I guess because the churches are preying on people for profit.

But people would willing give up there money to the church even if they didn’t ask

It’s a part of there faith

I think it’s incredibly stupid

But if they want to do it it doesn’t effect me

I guess I made the claim because I believe strongly in Jesus the man and the message he brought to the people. So to have people compare him to Yahweh who is my opinion a homicidal maniac.... I feel the need to defend him.

@T2the2ndpowr ok so here I go. My testimony to a room full of atheists...

I was raised in a Christian household but religion was never forced on me. I studied the bible for a minute in high school but was dropped cuz I kept asking for proof

So I grew up an atheist. I wanted to believe in God. Faith seemed to bring so much peace to people like my mom and others.

But nonetheless I couldn't because it seemed illogical to do so.

When my sister died and I had the fire mentioned experience is when I really began to think about the metaphysical but I still couldn't bring myself to believe in an actual God.

So my mom, before she passed, had taken in my niece who was pregnant. My mom passed 2 months before the baby was born. So I ended up taking care of my niece and her daughter.

On an occasion my niece and her mother attempted to reconcile and baby went with them to lunch.

It exploded in hateful words and threats and my thoughts immediately went to how witnessing so much hate could affect the baby and her growth.

Then I began look into love and other emotions as being creative forces. You know show love or play Beethoven to plants and they flourish. And so if love were a creative force and God is love then God would be created. So I began to study the bible and quickly realized that something was missing and so I began to look elsewhere for my answers. Near death experiences, purported visions, mediums, etc led me to the conclusion that we are simply vessels carrying a developing consciousness to the metaphysical realm.

Interestingly enough, to me anyway, I did eventually go back to studying with a church. The very first passage I was given which was Jeremiah 29 showed me what was missing. Read it keeping in mind that the prophet Daniel began seeing visions and dreaming at the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.

I think what helped me cope with life after death was learning about evolutionary biology and natural selection and taking Zoology in high school helped me a lot to. I definitely find a type of spirituality in the truth of evolution and I’ve found a lot of meaning in that. This is pretty arrogant to say but I’d say I probably see more meaning in life then a passionate religion person

Or at least I believe I do

Even as an atheist I couldn't accept evolution for certain. Though I don't discount it as a possibility just guided by something currently unknown

But there’s evidence towards it

The theory is totally backed by evidence

Why don’t you accept it

You’re lucky lol

I live in a Muslim household and can’t actually tell my parents I’m atheist without fearing for my safety

@T2the2ndpowr there seems to be a lot of evidence for adaptation of a species but I haven't seen any undeniable evidence of species actually changing into another

@Deleted User then you haven’t looked

It’s called speciation

Look that up

Speciation

Regardless it's more the given timeline that I have a problem with

What do you mean?

And for one thing and I don’t mean this disrespectfully at all, but what you have a problem with doesn’t quite matter

If it’s true it’s true

If it’s supported by tons and tons of evidence then it is

I’d think someone should believe in something if it’s supported by so much evidence

To many assumptions need to be made for their theories to work. Like assuming the rate of decay remained unchanged.

I just don’t understand that

What do you mean

What does that have to do with evolution

I’d just ask you to look into for one Natural selection and learn how that works. I could explain it to you in a voice chat but I’d much rather you learn it from someone else more qualified. And then look into speciation, because that is when animals branch out into other animals

Well when you look at fossils and what not the rate of decay is one of the factors used to determine it's age. But we assume the rate of decay has remained the same throughout time. That's an assumption