Religion
Related: About this forumMatt Heath: Why I'm sick of being an atheist - it can be stressful
Matt Heath is a radio host on Radio Hauraki and Herald columnist.5:00 AM Monday Mar 28, 2016
There is nothing in the Bible about the day after Jesus' resurrection. Meaning there is no compulsion for religious types to do anything on Easter Monday.
You can relax, feel bad about Jesus or treat yourself to a massive pile of chocolate eggs. It's up to you. For me Easter Monday is a great time to reflect on how boring it is to be an atheist.
My granddad was a minister. My mum read the Bible to me at night. But for some reason - like more than a million other Kiwis - I didn't grow up a believer. People like me will never feel the crucifixion, resurrection or ascension in our souls. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are just some mates we know.
But what can we do? No matter how hard we try we can't force ourselves to believe something we don't. Try this philosophy 101 experiment. Look at your right shoulder. Now concentrate really really hard and make yourself believe there's a takahe sitting on it. You can't. Even with a gun to your head, you couldn't make yourself believe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11612527
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)1. Don't get into arguments about proving/disproving God's existence. Believers always have the unbeatable fall-back of defining God as undisprovable.
2. Don't waste your time preaching to preachers. "Belief" is personal and immune to outside arguments. It has to come from within them.
3. The mindsets of science, materialism and atheism are outcrops of the Renaissance-tradition of looking beyond established truth. (The cultural predecessor of the scientist was the occult magus of Renaissance-Europe.) Spread a mind-set of curiosity, questioning and doubting. That's how to combat religion in the long term, not by yelling at people.
Hi rug.
rug
(82,333 posts)He agrees with you.
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)...or spend an hour looking at a flower close up. Or plant a garden and watch the plants grow day by day. Or try to grasp the reality that you are the descendant of an unbroken chain of millions of generations of humans, proto-humans, primates, and on and on.
There's more than enough awe and wonder out there for us all, mate.
edhopper
(33,575 posts)We spend our time loudly quoting Richard Dawkins at Christian friends. We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Most just keep their atheism to themselves.
However, I have a few very Christian relatives who do spend there time talking about what God wants us to do. I also see Orthodox Jews who must be exhausted trying to make sure every facet of their lives are in accordance with god's arcane laws.
But atheists, must just live their lives unencumbered by worry a God judging them.
rug
(82,333 posts)edhopper
(33,575 posts)Unfortunately to many let hate of other people shade their thinking. And I am thinking about Trump and the GOP, not religion.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)out of the name of St. Louis!