Belief in God is irrational

In 168 BCE the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV ordered Jewish 'Books of the Law' found in Jerusalem to be 'rent in pieces' and burned - part of the series of persecutions which precipitated the revolt of the Maccabees. A decree of emperor Diocletian in 303, calling for an increased persecution of Christians, included the burning of Christian books. At that time, the governor of Valencia offered the deacon who would become known as Saint Vincent of Saragossa to have his life spared in exchange for his consigning Scripture to the fire. Vincent refused and let himself be executed instead. In religious paintings he is often depicted holding the book whose preservation he preferred to his own life (see illustration in Saint Vincent of Saragossa page. In 1731 Count Leopold Anton von Firmian - Archbishop of Salzburg as well as its temporal ruler - embarked on a savage persecution of the Lutherans living in the rural regions of Salzburg. As well expelling tens of thousands of Protestant Salzburgers, the Archbishop ordered the wholesale seizure and burning of all Protestant books and Bibles. http://en.wikipedia.org... (The anti-Christian society was guilty of the same type of actions- as sampled above. It does not further the debate to resort to "special pleading" by introducing "irrelevant material" concerning the character of adherents of either mindset.) My representation of the Bible and my "prejucial" nature is predicated upon the very work itself! This is straight from the very work you claim to be the word of God. The very work in which the Christian faith in grounded upon! Yes, arguments that are based upon the Bible are words of conjecture, which is exactly why I said this text cannot be deemed valid in proving the existence of God in the first place. (You then list 10-13 Bible verses and offer no explanation how validation is made for your assertion of conjecture) World English Dictionary Conjecture 1.the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence; guess 2. the inference or conclusion so formed 3. obsolete interpretation of occult signs 4. to infer or arrive at (an opinion, conclusion, etc) from incomplete evidence. (This section is incoherent as an argument) These quotes are my concrete evidence. (Of what?)The real question is: what if your concrete evidence for not only the validity of the Bible, but in justifying your belief in a just, loving, compassionate, omnipotent, omniscient God? (If this is evidence that these verses are in the Bible you are correct. But there is nothing in the way of an argument here. (Incoherent ) It's not so much the belief in a God that is irrational, (Concession?) but the extent one has to suspend disbelief and rely so heavily on faith to justify their beliefs. (Faith justifies beliefs? Your argument is classic circularity. Knowledge is justified true belief. http://plato.stanford.edu...) Especially when the evidence, conjecture or not, is so strong to the contrary. (Is this a double-standard?)This is what ultimately makes believing in such a God portrayed by the Bible to be an irrational belief." (You will have to rise well above this level of argumentation to be taken seriously.) In order for us to justify our position we must maintain consistency between our presuppositions, our ultimate standards and living our life. As an Atheist you insist that belief in God is irrational because "My ultimate authority I suppose would be the scientific process." "thanks to the scientific process and secularism…" By only accepting that something can exist that can be explained by observation you can't account for "Laws" of thought. In your worldview how do you account for the Laws of Logic? Your ultimate authority (science) cannot observe these abstract "Laws" and yet you admit and indeed must operate in this world as if they actually exist. If only the material world exists- matter in motion- how do you account for order out of chaos? Life from non-life? The immaterial? Universals? If the origin of the universe is "by mere chance (evolution, big bang)" where did these abstract laws come from? Furthermore given your final authority what observable evidence do you have to justify morality? If we are the product of evolutionary "survival of the fittest" how does kindness, compassion, love, hate, and especially self-sacrifice fit in? If our thinking is only the result of cellular activity why debate? What explains our desires that go beyond physical responses? If survival is king why evolve beyond bacteria? Science can only observe nature and we can only interpret what we observe through our senses and we hope our senses and interpretations are reliable. And we interpret those observations through the grid of the presuppositions that make up our worldview. I interpret as a Christian, you as an Atheist. But only Christianity can supply the explanation for the preconditions of intelligibility. For you to attempt to successfully debate you must have knowledge of (justified true belief) and submit to- rational thinking, which, in your worldview cannot be accounted for. Only the Christian worldview accounts for the Laws of Logic, the Laws of Physics, Natural Laws, Mathematical Laws, ethics, how you know what you know, reality – all universals. The only proof for the Christian God is that without Him you couldn't prove anything. The reason you can know anything is because you borrow from my worldview. In order for you to live your life you must operate as a schizophrenic. You say one thing and unwittingly operate in opposition to it. You must depend on my perspective, unwilling to admit it, to be able to try to prove that it is false. You cannot justify what you know by your worldview. You are self-deceived. You know God exists but because you don't like that God who exists you convince yourself of the lie that He doesn't exist. You feel that tension. You hold down the knowledge of God but cannot help living under the universals He has established in His creation. So you can rely that the future will be like the past. Science cannot observe the future but you can count that the air will be available for you to breathe tomorrow because God regulates creation in a consistent manner. Your final authority does not, cannot, know that. You cannot be consistent to your Atheistic worldview. You must live according to my worldview in order to make sense out of anything. Atheism presupposes Theism. The Bible aptly describes the unbeliever as "double-minded". Sufficient evidence for the Christian God is available for all. Romans 1:18-32 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." God made His existence evident to you -in the created order and evident in you -being created after His image consisting of, among other things, rational thought and moral culpability-having a conscience. That is why you can function in this world all the while suppressing the truth. In your disbelief in God you do not react as if His non-existence was like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus or the flying teapot. You are actively hostile towards God in thought, word, and actions. "I am not subservient to a patriarchal, authoritarian, capricious, jealous, homicidal, hypocritical, vain, callous being (the God portrayed in the Bible anyway). I have no fear of hell. No desire to go to your heaven." Like Invictus, it's not indifference but hatred. http://www.christiancourier.com...