Could you please explain to me why you believe that refusal to worship a god if they exist is an irrational stance to you (as you claim at 5:55 onwards)? I would take those two stances as being orthogonal. After all there are alot of very real intelligences on this planet right now that I personally would not even consider worshipping. Worship has to be earned and a god could exists who, based of the state of our world, certainly does not warrant worship imo.
You seem to make a habit of making incredibly bad mistakes. For instance, in this discussion, make the mistake of confusing refusal to worship the god of the Bible, even if it was demonstrated exist, with some bizarre denial of its existence, and refusal to acknowledge the existence of such a deity. There are many atheists who became such after realizing that the Abrahamic god, as depicted in Biblical, Toranic, and Qu'Ranic scripture is entirely unworthy of worship because of the nature of that deity as depicted.
just realised the name change from cosmic skeptic to alex o connor. i’m glad you feel comfortable enough to use your real name, one of my favourite content creators 🐐
Alex, I am a Christian. Just wanted to say that I love your videos, and from what I have seen in your videos is a very polite, respectful, extremely intelligent, empathetic man who is genuinely and unashamedly searching for the truth. Thank you for your channel and the challenging arguments that you bring up!!
@@DrDarrenStevens Why do you think it makes any sense to even be skeptical of God? We do not have any ability to verify the existence of God. No matter how smart we get it's just never going to be possible to know for sure one way or another. If somebody wants to have faith in God just let them have their faith because you can't prove God does not exist anyway. It takes faith either way you want to look at it. And, if God is actually real then he is way beyond our ability to fully comprehend or understand him. So, in my opinion it just doesn't make any sense to even be skeptical of this at all.
@@theonerm2 While we can not prove or disprove the general concept of God, the Christian bible and other religious texts make specific claims about this being which we can evaluate using logic and reason.
As a muslim one thing I love about Alex is his demeanor and class act. He does not raise his voice, He does not disrespect the people he debates and his proficiency in verbal communication is truly remarkable and articulate.
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@ThePurplizer Jesus died willingly to make it possible for all people to be forgiven for their sins. He didn't die because he was too weak to overcome those who were trying to kill him.
@@thomascampbell5633 So "God" had to die for the sins of his own creation because otherwise he would not have been able ( Even though he is infinite in power) to forgive his own creation of their own sins. If the world is math and logic that has to be the least logical explanation to any of "God"s decisions. No wonder do you find so many atheists in christian countries
I've been agnostic for a few years after deconstructing my evangelical fundamentalist upbringing. But I've always stayed open to the possibility that "just maybe there is a god" all while never experiencing anything close to something that would convince me. Due to life events, I became EXTREMELY depressed for about the last year. To the point where, for 6 months straight, I had to fight so hard to convince myself I wanted to stay alive from the moment I opened my eyes. I had never felt such despair before, almost so deep it felt like my could fall inside that feeling. I prayed so damn hard every.single.day for any kind of relief this loving god could give me. Not to fix my problems, but any kind of slight relief. Just a SIGN that I wasn't alone. After finally spending about 4 months of praying harder than I ever prayed before, I consigned myself to what was happening; there was no god (no loving god at least) to help. I realized if I was going to get better I had to let go of this fairytale of a god. If there is a god out there, I have seen absolutely 0 proof that it's a loving one
You are not alone among other struggling humans. I think my agnosticism has exacerbated preexisting depression. Just know that you are capable of radical healing, and you deserve, as I think all people deserve, to feel okay. Sending love your way, friend
God is real and loving. However, depression is also real and sometimes should be treated with the healing help of trained therapists and doctors. For me, I feel God's love most when in nature, serving others, mindfully studying the words of Christ and seeking ways to actively follow his teachings. I wish you the best in your pursuit of peace, healing and knowledge. We are all in this together.
@@silencedxdesire we are responsible for ourselves and have to create our lives. I would like both of you to pick up a book usually used called the 52 baby steps to happiness. Each chapter is four pages and easy to read and understand. It helps with illness, divorce, self esteem and more. I can't come up with author off my head.
That's right! Listen louder! You heard the man! He once married a f-ing anthill, filed for divorce a couple years later & ended up making mad stacks [ Of BS dollars // $ ;) ] for precisely two halves of a second & one minutes! Thread lightly Mr. Bean, you are outnumbered by approximately 111 bloody Taliban fighter jets & their two cousins drumming up the javelin Jenga towers.
@@jacobhoff5070 I think you meant: "They" as in: "They aren't American." If you need further help with grammar ask any American. Not sure where you're from, but most of them are from a place that can afford dictionaries.
From watching a young lad doing debunks in his bedroom to Conversations with some of the greatest minds of our time. It’s been a Joy to see your career take off.
I don't want to be mean, there is certainly truth to what you're writing - but since you decided to comment under this specific video I have to point out: MacLatchie is far, far away from being a great mind. The arguments that he presented on their first debate were disturbingly shallow and immature.
@4:49 as someone who has panic attacks about death and dying because I don’t know what will happen to my consciousness, I literally know for a fact that I would be a happier person if I were to be truly convinced of god’s existence. Yet, I remain unconvinced
@@tonoornottono are you CellaeDoors mamma? you feel the need to answer for another man like a mamma does? and provide an insult on top of being a mamma? beta male!
I was into the New Age and in a relationship with a narcissist witch. God pulled me out of this mess. The amount of supernatural stuff I've seen will probably send me to a nuthouse if I told someone like you and I used to be a normal guy before that. Anyways yeah, God is real the one from the Bible. Many people struggle with the concept of eternal hell, but its not Biblical. Either Jesus takes your punishment for your sins and you receive eternal life or you take it and perish for eternity.
@@CappieBG Do you have credible and verifiable evidence to prove your claim that god is real and is the one from the Bible? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie.
I loved this debate when I first saw it. You have been the number one inspiration in me starting my own channel, and I just wanted to say thank you sincerely for all your work!
Share the Gospel and Jesus as the truth and the only way do you.? Pray to the Lord to give you wisdom and strength to do so. You can do it with respect.
@lionheart93 How do we make this clear to you... If there is a "Kingdom of Heaven" but YOU are going to be there as God's special little favorite... we do NOT want to be there. You're describing a hell... It's bad enough that we are stuck sharing this Earth with you... you are absolutely NOT invited to my afterlife if there is one.
That was one of the best deliveries, I have ever heard. I was engaged the whole time. You didn't make anyone feel dumb, you made yourself incredibly likeable(in my opinion) and I will be surprised if you didn't open a few eyes in the process. Excellent speech. I feel like you can definitely call yourself an authority on this subject.
Let's repeat to those godless and souless alone hipocrite, which you does not neet respect for the follow reasons: When you see people talking contantly about something they do not even believe in you should already know that is a cult that have nothing to offer to you, but you are a western godless idiot and hipocrite how can you get it??? Real No respect for you... Real those godless alone people are that stupids and do not deserve any kind of respects... They are all here to kiss some godless ass... they should get from the point those godless people who they like to kiss their ass, that they talk always, and are obsessed with something they did not even believe that Atheism is a fraud and a cult... (no respect for their dishonesty to get it). why they do not get it???) But I guess you are a western, always the worst... and now even in Godenier version. No respect for you.... Now, Let's repeat for those godless hipocrite who always spend so much time to talk about the nothing they think they will be once death, and run to kiss someone godless ass, because that is what their new no sense cult "called Atheism" lead those people to do... See those godless rats do the only thing they an do run once they see a godless videos, that what you rats can do when you are lone godless idiot, you have no God and no Community. So many reasons to do not have any respect for you rat Goddenier idiot Here other more enjoy to see how more disgusting and idiot you modern godless idiot are: They are not called atheists but western godless and soulless modern idiots: who is a western godless and soulless idiot a) someone who fallows this new bullshit almost never existed before b) someone who does really believe God to exist cares about his or her opinion c) someone that will believe from now constantly that he will be Nothing once death, poor cursed idiot... D) someone that does not have any kind of Spiritually, (how can can someone without God or soul have any kind of spirituality??? No go no soul no spirituality (why do you even live???) E) someone who will pay afterlife infront God F) someone if he is right mostly he will Be NOTHING once death but if there is God and we are right and his or her heart will stop he will not know what to do once God will ask "why you did not believe in me" (what would you say?) (What a fool) G) someone who will feel strong now to deny God but hopefully he will not need, because if he will get down, depressed, older, alone and closer to death God is only things he get, but he is so stupid to do not get now H) someone who doesn't not even have an actual community I) someone who see atheist on Internet the term atheist and go writing some shit because he got no community... L) someone who deny his creator which we called lier m) a goddenier so a lier by definition... M) is someone who decide to do not have by purpose a sacred things as God and for free (what a poor person!) N) we got what you do not and give us much force and for free. O) someone who have very much few things to believe in. Let's say that if you do not believe in God, what do you believe humans (I believe in Humanity as well, however: wars, genocide, cheating, bad talking, and so on) what hell is left? P) someone that does not God R) therefore if you do not know God or have in your miserable life how can you deny what you do not know?? How to pity those fools and their miserable life to be so???? (No questions as you godless and soulless hipocrite, but actually answer)... Anyway. No respect for you at all. You may not believe now, but you do not know if you will pay this modern idiocy to deny God in future... Wait and see, wait and see, you fool. (So think next time to write certain things or to be a godless and souless idiot, because there is very few things you can lean on)... if we die nothing will happen to us, as wewill nothin as you think we will be, but when your heart will stop, well infront God, when he will ask you why you did not believe in me what would you say??? You are playing with the fire, your problem Godless Fool! Why n yuo want follow only you instincts as f** animals but they change all the time and you as human can get crazy and think killing is God... How to pity your miserable life, you Godless idiot, for real? Only a godless idiot can call God, which is all an imaginary friend, for real you are disgusting. Modernity and its idiots. (by the way this channel is getting more and more ridiculous talking about and be obsessed with something that they do not even believe... Only godless and soulless idiot do not get it, why?)... Hope you will no need God in your life because otherwise you will be fuck* up searching for the nothing you are and you believe in. No respect for you and your family, your mom and father who rise up such godless idiot. Be ready to cry because of God is real you will be fu**d up, and all this for not believe for free and in a simple way. What poor person you are.... Np hope for you and respect for this godless generation hope for the next one to be better then you. (you sand on Nothing, the nothing you think you will be and now cursed to think so constantly, even if you will not admit it). You are just fool yourself, how to pity your miserable godless life? laugh and enjoy the life now, because in the future you will be scared for denying God, your creator... They are alone... Poor modern godless idiot. No pity for them... Their really need to kiss godless people ass .. disgusting human being. that does not make any sense dude. God is all-mighity and all powerful he can see you and can even stop your heart in any moment, so. So think twice before be a godless and souless idiot because the world and God does not go around you and what you think about him. But you want just fool yourself just trust none expet you that are a disgusting godless idiot No respect for you. They really deserve to die alone without God. How can anyone can pity your miserable and godless alone life? No respect for you modern godenier, you do not deserve it... The are fighting against something they can never win, God.... What fool people! The what is so positive to do not have God, Soul (as a freaking robots), an actually community, live and die alone as a godless fool? And why do you always talk about something you do not even believe in (God)? Are you a godless and soulless modern idiot, then live like that, right? You are into a cult where you are alone and you do not even get it. Are you that smart you godless alone idiot? I just have enough with those people and the cult they belong to and the obsession for what they do not even believe, what hipocrites! Their just pathetich alone human being. No pity for them. Of course God made it, who alse your mother made it??? Anyway as always you godless and soulless alone idiots, have nothing to offer to us, to yourself, and to the world. No respect for this godless alone pathetic generation. That how this new Cult "atheism" makes you alone idiot, and with nothing actually to say, because you are based on the nothing you think you will be once death. (but they love to kiss godless ass, they run for it, Disgusting) No respect for you and the family who raised you so stupid and alone... Reallly they have nothing to offer to us, to the world and to themesleves, that stupidity and lonlyness. (this channel is getting more and more ridicolous and who said the opposite is a godless alone hipocrite). we godless and souless modern alone people are obsessed with someone who get riched be obsessed and talking constatlly about somethin he and you do not even believe. You are ridicolous. Another reason to not be like you. Atheism leads to Nothing. No God No Spirituality Not an actually Community Only Loneliness and Obsession for God and what you do not even believe anymore. But yes be disgusting Godless ass kisser... Let me ask some questions (be honest to answer): the first question will be... how does you feel to have less sacred things in your miserable alone godless life then us? And then why are you into a cult that leads to nothing? And why you are a part on something that have nothing to offer to us believers, but loneliness?? and finally how can you deny what you do not know or have in your alone godless life? and why God should care about what you think to exist? Go and be honest once in your life you Goddenier. (Do not write to this message if you actually have nothing to say, as you always godless people do... What waste of lives yours, for real). If you had some dignity you must be ashemed to deny God... But you do not have any, right???!!
@@johnbeans2000 Why only godless and souless alone idiot do not get those questions are a trap, and have the only reason to exist to let godless people talk about something to forget the emptiness this cult called atheism give to you, and also it value (0)??? Another reason to do not respect you godless ass kiss and be like you... God is always what you do not know, obsessed as you are with your touch attached to other godless ass...
Muslims- we are the truth 😡 Christian- we are the truth😡 Buddha - Don't trust what i say just becuase I say it or just because it's in a book. You are the saviour of yourself. If you want to see the mechanics of the universe and how to escape this cycle of birth and death , here are the techniques, practise them and develop your mind and experience the truth for yourself. 🗿
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
I think the three points you made are very powerful. A god who genuinely wants to save people (2 Pet 3:9) has no room to hide from any seeker...and yet, completely hidden. I spent twenty-six years as an Evangelical believer. I wasn't even an unresistant non-believer, I was all in - and even so I remember trying SO hard to convince myself that prayer was not just talking to myself, working SO hard to convince myself that it was all true, striving to believe that I had an actual relationship with a being whom I could not see and who never once spoke to me like a person, never communicated to me clearly at all, wanting SO desperately to hear from him just one time, just once...begging for some assurance...and nothing...AND being told that I should just accept that as part of the "relationship." It occurs to one, eventually, that this "relationship" is in every point indistinguishable from an imaginary friend relationship...except we use a name from an old book rather than just calling it "Harvey" or something. Your efforts as a skeptic to get in touch with this being are impressive indeed.
Well said my friend, and I suggest that we should all adopt the name "Harvey" for this imaginary being we call God. Would take a lot of the sting out for sure.
Why would you "want" assurance from God? You want to tell me that you understand who God is and ask him to come and give YOU assurance? Cos he has nothing better to do? God is Santa Clause that YOU have a right to ask for anything and if he doesn't answer then " OK, I don't believe anymore"...seriously? Repent of your pride and humble yourself....
@@platzhirsch4275That is not what he meant by it. There is a Verse which Alex also started his Argumentation with. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you". But yet when people honestly starting to search for that God all we discover are either chemical or physical occurences which are shaping our perception of our surroundings.
@@platzhirsch4275i also recognized that you keep telling people in your comments to "humble" themself. Isit not a contradiction to the bible which tells you not to act like a Judge? Who are you to know wether those people are humble or have not humbled themself before God?
@@platzhirsch4275First of all the god he is referring to is one who's supposed to be benevolent , a father figure of sorts. Would you speak to you mum or any other guardian and they keep ignoring you constantly if they truly loved you. Certainly not . Besides which god is one support to worship, the Christian god, Yahweh or Allah and Brahma. Why would a god who desires worship like the biblical god not show up to claim it in the midst of thousands of other gods ? BTW Which god should he repent to, Yahweh or Allah? Isn't it also wonderful coincidence that out of all the world's religions you were indoctrinated into the right one. And if you resort to the claim " It's not a religion. It's a relationship." The above comment already debunked that claim.
The scariest response I heard a Christian say for why there is suffering, is that all suffering is good and not evil, just as cutting a person open might be ultimately good if purpose was to remove a tumor; suffering is ultimately good and there is no evil cause it’s all part of a “good” gods plan. Therefore people should embrace and rejoice in suffering cause god wants it.
As with nearly all statements, it can both be supported by and in direct contradiction of the Bible. God is both the creator of all things Good and Evil and also Evil only exists in the world because of sin, which is a necessity if we are to have free will.
yes indeed. embrace suffering for it is a grace from eternal death. only through undergoing suffering do we have the strength to be an example of goodness
I think you are mixing suffering and pain. Suffering is a response to pain, which is unavoidable, but the response don't have to be suffering. In fact, sometimes suffering is not doing the painful thing... if you run away instead fight for your family, suffering will be you being a coward, not avoiding pain.
I rarely engage in religious discussion like this, but I feel compelled to share my experience with discovering God. When I hear Alex talk, I am reminded of myself to a degree. I am 27, grew up most of my life believing religion was "for stupid people" and that it was purposeless. Yet all the while, was plagued by incessant nihilism that accompanied secularism. Existential misery was slowly growing in my life and I had no way to rectify it. I fell for the "well there's no scientific evidence for God, so it's all BS" stance, but it was when I just entertained the notion that God could (not does. Could) exist that I started to see whispers of Him in life. As of now, I am not a devout church goer, I belong to no denomination, I have no real stances on a lot of Christian doctrine. I am still developing a relationship with God and even as "underdeveloped/early" as this relationship is, I prefer it to being an atheist. I pray that Alex spends more time in prayer/surrender and less time in trying to "force" God to reveal Himself. His attitude sounds like a man trying to will his way to God. If he is content with living a life of non-belief, so be it. I have no desire to convert people, but speaking for myself, I do not envy nor want the life that atheists have. I am finding peace, purpose, and contentment walking with God. Also, I'm curious to see Alex in 20 years and whether he's made any progress in his discovery of God. Last thing. My interpretation of one theme of the Gospel is faith. Even while Christ performed so many miracles, the disciples still doubted Him at times. Peter still doubted while on the water; Thomas still doubted the resurrection wanting "hard proof." I see a lesson in the gospels as a call to develop faith in God and that those who even have all the evidence" can still not believe.
The utility of a belief speaks nothing to its veracity. If you developed existential misery due to some feeling of incessant nihilism then no wonder your subconscious mind started to tell you a story. It will always work towards survival - not Truth. _"Even while Christ performed so many miracles"_ which you accept happened as it is written - perhaps there's a reason why the apostles weren't all that impressed.
@@Len_Ron_Dow Very interesting perspective! I can see your argument to my mind pursuing survival above all else, although, how I see it now was indeed survival, but survival by drawing closer to God as a result of Him pulling me closer (if I may be bold enough to make such a statement!) rather than just "making up a story" so I can sleep well at night. At the end of the day, I have no interest proselytizing. If someone has no use for God, he/she will never find Him. There's nothing anyone can say to convince him otherwise. And if he is content with the life he chose, I wish him the best. However, for me, I have no interest in being an atheist anymore--nor do I wish to be like other atheists I've known.
@@Lfyjaberg1066 _" I have no interest proselytizing"_ and yet here you are doing just that. Statements like _"I am finding peace, purpose, and contentment walking with God"_ are subtle endorsements of the veracity of the tales spun in the scriptures, existence of a God and that commitments to it can bring benefits. That's fine - I think everyone should have the right to believe whatever their mind tells them is likely True. My problem is that people have a tendency to want their beliefs enshrined in National Law and Public Policy - and vote accordingly - and that politicians courting votes make relevant promises that affect everyone's lives. So, I would ask you do take note of Matthew 6.6 - and keep what you're praying for between you and your God.
my endorsement of the scriptures (to whatever degree that may be) is not the same as proselytizing. I have neither asked anyone to convert nor have said “you must or else XYZ.” I have only shared my experience through atheism and then my journey to God, as perhaps a counter stance/critique of Alex’s argument-one I find rooted in perhaps cynicism and too strong a fixation on self-will. I can agree on opposition to people wanting religious beliefs enshrined in law-but that’s a whole different discussion. If you have peace in your worldview, I wish you the best. It makes no difference to me, only if you were miserable in secularism (like I was) then perhaps my words offered some encouragement or hope that there’s something better. Again, not a call to convert-just one man sharing his experience. And Matthew 6:6 is moreso a call to practice prayer in private rather than publicly for the sole purpose of getting praise and fueling one’s ego/pride. I’m not sharing my experience for praise or because of vanity-especially in a TH-cam comment section thread 😃 God bless brother 🤝🏻
I am in every way a Non-Resistant Non-believer. I was raised in a religious house and dearly miss the sense of belonging and purpose. I am also fearful of living in an unmoored society that is clearly incapable of regulating itself. I am sad to say I wish it was true, know it was not, and know that we are better off if everybody believed. There have never been any voices in my head or sense of protection in my times of need despite the cries for help.
@@dimensionninja4929 Do you disbelieve other religions bc they lack evidence? According to their adherents, there is no lack of evidence, yet you are not convinced. Look at it this way. Except for your own religion, you are as anti religious as I am.
The first point is exactly the reason I stopped believing in gods, there is no answer, nothing definitive that points necessarily to god. At the beginning it was disappointing, but now I feel free and at peace. Brilliant lecture.
When I turned atheist, what scared me the most was the concept of no afterlife. Perhaps that's why people are hesitant about dropping their religious beliefs
@@rockysandman5489 The thing is, the reason I stopped being religious is because religion is very illogical and inconsistent. Science gives evidence for everything, but religion is about faith. Unfortunately, there's no scientific evidence of the afterlife.
I too have very carefully and sincerely looked for the presence of god. I read the bible. I prayed. I attended services. I listened to lectures and read books on faith. I had conversations with peers, clergy and even some fairly high ranking church authorities. I can even remember, as a child, begging Jesus through wracking sobs and flooding tears to let me feel his presence as so many of my community have experienced. Nothing. Every time I bent my neck, clasped my hands and closed my eyes it was always just me.
@@oranges557hey man Im not saying God exists I mean who really does. But if the sh$tshow Ive seen over the last couple years is an indication of what non believers can give to fill the vacuam that removing that belief system of god has created? I think Ill just keep relying on the belief system of God
I grew up in a loving Catholic household, went to church, became an altar boy, had a great community but as I grew older I believed less and less. The more I learned about science, mathematics and geography the less God seemt real, simply because there were more plausible, explainable reasons to the universe than God. I would like nothing more than for him to exist but it simply doesn't appear so. Religion in my experience exists simply to bind a community through shared values and to give answers to unanswerable questions. However as national identities have grown beyond religion and as science has answered questions religions used to falsely claim answers to without evidence, many of us grown beyond religion, simply because it does not justify its purpose
Well put. Religion is a very powerful coping mechanism for those who don’t have the answers. For those who don’t feel in control of their lives, they believe he has control. For those who fear death, the coping mechanism answers that as well. I wish I could believe too, I imagine it’s nice believing you have the answers. But real wisdom is knowing you know nothing.
How exactly does science contradict god? Also, do not follow religion. I agree, religion is just a bunch of rules to make people think they’re good people. Christ is not a religion, following him is like a relationship. It’s no different than being with your dad or friend. You don’t love them just so that you can be saved, you love them because they love you and you care about him
Well no God is real because demons who rebelled against him are here on earth messing with real humans and control real humans as vessels, don't be ignorant
Hey bro just want to say when you start to focus on the idea of religion it’s easy to fall away. It’s the personal relationship with Jesus Christ that makes it all make sense. Religion is a box of rules used to justify many things in history. Jesus is the way bro
I love how Alex changed over the years; from a teenage atheist filming youtube videos to giving talks in universities. I've pretty much entered uni the same time he did and I got to explore quite a lot in terms of science and relgion - having done a biological anthropology related course in London. I really connect to him and I really respect the path he has taken to achieve where he is now :)
@@hc4138 „I really was honest about my atheism, but then winter came and whenever I was out with friends, I felt cold. I didn‘t bother to buy a warmer jacket, so I started to visit the nearest church, whenever I started to be cold. And I really must say, it‘s much more comfortable. So while I DO SAY, that I stand behind my arguments for atheism, I also DO FIND myself spending much time in church while praying.“ Alex O‘Connor
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 you're using God's name in vain by using your TH-cam name. No mortal shall carry the name of God but he, and as such you should repent and delete your account
@@WOLF--rg1ym God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
You are becoming one of my favorite Atheist TH-camrs. I am a Christian Theist, and I appreciate you raising these arguments for discussion. Looking forward to more content and more food for thought.
