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No

Only Judeism

Only Islam

Yes to both Judeism and Islam

[Il Palazzo]

Holy Darwin, he called Atheism religion. I hereby invoke the Divine Quadrality of Dawkins, Harris, Dennet and the Holy Ghost of Hitchens to smite the heretic.

edit: forgive me Harris, for I have forgotten to include your name

[TD1]

Out of curiosity, why do you believe Christianity is the best? Is it a case of "I don't really know why, but it is, 'cause all those other faiths don't make sense" (In which case I'd suggest it was because of culture/upbringing) or have you actually weighed your faith against other faiths, and even weighed it against a lack of faith?

Holy Darwin, he called Atheism religion. I hereby invoke the Divine Quadrality of Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennet and the Holy Ghost of Hitchens to smite the heretic.

And no, I think the reference to atheism ended in him stating they have "remarkably poor taste in life choices"

[Arx]

I... what? The religion I was talking about was burningpet's hypothetical pseudo-Aztec human sacrifice religion.

Although I do consider the anti-theist ("there is no god") form of atheism a position of faith.

Pre-post edit:

If I didn't believe Christianity to be the best, I wouldn't be a Christian. And trust me, I have weighed it up. This thread is basically one-fifty pages of crisis of faith.

[TD1]

There is no God isn't a position of faith, because it is a lack of faith. Faith is believing in something with little to no proof, which is the case of God. There is a lot of proof to suggest that the God of the bible, with all the actions attributed to him, does not exist as described. If I said I don't believe in Dumbledore, you wouldn't call that a faith.

[Arx]

Proof such as? I haven't come across anything truly convincing, so I'm interested to see it.

Edit: I'm about to go silent because I'm going to bed and have four exams in the next three days, not out of denial. I'll get back to this as soon as possible.

[Graknorke]

Well there's prophecies that aren't true.
Off a quick search a couple of glaring examples are Ezekiel 28: 24 and Ezekiel 26:7-14

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

There isn't much proving god does not exist
but there isn't much that he does either

I have the faith I have because of a combination of; upbringing, culture, and I think it fits my opinions better than other religions. Also the fact that I don't believe that this world could exist without a creator.

[TD1]

Mackie's inconsistent triad. Various contradictions in the bible. The polar shift from "Kill them all" God to "Love them" God. The fact that religion seems to be evolving as time goes on. That different religions have different Gods, that then different denominations have different variations of those Gods, and then each individual has a different interpretation thereof.

I could equally ask you to give me proof Dumbledore doesn't exist, though.

[Graknorke]

Let's not do... this thing again. Religion is based on faith, not reason. So having no reason isn't going to dissuade anyone.

The only way you're going to get anywhere (which I still don't recommend because it's stupid to even try) would be to find enough internal inconsistencies that the belief system is no longer seen as trustworthy.

[MonkeyHead]

Yeah, when someone holds a belief to be true despite the lack of evidence supporting said belief, or on occasion in spite of contradictory evidence, no amount of pointing it out will make any difference. Cognitive conflict is not generally caused by external pressure, and instead comes about through critical reflection on ones own ideals, if you can be honest enough to accept you could be wrong about something.

[TD1]

Yeah, when someone holds a belief to be true despite the lack of evidence supporting said belief, or on occasion in spite of contradictory evidence, no amount of pointing it out will make any difference. Cognitive conflict is not generally caused by external pressure, and instead comes about through critical reflection on ones own ideals, if you can be honest enough to accept you could be wrong about something.

That's all well and good (and true), but I was just trying to show that not believing in God isn't a belief. Admittedly, I may have gotten slightly sidetracked.

[MonkeyHead]

Anyone rational can see that rejecting gods is not a belief - otherwise you end up having to defend how not playing golf is a sport.

[Lord Shonus]

I think that Arx was trying to make a distinction between the "I don't believe there is a god because I don't have enough evidence to support it" and "I believe that there is no possibility of a god existing, despite there being no more evidence to disprove one than there is to support one" schools of atheism. While the former is merely skepticism, calling the latter a position based on faith isn't too outrageous.

[MonkeyHead]

Well, yes, but there is such a wide gap between the agnostic atheist approach of rejecting gods (one which I subscribe to and find very common in my circle) and the gnostic athiest approach of declaring knowledge of no gods (which I have only come across in a small number of raving nutters, and in examples pushed by strong faith holding theists) that they could easily be seen to be 2 totally different schools of thought, and should easily be seen as such by even the most die hard theists.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Do keep in mind this is a christian beliefs discussion not an atheist discussion