I do NOT believe in god

[queenofnines]

Since I watched the entire 2 hour debate that Lacey linked to and am open to looking at anything anyone else posts, could any of you do me the kindness of being open-minded yourselves?

Here are some of my favorite educational YouTube vids.  Most are 2-5 minutes, although a few are 10.  You can watch them in order, or jump around to the ones on the topics you are most interested in.

Religion: Man's Flaw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWA8uL2U_4o (9:56)  <-- most important video of all
Confessions of a former Christian - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq5TWTTPHF8 (5:12)
Evolution evidence and "gaps" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTnjx-JRzE (10:12)
Why religion isn't harmless - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYNNzdqFKOQ (2:33)
Why you shouldn't say god answered your prayers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dyPiIcLK90 (2:13)
Why we don't get our morals from the Bible - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6twSN8ZS_VA (9:28)
Pascal's wager - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcWdV0LYG4 (5:38)
Everyone's a little bit atheist - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LbMMv2xTU (2:04)
"Traditional marriage" according to the Bible - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw (4:15)
The story of Suzie: cartoon of Christian life (satire) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd7iXASIOdA (3:31)
How to be a good creationist (satire) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D-oN5Ybb9s (6:34)

If you have any thoughts or want more links, let me know.

[laceybriglia]

Since I watched the entire 2 hour debate that Lacey linked to and am open to looking at anything anyone else posts, could any of you do me the kindness of being open-minded yourselves?

I watched all of your videos just to let you know.
Quick question is the person in "Everyone's a little athiest" male or female?
It's bothering me. Oh and for future references please don't give anymore videos of whiny youtubers... ugh so annoying. I just want educational stuff.

[queenofnines]

Quick question is the person in "Everyone's a little athiest" male or female?
It's bothering me. Oh and for future references please don't give anymore videos of whiny youtubers... ugh so annoying. I just want educational stuff.

Male.  It sucks that he is hurting his case in some instances because that's only what people will see (that he's gay) instead of actually processing the intelligent things he is saying.

As for "whiny Youtubers"...I don't mean to offend, but I think that is an excuse to not really listen and process what they're saying.  "I think god has a special place in hell for smart asses" was one of the comments on the Suzie video, for example, when in reality, all that the videos are doing is pointing out what's really going on (albeit, I can understand why they may be offensive to believers that still value their faith).  They weren't all whiny Youtubers...the very first vid wasn't whiny, but still presented it's information in an interesting way.

I don't know about you, but I'm victim to our instantaneous society and I'd much rather watch videos that are "fun" when it comes to presenting their information than long scientific or history drones.  That does not mean I don't value videos of that nature, it's just certain formats are easier to relate to and understand.  Unfortunately these videos and all of their good points can quickly be tossed aside by the label that the video producer is a smart *bleep*.

You may be surprised to know that I did not consult any videos at all as a Christian seeking answers back in 2007.  I was compelled entirely by written resources, and only found all of these YouTube videos well after I left Christianity.  They still help me learn things (like about evolution) or bring up more evidence against god that I wasn't aware of when I first made the switch.

For non-video resources, I recommend http://www.godisimaginary.com and http://www.evilbible.com.  I have the desire to go back and re-read these websites in their entirety, as when I brought up the godisimaginary link, someone accused that website of being like a "your mama" joke and I was like what??  The points brought up by these webmasters played a part in convincing this once-Christian!  I fear such websites will be compared to creationist ones, in which case I encourage you to read books by Richard Dawkins or whatever you would consider "respectable" that is on the atheist side.  As for me, I am still capable of recognizing intelligence and what is truly true, even when the source is from an "average" person.

[Falconer02]

No that's not a possibility considering many of these people didn't even believe in god and if you watched the video Sheryl provided a man talked about hell. He obviously didn't love the idea of hell but saw it.

