Am I an athiest?

[Interbane]

Wow, that post should be the highlight of the month. An eternity of SUFFERING for all of us because we disagreed with her! Bow to her sense of Christian justice. My 2 year old laughed at her too, true story.

[Avid Reader]

Oh, and by the way, I do believe in Santa Claus, at least in the sense of the famous response to Virginia in 1897 by the The Sun of New York entitled “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

Me, Too!

[Chris OConnor]

Katelyn, stick around and you might actually learn something.

[(author) Katelyn]

@ Cris O'Connor, and what would that be? People who tell me my God isn't real insult me. Not that I care about them insulting me, but more of them insulting God, and also themselves. Laugh if you want. Go ahead and write nasty comments. Fight evil with the Bible. 'John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' how about that? Stop telling me my God isn't real, I know he is. Have you heard about the baby that had DIED? he was dead. but yet while the mother lay there sobbing, holding the baby close, and praying it would come back, he just-POP- came alive. now your going to tell me, oh the doctor did something. yeah right. the doctors didnt try to bring him back to life. when he came the doctors pronounced him dead. they told the mother to holld him and tell him goodbye, and he came back. dont tell me God didn't see how much that woman loved her baby. how he gave the baby back to her, even though the doctors told her he wouldnt come back.

[Suzanne]

Have you heard about the baby that had DIED? he was dead. but yet while the mother lay there sobbing, holding the baby close, and praying it would come back, he just-POP- came alive. now your going to tell me, oh the doctor did something. yeah right. the doctors didnt try to bring him back to life. when he came the doctors pronounced him dead. they told the mother to holld him and tell him goodbye, and he came back. dont tell me God didn't see how much that woman loved her baby. how he gave the baby back to her, even though the doctors told her he wouldnt come back.

I am very happy for you that all your family is still living. You must love them very much. But I wonder if your feelings coming from the above quote will still be the same when someone you love dies. Because you are going to have to ask yourself, "didn't God see how much I loved them? Didn't I love them enough? Why did God save this baby and not my loved one"?

When someone you love dies, the pain can be excruciating. Believing that your lack of love caused this death, I would think, would be unendurable.

[johnson1010]

side bar

my thoughts on religious affront.

http://www.booktalk.org/post95866.html#p95866

[realiz]

@ Cris O'Connor, and what would that be? People who tell me my God isn't real insult me.

Katelyn,
Instead of spending time being mad and insulted, ask yourself why you feel so strongly to have your beliefs challenged? Why is it so scary to look hard at your beliefs and see if they stand the test of true scrutiny? There are many people on the site with years and years of experience and education, so take advantage of this knowledge and learn what you can from them. Be willing to look hard at what you believe and find out why you believe it.

[Dexter]

Not that I care about them insulting me, but more of them insulting God, and also themselves.

Why does your God have such a fragile ego?

First of all, he requires your belief in order for you to go to heaven (or at least most Christians seem to believe this), even though he presumably knew ahead of time that some of his creations would doubt his existence.

And now apparently you need to stand up for him when nonbelievers insult him. Is he an all-powerful deity or a sniveling weakling?

[Interbane]

dont tell me God didn't see how much that woman loved her baby. how he gave the baby back to her, even though the doctors told her he wouldnt come back.

When stories like this happen, everyone hears about it and repeats it. No one says a thing about the large number of instances where the child actually died in the arms of it's loving mother. You'll see there is no god here, but only chance. Of thousands of deaths, one or two that make an incredible recovery is statistically guaranteed.

Imagine going down the list of babies who have approached death in their mother's arms, and the outcome:

Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Alive! Thanks be to god who saved this person!!! This is EVIDENCE!
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.

What of all the dead babies you're ignoring Katelyn? Did god ignore them as well?

[geo]

dont tell me God didn't see how much that woman loved her baby. how he gave the baby back to her, even though the doctors told her he wouldnt come back.

When stories like this happen, everyone hears about it and repeats it. No one says a thing about the large number of instances where the child actually died in the arms of it's loving mother. You'll see there is no god here, but only chance. Of thousands of deaths, one or two that make an incredible recovery is statistically guaranteed.

Imagine going down the list of babies who have approached death in their mother's arms, and the outcome:

Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Alive! Thanks be to god who saved this person!!! This is EVIDENCE!
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.

What of all the dead babies you're ignoring Katelyn? Did god ignore them as well?

Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true. As a result, people gather evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. (Wikipedia)

Fact is our brains are far from perfect. Cognitive scientists have discovered a long list of common thinking errors like these that can easily lead us astray. Being aware of our biases and shortcomings is probably the most important aspect of critical thinking.

A great primer here.

http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Bias