Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism - Religion - Nairaland
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| Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 5:59pm On Jun 20, 2016 |
On a crystalline spring morning on the third Sunday of Lent, Lucy and I went to church with my parents, who had flown in from Arizona for a weekend visit. We sat together in a long wooden pew, and my mother struck up a conversation with the family sitting next to us, first complimenting the mother on her baby daughter’s eyes, then quickly moving on to matters of greater substance, her skills as a listener, confidante, and connector fully evident. During the pastor’s Scripture reading, I suddenly found myself chuckling. It featured a frustrated Jesus whose metaphorical language receives literal interpretation from his followers: Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” . . . Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” It was passages like these, where there is a clear mocking of literalist readings of Scripture, that had brought me back around to Christianity after a long stretch, following college, when my notion of God and Jesus had grown, to put it gently, tenuous. During my sojourn in ironclad atheism, the primary arsenal leveled against Christianity had been its failure on empirical grounds. Surely enlightened reason offered a more coherent cosmos. Surely Occam’s razor cut the faithful free from blind faith. There is no proof of God; therefore, it is unreasonable to believe in God. Although I had been raised in a devout Christian family, where prayer and Scripture readings were a nightly ritual, I, like most scientific types, came to believe in the possibility of a material conception of reality, an ultimately scientific worldview that would grant a complete metaphysics, minus outmoded concepts like souls, God, and bearded white men in robes. I spent a good chunk of my twenties trying to build a frame for such an endeavor. The problem, however, eventually became evident: to make science the arbiter of metaphysics is to banish not only God from the world but also love, hate, meaning — to consider a world that is self-evidently not the world we live in. That’s not to say that if you believe in meaning, you must also believe in God. It is to say, though, that if you believe that science provides no basis for God, then you are almost obligated to conclude that science provides no basis for meaning and, therefore, life itself doesn’t have any. In other words, existential claims have no weight; all knowledge is scientific knowledge. Yet the paradox is that scientific methodology is the product of human hands and thus cannot reach some permanent truth. We build scientific theories to organize and manipulate the world, to reduce phenomena into manageable units. Science is based on reproducibility and manufactured objectivity. As strong as that makes its ability to generate claims about matter and energy, it also makes scientific knowledge inapplicable to the existential, visceral nature of human life, which is unique and subjective and unpredictable. Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue. Between these core passions and scientific theory, there will always be a gap. No system of thought can contain the fullness of human experience. The realm of metaphysics remains the province of revelation (this, not atheism, is what Occam argued, after all). And atheism can be justified only on these grounds. The prototypical atheist, then, is Graham Greene’s commandant from The Power and the Glory, whose atheism comes from a revelation of the absence of God. The only real atheism must be grounded in a world-making vision. The favorite quote of many an atheist, from the Nobel Prize–winning French biologist Jacques Monod, belies this revelatory aspect: “The ancient covenant is in pieces; man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” Yet I returned to the central values of Christianity -- sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness -- because I found them so compelling. There is a tension in the Bible between justice and mercy, between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the New Testament says you can never be good enough: goodness is the thing, and you can never live up to it. The main message of Jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time. About the testifier: Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon and writer. He graduated from Stanford with a B.A. and M.A. in English literature and a B.A. in human biology. He earned an M.Phil in the history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge and graduated cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society. He returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in neurological surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, and received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery's highest award for resident research. He died in March 2015. He is survived by his family, including his wife Lucy, and their daughter Elizabeth Acadia. Source:http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/05/27/paul-kalanithi-why-gave-up-on-atheism.html 4 Likes 2 Shares
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| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Ranchhoddas: 9:43pm On Jun 20, 2016 |
In the quest for truth, people are always moving from point to point-Unbelief to belief and vice-versa. There was a story on the frontpage not long ago of 104 christians that converted to Islam in one swoop. You and I know the story of a certain pastor called Hardmirror... So what pray tell is the point of this thread? 4 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by ettaetta(m): 9:54pm On Jun 20, 2016 |
