re atheist s views on christianity was re accepting jeesus in your heart in article apr athos rutgers edu trajan cwis unomaha edu stephen mcintyre writes norris athena mit edu writes the discussion begins why does the universe exist at all must there be a why to this i ask because of what you also assume about god namely that he just exists with no why to his existence so the question is reversed why can t we assume the universe just exists as you assume god to just exist why must there be a why to the universe one of the laws of nature specifying cause and effect seems to dictate at least to this layman s mind there must be a causal event no reasonable alternative exists as far as i can tell the very laws of nature demand a why that isn t true of something outside of nature i e super natural it may be that one day man not only can create life but can also create man now i don t see this happening in my lifetime nor do i assert it is probable but the possibility is there given scientists are working hard at decoding out genetic code to perhaps help cure disease of a genetic variation again though must there be why or a divine prupose to man s existence i believe the genetic code will be entirely deciphered in our lifetimes but we will not see man convert entirely inert material into self sustaining reproducing life ever i ve never been much of a prophet though i can t even picture new york in my mind i don t believe any technology would be able to produce that necessary spark of life despite having all of the parts available just my opinion when you say that man is only an animal i have to think that you are presenting an unprovable statement a dogma if you will and one the requires a kind of faith too by taking such a hard line in your atheism you may have stumbled into a religion of your own as far as we can tell man falls into the mammal catagory now that preposition sort of precludes an absolute doesn t it without an absolute conclusion what are we left with i believe the word faith works nicely if there were something more to the man say a soul then we have yet to find evidence of such but as it is now man is a mammal babies are born live mother gives milk we re warm blooded etc as other mammals are and is similar in genetic construction to some of them in particular primates for more on this check out talk origins but before you write off all christianity as phony and shallow i hope you ll do a little research into its history and varieties perhaps by reading paul johnson s a history of christianity from your remarks it seems that you have been exposed to certain types of christian religion and not others even an atheist should have enough faith in man to know that a movement of years has to have some depth and be animated by some enduring values well then buddhism confucianism taoism hinduism judaism zoerasterism shintoism and islam should fit this bit of logic quite nicely all have depth all have enduring values thus all must be true well then with an equal scale and under an equal standard investigate them all and discover where god is or whether he is for the denial of god is ultimately a statement of faith non falsifiable as his existence may be for isn t this the purpose of religion to discover and in discovery to know god you don t mind if a few of us send up a prayer on your behalf during your research do you after all if we of christ are deluding ourselves you really have nothing to worry about eh until the king returns jason jason d smith jasons atlastele com i m not young enough to know everything x