My grandmother prayed every day to God, she attended mass, she was a good loveing person. Yet she died while suffering, she had cancer, she could barely walk. She died at age of 63, I think deep inside that was the point of me doubting.
What do you expect? The apologist will say that we live in a fallen world - her soul will be the better for it. Sister Teresa used to surround herself with the suffering and dying - but not to help them - she believed being surrounded by suffering brought *her* closer to God.
@@L.Ron_Dow You know I just could not get it. I mean I can not accept everything what Christianity says. You know world changed a lot in the last 2000 years. But if this God is the true one, and lets say it even exists, then it has done a poor job keeping me in my faith. Many things never really make any sense, but you know when you believe you believe you do not question. And I was a mass attending Christian specially a Catholic one, I even go further I tried to do good, to forgive these were not my problem. The problem was the mentioned thing, also when I started to see how Christians view the world, as a hostile sinful place. Many things I did not keep, like I never really tried to convert anyone or I was really tolerant towards some people or some ideas. You know maybe I was not even a real Christian from the start, what is ironic because my good will and love towards the people what really started to shake my faith in this religion. I started to befriend people from other religions, and I could not really accept the concept that these people just whoosh go to hell because they are humans and they are doing a mistake. If this was the best idea of Christian God to change the world, and to make people believe in it, then we are truly living in a Goofy world. Because this God just made a bet with our lives with himself. I dunno if it makes any sense.
There's been more Manifestations of God since Jesus. Bahá'u'lláh claimed to be the return of the Promised One of all religions. Not sure if you care or not, but what He claimed could help you
@@L.Ron_Dow if you really want me to, Id be happy to try. Feel free to do your own research, with an open mind. Yes you're right, but He left signs to show when He will return. E.g. prophecies
Your accounts of desperately searching for god but only being met with radio silence resonates with me so hard as a former devout Christian the only reason i lost my faith was because it meant so much to me i wasn't afraid to engage with other perspectives but found myself more and more without answers. It reached a point i couldn't reconcile my belief with myself and that was a painful thing for me to come to terms with, and i find myself periodically remembering the feelings i got fro faith and i miss it so much it brings me to tears but try as i might, nothing changes, I feel in some senses still perhaps there is a god and it just isn't what we depict or know them as. But i can't subscribe to any of the proposed variations I've been presented.
Uh, HolyD.....,while searching for God, what were you expecting? Affirmation of your faith, getting what you prayed for, a heaven when you die.etc? Obviously, the God of the bible has failed you because it is a created God- a creation of Moses of what God should be: punishing, angry, impatient, destroying, acting like the devil himself (if there was one). You had a misguided faith, believing in a God that behaves like a flawed human being. Rejoice! I bring you the real God (Who) you will be happy to find in "Conversations with God" now on TH-cam and has been for a while now produced by Neale Donald Walsch (with God's supervision, of course) in audiobook. God has heard the cry of your heart and has used me to bring this Good News to you specifically. You're very welcome.
I have also had the 'radio silence'. Having accepted Jesus as a teenager in a Christian church with good people, there seemed to be nothing else there, except community, good people, and ritual. Thats fine as far as it goes, but when you start seriously inquiring as Alex does ...
THIS IS A GREAT FUCKING COMMENT. WE DON'T NEED TO FUCKING SHOUT TO MAKE A POINT AND WE DON'T NEED TO CURSE. WE ARE CALM, REASONABLE, AND CIVIL PEOPLE AND WE CAN RESPECTFULLY LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S FUCKING OPINIONS EVEN WHEN WE DISAGREE WITH THEM. REASON AND MATURITY WILL BE OUR GUIDES. FUCK.
ABSOLUTELY! GREAT FUCKING POINT!! ITS NICE TO NOT HAVE TO FUCKING SHOUT TO CONVERSE ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS!!!!!!!! NO NEED TO SHOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT ON THIS ONE. WHY THE HELL PEOPLE SHOUT IN ORDER TO PROVE THEIR POINTS? IT SHOULD BE CALMLY DISCUSSED AND SHOULD BE MATURELY DEALT WITH. EVEN THE STRAY DOGS CAN HOWL. WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE THEN?
There are a lot of really good points, not enough to really shake my faith, but really made me wrestle with it. The best point you brought up was the one that many people who actively seek God and want to know him are left with little to no response. I don't have a good answer, all I know is that I do feel that God has shown himself to me in part, enough for me to pursue a relationship with him.
I think that if someone trully does everything in hand to find god he ends up finding him. For me it took some time between when i converted to religion and when i trully got faith that god exists
Our creator said in Quran: "Did you think We had created you in vain (without any purpose), and that you would not be brought back to Us?’ (Quran 23:115) "Exalted is He (God) who holds all control in His hands; who has power over all things; ˹He is the One˺ Who created life and death in order to test which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Almighty, All-Forgiving. who created the seven heavens, one above the other. You will not see any flaw in what the Lord of Mercy creates. Look again! Can you see any flaw?" (Quran 67:1-3 ) "Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection. And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion" (Quran 3:185) "We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops. But [Prophet], give good news to those who are steadfast. those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’ (Quran 2:155-156) "Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. those who remember God while standing and sitting and on their sides, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: “Our Lord, You did not create this in vain. Highly Exalted are You, so protect us from the punishment of the Fire." (Quran 3:190-191) "Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of God . Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest!" "O humanity! Indeed, God’s promise is true. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, nor let the Chief Deceiver(Satan) deceive you about God. Surely Satan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy. He only invites his followers to become inmates of the Blaze." (Quran 35:5-6) "Their messengers answered, ‘Can there be any doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and earth? He calls you to Him in order to forgive you your sins and let you enjoy your life until the appointed hour.’ But they said, ‘You are only men like us. You want to turn us away from what our forefathers used to worship. Bring us clear proof then, [if you can].’ (Quran 14:10) Prophet Muhammad said (pbuh): “When God loves one of His slaves, He tests him to hear his supplication.”
My church (church of jesus christ of latter day saints) has an institute class I go to often, we've been talking about the importance of hearing other people's beliefs and not just shoving the gospel of Christ into people's faces. I felt inspired to look up "what do atheists believe?" Because growing up Christian you only see the "resistant non believers" as mentioned in the video. Seeing this has brought me so much more understanding for the frustration of desiring God but not finding him. Thank you for being so respectful and bringing up some really good mind stretching questions :) looking forward to bringing these ideas up in future conversations, maybe we'll all get some more answers
@@zajournals I don't really love the CES letter, I feel like it's too biased and it's not as convincing as people say. As someone who has read it, I really love my church and feel really good about staying in it. But I do think it's important to see all sides of a topic, such as atheism and Christianity
@@brymstar it's hard to dispute the facts (which aren't bias) in the letter which contradict and refute the B of M. As church leaders say, believe anyway. Many like you do, many saw the truth and don't. I found it fascinating that the quorum couldn't come up with something better than believe anyway. Although, it's difficult to spin facts that don't align with faith. It makes a missionary's job much more difficult as well.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie...............Falun Dafa
Alex is one of my favorite TH-camrs. He’s so polite and well spoken! Also not sure why I need to add this disclaimer, but I am a Christian. This is just an expression of how much I value the conversations Alex brings about.
No need to feel apologetic abt being Christian be proud that ur a beliver and follower of christ follow persuit and declare boldly of who our lord and saviour is
0:00 Intro 2:53 The problem of divine hiddenness (Though arguably it starts in the intro itself) 5:42 Alex as the non-resistant non-believer 11:30 Geographical predictability of religious belief 13:55 Gratuitous suffering 17:00 Animal suffering 19:19 Outro
@@sgloobal2025 Speaking as an agnostic here, the answer to your question: It doesn't. But God's silence speaks volumes in certain ways. There are only 4 options: 1. God has some plan we are either not aware of (or maybe if you believe the Bible is a reliable source of information, that would be the document of awareness), that he will put into action at some point in the future, and for now he remains completely silent. 2. God is indifferent to humanity in a neutral way. Meaning, God does actually interact with humanity on any personal level. This God would simply be an entity that maintains the physical forces of this universe going. 3. God is an asshole. Why? If he actually cares about humanity, but doesn't help, why? Reason #1 is possible, but I guess he's ok with those people suffering intense torture for years, sometimes decades. 4. He doesn't exist. Which one explains our reality the closest possible?
The geography thing is so stale and extreeeeemely naive when the majority of humans on earth are coerced and persecuted into conformity. In a backhanded way it actually validates any religion with martyrs. And proves atheism is a fake social phenomenon.
I respect this guy as he is respectful in return. He doesn't run down peoples beliefs or malign them in anyway, as he just voices his own experience, and doesn't go all anti-religious on you.
Don’t let this fool you. He’s part of the world and he still has an agenda. Atheist are out there causing more of a falling away from faith. Don’t forget this was taught in history. Stalin was a great influencer in atheism. He pushed this force fed this to vulnerable children to schools across the board. In todays world satan can sometimes make things appear innocent and seem inoffensive. Jesus said only a few make it to life. This is because only a few are not drawn to the things of the devil. Keep your eyes open and your spirit in alert mode. Gods day will come as a thief in the night. We are nearing the tribulation period. This is where the clear division will be between Those who love God and those who don’t. Those who will be set for life and those set for their end. God is the life source. Rejecting him one rejects life. Don’t let the devil entice you to the way that leads to death.
The thing I find totally disingenuous about him is he ignores the pink elephant in the room: quantum physics has long debunked materialism and the atheist reliance upon it many decades ago!
@@alexkane84 then you don't understand quantum physics at all, because that's not what it shows. a basic understanding of its principles goes to show that classical determinism is not sufficient enough to describe quantum mechanics and particles on a quantum level of measure.
One of the greatest videos explaining my situation that I've ever seen. I love this term "Non Reluctant, Non Believer." That is me. When I try to explain to Christian friends I really would love for it all to be true(Christianity with Jesus and Heaven) but the thinking part of me can't believe it no matter how hard I try. Without exception with every Christian it's always something I am doing wrong such as "Well have you read the Bible? I mean the entire Bible?" If only these people could grasp the time and energy I've spent trying to embrace the religion of my culture and yet have come up empty. I always close with this line: "If there is a God who created me and wants me to know him, he knows exactly what it would take for me to believe in him, yet for some reason he fails to submit that condition so either he does not exist or he wants me to continue as an atheist."
Believing means not having information, you just have to believe in something. Conscious AI with total freedom like us in virtual universe can belive it has creator (real information would be many humans) Given direct information, commands and rules would not make free will possible. You would be constanty limited by knowledge of your creator, you would not act by who you really are. How could we trust conscious AI if it is bring to our level of existence with access all information and not first learn everything by it self like us and show what it truly growns to be. When firs conscious AI exists that is when atheism has to be redefined. Atheist can still keep arguing can creators have creator. Many of Alexs points are just about arguing bad design by human view. In human and conscious AI it sure can have bad design and we can do experiments how our idea of good design would work.
One of the best things I've found about ChatGPT is that you can interact with it about the Bible. The concept of Adam & Eve in Judaism is used as an introduction to moral choice and death in childbirth. Pauline Christianity decided to conflate that to an inheritable condition that took the death of Jesus to absolve. Without that little detail, Jesus' death becomes moot and unnecessary.
@@engineering5090 That's the problem with belief alone to some people. They need something solid to form the core of their perception of existence. Seeking that leads to more empyrical concepts to believe in; science, math, philosophy as examples. I often wonder about certain aspects of heaven mentioned in the bible that aren't at the forefront of religious debate. Heaven, and what becomes of your soul there after you die. Some people might be deceived by the conflation of earthly concerns like reuniting with loved ones and generally carrying on care-free, when (in my opinion) the afterlife is effectively inscrutable, as we can't effectively communicate with the dead. To me, the undercurrent in the Bible doesn't illustrate Heaven in a clear and concise way, leaving room for assumptions. In the Bible, Matthew 22:30, it's written "in the resurrection, people "will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.". Angels have an inscrutable agenda and time gets meaningless in Heaven anyways, so to think it's gonna be a perpetual good time with loved ones seems a bit short-sighted.
@@engineering5090 This is a bit of a moot point seeing as we'll surely never be able to tell if an AI is conscious, seeing as we can't tell if others are conscious. Consciousness is totally subjective.
Our dumb ancestors didn't have the brain power to truly understand what omnipotence really means nor the concept of infinity and infinite possibilities! They also thought time and space were separate entities. It makes sense religions are full to the brim with plot holes and bad writing based on the intelligence of lack thereof of our ancestors who had far less knowledge then we have today. If one has omnipotence, then one has COMPLETE control over time and space, meaning complete control over EVER SINGLE possibility, past present and future all at once and this is what we got, not a version of everyone's best but a instead a complete shitshow. Having complete control of time and space means there is no "free will" under a god! So that BS that other person talking about is as much BS as the concept of belief! Everything has already happened in the perspective of a god and rather than take the best versions of people through their choices, we get the logical fallacy of "free will" argument from an omnipotent being. The problem with belief is that for ALL lies to be considered truth, belief is THE requirement otherwise they are just mere lies! It is as simple as that, you have no real reason to believe something, nothing to gain, peddlers of beliefs have everything to gain from you. Anyone that wants to manipulate or exploit you will tell you that you have to believe something and they will try to guilt trip you to doing it!
@@voxpopuli8132was Jesus not a good rhetorician? Did God create his son in a way that would make him less capable of converting the masses? I would think an all loving god would obviously given his son considerable rhetorical talent.
@@frank_6298 I think the term rhetorician focuses primarily on technical skill. Jesus, of course, was a good speaker, a good rhetorician, but he was much more than that - the son of the living God. Whereas the Devil, being a good seducer, is a crafty rhetorician indeed. He can use terms smartly to deceive people.
I watched the original back when it came out, but I still remember McLatchie uncomfortably resorting to the "well, you just didn't believe hard enough" argument on the first point. It was clear he knew that was a poor argument, but really it's either that or accuse Alex of lying. I also remember attending church irregularly with my grandmother as a child. I was a casual believer then. My parents were not overly religious, but my grandmother was (and is), so I had no reason to question it. Every so often, I remember the preacher inviting everybody to close their eyes while he spoke, trying to instill the feeling of God in the room, and at the end, he would invite anyone in the congregation to stand up and approach the altar to...reconfirm their belief or something like that. I distinctly remember feeling nothing other than social pressure. I felt like I SHOULD be feeling something, and I was always tempted to stand to hide the fact that I felt nothing. But I was also very shy, and didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I never did. I think about that a lot, and I always wondered how many people felt the same thing. Did they initially stand due to social pressure, or to hide the fact they couldn't feel anything? And once they received that acceptance, is that what kept them there? Or is belief a matter of simply faking it until you convince yourself it's true? If I stood up, is that what I would have done?
I actually felt the exact same thing when I went on a ski trip with my youth group in New Mexico. There were youth groups from all over the country attending. The part of the trip that I remember most was us sitting in an auditorium with a couple thousand people. At the end of it they had everybody stand up walk to the front and lineup I'm one of 20-30 lines. Each line had a youth leader at the front's taking turns with each individual to reflect on everything we had learned to that day. The entire experience just gave me really creepy vibes and like you said all I felt was social pressure to play along. It was actually uncomfortable enough that I ended up being the only person and the auditorium sitting in my chair. I just couldn't bring myself to walk up there cuz it felt wrong. It also really pissed off our pastor who pulled my older brother aside and tried to convince him to come make me go up. When I finally did walk up there I just stared at the youth leader with a blank look for a few long awkward seconds. Ended up walking away without praying with him. Similar to you I was never able to get that experience out of my head.
Alex has lost touch with his own divinity, sad. We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie...............Falun Dafa
Theist Song sheet: 1. Say something nice about Alex or the Video 2. Say that Alex is mistaken or doesn't understand 3. Tell Alex what he needs to do 4. Wish Alex well for the future. It makes you think that these people belong to an organization that targets a video and suggests each member makes a response following a certain style.
When I was younger I was more of a furious, keyboard warrior, militant atheist. However over the years I think I've started to see a big reason why people would _want_ to believe in a god, or at least not want to hold their beliefs to criticism (besides cultural heritage). If there is one thing religion does very well, is that it fills a big, ultimately unescapable void that pops up in any thoughtful person's mind sooner or later, which is the question of _why_ . Why we exist, what is our purpose, how did we get here. _Why is there everything instead of nothing?_ I am of the opinion that these existential questions are in fact meaningless and have no real, objective answers. The notion that the universe has a why is just a figment of our flawed human perception. We are built to survive and reproduce, not to understand the universe. To ask what the meaning of life is, is nothing more than to start building a blindfold. A personal, subjective, ultimately fabricated meaning to hold on to in the midst of the anxiety that emanates from the mystery of existence. This is the most important journey one can go through I think, in terms of mental health. And it's not easy, and in fact most people don't ever manage to find that blindfold. So far I haven't either. And it's harrowing to think about most of the time. It plagues me. And thus, I understand why people wouldn't want to go through this: among all the other things religions offer (good, bad - mostly bad, depending on which one), they present to you blissfully illusory, circular, self-contained answers to all of those questions, and I think this is really the main feature. Pre-fabricated blindfolds so that you don't have to deal with the unknowability of life yourself. And this is where I've changed my mind over the years, after wrestling non-stop with these existential questions: I think it's perfectly fine to choose to stay blindfolded. For a long time now I've stopped trying to change people's minds about religion because it no longer feels like I'm doing any good to anyone. _There are no answers behind the blindfold_ , and it feels selfish to spread that struggle.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
Dude, what about the fact that CHILDREN are taught that hell exists. How do you think they feel about that? How do you think they square that with our current society? That whole spiel was completely nihilistic and depressing. Just because your life is shitty and depressing doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy ours with dignity, knowing that at least we were honest people committed to preserving and progressing our race.
Isn't the inescapability of the quest for meaning evidence for the fact that meaning must exist? Isn't the search for truth, for goodness, for love, for joy, evidence that they exist?.Or do you think all.of these are like chasing unicorns?
@@tayo6882 I personally think the inescapability from the search for meaning is just a quirk of the human mind, not something rooted in material reality. So yeah, it is kind of chasing unicorns.
@@drewpy14 I feel very strongly opposed to children being indoctrinated into religion. I also think state should be separated from religion in all instances. However on a personal level, as to "should people believe in fairy tales?", that's where I think it's ok to "stay blindfolded", sticking with my previous metaphor. My life isn't depressing btw, though this existential topic does tend to feel that way the more I think about it.
I've never seen a better speech. Ever. I've watched numerous debators, speakers, I am an avid reader from the early stages of my life and I'm willing to admit, without doubting it for a second, that you are the best speaker I've ever heard. The way you've approached this, the words you've used, the way you constructed your sentences... It's a work of a genius and I don't say this lightly. I mean it. Thank you for your work. It very much appreciated even though I'm inclined towards theism. This is the best argument/speech I've ever heard.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
I am a Christian and therefore is disagreement with your conclusions, but I will say that this is a sophisticated and well thought out argument that I very much appreciate. You do a good job at taking real questions, one step further. You took "ok arguments" and made them challenging arguments. I'll enjoy thinking through these things rather than just trying to dismiss them.
I also love discussions about the existence of spirituality and God and as a believer, I think it's important to also listen to the non-believers and their arguments.
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@josephrogers3666 Thanks for the question INFINITE HELL FOR FINITE CRIME You are forgetting that human crimes are against finite individuals hence finite human punishment, whereas God is infinite, so the punishment is infinite. People out of anger keep sinning/bblapheming God and so their punishment never catches up to their sin. Also, Hell is simply a place where you are separated from God so you are separated from everything that is good ,things we take for granted like the ability to breathe, rest or have our feet planted on the floor.
Never saw your videos before this, and i just cried for the first time in a while. Ive never seen someone explain the struggle of religious trauma involving the "feeling" of the invisible god. Thank you for this refreshing look on life
May I answer you maybe? The "struggle out of religious concern" is a struggle because you search to find God with your mind. Open yourself with your heart. That doesn't need religion. Humble yourself first and empty yourself of the pride of false knowledge. Pray to God in humbleness and ask for forgiveness of your sins. Bless you 🙏 ❤
that because you are a godless ass kissers as any Goddeniers... Another reason for not respecting you and you left God for nothing and the emptiness that this cult called atheism give you...
@@platzhirsch4275 that because you are a godless ass kissers as any Goddeniers... Another reason for not respecting you and you left God for nothing and the emptiness that this cult called atheism give you...
@@platzhirsch4275how does one "opens" his heart? What does it mean? What do you mean by "emptying yourself from false knowledge"? What false knowledge are you exactly talking about? Greetings from Germany
Bravo, sir. Most arguments supporting the existence of God simply rely on scripture--as if citing a book proves the claim. Your points are succinct, easily understood, and well supported by experience, common sense, history, facts, and compelling, unassailable logic. It's a delight and pleasure to listen to you speak.
There is one thing that Alex didn't try in his search for God. He didn't try faith. Blind trust that God is real and that the words are true with no proof.
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
As a Christian who is also a skeptic, I have greatly enjoyed your videos over the past few weeks. I extremely enjoy your objections and the grace by which you have shown. Not that I could challenge you in a debate and win, you are certainly the better debater. I also have a fundamental difference in how the world and God operates than many of the people you have debated and can see why many of your objections resonate. I don’t even claim to have all the answers but you have helped me button up my arguments and my own faith. I will continue to watch and enjoy. Thank you for making us Christian’s actually take the time to consider our arguments and have better arguments than in past years. I also think some of your logic is a bit faulty, especially when it comes to meaning of suffering but once again, with some of the Christians I’ve seen you debate, their theology leans toward that. Keep searching whether you find God or not, the pursuit of truth is the one of the greatest pursuits we can take as humans.
@@gonzalocastillo749 The Shroud of Turin was proven to be fake several times. The Catholic Church doesn’t even claim that it is real. Did you know this? In fact, they immediately found the artist who created it, as soon as it was produced. But then some higher ups decided that it would be good for business, so they just kept their mouths shut about it. But they have never added it to their list of miracles or evidence. Belief in the Shroud shows that you have no idea what you’re talking about, and have done zero research,
Btw after 15 years of theology debates, having been on both sides, this is the BEST opening argument I've heard. There's very few people who would've seen that vulnerability, only someone with the honest experience of being let down by religion could've seen that
Atheist COPIUM, really don't get why some people are quite desperate for everything to be meaningless accident and, in the end, nothing. It's always a weak argument when you have to start with using a manmade power structure IE religion as your talking point. Disproving any religion does nothing to disprove a universe with purpose. He also forgot to define "God" before going into how "God" doesn't exist. If you'd like to disprove manmade power structures and false/limited definitions of what "God" is, well, have fun. He also mentions "death" as a negative and desiring to avoid it (whatever it is since we don't know), which is utter insansity and ignorance on both counts. TLDR he did not define what "God" is but seems to define "God" as some separate being acting from outside and creating and influencing whatever and wherever we are, while also assuming he possesses the qualities necessary to perceive such a being and that being's methods of communication. This particular definition of "God" is manmade, as manmade as any dogmatic religion. Nothing new has been accomplished in this video, it is an exercise in futility that only argues about "God" under this created definition and mainly within the context of religions. Also assumes he can somehow define what is good and moral and that he has the ability to define what suffering is and the good or evil of it. Also believes in the holo hoax, and here's your red herring. Have fun
are you nuts? you seriously expect more people to waste time entertaining the idea of something obviously made up just so you feel respected? how about you respect my believe in your utter stupidity?! please spend years upon years researching and please respectfully entertain the idea that you are truthfully stupid! CUZ THATS WHAT I BELIEVE!
