Ask your difficult questions of an Atheist.

I am unsure what question you want answered as I have answered everything directly posed...please ask again as it seems I missed it.

My apologies.

 

I am guessing this was your question.

I believe you might be mistaking debate with fear, I have noted some Christians in particular doing this. I refer to this as Persecution Complex as it seems to arise often when someone (not just an Atheist) disputes a claim and this is seen as attack. It really distracts from discussion or destroys it.

 

More a case of if you're an atheist, you're in league with the devil. You (probably) deny the existence of both, but those who believe in one typically believe in the other. Essentially, if you're not on God's side, you're on Satan's side.

 

So first I will say that I did miss where you answer the other question first. Probably by my jumping to responses to my posts

This can be as easily said of those atheists who attack, verbally, theists, regardless of religion. As previously noted, I've watched such evangelical atheists go after pagans as well.

Again, I see this out of atheists as well. Again the same type that actively attack theists and try to convert such to atheism.

 

Because they impose their religious beliefs on us taking away our rights

 

This is a wonderful example of why I dislike religious nonsense.

 

How do you convert to atheism? Ridiculous

 

Okay...that was not what was asked however.

 

There are ample examples of oppressive theocratic regimes for everyone to not want that to happen here in America.

Our current Republican form of SECULAR democracy has the stipulated goal of upholding both Freedom OF and Freedom FROM religion. In that respect there is nothing to fear from atheism.

However the irrational fears of theists, and yes, fear is irrational as opposed to logical, stem from being denied the ability to oppress others with their beliefs.

Do some atheists have an irrational fear of theocracies? Can't recall any but maybe you are aware of a few and can provide us with the relevant sources?

 

Atheists do not "believe in satan" and do not "take sides" when it comes to the fictitious characters in theist superstitions.

 

Yeah, if you read what I was responding to, you would have seen I was posing the thought as that from a religious (Christian) person. To a preacher or the like, you may not think you take sides, but to him, atheists are agents of the devil. There are probably a LOT of atheists who have heard the expression, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

 

Amazing how much POWER theists are willing to bestow on ordinary atheists.

Then again religion is all about giving up control of your own life in order to hand it over to whomever happens to be telling you that you should do so and then asks you to pay them for the privilege of giving them control over your life.

How many of those preachers are millionaires deriving their wealth from scamming the gullible into sending them money? Satan must be laughing his bright red ass off!

 

Not many. Most preachers live pretty modest lifestyles, and a great many small church preachers have to work full or part time to supplement the pittance they get from preaching.

I never felt as a believer that I wasn't in control of my own life. But I was a Baptist, and they are a pretty independent bunch, so that might have something to do with it. Protestants in general don't take orders from the clergy simply because Jesus said in the Bible that he was the only intermediary you need with God.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47675301

 

"An entry-level Preacher with less than 5 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $43,000 based on 10 salaries provided by anonymous users. Average total compensation includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay. A Preacher with mid-career experience which includes employees with 5 to 10 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $49,000 based on 17 salaries. An experienced Preacher which includes employees with 10 to 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $57,000 based on 15 salaries. A Preacher with late-career experience which includes employees with greater than 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $48,000 based on 12 salaries."

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Preacher/Salary

 

Quite easily.

Since the word basically only means to change, you can change from being a theist to being an atheist. You convert from one to the others. Basic English.

 

How does an atheist interpret God as an idea?

 

As a man made one, that is to say that the idea of god is created by man.

 

Lame.

 

Not at all, if you can provide any reason to suggest the idea of god is anything other than an idea created by man I would like to see it.

 

The entire idea is that it is created by man. As an ideal to understand the complicated nature of ourselves.

 

That one is easy.

God is a silly idea!

Next!

 

Nowadays we use Science to understand the complexities of nature, ourselves included.

 

Lame.

 

There are a few suggestions as to why man created the idea of god, some suggest it was to maintain customs and law, handy to have an all seeing god to keep people under control. Other ideas suggest certain men where made divine to emphasis the attributes that they had, intelligence, strength etc, the Greek gods are thought to fall into this category. That it was only an attempt to understand the nature of ourselves is certainly one of the reasons but not the only one. But the basic interpretation was that it was a man made idea.