Atheism compared to other philosophical is simple to understand.Their only major proposition is an absolute negative.They assert the non existence of GOD.
A person is either an atheist or not an atheist.There are no true atheists and false atheists.You should believe in the non existence of GOD.There is no particular behaviour necessary to prove you are an atheist.Basically, what i am trying to say is they have belief system but no particular behaviour system.That's fine ,that's the logical outworking of atheism.There is no objective moral law because there is no moral law giver.They have the right to believe that and preach that,like dawkins does.
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A THEISITIC system like christianity has two major components.
1.Belief in the biblical revelation about God .
2.A new way of lifestyle or behaviour based on the teachings of Christ .
CHRISTIANITY = 1 +2 - True Faith.
Only 1 i.e belief without behaviour is what the bible calls false faith.
Only 2 i.e behaviour according to teachings of Christ without faith in God is not possible because his teaching were about God and how he was son of God or messiah + behaviour according to his teachings.
The problem comes when atheists take their understanding of atheistic worldview i.e a belief in an absolute negative without a need for a behavioural system, and apply it to a theistic system like Christianity.
For example dawkins talks a lot about the crimes of the catholic church and concludes that religion is bad.He even has a case that hitler might be a christian,because he claimed to believe in God.What infact he should have concluded is that, the catholic church/hitler are not truly Christian based on the fruits they produced.He has taken his understanding of "either or" belief of atheism and concluded that religion is bad instead of concluding that the church was not following the teachings of Christ,and thus it is/was a false church.Those who perpetrated inquisition,went on wars in the name of Christ,had mistresses and children out of wedlock cannot be called Christian because Christianity objects to these things and says clearly that such fruits indicate false faith.They may believe that a God exists , but the biblical God cannot be called upon if a person has not repented from such sins,which God is ready to forgive .Christianity is not just about forgiveness of sins.Ofcourse that's the first things.But what God promises is delivrance from sins.Jesus came and died for the sinners so that
1.Their sins can be forgiven on repentence and faith in him
2.They can be set free from the sins that they repented of.
Jesus also taught that ,"Every tree will be known by it's fruit".
The fruit of the spirit(spiritual new life) are:love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness andtemperance.
So faith in God without this output of fruit is not truly Christian.
Our atheist friend don't go this far to classify and discern the people they come across and so end up with a false caricature of religion which is easy for them to knock down.This lack of complete understanding and knowledge and it's non applicaion leads them to commit a logical fallacy called "Strawman argument"
In strawman argument you present a wrong caricature(factual erroraneous view ) of christianity as dawkins does ,knock it down correctly(logically knockdown the factually erraneous view instead of the true view) and think you have won the bout ,when in fact you have not even known or faced the true christian faith.
May God help them to know the Truth.
A person is either an atheist or not an atheist.There are no true atheists and false atheists.You should believe in the non existence of GOD.There is no particular behaviour necessary to prove you are an atheist.Basically, what i am trying to say is they have belief system but no particular behaviour system.That's fine ,that's the logical outworking of atheism.There is no objective moral law because there is no moral law giver.They have the right to believe that and preach that,like dawkins does.
.
A THEISITIC system like christianity has two major components.
1.Belief in the biblical revelation about God .
2.A new way of lifestyle or behaviour based on the teachings of Christ .
CHRISTIANITY = 1 +2 - True Faith.
Only 1 i.e belief without behaviour is what the bible calls false faith.
Only 2 i.e behaviour according to teachings of Christ without faith in God is not possible because his teaching were about God and how he was son of God or messiah + behaviour according to his teachings.
The problem comes when atheists take their understanding of atheistic worldview i.e a belief in an absolute negative without a need for a behavioural system, and apply it to a theistic system like Christianity.
For example dawkins talks a lot about the crimes of the catholic church and concludes that religion is bad.He even has a case that hitler might be a christian,because he claimed to believe in God.What infact he should have concluded is that, the catholic church/hitler are not truly Christian based on the fruits they produced.He has taken his understanding of "either or" belief of atheism and concluded that religion is bad instead of concluding that the church was not following the teachings of Christ,and thus it is/was a false church.Those who perpetrated inquisition,went on wars in the name of Christ,had mistresses and children out of wedlock cannot be called Christian because Christianity objects to these things and says clearly that such fruits indicate false faith.They may believe that a God exists , but the biblical God cannot be called upon if a person has not repented from such sins,which God is ready to forgive .Christianity is not just about forgiveness of sins.Ofcourse that's the first things.But what God promises is delivrance from sins.Jesus came and died for the sinners so that
1.Their sins can be forgiven on repentence and faith in him
2.They can be set free from the sins that they repented of.
Jesus also taught that ,"Every tree will be known by it's fruit".
The fruit of the spirit(spiritual new life) are:love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness andtemperance.
So faith in God without this output of fruit is not truly Christian.
Our atheist friend don't go this far to classify and discern the people they come across and so end up with a false caricature of religion which is easy for them to knock down.This lack of complete understanding and knowledge and it's non applicaion leads them to commit a logical fallacy called "Strawman argument"
In strawman argument you present a wrong caricature(factual erroraneous view ) of christianity as dawkins does ,knock it down correctly(logically knockdown the factually erraneous view instead of the true view) and think you have won the bout ,when in fact you have not even known or faced the true christian faith.
May God help them to know the Truth.
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