Ranchhoddas:pastor indeed. Keep deceiving your selves 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Ranchhoddas: 10:33pm On Jun 20, 2016 |
ettaetta:It's easy for you to believe the OP but difficult to believe Hardmirror. You should understand that it's a two-way street. People are always going and coming. There is nothing special about your beliefs. It's just one of the thousands that abound. They are good coping mechansims. Deal with it. 8 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by HardMirror(m): 11:28pm On Jun 20, 2016 |
Ranchhoddas:There are hundreds of well established pastors, evangelists etc who ended up being atheist. All I can say is, I sought the God with all my heart, I tried real hard not to give up on all the years of my assumed relationship with God, but in the end I had to yield to reason (common sense) for to believe in God, you have to allow your emotions make decisions for you and not your common sense. 9 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 12:57am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Paul Kalanithi's book "When Breath Becomes Air" is really touching. The OP is an excerpt from the book, which I read a couple of weeks ago. The fact of the matter is that Kalanithi's argument for theism is extremely weak. He explicitly makes a god of the gaps argument as a reason to believe. But this argument is weak because it appeals to the idea that we should attribute to god anything that we don't have the answer to yet. We used to attribute epilepsy and schizophrenia to demons and spirits, we now know precisely that they are due to physical causes in the brain. We used to attribute diseases to demons, we also now know that these can be treated using exclusively physical measures. Various human cultures used to attribute any natural phenomenon they couldn't understand to a god. Today these phenomenons -- such as lightning, rainfall, an eclipse, etc -- are precisely understood and in many cases can be replicated in lab environments without having to invoke a supposed spiritual realm. Another weakness in the god of the gaps argument is that it arbitrarily assumes that this god is the Christian one and this god is singular (and not plural). To make an intellectually honest god of the gaps argument, the claimant would have to admit that the god he/she presupposes is not necessarily the Christian one (thousands of gods have been worshiped throughout human history, and the Judeo-Christian god was recently introduced only 6000 years ago whereas the homo sapiens specie has existed for over 200,000 years). The god of the gaps claimant would also have no reason to arbitrarily presuppose that there is just one god, as opposed to several gods! Additionally, Kalanithi presumes that Jesus was the first moral man to walk the earth. This is a common claim that assumes that morality comes from religion, and in particular Christianity alone. If I ever were to be religious I would subscribe to Jainism, a religion that is not theistic and is deeply pacifist in every way. Jainism is hundreds of years older than Christianity. Adherents to Jainism believe in pacifism in every way to the extent that many of them don't wear anything made of cotton, leather, etc in order to not harm plants or animals. I deeply sympathize with Paul Kalanithi's story -- he was diagnosed with lung cancer just right when he was finishing neurosurgery residency and ultimately died young, at the age of 37 -- but his argument for Christianity holds no water. 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 1:07am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Ranchhoddas:104 huh? Someone posted pictures on twitter and so because it made front page it must be true?  This quote "Saleem Abdulqadir who posted the pictures on twitter wrote; Total of 104 Christians accepted the light of Islam in Delta state,Nigeria. Ya Allah grant them your infinite mercy" is the only proof available. Its good that the fifth comment on that thread exposed the ridiculous intent of the thread. https://www.nairaland.com/3171963/104-christians-convert-islam-delta 1 Like |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 1:09am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Ranchhoddas:But you seem less concerned about the thousands of religion that abound. You spend your life discussing about only one. Seems to me that you dont concern yourself with lies.  2 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 1:21am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:You are ignorant of the fact that majority of the scientists who opened our eyes, majority of the scientists who found solutions to humanity in terms of science and technology were religious. They had a mandate to find out more about their world as God commanded. The founder of the scientific method was also a christian. I'm at loss on what atheism has done for humanity. Left to atheism, we would still be in the dark ages. And before you start mentioning the names of contemporary pseudoscientists, just make sure they've acheived equivalent feats attained by previous religious scientists. If you want to subscribe to janism, do so but just dont spend your life talking about something that does not exist. 5 Likes 1 Share
