Is Atheism Dead ?

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Hardly anything atheists say these days surprises me.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Hardly anything atheists say these days surprises me.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

It doesn't surprise me that you would generalize and put things all into one basket such that a "guilt by association" mentality is employed.

Jesus of history and leprechauns of fairy tales and such are lumped together unrealistically. Though you didn't employ this here - the flying spaghetti monster or the invisible pink unicorn or the giant teapot beyond Jupitar and leprechauns and the Jesus of Nazareth of human history sloppily lumped together for effect may be popular with skeptics but unrealistic.

I think your lumping God as the Bible reveals acting over millennia in history with a unity of purpose, faithfulness, with evidences of realism -such as the nation of Israel and the impact of Jesus of Nazareth on the world history, with pixies and leprechauns or even Odin, Thor, or Zeus is just a feel good cynicism not worthy of a serious philosophical atheism.

We have letters by a man Paul. They do not reflect a superstitious mind.
They reflect a sober mind and an extremely high level of integrity, honesty, and selfless dedication to what he seems to have known was truth which could not be ignored.

I think when one reads a book like Second Corinthians a kind of autobiography of
an apostle, one has to decide whether the writer was MAD or deceived to the uttermost or is on to something genuine.

Five hundred people he speaks of who were witnesses of a resurrected Christ, most of whom were alive still when he wrote this in First Corinthians, could vouch that Paul was wrong or not. You have to explain WHY a man would write such a bold statement.

"And `He [Christ] appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve; Then He appeared to over five hundred brothers at one time, of whom the majority remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all He appeared to me also, as it were to one born prematurely." (1 Cor. 15:5-8)

This is a historical document - the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthian church.
Yes it is part of "sacred text". But the historicity of it has to be dealt with seriously without elaborate unbelievable conspiracy theories,

A man wrote this to a congregation and admitted the majority of 500 people alive could vouch that he was either cracked, lying, or telling the truth.

Lumping things like this with leprechauns only has purpose of showing contempt for believers of the New Testament IMO.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

It doesn't surprise me that you would generalize and put things all into one basket such that a "guilt by association" mentality is employed.

Jesus of history and leprechauns of fairy tales and such are lumped together unrealistically. Though you didn't employ this here - the flying spaghetti monster or the invisible pink unicorn or the giant teapo ...[text shortened]... even Odin, Thor, or Zeus is just a feel good cynicism not worthy of a serious philosophical atheism.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
They all belong in the same pot of fiction.

@liljo said
Atheism will never die! It even has its own holiday!

April Fools Day!

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Paul's letters are historical documents.
It would be a quite biased and difficult conspiracy theory to prove that they were
fictitiously invented.

An honest historian has to deal with that. "Was this man crazy? What was it that he at least believed with all his might had happened?"

Category error dismissing those letters as invented in a pot of fiction is weak.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Hardly anything atheists say these days surprises me.

@sonship said
We have letters by a man Paul. They do not reflect a superstitious mind.
They reflect a sober mind and an extremely high level of integrity, honesty, and selfless dedication to what he seems to have known was truth which could not be ignored.

I think when one reads a book like Second Corinthians a kind of autobiography of
an apostle, one has to decide ...[text shortened]... e this with leprechauns only has purpose of showing contempt for believers of the New Testament IMO.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Paul was a man who existed a long time ago who believed certain things about a particular god (of which history and geography have tendered a great many.) How does that carry any gravitas or indeed any more significance than any other person from history advocating for the existence of a different deity?

@pb1022 said
Christianity is based on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is a ton of evidence supporting that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ happened.

@pb1022 said

Without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity would not have gotten off the ground.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

How is that any different than saying without Muhammed receiving his divine revelations Islam wouldn't have gotten off the ground?