But I didn't love the idea of people shooting fireworks that made the face of the evil Lord Vader! As queen stated, our brains are not functioning properly when this happens, so we were merely experiencing strange hallucinations of things we love/hate/fear. We've both experienced it (her obviously much worse than I did) so we have a good idea of what we saw and since we're fine now, we can decypher it. Simply put, we lived it and have the ability to sniff the bs. I would say from the descriptions that the creator of this video took a deceptive approach and only took the material that aligned with his/her belief system and disregarded anyone else with a Darth Vader story.

Queenof9's health NDE post

Wow that's awful. But I'm glad you're much better now. It's good that one side of the argument has more than 1 source of knowledge on the subject at hand. Anorexia is obviously horrible but I've never known anyone who had it. If I may ask, what induced it? If I'm digging into a scar, no worries-- forget I asked.

God threatened to shave my head once if i didn't start talking again because at 16 I fell into a walking coma and went catatonic and had a nervous breakdown. I could write a very long and detailed post of all the things I seen and heard and thought and what was going on but don't think I will.

That's awful too. Strangely enough I wouldn't mind hearing your story if you keep it short and simple. I promise I even won't call you a troll (unless you go nuts in your reasoning like in the past).

[queenofnines]

I'm not sure exactly why (the reason) you wanted me to watch that particular video...  My first thoughts on it was the girl was acting like a immature child does when someone else gets what they wanted for Christmas, so they throw a "tantrum".  My second thought was---I sure hope you aren't basing your soul's eternal destination on You-Tube videos such as this because...she doesn't seem to be a reliable source as to whether or not God exists, but she seems to be a great "drama queen".

The reason I point to a specific video for a specific religious topic is because a lot of the time, other intelligent people can say it much better than I can.  They are a lot quicker, more detailed, and more compelling than my words in a paragraph can be.  I can know all of the things they say are true but find it harder to put into words and articulate like they can.  I admire my husband because he speaks so freely, intelligently, and convincingly when it comes to religion.  I am always like, "Damn!  Smackdown!  I wish I was as quick on my feet as he is!"  I think this way about many of the people in the videos as well.

I have heard that claim from Christians as well - that as atheists, we're spoiled children if we question the effectiveness of prayer.  You leave it at that and don't even bother really thinking about our point of all the evil in the world.  If you do, once again there are superficial, ignorant excuses about a fruit and a talking snake and all of this hell is part of "god's plan".

What would you consider to be a reliable source for god's existence?  A 2,000-year-old book filled with obvious wrongs?  She appears to be a "drama queen" because 1) her style offends your faith and/or  2) you don't approve of that style of intelligence and humor.

No, I never consulted YouTube videos at all when I stopped being a Christian.

[queenofnines]

* The effectiveness of prayer--Speaking only for myself, I know when God has answered a prayer because He does it in ways that leave no room for "guess".    The timing, the details, the answer always has God's "signature" on it and sometimes his sense of humor as well.
I will agree there's alot of evil in the world.  What are you doing about it?  (Serious question).  Where do you think all the evil in the world is coming from? (Again, serious question).

I will watch the hell video this weekend.  In the meantime, these are my thoughts on the subject of hell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A8_X3Azp3I (6:00)  It's not done by that girl. 

Can you give an example of a prayer in your life where there was no room for a "guess"?  Because as a Christian I thought the same way in regards to when good things that happened in my life, and I even went so far as to notice that it was funny how it worked out as well. 

I'll give you an example of a prayer I remember: I prayed for god to send my mother a Christian man and a horse because I thought those things would make her happy.  Some time after I learned she was engaged and had also bought a horse.  I talked to my future stepfather on the phone and point-blank asked him if he was a Christian, and he said yes.  I was like, "Wow!  God answered my prayer!"

In reality, statistically most of us WILL marry.  Also, statistically most Americans ARE Christians.  She met him at work and was developing a relationship long before I prayed about it.  And my mom always wanted to get a horse again, and it's not like it was given to her as a gift - she went out and bought it.  The thing is, Christians will take this coincidence of timing as evidence for god, when it is not!

As for mountains of evil in the world, I really can't relate to how Christians can honestly think that mankind is deserving of the severe degree of evil that we experience.  How can you think that god is honestly doing enough?  He clearly isn't.  You make the excuse that things being so freaking horrible will be "worth it in the end".  That's really the best excuse I can get from the all-powerful, "all-loving" god?