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| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 1:38am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Ok. So you are telling me that because many scientists several centuries ago were associated with Christianity therefore Christianity is true? Based on this logic, then Islam is the true religion because its scientists (during the golden age of Islam) were Muslim? Also, your statement that a Christian "founded" the scientific method is false. No single human "founded" the scientific method. The scientific method evolved out of millenia of rationalist thinking which can be traced back to the Aristotelian days. If you care to know, Aristotle existed centuries before Jesus. winner01: 1 Like |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 1:47am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:You might wanna tell us what Francis bacon is widely regarded as. Dont shift the goal post here. I'm not saying because Christian scientists were exceptional, then christianity must be true. I'm saying, religious minds (other religions inclusive) have been far more productive than atheistic minds. So why on earth would you attempt to attribute the ignorance of people in the olden days to religion? Education was what was needed. Atheism have offered nothing to humanity. Y'all spend your lives on hating religious people rather than being productive for yourselves and others, and worse still, you claim reasoning is exclusively meant for atheists. 2 Likes 1 Share
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| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 1:56am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Ok, please point out to me where I spent my life or time hating religious people. Also, you have not responded to any of my comments, except throw words like "ignorant", "hating", etc at me. This is what is frustrating about attempting to have a civil conversation on here. You make so many arbitrary claims that I have responded to, yet instead of addressing them you resort to ad hominem attacks. You make other wild accusations that I won't spend my time responding to. Also, it is quite disingenuous for you to take credit for what people of other religions have done, just because you are Christian and religious. If your specific god is real, then prove it and stop making baseless and arbitrary claims and accusations. winner01: |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 2:13am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:You had better not spend your time responding to me. You have made zero claims and peope can see that. I'm not taking credit for what people of other religions have done. As a matter of fact they pale in comparison to what christianity has offered the world. I'm emphasizing the productivity of religious minds. I'm not taking credit for anything. Just tell me what atheism has done for humanity, if you cant, i can. Religious minds have far been productive and continue to be. All you people do is scratch the surface of science and pour it in the face of some christians who know little or nothing about science in a bid to dehumanize them. As for spending you life on what does not exist, ill have to ask you: What are you doing here? Of about 40 sections on Nairaland, why do you choose to spend your time on religion? Why do you need people not to believe in God with you? 3 Likes 1 Share
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| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 2:36am On Jun 21, 2016 |
winner01: I never claimed that atheism has done anything for humanity -- atheism is merely the absence of belief in gods or god concepts. Atheism makes no claims. Science is what has done loads for humanity. You seem to claim that science and Christianity are self re-enforcing, and you seem to make wild claims that religion is responsible for science. You do not realize that correlation does not imply causation. If we were to follow Jesus's words, we wouldn't build hospitals, all we would do is pray endlessly for healing. If we were to follow Yahweh's or the Apostle Paul's words, Africans would still be enslaved today. If we were to follow the Bible's claims, modern medicine's understanding of genetics would be false, yet we know it isn't false because we have been able to develop genetic therapies as well as developments that are based on evolutionary biology. Genetics, archaeology, paleontology, geography, and astrophysics tell us much more about nature than the Bible ever did. If we were to follow Yahweh's words, slavery and mass murder would be the order of the day. If we were to follow Jesus' words, why is it that he hasn't come back yet even though he told his followers that he would be back within their lifetimes? Christianity has done little to nothing to move the human race ahead, science has done much more. The Catholic Church fought science during The Age of Enlightenment (16th to 18th century Europe), with popes ordering the murder and oppression of rationalists & skeptics who questioned aspects of Christian doctrine about nature. The Age of Enlightenment was a period in Western Europe in which scientific progress accelerated, the impetus for this acceleration was that people/scientists realized that reason and rational thinking, not divinity or religion, is the primary source of epistemological authority and legitimacy. That many of the scientists of that era were loosely called Christians does not imply that Christianity and science were ever self re-enforcing. Anyways, here's my response for why people should not believe. It is a previous post of mine -> https://www.nairaland.com/3085047/part-2-pastor-atheist-why/12#45475099 5 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Ranchhoddas: 8:17am On Jun 21, 2016 |
