Right. I don’t believe is my position as an atheist. I don’t know is why.

How is this so difficult for you?

That’s pretty weak tea, especially considering how so many Christians (but not all, I know) insist that Jesus and Yahweh are the same person, just different aspects.

Sure, but the text claims he was already dead by that point. So we’re back to my original claim.

You’re using the modified definition of “agnostic” that believers favor. We have no reason to accept that.

“Agnostic” literally means “I don’t know.” “Atheist” means “I don’t believe.” I don’t know that gods are real, and I have no reason to believe they do.

No faith required.

When it comes to the Christian God, that’s easy.

https://biblehub.com/judges/1-19.htm

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.

https://biblehub.com/1_kings/6-7.htm

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

While the Bible never says what was used to fix Jesus to the cross, tradition says it was three iron nails. There are two reasons why the account of the crucifixion is atypical of normal Roman executions: first of all, they didn’t usually waste good iron nailing victims to their crosses. They tied them to the posts. Secondly, crucifixion victims normally took days to die of dehydration and suffocation, which is why the Romans did it that way. But Jesus allegedly died in hours, not days.

So clearly, Yahweh has a weakness to iron. I fear no gods I know how to kill.

Religious indoctrination doesn’t promote progress:

This paper studies when religion can hamper diffusion of knowledge and economic development, and through which mechanism. I examine Catholicism in France during the Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914). In this period, technology became skill-intensive, leading to the introduction of technical education in primary schools. I find that more religious locations had lower economic development after 1870. Schooling appears to be the key mechanism: more religious areas saw a slower adoption of the technical curriculum and a push for religious education. In turn, religious education was negatively associated with industrial development 10 to 15 years later, when schoolchildren entered the labor market.

Atheism doesn’t mean I know there are no gods. I suspect there aren’t, because religious claims about gods and reality don’t stand up to scrutiny. The more excuses you have to make for why reality doesn’t work the way you insist it should, the less inclined I am to believe you know what you’re talking about. Arguing for a prime mover or appealing to consequences doesn’t convince me either. I’m intellectually honest enough to say that I don’t have concrete knowledge that there are no gods the way I know there’s no money in my wallet, but not being able to prove there are no gods isn’t enough for me to believe that there are. Wanting to believe there are gods is no more useful than wanting there to be money in my wallet. It’s still a claim that requires validation, not a default assumption.

No it doesn’t. The only reason I bother calling myself an atheist is because believers keep insisting I have to share their beliefs. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t need the label.

None. Atheism isn’t a religion or philosophy. It’s an answer to one question, and only one: do you believe in gods? The answer is “no.”

Where we go from there is up to us.

I want to add, this observation really stood out to me:

People feel drawn to religious communities because of that word, “community.” People want fellowship, to have other people who will love and support you. But I was struck by how lonely you seemed when you were in this lifestyle and when you were married. It seems a lot of people feel alone in this community.

People hail religion as a ready-made source of community. But I think this forgets how easily that community can isolate you and create a lonely environment. Just because you’re surrounded by people yelling about how they’re looking after your best interests doesn’t make it true.

What an amazing display of privilege. It must be nice to live in a society where religious belief isn’t being injected into the public and our government.

Sorry, I was slow in removing this one.

I don’t see how they aren’t both rotten at the core. They both spring from the same Abrahamic religion. They both cite extremely fallible and frequently inaccurate texts as scriptures. They both cherry-pick what they want from scripture and knowledge. Neither is better than the other. The only reason that Christianity isn’t just as violent as Islam today is because most of the Christian world is leashed by secularism, which the Islamic world rejected a thousand years ago.

In fact, Jesus was very pro-war/conflict and anti-immigrant. Shall I quote the gospel verses demonstrating it?

Well, yes and no. Yes, during the Islamic Golden Age they successfully introduced a lot of valuable knowledge. There’s a reason our numbers are called “Arabic” and most of the stars we can see have Arabic names. However, the idea that they’ve been strictly defensive is not accurate. After the fall of the Golden Age, when clerics took back their power and declared mathematics to be satanic they began their campaign to establish a global caliphate. They’re brutal with anyone they consider sexually deviant or violate gender norms, and they’re not above attempting to invade a neighbor if they think they can get away with it in the name of Allah.

Just like Christianity throughout history.

The difference is that they have a lot of catching up to do before they can equal the atrocities of Christianity. And from the look of it, this lag isn’t from lack of trying. They just haven’t had as much time as Christians to commit all of the atrocities.

“Rules for thee but not for me.” Which brings us around to Wilhoit’s observation:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

Since 2015, being horribly bigoted has been normalized. A lot of the MAGA crowd delight in admitting they want to see every person of color and competing religion drawn, quartered, hung, and burned to ash.

A fun way to turn their arguments around is to quote horrible bible verses (https://www.evilbible.com/) and attribute them to the Qu’ran. Get them going until you start quoting verses they recognize. “Oh wait, I guess that was from the Bible all along!”

Also, I fear no gods I know how to kill.

That’s an amazingly good point. Thank you!