Where do I think evil comes from?  As I said before, we as a species define what "evil" is based on what's best for survival.  People have their different motivations for why they do bad things.  Sometimes it's religion and people thinking it's their god that they're justified in doing bad things.  A lot of people are raised by uncaring parents or are poor or are not that intelligent for a bunch of reasons that we can't see and that contributes to them stealing and raping and killing and not thinking twice about how fragile life is.  Everyone is trying to make the best of some very hard questions like what the hell is the point of my being here; unfortunately, some of us are not equipped as well as others mentally or in our environments to conduct ourselves in a healthy way.

[queenofnines]

He also a self-described atheist . . .

I just want to quickly point out that I was a self-described atheist prior to my being a Christian and now I am just an atheist (not self-described ).  I can agree to the term "self-described"  when I was an atheist the first time because as I've said before, I wasn't raised religiously and could see no evidence in my everyday life for this god/Jesus that was mentioned.  A very true and good reason for being an atheist, but that was my only reason!  (what can we really expect though, I was a 13-year-old sh*t)  

I did not have any of the information I do now about science, the moral objections to the Christian god, the atrocities of the Bible, etc.  So when I point-blank chose to give god a try after experiencing my traumatic life event (anorexia), it was very easy to be swept away by the emotions and speeches that seemed to be "so true" at the "fun" churches I went to afterward because I still only had that one reason to NOT believe in god.  You can be easily brainwashed to not think about the most obvious things; you can be trained to not question god and the fallible things he stands for if you really need a god/heaven to be happy.

[queenofnines]

Lacey, good video that just came out about the Big Bang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PqJ2eEzD3o

It is entirely educational in nature, except for the last few seconds. 

[teflonfanatic]

Is it because of one of these reasons you don't believe in the almighty?
1. Not relevant or logical
2. Everyone kills in the name of religion
3. People make money off of religion or it's a tradition thing
4. People all over the world don't believe the same thing

Are any of this the reason you guys don't believe?

[Falconer02]

Queens post

Yeah schools in america don't teach too much about health and sex as much as they should. Would you call it more of a motivation or an addiction to not eating in this case? Anyway, atleast you're better!

The thing is, Christians will take this coincidence of timing as evidence for god, when it is not!

I'll second this too with a quick story. My neighbor growing up didn't like the idea of my family being JW (evangelical nutcase story here). So she prayed on and off for what was probably years. Years after I stopped going, my parents quit going and my mom strangely started studying in Mormonism (ugh...). So one day I was talking to my neighbor about how they quit and she just put her hand on her heart and raised her voice "Oh my god! My prayers were answered! I was praying for so long for them to get out of that place!" and then I smiled and said "Yeah. She's a mormon now!" and her face went from  to  and I started laughing. She thought I was joking. But I hope that was some form of wake up call to her in the form of this quote above.

Is it because of one of these reasons you don't believe in the almighty?
1. Not relevant or logical
2. Everyone kills in the name of religion
3. People make money off of religion or it's a tradition thing
4. People all over the world don't believe the same thing

Are any of this the reason you guys don't believe?

Watchtower trickery's afoot...tread carefully, non-christians.

[teflonfanatic]

Queens post

Yeah schools in america don't teach too much about health and sex as much as they should. Would you call it more of a motivation or an addiction to not eating in this case? Anyway, atleast you're better!

The thing is, Christians will take this coincidence of timing as evidence for god, when it is not!

I'll second this too with a quick story. My neighbor growing up didn't like the idea of my family being JW (evangelical nutcase story here). So she prayed on and off for what was probably years. Years after I stopped going, my parents quit going and my mom strangely started studying in Mormonism (ugh...). So one day I was talking to my neighbor about how they quit and she just put her hand on her heart and raised her voice "Oh my god! My prayers were answered! I was praying for so long for them to get out of that place!" and then I smiled and said "Yeah. She's a mormon now!" and her face went from  to  and I started laughing. She thought I was joking. But I hope that was some form of wake up call to her in the form of this quote above.