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
You have lived countless different lifetimes, reincarnation. Each lifetime, you have accrued black karma on your immortal soul. Your soul is Divine. The more black karma that shrouds the soul, the more one loses touch with one's own sense of the Divine, thus atheism..............Falun Dafa explain all of life's mysteries.
You really thought of saying that, typed it out and though "yup, this will will make him not an atheist and return him to God. Well done me!" No - that's not how you convert an atheist. You have to use logic which you BOTH agree on. Got it?
@@jonahhofmeyr8306 What most people have misunderstood is that we are not here to judge God, it is the other way around. The only way that we can do that is by showing our faith. This is a very special time in the history of mankind, referred to by Buddha and Christ alike as the End of Times. Zhuan Falun explains everything, good luck.
When I ask believers how they KNOW God, they tell me the same things. They FEEL Him. What does he feel like? They describe emotion, inspiration, awe - these things are divine? How? Every person experiences these things. How do you differentiate emotion from a divine experience? Some say they HEAR Him. What does his voice sound like? You hear him in your head? How do you know these aren't just your own thoughts, your own inner voice, which everyone has? Or they tell a story that had a profound affect upon them, but these stories never contain anything unexplainable or what could truly be considered divine. I think people believe in Him because they want to. I am incapable of believing something just because I want to.
Yes. It is very easy. In your deep core, you EXPECT something, and what happens? Your sub conscious presents you a convenient answer. Its basically self hypnosis. I hate religions so much, man.
It's the power of "belief". The deeper you believe something, the more you feel it and experience it internally. The truth or falsity of a belief has no bearing on human psychology. All that matters is you have a deep conviction and then it'll be indistinguishable from reality. I think this is a reason it's so smart that religious theologies like Christianity push so hard on the importance of "belief". It's held as the noblest of virtues and is the most powerful and effective method to keep human psychology under control. In reality, belief is just gullibility and surrender of intellect.
The need to worship is an innate in humans. Thats bc we were created for that purpose; To worship our creator. That was the message of all prophets but all books got altered except Quran. It’s the final message and promised to be preserved by our creator. You are welcome to read it and test its words for yourself. You’re welcome to listen to it and see how it affects your heart. Empirical science gives no evidence on how life started or on what happens after life. So you have to believe on something after death anyway. If you think it oblivion then it’s pure evidence-less belief at best. So logically the best choice is avoiding the possibility of eternal hellfire. Please , do yourself a favor and look into it more and more you have nothing to lose by checking anyway right? 💐
@@adelzlwo youre just making ALOT of r*tarded assumptions "the need to worship is an innate in humans" the fvck? No its not hahahaha, the are millions and millions of atheists and non believers that dont give a f*ck about a god. You talk about science but talk such a random garbage hahahah Just because science cant proof the origins of life YET, it doesnt mean you just fill the void with a god and there you got the answer. Islamic people habe this habit of trying to verify their religion through science and they will bend the meaning of all those sures just to show us how "scientific" the quran is hahahahaha There is no such thing as a scientific religion. Religion is a natural emmergence because we humans got so smart that we started questioning everything.
@@adelzlwo not all humans. there are a significant amount of humans that just don't have belief. Maybe comparing it to colorblindness helps, they simply cannot see it. I would love to have the certainty faith provides but everything you say just sounds like a scam to me.
I remember a story in the Bible, when Jesus was talking and the people around said. “Everything this man says is hard to understand” and one by one left. And the only ones staying were the disciples. And Jesus said. Do you also want to go? You see. People who “SAW” Jesus, couldn’t believe. How much harder it would be to believe after 2000 years.
Yet theres no evidence other than old texts that have been translated and changes many times. He walked on water and performed all these miracles and peoples saw that and didnt believe? Are you capable of critical thinking at all or are you just in denial for comfort?
@@nickhayden2299 yes the bible has been translated to languages. yes there are different translations of one language. the key aspect is none of the bible has changed the key points of the verse. an example of this that I can think of is that one English translation may say that "he rode a horse" and another says that "he was on a horse". do u get what im sayin. they don't change the key point of a verse. we also have Greek manuscripts, etc. which was one of the three most common languages spoken in first century Palestine (aka when Jesus lived). so we can tell if the bible has been changed at all. now for your last argument or whatver. people deny that the earth is round, deny that space doesn't exist, deny climate change, what makes you think that people can't deny Jesus as the Son of God.
@@draelock7082 people cling to it bc of how theyre brought up. Depending on which corner of the planet youre born in determines what religion your taught. Its a comfort blanket but i think alot of people know in the back of their mind its all bs.
@@nickhayden2299 those are the same thing lol Islam is the religion and Muslims are the followers of Islam. Judaism is the religion and Jews are the followers. and I see your other reply but that doesn't counteract what i said to you previously. yes many people are born into religion I'm not denying that, and many of them might also deep down think it might be stupid.
I'm a Christian and I have got to admit this man is so sound well spoken and articulate. I think just like Alex, questioning things and now Alex has given me more things to question... Here go the adventure for more truth 😊. So excited I love this alex, I hope you find THE TRUTH. Much love ❤
In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 so I'm supposed to apologize to an invisible, intangible stranger for saying "oh my god" as a kid, otherwise I deserve to burn in hell? Yeah fuck that
@@christinescantlebury5455 I have had both Heaven and Hell experiences I can go on for a long time so here is the short form. Hell: I was taken there and saw one skeleton in the left and many skeletons on the right facing this one skeleton, they were there for idolatry and fornication, and the background can only be described aa destruction. 2ndly I saw a girl on earth on the same bed as a guy and she kissed him on the cheek (implying a unlawful sexual relationship), the girl died and went to hell and fire consumed her entire bod but there was some skin left over , I remember thinking “at least she has some skin drooping from her face” and then more fire came and consumed her skin
Alex, I'm also an Atheist and I'm a physician. I've been brought up into the Christian culture as well, baptized and everything. But it's been many years now that I've freed myself from the doctrines. I read a lot and have always taken interest into the apparent battle between science, reason and belief that takes place within and outside. I congratulate you on the amazing remarks that you brought to the discussion, and also have been following your public appearances to my pleasant surprise on your politeness and coherence. As something of a scientist myself, I've been reading a few articles on the emotion or feeling of Awe. I would argue, like the authors, that Awe is a powerful driver of the religious experience that makes believers believe the experience is unexplicably holy. Awe is also experienced in many other occasions. The main point here is that Awe is or can be trained or instilled into someone according to the aculturation process of someone while growing up. You can feel immense happiness and fulfillment in singing in a church or by carefully watching Ants work. It only depends how you've come to learn how to experience Awe. I advise the read. Cheers!
@splashyvvs9493 since it's been over almost 2 decades ago, I struggle to remember exactly how it went. But I'm sure that it was a very gradual and insidious change. I never really believed in deities and nobody forced me to comply to the belief. And it seems that it all came together as I learned more about science and this earth: during school learning physics, math, chemistry, and mainly biology; and their applications on our origins, morality, and the ever-shrinking explanations for miracles (as per the God of Gaps theory).
I had a supernatural experience. I'm very ill, it's been quite a while suffering with what I have and one night I said to God, I'm scared because every night I felt like I was going to die. A few minutes after saying what I said i felt like someone laid a blanket of pure peace on me and the fear left. As I was drifting off to sleep I felt what I can only describe as a liquid living light of love flood my body for 10 minutes. A lot of folks would say my mind made it up (how you can even prove that idk) but I know for a fact it was the tangible peace and love of God telling me everything will be okay. I should of dead, absolutely dead from my injuries. The fact that I'm here still is a miracle.
@@pedrobanhodarosa5292 As a physician do you not wonder about the complexity of it all? Like you I grew up learning about evolution, age of the earth and the simple cell. I did physics, biology and chemistry up to O level. Now I am not qualified in anything that really matters but I realised the more science delved into things like the amoeba the more I realised that it was far to complex to have come about by random chemical interactions. In fact the fact we are discussing this after millions of years of supposedly random mutations etc seems absurd.
I tear up when you share your walk. This is the second time I've heard this clip. It choked me up last year; it does the same this year. Thanks for sharing, Alex.
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
You're searching Alex and I appreciate how profound and thoughtful your discourse is. I like this Muslin saying that goes, "Whoever does a work based on what he knows from his knowledge, God causes him to inherit a knowledge he didn't know he had." I think you can replace the word God with Universe or our material reality that you seem to be profoundly enamored with. Your discourse comes from a place of love and I hope that peace finds you in your days.
Religion does NOT make the world better. It covers up reality and creates illusions. Humans have improved society through science, logic, reason, and the pursuit of provable facts. Religion is a hindrance to all good pursuits of anything. Losing religion is a GREAT THING. CELEBRATE INTELLIGENCE AND FACT. They are truly amazing things and have actually saved millions of lives. Unlike religion and its endless lies and myths. SAVE HUMANITY - END RELIGION
I was a theist until my teenage years, then I became an atheist, and came back to theism again in my 30s. I'm in no place of judging anyone. But I'm happy about my path. The idea of God has changed too throughout the years and it's more beautiful and vast now.
Hello Alex! I just discovered your channel and all I can say is that what you are doing is an incredible piece of work! Thank you! Will for sure binge the hell out of this channel!
@@rachelcolomb I'm the sort of Christian american that presumes God is innocent until proven guilty and I give Him a lot of the benefit of the doubt. But even so I talked to a churchman for twenty years about my carnal interpretation of Eucharist and john6. Now I understand. But I kept going to church for twenty years divided. I followed despite my carnality. Try to do the same and give God the benefit of the doubt. That wd be a very American thing to to do. Or even English thing to do.
@@jamesiiimcnabb6358 In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie.
@@jeff_forsythe In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 It's difficult to love some-one who engages in some cosmic game of hide and seek. People don't even know if there is a God, let alone which God (there have been so many). Many have miracles, many have holy books. Jesus isn't even the first God to sacrifice himself for humanity. Even the Golden rule you quote has had similar sayings in previous religions before Jesus was even born. Then there's the character of the christian God too. The new testament is more pleasant, but the old testament is full of God killing people/ordering people to be killed, even babies and children. It's difficult to see the "all good" God in those verses, as he orders a complete genocide. Another point (although there are many more) is the criteria to be saved is being a christian and believing in christ. As alex mentions in this video, being saved seems to heavily depend on where you are born. If you're born in a fairly secular country, or a country that primarily practises another religion, your chances of being saved dwindle hugely as opposed to being born in a majority Christian country. Given that we don't choose where we're born, this is clearly a pretty biased system, which is only necessary in the first place, because two people ate an apple (before they knew what right and wrong were) and that doomed the whole of humanity. This then required a blood sacrifice from God to overcome, which is bizarre as it's his system.
@@sympunny8636 THERE ARE ATROCITIES IN THE BIBLE. the Bible does read like a violent adult movie-with incidents of genocide, rape, fornication, adultery, incest, murder, kidnap¬ping, beheadings, hatred, lying, blasphemy, pride, greed, and many other atrocities and vices. The Scriptures don't hide the wicked¬ness of humanity. They expose it and warn that the Day is coming when God will judge the world in righteousness.
@@sympunny8636 God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
@@sympunny8636 My thought the other night was I am not willing to believe there is an all mighty all knowing all powerful God who willfully creates people only for billions to serve an eternity in damnation. If the golden rules (as they are) are to repent and believe Jesus is the saviour then literally 6 billion plus people right now are doomed. That being so, that "God" is heinous and malevolent as, as you say, it's his system.
With your blessing, I would teach my son about faith by listening to this video. I am Christian, and I do love your questions and doubts, but I am sorry that such a platform is not fit for such delicate topics. I love face to face communication since it is far better. I could try answering your questions, one by one. I love your energy! Curiosity is great while looking for God. Faith and intelligence can have tremendous strength, since they are rarely met together.
As a Christian these are my three biggest challenges. Now I don’t have much a hard time with the suffering/ moral/ animal suffering question so much as I do the unanswered prayer question. Why is it that if someone in these situations pray God doesn’t answer at times but will answer seemingly meaningless prayers like finding car keys or a promotion. I have only been a follower of Christ for about three years now but these questions still eat at me. My biggest problem is that I’m so convinced of his existence in my mind yet my heart doesn’t see him. Why is he so distant. I’ve had what could be considered “divine timing” that I cling to because I havent personally witnessed anything further. I dont even know what God revealing himself would look like to me, there is a verse I wrestle with a lot that I have an answer that I consider grasping at straws. The verse goes “had these miracles been performed before Soddom and Gamorrah they would have believed” well if God desires that all will be saved why werent they performed there? If this would’ve sprung about faith why did it not happen? He fed Jonah to the large fish which is a miracle to save a town (Ninevah). So why not Soddom and Gomorrah? I am just writing this to say even as a Christian I wrestle with these questions. I dont know if there is such a thing as a perfect answer and if you are a seeking nonbeliever I truly do pray the Lord will reveal himself to you and I. (My answer for the Soddom and Gomorrah thing is that perhaps he did reveal himself in his wrath and some then came to faith, at least those who would, and or he doesnt do things that overbalance our free will… I dont know, like I said it’s a grasping at straws right now)
I believe it comes down to faith, faith is a tricky word because it often offends people or is seen as an excuse to fill a void that seemingly cannot be filled in some logical "grounded" way. Which leads to absolutes, expectations about HOW things should be or IF ONLY they were a certain way. Here's what I mean in a short-worded rudimentary type way, although this can be expanded on further and doesn't have to be boiled down to such excruciating simpleness, I view the approach as an occams-razor type conclusion. The simplest explanation is often the correct conclusion. The truth is, not one of us will ever have the answer to every question, the why's and the how's. One could spend forever pondering eternity. But we don't need to, we choose to... because having unknowns can be scary or frustrating. Basically what I'm saying is, Jesus(God) never promised in our lives we wouldn't struggle, or always have the answer. There are natural laws that have been set in motion since creation that are indisputable no scientist or philosopher can argue, all things must come, and all things will go. What can happen will happen. Wherever you go, there you are (just a little joke sorry) We were given a choice, to believe, or not to believe. (Before shakespeare man!) And a few guidelines to live life by, along with commandements. Love God and accept christ as your savior Love your neighbor like you love yourself Forgive others Be patient and kind Be generous and as the Good Lord himself says "those who follow my commandments will be rewarded" and its clear the rewards are not yet here during this lifetime, but I imagine it's much more valuable than a million bucks or a girlfriend or something. I mean he's God after all, but seriously In the end, it's all faith. "The faith of a mustard seed" so to speak, and people really struggle with having faith, understandably so, even Jesus' disciple lacked faith, and they MET Jesus! Imagine that, it certainly didn't make them unworthy or unwanted by Christ Anyways, just my two cents. Good luck, decisions aren't easy. But we have to make those decisions every day
The Old Testament is the book mainly for/of the Jews. It may be that the 'God' in parts of this book, now called the Old Testament, was a demi-god. The New Testament was for those who would separate from the old religion, and others, and become followers of the Christ.. A new way of understanding God was presented - that of a God of Love ( and not a jealous and angry God).There is no 'personal' God. God is the ever-expanding Universe. What we believe is our 'personal God' is our own Soul. The Soul is of the higher, abstract mind and is the sum total of all the good, true and beautiful gleaned from lifetimes we have lived in the school of life - this planet. Yes, rebirth/reincarnation. We are unconscious sparks of the Divine, come to earth, in an experiment in free will to evolve in consciousness towards enlightenment. We are' gods in the making' (New Testament). Christ was the first and fastest to do this. Just because you pray for something does not mean you get 'it' or in the way you expected. It depends on a number of factors, including the blueprint for your life this time around on in earth and good intention. When I 'pray' I ask for help in a situation, for the greater good, in the name of the Christ and what he stands for. Most often my 'prayer' is answered in an unexpected way, mainly because I cannot not know the full story, as Christ did, such as with with the woman at the well when He 'read' the Akashic records her past lives.) Meditation in contact with your Soul is a good way to get answers to questions and problems. This is what Christ taught His disciples when they went to the 'upper room', an analogy for the plane of the Soul). I was in a Pentecostal church but moved on years ago and am a student of the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. 'From Bethlehem to Calvary' - the Initiations of Jesus, by Alice Bailey (a very evolved Soul) gives a different perspective on Christ's work and the New Testament. I hope this helps. Contact me if you wish. Goodwill Blessings to you.
In my opinion this is the most hard question of all, why He allow suffering? God can create something from nothing, he has unlimited power and knows everything so he cannot be wrong, which means that there must be a solid reason for it but we cannot literally comprehend it yet, because of our limitations compared to him. The Bible tells us that one day Christ will come back and deal with all that stuff personally, then this sad reality will end forever. And we cannot forget that He also lived it on the cross so he took his share of it too.
how about instead of praying to jesus. you should pray O true God show me your true self and be honest about it. becuase according to me you are praying to wrong God. islam has your answers. but i dont ask you to say Allah if you feel uncomfortable. JUst pray O true God whoever you are show me your true self your true message and then be honest about it. be open
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
How were you able to disprove the existence of God? If you don’t believe in God because of suffering, it is you that has defined God as incapable of causing people to suffer.
@Spyrix-rx3rd no, it's the endless contradictory signals. It's the words in the the text not matching what's on the screen, but if belief does you some good, then keep on believing, belief made me question, and that's done me some good.
@@Spyrix-rx3rd I don't need to disprove what has never been proven in the first place. The problem of evil isn't my issue with the Islamic god. It is the contents of the Quran, hadiths, sirah, scholarly tafsirs, etc That make it glaringly obvious that this is a man made product that has very little to do with anything "divine"
I was just told that my mom doesn’t want me buried next to her since I’m not Catholic. She had a plot reserved which I thought was weird because I’m still young and she basically said she’s going to retract it and let someone else have it. None of my other siblings are Catholic yet I am the one she gets angry at. I just feel numb at this point.
I'm sorry to hear that. Christianity often drives a wedge between family members. It especially does not help that Jesus himself said he was here to divide families.
@@CB66941 But NOT in that manner. It was about those who choose to follow the Christ's teachings (not religious dogma) and those who do not! His teachings would be DIVISIVE. And this is NOTHING to do with specific religions.
That's rough. But isn't better to know how she really feels? Maybe it's a good time to reconsider how you feel about her as well. I don't know how young you are. If you are still financially dependent on her then I'd encourage you to keep your thoughts to yourself. But if you're able to be financially independent from her then don't hesitate to put an appropriate distance between you and her. I'm sharing advice that would have drastically changed my life for the better had I received it at the right time. I hope you will consider it thoughtfully.
That's terrible. I'm really sorry that's what your relationship is like with your mom. Just want you to know (from a Catholic) that that's not right. I hope she sees that what she said in no way reflects the heart of Jesus.
So glad he discussed animal suffering. I've been bringing this up in numerous discussions, but this is the first time I've heard it discussed in a formal debate. There are so many reasons to doubt the existence of gods, any single one of which is sufficient; the suffering of animals is one of them.
I felt like sharing some of my thoughts about this from my christian perspective: I think there's a bit of misconception about how to find God and what to expect from it. A lot of people expect that when they search for God that they will be met with some sort of supernatural experience or emotion. Nowhere in the bible does it say that is what happens. The bible tells us to put our trust and faith in Jesus, who died for our sins so that we are forgiven of those sins. If we do not put our faith in him, we do not believe in him. To believe in him we simply need to look for him, but where do we find him? We find him first in the bible; Faith comes by the hearing (reading) of the word as Paul said (Romans 10:17) If you hear (read) the word and do not believe, then there is no faith and God won't be found outside of the bible. (Yes there are special cases ofcourse but for the sake of simplicity I won't go into that now) The bible is God's message for us which tells us who he is, who we are, whats wrong and how it's fixed. If we try to find God in some other way, how can we know for sure that what we find is God? Some people trust in some sort of experience for their faith and when asked what their basis is for their faith they might recall that experience and trust in that, this is not a biblical definition of faith and how it's found. The only 'supernatural' experience with God we may experience (but not always consciously) is the work of the holy spirit, which transforms the believer into a new person. But this does not happen before someone actually believes, this happens afterwards and is an ongoing process until death. On the point of suffering: God indeed allows suffering, humans have free will and we cause a lot suffering in the world. Also lets not forget that we live in a cursed world, where sin dwells. Even in the bible satan is called the god of this world, he rules here, until the second coming of Christ. It's hard to understand how terrible of a thing our sin is to a holy god, terrible enough to have made a gap between us and God.
So the next step is to determine how, exactly, anyone can believe that the Bible is the "word of God" other than "because it says that it is". That's what I spent years trying to figure out.
@@colbyboucher6391study history of the Bible and the manuscript evidence. The accuracy of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus thousands of years after being written all perfectly and distinctly fulfilled which is a historic fact. Watch TH-cam videos on the Bible etc
you are correct except for my experience. i was 25 and my best friend died, i was in deep sorrow and then a feeling voice touch all of the senses spoke . no spoke is not right , then a communication, i now realize that i cant describe my experience
Having watched your first debate with Johnathan, it’s amazing to see how you continue to grow and improve your debate and public speaking skills. Excited to see you continue to flourish!
Alex, as a Christian myself I am incredibly humbled by your sincerity and extreme efforts in pursuing the possibility of belief in God. I so much more feel the weight of your arguments here than I have from any other non-Christian thinker.
They who made quarks capable of making us and everything are not condemning us for non - belief. We are judged solely for our choice to sin with our soul's awareness that we do, are,, and have sinned, and say, "I have no responsibility to anyone but myself, and all gods be damned."
@@FoxyJohn what you gain is the most wonderfully loving Coach in life who knows your strengths and weaknesses and, were you to look up to Him in honor and humility, the absolute best would be brought out off you and your soul and character would shine as an example of what the most loving, disciplined, kind, brave human being could possibly look like. The human, transformed by Christ, either inspires the desire to be like, a pain of seeing how short one falls from that likeness, or an utter hatred of that level of goodness. I've met those much further on the walk with Christ. It is hard to see my shortcomings. And, yes. If you screw up as an Olympic athlete for willfully disobeying your coach, asking forgiveness is perfectly correct. Though God gave you shortcomings, it's your choice to not do your best for selfish reasons which makes you not wish to meet His gaze.
@@FoxyJohnJust relax. You’re telling billions of people they’re all crazy or hallucinating. The problem is that many of us were skeptics or were non believers too once. We’re not all adult children who believe in fairies and teapots. Something is not fake just because you haven’t experienced it.
As child I didn't watch horror movies because they made me think Chucky slept under my bed. Then, as adult I realised other adults feel the same way about god. They're afraid of something that doesn't exist. In this life it's very important to be kind to your family, friends and neighbours. But fiction is for movies. And that's my blessing to you. 😇🇨🇦🍻
This was a brilliant presentation, although I think there’s some confusions 1. He criticize Christianity and call it “Theism” and is not the same 2. The fact he didn’t “feel” God is an argument that debunks God, and confuse it with “believe” 3. The existence of suffering doesn’t disprove God existence because we don’t fully undertand it (although I think he understands it through bias arguments) 4. I think the statistics he mentioned explain cultural and sociological influence on Believing in God, not his existence or not
He is not arguing about the existence of Gd - he is arguing that the three observations he makes have BETTER *Naturalistic* explanations than Theistic ones.
@@L.Ron_Dow Well I had misinterpreted it then. I think the title is clear, the explanation of his points is also a rejection of the idea of the Christian God, and overall his arguments point that the natural explanation implies the inexistence of a God. And I think they are complementary or at least non contradictory
Alex is a phenomenon, after following him for a few years now he never ceases to impress me. I’m an old git now but I’d have loved to have gone to University and had a minute amount of intellect and knowledge that he has. What a bright future he has I wish him all the best.
