People can indeed find a reason for living and be very ethical without religion. But their hope is without a solid foundation. If life indeed evolved, what is life, but a clog of cells deceiving themselves that there is something abstract and beautiful within? Plus, if we build who we are on anything but God, our identity, as Timothy Keller notes, becomes "inherently unstable": If someone builds his life around being a good parent, if his children desert him, who is he now? There was a mother who found herself extremely depressed because she wound her whole purpose for living around her son, who became a failure. You cannot set your foundation on humanity (including yourself), because humanity will always fail you. And if not in other ways, in death. No one can defeat death ( ... )

Well that was more than a little bit offensive! How dare you presume my identity is anymore unstable than your own. Though I fail to understand why you think it matters that someone's identity shifts throughout their lifetime. That is not a crisis. Why do you assume failure rocks my foundation? I assure you, it does not. Personal failure can be a wonderful thing ( ... )

Part 1 of my response ( ... )

Part 2 of my response ( ... )

This really is a pointless conversation because, from my point of view, you may as well be extolling the wonders of the tooth fairy. It's absolute delusion. The paradigm you have on the world is, to me, one of a never-ending acid trip and it makes my head hurt the same way a schizophrenic rambling about their reality does. I honestly want no part of it. The only thing I'd like is Christians to stop presuming they know a damn thing about something they cannot possibly know ( ... )

I can see that you do not want to change your position, so I will keep this short. The tooth fairy has no historical evidence to support it. The Christian faith does. Delusions are built on falsehoods and lies. The Christian faith is based on real people who lived and died and experienced God's hand in their society ( ... )

I appreciate you trying. This was very tastefully done. There would be no quantum mechanics, particle physics, or physical anthropology without God. ;)

And I love how you pointed out the difference between God and religion. Wonderful.

It's quite amazing to me that someone can't see/feel what faith in Him allows us to see/know.

Thank you for your support. I'm glad I offered something insightful. I love your icon, by the way. God bless.

Yes, indeed! And I love my icons! They're wonderful. You should come have a look-see. :)

Thanks! You have so many great userpics; I snatched a few with their credits. I see you love autumn. I do, too. ^^ Thanks for letting me have a look-see!

You're very welcome! And thanks for remembering to credit. :)

I do love Autumn, but Winter is the bestest to me. ♥

Anytime!

I would like to ask you a question...I want to message you about it. *nods*

Of course I don't want to change my position. That doesn't mean it wouldn't change if I learned something new. The issue is I've already had the Christianity conversation literally dozens and dozens of times. After the first dozen or so... I really stopped hearing any new arguments. The only thing I learned was the conversation probably wasn't going to go anywhere unless it is a long, ongoing thing and I don't have the time and energy to do that with random Christians whom I don't know on another level. It's exacerbating. I was Christian. Deeply. It took years for me to go from the concept of questioning to atheism. It's not something I can or care to articulate in a few conversations. Thus, I try not to get into it anymore. The only thing I really want is to not have wildly inaccurate assumptions made about me based on my lack of religion. Oh, and to let it be known that I AM here. That there are many of us. That's not such an issue after moving out of a heavily religious area to a city which is predominantly not exactly Christian. I ( ... )

Part 1 (sorry for length again ( ... )