Is it because of one of these reasons you don't believe in the almighty?
1. Not relevant or logical
2. Everyone kills in the name of religion
3. People make money off of religion or it's a tradition thing
4. People all over the world don't believe the same thing

Are any of this the reason you guys don't believe?

Watchtower trickery's afoot...tread carefully, non-christians.

Watchtower is a bible word Genesis 31:49, can long before pagans invented it

Also I didn't get that off the watchtower site I made that up myself seriously though is anyone going to answer it?

[Falconer02]

Yeah, sure. I'll try to assume a role of both atheist and agnostic. If anyone who are either of these groups wants to add/remove certain parts, go ahead.

1. Not relevant or logical
2. Everyone kills in the name of religion
3. People make money off of religion or it's a tradition thing
4. People all over the world don't believe the same thing

1.) When basing things on faith in the physical realm, it does seem quite illogical. Simply by our nature, we like to have testable and realistic evidence on things. When we don't, we make things up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1YiDN8MT9w here's a quick 2 minute video that explains it very well. Do watch. An atheist is just a person who has no invisible means of support. Relevence comes from each individual though so I can't say anything on that.

2.) Everyone? No, not everyone. I certainly didn't! But through history, practically every major religion has their hands covered in blood. Why? Because "god" commanded it. But to an atheist or ag, "the man" commanded it using god as a motivator. You can argue that this is not what god wants, but even in the bible he commits horrifying acts against people including children. Sometimes for very childish reasons. So both mythically and realistically-- whichever you choose, there's plenty of killing going on.

3.) Besides the whole "faith and comfort" and "keeping people in line" variables, this is all it is.

4.) They don't. I don't think there's an approximate number of how many religions are out there since they are always separating and fusing with eachother but I'd imagine it's a 5 or 6 digit number. So who's to say your mindset is the right one? Your holy text? From an atheist or ag standpoint, yours is just as meaningful as the rest of them despite your attachment to your own.

[teflonfanatic]

1. I believe newton was quite rational no, he studied the bible was he irrational? The majority of his inventions and scientific endeavors was to find god. As for your video i'm sorry but I can't play youtube vidoes on windows 2000.

2. It's true during the mosiac law god permitted killing of gentile nations for the davidic line to remain safe so Jesus can come.  It's also true there were severe judgments made onto anyone who served god and didn't prove faithful or nations who serve the ba'als and the chemosh etc who did not repent.  It's a good thing we are not living in the law today ^_^ (Romans 10:4).  Faith without works is still dead however but at thanks to his son Jesus god is much, much more merciful. Today "those who take the sword will perish by the sword"(Matthew 26:52), Jesus himself said that to one of his followers who tried to defend Jesus by fighting with a sword.  Yes happy we are that the law of christ is very forgiving.

3. You really think that's all it is?  Do you really think all the archaeological evidence is just a bunch of stones and gibberish and tan paper?  As far as faith goes yes I agree religious hypocrisy has put faith over works instead of balancing works with the faith thus becoming hypocritical and not teaching anyone accurate knowledge.

4. All holy texts have almost the same story so it's really not that hard to study with a muslim and find a commom ground.  The majority of faiths believe that the flood came, Jesus existed etc.  Did I mention the JW's will study with anyone of any background, religion, etc.  "A wise person once told me what do you tell a buddhist?" "Preach the good news of the kingdom". "What do you tell a muslim?" "Preach the good news of the kingdom". "What do you tell an atheist?" "Preach the good news of the kingdom"^_^.  I think I finally understand you guys now, you see religious hypocrisy, illogical, and self-righteous because one religion believes it's the true religion.  I have an awesome science book I can give you guys, there is not one scripture in the whole book it's straight science and I also can get you a book that's all about mankind's search for god all free hit me up at Facebook and search kevin massaline ^_^.  

