# What atheists think, and why (in re: GEEPERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 27, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150 "2012-04-27T16:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/221 "2012-04-30T19:37:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What is it with women? You say you want a taller man, then when he’s 90 feet tall, you’re still not happy! > Several other Christians have posted. If memory serves, they said you’re totally wrong in your scientific arguments and they didn’t find your attitude very constructive. Want me to find the posts? Oh you mean the Christians that totally agree with atheism and believe the Bible is fiction, I’m always always always wrong, and Jesus Christ never existed? Oh yea, those Christians. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/222 "2012-04-30T19:38:20Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Or perhaps you can offer a valid explanation how a man can stay dead for nearly 90 minutes and come back to life, huh? Well, damn, the first 50 times you used a God of the Gaps fallacy it wasn’t persuasive. But time 51? Whoa boy! Of course, you are correct. People coming back to life proves that Ahura Mazda is the one true God and Christians are all following the trickery of Ahrimen. Thank you for proving, beyond a doubt, the veracity of Zoroastrianism. (Is any of this starting to sink in yet, or are you still being horribly persecuted in your mind?) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/223 "2012-04-30T19:43:07Z")
**GEEPERS** , I notice you much prefer registering your offense at everything to making an argument about anything. I’ll ask again: what claims do you think atheists should agree with you about? And what happened to all that stuff about how we decide between the miraculous claims of Christianity, the miraculous claims of Islam, the miraculous claims of Buddhism, and the claims of all the other religions? > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Oh you mean the Christians that totally agree with atheism and believe the Bible is fiction, I’m always always always wrong, and Jesus Christ never existed? Oh yea, those Christians. Launching strawman arguments against Christians and atheists at the same time! Not bad. But yes, Christians and religious believers have posted in this thread. The reason they are not rallying to your defense is that they don’t want to be associated with your errors in logic and science and Biblical scholarship, not to mention your attitude, which I’m tempted to call un-Christian. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/224 "2012-04-30T19:45:51Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > what happened to all that stuff about how we decide between the miraculous claims of Christianity, the miraculous claims of Islam, the miraculous claims of Buddhism, and the claims of all the other religions? He claimed that it was somehow a trap to try to get him to elaborate on an objective, constant set of criteria which could be used to test any religious claims. Whether or not he rejected that attempt directly because he realized that the same criteria would be no kinder to Christianity than Islam is, of course, up to the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/225 "2012-04-30T19:46:35Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > I never claimed it is a sham or totally worthless. I’m claming that complete faith in the knowledge of man really doesn’t offer much hope. Most treatments carry a degree of risk so it’s really just a gamble. They can’t even guarantee a patient that he will be 100% back to normal after a broken bone. You could have limited mobility or develop chronic pain in the joints. And if the treatment fails, the patient has absolutely no hope from an atheist doctor. > > I rather be treated by a Christian doctor who prays for wisdom and a steady hand in surgery! Christianity had over 1,000 years of unchallenged dominance in Europe. If this faith healing was so effective, you’d think it might have done some good. But life expectancy only started increasing with the advent of scientific medicine. The human body is complex and diverse. Medicine never claims 100% cure rates. Does faith healing? Anyhow, I’m waiting for a faith healer to restore an amputated arm or leg. Then we’d have something, wouldn’t we? Odd how faith doesn’t produce any real miracles. I don’t care what religion my doctor is, but I sure would rather him spend his time studying the literature than praying. I do know one religion-based medical term. When my wife was working for a drug company, she got physician reports, some of which involved the death of the patient. A fair number of these listed, for cause of death, “GOK”. This stands for “God Only Knows.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/226 "2012-04-30T19:47:39Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Appearing now at a drive-in near you - “Attack of the 60 Foot Eve!” > > As for the problems if Eve were small - didn’t you sing “Ride a cock horse to Banbury Crpss” when you were young? Or maybe you knew the version about Bambury Cross. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/227 "2012-04-30T19:49:31Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > Well, damn, the first 50 times you used a God of the Gaps fallacy it wasn’t persuasive. But time 51? Whoa boy! > Of course, you are correct. People coming back to life proves that Ahura Mazda is the one true God and Christians are all following the trickery of Ahrimen. Thank you for proving, beyond a doubt, the veracity of Zoroastrianism. > > (Is any of this starting to sink in yet, or are you still being horribly persecuted in your mind?) Wow, what a brilliant copout. I don’t appreciate your mockery, sir or your starch refusal to even look at the evidence. Go fester in your own decayed thinking. I have nothing more to discuss with you. You simply don’t want to believe. Thank you for upholding my extremely low opinion of atheists. Smoke and mirrors, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/228 "2012-04-30T19:51:23Z")
Geepers, how do you know your experience was not trickery from Ahiriman? ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/229 "2012-04-30T19:55:11Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Wow, what a brilliant copout. Hint: showing (again) your support rests on entirely fallacious grounds is not a ‘copout’. I’m beginning to think you don’t grok what that word means. As for the absurdity that I “refuse to even look at the evidence”, aside from the obvious psychological projection, is the fact that I’ve looked at your ‘evidence’ and pointed out that even if we assume it implies a supernatural realm, that it still doesn’t tell us why your God and not someone else’s is the supernatural entity we should put full faith and credit into. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > I have nothing more to discuss with you. You rather obviously haven’t been discussing anything since you got here. Discussion involves give and take and at least an open desire to listen to one’s conversation partner. You came here to Witness, not to discuss anything. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Thank you for upholding my extremely low opinion of atheists. Bigoted views are something to be proud of, now? Don’t worry, I still judge Christians as individuals and don’t hold them responsible for your behavior. ---
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/230 "2012-04-30T19:57:14Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > **GEEPERS** , I notice you much prefer registering your offense at everything to making an argument about anything. I’ll ask again: what claims do you think atheists should agree with you about? And what happened to all that stuff about how we decide between the miraculous claims of Christianity, the miraculous claims of Islam, the miraculous claims of Buddhism, and the claims of all the other religions? > Launching strawman arguments against Christians and atheists at the same time! Not bad. But yes, Christians and religious believers have posted in this thread. The reason they are not rallying to your defense is that they don’t want to be associated with your errors in logic and science and Biblical scholarship, not to mention your attitude, which I’m tempted to call un-Christian. Hey you are started this thread to ( lol) educate me and look what it has become. Another attack on GEEPERS. GEEPERS, who can NEVER BE RIGHT about anything!!! Yes, cmon Christians, pick up a stone, and join in the fun! I’m done playing and being fodder for your own ignorant rants. Nothing you have said as changed my subterrean opinion of atheists as arrogant, cold hearted, rude, and inhabiting a stubborn refusal to even examine evidence in favor of Christianity. But thank you for proving the Bible - Matthew 10:22 ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/231 "2012-04-30T20:00:18Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > GEEPERS, who can NEVER BE RIGHT about anything!!! Hey, you’re allowed to be right whenever you care to start. You just haven’t taken advantage of the option yet. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/232 "2012-04-30T20:02:25Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > I’m done playing and being fodder for your own ignorant rants. Nothing you have said as changed my subterrean opinion of atheists as arrogant, cold hearted, rude, and inhabiting a stubborn refusal to even examine evidence in favor of Christianity. Just FYI, many of us atheists were raised as Christians, and held genuine Christian beliefs before becoming atheists. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/233 "2012-04-30T20:02:33Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Hey you are started this thread to ( lol) educate me and look what it has become. Another attack on GEEPERS. GEEPERS, who can NEVER BE RIGHT about anything!!! Yes, cmon Christians, pick up a stone, and join in the fun! > I’m done playing and being fodder for your own ignorant rants. Nothing you have said as changed my subterrean opinion of atheists as arrogant, cold hearted, rude, and inhabiting a stubborn refusal to even examine evidence in favor of Christianity. > > But thank you for proving the Bible - Matthew 10:22 Quite the persecution complex you have. _Matthew 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved._ Questioning your belief is **not** the same thing as hating you. Christians who have been tortured, killed, and _actually_ hated would resent your comparison. ---
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/234 "2012-04-30T20:08:01Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > Hey, you’re allowed to be right whenever you care to start. > You just haven’t taken advantage of the option yet. Ok, you can now go back to sticking your head in the sand. I’m sorry if I rattled your delusions with you know, actual evidence. The fact that atheists like you even refuse to admit what it would take to prove God’s existance shows that I am quite right. In a nutshell atheism = stupidity ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/235 "2012-04-30T20:09:11Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Just FYI, many of us atheists were raised as Christians, and held genuine Christian beliefs before becoming atheists. (and other faiths too, of course) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/236 "2012-04-30T20:10:56Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > GEEPERS, who can NEVER BE RIGHT about anything!!! Yes, cmon Christians, pick up a stone, and join in the fun! > I’m done playing and being fodder for your own ignorant rants. Nothing you have said as changed my subterrean opinion of atheists as arrogant, cold hearted, rude, and inhabiting a stubborn refusal to even examine evidence in favor of Christianity. _What evidence?_ You won’t post any. Well, other than radios turning and off. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/237 "2012-04-30T20:12:17Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > I’m sorry if I rattled your delusions with you know, actual evidence. You go on believing that. Of course, you admitted that you really only have personal evidence which is the same as for every single other competing religion on the globe. That was a trap to get you to actually put forward a valid epistemological analysis, naturally. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > The fact that atheists like you even refuse to admit what it would take to prove God’s existance shows that I am quite right. I know that you don’t understand at all, but this is by far the weakest of your God of the Gaps fallacies. Further, you’re not being… accurate. I’ve pointed out the hurdles inherent in proving any ‘supernatural’ realm let alone any deities and gave one example of a way that a supernatural being could begin to make its word known to humanity. You, on the other hand, immediately upon realizing that your objections to other religions can be applied by outsiders to your own religion, tried to change the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/238 "2012-04-30T20:44:02Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Another attack on GEEPERS. GEEPERS, who can NEVER BE RIGHT about anything!!! Yes, cmon Christians, pick up a stone, and join in the fun! I hope this is the apex of this melodrama. They think you’re wrong in an argument - and you are wrong, without exception - they’re not stoning you to death. I realize the thread mentioned you by name (I wanted you to read it and respond), but very little of this is about you specifically. I think every single mistake you’ve made here has been made by other posters in the past, and they’ve received the same treatment. Nobody’s doing this because they want to persecute **GEEPERS** the Christian. They’re doing it because more or less everything you’ve said about atheism, any kind of science, and even the Bible have been incorrect. That’s not a personal attack no matter how much you dislike it. It’s factual. There’s been an actual effort to inform you here, and not only have you ignored it and attacked everybody else’s honesty, you’ve refused to make any kind of complete argument while complaining that everybody else is mean and dishing out plenty of self-pity. That’s the explanation for the response you’re getting. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/239 "2012-04-30T21:43:34Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Do you personally verify every single scientific finding to prove that it is true? If not, then you are practicing “faith” in science. Nonsense. Science has a long history of being right (and if it isn’t right of correcting itself), just as religion has a long history of being wrong. We are communicating right now on a system devised using scientific knowledge after all. It’s not faith to trust something that has proven itself. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > [QUOTE=Czarcasm] > Here’s another attempt to stay on topic: GEEPERS, what do you have to say about all the posters that claimed they weren’t angry at God because there was no God to be angry with in the first place? Do you think they were sincere? No I don’t. The fact that atheists are extremely passionate and relentless in attacking Christianity and the Bible suggests otherwise. [/QUOTE] What it suggests is that atheists have spent a lifetime having religion shoved in their face and often forced upon them; and on a mostly American & European board, it has mostly been Christians who have done it. Atheism is reactive; it only exists as a defined term in the first place because of all the religious people who claim their pet delusions are true and try to force everyone else to go along with their fantasy; people don’t believe in goblins & fairys don’t talk about agoblinism or afairyism. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Wow, so scientists can make mistakes, and therefore, atheists who practically worship the scientists as gods can actually be wrong? Of course scientists can be wrong; they normally start out wrong after all. But they correct their mistakes as the evidence comes in; it’s called scientific progress. As opposed to religion, which is always wrong and refuses to correct its mistakes - just as you are doing right now. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Wow, what an insult to these men and women who have worked hard to become real doctors. It’s so easy to just dismiss them as quacks without even knowing a durn thing about them, huh? I know that they are faith healers or believe in faith healing, which makes them either frauds or deluded. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Make it easy for me, what would convince you that a medical miracle has taken place? Be honest. For starters, large amounts of scientific evidence that someone was repaired in a way that biology and modern medicine can’t duplicate, like regrowing a limb. And it would have to be evidence that doesn’t mysteriously vanish whenever a skeptic shows up. And it would have to be gone over by experts in fraud as well. Note that such a “miracle” _still_ wouldn’t be evidence of your logically impossible bronze age sky god. There are a near infinite number of alternative explanations, most of which are more plausible. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > So here we don’t have just a made up story. You have a story with the actual name of the patient and EKG tests and photos to back it up. Or perhaps you can offer a valid explanation how a man can stay dead for nearly 90 minutes and come back to life, huh? A poor definition of the word “dead”, that’s how. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/240 "2012-04-30T21:46:03Z")
Hell. I bet that any random half dozen atheists/agnostics who’ve posted in this thread could produce far better Devil’s Advocate versions of apologia for any random half dozen religions than GEEPER’s done. Hell, take a random dozen of us and have us argue everything from Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism to Hinduism and on to Scientology, and we’d still produce better arguments. \*Because at least we’d be producing actual arguments and not simply readying a good leap to get back up on the cross after we change the subject to something new. \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150.md?page=13)