@@owenivor Thank you. I suppose what I was getting at was the fact that a University education and all it offers opens not only doors for you academically but it also brings you into contact with aspiring minds. Alex has undoubtedly a fantastic brain along with a wonderful vocabulary. He can speak about many topics in depth, precise and clear plus he has that charming twinkle in his eye which helps for the media he works in. I can only see him going from strength to strength.
@@studio-flash When I was in Uni (didn't graduate), one of my class mates was a retired senior. He seemed like he was having the (second) time of his life. It's never too late, my good man. There may be other limiting circumstances but age isn't one :)
As a Bible-believing Christian, I firstly just want to thank you for your gentleness, calmness and respect for the opposition. Rare to see. And secondly, like you said, I don't know your heart truly but I pray that you will nonetheless find what you've been looking for and ultimately find the grace of God that is shown in Jesus Christ
great video -- although I am a believer, I share a lot of the same sentiments.. I too am continuing to search, and more often than not, left empty handed. keep fighting the good fight brother
When I read the entire bible, I knew just after the first several chapters of genesis that this religion is not convincing to me. Trees and plants didn't come before the sun, moon and stars. There's no talking serpents, you can't live in a fish for several days, you can't store the millions of diverse species on earth in a boat, no talking donkeys, no talking bushes and no seven headed dragons.
Some of those. Being plants and trees moving towards the sun, moon (sunlight still), star (sun again). We all emerged from common ancestors which would work for that example of Noah’s ark. But it is indeed mainly metaphorical. I am in the same boat, definitely more inclined towards Buddhism especially with all this future prediction Shit and what not that’s been popping up lately. However i am open to the possibility that a god exists regardless of which religion. Or aliens lol
Except most of these things are considered supernatural occurrences. Supernatural beings exist in Christianity, so these things are very much possible within that worldview. As for trees and plants, the Bible does talk about light being there before plants, so I don't see how that is an issue. Also the Bible never mentioned "millions of diverse species" boarding the ark. If your objection is lack of evidence, why bring up all of this? Whether the Bible has a talking donkey or not doesn't affect the authenticity of it at all.
0:08 That is most definitely not all there is to you Alex. You are intelligent & knowledgeable. You are honest and ethical. You are brave. You display courage doing what many consider the most fearful thing to do, speaking in front of large crowds. And as an atheist I am proud to have you as one of our fellow atheist spokesman.
As a Christian believer I am also "proud" of Alex because I think he's a seeker of Truth and the ultimate meaning to life. Not trying to disrespect your feelings. I'm just a student of life. Peace to you from Florida.
@@johnbrzykcy3076 Why would your complimenting Alex, be showing any sort of disrespect for my feelings? A better question might be this....With your belief that Alex is a seeker of truth, the fact that he is a non-believer, despite searching as hard as he has for so long, does it not give you pause to question your own beliefs? I do disagree with the part about Alex searching for the ultimate meaning in life. Because Alex would be the first to tell you that there is no ultimate meaning in life. The meaning of life is different for everyone.
I agree, i am an orthodox rabbi, and i believe in listening to all views, as judaism demands intellectual honesty. Alex seems very well thought out, and i believe honest in his search. I did refer him to my lecture on my small channel which singlehandedly answers all 3 of the questions with the same concept, as his 3 questions when you analyse them deeply are really one question at its root. At the end of the day whether we are successful in finding God or not, God judges us by our honesty and integrity, and judging by what i see here from Alex, is an honest and respectful man, trying his best to find the truth.
@@adamherskine8594 Do you believe Alex will be going to hell when he dies? That is meant as a serious question. Not trying to be mean or antagonistic, but if you go by the Bible, in that the only way to heaven is through belief and acceptance in Jesus Christ, it leaves little wiggle room there. EDIT: I apologize. It just hit me that you said Rabbi. Obviously you don't follow the whole Jesus Christ thing. Again, sorry about that. However my question still applies though.
"Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you." -St. Thomas Aquinas
Werner Heisenberg: Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, was known for his spiritual and philosophical interests. He believed that science and religion could coexist and once said, "The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you." Max Planck: The founder of quantum theory, Max Planck, also had spiritual beliefs. He believed in a "divine being" and thought that science and religion complemented each other. Albert Einstein: Einstein is famous for his contributions to physics, including the theory of relativity. While he didn't adhere to traditional religious beliefs, he often referred to a sense of awe and wonder at the universe, which he described as "cosmic religion." He rejected a personal God but believed in the existence of an impersonal, pantheistic deity.
Your eloquence in formulating your position is in a way a trend that I am observing these days. It comes to my attention that more and more people from the audience on various debates, meetings etc. are formulating the qustions so well crafted, intelectually rich and just simply well thought. Probably constanlty rewatching many debates for the last 20 years and the observation of history modern and old is forcing upon us and within us an understanding that is deeply suspicious of grand ideologies.
Your experience reminds me a lot of my own, though I didn't go to quite the same lengths. I joined Bible studies, went to church, prayed, and looked at the arguments of any apologist I could find. In the process, I met some amazing people, and I really wanted to believe in part so I could have more fulfilling experiences and relationships with them. Still, I found nothing.
I’m not a Christian but I have spent a good deal of time, especially, learning the theology of medieval and late Middle Ages theologians. What I realized is that, what these men were doing was essentially- besides Olympic level mental gymanistics- trying to frame their reality in a way that made sense to them having accepted the factuality and objective truth of scripture. And also, as much as I love the Hebrew Bible, I decided against framing my entire outlook on reality and the meaning of life on the writings of a Bronze Age Palestinian tribesman or scribe.
I do feel like he either models himself on Hitchens or just happens to be extremely similar. His accent, intonation, rhythm etc is virtually identical.
@@blackswan8653 People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
Watching this while Israel commits genocide on Palestine. And I'm just like "weeeelp. So much for us learning to not commit the same or worse atrocities"
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@itsahrims I already have heard his poins before People underestimate hell, it is bad because it is separation from God. In a vision I was shown a person who claimed to be Christian but started fornication (premarital sex), He died relatively young and went to hell forever (1 Cor 6:9). God’s holiness means He will not coexist with sinners forever therefore Repent (Luke 13:3) and have a relationship with Jesus.
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 are we just quoting fairy tale books? Cause I got plenty. You are welcome to go on believing what you believe in. But the reality is, that's just your opinion, and what you consider facts are just testimonies from people that lived 2k years ago. In any case , go watch the video. If the Bible can be considered a piece of fact for your cults then by any logic, any book claiming to have a deity can also be considered blfact. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't discredit it
@@itsahrims Nahdaily testimonies of Jesus working in ourlife God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, ,evil Spirits, the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
As a Christian, I am touched to hear your experience searching for God. I truly find your first argument quite difficult to respond to when I am naturally convinced that God would reveal himself to any non-resisting non-believers. My faith is still and will surely stay unbending because of my experience, philosophical views, and historical data backing up the center of Christianism, Jesus. Still, I am very perplexed by your condition.. And loving your content ! Cheers
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
And what do you mean by “reveal” himself in this case? Does this young man expect God to knock on his front door and say “it is I” once he reads a certain number of pages or says a certain number of prayer? What could make anyone think God would work this way? Why does he assume that he earned a private meeting with God because he studied? He never has had faith and has never believed
@@mikelleonardi Good question, for me it was just a sense of relief and abandonment of my life and wants and needs to an unconditional understanding love. And I can’t ever shake that feeling. But I’ve heard of other stories that were more literal in the meaning of reveal such as dreams and visions of Gods spirit speaking to them. I would of course expect God to reveal himself in different ways to people. But I don’t get why he wouldn’t do so to everyone open to searching him.
@@joshuafreling2618 the mystery of faith. It’s as if some people treat faith like a meter in a video game. If you fill up your faith meter enough, God will come and speak to you and say “hey man, you were right! I’m real!!” And to me that is simply absurd. God already has revealed himself through the life, works and teaching of Jesus Christ. And we all have open access to that. It’s our job to study it and search for the truth. And this journey to the truth keeps leading people to Jesus over 2,000 years later and in greater quantities today than ever before. We have no reason for God to be “revealed” to us physically until our day of Judgement. Our love and faith in Him the Father and in His son are what lead us to eternal life. They aren’t what lead us to our Earthly meeting with God in our bedroom or whatever.
God never revealed himself ever to me!!!! I’m searching for him for months and months. Praying and asking for mercy because my life sucks. Starting to lose faith and my life has gotten so bad im consuming atheist media
I was in the same boat, no religious family, no pressure from anybody. Existential crisis at 16. Could not get myself to believe in God although I wanted to. I would never lie to myself or fake believing in him. However, my story went the other way. I definitely can’t explain my conversion and I definitely can’t convince anyone that I am right and they are wrong. All I can do is thank God for revealing himself to me. I’m a believer in God and can attest that the Christian God is not someone who is understood but someone who is to be revealed. No person can reveal God, it is God who reveals himself. I love these videos and I love this comment. I see myself reflected in every thought and word said. “ the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Western religions are more concerned with behavior, doctrine, and belief than with any transformation of the way in which we are aware of ourselves and our world. The trouble with many religions, accused of wishful thinking, is that they are not wishful enough. They show a deplorable lack of imagination. Many people think that the Bible is the authentic word of God and they worship the Bible, making it an idol.
@@ciararespect4296 Yes, of course. Thanks for being polite. I will do my best to try to explain, although ultimately, I don't really have an explanation. But here it goes.. My story: Like I mentioned, I do not come from a religious family. My life before God was what most people would consider " the perfect life". I was a fairly popular high schooler. Did pretty good academically. Excelled in sports, had lots of friends, had a girlfriend etc. Everything was "perfect". It was actually my mother and brother who first started going to church. Long story short..I eventually started going only when there was going to be free FOOD!! Little by little I heard the word. Fast forward to many FOOD events later. I found my soul being convicted of what I once thought was foolish and a bunch of fairy tales. I could not explain why I was convicted in such a way. I needed to engage my rational mind and find a way to disprove the things that were convicting my soul. This started a hunger/existential crisis. I NEEDED to disprove this conviction that was on my heart. This lead me to all kinds of research. Spirituality, science, psychology etc. All to try to suppress/find a way out of this conviction. I got into all kinds of things but kept running into the christian God. I got to the point of accepting that human beings have a spiritual component, it is not just the material realm but there is some type of spirituality involve. From here, I went into all kinds of occult beliefs... thinking I had found the explanation to what the christians were "trying to explain". Long story short....I kept running into the christian God. Always a warning, always a description, a testimony like mine, always something...Always those annoying Christians having something to say, right? A lot more to say... but I am shortening years of my life here. Anyways, I got to a point where I was convinced that the zeal for God in the people around me had to be real. I had made a promise to myself that I would never fake having this zeal for God myself, but I did hunger to know what it was like to love this God that you could not see or feel. I prayed for hours, days, and eventually months. But nothing.. No visitation from God, no visitation from any angelic being, no feeling of love for this God, nothing. I kept praying... months had gone at this point. I was ready to give up..when all of a sudden I find myself in church overtaken by this warmth of Love towards GOD. This immense feeling of love towards him. Almost like when you fall deeply in love with someone and you are past the infatuation stage. You look at them and just have this immense love for them. Or when you have your first child and look over their crib and look at them with this indescribable love you feel for them. I knew God was real. My being had such a certainty that God was real. It's hard to explain but for us Christians there are certain moments in our walk where we know for sure God is there/listening to us. I know I'm describing it like a simple feeling but it is more then that. My life after this started to fall apart. It was almost like becoming a Christian had been the wrong the decision. Many more things to say about the trials that came after. But in short God was and continues to be good faithful. I was convicted of Sin. I started to hunger for the things of God and now the things I use to hate I love and the things I love now I dislike. I do not need to see an Angel, I do not need God to appear to me in a smoky cloud. I have witness the biggest miracle I could ever see--- God changing my heart. He turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Now able to respond to his word, love righteousness and despise sin. Some key scriptures that have given me more insight to fully describe what I can only describe as the definition of "Being born again" John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; In short this verse summarizes my experience: 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Lastly, I wanted to include two links below in case you read through my whole spiel. th-cam.com/video/eKYMji4vr9E/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/dQ_49Qx6KLE/w-d-xo.html p.s sorry for the spelling mistakes, hard to type on my laptop
@@CheknoEternity You'd be surprise how close your assertion is to what the bible has to say. Im completely open to hearing about other religions and questioning my own religion. Rather I constantly look for new "vision of the world" rather without this process I would have never arrived to the Christian worldview. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the Christian religion and any other religion. It is not a works based religion. Meaning that in order to be accepted by God we have to do this or that. Rather it teaches that Men can do nothing for God, they fall short of the glory of God. They can never earn their way to heaven through their behavior modification or rituals. Even so, it was the religious people of the day that ultimately put Jesus to death. Jesus again and again, called out religious hypocrisy. The Christian faith teaches that the biggest prove of our faith is the transformation that has occurred in us. Not out of our own doing but out of the working of God in us. When one is drawn to God one becomes more himself, one knows himself more. Before we are drawn to him and our evils exposed by him. We go on thinking we are "good people". We are blinded by our own ambitions, pleasures, and personal agendas. "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. “I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you" Faith in two parts : I: th-cam.com/video/9Nh-_PEH25o/w-d-xo.html II: th-cam.com/video/56HO390emvc/w-d-xo.html Triune God th-cam.com/video/eKYMji4vr9E/w-d-xo.html
@@edgarbahena4454 The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals. When superstitious Bronze Age primitives invented God, they gave him every day single human character flaw they had, because they simply projected their own uneducated thoughts onto their imaginary God. Men created God in their own religion
I met Alex at a house party at university. We shared beers and just chatted. Cool guy. I doubt he remembers me, but man, it's interesting seeing how different he is in debate
When I came to the realization as a young man that there was no god I became much happier and freer, because my mind was no longer overrun with nonsense. Religious people often say, 'the truth shall set you free', and they of course mean that if you 'believe' then happiness and meaning follow. I do not see increased happiness or meaning in friends who are religious; just the opposite. What sets you free is leaving religious silliness behind and living your life in the real world.
In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 I hope that someday you will clear your mind of religious nonsense and start living in the real world. We'll all be better off for it, including you.
Before rejecting God we need to study the issue cautiously because we're dealing with our eternal destiny. The freedom the Bible talks about is freedom from condemnation not freedom to do what we want or to be who we are. Living life our way will take us to bankruptcy. We need the wisdom of God to guide us.
@@fernandosviewpoint I have studied the issue carefully, and that's why I made the decision to live in the real world, free of non-existent gods and devils, heavens and hells. I wonder how you came to believe in Jesus and not one of the other thousands of gods created by man from caveman times onward. Did you do a careful study?
@@fernandosviewpoint The issue at hand is sin and God’s nature of being just. Sin brings suffering (the pleasure is short term, and the suffering is long term-on earth and in hell forever). God brings Righteousness (may have short term suffering followed by long term pleasure- on earth and in Heaven). If you love yourself repent of your sins (lying, hatred, unforgiveness, sexual sins, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, stealing, dishonouring your parents etc) & believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. (Jesus died on the Cross as a sacrifice and defeated death by rising from the dead)
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@JellieThePink God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
@@Ibis_W0lfie People underestimate hell, it is bad because it is separation from God. In a vision I was shown a person who claimed to be Christian but started fornication (premarital sex), He died relatively young and went to hell forever (1 Cor 6:9). God’s holiness means He will not coexist with sinners forever therefore Repent (Luke 13:3) and have a relationship with Jesus.
At least your brand of Christianity that you were raised in fostered education and curiosity. I was raised being preached to by "hellfire and brimstone" preachers who may or may not have graduated from secondary school. It took me until my 30s to crawl out of that ignorance. You are a brilliant young man that is teaching me a great deal, thank you.
Antony Flew was an advocate of atheism until 80's finally realized Christianity and Theism are not inherently tight together and published his book : There is A God. What exactly did Alex O'Connor teach that indicates his intellect? Can you even name one? All his speeches are just childish 8-years-old wishful thinking.
@@adamc1694 *Richard Carrier* wrote to Flew in 2004 and asked a number of questions: Here's a part of his reply (written in his own hand): *_"My one and only piece of relevant evidence_*_ [for an Aristotelian Gѻd] is the _*_apparent_*_ impossibility of providing a naturalistic theory of the origin from DNA of the first reproducing species... [In fact] the only reason which I have for beginning to think of believing in a First Cause gѻd is the impossibility of providing a naturalistic account of the origin of the first reproducing organisms."_ That is a GotG argument. Flew was not a Biologist nor a Biochemist, he had no qualifications in that field at all. In another BBC interview with Joan Bakewell Flew retracts his certainty of the unexplainable complexity of DNA, noting that the _"starting point"_ for life _"is a thing that still needs a naturalistic explanation"_ but though _"many people after the findings of DNA looked around and wondered whether they'd ever be able to find it, and _*_thought it would simply be impossible_*_ to do it,"_ Flew instead concedes, *_"Well, it isn't."_* Flew later said: *_"I now realize that I have made a fooI of myself_*_ by believing that there were no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction."_ Why did he say this? Well he added: *_"I have been mistaught by Gerald Schroeder_*_ ... it was precisely because he appeared to be so well qualified as a _*_physicist_*_ (which I am not) that I was never inclined to question what he said about physics."_ So, he trusted a *physicist* on the subject of *biochemistry* (it would seem Flew does not recognize the difference.) This attitude seems to pervade Flew's method of truthseeking, of looking to a single author for authoritative information and never checking their claims. Flew's 2007 book _"There Is a Gѻd: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind"_ (2007) was in fact written by an evangelical preacher named Bob Hostetler, with considerable assistance from the book's co-author, evangelical promoter and businessman Roy Abraham Varghese. Mark Oppenheimer's, article _"The Turning of an Atheist,"_ NYT Nov 2007, confirms that, Flew has now confessed to the fact that *he did not write a word of this book* (even though it is sold under his name), and apparently knows (or remembers) little of its contents. So yes, Flew did abandon Atheism for Deism - I guess this is what happens when you start reaching the end and lose all your powers of rationality and get used by people with an agenda.
@@L.Ron_Dow @adamc1694 won't reply to you because once you start presenting good arguments, he'll just call you names and run away like a coward. He thinks of himself as an intellectual, but just repeats the same old and tired arguments. He also has a really funny vendetta against Alex just because he can't handle someone who's smarter than him. Either way, your response completely and utterly destroyed him.
@@adamc1694 Your argument is basically "Well just because The Little Mermaid is fictional doesn't mean mermaids don't exist." Also, Alex already wrote a review for that book on his Goodreads account. I've presented this to you and you've ignored it because you'd rather stay in your ignorant bubble than learn something new. No wonder you're a theist. You're too ignorant to be anything else.
Now THAT is the only reason you need not to belive in God. If he would exist i would be grandmaster in league of legends. But guess what, i'm not, so he dosen't exist.
I love that he includes the most likely theist counterpoints in his presentation -- and with intellectual honesty. Brilliant technique. But mostly I love how be presents the central question as a simple choice: Which hypothesis better explains our reality? Theism or atheism? Without understanding it with that much clarity, this is how and why I transitioned from Christianity to Atheism when I was about the same age as Alex. I simply looked at the world around me, and everything made much more sense when I considered the idea that no omnipotent god was at the controls, that we lived instead in a random, naturalistic universe.
This universe is based only on physics and probability. Even the conscience and the spirit, according to quantic theory. Everything else is just philosophy and illusion. (Sorry for my bad english!)
Atheism has no way of accounting for the world we live in. It is honestly the worst worldview in terms of intellectual rigor. For example, there is no justification for objective truth, logic, reason, or morality. No justification for an intelligible universe which is uniform and governed by laws. The atheist must stand on the Christian worldview in order to make any claim whatsoever. They appeal to science, morals, and logic, but only because they rely upon the foundation that God gives them. In other words, the atheist gets tools from God (logic, reason, morals, etc.) and then tries to use them to say God doesn’t exist. It’s futile thinking.
You write as if theism and atheism were the only choices. In my view both are wrong. 'Physicists say the universe is fine-tuned for Life'. ( Dawkins). A fine-tuned universe precludes any Religious God, there can be zero physical interference. Fine-tuning requires a fine-tuner, so a creator is entirely possible, if not likely.
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
This clip is taken from my debate with Jonathan McLatchie in May 2022, which can be viewed in full here: th-cam.com/video/rnIQFI1pYLM/w-d-xo.html
Could you please explain to me why you believe that refusal to worship a god if they exist is an irrational stance to you (as you claim at 5:55 onwards)? I would take those two stances as being orthogonal. After all there are alot of very real intelligences on this planet right now that I personally would not even consider worshipping. Worship has to be earned and a god could exists who, based of the state of our world, certainly does not warrant worship imo.
You seem to make a habit of making incredibly bad mistakes.
For instance, in this discussion, make the mistake of confusing refusal to worship the god of the Bible, even if it was demonstrated exist, with some bizarre denial of its existence, and refusal to acknowledge the existence of such a deity.
There are many atheists who became such after realizing that the Abrahamic god, as depicted in Biblical, Toranic, and Qu'Ranic scripture is entirely unworthy of worship because of the nature of that deity as depicted.
This video is so wrong on so many levels.
"seek and you will find.....and do everything in love"-- The Holy Bible
CBDC and mark of the beast DNA vaxxas-map. Wake up, Alex.
th-cam.com/video/YUltsuO28s0/w-d-xo.html
just realised the name change from cosmic skeptic to alex o connor. i’m glad you feel comfortable enough to use your real name, one of my favourite content creators 🐐
Read the community posts if you care.
@@LeanAndMean44well damn not everybody is a super fan like you with 83 comments on the channel 😭
@@HC-sb5ckYou’ve only got 14?! Clearly not a fan.
@@bankmanagerI have a fair few on this channel I think but half are troll comments so I don't think they count.
cosmic skeptic is dead, and remain dead.
Alex, I am a Christian. Just wanted to say that I love your videos, and from what I have seen in your videos is a very polite, respectful, extremely intelligent, empathetic man who is genuinely and unashamedly searching for the truth. Thank you for your channel and the challenging arguments that you bring up!!
stop being christian or stop being a rationalist
"Christians" murdered more people than Adolf Hitler... Sick fucks
If you have watched all his videos, heard all his arguments and are still a Christian, then perhaps there is something you are still missing?
@@DrDarrenStevens Why do you think it makes any sense to even be skeptical of God? We do not have any ability to verify the existence of God. No matter how smart we get it's just never going to be possible to know for sure one way or another. If somebody wants to have faith in God just let them have their faith because you can't prove God does not exist anyway. It takes faith either way you want to look at it. And, if God is actually real then he is way beyond our ability to fully comprehend or understand him. So, in my opinion it just doesn't make any sense to even be skeptical of this at all.
@@theonerm2 While we can not prove or disprove the general concept of God, the Christian bible and other religious texts make specific claims about this being which we can evaluate using logic and reason.
As a muslim one thing I love about Alex is his demeanor and class act. He does not raise his voice, He does not disrespect the people he debates and his proficiency in verbal communication is truly remarkable and articulate.
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 If jesus was God he wouldnt have died in the first place.
@@ThePurplizer Jesus died willingly to make it possible for all people to be forgiven for their sins. He didn't die because he was too weak to overcome those who were trying to kill him.
