christians are Nones.

Ding, ding, ding...the prizes goes to Kavika!

Freshman Silent

LoneRanger01 11 years ago

Flame, you said "Until you can provide a link proving the existence of God, your fairy tale faith has no more credibility than how you actually serve that faith. If the words of Christ are important then following them will give credibility to your claims of importance" then you Flame used scripture to prove your point....Then you say "I believe the Bible is quite clear on all these points."

Really, if you say it is a fairy tail faith how can you say the Bible is quite clear on it? Let alone the fact that you said you believe it....

Didn't you use the word hypocrisy?

Professor Quiet

Larry Hampton 11 years ago

Oh they are growing, just not in the US. Developing countries and others in Asia are seeing huge growth, but evangelicals and specifically Fundamentalists in the USare shrinking. That's a fact.

The unwillingness for Christians to be repentant arises from an unwillingness to be honest about our own sinfulness. It is nothing new and has been that way as long as there have been Christians.

I found that the structural supports of evangelicalism are quivering as a result of ground-shaking changes in American culture. Strategies that served evangelicals well just 15 years ago are now self- destructive. The more that evangelicals attempt to correct course, the more they splinter their movement. In coming years we will see the old evangelicalism whimper and wane.

First, evangelicals, while still perceived as a majority, have become a shrinking minority in the United States. In the 1980s heyday of the Rev. Jerry Falwells Moral Majority, some estimates accounted evangelicals as a third or even close to half of the population, but research by the Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith recently found that Christians who call themselves evangelicals account for just 7 percent of Americans. (Other research has reported that some 25 percent of Americans belong to evangelical denominations, though they may not, in fact, consider themselves evangelicals.) Dr. Smiths findings are derived from a three-year national study of evangelical identity and influence, financed by the Pew Research Center. They suggest that American evangelicals now number around 20 million, about the population of New York State. The global outlook is more optimistic, as evangelical congregations flourish in places like China, Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa.

But while Americas population grows by roughly two million a year, attendance across evangelical churches from the Southern Baptists to Assembles of God and nondenominational churches has gradually declined, according to surveys of more than 200,000 congregations by the American Church Research Project.

The movement also faces a donation crisis as older evangelicals, who give a disproportionately large share, age. Unless younger evangelicals radically increase their giving, the movement will be further strained.

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We evangelicals must accept that our beliefs are now in conflict with the mainstream culture. We cannot change ancient doctrines to adapt to the currents of the day. But we can, and must, adapt the way we hold our beliefs with grace and humility instead of superior hostility. The core evangelical belief is that love and forgiveness are freely available to all who trust in Jesus Christ. This is the good news from which the evangelical name originates (euangelion is a Greek word meaning glad tidings or good news). Instead of offering hope, many evangelicals have claimed the role of moral gatekeeper, judge and jury. If we continue in that posture, we will continue to invite opposition and obscure the good news we are called to proclaim.

I believe the cultural backlash against evangelical Christianity has less to do with our views many observant Muslims and Jews, for example, also view homosexual sex as wrong, while Catholics have been at the vanguard of the movement to protect the lives of the unborn and more to do with our posture. The Scripture calls us aliens and exiles (1 Peter 2:11), but American evangelicals have not acted with the humility and homesickness of aliens. The proper response to our sexualized and hedonistic culture is not to chastise, but to conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God (1 Peter 2:12).

This does not mean we whitewash unpopular doctrines like the belief that we are all sinners but that we re-emphasize the free forgiveness available to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

Some evangelical leaders are embarrassed by our movements present paralysis. I am not. Weakness is a potent purifier. As Paul wrote, I am content with weaknesses ... for the sake of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:10). For me, the deterioration and disarray of the movement is a source of hope: hope that churches will stop angling for human power and start proclaiming the power of Christ.

~LINK~

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