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 Some atheists may ask questions on the Internet that they wouldn't have asked in church.
August 1st, 2012
12:03 PM ET
'Where was God in Aurora?' comments show Internet as church for atheistsBy Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor (CNN) - The Internet has become the de facto global church for atheists, agnostics and other doubters of God, who of course don’t have bricks-and-mortar churches in which to congregate. We see this phenomenon in motion every day on the CNN Belief Blog, where atheists/agnostics/humanists are among the most zealous commenters. Recent string of posts around the question of “Where was God in Aurora?” (such as this and this) drew especially large waves of comments that show atheists are using the Internet to commune with one another and to confront religious believers in ways that they don’t usually do in church. Atheists and other secularists have offline organizations that stage in-person meetings - the Secular Student Alliance has seen its number of campus chapters quadruple in the last five years, to 368 - but the Internet has probably played a bigger role in the rise of the so-called New Atheism. The movement’s adherents evangelize their godlessness, just as many religious folks evangelize their God, often taking to the Belief Blog to do so. “A lot of millennials who are coming of age have found that the Internet is a fantastic place to talk about their doubt,” says Jesse Galef, communications director for the Secular Student Alliance. “Before the Internet, there was no place for young people to do that. The only place to go was really church, and that wasn’t always a welcoming place. “But they can go online and discuss these ideas without being judged by friends and families,” Galef says. For closeted atheists, the Internet’s anonymity is a big draw. A coalition of national atheist groups recently launched a program to transition doubting clergy to lives of open atheism by first having ministers come out anonymously in a closed online community. Plenty of other atheists, though, are using the Internet to connect with real, named people through Facebook and other online social networks. “It’s the ability to access a larger community, particularly for people growing up in religiously conservative areas,” Galef says. “There is nobody they can point to to discuss their atheism or their doubts about the Bible or their morality, and the Internet provides that.” On Sunday, a guest piece from a Colorado pastor argued that it’s possible to reconcile the idea of a sovereign God with the existence of evil and tragedy. The post has drawn 4,239 comments as of Wednesday morning, largely from atheists. One of those comments - a letter from God penned by an atheist commenter named Colin - caught fire online. Here’s how his letter opens:
The letter has been posted on reddit, where it attracted another 1,000-plus comments. (Warning: The reddit comments includes foul language.) The vast majority of comments come from sympathetic atheists and other secularists (the discussion is reddit's atheism thread), a striking example of such folks doing church without God online. Many of those comments are deeply personal, confessional and poignant. Here are five of the best ones. Some respond to Colin’s letter from God, others to the Colorado pastor who wrote for the Belief Blog last weekend.
That comment, which has been truncated above, provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support on reddit, including this comment:
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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God gives people free will. That is why they murder each other.
Atheism is not a religion. Atheists don't need a place to "congregate"....there is no need for that. Atheism is simply a belief, not a place to worship nothing!
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A chilling reminder
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It's obvious to me reading these posts and living the many years I have that there are no answers, just opinions. I have found in my life a rather curious note that I can be weak minded in these matters. But as I travel through life I find evidence time and time again that the most powerful and transitional force in the universe is Love. Not only Love, but God's Love. I'm not here to convince anyone that my beliefs are right nor to prove anything to you. All I ask is that you watch a man/woman change on the outside (money, status, power, clothes, technology) and soon he will be the same. But, if you see a man/woman change on the inside the outward expression is undeniable. Whether the Bible is a big lie that sucks me in to brainwash or not I can not deny the permanent and deep change I have witnessed in people that have personally experienced the love of God.
I find that people strike out with a passion at what they have become disolutioned with (Life, Family members, friends, government, religion) because they are searching for something to tell them that it is going to be ok. That the dissappointment they feel will somehow magically go away. Over my years though I realize that we don't lose faith in God because there is no God. We lose faith because we can not find Him. We can not see His wonder and patience. Because God loves us enough to give us free will. And we use that free will to destroy and not to love. He is not the rescuer. He is not here to stop the harm. But he is here to stop the pain inside. All we have to do is invite Him into our hearts. Welcome the contentment and peace that you feel within. Embrace it.
