Atheists, do you really NOT believe in God, or...?

Posters like you make all christians a laughingstock! You can run, you can hide but you cannot destroy the truth!

Academia states that in the absence of proof of the existence of something it must be deemed not to exist until verifiable proof is found - thus god is held not to exist pending some sort of verifiable evidence.

There is not one single mention of Jesus in the entire Roman record - that is right - not one! At the same time as he was supposed to have been around there were a number of Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are well recorded!

There is not a single contemporary record from any source and even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

He was supposed to have been a huge problem to the Romans and produced wonderful miracles but still not one contemporary record?

Even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!

Pilate is recorded in the Roman record as a somewhat lack luster man but no mention of a Jesus, a trial or crucifixion that would surely have been used to make him look brighter!

At best he was an amalgam of those others but almost certainly never existed!

The Roman Emperor Constantine produced the bible and he was a pagan not god!!! He took the Jewish religion and basing it on the Mithras religion, organized it into Christianity and then into the Holly Roman Catholic Church!! Not in Israel or any of the countries of supposed origin but entirely ITALIAN!

Not one word of it is contemporary with the period and was not written until several hundred years after the period the story is set in!! How did the apostles write their books more than a hundred years after they would have been dead?

What a wonder full disinformation and deception campaign he waged against his Jewish enemies by turning them into his invented Christianity - so good in fact that Christians are still following the deception to this day!

The first person to provide a shred of verifiable evidence for God will become world famous and mega rich!! Ain't happened yet and it never will!

So how does this primitive belief survive? The answer is simple and very down to Earth

Acceptance of a supernatural claim tends to promote cooperative social relationships. This communication demonstrates a willingness to accept, without skepticism, the influence of the speaker in a way similar to a child's acceptance of the influence of a parent. By encouraging this kind of behavior where the most intense social relationships occur it facilitates the lack of skepticism and deters more open minded thinking.

They are christian, Muslim or the other religions depending where they were born simply because they were indoctrinated by their parents as very young children. They will go on to indoctrinate their own children and those will go on to indoctrinate their grandchildren!

Atheists have the intellect to see through the conditioning and escape into the real world!

Agnostics have the intellect to see through the conditioning but lack the courage to throw of the conditioning entirely.

Sadly Christians are still held firmly prisoner by the self perpetuating brainwashing!

"Santa, fairies, unicorns, etc., are known to be imaginary beings created by man. Even though

mankind has created a physical appearance to these beings, they are not in fact real."

Change this into "Shiva, Thor , God are known to be imaginary beings created by man. Even though

mankind has created a physical appearance to these beings, they are not in fact real" and it's not anywhere make less sense. No they're not different, they're all ancient myths, it's just because gods are to be worshipped, so their followers can never just accept the truth that they're not real like unicorns and fairies

" simply saying that you don't believe in Him contradicts your whole belief, or disbelief. Just by acknowledging Him, you've accepted the fact that He exists."

Well, I don't think so

If I tell you there's an invisible PINK unicorn standing right next to you, you just can't see it because it's invisible and you tell me you don't believe, does it mean you've accept that it's real. Of course not, right?

It's YOU contradict yourself while denying some myths and accept others

And to answer you title question YES, I DON'T BELIEVE

There is no evidence whatsoever that your god exists at all, anymore than there is for the existence of Thor, Osiris, Ki, or any of the thousands of gods humans have invented over the centuries.

You refuse to understand. Your god is, as far as we are concerned, an imaginary being every bit as much as unicorns or leprechauns. We do not "accept the fact that he exists" because it is not a fact at all. It is a made-up tale. Do you get that yet? No one has ever presented any evidence that your god exists, therefore we do not believe. It is as simple as that.

Organized religion just compounds the mistake...and tries to make everyone else make the same mistake.

BTW: Allah was not a man. Muhammad was the man...supposedly Allah's prophet. The Muslims believe that Allah is the true name of God. They have no more evidence of their god existing than you do...and believe in it just as fervently as you do.

