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I was atheist for years before I became a Christian. Now, having seen both sides of the coin, I can say for certain that the biggest problems both sides face when having a disagreement is they both make assumptions about the beliefs/nature of the other. Christians do not base all of their beliefs on blind faith. All beliefs when you truly and earnestly ...

Christian apologetics often employ a form of presuppositional logic. In fact, the wikipedia page for Presupposition (philosophy) specifically addresses this issue: A variety of Christian apologetics, called presuppositional apologetics, argues that the existence or non-existence of God is the basic presupposition of all human thought, and that all men ...

This question is actually pretty cut and dry. At the core the main thing you ask is "Can I go to heaven even rejecting Christian belief by substituting some set of actions?" No. No amount of works of any kind will get you into heaven. There is no substitute for faith. Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever ...

Yes Catholicism states quite clearly that atheism is a sin. Disbelieving God means that you are rebelling against God's commands and therefore sinning. Bible Atheism, throughout the Bible, is considered "disbelief". The idea is either that you believe in God, or you don't. If you don't believe in the one true God (such as atheism), it's categorized as ...

There are several classical arguments for believing in God, including: The cosmological argument, which says that (logically) everything exists because it is caused by something else or because it has always existed. It says that everything that has been caused by something else must be caused by something else and so on until you get to something that is ...

Over the ages, many things have been written, and many things have been believed. I appreciate that the Bible has many believers, but that by itself is evidence of only one thing: that the Bible has many believers. As noted in a previous answer - if we are not required to reason a view, we can state anything as fact. Thus there is a burden of proof on both ...

The Bible is very clear that all atheists and non-believers will be sent to the Lake of Fire after they die. It even goes further than that by specifying a list of people that are not accepted (which covers more than your question!): Revelations 21:8 (NIV) But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who ...

I'd give a similar answer to this question as I did the other one, except that having read some of these books already, I doubt I could read them now without being nauseated by what I'm reading. There are certain things that, once you read them, you can't get them out of your head. (pornography, for example). I've read some very anti-Christian books and ...

The obvious rebuttal is that atheism can hardly be considered "the default position" when the very concept was almost completely unheard of throughout world history, in any culture, up until just a few centuries ago. Humans have an intuitive understanding of cause and effect, and the default position is to take this to its logical conclusion and believe in ...

You must read any of these books the same way you would read the Bible and any other work for that matter: in context. Any deeper examination of your faith by asking question or reading arguments counter to your beliefs, if read earnestly, and in the spirit of truly wanting more understand should only draw you closer to your faith. For instance "The God ...

Don't denigrate what they believe, instead seek to understand what they believe. And explain what you believe in way that does not preclude the validity their beliefs (no matter how invalid you may feel they are). Lastly, when you question what they believe and why, make them honest questions which are designed get at their heart and broaden their ...

If it is impossible for Atheists to be moral because they don't acknowledge the same source of morality that Christians recognize, then I would argue that it is also impossible for Christians to be moral, because neither do they fully understand the source of morality that they claim to attempt to adhere to. And without full understanding, it is impossible ...

This is a question that is not really cut and dried. There is a huge amount of very accurate information in this article summarising different beliefs on it. Summarizing the summary: One viewpoint is the Restrictivist Position. Most Fundamentalists and many other Evangelicals continue the Restrictivist beliefs taught by traditional Christianity. They ...

Logical Existence of God There is a very cogent line of reasoning presented in the book, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, that goes something like this. The physical universe consists of time, space, and matter. Science has proven that the universe had a beginning--the Big Bang. Nothing can create itself. Whatever caused the universe to begin ...

St. Thomas Aquinas outlines five ways of knowing, from reason alone, that God exists. These are tough to understand without a background in classical philosophy -- it's commonly assumed, for example, that the first and second ways (Unmoved Mover and First Cause) depend on demonstrating the absurdity of an infinite series reaching back in time. But properly ...

You would have been excommunicated by the church and shunned by the community. But then again, for some individuals, the solace that comes from "having the courage of your convictions" and "being right" may have made that option more palatable (see de Tocquville below). People would have thought you odd, and possibly a public health hazard. (After all, God ...

Romans 3:23 (NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God No one is righteous. Better is not enough. God demands 100% holiness. No one can achieve that. Therefore, we need the Blood of Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus, can we have salvation. Romans 5:12 (NIV) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through ...

Atheists certainly argue that they can live according to a moral standard (here is one summary of many--since atheism isn't one belief, there are many viewpoints). Indeed, some atheists (Sam Harris being one of the most prominent and vocal of these) argue that Christianity leads people to abandon common-sense morality in certain instances and thus, at least ...

My thinking on this starts with Paul: For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became ...

As an Atheist, I'd like to think I'm leading a Moral life. Some examples: I give copious amounts of my income to charity, most recently via Humble Bundle 3 I have a job that affords me many chances to make a difference in people's lives for the better, within the limits of my own physical means. When I drive; I let other drivers into my lane, don't cut ...

First, define a Christian ;p It actually isn't as simple as you'd think - for example, consider the definition this site uses: As far as the scope of this site is concerned, any group that identifies themselves as Christian are to be considered on-topic and allowed to label themselves Christian. You would perhaps need to ask the author, but "cultural ...

Clearly Faith cannot be the default position if you ask whether God exists, because if your question is not rhetorical, but strives to be balanced, then you cannot start by assuming that God exists. The same applies to Atheism. So clearly the default position is agnosticism. That said, a few points are also pretty obvious: there is no factual evidence ...

As an Atheist myself. Let me offer some guidance. I've never been quiet about my Atheism. So I've been in this situation many times and there are a few things you'll have to understand: Any explanation of your beliefs is - in part - a justification. This is not true for other belief systems. Nor should it be. Atheism is the rejection of other faiths. That ...

The reason you have trouble explaining your life-stance to Christians is basically oriented to the issue of the validity of "The Bible". Christians accept this text as at some level and with some degree of certainty, as the "word" of their particular conception of a deity, a personal deity. Some, of course, consider it completely and totally authentic in ...

I read that you care about them and that your goals are, "mutual understanding and respect". That is great and will hopefully shine through your conversations. I also hope that those sentiments are reciprocated. I note that whenever Jesus spoke with unbelievers He always had utmost respect (and love) for them; far higher than many of the religious figures of ...

You seem to be missing a fundamental part of the premise of Christianity: it's not a discovered or invented religion, but a revealed religion. The precepts and doctrines exist because God actively taught them to people. And should the knowledge of the truth be lost, hypothetically speaking, he would reveal the truth to new people whose hearts were open to ...

I ask this a bit tongue in cheek. But why do Christians have to make arguments starting from atheism? It seems obvious to me that God exists. However, The rationalists' view of argumentation is that one presents statements that logically cohere and are backed up by evidence that anyone can, in principle, confirm. That something "seems obvious" is not ...

Religious belief is such a central part of many people that disagreement is often difficult or impossible to discuss without some level of discomfort. However, the standard rules of politeness and respect go a long way toward promoting peaceful dialog. During your discussions, you may wish to avoid accusatory and denigrating statements. Instead of ...

I would like to quote the apologetic mandate verse 1 Corinthians 7:1-2 (New International Version) We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The new atheist movements books as hard as they are to swallow is good books to have under ...

Not exactly the answer you are looking for, but Paul clearly understands humanity to be functionally atheistic, if not in practice. From Romans 1: 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, ...