As an atheist, I just have to reply to this.
"People who exert mental energy trying to disprove the validity of God's word do so because they have freely chosen not to believe in Him"
First of all, I never "chose" to stop believing in god. I grew up in a Christian home, I was at church every time the doors were open, I went to a Christian school where the Bible was taught in some way through every subject (even our science classes tied the Bible in). I firmly believed that Christianity was the right path, the only real path... and even on the occasion I doubted, I was always able to talk myself out of that doubt. I never imagined that one day I would no longer believe, and the thought that other people weren't Christians made me sad and scared for them. To put it simply, I was a devout Christian and every one in my life knew it and would never question it. I didn't "fake it" like some people do, I didn't just trust what I was told - I believed it completely and honestly... just like you probably do now.
But somewhere along the line, I became aware of problems within Christianity. Maybe it started when I realized that my history books at my Christian school were full of lies: Christopher Columbus, for example, was not a heroic Christian man, but a man guilty of genocide. This troubled me - not because I had to relearn what I had been taught, but because one of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not lie". If such smart and serious Christians like my teachers and the people who wrote my history books were lying...why?
Or maybe it started when my science teacher had us have a debate about evolution and creationism. She had half the class research creationism and half the class research evolution...and then we'd come back to class the next day and argue our points. The goal was to show us how important it was for us to really know our stuff when it came to creationism and the Bible. Instead, it left me angry and confused. How was it possible that a group of students who had only just researched evolution for a few hours ever in their lives could out-argue a group of students who knew the Bible backwards and forwards and had been taught basically all there was to know about creationism their entire lives? I didn't believe in evolution then, but I was frustrated.
Eventually, it was a lot of things that made me reconsider my beliefs. My bisexual roommate in college who explained how she had known she liked girls since before she could remember. My global history class, which taught me how many dumb things happened because of Christianity, and how many times Christians had been very, very wrong throughout history. My anthropology teacher who taught me all about evolution and had me watching debates about it (I realized how silly the creationists sounded next to the mountain of evidence that supports evolution).
And eventually... it just stopped making sense. I thought and struggled with it for so long. If god is loving and good, then why do bad things happen to us? If god is all powerful, why isn't he able to let sinful people into heaven? If one of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not kill", then why is the Bible full of instances where god murders tons of people? Why isn't their concrete evidence to support things like the Exodus? Why do so many religions that LONG pre-date Christianity have figures who are so similar to Jesus? If Christianity is correct, doesn't that mean that Hitler would go to heaven if he believed the right thing? It was just these kind of questions all the time, and the answers I found after a lot of studying led me to the realization that Christianity didn't make sense, was cruel, and was not true at all. It wasn't immediate - I didn't immediately say "okay, I'm an atheist". I went back and forth - sometimes I felt like I was an atheist, other times I wanted to go to church. But finally, I figured myself and my beliefs out - and I am an atheist.
Second, you say that atheists have chosen not to believe. Okay, let me ask you this: when did you choose not to belief in bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster? In ghosts, in vampires, in zombies, in werewolves? You didn't. If you believe in those things, it is because you have either had some kind of experience yourself that convinced you monsters were real, or you heard about experiences other people had and that was enough for you to believe. You didn't just believe without some kind of evidence. And likewise, if you don't believe in those things, you have probably still heard all the people who say they saw bigfoot or that their house is haunted. And you don't believe them. You didn't choose whether or not you believe them, though. You heard their story and automatically said "yes" or "no". You knew, right away, how you felt about what they were saying. If they said "I saw bigfoot", you probably reasoned out all the things that could have happened instead: you know that there are bears that can stand on two legs and thus look like a bigfoot. You know that it's unlikely for a creature that large to go unnoticed. And so on and so forth. And you are probably left with one big question for the people who do believe in monsters by the end: if these things are real, where's the evidence? Because even though there are sightings and foot prints...there isn't anything concrete. It's all up for debate. And you never chose to believe or not believe...you just DID, based on what you already knew about the world.
It's the same thing. I never chose to believe in Jesus or not to believe. I can't sit here now and say "Okay, I'm choosing to believe", because no matter how often I talk about god and the Bible, no matter how often I read the Bible, go to church, et cetera... I will not believe that Christianity has it right. I can't make myself believe any more than you can make me believe. It's not a choice.
"They would rather rely on their own limited intelligence or are under the influence of "brilliant" secular mentors who have convinced them that God either doesn't exist or that He doesn't meet their standard of "goodness" if He does exist."
So you're saying that I shouldn't rely on scientists? You're saying that when I think about, say, how the world came into existence, I should not listen to the people who have spent their entire lives studying that very thing, who have done extensive research? I would understand that if none of their studies were backed up. If they were just writing papers based on what they felt or what they wanted to believe...then, yeah, I would give you this point. But it's not like that. They have evidence. A mountain of evidence when it comes to evolution. They have fossils on top of fossils. There are actually parts of our bodies now that serve literally NO purpose now, but millions of years ago served a big purpose - and that feature just never went away. Scientists have proof of this. We know that it is definitely true. In all the research and evidence found that relates to evolution, not a SINGLE PIECE of it contradicts the theory of evolution. NOT A SINGLE PIECE. That's why I trust scientists, because they have to back up their work with evidence, facts, and tests. And they DO.
And while we're on this subject, what makes you any different? Aren't you relying on a book written thousands of years ago by people with no education, who were simple and normal people, who were sometimes not even the ones who witnessed the described events? What makes that more reliable than my science books? At least if scientists are wrong, they tried to back it up with real and concrete evidence.
As for the "goodness" thing: if god is perfect, how are we flawed? If god was perfect, he couldn't create anything that wasn't perfect, right? So how are we flawed? If god is all powerful, why doesn't he just say "yeah you guys sinned, but I love you so I will let you in to heaven"? That would be real grace. But apparently he can't do that because he can't accept sin? So is it that he can't or won't? If he can't, he isn't all powerful. If he won't, he isn't very loving. I guess my thing is - if the Christian god was real and showed himself to the world in a really obvious, "Left Behind" type of way...I wouldn't deny his existence, but I would die before I would worship him.
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