winner01:So people do not convert from Christianity to Islam? Sometimes I wonder if you are mentally challenged or something. 1 Like |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 8:22am On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:And now i'm telling you. Atheism has done far more havoc than good to humanity and i proved that HERE and HERE. Atheism is not merely the absence of belief in God or gods. Atheism is a belief system that seeks to compel people to join its train. I have an absence of belief in santa claus or superman. I do not spend each day of my life talking about them because the belief is just not there. If I see people who believe in them and are happy, i'll smile. Now thats what MERE UNBELIEF is. The time and energy you spend on this section proves that you people are battling with your conscience to suppress your belief in the existence of your Creator. Science, science, science. You cant just stand on your own, can you? You need to cling to science or any other thing to validate your claims. I've made claims on how religious minds are breathtakingly productive, disprove that and stop try to rephrase my claims to suit your arguments.. Antiparticle:Jesus commanded his followers to make 'disciples of all nations'. And that is exactly what i see christians doing. I see christians building hospitals, I see christians building educational institutes, Prestigious institutes such as Havard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge and several others were founded by christians. I see christians building countless orphanages. Christianity runs the largest charity in the world, Christians spend their time in hospital deathbeds-giving hope to the hopeless, in prison cells-giving hope to the condemned, in camps of people who have been rendered homeless by terrorists spreading help and encouragement, consistently engaging in village outreaches amongst others. I see christianity putting smiles on the faces of people. Countless people have become disciples of Christ through the love shown to them so what exactly is wrong with you?  Just like several other christian organizations, the Christian relief organization Feed My Starving Children has a distribution partner in Malawi, Africa. In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa. In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were Western World Christians.Jesus never said we should always pray endlessly for healing in churches. Jesus never said that people should not work to help people. Doctors pray, does that mean they wont do their Job? Whatever opinions you have about christianity is your and yours alone. I bolded 'we' in the above, Who exactly are these 'we'? . And which developments are based on evolutionary biology?. I hope you wont start telling me about adaptation (micro-evolution). What exactly has darwinian macro-evolution done for humanity?Antiparticle:Because the Bible is not a science textbook. Nowhere does the Bible stop man from exploring his world. The Bible only contains historical occurences and documentation that can hep us know more about God. Thanks to Genetics and paleontology, without these, we would take in the lie of darwinian evolution hookline and sinker. Thanks to archaeology, we have been able to confirm several historical occurences in the Bible. None of these fields was discovered by an atheist, neither do they present evidence to support atheism. Antiparticle:You see. i'm not supposed to reply all these rants, as a matter of fact, i've decided to waste lesser time with desperate atheists. I've gotten more concerned with disproving atheism, rather than arguing God or the Bible with any atheist. Most especially not on this forum, cos i'm beginning to get the point of this section of the forum. Atheists have been the biggest mass murderers in history (source1, source 2). Till date, atheism still have suicidal and muderous tendencies, you may help yourself out with the links if you wish. Antiparticle:Look you need to learn how to learn, unlearn and re-learn, especially in this age. Ignorance can never be an excuse. Whenever you choose to discuss God, christianity or the Bible, Do not refer me to a site regulated by an atheist.  Co-Founder of Wikipedia, the atheist Jimmy WalesIf you are interested in the bias of wikipedia against Christianity, click HERE. Nairaland is also a good example of bias. The absence of a christian section is one, The kind of topics that are quick to make front page to defame God, christianity and pastors is also glaring for any sensitive christian to make inferences from, the more reasonable topics don't hit front page. Atheism will do absolutely anything to further its cause. An example is the rise of atheist mega-churches, where people go every sunday instead of churches. Atheist leaders in the 20th century enforced a totalitarian law worse than islam which saw to the death of over 256,000,000 people. What do we have today, Christianity is still waxing strong. You see, atheism is not science and has absolutely nothing to offer science except maybe the religion of darwinian evolution. Atheism, if anything, has only suppressed science.(source1), (source2) I agree that science has done much more for humanity. But you are in no place to tell me that. You are an atheist, not a scientist. Atheism is not science. Those people who moved science forward were deeply religious. Research has shows that religiosity and education are directly proportional? (source). Antiparticle:Why on earth would i want to be interested in the reason why some people believe that the samsung 15mp camera has a creator, and the 574 mp human eye arose by accident? I'm not interested in the desperation of people who disbelieve in God, neither am i interested in the opinions of people who disbelieve in santa claus.You do not believe in God, fine. You do not need to encourage me not to believe in God with you. 7 Likes 5 Shares |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 3:00pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
