Wouldn't he delight in someone living a life of fruitfulness and truth; that of which being determined, to the best of his ability, by the sum of what his experiences have taught him about what it means to be sincere, benevolent, and useful?

This person has never been moved to believe in Christianity/Islam etc. Why would God desire someone to live their life contrary to what the life he gave to this person has taught him?

At Medjugorje, Mary Mother of Jesus is reported to have said, "In God there are no religions or divisions."

If your life is as you describe, and you are dedicated to truth, service, peace, acceptance, forgiveness, a bit of work, charity, selflessness, then....what makes you think you're an atheist?


(You'd actually find prayer a huge help, so maybe take up regular meditation if you don't want anything "religious." Just for your own benefit.)

lol, either you:

1. don't know the meaning of "atheist"
2. making a snide and rude comment towards all atheists on this board by claiming that atheists can't live a life "dedicated to truth, service, peace, acceptance, forgiveness, a bit of work, charity, selflessness"

i'm going to guess a combination of 1 and 2.

It's stuff like this that really makes my fists itchy. I mean, it's not as though 'atheism' is a huge part of my self-image, but... I'd assume OP 'thinks he's an atheist' because he does not profess a belief in a deity. What is it about being a big ol' atheist that you see as incompatible with dedication to truth, peace, forgiveness, etc?

I speak English. Better than you do, come to that and I obviously am familiar with the definitions of the words we commonly use here. I wouldn't think of being rude to anyone who wasn't rude to me first. A concept that seems to be entirely beyond the scope of your limited imagination.

You have an exceptionally narrow-minded view of the God you think people don't believe in. My God has a wider range.

We're done now, I believe. I'm not in the "I want to be stalked by dk club" so as you follow me around along with Splendour, only she will see whatever malicious mental detritus you vomit through your keyboard in future.

And BTW, the OP is a big boy and can read and either take offense or not entirely on his own with no help from fabulous you.

buh-bye

What is it you see about being dedicated to those things that would be incompatible with truth, peace, forgiveness? Hey! They are the same thing! God is not by necessity a "deity." God is love; the manifestations of love are: truth, peace, forgiveness, compassion, etc.

"A rose by any other name..."

I love, therefore God exists.

Right. So by being good people, we cease to be atheists? Meaning that 'atheists', as far as you're concerned, are, by definition, bad people?

And to the bolded part, sorry. "God" is by necessity 'a deity' - if you're a theist. That's what the word 'deity' means. You might as well be saying a car isn't necessarily a vehicle.

unfortunately you can dish it out, but you cant take it. my post was quite mild actually, not sure what brought about this PMS outbreak. oh well, its been quite clear for some time now that youve degraded to splendour like postings anyways, so i guess it was fun while it lasted.

bye to you to.

LOL at an atheist wondering if God is proud of him

Women must make you feel insecure

I'm inclined to agree (in spirit); the PMS remark is unnecessary. Also, it's fun seeing Stu in drag.

yeah, 45 year old women have that effect on me.

You're gynophobic. See if Tame_Dueces can help you out with that.

Just another twist in this image of God you try and portray. I cant help but chuckle a bit.

Are you a type of Deist or a Christian?

You are asking if God will be proud of you for being an atheist yet you justify His pride by listing traits that have little to do with atheism. Atheism only describes a non belief in God. It doesn't imply any behavioral characteristics.

A person who describes themselves as atheist could without a doubt live a useful, benevolent and sincere life. But these behaviors aren't likely motivated by atheism but more likely by some other source.

The reason I think I am an atheist is because I do not believe in any sort of supernatural, intervening deity. I believe beliefs do matter, because (when appropriate) I gently but directly share this view with others, and try to persuade them of its truth based on my life experience.

In my opinion, if God does exist (and is all knowing and powerful), you must submit that he has directly led me to this persuasive belief, which I have intentionally shared with Christians; and in some cases, been one of the influences that have led them to deny Christ as their savior.

Is God proud of me for living this path that he prescribed for me to the fullest, including drawing others away from 'him' towards a clearer truth?

They are not so unrelated. Some of the best work that I feel I do as a musician is to show others the beauty and truth in the world which we can directly experience; and with as much tact as possible, show others that an irrational belief in God is not where this experience is generated.

Also, I try my best in a useful, benevolent and sincere manner to show others why it is irrational and likely damaging to spread the Christian word--so that behavior is motivated by atheism.

Many believers in God find the beauty and truth in a musical performance or any other creative activity to originate from the divine regardless of whether the artist is an atheist or not.

As far as relating the existence of a God to the Christian word, God is not something on which that Christians have cornered the market. They may be the largest group of people in the world but they are a only a plurality of God believers.

I see this all the time. What does "God is love" mean? If love is the only thing you ascribe to god, that is to say, if what I call love, you just call God, then I believe in your god. But I suspect that is not the case. The list of things you provide, however, are not manifestations of love. Truth has nothing to do with love, it has to do with how reality manifests. Neither does peace. Peace has to do with the absence of hostility (and before you say that the opposite of hatered is love, it is not - the opposite of hatered is indifference; both love and hatered are being full of emotion while indifference is a complete lack of it). Forgiveness is the decision to absolve a wrong, and compassion has to do with sympathy or empathy, both of which have to do with our ability to identify that others feel and experience things the same way that we do.

You're implying that 'life' is mapped out - and that we are all merely acting out the parts that God has chosen for us - and repeating the lines that he's written for us.

You're ignoring free will - and personal responsibility for our choices/actions (and the fact that others' choices and actions affect and influence our paths as well if we let them)

My position would be - God didn't prescribe you this path - you're on whatever path you're on because of choices you yourself have made.

In addition - my opinion of your original question would be "No". God isn't proud of your decision to be an atheist. He may very well still be proud of some of the other decisions you make (by this I mean that I don't know you - but I'm sure there are parts of you that God is proud of).

In truth - I would expect your decision to believe as an atheist is painful and disappointing to him - but at the same time - no one would be happier than him if your feelings someday change (never say never).

Part of the problem is the use of the word "atheist". As Sam Harris has pointed out, it is a term without content. He compares it to saying "I'm a non-astrologer." We don't need a word for people who are not astrologers. Atheism is not a set of beliefs, but the absence of a particular belief.

Your assumption is that what life taught you was right.

Do you know any perfect people?

If you don't know any perfect people is it hard to imagine they haven't learned everything important in life?

Simple answer to your question is "yes, he is proud when you do things that please him." But, then you go on to say that you have said and done things that cause others to deny Jesus as thier savior. In that case, not so much.

I think the main thing that you are missing is that God loves everyone, sinners all, and he rejoices when someone comes to him or does good deeds on this earth. All good deeds are blessings regardless if they are done in the name of God or not. That being said, he did give you free will to decide your path so IMO he would be sad that you have chosen to deny his existence and spread that belief to others.

Take heart though....the Apostle Paul is the most famous non-believer of all at one time, persecuting Christians to the degree that some were killed. He came to the belief later in life and that means that anyone can.