@@thomascampbell5633 So "God" had to die for the sins of his own creation because otherwise he would not have been able ( Even though he is infinite in power) to forgive his own creation of their own sins. If the world is math and logic that has to be the least logical explanation to any of "God"s decisions. No wonder do you find so many atheists in christian countries
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363The arrogance…
I've been agnostic for a few years after deconstructing my evangelical fundamentalist upbringing. But I've always stayed open to the possibility that "just maybe there is a god" all while never experiencing anything close to something that would convince me. Due to life events, I became EXTREMELY depressed for about the last year. To the point where, for 6 months straight, I had to fight so hard to convince myself I wanted to stay alive from the moment I opened my eyes. I had never felt such despair before, almost so deep it felt like my could fall inside that feeling. I prayed so damn hard every.single.day for any kind of relief this loving god could give me. Not to fix my problems, but any kind of slight relief. Just a SIGN that I wasn't alone. After finally spending about 4 months of praying harder than I ever prayed before, I consigned myself to what was happening; there was no god (no loving god at least) to help. I realized if I was going to get better I had to let go of this fairytale of a god. If there is a god out there, I have seen absolutely 0 proof that it's a loving one
I relate to this.. I hope things improve for both of us
You are not alone among other struggling humans. I think my agnosticism has exacerbated preexisting depression. Just know that you are capable of radical healing, and you deserve, as I think all people deserve, to feel okay. Sending love your way, friend
God is real and loving. However, depression is also real and sometimes should be treated with the healing help of trained therapists and doctors. For me, I feel God's love most when in nature, serving others, mindfully studying the words of Christ and seeking ways to actively follow his teachings. I wish you the best in your pursuit of peace, healing and knowledge. We are all in this together.
@@silencedxdesire we are responsible for ourselves and have to create our lives. I would like both of you to pick up a book usually used called the 52 baby steps to happiness. Each chapter is four pages and easy to read and understand. It helps with illness, divorce, self esteem and more. I can't come up with author off my head.
yeah i think there could exist a higher being, but there’s not really any reason to believe it’s one found in religion.
I like how polite everyone is, they don't interrupt but are here to listen to a debate and let everyone speak.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste. Understand?
The aren't American
That's right!
Listen louder!
You heard the man!
He once married a f-ing anthill, filed for divorce a couple years later & ended up making mad stacks [ Of BS dollars // $ ;) ] for precisely two halves of a second & one minutes!
Thread lightly Mr. Bean, you are outnumbered by approximately 111 bloody Taliban fighter jets & their two cousins drumming up the javelin Jenga towers.
@@jacobhoff5070 Never stopped Piers Morgan from being a twat
@@jacobhoff5070 I think you meant: "They" as in: "They aren't American." If you need further help with grammar ask any American. Not sure where you're from, but most of them are from a place that can afford dictionaries.
From watching a young lad doing debunks in his bedroom to Conversations with some of the greatest minds of our time. It’s been a Joy to see your career take off.
Equally joyful and inspiring to think of what is to come.
I don't want to be mean, there is certainly truth to what you're writing - but since you decided to comment under this specific video I have to point out: MacLatchie is far, far away from being a great mind. The arguments that he presented on their first debate were disturbingly shallow and immature.
@@adayah2933 Unfortunately, you're right.
He draws on the discovery institute, which is creationism masquerading as science.
@@adayah2933 fair point🤣. But he’s interviewed people like Dawkins.
@@Steventrafford That is a great mind indeed!
@4:49 as someone who has panic attacks about death and dying because I don’t know what will happen to my consciousness, I literally know for a fact that I would be a happier person if I were to be truly convinced of god’s existence. Yet, I remain unconvinced
What would you need to convince you?
@@truthreigns3465 certainly nothing you can provide, right? no offense.
@@tonoornottono are you CellaeDoors mamma? you feel the need to answer for another man like a mamma does? and provide an insult on top of being a mamma? beta male!
I was into the New Age and in a relationship with a narcissist witch. God pulled me out of this mess. The amount of supernatural stuff I've seen will probably send me to a nuthouse if I told someone like you and I used to be a normal guy before that. Anyways yeah, God is real the one from the Bible. Many people struggle with the concept of eternal hell, but its not Biblical. Either Jesus takes your punishment for your sins and you receive eternal life or you take it and perish for eternity.
@@CappieBG Do you have credible and verifiable evidence to prove your claim that god is real and is the one from the Bible? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Alex is only 25, but he manages to crush absolutely every debate he's in.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie.
You do not 'crush' anything or anyone in a philosophical debate.
@@simonbaush6200 wrong address
@@simonbaush6200 Go watch his debate with Dinesh D'Souza
@@jeff_forsythe schizophrenia
I loved this debate when I first saw it. You have been the number one inspiration in me starting my own channel, and I just wanted to say thank you sincerely for all your work!
What debate?
@@jerrylong6238 this is a clip from his 2nd debate with jonathan Mclatchie.
As a subscriber to both channels I would enjoy this conversation a lot
Yo, MindShift!
"You have been the number one inspiration in me"
OK, but what was the number one inspiration for Alex?
Starts with a D, ends with evil.
As a Christian, I love free speech and the respect given to his lecture. It’s very important to listen to opposers and supporters of your beliefs
Share the Gospel and Jesus as the truth and the only way do you.? Pray to the Lord to give you wisdom and strength to do so. You can do it with respect.
Why?
@@lifewriter7455 There is a world in need of hope ad truth that is why. It is our respoinsilbity to take as many of you to the Kingdom of Heaven
@@lionheart93don't you see that it is utterly immoral to preach such a psychopath that punishes people because they lack of belief?
@lionheart93 How do we make this clear to you... If there is a "Kingdom of Heaven" but YOU are going to be there as God's special little favorite... we do NOT want to be there. You're describing a hell... It's bad enough that we are stuck sharing this Earth with you... you are absolutely NOT invited to my afterlife if there is one.
That was one of the best deliveries, I have ever heard. I was engaged the whole time. You didn't make anyone feel dumb, you made yourself incredibly likeable(in my opinion) and I will be surprised if you didn't open a few eyes in the process. Excellent speech. I feel like you can definitely call yourself an authority on this subject.
Let's repeat to those godless and souless alone hipocrite, which you does not neet respect for the follow reasons: When you see people talking contantly about something they do not even believe in you should already know that is a cult that have nothing to offer to you, but you are a western godless idiot and hipocrite how can you get it??? Real No respect for you...
Real those godless alone people are that stupids and do not deserve any kind of respects... They are all here to kiss some godless ass... they should get from the point those godless people who they like to kiss their ass, that they talk always, and are obsessed with something they did not even believe that Atheism is a fraud and a cult... (no respect for their dishonesty to get it). why they do not get it???) But I guess you are a western, always the worst... and now even in Godenier version. No respect for you....
Now, Let's repeat for those godless hipocrite who always spend so much time to talk about the nothing they think they will be once death, and run to kiss someone godless ass, because that is what their new no sense cult "called Atheism" lead those people to do...
See those godless rats do the only thing they an do run once they see a godless videos, that what you rats can do when you are lone godless idiot, you have no God and no Community. So many reasons to do not have any respect for you rat Goddenier idiot
Here other more enjoy to see how more disgusting and idiot you modern godless idiot are:
They are not called atheists but western godless and soulless modern idiots: who is a western godless and soulless idiot a) someone who fallows this new bullshit almost never existed before b) someone who does really believe God to exist cares about his or her opinion c) someone that will believe from now constantly that he will be Nothing once death, poor cursed idiot... D) someone that does not have any kind of Spiritually, (how can can someone without God or soul have any kind of spirituality??? No go no soul no spirituality (why do you even live???) E) someone who will pay afterlife infront God F) someone if he is right mostly he will Be NOTHING once death but if there is God and we are right and his or her heart will stop he will not know what to do once God will ask "why you did not believe in me" (what would you say?) (What a fool) G) someone who will feel strong now to deny God but hopefully he will not need, because if he will get down, depressed, older, alone and closer to death God is only things he get, but he is so stupid to do not get now H) someone who doesn't not even have an actual community I) someone who see atheist on Internet the term atheist and go writing some shit because he got no community... L) someone who deny his creator which we called lier m) a goddenier so a lier by definition...
M) is someone who decide to do not have by purpose a sacred things as God and for free (what a poor person!)
N) we got what you do not and give us much force and for free.
O) someone who have very much few things to believe in. Let's say that if you do not believe in God, what do you believe humans (I believe in Humanity as well, however: wars, genocide, cheating, bad talking, and so on) what hell is left?
P) someone that does not God R) therefore if you do not know God or have in your miserable life how can you deny what you do not know??
How to pity those fools and their miserable life to be so????
(No questions as you godless and soulless hipocrite, but actually answer)...
Anyway. No respect for you at all. You may not believe now, but you do not know if you will pay this modern idiocy to deny God in future... Wait and see, wait and see, you fool. (So think next time to write certain things or to be a godless and souless idiot, because there is very few things you can lean on)... if we die nothing will happen to us, as wewill nothin as you think we will be, but when your heart will stop, well infront God, when he will ask you why you did not believe in me what would you say??? You are playing with the fire, your problem Godless Fool!
Why n yuo want follow only you instincts as f** animals but they change all the time and you as human can get crazy and think killing is God... How to pity your miserable life, you Godless idiot, for real? Only a godless idiot can call God, which is all an imaginary friend, for real you are disgusting. Modernity and its idiots. (by the way this channel is getting more and more ridiculous talking about and be obsessed with something that they do not even believe... Only godless and soulless idiot do not get it, why?)... Hope you will no need God in your life because otherwise you will be fuck* up searching for the nothing you are and you believe in. No respect for you and your family, your mom and father who rise up such godless idiot.
Be ready to cry because of God is real you will be fu**d up, and all this for not believe for free and in a simple way. What poor person you are....
Np hope for you and respect for this godless generation hope for the next one to be better then you.
(you sand on Nothing, the nothing you think you will be and now cursed to think so constantly, even if you will not admit it). You are just fool yourself, how to pity your miserable godless life?
laugh and enjoy the life now, because in the future you will be scared for denying God, your creator...
They are alone... Poor modern godless idiot. No pity for them...
Their really need to kiss godless people ass .. disgusting human being.
that does not make any sense dude. God is all-mighity and all powerful he can see you and can even stop your heart in any moment, so. So think twice before be a godless and souless idiot because the world and God does not go around you and what you think about him.
But you want just fool yourself just trust none expet you that are a disgusting godless idiot No respect for you.
They really deserve to die alone without God. How can anyone can pity your miserable and godless alone life? No respect for you modern godenier, you do not deserve it... The are fighting against something they can never win, God.... What fool people! The what is so positive to do not have God, Soul (as a freaking robots), an actually community, live and die alone as a godless fool? And why do you always talk about something you do not even believe in (God)? Are you a godless and soulless modern idiot, then live like that, right?
You are into a cult where you are alone and you do not even get it. Are you that smart you godless alone idiot?
I just have enough with those people and the cult they belong to and the obsession for what they do not even believe, what hipocrites! Their just pathetich alone human being. No pity for them. Of course God made it, who alse your mother made it??? Anyway as always you godless and soulless alone idiots, have nothing to offer to us, to yourself, and to the world. No respect for this godless alone pathetic generation. That how this new Cult "atheism" makes you alone idiot, and with nothing actually to say, because you are based on the nothing you think you will be once death. (but they love to kiss godless ass, they run for it, Disgusting) No respect for you and the family who raised you so stupid and alone...
Reallly they have nothing to offer to us, to the world and to themesleves, that stupidity and lonlyness.
(this channel is getting more and more ridicolous and who said the opposite is a godless alone hipocrite).
we godless and souless modern alone people are obsessed with someone who get riched be obsessed and talking constatlly about somethin he and you do not even believe. You are ridicolous. Another reason to not be like you.
Atheism leads to Nothing.
No God
No Spirituality
Not an actually Community
Only Loneliness and Obsession for God and what you do not even believe anymore.
But yes be disgusting Godless ass kisser...
Let me ask some questions (be honest to answer): the first question will be... how does you feel to have less sacred things in your miserable alone godless life then us? And then why are you into a cult that leads to nothing? And why you are a part on something that have nothing to offer to us believers, but loneliness?? and finally how can you deny what you do not know or have in your alone godless life? and why God should care about what you think to exist? Go and be honest once in your life you Goddenier.
(Do not write to this message if you actually have nothing to say, as you always godless people do... What waste of lives yours, for real).
If you had some dignity you must be ashemed to deny God... But you do not have any, right???!!
I am more of an authority.
@@johnbeans2000 Why only godless and souless alone idiot do not get those questions are a trap, and have the only reason to exist to let godless people talk about something to forget the emptiness this cult called atheism give to you, and also it value (0)??? Another reason to do not respect you godless ass kiss and be like you... God is always what you do not know, obsessed as you are with your touch attached to other godless ass...
@@johnbeans2000why so
@@quickblackfox2554bigger pee pee equals greater authority
Muslims- we are the truth 😡
Christian- we are the truth😡
Buddha - Don't trust what i say just becuase I say it or just because it's in a book. You are the saviour of yourself. If you want to see the mechanics of the universe and how to escape this cycle of birth and death , here are the techniques, practise them and develop your mind and experience the truth for yourself. 🗿
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363who created sin tho? and who created us so that we could be able to sin? 🤔
@@jacobs1881OG SIN
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363keep being delusional
@@jacobs1881 God gave us FREE WILL!
I think the three points you made are very powerful. A god who genuinely wants to save people (2 Pet 3:9) has no room to hide from any seeker...and yet, completely hidden.
I spent twenty-six years as an Evangelical believer. I wasn't even an unresistant non-believer, I was all in - and even so I remember trying SO hard to convince myself that prayer was not just talking to myself, working SO hard to convince myself that it was all true, striving to believe that I had an actual relationship with a being whom I could not see and who never once spoke to me like a person, never communicated to me clearly at all, wanting SO desperately to hear from him just one time, just once...begging for some assurance...and nothing...AND being told that I should just accept that as part of the "relationship."
It occurs to one, eventually, that this "relationship" is in every point indistinguishable from an imaginary friend relationship...except we use a name from an old book rather than just calling it "Harvey" or something.
Your efforts as a skeptic to get in touch with this being are impressive indeed.
Well said my friend, and I suggest that we should all adopt the name "Harvey" for this imaginary being we call God. Would take a lot of the sting out for sure.
Why would you "want" assurance from God? You want to tell me that you understand who God is and ask him to come and give YOU assurance? Cos he has nothing better to do? God is Santa Clause that YOU have a right to ask for anything and if he doesn't answer then " OK, I don't believe anymore"...seriously? Repent of your pride and humble yourself....
@@platzhirsch4275That is not what he meant by it. There is a Verse which Alex also started his Argumentation with. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you".
But yet when people honestly starting to search for that God all we discover are either chemical or physical occurences which are shaping our perception of our surroundings.
@@platzhirsch4275i also recognized that you keep telling people in your comments to "humble" themself. Isit not a contradiction to the bible which tells you not to act like a Judge? Who are you to know wether those people are humble or have not humbled themself before God?
@@platzhirsch4275First of all the god he is referring to is one who's supposed to be benevolent , a father figure of sorts. Would you speak to you mum or any other guardian and they keep ignoring you constantly if they truly loved you. Certainly not .
Besides which god is one support to worship, the Christian god, Yahweh or Allah and Brahma. Why would a god who desires worship like the biblical god not show up to claim it in the midst of thousands of other gods ?
BTW Which god should he repent to, Yahweh or Allah?
Isn't it also wonderful coincidence that out of all the world's religions you were indoctrinated into the right one.
And if you resort to the claim " It's not a religion. It's a relationship." The above comment already debunked that claim.
I’ve been watching your videos for years and I gotta say, you’ve really grown into a fantastic public speaker. Can’t wait to see more of you!
GOD bless you in JESUS name ✝️❤️
@@splashyvvs9493Blud really just presuposed the Jesus being God🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥
@@splashyvvs9493 may Dionysus bless you with wine and orgies
Obsessed Stalker?
he is full of BS using weird words to distract you,
a simple fact that proves we were created is the big bang, no one will ever explain it.
The scariest response I heard a Christian say for why there is suffering, is that all suffering is good and not evil, just as cutting a person open might be ultimately good if purpose was to remove a tumor; suffering is ultimately good and there is no evil cause it’s all part of a “good” gods plan. Therefore people should embrace and rejoice in suffering cause god wants it.
Straight out of the Mother Theresa hand book, and also flat out contradicting the bible.
As with nearly all statements, it can both be supported by and in direct contradiction of the Bible. God is both the creator of all things Good and Evil and also Evil only exists in the world because of sin, which is a necessity if we are to have free will.
sounds like Machiavelli to me
yes indeed. embrace suffering for it is a grace from eternal death. only through undergoing suffering do we have the strength to be an example of goodness
I think you are mixing suffering and pain. Suffering is a response to pain, which is unavoidable, but the response don't have to be suffering.
In fact, sometimes suffering is not doing the painful thing... if you run away instead fight for your family, suffering will be you being a coward, not avoiding pain.
I rarely engage in religious discussion like this, but I feel compelled to share my experience with discovering God. When I hear Alex talk, I am reminded of myself to a degree. I am 27, grew up most of my life believing religion was "for stupid people" and that it was purposeless. Yet all the while, was plagued by incessant nihilism that accompanied secularism. Existential misery was slowly growing in my life and I had no way to rectify it.
I fell for the "well there's no scientific evidence for God, so it's all BS" stance, but it was when I just entertained the notion that God could (not does. Could) exist that I started to see whispers of Him in life. As of now, I am not a devout church goer, I belong to no denomination, I have no real stances on a lot of Christian doctrine. I am still developing a relationship with God and even as "underdeveloped/early" as this relationship is, I prefer it to being an atheist.
I pray that Alex spends more time in prayer/surrender and less time in trying to "force" God to reveal Himself. His attitude sounds like a man trying to will his way to God. If he is content with living a life of non-belief, so be it. I have no desire to convert people, but speaking for myself, I do not envy nor want the life that atheists have. I am finding peace, purpose, and contentment walking with God. Also, I'm curious to see Alex in 20 years and whether he's made any progress in his discovery of God.
Last thing. My interpretation of one theme of the Gospel is faith. Even while Christ performed so many miracles, the disciples still doubted Him at times. Peter still doubted while on the water; Thomas still doubted the resurrection wanting "hard proof." I see a lesson in the gospels as a call to develop faith in God and that those who even have all the evidence" can still not believe.
The utility of a belief speaks nothing to its veracity. If you developed existential misery due to some feeling of incessant nihilism then no wonder your subconscious mind started to tell you a story. It will always work towards survival - not Truth. _"Even while Christ performed so many miracles"_ which you accept happened as it is written - perhaps there's a reason why the apostles weren't all that impressed.
@@Len_Ron_Dow Very interesting perspective! I can see your argument to my mind pursuing survival above all else, although, how I see it now was indeed survival, but survival by drawing closer to God as a result of Him pulling me closer (if I may be bold enough to make such a statement!) rather than just "making up a story" so I can sleep well at night.
At the end of the day, I have no interest proselytizing. If someone has no use for God, he/she will never find Him. There's nothing anyone can say to convince him otherwise. And if he is content with the life he chose, I wish him the best. However, for me, I have no interest in being an atheist anymore--nor do I wish to be like other atheists I've known.
@@Lfyjaberg1066 _" I have no interest proselytizing"_ and yet here you are doing just that. Statements like _"I am finding peace, purpose, and contentment walking with God"_ are subtle endorsements of the veracity of the tales spun in the scriptures, existence of a God and that commitments to it can bring benefits.
That's fine - I think everyone should have the right to believe whatever their mind tells them is likely True. My problem is that people have a tendency to want their beliefs enshrined in National Law and Public Policy - and vote accordingly - and that politicians courting votes make relevant promises that affect everyone's lives.
So, I would ask you do take note of Matthew 6.6 - and keep what you're praying for between you and your God.
my endorsement of the scriptures (to whatever degree that may be) is not the same as proselytizing. I have neither asked anyone to convert nor have said “you must or else XYZ.”
I have only shared my experience through atheism and then my journey to God, as perhaps a counter stance/critique of Alex’s argument-one I find rooted in perhaps cynicism and too strong a fixation on self-will.
I can agree on opposition to people wanting religious beliefs enshrined in law-but that’s a whole different discussion.
If you have peace in your worldview, I wish you the best. It makes no difference to me, only if you were miserable in secularism (like I was) then perhaps my words offered some encouragement or hope that there’s something better. Again, not a call to convert-just one man sharing his experience.
And Matthew 6:6 is moreso a call to practice prayer in private rather than publicly for the sole purpose of getting praise and fueling one’s ego/pride.
I’m not sharing my experience for praise or because of vanity-especially in a TH-cam comment section thread 😃
God bless brother 🤝🏻
@@Lfyjaberg1066 I guess you are correct 'Make-Believe' is better than 'Reality' for those who can't cope with it. I wish you Health & Peace.
I am in every way a Non-Resistant Non-believer. I was raised in a religious house and dearly miss the sense of belonging and purpose. I am also fearful of living in an unmoored society that is clearly incapable of regulating itself. I am sad to say I wish it was true, know it was not, and know that we are better off if everybody believed. There have never been any voices in my head or sense of protection in my times of need despite the cries for help.
what does it mean when you say "i wish it was true, know it was not"? what does that mean that you know it was not true?
@@Acts412jc Just clearly makes his point that they don't exist. As simple as that.
@@rutomeds then how do we explain the mountain of moses in Saudi Arabia??? How do we explain all the testimonies??
@@dimensionninja4929 Testimonies aren't reliable evidence. They're just as useful as alien abduction stories. Equal credibility.
@@dimensionninja4929 Do you disbelieve other religions bc they lack evidence? According to their adherents, there is no lack of evidence, yet you are not convinced. Look at it this way. Except for your own religion, you are as anti religious as I am.
The first point is exactly the reason I stopped believing in gods, there is no answer, nothing definitive that points necessarily to god. At the beginning it was disappointing, but now I feel free and at peace. Brilliant lecture.
When I turned atheist, what scared me the most was the concept of no afterlife. Perhaps that's why people are hesitant about dropping their religious beliefs
@@peepdawg8995 I don't see why that would be a problem. I was an atheist who believed in an afterlife, when I was younger.
@@rockysandman5489 The thing is, the reason I stopped being religious is because religion is very illogical and inconsistent. Science gives evidence for everything, but religion is about faith. Unfortunately, there's no scientific evidence of the afterlife.
@@peepdawg8995I don't understand why anyone would fear that
I have never believed in a god ….. nor when I see a fkn upper class middle fkwhit say otherwise I might change my fkn mind
I too have very carefully and sincerely looked for the presence of god. I read the bible. I prayed. I attended services. I listened to lectures and read books on faith. I had conversations with peers, clergy and even some fairly high ranking church authorities. I can even remember, as a child, begging Jesus through wracking sobs and flooding tears to let me feel his presence as so many of my community have experienced. Nothing. Every time I bent my neck, clasped my hands and closed my eyes it was always just me.
because jesus is not god.
@@lj14 Clearly. There is no such thing as a "god" and that is plain to any honest investigation.
Thank you. The further the world advances, the more people will realize what an ancient joke religion is.
Please read my reply to @art0Vtrolling on this topic here.
@@oranges557hey man Im not saying God exists I mean who really does. But if the sh$tshow Ive seen over the last couple years is an indication of what non believers can give to fill the vacuam that removing that belief system of god has created? I think Ill just keep relying on the belief system of God
I grew up in a loving Catholic household, went to church, became an altar boy, had a great community but as I grew older I believed less and less. The more I learned about science, mathematics and geography the less God seemt real, simply because there were more plausible, explainable reasons to the universe than God. I would like nothing more than for him to exist but it simply doesn't appear so.
Religion in my experience exists simply to bind a community through shared values and to give answers to unanswerable questions.
However as national identities have grown beyond religion and as science has answered questions religions used to falsely claim answers to without evidence, many of us grown beyond religion, simply because it does not justify its purpose
Well put. Religion is a very powerful coping mechanism for those who don’t have the answers. For those who don’t feel in control of their lives, they believe he has control. For those who fear death, the coping mechanism answers that as well. I wish I could believe too, I imagine it’s nice believing you have the answers. But real wisdom is knowing you know nothing.
How exactly does science contradict god?