@winner01, this will be my last response to you. All your claims (that Christianity and science are self re-enforcing) are transparently bogus and are based on the fallacy that correlation implies causation, which isn't true. I can't continue feeding you if you won't decide to rid yourself of these psychological biases. Your responses, also, are full of bile and desperation. If your arguments were self sufficient, you wouldn't need to exhibit such vitriol towards the counterparty. I'll let the neutral open-minded intelligent reader to decide which of us is making sense. Well, have a good life. **FYI, please learn to prepare logical arguments, and not ones that solely rely on correlation to imply causation. This is my problem with religion, it makes it difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality. 5 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by DeSepiero(m): 5:21pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
Winner01 from your posts so far, I can safely conclude that you totally lack empathy for atheists and freethinkers. Same goes to all other theists. The atheists, which were mostly devote theists (Christians, esp here on Nairaland) know what it entails to be a believer. They have looked at the same picture (their life long religious belief ) from the theistic and atheistic perspective. Some will only make mockery of your believe either to enlighten you on their beliefs or for fun. Lastly, don't you think its erroneous to attribute intellectual achievements and humanitarian service to theism alone? 1 Like |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 5:36pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:Whatever you misinterprete my claim to be is yours, my claim remains: Religious minds have been far more productive that atheistic minds. So if the only interpretation you can give to this is that: christianity and science are self reinforcing, well, congratulations to you. You see what I bolded in your reply is exactly why I feel very uncomfortable taking my time to reply you or any atheist. Somehow, just somehow, you think I'm psychologically bias and you aren't, you thing you are feeding me and it is in my own good to eat whatever knowledge you think you posses. You think because you found a new worldview, then the old one must be wrong. Somehow, you think you are intellectually superior to any theist. That is why you do not deserve an argument from anyone. I made solid points and the only thing you felt you could do is to appeal to the emotions of the readers, The neutral reader should ask why you invest and spend everyday of your life talking about a non-existent God. I can't remember investing so much of my time talking about santa claus.Lastly, If you re-read the title of this thread, you will decipher what it is aimed at. I'm less interested in arguing with you especially since you have the preconceived notion that whatever arguments I prepare must be illogical. I've argued with many atheists in nairaland in the past and it has repeatedly occurred to me how much of a waste of time and energy it is. The aim of the section itself is clear so why waste my time in futility.? For the sake of innocent minds who may be poisoned by this subtle plot, ill continue creating threads to bring to the awareness of people, positive testimonials and also threads to expose the folly and desperation of atheism. 4 Likes
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| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 5:49pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
@winner01 I will not continue to feed you because you are a troll; I didn't mean anything else, it's pretty simple. Don't make this all about the intellectual inferiority complex you imply you feel when debating atheists. |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by mmsen: 5:53pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
I'm guessing that Paul Kalanithi prayed for healing and that his family prayed that he would be able to see his daughter grow up. Every child needs a father so why would an 'all loving', 'all knowing' god take a father away from his daughter? |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by CAPSLOCKED: 5:57pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
mmsen: SOMETIMES, CHRISTIANS CAN BE ANNOYINGLY BLOCKHEADED. A MAN'S ONLY SON DIES, HE CALLS IT THE WILL OF GOD. THE BREADWINNER TO A FAMILY OF 13 DIES, THEY SAY ITS GODS PLAN. A CULTIST IS KILLED BY A RIVAL TEAM, THEY SAY ITS GODS TIME. YOU'RE 45 AND STILL BARREN, YOU WERE MARRIED AS A VIRGIN AND REALLY PRAYERFUL... THEY SAY WAIT FOR GOD'S TIME, AFTERALL GODS TIME IS THE BEST. MEANWHILE SINGLE GIRLS THAT TWERK ALL OVER THE CLUBS IN LAGOS STATE GIVE BIRTH WHENEVER THEY WANT. A BOY IS BORN WITHOUT AN ANUS, BORN BLIND OR WITHOUT LIMBS.. INTO A VERY POOR FAMILY. CHRISTIANS SAY ITS GODS DESIGN. HOW IS IT GODS DESIGN THAT A PERSON IS BORN WITH VITAL BODY PARTS MISSING? HOW WILL THE POOR FAMILY GET MONEY TO FUND HIS MEDICAL SERVICES ABROAD? FUNNY ENOUGH YOU'LL HARDLY SEE THE GOOD PEOPLE OF GOD DONATING TO THAT. THEY'LL RATHER SPEND THEIR MONEY ON BEER AND PORK, IGNORING IT'S FORBIDDEN IN THE BIBLE. THE BAD PEOPLE IN THE SOCIETY WORKING ENDLESSLY TO SEE THAT GODS PEOPLE SUFFER, GOD DOESN'T TAKE THEIR LIVES.. THEY LIVE VERY LONG. CRISTIANS CALL IT GODS WILL, THAT GOD WANTS TO SEE IF THEY'LL REPENT. IF A CHRISTIAN IS POOR AND WRETCHED AND STARVING, HE'LL SAY ITS GOD'S PLAN. IF A RICH MAN DRIVES BY AND DROPS HIM A NOTE OF 200NAIRA, HE'LL SAY GOD GAVE HIM 200 NAIRA THRU THE RICH MAN. IF HE MISPLACES THE