# 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:** 28
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/541 "2012-05-23T15:49:22Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Do you question everything your friends tell you as a potential lie? Again, I provided a cite. Just because it didn’t hold up to your asinine measure stick of acceptable evidence does not mean I never provided a cite. You don’t seem to get it. When someone forwards you an urban legend email, do you automatically accept it as genuine? If someone had an experience that was explicable through the psychological phenomenon of sleep paralysis, yet they believed they were abducted by aliens, which of the two explanations would you believe? Your ‘cites’ are dubious. Why this is so has been pointed out (and ignored) to you. Further, IIRC, you simply googled it and then picked the first miraculous claims you found - there was no indepth research done on your part. Yet you expect us to simply believe it was legit? > [@GEEPERS](#): > > The fact is that atheists smugly have narrowed the parameters so tightly that it is simply impossible to prove anything supporting Christianity. If you applied those same parameters to anything else, it could be called into question. Funny how atheist rarely apply such standards to science which often can be wrong. This, of course, is nonsense. You are simply poisoning the well. I noted a decided lack of examples here. Just vague assertions. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > Let’s see, cell phones don’t call brain cancer according to science. Oh wait, it does cause brain cancer according to science. Next year, they say the opposite. Israel becoming the geopolitical center of the world in the last days just as the Bible predicted? Now that’s a solid fact I can feel confident about. No one is saying that science produces epistemically certain results. You seem unable to comprehend this. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/542 "2012-05-23T15:49:38Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Do you question everything your friends tell you as a potential lie? No, sometimes they are just misinformed. > [@](#): > > Again, I provided a cite. Just because it didn’t hold up to your asinine measure stick of acceptable evidence does not mean I never provided a cite. Yeah, it does mean you didn’t provide a cite. All cites are not equivalent. > [@](#): > > The fact is that atheists smugly have narrowed the parameters so tightly that it is simply impossible to prove anything supporting Christianity. If you applied those same parameters to anything else, it could be called into question. Funny how atheist rarely apply such standards to science which often can be wrong. Science is frequently wrong. It is designed to discover when it is wrong. _ **Then the science changes** _. That is why it is superior to religion, which cannot change without scaring the believers. > [@](#): > > Israel becoming the geopolitical center of the world in the last days just as the Bible predicted? Now that’s a solid fact I can feel confident about. Israel is not the geopolitical center of the world, no matter how often you repeat it. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/543 "2012-05-23T15:50:59Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Nope, I proved proof with documentation of an event that defied the laws of science. The onus is on you to scientifically explain how someone can be raised from the dead. I have no idea what you are referring to - however, people are ‘raised from the dead’ all the time, thanks to medical science. What’s supernatural about that? > [@GEEPERS](#): > > The baseball does not move by itself. It requires an energy source to go horizontal. > Of course, you point out how easy it is for atheists to dismiss evidence. " I wasn’t there, I didn’t see it" = it didn’t happen. Even if it was video taped which you can easily find on youtube, you would claim it was faked. > > God help us if our children are being taught by arrogant atheists who hate Christians. Why do you hate atheists so much? Every comment you make you disparage them. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/544 "2012-05-23T16:12:18Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > That is possibly true. > > I have never encountered one. I have particularly never encountered one who would phrase the idea in the manner you have. > > I strongly suspect that you could not name a “learned theist” who expressed the opinion that the named persons are definitely going to hell–barring, of course, your grabbing someone like Swaggart or Robertson and holding him up as your idea of a “learned theist.” Isn’t that kind of a no-true-Scotsman thing though? Robertson and Swaggart are highly trained in their fields. When each side has no evidence, by what measure can you claim that some experts don’t count? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/545 "2012-05-23T16:14:30Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Do you question everything your friends tell you as a potential lie? I don’t expect them to lie often, but I certainly consider the possibility that they can be mistaken. Everybody makes mistakes and sometimes they say things that are incorrect - nevermind if they told me they saw something that was either impossible or miraculous. Is it actually easier for you to accept that your friends saw something supernatural than to accept that they might just be wrong about what they saw? > [@](#): > > Let’s see, cell phones don’t call brain cancer according to science. Oh wait, it does cause brain cancer according to science. Mainstream science has been very consistent on this point, actually: there’s no link between cell phones and brain cancer. Crazy people or people with an agenda have been known to say otherwise and they can print things and call them scientific studies, but I’ve never seen serious reason to think there’s a link there. But the bottom line is that when you look at scientific evidence you have to think critically, look for flaws in theories and studies, and consider the possibility that further research might lead to different conclusions. There is no received truth in science, so the way you are attempting to impeach science itself does not work. Ironically it works pretty well against religion, which is why apologetics exists. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/546 "2012-05-23T16:18:44Z")