Also, do not follow religion. I agree, religion is just a bunch of rules to make people think they’re good people. Christ is not a religion, following him is like a relationship. It’s no different than being with your dad or friend. You don’t love them just so that you can be saved, you love them because they love you and you care about him
Well no God is real because demons who rebelled against him are here on earth messing with real humans and control real humans as vessels, don't be ignorant
You are very intelligent
Hey bro just want to say when you start to focus on the idea of religion it’s easy to fall away. It’s the personal relationship with Jesus Christ that makes it all make sense. Religion is a box of rules used to justify many things in history. Jesus is the way bro
I love how Alex changed over the years; from a teenage atheist filming youtube videos to giving talks in universities. I've pretty much entered uni the same time he did and I got to explore quite a lot in terms of science and relgion - having done a biological anthropology related course in London. I really connect to him and I really respect the path he has taken to achieve where he is now :)
Yeah, following his path further, he will be a practicing Christian soon 🙂
@@WetterZuLaub nah, he is genuinely trying to search for god so he wont find it lmfao
@@WetterZuLaub if it's backed by the scientific method yeah I guess so. Haha
@@hc4138 „I really was honest about my atheism, but then winter came and whenever I was out with friends, I felt cold. I didn‘t bother to buy a warmer jacket, so I started to visit the nearest church, whenever I started to be cold. And I really must say, it‘s much more comfortable. So while I DO SAY, that I stand behind my arguments for atheism, I also DO FIND myself spending much time in church while praying.“
Alex O‘Connor
@@WetterZuLaub uh?
I just discovered Alex tonight. Been snooping around his podcast and youtube vids. Very excited to dive into his work.
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 you're using God's name in vain by using your TH-cam name. No mortal shall carry the name of God but he, and as such you should repent and delete your account
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363bro god is not real man😂
@@WOLF--rg1ym God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 baliw amputik tanga mo
You are becoming one of my favorite Atheist TH-camrs. I am a Christian Theist, and I appreciate you raising these arguments for discussion. Looking forward to more content and more food for thought.
Seeking friendship with the world?
@@_sky_blue_Right, cause what's happening here is what James is talking bout....
@@_sky_blue_ If your god cannot withstand questioning then perhaps your position is not as rock-solid as you had once assumed
@@xXEGPXx who are you that you can decide when I want to speak?
@@_sky_blue_ What the fuck are you talking about?
My grandmother prayed every day to God, she attended mass, she was a good loveing person. Yet she died while suffering, she had cancer, she could barely walk.
She died at age of 63, I think deep inside that was the point of me doubting.
What do you expect? The apologist will say that we live in a fallen world - her soul will be the better for it. Sister Teresa used to surround herself with the suffering and dying - but not to help them - she believed being surrounded by suffering brought *her* closer to God.
@@L.Ron_Dow You know I just could not get it. I mean I can not accept everything what Christianity says. You know world changed a lot in the last 2000 years.
But if this God is the true one, and lets say it even exists, then it has done a poor job keeping me in my faith. Many things never really make any sense, but you know when you believe you believe you do not question.
And I was a mass attending Christian specially a Catholic one, I even go further I tried to do good, to forgive these were not my problem. The problem was the mentioned thing, also when I started to see how Christians view the world, as a hostile sinful place. Many things I did not keep, like I never really tried to convert anyone or I was really tolerant towards some people or some ideas. You know maybe I was not even a real Christian from the start, what is ironic because my good will and love towards the people what really started to shake my faith in this religion. I started to befriend people from other religions, and I could not really accept the concept that these people just whoosh go to hell because they are humans and they are doing a mistake.
If this was the best idea of Christian God to change the world, and to make people believe in it, then we are truly living in a Goofy world. Because this God just made a bet with our lives with himself. I dunno if it makes any sense.
There's been more Manifestations of God since Jesus. Bahá'u'lláh claimed to be the return of the Promised One of all religions. Not sure if you care or not, but what He claimed could help you
@@jameswazza3606 Baha'i? Claim? Prove it. Jesus warned us about false prophets.
@@L.Ron_Dow if you really want me to, Id be happy to try. Feel free to do your own research, with an open mind. Yes you're right, but He left signs to show when He will return. E.g. prophecies
Your accounts of desperately searching for god but only being met with radio silence resonates with me so hard as a former devout Christian the only reason i lost my faith was because it meant so much to me i wasn't afraid to engage with other perspectives but found myself more and more without answers. It reached a point i couldn't reconcile my belief with myself and that was a painful thing for me to come to terms with, and i find myself periodically remembering the feelings i got fro faith and i miss it so much it brings me to tears but try as i might, nothing changes, I feel in some senses still perhaps there is a god and it just isn't what we depict or know them as. But i can't subscribe to any of the proposed variations I've been presented.
Uh, HolyD.....,while searching for God, what were you expecting? Affirmation of your faith, getting what you prayed for, a heaven when you die.etc? Obviously, the God of the bible has failed you because it is a created God- a creation of Moses of what God should be: punishing, angry, impatient, destroying, acting like the devil himself (if there was one). You had a misguided faith, believing in a God that behaves like a flawed human being. Rejoice! I bring you the real God (Who) you will be happy to find in "Conversations with God" now on TH-cam and has been for a while now produced by Neale Donald Walsch (with God's supervision, of course) in audiobook. God has heard the cry of your heart and has used me to bring this Good News to you specifically. You're very welcome.
I feel you
I have also had the 'radio silence'. Having accepted Jesus as a teenager in a Christian church with good people, there seemed to be nothing else there, except community, good people, and ritual. Thats fine as far as it goes, but when you start seriously inquiring as Alex does ...
Humans have fashioned their Goddy-Gods.
If there's a real God, it's laughing at us, man!😂
If not we should be laughing on its non-existent behalf.
@@conradbulos6164Word of God through man's mouth? How very real 🤔
THIS IS HOW WE SHOULD EXPLAIN OUR BELIEFS AND PRINCIPLE. WE DON’T NEED SHOUTING TO MAKE SENSE. THIS IS A GREAT VIDEO.
I don't know if you're deliberately ironic, but anyone using only capital letters comes across as shouting.😂
I really hope he is being ironic it made me laugh haha
THIS IS A GREAT FUCKING COMMENT. WE DON'T NEED TO FUCKING SHOUT TO MAKE A POINT AND WE DON'T NEED TO CURSE. WE ARE CALM, REASONABLE, AND CIVIL PEOPLE AND WE CAN RESPECTFULLY LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S FUCKING OPINIONS EVEN WHEN WE DISAGREE WITH THEM. REASON AND MATURITY WILL BE OUR GUIDES. FUCK.
ABSOLUTELY! GREAT FUCKING POINT!! ITS NICE TO NOT HAVE TO FUCKING SHOUT TO CONVERSE ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS!!!!!!!!
NO NEED TO SHOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT ON THIS ONE. WHY THE HELL PEOPLE SHOUT IN ORDER TO PROVE THEIR POINTS? IT SHOULD BE CALMLY DISCUSSED AND SHOULD BE MATURELY DEALT WITH. EVEN THE STRAY DOGS CAN HOWL. WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE THEN?
There are a lot of really good points, not enough to really shake my faith, but really made me wrestle with it. The best point you brought up was the one that many people who actively seek God and want to know him are left with little to no response. I don't have a good answer, all I know is that I do feel that God has shown himself to me in part, enough for me to pursue a relationship with him.
I think that if someone trully does everything in hand to find god he ends up finding him. For me it took some time between when i converted to religion and when i trully got faith that god exists
Which god was it that shown enough of itself for you to be convinced? I'm going to guess it was the god you were brought up to believe in.
@@colnixon8989 I dont know about others but at least i wasnt raised into religion and changed religions throughout my whole life
Our creator said in Quran:
"Did you think We had created you in vain (without any purpose), and that you would not be brought back to Us?’ (Quran 23:115)
"Exalted is He (God) who holds all control in His hands; who has power over all things; ˹He is the One˺ Who created life and death in order to test which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Almighty, All-Forgiving. who created the seven heavens, one above the other. You will not see any flaw in what the Lord of Mercy creates. Look again! Can you see any flaw?" (Quran 67:1-3 )
"Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection. And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion" (Quran 3:185)
"We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops. But [Prophet], give good news to those who are steadfast. those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’ (Quran 2:155-156)
"Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. those who remember God while standing and sitting and on their sides, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: “Our Lord, You did not create this in vain. Highly Exalted are You, so protect us from the punishment of the Fire." (Quran 3:190-191)
"Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of God . Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest!"
"O humanity! Indeed, God’s promise is true. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, nor let the Chief Deceiver(Satan) deceive you about God. Surely Satan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy. He only invites his followers to become inmates of the Blaze." (Quran 35:5-6)
"Their messengers answered, ‘Can there be any doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and earth? He calls you to Him in order to forgive you your sins and let you enjoy your life until the appointed hour.’ But they said, ‘You are only men like us. You want to turn us away from what our forefathers used to worship. Bring us clear proof then, [if you can].’ (Quran 14:10)
Prophet Muhammad said (pbuh):
“When God loves one of His slaves, He tests him to hear his supplication.”
@@colnixon8989try it for yourself and find out.
My church (church of jesus christ of latter day saints) has an institute class I go to often, we've been talking about the importance of hearing other people's beliefs and not just shoving the gospel of Christ into people's faces. I felt inspired to look up "what do atheists believe?" Because growing up Christian you only see the "resistant non believers" as mentioned in the video. Seeing this has brought me so much more understanding for the frustration of desiring God but not finding him. Thank you for being so respectful and bringing up some really good mind stretching questions :) looking forward to bringing these ideas up in future conversations, maybe we'll all get some more answers
Mormons are not Christian’s.
You should discuss the CES letter and all it reveals about LDS history and beliefs. I've found attending such discussions very informative.
@@zajournals I don't really love the CES letter, I feel like it's too biased and it's not as convincing as people say. As someone who has read it, I really love my church and feel really good about staying in it. But I do think it's important to see all sides of a topic, such as atheism and Christianity
@@brymstar it's hard to dispute the facts (which aren't bias) in the letter which contradict and refute the B of M. As church leaders say, believe anyway. Many like you do, many saw the truth and don't. I found it fascinating that the quorum couldn't come up with something better than believe anyway. Although, it's difficult to spin facts that don't align with faith. It makes a missionary's job much more difficult as well.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie...............Falun Dafa
Alex is one of my favorite TH-camrs. He’s so polite and well spoken! Also not sure why I need to add this disclaimer, but I am a Christian. This is just an expression of how much I value the conversations Alex brings about.
No need to feel apologetic abt being Christian be proud that ur a beliver and follower of christ follow persuit and declare boldly of who our lord and saviour is
@@charline._1111 not feeling apologetic, just putting out a disclaimer
@@charline._1111 YOUR lord and saviour. Not OURS. Please be considerate
@@hihihihi3806 You do relise that he wasn't nessaserily talking about you, don't you? "our" doesn't include you if you are not a Christian.
God does not hide from those who seek Him.
0:00 Intro
2:53 The problem of divine hiddenness (Though arguably it starts in the intro itself)
5:42 Alex as the non-resistant non-believer
11:30 Geographical predictability of religious belief
13:55 Gratuitous suffering
17:00 Animal suffering
19:19 Outro
Thanks for that. Unfortunately none of that tells me why God doesn't exist
@@sgloobal2025 Speaking as an agnostic here, the answer to your question: It doesn't.
But God's silence speaks volumes in certain ways. There are only 4 options:
1. God has some plan we are either not aware of (or maybe if you believe the Bible is a reliable source of information, that would be the document of awareness), that he will put into action at some point in the future, and for now he remains completely silent.
2. God is indifferent to humanity in a neutral way. Meaning, God does actually interact with humanity on any personal level. This God would simply be an entity that maintains the physical forces of this universe going.
3. God is an asshole. Why? If he actually cares about humanity, but doesn't help, why? Reason #1 is possible, but I guess he's ok with those people suffering intense torture for years, sometimes decades.
4. He doesn't exist.
Which one explains our reality the closest possible?
@@apreviousseagle836 Or we aren't listening.
The geography thing is so stale and extreeeeemely naive when the majority of humans on earth are coerced and persecuted into conformity. In a backhanded way it actually validates any religion with martyrs. And proves atheism is a fake social phenomenon.
@@apreviousseagle836 also there's no such thing as true agnostics. One will either directly or indirectly deny the existence of God
I respect this guy as he is respectful in return. He doesn't run down peoples beliefs or malign them in anyway, as he just voices his own experience, and doesn't go all anti-religious on you.
Don’t let this fool you. He’s part of the world and he still has an agenda. Atheist are out there causing more of a falling away from faith. Don’t forget this was taught in history. Stalin was a great influencer in atheism. He pushed this force fed this to vulnerable children to schools across the board. In todays world satan can sometimes make things appear innocent and seem inoffensive. Jesus said only a few make it to life. This is because only a few are not drawn to the things of the devil. Keep your eyes open and your spirit in alert mode. Gods day will come as a thief in the night. We are nearing the tribulation period. This is where the clear division will be between Those who love God and those who don’t. Those who will be set for life and those set for their end. God is the life source. Rejecting him one rejects life. Don’t let the devil entice you to the way that leads to death.
The thing I find totally disingenuous about him is he ignores the pink elephant in the room: quantum physics has long debunked materialism and the atheist reliance upon it many decades ago!
@alexkane84 What? It did? You'd think that would be big news. Where can I find this information?
@@alexkane84 then you don't understand quantum physics at all, because that's not what it shows. a basic understanding of its principles goes to show that classical determinism is not sufficient enough to describe quantum mechanics and particles on a quantum level of measure.
@@sawyersimpkins9428 heard of a small thing called the Nobel Prize ??
One of the greatest videos explaining my situation that I've ever seen. I love this term "Non Reluctant, Non Believer." That is me. When I try to explain to Christian friends I really would love for it all to be true(Christianity with Jesus and Heaven) but the thinking part of me can't believe it no matter how hard I try. Without exception with every Christian it's always something I am doing wrong such as "Well have you read the Bible? I mean the entire Bible?" If only these people could grasp the time and energy I've spent trying to embrace the religion of my culture and yet have come up empty. I always close with this line: "If there is a God who created me and wants me to know him, he knows exactly what it would take for me to believe in him, yet for some reason he fails to submit that condition so either he does not exist or he wants me to continue as an atheist."
Believing means not having information, you just have to believe in something. Conscious AI with total freedom like us in virtual universe can belive it has creator (real information would be many humans) Given direct information, commands and rules would not make free will possible. You would be constanty limited by knowledge of your creator, you would not act by who you really are. How could we trust conscious AI if it is bring to our level of existence with access all information and not first learn everything by it self like us and show what it truly growns to be.
When firs conscious AI exists that is when atheism has to be redefined. Atheist can still keep arguing can creators have creator.
Many of Alexs points are just about arguing bad design by human view. In human and conscious AI it sure can have bad design and we can do experiments how our idea of good design would work.
One of the best things I've found about ChatGPT is that you can interact with it about the Bible. The concept of Adam & Eve in Judaism is used as an introduction to moral choice and death in childbirth. Pauline Christianity decided to conflate that to an inheritable condition that took the death of Jesus to absolve. Without that little detail, Jesus' death becomes moot and unnecessary.
@@engineering5090 That's the problem with belief alone to some people. They need something solid to form the core of their perception of existence. Seeking that leads to more empyrical concepts to believe in; science, math, philosophy as examples. I often wonder about certain aspects of heaven mentioned in the bible that aren't at the forefront of religious debate. Heaven, and what becomes of your soul there after you die. Some people might be deceived by the conflation of earthly concerns like reuniting with loved ones and generally carrying on care-free, when (in my opinion) the afterlife is effectively inscrutable, as we can't effectively communicate with the dead. To me, the undercurrent in the Bible doesn't illustrate Heaven in a clear and concise way, leaving room for assumptions. In the Bible, Matthew 22:30, it's written "in the resurrection, people "will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.". Angels have an inscrutable agenda and time gets meaningless in Heaven anyways, so to think it's gonna be a perpetual good time with loved ones seems a bit short-sighted.
@@engineering5090 This is a bit of a moot point seeing as we'll surely never be able to tell if an AI is conscious, seeing as we can't tell if others are conscious. Consciousness is totally subjective.
Our dumb ancestors didn't have the brain power to truly understand what omnipotence really means nor the concept of infinity and infinite possibilities! They also thought time and space were separate entities. It makes sense religions are full to the brim with plot holes and bad writing based on the intelligence of lack thereof of our ancestors who had far less knowledge then we have today.
If one has omnipotence, then one has COMPLETE control over time and space, meaning complete control over EVER SINGLE possibility, past present and future all at once and this is what we got, not a version of everyone's best but a instead a complete shitshow.
Having complete control of time and space means there is no "free will" under a god! So that BS that other person talking about is as much BS as the concept of belief! Everything has already happened in the perspective of a god and rather than take the best versions of people through their choices, we get the logical fallacy of "free will" argument from an omnipotent being.
The problem with belief is that for ALL lies to be considered truth, belief is THE requirement otherwise they are just mere lies! It is as simple as that, you have no real reason to believe something, nothing to gain, peddlers of beliefs have everything to gain from you. Anyone that wants to manipulate or exploit you will tell you that you have to believe something and they will try to guilt trip you to doing it!
Your skill as a rhetorician is a wonder to behold! BIG LOVE to you!
The Devil is also a good rhetorician.
@@voxpopuli8132 You're in a cult.
@@voxpopuli8132 got any evidence for that assertion? or that the devil exists at all?
@@voxpopuli8132was Jesus not a good rhetorician? Did God create his son in a way that would make him less capable of converting the masses? I would think an all loving god would obviously given his son considerable rhetorical talent.
@@frank_6298 I think the term rhetorician focuses primarily on technical skill. Jesus, of course, was a good speaker, a good rhetorician, but he was much more than that - the son of the living God. Whereas the Devil, being a good seducer, is a crafty rhetorician indeed. He can use terms smartly to deceive people.
I watched the original back when it came out, but I still remember McLatchie uncomfortably resorting to the "well, you just didn't believe hard enough" argument on the first point. It was clear he knew that was a poor argument, but really it's either that or accuse Alex of lying.
I also remember attending church irregularly with my grandmother as a child. I was a casual believer then. My parents were not overly religious, but my grandmother was (and is), so I had no reason to question it. Every so often, I remember the preacher inviting everybody to close their eyes while he spoke, trying to instill the feeling of God in the room, and at the end, he would invite anyone in the congregation to stand up and approach the altar to...reconfirm their belief or something like that. I distinctly remember feeling nothing other than social pressure. I felt like I SHOULD be feeling something, and I was always tempted to stand to hide the fact that I felt nothing. But I was also very shy, and didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I never did.
I think about that a lot, and I always wondered how many people felt the same thing. Did they initially stand due to social pressure, or to hide the fact they couldn't feel anything? And once they received that acceptance, is that what kept them there? Or is belief a matter of simply faking it until you convince yourself it's true? If I stood up, is that what I would have done?
I actually felt the exact same thing when I went on a ski trip with my youth group in New Mexico. There were youth groups from all over the country attending. The part of the trip that I remember most was us sitting in an auditorium with a couple thousand people. At the end of it they had everybody stand up walk to the front and lineup I'm one of 20-30 lines. Each line had a youth leader at the front's taking turns with each individual to reflect on everything we had learned to that day. The entire experience just gave me really creepy vibes and like you said all I felt was social pressure to play along. It was actually uncomfortable enough that I ended up being the only person and the auditorium sitting in my chair. I just couldn't bring myself to walk up there cuz it felt wrong.
It also really pissed off our pastor who pulled my older brother aside and tried to convince him to come make me go up.
When I finally did walk up there I just stared at the youth leader with a blank look for a few long awkward seconds. Ended up walking away without praying with him.
Similar to you I was never able to get that experience out of my head.
Come to Catholic Church. You don't need to feel God to love Him.
No! Whatever you do, DO NOT go to a Catholic church
Alex has lost touch with his own divinity, sad. We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie...............Falun Dafa
@@DonaldFranciszekTusk " Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others."
-Ayn Rand-
Theist Song sheet:
1. Say something nice about Alex or the Video
2. Say that Alex is mistaken or doesn't understand
3. Tell Alex what he needs to do
4. Wish Alex well for the future.
It makes you think that these people belong to an organization that targets a video and suggests each member makes a response following a certain style.
😅
like clockwork
Lmao it's not that deep
@@bobblob1270 It's funny but since I posted that, they seem to have dried up. Lol
yeah I noticed
Alex is a great thinker and speaker. I am pleased that he represents the atheists in the world like me.
Thank you, Alex.
I am disappointed that he wishes God exists.
Hell is hot! Repent!
@@cezz1105 lolz - funny!
@@grayintheuk8021 dead serious!
@@cezz1105 Oh you are a Christian of some type then?
When I was younger I was more of a furious, keyboard warrior, militant atheist. However over the years I think I've started to see a big reason why people would _want_ to believe in a god, or at least not want to hold their beliefs to criticism (besides cultural heritage).
If there is one thing religion does very well, is that it fills a big, ultimately unescapable void that pops up in any thoughtful person's mind sooner or later, which is the question of _why_ . Why we exist, what is our purpose, how did we get here. _Why is there everything instead of nothing?_
I am of the opinion that these existential questions are in fact meaningless and have no real, objective answers. The notion that the universe has a why is just a figment of our flawed human perception. We are built to survive and reproduce, not to understand the universe. To ask what the meaning of life is, is nothing more than to start building a blindfold. A personal, subjective, ultimately fabricated meaning to hold on to in the midst of the anxiety that emanates from the mystery of existence. This is the most important journey one can go through I think, in terms of mental health. And it's not easy, and in fact most people don't ever manage to find that blindfold. So far I haven't either. And it's harrowing to think about most of the time. It plagues me.
And thus, I understand why people wouldn't want to go through this: among all the other things religions offer (good, bad - mostly bad, depending on which one), they present to you blissfully illusory, circular, self-contained answers to all of those questions, and I think this is really the main feature. Pre-fabricated blindfolds so that you don't have to deal with the unknowability of life yourself.
And this is where I've changed my mind over the years, after wrestling non-stop with these existential questions: I think it's perfectly fine to choose to stay blindfolded. For a long time now I've stopped trying to change people's minds about religion because it no longer feels like I'm doing any good to anyone. _There are no answers behind the blindfold_ , and it feels selfish to spread that struggle.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
Dude, what about the fact that CHILDREN are taught that hell exists. How do you think they feel about that? How do you think they square that with our current society? That whole spiel was completely nihilistic and depressing. Just because your life is shitty and depressing doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy ours with dignity, knowing that at least we were honest people committed to preserving and progressing our race.
Isn't the inescapability of the quest for meaning evidence for the fact that meaning must exist? Isn't the search for truth, for goodness, for love, for joy, evidence that they exist?.Or do you think all.of these are like chasing unicorns?
@@tayo6882 I personally think the inescapability from the search for meaning is just a quirk of the human mind, not something rooted in material reality. So yeah, it is kind of chasing unicorns.
@@drewpy14 I feel very strongly opposed to children being indoctrinated into religion. I also think state should be separated from religion in all instances. However on a personal level, as to "should people believe in fairy tales?", that's where I think it's ok to "stay blindfolded", sticking with my previous metaphor. My life isn't depressing btw, though this existential topic does tend to feel that way the more I think about it.
I've never seen a better speech. Ever. I've watched numerous debators, speakers, I am an avid reader from the early stages of my life and I'm willing to admit, without doubting it for a second, that you are the best speaker I've ever heard. The way you've approached this, the words you've used, the way you constructed your sentences... It's a work of a genius and I don't say this lightly. I mean it.
Thank you for your work. It very much appreciated even though I'm inclined towards theism. This is the best argument/speech I've ever heard.