MONEY DUE TO HIS OWN CARELESSNESS, HE DOESN'T BLAME IT ON GOD THIS TIME.... HE BLAMES THE DEVIL FOR STEALING HIS MONEY. HAHA. A PERSON SURVIVES AN ACCIDENT. WITH TERRIBLE INJURIES ALLOVER. HE STILL THANKS GOD FOR SAVING HIM. LOL, YOU DON'T THINK IF HE WAS REALLY INTERESTED IN YOUR SAFETY HE WOULDN'T HAVE LET YOU CRASH IN THE FIRST PLACE? ONE TIME I WAS VERY SICK.. MY SIS STARTED TO COMPARE ME WITH JOB IN THE BIBLE. THAT I SHOULD FACE GOD, THAT MY BEING SICK IS BECAUSE I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD. HAHA... PEOPLE DIE IN THE CHURCH EVERY TIME. IF THEY DON'T WANNA DIE BOKO HARAM WILL GO THERE AND BOMB THEM ALL.. WHILE GOD SITS IN HEAVEN WATCHING IN 3D WHILE DRINKING BEER. BLESS THE DAY I DENOUNCED RELIGION. I RATHER WORSHIP MY BALLS THAN ANY GOD. AT LEAST, THEY'VE BEEN USEFUL IN THE PAST 6 YEARS. I'LL BE 24 SOON BUT SOON HAVEN'T FOUND RELIGION USEFUL. MY BALLS OVER RELIGION MEHN....  8 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 5:59pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
DeSepiero:Yeah. You have concluded that I lack empathy for atheists right? You see I work with facts. People should click (HERE) and see who really lacks empathy for whom.The atheists which were formally theists are only expressing their hatred for God. I know of three popular atheists on nairaland who have openly confirmed my suspicion. Two lost His and her (religious) mum, the other had to deal with divorce from His religious wife. Atheism is never arrived at by a logical conclusion. Atheists surround me. A good example is a religious friend of mine who went clubbing with some bad boys for the first time in his life. They had an accident on his way back and he was the only one who lost his legs. Of course he couldnt understand why a God would decided to punish him alone and leave the bad boys who have been at it for years. He turned to atheism of course. Another proclaimed that he wouldnt serve God again right in the hospital just minutes after we lost someone And many of such examples which i gave as the causes of atheism. Such persons will scratch the surface of science and also start to "educate" "deluded" christians. I was irreligious myself. All i wanted was to live life. But I had to weigh the available evidence before coming to a logical conclusion. I'm yet to see a worldview that thumps christianity, atheism does not even begin to move close. I'm not attributing intellectual acheivements to anything. I've made a clear claim, ponder on that. 4 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 6:00pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
Antiparticle:If i wanted to debate atheists, i'd be on reddit. 3 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 6:08pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
mmsen:Thank you Sir, you just confirmed my claims; How else can you fight God, but to pretend He does not exist.. We see death as a transition to glory. Death is painful no doubt and at times one may not understand why. But to conclude that God does not exist because people die is not rational. The Bible is the only book that gives a rational explanation on the origin and existence of evil. No other book on philosophy carefully takes care of this. If the Bible was really written by mere humans, then i'm willing to know what kind of superhuman intelligence they possessed. 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by DeSepiero(m): 6:09pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
winner01: What's the point of these stories up there? Do they make sense or buttress a point? Why do you keep begging the question? |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 6:20pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
DeSepiero:You do not need to reply posts just because you want to sound smart or feel the need. Have a nice life. |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by DeSepiero(m): 6:31pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
winner01: I take that as a retreat. |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by CAPSLOCKED: 6:49pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by mmsen: 7:07pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
winner01: Where did I say that 'god' doesn't exist? I asked why an all knowing/loving being would take a father away from his daughter? There are plenty of philosophical books that deal with good and evil, many of them proceed the Bible. Others came after. Who wrote the Bible, if not 'mere humans'? 2 Likes |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by winner01(m): 7:16pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
mmsen:Give the names of those books please, i'm interested. |
| Re: Paul Kalanithi: Why I Gave Up On Atheism by Antiparticle(m): 7:29pm On Jun 21, 2016 |
The problem with @winner01's arguments is that he is mainly trolling atheists and does not attempt whatsoever to explain logically why his god (Yahweh/Jesus) is real. He fails to explain why a logical and rational human should believe in the virgin birth, resurrection and miracle claims of the Bible (a book written mostly written by Bronze age desert inhabiters). He needs to explain why we should believe the Bible's extraordinary claims but not the equally extraordinary claims of other religions/deities. He needs to justify the Old Testament actions of Yahweh commanding mass murder and infanticide left and right. He needs to help theists understand why Yahweh is a just god and is real. But he won't do this, he insists on making correlational arguments that are all copy-and-paste and make no case for Christianity whatsoever. 5 Likes 3 Shares |
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