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by Vampyre Bat on June 30th, 2008

Vampyre Bat

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Is it easier to convert an atheist or agnostic to Christianity?

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  • by Theophilous on September 9th, 2009

    Theophilous

    Is it easier to convert an atheist or an agnostic to Christianity?

    We have two different subjects here, which will probably require two different approaches. In dealing with the Atheist you have a person who has at least the ability to reach a conclusion. The evidence they base their conclusion on may be faulty, but they are capable of reaching a decision. They claim to see no evidence of the existence of God. If such evidence can be found and presented to them in a way they can understand, then they may say that the truth of the arguments for atheism is faulty, and consider other possibilities.

    With Agnostics you have a several different kind of individuals. There are people that don’t want to make a decision. They are comfortable with ambiguity. A-Gnosis means without knowledge in Greek. In Latin the same word form becomes ignoramus.

    Some have this lack of knowledge because they claim they have not had the opportunity to examine any evidence. The truth of the matter frequently is that they never took advantage of the opportunity to look at it. It is notoriously difficult to deal with those who are willingly ignorant. Or as one creationist I have heard describe them as “stupid on purpose”.

    Others do not have the knowledge because they refuse to examine any evidence. If evidence for the existence of god were presented to them, they might have to make a decision. And that decision might make them uncomfortable with their current life choices. If a god exists, then perhaps he would have the right to determine things like right and wrong behavior. It is better to remain ignorant and do as you will.

    Some are simply unwilling to commit to the certainty of being atheist. They are “hedging their bets”. Maybe there is a god, and maybe there isn’t. And if I can’t tell then I can’t be blamed for any choices I make. I get to decide what is right and wrong for me. You have your truth, and I have mine. And there is no such thing as a universal truth.

    But for both atheist and agnostics one thing seems to hold true. The idea that a god could be watching and (horrors) judging our actions is unacceptable. That he might even decide that having sex with whom or what ever you are is wrong is just unacceptable to them.

    Now don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of Christians that engage in wrong behavior. This is a common condition of all humanity. It is called Sin. And it is the dealing with this condition that Christians have a unique circumstance in the religions of the world.

    Buddha is dead. Confucius is dead. Mohammed is dead. Abraham is dead. Moses is dead. The founders of all the great religions, with the exception of Jesus are dead. the followers of Christ uniquely claim that Jesus still is alive. We have more evidence of the existence of Jesus than of any other person in antiquity.

    We have more documents, more documents that were produced closer to his time, more non biblical and historic records of him and his followers than for any other contemporaneous person in antiquity. We have copies of manuscripts that if not the originals were one or two generations away from the originals.

    We have historic records from the Romans of Christians being exiled from Rome within 20 years of Christ’s death (27-33 AD), by Emperor Claudius. (reigned 41-54 AD). And how reasonable would it be for a religion that started in some backwater part of the empire, based on some one that didn’t exist, rise to become sufficient a problem that the emperor has to exile them from the capitol of the world.

    There are a lot more proofs that could be shown, and if you want I will go through more of them. But I think that many here would rather just remain ingnorant.

    Comments

    • I find your definition of the word agnostic to be very defensive.
      The modern dictonary defines an AGNOSTIC as:Someone who believes it is impossible to know whether God exists or not.
      This is,to my mind,far less ignorant than those that are brainwashed into slavishly following their parents religions.
      There is no doubt that Jesus existed and was a perfect subject for the storytellers of the time. I personally believe that the Old Testament is a fabulous album of fictional stories.
      Peace be with you and yours.

      Tel UK- Licensed to fish!

      by Tel UK- Licensed to fish! on January 6th, 2012

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