Oh my God, I'm an Atheist !!

I understand, and what Jesus asks is that you make a leap of faith. Which I understand is a huge problem here in this forum. It was for me too.
Being on your death bed, facing non-existence anymore, is a trigger to make a leap of faith.For me, it was life, the birth of my first child that started me down a 13 year journey, until I finally felt what I believe is the Holy Spirit, and now I feel like I have a basis for belief, other than just plain faith.As far as evil goes, it is a relative term. Many children think school is evil, until they grow up, and see how important it really was.

I was talking about all the time, not just once and a while. I agree jar, but if you believe in what Jesus did, then you should be believing in the Holy Spirit as well, and not need an explanation as to what it is. The Holy Spirit convicts us when we do wrong, unless, as I pointed out, that we are deceived by the world into thinking we were right. But on your death bed, you tend to drop the ideas of this world, and your mind is clearer, and probably closer to God, and the error of your ways will be made noticeable to you.Is one way it could happen. This is not an absolute.

A strange thing that so many rare breeds could have arbitrarily come under one roof.I can't really go into any further because its OT. The thread was closed yesterday and recently reopened. I'd like to keep it open for the duration.

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"The problem of Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it is difficult and left untried" -G.K. Chesterton

It is supposed to be, but it is not.The only thing that is of love and tolerance, are people. No, I said I could have been like that, but I wasn't. Good thing I was strong when those things happened to me, or I might have been prejudice my entire life. Yes, I know thanks!Except for one thing, I forgave these people before I was a "christian." I am not judging, just pointing out facts. And you are not hard on me, just not getting what I am saying, because of your predisposition about me.

And why can't people be just like Jesus all the time? Totally false. Even if you believe there is the Holy Spirit, you still need to test it to see if what you experience really is that critter. Which brings us to the question you never answer."How do you know it is the Holy Spirit?" I'm sorry, but where did you present the evidence to support that? What exactly makes you think someone must be closer to God to have the errors of their ways made noticeable?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

question ..you say in the OP this is directed towards atheists .. why ... why not to anyone who does not belive in you version of god ?
(yes i know you say any can answer but you focus on atheists )if as you state the worship of the xian god is inbuilt , then why not ask those who follow different religions if they would call on the "err correct" version . after all technically they are athiests of the xian religion .or is it the non belif asspect of the atheist you are exploring , trying to see if there is a belief on /off switch( yes sorry a crude term for something so major) ...and (ok maybe its unfair to ask this , and is not intented to take us off-topic) you put a disclaimer saying firstly do you think there is blame attached to atheistium in any way .. and if so who is to blame .....maybe the atheists could sue the church for failing to convert/enlighten them ??

I believe it is God inspired, but written by humans, during a certain time, and in a certain place. It's power is being able to be subjective, and hopefully, if your attitude is right, will help you grow closer to the Lord, and not affect people in a negative way.If anything, I see the bible sometimes, because of who assembled it, as a tool to control the masses, yet God's word is in there. Yes He does. He says to enter into heaven, you must be like one of these. In other words, children are innocent.
He also says that if you mess with a child, that is equivilent to messing with Him.Being on your death bed, can bring you back to a simpler time in life, such as being like a child. Because everything you did in life, may not matter at that point. When I say we were created to worship God, it also means we were created with a desire to worship. As I pointed out we can be deceived into worshiping the wrong things. We are always looking to fill a void, and that void is to worship God.Throughout our entire history, most of the human race has worshiped one thing or another. That is objective evidence that we are born with a desire to worship something.I do not know what atheists worship, but surely they search for joy somewhere. It is one your death bed, that you might question those ideas. When you are faced with non-existence. A few people have even indicated, that if it made them feel better, they would even consider it, which I think is very honest.

Well put!

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Will you at that moment look to God, and maybe ask Him something?

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Oh sure, why not? While I'm at it I'll put the same question to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.Just kidding. The real answer is "no".

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My question is,,, and I ask you to refrain from knee jerk responses, and preprogrammed by college answers,,,

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Conditions met.Cheers.

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I understand, and what Jesus asks is that you make a leap of faith.

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Jesus hasn't asked me anything. And the problem with leaps of faith is that they can go in any direction with equal validity. So all you are doing is reducing salvation to a guessing game. The idea that there is a God who cares about what we believe - but wants us to arrive there by guessing is not exactly plausble. And it would be insulting if there were a real God who took a more reasonable attitude.So quite frankly I don't see myself appealing to your God - if I did it would only be the ingrained impulses of my upbringing, not because of any reality behind it or this knowledge which we're supposed to have without knowing it for reasosn you can't or won't explain. And there's no chance that I wuld appeal to Nemesis Juggernaut's God.

Fear can be overpowering. We humans can be so overpowered by emotions that reason takes a back seat. For instance my fiance is terrified of flying. Recenlty I tried to get her to take a flight to Chicago instead of driving. We went over the exceedingly rare probabilty of mishaps, the attention to detail pilots employ, the nature of daily aircraft inspections and maintenance ect. She aggreed that rationally it was nothing worth worying about but in the end just couldn't bring herself to get on the plane. The fear trumped the intellect.I am an agnostic and confident in the views I do hold but I have no idea how I would react if someone told me I had 10 minutes to live. What role would my emotions play and would fear or anxiety overpower my intellect? I really don't know. I have never been in that situation.

This is a brand new revelation to me. For some reason I had it in my mind that you were a professed Christian theist. I see this thread might be and interesting read.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past.

Until you get something back, then it is much more than faith. Guessing?
People often say in this forum "do the right thing."What is this right thing?
But I guess I am getting off my own topic, sort of.

Did I ever mention, how much it bothers me that anyone could go to hell?
Why God would do that? Your right, I thought about that before I started this topic, but I still felt like I had to bring it up. I don't know just how honest the answer will be. Or if people can even fathom what it is they will think when it happens. I have come close to death a few times, and had some time to think about it (before I was a Christian) and like with the case of NosyNed, and loved ones, I sure hope I get to see them again.
How strange is it that the majority of us want to live forever, yet our pyhsical beings won't?
I wonder if people would still commit suicide if they knew they could live forever, for certain. Probably.

Desperate, or enlightened.Did it ever occur to you that there are christians without ulterior motives?