It is quite interesting that while most the world believes in some higher form on the Internet the majority of people who make up comments on religious discussions or any discussion that requires spirituality, are atheist. Who rather than understand and act polite berate and insist everyone else is a fool for they have science at their hand. We don't know all. Science doesn't know all. At one point Newtonian physics was going to be the way we found answers to everything. Then something happened, a guy named quantum came buy who could solve things on a smaller scale that Newtonian couldn't dream of and now we are to believe quantum shall be how we find all our answers. Whose to say there won't be another revolution. Bet you those Newtonian folks didn't expect quantum.
Science self-corrects. Religion buckles down and cries like a spoiled whiny little bitch who got the wrong car for her sweet 16. I'll take the self correcting thing thanks.
@Mr. Leary,
please tell me that this: "a guy named quantum came buy" is an attempt at lighthearted humor.
But the essence of you post is accurate. Unlike religion, science doesn't know all. When a better idea comes along we adopt it.
If religion is the immutable 'truth' why is slavery considered 'wrong' by Christians today? The bible still thinks it is A-OK.
Believers are the first to belittle a non-believer! No one will ever be able to "know all" for our brains aren't that for advanced yet. We are actually quite dumb, while intelligent! I say that because we have yet to discover a more intelligent being then the human being. So, until we are capable to using our brains to its entirety, we will never know everything. Get your head out of your butt! Religion cannot prove everything and only forces people to trust there is a mystical being that control all. Too far fetched for me to believe!
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Jesus describes the cursed state of humanity thus:
"It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!"
Put simply, he's telling you and me "Take the high road, don't be that guy"
More specifically, and terrifyingly, Jesus says concerning people who die in disasters
"except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish"
Or put simply, "It will be absolute horror and humiliation when you die, unless you turn and follow me to my cross and my resurrection"
Oh God! I know that atheists make sense. But it's hard to take religion out of you head after many years of believing non sense. It's not an easy task! We have been brainwashed for decades.
Commit to open the minds of your children and grandchildren...that's a good start.
To the Doubtful among me,
If God did not spare His own Son from the Cross, why would he spare us from evil in a sinful, fallen world? God is the guarantor of your soul; He said nothing of protecting your earthly body from suffering. In His Righteous Mercy, He has provided the way out of a World where such evil happens. All of our bodies will perish because we have sinned. You have two simple options: Take HIm at His word that Sin is destructive and accept His maganimous offer to spare you from the penalty of the very Sin that murdered His Son OR be content with this sad, temporary existence and die not once, but twice.
God will deliver my soul. Will He deliver you?
@freedomm
You said, "God will deliver my soul. Will He deliver you?"
Does your imaginary friend work at FedEx, or UPS?
If it's USPS, the item may be lost or arrive late.
@domm: "spare his own son from the cross"
ummmm sure, logic failure.
1) god/jesus/holy spirit are the same person correct? the "holy" trinity, then jesus was truly god in physical form, thus he/it counld not die to begin with, proven by the fact "he/it resureccted three days later according to your scripture. so if jesus is god and can't die no sacrifice could have been made. so the "original" sin was never "paid" for by his loss of life. a sacrifice is when you gve up something to give something to another, jesus didn't give up his immortality because he didn't stay dead. so that brings us to the truth; 1) god never intended to forgive humans and enjoys playing with our meager lives as the greek and roman gods enjoyed the same; or 2) there is no god thus no original sin, thus your bible isn't worth the cheap paper it's written on because it is all a lie to mentally control the population of a certain era.
@ freedom
Christians, as I understand it, believe that Jesus “freely” gave His life (or at least, the physical body that He occupied at the time) to forgive the sins of world – past, present, and future. So it wasn’t necessary for God to spare His Son from the cross.
This (as the story is told) appears then to have been the ultimate act of sacrifice (the sacrificial Lamb), [as Jesus did suffer (sweated blood, felt the nails through His wrists/feet, and as I recall, even asked the Father if there was “another way.”] demonstrating complete obedience to the Father for our salvation. Of course, all faith based. The offer, at least, was made to either believe or disbelieve.