Perhaps they * shouldn't *. If God truly gave everyone free will, then atheists, for whatever reason, have decided not to believe. As someone above already said, "arguing" for God's existence is relatively moot. In the end, someone will believe because the Holy Spirit finally convicted them of the truth. If one does not believe in the Holy Spirit, I don't see that happening. If an atheist decides their current life doesn't feel "right", they will seek something else. Do Christians have a "better" life because of God? Look at Paul, he was beaten, whipped and run out of town for his beliefs. Christians may say Christianity brings them comfort. An atheist would retort that they need no such crutch. Christians may say they sin less. Ha! Neither has a lock on morality. You mentioned that we cannot use "the afterlife" as a support for why Christianity is better. If such a limitation is placed on the response, then we have to stick with experiences on this earth. In that case, if we limit our response to life on earth, we may find that the atheist would * always * think their life is better as an unbeliever. It isn't until you become a believe that your perspective changes to include the afterlife. --- added ---- I noticed you said both "in the long run" and "disregarding the afterlife". To a Christian, the two are inseparable.

" really NOT believe in God" sums it up well.

" Just by acknowledging Him, you've accepted the fact that He exists"

No. Just because the *concept* exists, there doesn't have to be a reality behind it.

That is exactly the problem. Theistic religions propose a reality, and name it "God".

I don't deny that either the label or the religion exists. They are both easily demonstrable.

What I do maintain is that these have no connection to any external reality, "higher power" as is asserted. No contradiction.

Consider celestial teapots or invisible pink unicorns: does denying they exist mean they must?

Since the word atheist actually means someone who does not believe in any God, if we were actually believers in some God, then we would not really be atheist.

As for the idea that we "acknowledge" God - We live in a society that is largely populated by believers, but simply being aware that there are people who believe in some God does not make us think or feel as they do, nor does it mean we agree with their point of view.

By the same logic, as you present with your acknowledgement argument; there are no skinny people because everyone knows what the word fat means. This statement is obviously false and so is your argument that atheists "acknowledge" some God simply by knowing that there are people who believe in it.

So if I say that I do not believe in something, that means that I do believe in it.

But when you say you do not believe in something, you expect us to take it at face value?

By adopting one rule for you and another rule for atheists, you are being very illogical. There really are people who have no belief in any god. Just as I have no doubt that you believe in God.

Incidentally, Thor and Shiva are not so fundamentally different from Santa, fairies and unicorns. If you Google it, you will find plenty of people alive today who believe in fairies and unicorns. Just a few generations ago, many of my ancestors were scared to go outdoors at night for fear of the faeries. It was very real to them.

I am an atheist which means i don't believe in any gods. Why oh why is this such a difficult concept for so many to understand? many people believe in bigfoot and like god I have studied the evidence and found there to be no credible evidence for either. I hope this has cleared it up, but i doubt it. Atheists do not acknowledge god but we acknowledge that some believe there is a god.

"that if you don't believe in God, simply saying that you don't believe in Him contradicts your whole belief, or disbelief."

The EXACT same arguement applies to ANY other thing you don't believe in. I use the word "Him" or "God" because you use the word "Him" or "God". If you would prefer a more specific rejection: I do not believe in the male deity portrayed in the Bible.

Using Jafar from aladdin as an example in the context of your first part of your arguement, if you said "I do not believe in Jafar". I could say "You are contradicting your belief or disblief just by acknoweledging him".

I can understand the stupid responses to this question because it is a stupid and disjointed question, which underlies the frantic and broken logic that religion inbeds in people.

It's not just your deity I don't believe in. I don't believe any deity exists.

Suggesting that by acknowledging your deity I have accepted its existence is a bit silly. I acknowledge stories of unicorns, fairies, dragons, elves... does that mean I accept their existence as well? I'm sure you wouldn't suggest that is the case, so why would my "acknowledgement" of your deity be any different?