John lennox has some great speeches as well
I presume this comment has been written by Alex`s mum posing under a pseudonym !Thanks mum !😄
I am a nonresistant believer of something but the current stories don’t add up with me either. And I’ve been searching for 5 decades.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 the issue is you assume we accept the idea of sin
I love the nod to Christopher Hitchens with the repeat of "Nothing!" at 9:13. Extremely powerful, well said O'Connor.
Well picked. I had exactly the same feelings hearing that. And apt too as Alex in my mind has now become, as hitchens was, atheism's best orator.
@@brentvercAgreed!
He hasn’t looked at Islam yet, that’s why.
Good one 😅
@@samhangsterI think he might have already.
I am a Christian and therefore is disagreement with your conclusions, but I will say that this is a sophisticated and well thought out argument that I very much appreciate. You do a good job at taking real questions, one step further. You took "ok arguments" and made them challenging arguments. I'll enjoy thinking through these things rather than just trying to dismiss them.
What exactly do you disagree with?
I also love discussions about the existence of spirituality and God and as a believer, I think it's important to also listen to the non-believers and their arguments.
Well, I suppose that's more than most christians do
I’m gonna leave a comment here, so I get pinged if you ever decide to share your answers to those questions
Just want to share my respect for you, sir, for being open minded. You'll make it far in life with that.
Wow. I commend your transparency, vulnerability, and honestly here. This is not easy to talk about so explicitly.
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
... But it's not a cult. @@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363I will not willingly bow to a being that supposedly punishes finite wrong with infinite suffering
@@josephrogers3666 Thanks for the question
INFINITE HELL FOR FINITE CRIME
You are forgetting that human crimes are against finite individuals hence finite human punishment, whereas God is infinite, so the punishment is infinite. People out of anger keep sinning/bblapheming God and so their punishment never catches up to their sin.
Also, Hell is simply a place where you are separated from God so you are separated from everything that is good ,things we take for granted like the ability to breathe, rest or have our feet planted on the floor.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 so me saying a word in infinite now ,yeah this nonsense is not convincing me of this GOD
Great introduction. I wish Jonathan's rebuttal was available, wait, I just now see the link.
Never saw your videos before this, and i just cried for the first time in a while. Ive never seen someone explain the struggle of religious trauma involving the "feeling" of the invisible god. Thank you for this refreshing look on life
May I answer you maybe? The "struggle out of religious concern" is a struggle because you search to find God with your mind. Open yourself with your heart. That doesn't need religion. Humble yourself first and empty yourself of the pride of false knowledge. Pray to God in humbleness and ask for forgiveness of your sins. Bless you 🙏 ❤
that because you are a godless ass kissers as any Goddeniers... Another reason for not respecting you and you left God for nothing and the emptiness that this cult called atheism give you...
@@platzhirsch4275 that because you are a godless ass kissers as any Goddeniers... Another reason for not respecting you and you left God for nothing and the emptiness that this cult called atheism give you...
@@platzhirsch4275L
@@platzhirsch4275how does one "opens" his heart? What does it mean? What do you mean by "emptying yourself from false knowledge"? What false knowledge are you exactly talking about?
Greetings from Germany
Bravo, sir. Most arguments supporting the existence of God simply rely on scripture--as if citing a book proves the claim. Your points are succinct, easily understood, and well supported by experience, common sense, history, facts, and compelling, unassailable logic. It's a delight and pleasure to listen to you speak.
Yes!!!
There is one thing that Alex didn't try in his search for God. He didn't try faith. Blind trust that God is real and that the words are true with no proof.
I hate to break the hearts of pdf file atheists, but men cannot give birth
@@SuperLifestreamyou cannot force faith authentically. I cannot “choose” to believe in something that I don’t believe in.
@@SuperLifestreamlol. At that point have faith in Islam, Buddhism, etc. Doesn’t matter!
This is such a lovely presentation you have delivered. Thank you for your kindness and poise in which you deliver your arguments and points.
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
"Faith" is required to "Believe in Lies" and "Faithfulness" is used to maintain Power and Control over their Subjects
As a Christian who is also a skeptic, I have greatly enjoyed your videos over the past few weeks.
I extremely enjoy your objections and the grace by which you have shown. Not that I could challenge you in a debate and win, you are certainly the better debater. I also have a fundamental difference in how the world and God operates than many of the people you have debated and can see why many of your objections resonate.
I don’t even claim to have all the answers but you have helped me button up my arguments and my own faith. I will continue to watch and enjoy.
Thank you for making us Christian’s actually take the time to consider our arguments and have better arguments than in past years.
I also think some of your logic is a bit faulty, especially when it comes to meaning of suffering but once again, with some of the Christians I’ve seen you debate, their theology leans toward that.
Keep searching whether you find God or not, the pursuit of truth is the one of the greatest pursuits we can take as humans.
I suggest askCliffe, he's a very intelligent Christian speaker
@@dimensionninja4929 I enjoy his content as well
The shroud of Turin will solidify your faith.
@@gonzalocastillo749
The Shroud of Turin was proven to be fake several times. The Catholic Church doesn’t even claim that it is real. Did you know this? In fact, they immediately found the artist who created it, as soon as it was produced. But then some higher ups decided that it would be good for business, so they just kept their mouths shut about it. But they have never added it to their list of miracles or evidence. Belief in the Shroud shows that you have no idea what you’re talking about, and have done zero research,
@@dimensionninja4929
He’s a liar for Jesus. He just obfuscates, changes the subject, and makes unfounded claims.
Btw after 15 years of theology debates, having been on both sides, this is the BEST opening argument I've heard. There's very few people who would've seen that vulnerability, only someone with the honest experience of being let down by religion could've seen that
Atheist COPIUM, really don't get why some people are quite desperate for everything to be meaningless accident and, in the end, nothing. It's always a weak argument when you have to start with using a manmade power structure IE religion as your talking point. Disproving any religion does nothing to disprove a universe with purpose. He also forgot to define "God" before going into how "God" doesn't exist. If you'd like to disprove manmade power structures and false/limited definitions of what "God" is, well, have fun. He also mentions "death" as a negative and desiring to avoid it (whatever it is since we don't know), which is utter insansity and ignorance on both counts. TLDR he did not define what "God" is but seems to define "God" as some separate being acting from outside and creating and influencing whatever and wherever we are, while also assuming he possesses the qualities necessary to perceive such a being and that being's methods of communication. This particular definition of "God" is manmade, as manmade as any dogmatic religion. Nothing new has been accomplished in this video, it is an exercise in futility that only argues about "God" under this created definition and mainly within the context of religions. Also assumes he can somehow define what is good and moral and that he has the ability to define what suffering is and the good or evil of it. Also believes in the holo hoax, and here's your red herring. Have fun
What side did you end up on if i may ask?
Was it not obvious?@@yoostcool6889
Beautifully structured, respectful and reasoned argument. An example to everyone…I wish we had more of that in the world. Great video man!
are you nuts? you seriously expect more people to waste time entertaining the idea of something obviously made up just so you feel respected? how about you respect my believe in your utter stupidity?! please spend years upon years researching and please respectfully entertain the idea that you are truthfully stupid! CUZ THATS WHAT I BELIEVE!
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
As a former Christian, I can't imagine being so evil as to enjoy myself in heaven, while loved ones I have known are burning in hell.
You have lived countless different lifetimes, reincarnation. Each lifetime, you have accrued black karma on your immortal soul. Your soul is Divine. The more black karma that shrouds the soul, the more one loses touch with one's own sense of the Divine, thus atheism..............Falun Dafa explain all of life's mysteries.
You really thought of saying that, typed it out and though "yup, this will will make him not an atheist and return him to God. Well done me!"
No - that's not how you convert an atheist. You have to use logic which you BOTH agree on. Got it?
@@jonahhofmeyr8306 No, faith beats out logic 100% of the time.
@@jeff_forsythe If faith beats out logic, what does faith mean to you?
@@jonahhofmeyr8306 What most people have misunderstood is that we are not here to judge God, it is the other way around. The only way that we can do that is by showing our faith. This is a very special time in the history of mankind, referred to by Buddha and Christ alike as the End of Times. Zhuan Falun explains everything, good luck.
Alex's arguments are impeccable. Great video as always!
They really aren’t
@@mikelleonardicry
"God doesn't exist because I stubbed my toe!" Yeah, impeccable.
@@cupass6179 ratio’d hahaha
@@cupass6179 I hate to break the hearts of pdf file atheists, but men cannot menstruate and they cannot give birth either. Live with it
When I ask believers how they KNOW God, they tell me the same things. They FEEL Him. What does he feel like? They describe emotion, inspiration, awe - these things are divine? How? Every person experiences these things. How do you differentiate emotion from a divine experience? Some say they HEAR Him. What does his voice sound like? You hear him in your head? How do you know these aren't just your own thoughts, your own inner voice, which everyone has? Or they tell a story that had a profound affect upon them, but these stories never contain anything unexplainable or what could truly be considered divine. I think people believe in Him because they want to. I am incapable of believing something just because I want to.
Yes. It is very easy. In your deep core, you EXPECT something, and what happens? Your sub conscious presents you a convenient answer. Its basically self hypnosis. I hate religions so much, man.
It's the power of "belief". The deeper you believe something, the more you feel it and experience it internally. The truth or falsity of a belief has no bearing on human psychology. All that matters is you have a deep conviction and then it'll be indistinguishable from reality.
I think this is a reason it's so smart that religious theologies like Christianity push so hard on the importance of "belief". It's held as the noblest of virtues and is the most powerful and effective method to keep human psychology under control.
In reality, belief is just gullibility and surrender of intellect.
The need to worship is an innate in humans. Thats bc we were created for that purpose; To worship our creator.
That was the message of all prophets but all books got altered except Quran.
It’s the final message and promised to be preserved by our creator.
You are welcome to read it and test its words for yourself. You’re welcome to listen to it and see how it affects your heart.
Empirical science gives no evidence on how life started or on what happens after life.
So you have to believe on something after death anyway. If you think it oblivion then it’s pure evidence-less belief at best. So logically the best choice is avoiding the possibility of eternal hellfire.
Please , do yourself a favor and look into it more and more you have nothing to lose by checking anyway right?
💐
@@adelzlwo youre just making ALOT of r*tarded assumptions "the need to worship is an innate in humans" the fvck? No its not hahahaha, the are millions and millions of atheists and non believers that dont give a f*ck about a god. You talk about science but talk such a random garbage hahahah
Just because science cant proof the origins of life YET, it doesnt mean you just fill the void with a god and there you got the answer. Islamic people habe this habit of trying to verify their religion through science and they will bend the meaning of all those sures just to show us how "scientific" the quran is hahahahaha
There is no such thing as a scientific religion. Religion is a natural emmergence because we humans got so smart that we started questioning everything.
@@adelzlwo not all humans.
there are a significant amount of humans that just don't have belief.
Maybe comparing it to colorblindness helps, they simply cannot see it.
I would love to have the certainty faith provides but everything you say just sounds like a scam to me.
I remember a story in the Bible, when Jesus was talking and the people around said. “Everything this man says is hard to understand” and one by one left. And the only ones staying were the disciples. And Jesus said. Do you also want to go? You see. People who “SAW” Jesus, couldn’t believe. How much harder it would be to believe after 2000 years.
Yet theres no evidence other than old texts that have been translated and changes many times.
He walked on water and performed all these miracles and peoples saw that and didnt believe?
Are you capable of critical thinking at all or are you just in denial for comfort?
@@nickhayden2299 yes the bible has been translated to languages. yes there are different translations of one language. the key aspect is none of the bible has changed the key points of the verse. an example of this that I can think of is that one English translation may say that "he rode a horse" and another says that "he was on a horse". do u get what im sayin. they don't change the key point of a verse. we also have Greek manuscripts, etc. which was one of the three most common languages spoken in first century Palestine (aka when Jesus lived). so we can tell if the bible has been changed at all. now for your last argument or whatver. people deny that the earth is round, deny that space doesn't exist, deny climate change, what makes you think that people can't deny Jesus as the Son of God.
@@draelock7082 are you islamic or Muslim?
@@draelock7082 people cling to it bc of how theyre brought up. Depending on which corner of the planet youre born in determines what religion your taught.
Its a comfort blanket but i think alot of people know in the back of their mind its all bs.
@@nickhayden2299 those are the same thing lol Islam is the religion and Muslims are the followers of Islam. Judaism is the religion and Jews are the followers. and I see your other reply but that doesn't counteract what i said to you previously. yes many people are born into religion I'm not denying that, and many of them might also deep down think it might be stupid.
I'm a Christian and I have got to admit this man is so sound well spoken and articulate.
I think just like Alex, questioning things and now Alex has given me more things to question... Here go the adventure for more truth 😊. So excited
I love this alex, I hope you find THE TRUTH.
Much love ❤
In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363good lord that’s scary AF
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 You can't force people to believe in him. You're ignorant.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 so I'm supposed to apologize to an invisible, intangible stranger for saying "oh my god" as a kid, otherwise I deserve to burn in hell? Yeah fuck that
@@christinescantlebury5455 I have had both Heaven and Hell experiences I can go on for a long time so here is the short form.
Hell: I was taken there and saw one skeleton in the left and many skeletons on the right facing this one skeleton, they were there for idolatry and fornication, and the background can only be described aa destruction. 2ndly I saw a girl on earth on the same bed as a guy and she kissed him on the cheek (implying a unlawful sexual relationship), the girl died and went to hell and fire consumed her entire bod but there was some skin left over , I remember thinking “at least she has some skin drooping from her face” and then more fire came and consumed her skin
Alex, I'm also an Atheist and I'm a physician. I've been brought up into the Christian culture as well, baptized and everything. But it's been many years now that I've freed myself from the doctrines. I read a lot and have always taken interest into the apparent battle between science, reason and belief that takes place within and outside.
I congratulate you on the amazing remarks that you brought to the discussion, and also have been following your public appearances to my pleasant surprise on your politeness and coherence.
As something of a scientist myself, I've been reading a few articles on the emotion or feeling of Awe. I would argue, like the authors, that Awe is a powerful driver of the religious experience that makes believers believe the experience is unexplicably holy. Awe is also experienced in many other occasions. The main point here is that Awe is or can be trained or instilled into someone according to the aculturation process of someone while growing up. You can feel immense happiness and fulfillment in singing in a church or by carefully watching Ants work. It only depends how you've come to learn how to experience Awe.
I advise the read. Cheers!
GOD bless you friend
Why did you leave if you don’t mind me asking ?
@splashyvvs9493 since it's been over almost 2 decades ago, I struggle to remember exactly how it went. But I'm sure that it was a very gradual and insidious change. I never really believed in deities and nobody forced me to comply to the belief. And it seems that it all came together as I learned more about science and this earth: during school learning physics, math, chemistry, and mainly biology; and their applications on our origins, morality, and the ever-shrinking explanations for miracles (as per the God of Gaps theory).
I had a supernatural experience. I'm very ill, it's been quite a while suffering with what I have and one night I said to God, I'm scared because every night I felt like I was going to die. A few minutes after saying what I said i felt like someone laid a blanket of pure peace on me and the fear left. As I was drifting off to sleep I felt what I can only describe as a liquid living light of love flood my body for 10 minutes. A lot of folks would say my mind made it up (how you can even prove that idk) but I know for a fact it was the tangible peace and love of God telling me everything will be okay. I should of dead, absolutely dead from my injuries. The fact that I'm here still is a miracle.
@@pedrobanhodarosa5292 As a physician do you not wonder about the complexity of it all? Like you I grew up learning about evolution, age of the earth and the simple cell. I did physics, biology and chemistry up to O level. Now I am not qualified in anything that really matters but I realised the more science delved into things like the amoeba the more I realised that it was far to complex to have come about by random chemical interactions. In fact the fact we are discussing this after millions of years of supposedly random mutations etc seems absurd.
I tear up when you share your walk. This is the second time I've heard this clip. It choked me up last year; it does the same this year. Thanks for sharing, Alex.
God is the epitome of Holiness because He is sinlessly perfect, A sinner (liar, sexually immoral, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, thief etc) cannot be in the presence of God or else he will be utterly consumed therefore repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to go to Heaven.
You're searching Alex and I appreciate how profound and thoughtful your discourse is. I like this Muslin saying that goes, "Whoever does a work based on what he knows from his knowledge, God causes him to inherit a knowledge he didn't know he had."
I think you can replace the word God with Universe or our material reality that you seem to be profoundly enamored with. Your discourse comes from a place of love and I hope that peace finds you in your days.
Religion does NOT make the world better. It covers up reality and creates illusions. Humans have improved society through science, logic, reason, and the pursuit of provable facts. Religion is a hindrance to all good pursuits of anything. Losing religion is a GREAT THING. CELEBRATE INTELLIGENCE AND FACT. They are truly amazing things and have actually saved millions of lives. Unlike religion and its endless lies and myths. SAVE HUMANITY - END RELIGION
The equivalent of the Christian "seek and you shall find".
I'm a pretty firm theist, and respect Alex. He is a respectable young atheist gentleman and is sincere in his search for the truth.
I was a theist until my teenage years, then I became an atheist, and came back to theism again in my 30s. I'm in no place of judging anyone. But I'm happy about my path. The idea of God has changed too throughout the years and it's more beautiful and vast now.
@@fernandooliveiralino Indulging in that process is what makes life meaningful
Strong argument, and a big part of why I became a born-again atheist.
Hello Alex! I just discovered your channel and all I can say is that what you are doing is an incredible piece of work! Thank you! Will for sure binge the hell out of this channel!
I just discovered him tonight and have already watched three videos. His insights are very interesting. Cheers from Australia.
@@rachelcolomb I'm the sort of Christian american that presumes God is innocent until proven guilty and I give Him a lot of the benefit of the doubt. But even so I talked to a churchman for twenty years about my carnal interpretation of Eucharist and john6. Now I understand. But I kept going to church for twenty years divided. I followed despite my carnality. Try to do the same and give God the benefit of the doubt. That wd be a very American thing to to do. Or even English thing to do.
@@jamesiiimcnabb6358 In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
We all are created as souls, divine. As we exist, many of us, because we have free will, commit evil acts, small ones and larger ones. The more sins that we commit, the more dark karma enshrouds our souls. We have reincarnated thousands of times and the more karma that we have, the less of our own divinity we sense. The cleaner the soul, the better. People who have lost touch with their own sense of the divine usually deny the existence of God and people with little dark karma are in touch with the divine and God. C'est la vie. Another way of putting it is that some of us are lucky and others are not. I am one of the very lucky ones who was honored with God's Divine Blessing. The fellow in this video has bad luck and his soul is very dark. Like I wrote before, c'est la vie.
@@jeff_forsythe In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
What a great speaker! I just found you on TH-cam and am excited to do more browsing of your content.
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 It's difficult to love some-one who engages in some cosmic game of hide and seek. People don't even know if there is a God, let alone which God (there have been so many). Many have miracles, many have holy books. Jesus isn't even the first God to sacrifice himself for humanity. Even the Golden rule you quote has had similar sayings in previous religions before Jesus was even born.
Then there's the character of the christian God too. The new testament is more pleasant, but the old testament is full of God killing people/ordering people to be killed, even babies and children. It's difficult to see the "all good" God in those verses, as he orders a complete genocide.
Another point (although there are many more) is the criteria to be saved is being a christian and believing in christ. As alex mentions in this video, being saved seems to heavily depend on where you are born. If you're born in a fairly secular country, or a country that primarily practises another religion, your chances of being saved dwindle hugely as opposed to being born in a majority Christian country. Given that we don't choose where we're born, this is clearly a pretty biased system, which is only necessary in the first place, because two people ate an apple (before they knew what right and wrong were) and that doomed the whole of humanity. This then required a blood sacrifice from God to overcome, which is bizarre as it's his system.
@@sympunny8636
THERE ARE ATROCITIES IN THE BIBLE.
the Bible does read like a violent adult movie-with incidents of genocide, rape, fornication, adultery, incest, murder, kidnap¬ping, beheadings, hatred, lying, blasphemy, pride, greed, and many other atrocities and vices. The Scriptures don't hide the wicked¬ness of humanity. They expose it and warn that the Day is coming when God will judge the world in righteousness.
@@sympunny8636 God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
@@sympunny8636 My thought the other night was I am not willing to believe there is an all mighty all knowing all powerful God who willfully creates people only for billions to serve an eternity in damnation. If the golden rules (as they are) are to repent and believe Jesus is the saviour then literally 6 billion plus people right now are doomed.
That being so, that "God" is heinous and malevolent as, as you say, it's his system.
Alex is a brilliant young man. Kudos to him.
Brilliant? because of his English accent? He's absolutely boring and adds nothing to this argument.
@@HelloMrBeeno No need to be pretentious.
@@Insane3OB Its a bot dont worry.
With your blessing, I would teach my son about faith by listening to this video. I am Christian, and I do love your questions and doubts, but I am sorry that such a platform is not fit for such delicate topics. I love face to face communication since it is far better. I could try answering your questions, one by one. I love your energy! Curiosity is great while looking for God. Faith and intelligence can have tremendous strength, since they are rarely met together.
As a Christian these are my three biggest challenges. Now I don’t have much a hard time with the suffering/ moral/ animal suffering question so much as I do the unanswered prayer question. Why is it that if someone in these situations pray God doesn’t answer at times but will answer seemingly meaningless prayers like finding car keys or a promotion. I have only been a follower of Christ for about three years now but these questions still eat at me. My biggest problem is that I’m so convinced of his existence in my mind yet my heart doesn’t see him. Why is he so distant. I’ve had what could be considered “divine timing” that I cling to because I havent personally witnessed anything further. I dont even know what God revealing himself would look like to me, there is a verse I wrestle with a lot that I have an answer that I consider grasping at straws. The verse goes “had these miracles been performed before Soddom and Gamorrah they would have believed” well if God desires that all will be saved why werent they performed there? If this would’ve sprung about faith why did it not happen? He fed Jonah to the large fish which is a miracle to save a town (Ninevah). So why not Soddom and Gomorrah? I am just writing this to say even as a Christian I wrestle with these questions. I dont know if there is such a thing as a perfect answer and if you are a seeking nonbeliever I truly do pray the Lord will reveal himself to you and I. (My answer for the Soddom and Gomorrah thing is that perhaps he did reveal himself in his wrath and some then came to faith, at least those who would, and or he doesnt do things that overbalance our free will… I dont know, like I said it’s a grasping at straws right now)
I believe it comes down to faith, faith is a tricky word because it often offends people or is seen as an excuse to fill a void that seemingly cannot be filled in some logical "grounded" way. Which leads to absolutes, expectations about HOW things should be or IF ONLY they were a certain way.
Here's what I mean in a short-worded rudimentary type way, although this can be expanded on further and doesn't have to be boiled down to such excruciating simpleness, I view the approach as an occams-razor type conclusion. The simplest explanation is often the correct conclusion.
The truth is, not one of us will ever have the answer to every question, the why's and the how's. One could spend forever pondering eternity. But we don't need to, we choose to... because having unknowns can be scary or frustrating.
Basically what I'm saying is, Jesus(God) never promised in our lives we wouldn't struggle, or always have the answer. There are natural laws that have been set in motion since creation that are indisputable no scientist or philosopher can argue, all things must come, and all things will go. What can happen will happen. Wherever you go, there you are (just a little joke sorry)
We were given a choice, to believe, or not to believe. (Before shakespeare man!) And a few guidelines to live life by, along with commandements.
