Christians, why blame atheists for not “choosing” to believe in god?

[Myth_understood]

Christians,

Why do so many of you blame atheists for not “choosing” to believe in god (or "choosing" to not believe in god)? We have not made that choice.

How does one just “choose” to believe in god, if they have not been convinced that “he” exists?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence if they are to be believed.

1)For example, if you read in a biography that Abraham Lincoln ate an apple everyday for breakfast, you probably would not even question this and would accept the claim.. People eat apples every day, so it is no skin off your nose to believe that Lincoln ate apples for breakfast. Sure this could be a false claim, but it is not unreasonable to believe it.

2)Now, what about the story of Lincoln being shot by John Wilkes Booth? Sure, that could be a made-up legend, but we do have evidence that he died and we know that humans who are shot, often die, so it is not unreasonable to believe this.

3)Now, what if people claimed that Lincoln died but came back to life inhabiting the body of his successor in order to finish out his term? Is it reasonable to believe that humans come back to life and then inhabit another person's body? Not without extraordinary evidence.

Claims #1 and #2 may very well be false, but they are not extraordinary claims that require extraordinary evidence to believe. However, claim #3 would require extraordinary evidence to be believed.

With that being said, how does one “choose” to believe extraordinary claims without something that convinces them of the claim’s truth? Without some kind of convincing proof or experience, how is an atheist expected to believe in god? My beliefs are arrived at based on something convincing me of its truth. I cannot just choose to believe out of the blue. Nothing has convinced me yet of god's existence, so I do not currently believe. It doesn’t matter if I “want” to believe in god (which I do), because my beliefs aren’t arrived at based on what I “want” to believe in. Heck, there are some things that I believe in that I would rather not believe, but have no choice based on the overwhelming evidence.

Let’s take the following scenario as an example:

Would you "choose" to believe your son is a murderer?

Let's say your son (hypothetical) got arrested for murder (1st degree). You've raised him as loving, moral, son for over 20 years and he's never hurt a flea.

Would you "choose" to believe that he was a murderer at this point? (Probably not, since it goes against everything you know about your son.....how kind, gentle, and upstanding he is.)

Now let's say that you are exposed to the damning evidence, your spouse witnessed the murder, and your son did not deny it. There is no mistake in this case that he committed premeditated murder. Would you now "choose" to believe your son was a murderer?

If you are a loving parent who has over 20 years of experience with your son, and know that he has been a good kid all of these years.....why would you "choose" to believe he was a murderer?

On the other hand, if you "choose" to believe he is innocent........why?

[mcgyver]

Let me ask, what sort of evidence would be required to convince you of God's existence?

[livingwaters]

Yes, if you do not believe in God, you have made that choice. Every creation has a creator...How can you look at an ant, the Bible describes it's function, and not believe that God created it? It knows instinctively, by it's DNA, how to work! It doesn't even have a boss to tell it what to do! The Bible also tells us that God has placed the knowledge in all of us to a degree that HE does exist. How about the evidence of Jesus being born by a virgin? How about the recorded historical facts about all the people that saw Christ ascend into Heaven? How about when HE went to hell and brought back the captives that were saved by their faith in God, who went there before HIS crucifixiction, and they walked around and many, many people saw those who had died and been resurrected by the Lord? I mean, really....it's a cop out to say, "there is no God!" And worse then that, you have brought eternal death, in hell, as your destiny! Oh, but that's right, you don't believe. Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but I know what Jesus, the Son of God did in my life....so, I don't need proof, I already have it!!! Hope you get it too! I will pray for you!

I pray that you would at least read God's Word and/or do your homework on the historical documentation of all of these things! What have you got to lose, but going to hell for unbelief and rejection? How about you prove there is no God!!!! You will never be able to do so! This is my humble plea for you to reconsider before it's too late!

God Bless!

[dljc]

Christians,

Why do so many of you blame atheists for not “choosing” to believe in god (or "choosing" to not believe in god)? We have not made that choice.

How does one just “choose” to believe in god, if they have not been convinced that “he” exists?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence if they are to be believed.

1)For example, if you read in a biography that Abraham Lincoln ate an apple everyday for breakfast, you probably would not even question this and would accept the claim.. People eat apples every day, so it is no skin off your nose to believe that Lincoln ate apples for breakfast. Sure this could be a false claim, but it is not unreasonable to believe it.

2)Now, what about the story of Lincoln being shot by John Wilkes Booth? Sure, that could be a made-up legend, but we do have evidence that he died and we know that humans who are shot, often die, so it is not unreasonable to believe this.

3)Now, what if people claimed that Lincoln died but came back to life inhabiting the body of his successor in order to finish out his term? Is it reasonable to believe that humans come back to life and then inhabit another person's body? Not without extraordinary evidence.

Claims #1 and #2 may very well be false, but they are not extraordinary claims that require extraordinary evidence to believe. However, claim #3 would require extraordinary evidence to be believed.