> [@Meatros](#): > > Why do you hate atheists so much? Every comment you make you disparage them. I think we need to be clear, despite **Marley** ’s great thread, that **GEEPERS** objects to empiricism and the scientific method. Atheists are simply a convenient group he can rail against. Hence his dismissal of a number of Christians that have posted who he discounts as false believers. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/547 "2012-05-23T16:21:24Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Do you question everything your friends tell you as a potential lie? They might simply be mistaken. I don’t even trust my own recollection of some events. It’s been proven that people aren’t reliable witnesses. ---
**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:** [May 23, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/548 "2012-05-23T16:24:03Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Nope, I proved proof with documentation of an event that defied the laws of science. No, you didn’t. You posted something with more holes in it than a wheel of Jarlsberg. Even if you hadn’t, and I couldn’t explain it, it would not be required that I “scientifically explain how someone can be raised from the dead.” I could quite easily say “If it actually happened, I’m not sure how.” And that would _again see you pulling out your God of the Gaps / Bifurcation Fallacy_. Yet again, as you keep ignoring, even if we could prove that our understanding of the world around us is wrong, that would not at all show that your specific concept of God was the one and only correct one. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > The baseball does not move by itself. It requires an energy source to go horizontal. You mean, like the earthquakes, ground settling, _potential gravitational energy imparted to all resting objects above ground level_, and so on? To say nothing of the fact that we have an unverified, unobserved event that’s being recounted second hand. And yet again, as you keep ignoring as if you hope that the flaws in your argument will vanish if you just pretend you can’t read them, even if we accept that there was something ‘supernatural’ about the objects’ motion, you still have provided zero evidence for us assuming that it was your God that allowed it and not Loki, or Coyote, or a Tulpa, or… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/549 "2012-05-23T16:24:21Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > I think we need to be clear, despite **Marley** ’s great thread, that **GEEPERS** objects to empiricism and the scientific method. I said someplace a few pages ago that **GEEPERS** regards everybody who isn’t a Biblical literalist as an atheist. Maybe I should’ve started a thread for non-literalists including atheists and also believers. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/550 "2012-05-23T16:39:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I said someplace a few pages ago that **GEEPERS** regards everybody who isn’t a Biblical literalist as an atheist. Maybe I should’ve started a thread for non-literalists including atheists and also believers. I think a lot of fundies think that only their brand is true and everyone else is betrayed by demons or such. I don’t think it’s a stretch for such a person to assume that say, Catholics and atheists are the same animal (demonically confused people) with different spots. ---
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/551 "2012-05-23T16:41:54Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > No, you didn’t. You posted something with more holes in it than a wheel of Jarlsberg. Even if you hadn’t, and I couldn’t explain it, it would not be required that I “scientifically explain how someone can be raised from the dead.” I could quite easily say “If it actually happened, I’m not sure how.” And that would _again see you pulling out your God of the Gaps / Bifurcation Fallacy_. > Yet again, as you keep ignoring, even if we could prove that our understanding of the world around us is wrong, that would not at all show that your specific concept of God was the one and only correct one. > > You mean, like the earthquakes, ground settling, _potential gravitational energy imparted to all resting objects above ground level_, and so on? To say nothing of the fact that we have an unverified, unobserved event that’s being recounted second hand. > > And yet again, as you keep ignoring as if you hope that the flaws in your argument will vanish if you just pretend you can’t read them, even if we accept that there was something ‘supernatural’ about the objects’ motion, you still have provided zero evidence for us assuming that it was your God that allowed it and not Loki, or Coyote, or a Tulpa, or… Hey, just for fun, can you be honest just one time? Let down the shields, and answer this question honestly. If my arguments are so flawed and I’m so intellectually inferior (snicker) to you, why do you bother responding? Seriously, haven’t I demonstrated that you will never convince me that my beliefs are a fairy tale? You are wasting your time by responding to me. You know what I think? I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians which certainly explains the feeding frenzy. I make one comment, and I’m bombarded with replies. Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! I’m sure by the time I hit the submit button, there will five more comments begging me to respond. lol ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/552 "2012-05-23T16:45:34Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Hey, just for fun, can you be honest just one time? Let down the shields, and answer this question honestly. I have tried to avoid moderating this thread at all, but enough is enough. **Do not accuse other posters of dishonesty.** Period, no exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/553 "2012-05-23T16:50:41Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > You know what I think? I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians which certainly explains the feeding frenzy. I make one comment, and I’m bombarded with replies. Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! I’m active on a few Christian forums and I used to be active on a few ‘other’ forums (including one devoted to Vampires and another to UFO’s). I’m interested in discussion of these sorts of ideas, not ripping down Christians. You have made several dubious claims and several arrogant and insulting assertions. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > I’m sure by the time I hit the submit button, there will five more comments begging me to respond. lol No one is “begging” you to do anything. This is a discussion board. You have weird views that are being challenged. You continually stick your toe into the discussion and insult those who disagree with you. What sort of a discussion board were you expecting? One where absurd claims are met with nothing at all? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/554 "2012-05-23T16:52:35Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Hey, just for fun, can you be honest just one time? Let down the shields, and answer this question honestly. If my arguments are so flawed and I’m so intellectually inferior (snicker) to you, why do you bother responding? Seriously, haven’t I demonstrated that you will never convince me that my beliefs are a fairy tale? You are wasting your time by responding to me. > > You know what I think? I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians which certainly explains the feeding frenzy. I make one comment, and I’m bombarded with replies. Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! It’s not about you. It’s about other people on the fence who might read this. As far as “bringing it to a Christian oriented forum”, anyone who tried would be banned, as I’m sure you already know if you frequent any. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/555 "2012-05-23T16:55:17Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! When atheists show up in Christian forums, they get banned. You are free to post here, becuase we are not afraid of your mythology. ---
**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:** [May 23, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/556 "2012-05-23T17:01:53Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Hey, just for fun, can you be honest just one time? You calling me a liar, bucko? As it happens, I’ve been honest with you in every single statement I’ve made. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > If my arguments are so flawed and I’m so intellectually inferior (snicker) to you, why do you bother responding? Seriously, haven’t I demonstrated that you will never convince me that my beliefs are a fairy tale? You are wasting your time by responding to me. 1. Your arguments are flawed, the fact that you repeatedly change the subject, hop up on the cross, or spew vitriol about atheists demonstrates that you aint got nuthin’, else you would’ve brought it to the table. 2.I have not made mention of whether or not you’re my intellectual inferior, and such comments would be out of line in this forum. I have pointed out, and proven with logic, that your _reasoning_ is inferior to mine, of course. 2. As I’ve pointed out to you multiple times, of course I have no expectation that facts or logic will change your views, at all. I’m cleaning my claws and providing a demonstration for those members of the peanut gallery who are curious. > [@GEEPERS](#): > > I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians I know you will ignore this, as you have literally dozens of times before, but: yet again, you are seeing general statements about the epistemological invariability of **all** religious/supernatural claims, and pretending that it’s somehow a targeted attack on your beliefs. You seem very comfortable pretending that you’re being persecuted when you’re not, and very comfortable voicing intense hatred for atheists when they’ve done nothing other than pointing out errors in your claims. Does that seem like a sound policy to you? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/557 "2012-05-23T17:03:57Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > Hey, just for fun, can you be honest just one time? Let down the shields, and answer this question honestly. If my arguments are so flawed and I’m so intellectually inferior (snicker) to you, why do you bother responding? Seriously, haven’t I demonstrated that you will never convince me that my beliefs are a fairy tale? You are wasting your time by responding to me. > > You know what I think? I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians which certainly explains the feeding frenzy. I make one comment, and I’m bombarded with replies. Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! > > I’m sure by the time I hit the submit button, there will five more comments begging me to respond. lol I’ve tried to be honest and open with you- I’ve sent you multiple good-natured PMs. I can accept that you’re not going to change your mind about God and Christianity, but are you just as certain that you know _exactly how atheists as a group, and individual atheists like me, think_? Do you have just a tiny bit of doubt that maybe you’re _wrong_ about how us atheists think and are reaching our conclusions? That maybe we’re actually telling the truth (just about our own beliefs) when we tell you why we think the way we do? Are we all liars, every last one of us? If you do have any curiosity about the way folks who think differently than you actually think (as opposed to already knowing everything about us), feel free to respond. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/558 "2012-05-23T17:15:29Z")
> [@GEEPERS](#): > > You know what I think? I think you people get some kind of pleasure by ripping down Christians which certainly explains the feeding frenzy. I make one comment, and I’m bombarded with replies. Want to bring your brilliant arguments to a more Christian oriented forum? Of course not, that wouldn’t be much fun on a level playing field! Surely arguments are valid or invalid regardless of the venue, yes ? Or do you feel your arguments would hold more weight if 50 people were willing to write “yay ! What he said ! Woohoooh !” ? Now, you “brought this on yourself”, in the sense that you have decided you were willing to defend the Judeo-Christian myth on this here forum, which is populated by a lot more agnostics, atheists and the like than fundie Christians. You must have known this coming in. In fact, I’d wager that is the very reason you registered on this forum to begin with: to proselityze, to try and convince us heathens that we’re in the wrong. Bearing this in mind, you can’t whine that “but y’all are atheists ! Of course I can’t convince you !” now, can you ? Or else, why bother in the first place ? If your rhetoric only holds within a community that already shares most or all of your views, then your rhetoric ain’t shit, pardon my French. ---
**Author:** ![GEEPERS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@GEEPERS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GEEPERS)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/559 "2012-05-23T17:27:32Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > When atheists show up in Christian forums, they get banned. You are free to post here, becuase we are not afraid of your mythology. Proof that it is a myth? Oh that’s right, atheists don’t have to prove anything. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150/560 "2012-05-23T17:30:35Z")
> [@geepers](#): > > lol roflmao [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-atheists-think-and-why-in-re-geepers/620150.md?page=29)