Before I rant I want to clarify a few things.
I am an atheist. I don't believe in gods. I understand I can't disprove them however my disbelief is supported by science & reason. I am perfectly aware of aggressive atheist and atheist that make us look bad but there are people like that anywhere you go. I will probably need to edit the OP as/if replies come in to clarify my thoughts better.
There are a few things that bother me about some people who follow the Bible. As well as some things I have seen people say about atheist.
1) Faith is by definition is believing something without any proof. Therefor, you can't claim anything within The Bible or God to be true because you can't prove it.
You can claim to [u]believe[/u] it, you can even claim you [u]believe it to be fact and truth. [/u]But the [b]keyword[/b] is [u]believe[/u].
You cannot claim it as fact or truth alone since you cannot prove anything.
2) Denying science, why can't some of you believe God's creations led to science and its Scientific Theories?
From what I have observed most everyone that denies Scientific Theories are people who don't understand the theories or have been mislead by false creationist versions of scientific theories.
3) Some make an argument that because atheist haven't read the Bible they can't say anything because they haven't seen both sides.
A) There isn't two sides, there are tons of different religions and mythologies. Unless you have tried every modern religion don't go around telling people because they haven't read the Bible their biased.
B) Many atheist actually come from a religious background and even if they haven't there are still a good amount of atheist that have read the Bible.
4) Atheist have morals, atheist are not anarchist that just run around doing whatever they want. Some people make the assumption because you don't have scripture to guide you or a God to hold you accountable that you have no morals.
5) Atheist aren't biased or close minded. If you live your life with a view point based on facts, science and reality. Thats not being close minded or biased. That doesn't mean being religious automatically makes you close minded. However, if you look at [u]most[/u] religious people, they never research other religions.
6) Atheist are not a unified group, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in gods. Atheist have no leader, no scripture and do not have a unified belief system. An atheist is simply an individual with a disbelief and aside from that commonality every single atheist is radically different. Atheist can differ drastically on political & moral issues. Overall our point of views can be drastically different on just about everything.
To be completely honest, I don't think most people can handle being atheist. In the sense that many people can't cope with the harsh realities of life and thats what religion is good for. A belief in God is comforting for most people and a safety net for some. There are many people on this earth who [u]need[/u] religion to function. Of course, there are a lot of people who exploit religion as a means for power gains, cults, extremist actions and terrorism which is why i dislike organized religion.
Lastly, I think the most important thing anyone can do is [b][u]think for yourself.[/u][/b] Be an individual, form your own opinions, ideas and try and stay away from labels. Do not just accept things because you were raised a certain way or your parents told you so. Be a skeptic, question everything and research things until your satisfied. (Always cross check your research lol) I personally, don't care what anyone believes as long as your not a sheep and you came to what you believe because you forged your own path.
-
>Be OP >Be an idiot >Generalize >State you "want to know about other's beliefs" >Look at the vocal minority in specific beliefs >Generalize >Be an idiot >Embarrass actual intelligent atheists