With that being said, how does one “choose” to believe extraordinary claims without something that convinces them of the claim’s truth? Without some kind of convincing proof or experience, how is an atheist expected to believe in god? My beliefs are arrived at based on something convincing me of its truth. I cannot just choose to believe out of the blue. Nothing has convinced me yet of god's existence, so I do not currently believe. It doesn’t matter if I “want” to believe in god (which I do), because my beliefs aren’t arrived at based on what I “want” to believe in. Heck, there are some things that I believe in that I would rather not believe, but have no choice based on the overwhelming evidence.

Let’s take the following scenario as an example:

Would you "choose" to believe your son is a murderer?

Let's say your son (hypothetical) got arrested for murder (1st degree). You've raised him as loving, moral, son for over 20 years and he's never hurt a flea.

Would you "choose" to believe that he was a murderer at this point? (Probably not, since it goes against everything you know about your son.....how kind, gentle, and upstanding he is.)

Now let's say that you are exposed to the damning evidence, your spouse witnessed the murder, and your son did not deny it. There is no mistake in this case that he committed premeditated murder. Would you now "choose" to believe your son was a murderer?

If you are a loving parent who has over 20 years of experience with your son, and know that he has been a good kid all of these years.....why would you "choose" to believe he was a murderer?

On the other hand, if you "choose" to believe he is innocent........why?

The fly in the ointment here (the flaw in the argument) is. Belief is a choice, and so is unbelief. Even with your final comment/question, if you look back over what you've said, you've stressed "choosing" to believe, even if that means believing your son is innocent despite the testimony of your son, and the evidence. This would be unbelief wouldn't it? Everything points to your son's guilt but you won't believe it.

[Kathyjoyful2day]

The Bible teaches that God wants everyone to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
And no-one can come to Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws him. Therefore, God draws each one of us, and it is up to us to accept or reject Christ.

[th1bill]

... When I was young I was raised to be an atheist. So, is it my mothers fault that I was? Not true! I knew Christians that witnessed to me but I chose my families view. When I was a very young soldier God revealed Himself to me but I chose not to follow Him for about 24 years. I chose not to ascribe to either belief.
... You see, the fact of the matter is that we choose and e are responsible for the choices we make.

[tango]

Who said we are blaming you? We are simply trying to explain why we believe you are wrong in your belief that there is no God, and to point towards the evidence that tells us that God is very much real.

[Henry]

Why do so many of you blame atheists for not “choosing” to believe in god (or "choosing" to not believe in god)? We have not made that choice.

How does one just “choose” to believe in god, if they have not been convinced that “he” exists?

Sir, I for one do not blame anyone for their choices, but I am really concerned about atheists. God is real, but He will not reveal Himself to unbelievers. Won't you just give Jesus a chance? It is not that difficult.

[moonglow]

I have seen parents on the news that refused to believe their adult child was a murder inspite of the evidence. Take the Casey Anthony case...there is probably a 90% chance she will be convicted of murder yet her parents refuse to believe she had anything to do with the murder of her child inspite of all the evidence. And their has been cases where the overwhelming evidence was wrong and years later when they do a DNA test they find out they got the wrong person and they let them out of jail. So in these cases evidence doesn't really make any difference in what people believe...they choose to believe either way inspite of it.

All of creation testifies that there is indeed a God. Everything IS evidence of a God..pretty hard to ignore that I would say...yet people come up with other reasons for the 'evidence' and basically talk their way out of believing..

[Dani H]

I've never once blamed an atheist for their unbelief. There was a time in my life when I wrestled with unbelief myself and so I can certainly relate.

It peeves me a bit though when atheists use their unbelief as a platform to tear down people of faith as if science was a religion and those of use who have chosen to put our faith in an invisible God are off our rocker and not worth regarding as human beings with reasonable intelligence. I've arrived at my state of faith through a reasonable and logical process that has nothing to do with "blind faith" at all. Faith isn't magic and neither is it arbitrary or some romantic notion set forth by those of us who need crutches in our lives.

Then again I'm sure there are atheists out there that haven't been treated very nicely by believers either as if y'all carry some sort of disease. My apologies for that.

Having said that, it's good to see you here opening yourself up to honest communication. Let's make the best of it, shall we?

In regards to Christianity being logical and reasonable, may I point you towards the writings of Francis Schaeffer and Ravi Zacharias? I think it's important for you to realize that faith in God is a very reasonably sound matter and that Christianity with its belief in the Trinity, out of all religions, is the only one that, thought through to its locical conclusion, comes out at the only thing that actually makes sense, considering all of the facts.

For example, starting at the beginning, science still has no answer as to how the universe with all of its complexity was somehow fashioned from nothing. How is that even possible? I can understand the big bang. I don't understand how supposedly that happened from nothing. Where did all of that matter come from? How did all of the particles know how to work in some sort of framework of predetermined principle as to physical reactions involving matter and energy? Because even energy is "something". How did that get there, and where did it come from?

