You atheists deny that Jesus Christ ever existed. How do you explain the fact that our calendar is based on his death?
Let me ask you guys a serious question here. Do you really believe that debating the existence of God or the validity of religion is as important as finding a grammatical error made by Darkhorse?
>>Let me ask you guys a serious question here. Do you really believe that debating the existence of God or the validity of religion is as important as finding a grammatical error made by Darkhorse?<< I see how you earned your "elite status".
THunderbolt, That is incorrect. Atheists do not deny that Jesus ever existed. Although I believe GG did. You should study the meaning of the word atheist. Do not use websters definition, its too general. Kinda like giving the websters definition of cancer to a doctor who specializes in cancer. A-theism - simply means "without theism". Thats it. It does not claim that god does not exist, or that jesus does not exist. An atheist is simply someone who's belief system lacks a god or gods, etc, or any kind of theism. We are all born atheists, until introduced to religion, at which point some of us believe and are no longer atheists. Atheism, once again, is a lack of belief, not a belief system in itself. All atheists do NOT make the assertion that god doesnt exist. To get technical, a "strong atheist" DOES make the assertion that god does not exist. A "weak atheist", sometimes called an "agnostic atheist", makes no such claim. He/she simply does not believe in god because they have not seen enough evidence to believe. Most people incorrectly assume that all atheists are "strong atheists". This is simply not the case. I, for example, am a weak/agnostic atheist. I do not believe ANYTHING by default. That would be foolish. When I was born, I was an a-theist, and an a-unicorn, and an a-martian. None of which have been proven to exist, and therefore I remain an A-whatever In summary.... I believe there is no rational reason to believe in god or gods or santa or the easter bunny. This leaves YOU the christian to back up your assertion that god exists. I do not claim that he doesnt, just as I do not claim that an 8 headed unicorn DOESNT exist on Neptune. ( Its just silly to even consider such arbitrary claims without some hard evidence) Lack of belief is simply my default position on everything. peace axeman
By the way, I do not think you sounded at all crazy darkhorse. But as far as when you said that the reason people who feel strongly about their religion/spirituality do so because they have a relationship with God, and not for other reasons, I think that is right about many people. But I think many other people simply are easily indoctrinated, which is why they never ponder or even question their church, bible or view. I am talking about people like Thunderbolt.
I'm agnostic, and I wouldn't even say that I don't believe in God. I am undecided (permanently most likely).
actually, i don't think i said that. a man named jesus MAY have existed, but he was just a human being and is not "god." he did not create our universe and such. also, for the record, i'm independent when it comes to a higher power. i'm not saying there is or isn't one...i do not know. i do know, however, it is not "jesus christ."
Though I really prefer not to get involved in the religious stuff, I gotta take a stab at this one Thunderbolt. OK...here's my guess: The calandar was devised by a Christian? "Dionysius Exiguus was compiling a table of dates of Easter. An existing table covered the nineteen-year period denoted 228-247, where years were counted from the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Dionysius continued the table for a nineteen-year period, which he designated Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi 532-550. Thus, Dionysius' Anno Domini 532 is equivalent to Anno Diocletian 248. In this way a correspondence was established between the new Christian Era and an existing system associated with historical records. What Dionysius did not do is establish an accurate date for the birth of Christ. Although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating." by L. E. Doggett
a'the-ism n. the doctrine there is no god. Webster dictionary. Now we have identified what atheism is. From your post(axeman), you believe in no god. From my posts, Jesus Christ is God. From many posts on this thread, Jesus Christ never existed because of the lack of proof. My question: How do the atheists account for our calendar being based on his death?
this is such a weak argument. first of all, as i and others have said, a man named jesus may have existed. maybe the calender was started after him..who cares! it doesn't mean he created the freaking universe. also, a lot of things are based off things in the past, it doesn't make it right though. i don't see us changing our calender any time soon.