Seek and You Will Find

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (NASB)

Ok. Awesome. The bible says all I have to do is ask. All I have to do is seek.

Oh, will you look at that, it's in the following passages as well! (Bear with me. Feel free to skip down a bit.)

Luke 11:9-13 "ditto"
and
Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
and
Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
and again...
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
and again...
John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
wait there's more...
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
and again...
John 15:16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
and again...
John 16:23 In that day you will not question Me about anything Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.
Ho Hum, even more...
James 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
This is really getting repetitive...
1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
Finally, the last one!
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Whew! Sorry for going biblical on you. But obviously if the "good book" repeats the same message twelve times, it must be important and it must be relevant. I should be able to believe in it as a Christian. Right?

I guess this is why people rely on prayer so heavily, even in this day and age when it's pretty obvious that prayers aren't answered any better than chance. But I digress. I have a point to make.

Conversations With christians - Beth 6 - Realization and Conclusion

While I am a 7th degree black belt atheist, I do have a heart of gold, as I'm sure you know. (just kidding! I'm trying to lighten the mood! Ok, you're right, I'm not kidding, I really do have a heart of gold)

Where was I? Oh, right. When someone comes to me and asks me to have a conversation with them about religion and atheism, I feel it's my responsibility as an atheist to show that a discourse is possible. I want to show religious people that I am indeed a living, breathing ethical atheist. I am rather nice to people, especially if they aren't visiting my home for more than one night. (Then all bets are off) I try to show people how to use reason, logic and facts to find out things for themselves.

Sure, sometimes I can get a bit testy when a christian insults my intelligence or pointedly tries to manipulate the discussion into an argument. I am not a debater, and I can't stand logical fallacies, especially when employed specifically to win unfairly. This is unethical and inexcusable to me.

Of course, people often use logical fallacies because they don't know any better. I will then happily teach a person about the logical fallacy being used, and will then expect that person to refrain from further use of it as we go through our discussions.

Of course, often a person will stubbornly cling to their beliefs and faith and eschew reason, logic and common sense. They will pull out dirty tricks to try to show their beliefs to be the "truth".

This is where we are with Beth. And I have come to a decision. I've written a short note which I am sending to her in a few minutes. Here it is in its entirety:

Reason and Polls

I just posted an interesting piece by Sam Harris that I found regarding the truth about atheism. It was written in 2006 for the LA Times and holds some ideas as to how atheists as a general rule view the world, and how religious people view atheists.

Here at Believers Anonymous, I want create a place for folks with a "believing problem" to be able to easily find resources, whether that be an article that concisely talks about atheism, opinions and "testimonies" of other people finding their way, or well, just about anything that might be helpful to you.

This is a journey for me as well, because, while I've been an atheist for a long time, I've come to feel that I need to be a bit more proactive about my lack of faith. Hence the creation of this site, obviously. I'm comfortable in my godlessness, but you might need facts, information and/or support to help you with your beliefs. That information isn't always easy to come by, so it might take awhile.

Anyway, I'm on a Quest for this information. (Any tidbits or suggestions are always welcome, by the way... or help even.. I would love that too!) As I find it, I'll present it to you as best I can. This brings me to a couple small things I want to talk to you about.