| Another Q for Atheists. I personally don’t believe Jesus is the literal son of God but history and science

Another Q for Atheists. I personally don’t believe Jesus is the literal son of God but history and science

temerson asked the question:


tell us as he did exist and hardly anyone can deny that his existence has changed the world. For better and for worse. The Crusade ranks up there with the worst events in history. On the flip side of the coin, I live in rural N.E. and I see church’s of all denominations come to the aid of those who need it, routinely. And we have all heard people credit the god of their choice after going through something unimaginable to the rest of us. My Q is this, I believe with faith itself there lies great power, corruptable power as proven so many times throughout history but also the power to do good. Do Atheist deny the intrinsic value of faith?

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Comments

5 Responses to “Another Q for Atheists. I personally don’t believe Jesus is the literal son of God but history and science”

  1. awakening1us on February 1st, 2009 5:33 pm

    Some will deny the value of faith some will not. Not to be flippant but there is not a common unifying set of principles for atheists - we just don’t believe in a god. After that we are a pretty diverse group.

  2. Alejo on February 5th, 2009 3:43 am

    I have no idea.

  3. random6x7 on February 5th, 2009 7:35 pm

    Some do, some don’t. Atheism doesn’t have a scripture or anything, so atheists vary in their ideas by a lot. At any rate, faith is indeed a great motivator, both for good and for evil. I don’t think it’s an intrinsic good, as you’re implying (if it’s corruptible, it must be good at the outset to be corrupted). While the Crusades may have been about earthly glory, wealth, and keeping the masses down, for a lot of people, they were simply for the greater glory of God. That’s not corrupted, but it still led to some vile acts. The Aztecs (or was it Maya, blast?) sacrificed humans because they believed they needed to give the sun energy to rise every day. Their faith wasn’t corrupted at all in that, but they still killed people.

    I think faith and ritual can be very important to people, particularly ritual, but I don’t think it has to be Judeo-Christian rituals or beliefs. Also, science and history has only shown that Jesus probably existed, but that he was probably not terribly peaceful or love-thy-neighborish. Despite Roman records, our knowledge of the history of that time is incredibly sketchy. We do know, though, that there were a lot of Jewish guys in Israel leading revolts or talking revolution against the Romans, and that a lot of them were using religious imagery and prophecies for their advantage. Jesus might’ve been one of those guys, but with better post mortem PR. So he personally might not have changed the world, but the faith that coalesced around him definitely did.

  4. mel on February 8th, 2009 5:53 pm

    many atheists dont deny existence of christ or even muhamad, buddha. these r historical facts and no need to talk abt it. all atheist does is - in simple ways - with all these turmoil/mess by religions - there cannot be a god! except for the messiahs/manifestations god is an unknown entity. so why do i hv to bother abt him. and he doesnt affect my life. i can still practise the moral good, ethics with or without god. i have my mind and conscience to guide me. so tts my faith. relig faith and god believing and god un-believing r all separate/distinct entities.
    so we shld all stop thinking tt atheists r nincompoops

  5. Puppy on February 9th, 2009 10:20 pm

    I don’t think it’s a matter of there being a “power” in faith, I think it’s just that people who have been spoonfed religious threats of eternal damnation are going to do as much as they can to please the god they’ve been brought up with. Even if it’s not a case of still believing it, it’s going to have an effect on the person’s personality in some manner if they are “trained” to performing good deeds and such.

    I’d say that faith can be good for inspiring good intentions in those who don’t have the benefit of a healthy conscience (either as a result of upbringing or whatever), as a lot of people have seriously admitted that without their religion to keep them in order, there’d be nothing to stop them from committing acts of depravity and violence (rape/pillage/etc). While I don’t think this is a healthy way of life, if it helps those with no moral values to be better people then I’m all for it.