How did matter come to be from non-matter? How did energy come to be from non-energy? How did something come from nothing? What was before the big bang, and how did that get there? And before that? And before that? And so forth, and so on. Go back to the very, very beginning-beginning, and perhaps you can relate to my puzzlement of how scientists can not sit there and ask themselves these questions, but just randomly pick some point in history and build a whole religion on it. How is that scientific? It's not, you see. It's random. Sorry.

I also don't understand how life happened from non-life because there is zero precendence for that anywhere that can be recreated. When people die, they stay dead. When animals die, they stay dead. When plants die, they stay dead. And so even the programming of living cells doesn't magically bring itself back to life again. So how is it possible that living cell programming came to being from the programming of non-living cells? 'splain that to me, Lucy, no?

So you can see that, to my thinking, the "missing link" is the smallest problem scientists today have failed to produce. There are greater matters to think about, obviously, that nobody in all of their intelligence has any reasonable, logical explanation for.

I choose to believe in God because honestly, He is the only thing that makes sense, considering all facts and thinking everything through to its logical conclusion. Because my personal, infinite God, at some point in the past (and it doesn't really matter when), chose to create the universe from non-matter, out from within Himself because He was already there when it happened (being eternal and having no beginning and no end), and He happens to possess the power to do so. And, ofcourse, because I have a personal relationship with Him and He has chosen to reveal Himself to me on a personal level because I did take that step of faith years ago.

[notuptome]

We should admire the athiest. It takes a great deal more faith to deny God's existance than to embrace it. Some one has opined that if God did not exist we would need to invent Him. The simple fact that man can imagine God is testimony that He is real. To not believe that God has created all that is for His pleasure is no less fantastic than believing that a tornado passing through a junkyard could produce a space shuttle.
King David in Psalms 139:14 I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well.
I do not have faith in myself or my fellow man sufficient to cause me to trust in my wisdom or their wisdom above that which god has revealed in His word and through His Son. My experience has been that men do not know God but rather that they do not like God as He is and would rather He not be so Holy and Pure and Perfect. Romans 1:21-23

For the cause of Christ.
Roger

[Myth_understood]

... When I was young I was raised to be an atheist. So, is it my mothers fault that I was? Not true! I knew Christians that witnessed to me but I chose my families view. When I was a very young soldier God revealed Himself to me but I chose not to follow Him for about 24 years. I chose not to ascribe to either belief.
... You see, the fact of the matter is that we choose and e are responsible for the choices we make.

There is a difference between believing god exists and "following" (worshipping) god. You obviously believed god exists since you say he revealed himself to you, but you "chose" not to follow him. I just want the opportunity to make that choice of following him. However, since he has not revealed himself to me, I cannot worship him since I do not have a belief in him.

[Myth_understood]

Who said we are blaming you? We are simply trying to explain why we believe you are wrong in your belief that there is no God, and to point towards the evidence that tells us that God is very much real.

I do not believe that "there is no god". How should I know? I haven't been provided with proof one way or the other. I do not believe in any god because of the lack of sufficient evidence to convince me to believe (which makes me an atheist). Likewise, I do not believe that "there are no gods" because of the lack of sufficient evidence to convince me that there is not some deistic god out there somewhere. Not having a belief in god makes me an atheist. It doesn't matter whether I believe gods could be possible, etc, I do not currently have a belief! (BTW, I am agnostic when it comes to knowledge about god, but in regards to belief.....you only have 2 choices: belief or no belief, and I have no belief).

[tango]

I do not believe that "there is no god". How should I know? I haven't been provided with proof one way or the other. I do not believe in any god because of the lack of sufficient evidence to convince me to believe (which makes me an atheist). Likewise, I do not believe that "there are no gods" because of the lack of sufficient evidence to convince me that there is not some deistic god out there somewhere. Not having a belief in god makes me an atheist. It doesn't matter whether I believe gods could be possible, etc, I do not currently have a belief! (BTW, I am agnostic when it comes to knowledge about god, but in regards to belief.....you only have 2 choices: belief or no belief, and I have no belief).

It sounds to me that you're more of an agnostic.

Between "I believe there is a God" and "I believe there is no God" there is room for "I do not know if there is a God". From what you've said you fit in there?

If you're uncertain as to whether God exists at all, presumably you're open to being convinced?

[Myth_understood]

Sir, I for one do not blame anyone for their choices, but I am really concerned about atheists. God is real, but He will not reveal Himself to unbelievers. Won't you just give Jesus a chance? It is not that difficult.

What makes you think that I am not open to Jesus? Most atheists are open to evidence and truth. I have no ties to being an atheist. It is just a word used to describe my state of unbelief. Should I come across some convincing evidence of god (to me) or even a personal revelation, I would then believe.