[ScottrodMN]

Figured all these people are posting about how they think god exists and blah, blah, blah.......so I thought I'd create my own topic.
I do not believe nor will I ever.  You can preach and testimony all you want, I grew up a Catholic, and was one until about two years ago.  I have researched, studied, and believed until that point.  I know alllll about being a christian, faith, god, etc.
Personally, I don't believe anyone should rub it into anyone's face that they are goin to hell for not believing...
That they are wrong for not believing...
That the person preaching is better than the non-believers or feels sorry for the non-believers because they don't believe...

Everyone is equal.  We need to respect ourselves, respect our fellow man, and respect our earth before we give respect to some statue who we 'think' died on a piece of wood.  Doesn't the bible tell you not to worship man-made idols?  Well, were you there at the time of christ?  Isn't the bible a tool of a man-made idol IE the cross?  Isn't the figure of your christ on a cross in churches an idol?  Furthermore, how do christians believe so differently amongst themselves...IE..Baptists, Catholics, Etc....... They all condemn each other because they all interpret the bible differently.  It's all very silly to me.  I believe in equality, I belive in peace and justice and love.  I don't believe there is some evil(my definition) person waiting for me at some pearly gates telling me that I lived badly so he can send me to hell.  Too many evil doers, injustices, and just plain nastyness in this would to suggest to me that someone is watching over us. 

Amen to that! Very well put.

[Falconer02]

1. I believe newton was quite rational no, he studied the bible was he irrational? The majority of his inventions and scientific endeavors was to find god. As for your video i'm sorry but I can't play youtube vidoes on windows 2000.

I didn't say it was irrational. If someone thinks up a new hypothesis of finding god and wants to find supporting evidence of it, go ahead. That's not irrational as they're trying to simply test it in the physical world. But if Newton said "I believe there's a god, therefore it's a scientific law now!" with no findings/proof, that would be irrational. And guess what all major religions do all the time? When the Apollo rockets went up, one video of the world showed a cloud formation that looked vaguely like "Allah" and till this day they use it as undeniable evidence. Sad.

(As far as youtube goes, try this unless you have already-- http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-97468-flash-10-won-t-play-youtube-video#p97482 )

Faith without works is still dead however but at thanks to his son Jesus god is much, much more merciful. Today "those who take the sword will perish by the sword"(Matthew 26:52), Jesus himself said that to one of his followers who tried to defend Jesus by fighting with a sword.  Yes happy we are that the law of christ is very forgiving.

If you believe the stories, the blood is still there. The deeds were done. Jesus and his pop run a fantastic hypocracy if you're using a 'that was then, this is now' approach. Do you believe that's okay because god did it? We can't question a supreme being?

You really think that's all it is?  Do you really think all the archaeological evidence is just a bunch of stones and gibberish and tan paper?

I actually saw the Dead Sea Scrolls with my own eyes. It looked like a bunch of gibberish to me, but that's just because I couldn't read it! lol I'm just saying if you're going to believe a bunch of primitive gullibles that created and passed on ludicrous stories, you'd better have some fantastic evidence to support that those supernatural events happened. Earlier in this thread someone tried to show proof that they had found Noahs Ark, but it looks exactly like a stratavolcano. Things like this aren't undeniable evidence. Note the picture I attached to my post.

All holy texts have almost the same story so it's really not that hard to study with a muslim and find a commom ground.

And would it be surprising to you if many of these stories stemmed from a bunch of Sumerian myths? Or even earlier primitive and nomadic cultures?

Did I mention the JW's will study with anyone of any background, religion, etc

As much as a great sales pitch this is, my whole family was JW and their emphasis on keeping away from everything 'worldly' hideously effected me and my JW friends growing up. They practically hiss at anyone not following their rules when you get into it. My good friend has dedicated a lot of time easily proving that it has some terrible problems with both its creation and the belief systems (1914 anyone? But of course they have a ton of cop-outs for that awful lie). I've heard it all before.

I have an awesome science book I can give you guys, there is not one scripture in the whole book it's straight science and I also can get you a book that's all about mankind's search for god all free

Is it that little blue one from the 80's or did they update it finally?