I mean, I hear athiests talk all the time about not believing in God, because, "There is no proof.".

Why wouldn't someone believe in a "higher power", so to speak, that made us, instead of a random occurance? Shouldn't the Bible, written by actual people, with actual accounts of the happening, be enough proof to someone that there is a God? They tell me "not to force my religion on them", when they can openly say that there is no God.

I mean, it's kinda sad actually, and I guess I just have to wait for the Holy Spirit to enter their hearts, but I just wanna know what you think: Why don't they believe? (This can be from specific, un-named people, or just athiests as a group, because everyone thinks differently. )

Look at the bad historical events that happened because of religion. Those are some other reasons they refuse to believe in a higher power. I'm an agnostic who is mostly a Christian based theist. I could easily be a Buddhist if I wanted to, but why don't I? Because Christianity is the religion I feel I am most comfortable with. Why am I not currently a Christian? I don't understand the doctrine, and feel like God is tired of me.

The atheists that act utterly hateful towards religions are the ones that make the normal ones look bad. You see, these are just people who choose to believe what they think makes sense. Most are just people who don't mind religion, but don't choose to be any kind of theist.

It isn't always because of them not believing in one deity. They might just believe no theism makes sense. For some, Christianity didn't work for them. Atheism might happen to work for them.

There's too many reasons to mention. It's a very complex question to answer.

I do not believe in any gods because there is absolutely no evidence to support their existence. I suppose another way to look at this would be to say that I do not believe in gods for the same reasons you do not believe in unicorns, fairies, etc.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. That a god exists with the characteristics attributed to the Christian god is certainly an extraordinary claim. And yet, there is simply no evidence to support this claim. However...I do believe in a higher power...not necessarily "god" or "a god" .....

YourMajestyKen : You have a very good point. I really do agree.

The reason I choose to let myself believe there is some deity out there, and prefer the Christian God is just... I don't know completely. I'm always told how I'm Christian, and if I tell my mom otherwise, she will put words in my mouth. I'm Agnostic and a Christian theist. I would say that to my mom, but she would not understand.

She's one of those typical church goers who have very strong beliefs, which I highly admire in anyone unless they are all high and mighty about it, and wants to believe her daughter is a Christian. I just keep my mouth shut since I will get told how weird agnostism is... Oh well... Always got my art...

Why exactly do I choose to still be theistic in the Christian faith yet not go all out? I don't know. The strong Christians made me push myself out because I felt so useless. That's all I can think of.

I honestly am a Christian, but I can believe why some people don't believe in God.

First off, just because somebody wrote something in a book doesn't mean it's true. I could write a book about aliens and space rays, but would it be true? Plus, while there are believable stories in the bible, there are many more nonsense stories in the bible that even I don't believe.

I think, however, that Athiests are missing out on what can be a life changing experience. Christianity was formed during war and bloodshed; nobody trusted anybody and everybody hated each other. I think that the original point of Christianity (and many other religions) was to teach lessons and to make a person a better, nicer person. You don't need to believe the outlandish stories; but you aught to believe in the lessons.

I'm also Christian but i think i know why ppl don't believe in god. The reason is (sometimes) is that ppl don't care about what they can't see. And also if there doing well in life they may feel like there is no reason to believe in god. I'm doing fine yet i still believe in god.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a "true atheist." The claim of the atheist is that there is no God. However,

1. They can't prove it. The claim "there is no God" is what we call as an absolute statement. In this case, it's a negative absolute statement. One can prove there is something by just showing it. But if you were to say there is none of something, like there is no gold in China, they would have to look all over the place to actually affirm that statement, and China is huge. In the same way, the universe is huge, so one cannot really firmly say that there is no God.

2. They are like the rest of us, we don't know all knowledge. If we can say that we have about 5% of all knowledge in this entire universe, can we definitely say there is none of something if we have not looked at the 95% of the knowledge in the whole universe?

So they are not really "atheists," but agnostics, who are not sure if there is a God or not. The same that I am an agnostic of unicorns and leprechauns.

the_casualty : "I think that the original point of Christianity (and many other religions) was to teach lessons and to make a person a better, nicer person. You don't need to believe the outlandish stories; but you aught to believe in the lessons."

Ummm...no, that is not the point of Christianity.

Romans 3:12
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

John 3:16-18
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The point of Christianity is that no one is good and everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone is guilty. But Jesus, God Himself, died on the cross to pay for the punishment of sin, and those who believe in Him will have eternal life, because you received God's gift of salvation and have his sacrifice as your substitution. Those who do not receive God as their personal savior would be taking up their sin on their own, and God will punish him because no one can do enough to atone for their sins.

Christianity is not moralism.

play4fun : I really don't like arguing, but here is my thing:

If Christianity is not to make you a better person, then what is it for? To know that somebody created us? Why do you think everybody died after doing something not very bad at all? Was it not to teach us a lesson?

the_casualty : I wrote what the point of Christianity is on my last post, but let's clarify.

I can actually refer you to this and tell you what the purpose of Christianity is: https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/thread.php?id=14003

Let me ask you this, why do you think that the purpose of Christianity is to make you a better person? Is Christianity no different to other religions? Or is there something distinctive about it that makes it talk about truth and about our relationship with God?

the_casualty : It's to make you believe in God, and acknowledge that he is your Creator. He wants you to have eternal life in Heaven, but you must believe it first.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Acts 2:18 - Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this not from yourself, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast.

Isn't the purpose of religion from a secular viewpoint a search for answers and purpose in life?

Meh, I see what you're saying.

I guess different people have different ways of viewing things, right?

the_casualty : Yeah. Pretty much. I always viewed things from both sides when it comes to religious subjects. Even when I was a strong Christian, I had that way of looking at things.

Dontcha just love how these threads are dragged completely off topic by some people

Want to know why some people dont believe in particular beliefs?
Nonesense like that. Dragging a topic about one thing into "this is what is right and everyone else is wrong".

Oh, and YourMajestyKen, KlawedFlaw, the_casualty and catfight09 also struck pretty close to home on the reasons for atheism.

Religion doesn't need proof, it's a matter of faith. Atheists have no faith in a God/Gods. It's that simple. Proof is irrelevant. However, some people have personal reasons for not believing in a divine power. I know someone who was a Christian who's mother converted to Buddhism when he was younger and that just messed him up. On a side note, I don't believe that religion makes one a better person.

NotJon : I know a few "Christians" that took joy in calling me a lesbo... For most of a school year. Enough said. I make fun of people, but not in such harsh ways. I only will be harsh if they did anyone I care about wrong. My sister's dad that isn't my dad is one of those people who deserve the jokes, and same with the scumbag of a boyfriend my sister had for years.

Also, there's a Christian in my grade who almost got the tools to kill someone at my school, but I ratted him out since I overheard him.

The one who wanted to commit homicide actually needed professional help...

KlawedFlaw : People are human, religion doesn't change that. I really hate superiority complexes.

NotJon : I was just giving examples of Christians who obviously were just using the religion as some thing they got off their parents. I kinda do have a problem with superiority type feelings. I don't even know why... I wasn't meaning to sound like I was high and mighty... Sorry if I did.

KlawedFlaw : Oh no. It wasn't you. I meant, I hate when people are uber-religious and think that they're better than everyone else and that their s*** don't stink.

NotJon : So that's why my neighbor keeps smelling his crap...

Joking aside, agreed. I will just say that... I'd rather not get into what I think about high and mighty people.