An open letter to atheists.

[_Buffalo]

Well, someone is posting. I can look at your posts and see that they're real. I doubt your name is Stem though. :)

I certainly wouldn't worship you based on that. And yet you don't even have that level of evidence for your deity. Aren't you afraid that you're being scammed?

oh so you have other reasons to support your faith that I am real? And you then conclude you knowledge? I think that settles it for ya.

love ya tons,
stem

I have physical evidence that someone calling themselves stem is posting. Where's your physical evidence for god?

[_Calculus Crusader]

Without Christ we wouldn't have hope.

Since there is no such person, this claim is manifestly false.

Your assertion is noted and summarily discarded.

[_just me]

This thread has turned really strange.

[_sock puppet]

Its a shame that so often atheists mock Christ, but such is the territory--they know not what they do. Luckily there is Christ or their purposes and lives would be much less than they are. I find joy in Christ for them.

love ya tons,
stem

I know full well what I am doing.

Find joy wherever you can.

[_Jason Bourne]

If there is one certainty in the universe, it is our mortality. We will all die. Your grandparents -- gone; your parents -- buried and breathless; your brothers, sisters, and friends -- forever asleep; you and everything you have worked for, all of the service you have done for others, the building of a life for you and your family, your education and career, your hopes and dreams -- liquidated.

Yes, you tell yourself, live in the now. Make every moment count, enjoy life while you have it. But to what end? Why earn an advanced degree when there won't be a you to participate in the privileges that come with it? Why advance in your career if there won't be a you to reap the rewards? Why raise a family if they will all simply cease to exist?

Sure, you say to yourself again, but the people who survive you may enjoy the benefits of your education of career. But why does that matter? You will be dead, and you will not have the opportunity to see your child's smiling face as he or she has enough to eat and lives comfortably because of your success. In fact, your child will cease to exist as well.

This is not a letter speaking out against atheism, this is a letter asking this one, simple question:

Atheists, with the above scenario of looming truth, how do you find happiness?

I am not an atheist but I think your questions are easily answered by them. For an interesting view point I recommend these podcasts if you are really interested in the perspectives of atheists. It is with two Ex LDS now atheists:

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1403

[_truth dancer]

Hi Stem,

How does one hoping for a good job equate to having hope in Christ?

Or, why not go with hope in Allah, or Zeus, or the Great Spirit? Or humankind? Or science?

And, can't one hope for a good job without believing in any otherworldly being?

For what do you think atheists have hope?

I'm not following you on this.

As far as I know, atheists do not have hope in an afterlife, or the belief that they can live with God, or that they get a reward for good behavior, or that there is something more ahead.

So how does Christ offer hope if one does not believe in Christ and does not hope for that which believers in Christ offer?

Again, for what do you think atheists have hope?

~td~

Many things. Hope that their kids will turn out well. Hope that they get a new job. Hope that they can have faith in the human spirit, not literal spirit entity of course. I'm sure atheists find hope in many things, and that they sometimes differ among each other about what is hope for.

love ya tons,
stem

[_Dr. Shades]

Yes, you tell yourself, live in the now. Make every moment count, enjoy life while you have it. But to what end? Why earn an advanced degree when there won't be a you to participate in the privileges that come with it?

??? There will be a me to participate in the privileges that come with it. That time is now.

Why advance in your career if there won't be a you to reap the rewards?

Of course there's a me to reap the rewards! That me exists now!

Why raise a family if they will all simply cease to exist?

Because my wife already had kids when I married her.

Sure, you say to yourself again, but the people who survive you may enjoy the benefits of your education of career.

I don't know anyone who thinks that way.

But why does that matter? You will be dead, and you will not have the opportunity to see your child's smiling face as he or she has enough to eat and lives comfortably because of your success.

But not before I'm dead. Therein lies the difference.

In fact, your child will cease to exist as well.

True enough.

This is not a letter speaking out against atheism, this is a letter asking this one, simple question:

Atheists, with the above scenario of looming truth, how do you find happiness?

By doing the things that create happiness in the time I have between my birth and my death.

[_Jason Bourne]

Yes, you tell yourself, live in the now. Make every moment count, enjoy life while you have it. But to what end?

Again I am not an atheist but this is how I think one might answer.


1: Make every moment count is something a theist or atheist should do. Life is precious and a gift no matter what you beleive about an after life. It should be lived, enjoyed and full for everyone.

Why earn an advanced degree when there won't be a you to participate in the privileges that come with it?

Because I am alive now and can enjoy what I learn, use it to bless my life and others now. I am here now.

Why advance in your career if there won't be a you to reap the rewards?

Again I reap the rewards now. I earn my income that comes from the work I have due to my degree now. I use it to feed me and my family, clothe and shelter us, share of my income with others less fortunate and in causes I believe in now. I use it to travel, to see the world and for other hobbies. Why does there need to be a me after death to justify a career now?

Why raise a family if they will all simply cease to exist?

They will exist for whatever time they have on this planet now. Why do they have to exist forever to have a family?

Sure, you say to yourself again, but the people who survive you may enjoy the benefits of your education of career. But why does that matter? You will be dead, and you will not have the opportunity to see your child's smiling face as he or she has enough to eat and lives comfortably because of your success. In fact, your child will cease to exist as well.

I am not sure I get your points really. So to enjoy life there has to be an after life? I see my kids smile now. I see my success now. I sure hope there is an after life personally and if there is no God and all this is just cosmic lottery there is an part of me that if I did not have faith in an after life that sees such a short tenuous existence and a bit of cosmic cruelty as well.

But on the other hand if there is no God and we all have won the cosmic lottery of life, and for most of us on this board a pretty darn good an comfortable life then we should be thrilled and live life well and morally towards each other to its fullest and take joy in that and that alone.

Atheists, with the above scenario of looming truth, how do you find happiness?

The same way I do as a theist. By living the golden rule.

[_Simon Belmont]

Thank you everyone for your input.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the term "now."

Many of you have said "now is the time to enjoy life" or similar things. But when is now? When I declare it to be now, it is instantly then. Does then exist, or does it only exist as synaptic connections my brain once made (memories).

Logically following this thought to its conclusion, I find that if now becomes instantanly then and then (the past) doesn't exist except for memories, does the future exist? I would have to say that no, the future does not yet exist because it is dependent on the choices we make now, which also doesn't exist.

A paradox?
A flawed thought?

What say ye? (I hate that phrase)

[_sock puppet]

Thank you everyone for your input.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the term "now."

Many of you have said "now is the time to enjoy life" or similar things. But when is now? When I declare it to be now, it is instantly then. Does then exist, or does it only exist as synaptic connections my brain once made (memories).

Logically following this thought to its conclusion, I find that if now becomes instantanly then and then (the past) doesn't exist except for memories, does the future exist? I would have to say that no, the future does not yet exist because it is dependent on the choices we make now, which also doesn't exist.

A paradox?
A flawed thought?

What say ye? (I hate that phrase)

Don't waste the next now by worrying about the now's that will follow the next one.