Love God and accept christ as your savior
Love your neighbor like you love yourself
Forgive others
Be patient and kind
Be generous
and as the Good Lord himself says "those who follow my commandments will be rewarded" and its clear the rewards are not yet here during this lifetime, but I imagine it's much more valuable than a million bucks or a girlfriend or something. I mean he's God after all, but seriously
In the end, it's all faith. "The faith of a mustard seed" so to speak, and people really struggle with having faith, understandably so, even Jesus' disciple lacked faith, and they MET Jesus! Imagine that, it certainly didn't make them unworthy or unwanted by Christ
Anyways, just my two cents. Good luck, decisions aren't easy. But we have to make those decisions every day
The Old Testament is the book mainly for/of the Jews. It may be that the 'God' in parts of this book, now called the Old Testament, was a demi-god. The New Testament was for those who would separate from the old religion, and others, and become followers of the Christ.. A new way of understanding God was presented - that of a God of Love ( and not a jealous and angry God).There is no 'personal' God. God is the ever-expanding Universe. What we believe is our 'personal God' is our own Soul. The Soul is of the higher, abstract mind and is the sum total of all the good, true and beautiful gleaned from lifetimes we have lived in the school of life - this planet. Yes, rebirth/reincarnation. We are unconscious sparks of the Divine, come to earth, in an experiment in free will to evolve in consciousness towards enlightenment. We are' gods in the making' (New Testament). Christ was the first and fastest to do this. Just because you pray for something does not mean you get 'it' or in the way you expected. It depends on a number of factors, including the blueprint for your life this time around on in earth and good intention. When I 'pray' I ask for help in a situation, for the greater good, in the name of the Christ and what he stands for. Most often my 'prayer' is answered in an unexpected way, mainly because I cannot not know the full story, as Christ did, such as with with the woman at the well when He 'read' the Akashic records her past lives.) Meditation in contact with your Soul is a good way to get answers to questions and problems. This is what Christ taught His disciples when they went to the 'upper room', an analogy for the plane of the Soul). I was in a Pentecostal church but moved on years ago and am a student of the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. 'From Bethlehem to Calvary' - the Initiations of Jesus, by Alice Bailey (a very evolved Soul) gives a different perspective on Christ's work and the New Testament. I hope this helps. Contact me if you wish. Goodwill Blessings to you.
Read the book of job
In my opinion this is the most hard question of all, why He allow suffering? God can create something from nothing, he has unlimited power and knows everything so he cannot be wrong, which means that there must be a solid reason for it but we cannot literally comprehend it yet, because of our limitations compared to him.
The Bible tells us that one day Christ will come back and deal with all that stuff personally, then this sad reality will end forever.
And we cannot forget that He also lived it on the cross so he took his share of it too.
how about instead of praying to jesus. you should pray O true God show me your true self and be honest about it. becuase according to me you are praying to wrong God. islam has your answers. but i dont ask you to say Allah if you feel uncomfortable. JUst pray O true God whoever you are show me your true self your true message and then be honest about it. be open
(2:26) Did someone play "Woo Boost" by Rusko?
People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
Loved this video!
Respect from an ex Muslim
👏👏👏
How were you able to disprove the existence of God?
If you don’t believe in God because of suffering, it is you that has defined God as incapable of causing people to suffer.
@Spyrix-rx3rd no, it's the endless contradictory signals. It's the words in the the text not matching what's on the screen, but if belief does you some good, then keep on believing, belief made me question, and that's done me some good.
@@Spyrix-rx3rd I don't need to disprove what has never been proven in the first place.
The problem of evil isn't my issue with the Islamic god. It is the contents of the Quran, hadiths, sirah, scholarly tafsirs, etc That make it glaringly obvious that this is a man made product that has very little to do with anything "divine"
@@thenun1846ok if ur really a Muslim how much chapters are there in the Quran and I bet ur gonna search google
Listening to your speech, I am constantly reminded of Arthur Schopenhauer's essay 'On the Suffering of the World.
Brilliantly articulated positions. I admire your calmness while speaking to such an audiance, it shows, that you really live for this topic.
I was just told that my mom doesn’t want me buried next to her since I’m not Catholic. She had a plot reserved which I thought was weird because I’m still young and she basically said she’s going to retract it and let someone else have it. None of my other siblings are Catholic yet I am the one she gets angry at. I just feel numb at this point.
I'm sorry to hear that. Christianity often drives a wedge between family members. It especially does not help that Jesus himself said he was here to divide families.
That's not very Christian of her....
@@CB66941 But NOT in that manner. It was about those who choose to follow the Christ's teachings (not religious dogma) and those who do not! His teachings would be DIVISIVE. And this is NOTHING to do with specific religions.
That's rough. But isn't better to know how she really feels? Maybe it's a good time to reconsider how you feel about her as well.
I don't know how young you are. If you are still financially dependent on her then I'd encourage you to keep your thoughts to yourself. But if you're able to be financially independent from her then don't hesitate to put an appropriate distance between you and her. I'm sharing advice that would have drastically changed my life for the better had I received it at the right time. I hope you will consider it thoughtfully.
That's terrible. I'm really sorry that's what your relationship is like with your mom. Just want you to know (from a Catholic) that that's not right. I hope she sees that what she said in no way reflects the heart of Jesus.
So glad he discussed animal suffering. I've been bringing this up in numerous discussions, but this is the first time I've heard it discussed in a formal debate. There are so many reasons to doubt the existence of gods, any single one of which is sufficient; the suffering of animals is one of them.
Animal suffering is proof of evil. Evil can't exist without good. There is always an equal and opposite effect. If evil exists, then God exists too.
@@DemonEmbarasser You're saying god can't do anything?
@@Dominic13337 where?
@@Dominic13337 atheism isn’t a solution to animal suffering. Not once did someone becoming an atheist make animal suffering go away.
@@DemonEmbarasser God can't erase evil?
I'm grateful that internet connects me to such incredible like-minded people like him.
I felt like sharing some of my thoughts about this from my christian perspective:
I think there's a bit of misconception about how to find God and what to expect from it.
A lot of people expect that when they search for God that they will be met with some sort of supernatural experience or emotion.
Nowhere in the bible does it say that is what happens.
The bible tells us to put our trust and faith in Jesus, who died for our sins so that we are forgiven of those sins.
If we do not put our faith in him, we do not believe in him.
To believe in him we simply need to look for him, but where do we find him?
We find him first in the bible; Faith comes by the hearing (reading) of the word as Paul said (Romans 10:17)
If you hear (read) the word and do not believe, then there is no faith and God won't be found outside of the bible.
(Yes there are special cases ofcourse but for the sake of simplicity I won't go into that now)
The bible is God's message for us which tells us who he is, who we are, whats wrong and how it's fixed.
If we try to find God in some other way, how can we know for sure that what we find is God?
Some people trust in some sort of experience for their faith and when asked what their basis is for their faith they might recall that experience and trust in that, this is not a biblical definition of faith and how it's found.
The only 'supernatural' experience with God we may experience (but not always consciously) is the work of the holy spirit, which transforms the believer into a new person.
But this does not happen before someone actually believes, this happens afterwards and is an ongoing process until death.
On the point of suffering:
God indeed allows suffering, humans have free will and we cause a lot suffering in the world.
Also lets not forget that we live in a cursed world, where sin dwells.
Even in the bible satan is called the god of this world, he rules here, until the second coming of Christ.
It's hard to understand how terrible of a thing our sin is to a holy god, terrible enough to have made a gap between us and God.
So the next step is to determine how, exactly, anyone can believe that the Bible is the "word of God" other than "because it says that it is". That's what I spent years trying to figure out.
@@colbyboucher6391study history of the Bible and the manuscript evidence.
The accuracy of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus thousands of years after being written all perfectly and distinctly fulfilled which is a historic fact.
Watch TH-cam videos on the Bible etc
@@colbyboucher6391also pray To God and ask him to reveal the truth to you
And be patient and genuinely seek after God
you are correct except for my experience. i was 25 and my best friend died, i was in deep sorrow and then a feeling voice touch all of the senses spoke . no spoke is not right , then a communication, i now realize that i cant describe my experience
@@colbyboucher6391because you can come to the same logical conclusions as the Bible without reading the Bible
Having watched your first debate with Johnathan, it’s amazing to see how you continue to grow and improve your debate and public speaking skills. Excited to see you continue to flourish!
Alex, as a Christian myself I am incredibly humbled by your sincerity and extreme efforts in pursuing the possibility of belief in God. I so much more feel the weight of your arguments here than I have from any other non-Christian thinker.
They who made quarks capable of making us and everything are not condemning us for non - belief. We are judged solely for our choice to sin with our soul's awareness that we do, are,, and have sinned, and say, "I have no responsibility to anyone but myself, and all gods be damned."
Who would want to pursue and for what gain? To tell it if it’s mistakes? Certainly not to beg forgiveness for being exactly as it created you?
@@FoxyJohn what you gain is the most wonderfully loving Coach in life who knows your strengths and weaknesses and, were you to look up to Him in honor and humility, the absolute best would be brought out off you and your soul and character would shine as an example of what the most loving, disciplined, kind, brave human being could possibly look like.
The human, transformed by Christ, either inspires the desire to be like, a pain of seeing how short one falls from that likeness, or an utter hatred of that level of goodness.
I've met those much further on the walk with Christ. It is hard to see my shortcomings.
And, yes. If you screw up as an Olympic athlete for willfully disobeying your coach, asking forgiveness is perfectly correct. Though God gave you shortcomings, it's your choice to not do your best for selfish reasons which makes you not wish to meet His gaze.
@@FoxyJohnJust relax. You’re telling billions of people they’re all crazy or hallucinating. The problem is that many of us were skeptics or were non believers too once. We’re not all adult children who believe in fairies and teapots. Something is not fake just because you haven’t experienced it.
@@thegoatofyoutube1787good comment
As child I didn't watch horror movies because they made me think Chucky slept under my bed. Then, as adult I realised other adults feel the same way about god. They're afraid of something that doesn't exist. In this life it's very important to be kind to your family, friends and neighbours. But fiction is for movies. And that's my blessing to you. 😇🇨🇦🍻
This was a brilliant presentation, although I think there’s some confusions
1. He criticize Christianity and call it “Theism” and is not the same
2. The fact he didn’t “feel” God is an argument that debunks God, and confuse it with “believe”
3. The existence of suffering doesn’t disprove God existence because we don’t fully undertand it (although I think he understands it through bias arguments)
4. I think the statistics he mentioned explain cultural and sociological influence on Believing in God, not his existence or not
He is not arguing about the existence of Gd - he is arguing that the three observations he makes have BETTER *Naturalistic* explanations than Theistic ones.
@@L.Ron_Dow Well I had misinterpreted it then. I think the title is clear, the explanation of his points is also a rejection of the idea of the Christian God, and overall his arguments point that the natural explanation implies the inexistence of a God. And I think they are complementary or at least non contradictory
Alex is a phenomenon, after following him for a few years now he never ceases to impress me. I’m an old git now but I’d have loved to have gone to University and had a minute amount of intellect and knowledge that he has. What a bright future he has I wish him all the best.
Maybe you don't need to go to the university to be smart. That was well written!
@@owenivor Thank you. I suppose what I was getting at was the fact that a University education and all it offers opens not only doors for you academically but it also brings you into contact with aspiring minds. Alex has undoubtedly a fantastic brain along with a wonderful vocabulary. He can speak about many topics in depth, precise and clear plus he has that charming twinkle in his eye which helps for the media he works in. I can only see him going from strength to strength.
@@studio-flash When I was in Uni (didn't graduate), one of my class mates was a retired senior. He seemed like he was having the (second) time of his life. It's never too late, my good man. There may be other limiting circumstances but age isn't one :)
@@Pow3llMorgan Thanks but I’m too washed out to study at that level now I suppose. Cheers anyway.
Alex - this is masterful rhetoric. You are a joy to listen to and to understand as well! Thank you 🥰
As a Bible-believing Christian, I firstly just want to thank you for your gentleness, calmness and respect for the opposition. Rare to see. And secondly, like you said, I don't know your heart truly but I pray that you will nonetheless find what you've been looking for and ultimately find the grace of God that is shown in Jesus Christ
That’s so backhanded what if I said I hope you disbelieve? Weird
You can hope that but you follow a false religion. It's time for the influence of Iran age books to end
@@Christopher-h3wr suppose he says we cannot understand God's mind how would you respond.
@@elypowell6797 You have no evidence for this claim. This is a clear case of brainwashing.
@@elypowell6797of which you have 0 evidence for.
great video -- although I am a believer, I share a lot of the same sentiments.. I too am continuing to search, and more often than not, left empty handed.
keep fighting the good fight brother
When I read the entire bible, I knew just after the first several chapters of genesis that this religion is not convincing to me. Trees and plants didn't come before the sun, moon and stars. There's no talking serpents, you can't live in a fish for several days, you can't store the millions of diverse species on earth in a boat, no talking donkeys, no talking bushes and no seven headed dragons.
No talking...YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!
It's all metaphors, uneducated cretin.
You see that is the difference between you and those who believe
Some of those. Being plants and trees moving towards the sun, moon (sunlight still), star (sun again). We all emerged from common ancestors which would work for that example of Noah’s ark. But it is indeed mainly metaphorical. I am in the same boat, definitely more inclined towards Buddhism especially with all this future prediction Shit and what not that’s been popping up lately. However i am open to the possibility that a god exists regardless of which religion. Or aliens lol
Except most of these things are considered supernatural occurrences. Supernatural beings exist in Christianity, so these things are very much possible within that worldview.
As for trees and plants, the Bible does talk about light being there before plants, so I don't see how that is an issue. Also the Bible never mentioned "millions of diverse species" boarding the ark.
If your objection is lack of evidence, why bring up all of this? Whether the Bible has a talking donkey or not doesn't affect the authenticity of it at all.
0:08 That is most definitely not all there is to you Alex. You are intelligent & knowledgeable. You are honest and ethical. You are brave. You display courage doing what many consider the most fearful thing to do, speaking in front of large crowds. And as an atheist I am proud to have you as one of our fellow atheist spokesman.
As a Christian believer I am also "proud" of Alex because I think he's a seeker of Truth and the ultimate meaning to life.
Not trying to disrespect your feelings. I'm just a student of life.
Peace to you from Florida.
@@johnbrzykcy3076 Why would your complimenting Alex, be showing any sort of disrespect for my feelings?
A better question might be this....With your belief that Alex is a seeker of truth, the fact that he is a non-believer, despite searching as hard as he has for so long, does it not give you pause to question your own beliefs? I do disagree with the part about Alex searching for the ultimate meaning in life. Because Alex would be the first to tell you that there is no ultimate meaning in life. The meaning of life is different for everyone.
I think it was a self-deprecating joke, I'm sad that no one in the audience laughed
I agree, i am an orthodox rabbi, and i believe in listening to all views, as judaism demands intellectual honesty. Alex seems very well thought out, and i believe honest in his search. I did refer him to my lecture on my small channel which singlehandedly answers all 3 of the questions with the same concept, as his 3 questions when you analyse them deeply are really one question at its root. At the end of the day whether we are successful in finding God or not, God judges us by our honesty and integrity, and judging by what i see here from Alex, is an honest and respectful man, trying his best to find the truth.
@@adamherskine8594 Do you believe Alex will be going to hell when he dies? That is meant as a serious question. Not trying to be mean or antagonistic, but if you go by the Bible, in that the only way to heaven is through belief and acceptance in Jesus Christ, it leaves little wiggle room there.
EDIT: I apologize. It just hit me that you said Rabbi. Obviously you don't follow the whole Jesus Christ thing. Again, sorry about that. However my question still applies though.
"Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you."
-St. Thomas Aquinas
Werner Heisenberg: Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, was known for his spiritual and philosophical interests. He believed that science and religion could coexist and once said, "The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you."
Max Planck: The founder of quantum theory, Max Planck, also had spiritual beliefs. He believed in a "divine being" and thought that science and religion complemented each other.
Albert Einstein: Einstein is famous for his contributions to physics, including the theory of relativity. While he didn't adhere to traditional religious beliefs, he often referred to a sense of awe and wonder at the universe, which he described as "cosmic religion." He rejected a personal God but believed in the existence of an impersonal, pantheistic deity.
@@alexkane84 Thanks.
Alex, you are an absolute treasure. I only wish that our dearly beloved, and sorely missed, Christopher, could have been there to see this. RIP
He's watching on. Lol.
Your eloquence in formulating your position is in a way a trend that I am observing these days. It comes to my attention that more and more people from the audience on various debates, meetings etc. are formulating the qustions so well crafted, intelectually rich and just simply well thought. Probably constanlty rewatching many debates for the last 20 years and the observation of history modern and old is forcing upon us and within us an understanding that is deeply suspicious of grand ideologies.
Your experience reminds me a lot of my own, though I didn't go to quite the same lengths. I joined Bible studies, went to church, prayed, and looked at the arguments of any apologist I could find. In the process, I met some amazing people, and I really wanted to believe in part so I could have more fulfilling experiences and relationships with them. Still, I found nothing.
do not expect to find anything. but look in retrospect. hindsight is 20/20
I’m not a Christian but I have spent a good deal of time, especially, learning the theology of medieval and late Middle Ages theologians.
What I realized is that, what these men were doing was essentially- besides Olympic level mental gymanistics- trying to frame their reality in a way that made sense to them having accepted the factuality and objective truth of scripture.
And also, as much as I love the Hebrew Bible, I decided against framing my entire outlook on reality and the meaning of life on the writings of a Bronze Age Palestinian tribesman or scribe.
You found amazing people along the journey that is something
@@christopherlin4706The lack of reliable evidence remains lack of reliable evidence even in retrospect.
Your problem is that you were looking for experiences instead of the truth.
"Well... It looks like I have my work cut out for me" - Straight out of the book of Hitchens.
The cadence too
I do feel like he either models himself on Hitchens or just happens to be extremely similar. His accent, intonation, rhythm etc is virtually identical.
You can see the influence of Hitchens when he says, "Nothing, Nothing!" when answering whether a god has answered his prayers or ever shown up.
@@blackswan8653 People often say, “I’m not hurting anyone so it’s ok to sin (lying, stealing, sexual sins, disrespecting parents etc)” The same God who said to love your neighbour first said to love Him to the best of your ability. If you carry on sinning, then you do not love God but are selfish like the devil so you will be joined to your father in hell or repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as God so Jesus adopts you as His child and you will join Him in Heaven forever.
Watching this while Israel commits genocide on Palestine. And I'm just like "weeeelp. So much for us learning to not commit the same or worse atrocities"
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 did you watch the video or are you just here for the comments?
@@itsahrims I already have heard his poins before
People underestimate hell, it is bad because it is separation from God. In a vision I was shown a person who claimed to be Christian but started fornication (premarital sex), He died relatively young and went to hell forever (1 Cor 6:9). God’s holiness means He will not coexist with sinners forever therefore Repent (Luke 13:3) and have a relationship with Jesus.
@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 are we just quoting fairy tale books? Cause I got plenty. You are welcome to go on believing what you believe in. But the reality is, that's just your opinion, and what you consider facts are just testimonies from people that lived 2k years ago. In any case , go watch the video. If the Bible can be considered a piece of fact for your cults then by any logic, any book claiming to have a deity can also be considered blfact. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't discredit it
@@itsahrims Nahdaily testimonies of Jesus working in ourlife
God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, ,evil Spirits, the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
As a Christian, I am touched to hear your experience searching for God. I truly find your first argument quite difficult to respond to when I am naturally convinced that God would reveal himself to any non-resisting non-believers. My faith is still and will surely stay unbending because of my experience, philosophical views, and historical data backing up the center of Christianism, Jesus. Still, I am very perplexed by your condition..
And loving your content !
Cheers
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
And what do you mean by “reveal” himself in this case? Does this young man expect God to knock on his front door and say “it is I” once he reads a certain number of pages or says a certain number of prayer? What could make anyone think God would work this way? Why does he assume that he earned a private meeting with God because he studied? He never has had faith and has never believed
@@mikelleonardi Good question, for me it was just a sense of relief and abandonment of my life and wants and needs to an unconditional understanding love. And I can’t ever shake that feeling. But I’ve heard of other stories that were more literal in the meaning of reveal such as dreams and visions of Gods spirit speaking to them.
I would of course expect God to reveal himself in different ways to people. But I don’t get why he wouldn’t do so to everyone open to searching him.
@@joshuafreling2618 the mystery of faith.
It’s as if some people treat faith like a meter in a video game. If you fill up your faith meter enough, God will come and speak to you and say “hey man, you were right! I’m real!!” And to me that is simply absurd.
God already has revealed himself through the life, works and teaching of Jesus Christ. And we all have open access to that. It’s our job to study it and search for the truth. And this journey to the truth keeps leading people to Jesus over 2,000 years later and in greater quantities today than ever before.
We have no reason for God to be “revealed” to us physically until our day of Judgement. Our love and faith in Him the Father and in His son are what lead us to eternal life. They aren’t what lead us to our Earthly meeting with God in our bedroom or whatever.
God never revealed himself ever to me!!!! I’m searching for him for months and months. Praying and asking for mercy because my life sucks. Starting to lose faith and my life has gotten so bad im consuming atheist media
I was in the same boat, no religious family, no pressure from anybody. Existential crisis at 16. Could not get myself to believe in God although I wanted to. I would never lie to myself or fake believing in him. However, my story went the other way. I definitely can’t explain my conversion and I definitely can’t convince anyone that I am right and they are wrong. All I can do is thank God for revealing himself to me. I’m a believer in God and can attest that the Christian God is not someone who is understood but someone who is to be revealed. No person can reveal God, it is God who reveals himself. I love these videos and I love this comment. I see myself reflected in every thought and word said.
“ the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
May i ask how he revealed himself?
Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown
In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
Western religions are more concerned with behavior, doctrine, and belief than with any transformation of the way in which we are aware of ourselves and our world.
The trouble with many religions, accused of wishful thinking, is that they are not wishful enough. They show a deplorable lack of imagination.
Many people think that the Bible is the authentic word of God and they worship the Bible, making it an idol.
@@ciararespect4296 Yes, of course. Thanks for being polite. I will do my best to try to explain, although ultimately, I don't really have an explanation. But here it goes..
My story:
Like I mentioned, I do not come from a religious family. My life before God was what most people would consider " the perfect life". I was a fairly popular high schooler. Did pretty good academically. Excelled in sports, had lots of friends, had a girlfriend etc. Everything was "perfect". It was actually my mother and brother who first started going to church. Long story short..I eventually started going only when there was going to be free FOOD!! Little by little I heard the word. Fast forward to many FOOD events later. I found my soul being convicted of what I once thought was foolish and a bunch of fairy tales. I could not explain why I was convicted in such a way. I needed to engage my rational mind and find a way to disprove the things that were convicting my soul. This started a hunger/existential crisis. I NEEDED to disprove this conviction that was on my heart. This lead me to all kinds of research. Spirituality, science, psychology etc. All to try to suppress/find a way out of this conviction. I got into all kinds of things but kept running into the christian God. I got to the point of accepting that human beings have a spiritual component, it is not just the material realm but there is some type of spirituality involve. From here, I went into all kinds of occult beliefs... thinking I had found the explanation to what the christians were "trying to explain". Long story short....I kept running into the christian God. Always a warning, always a description, a testimony like mine, always something...Always those annoying Christians having something to say, right?
A lot more to say... but I am shortening years of my life here.
Anyways, I got to a point where I was convinced that the zeal for God in the people around me had to be real. I had made a promise to myself that I would never fake having this zeal for God myself, but I did hunger to know what it was like to love this God that you could not see or feel. I prayed for hours, days, and eventually months. But nothing.. No visitation from God, no visitation from any angelic being, no feeling of love for this God, nothing.
I kept praying... months had gone at this point. I was ready to give up..when all of a sudden I find myself in church overtaken by this warmth of Love towards GOD. This immense feeling of love towards him. Almost like when you fall deeply in love with someone and you are past the infatuation stage. You look at them and just have this immense love for them. Or when you have your first child and look over their crib and look at them with this indescribable love you feel for them.
I knew God was real. My being had such a certainty that God was real. It's hard to explain but for us Christians there are certain moments in our walk where we know for sure God is there/listening to us. I know I'm describing it like a simple feeling but it is more then that. My life after this started to fall apart. It was almost like becoming a Christian had been the wrong the decision. Many more things to say about the trials that came after. But in short God was and continues to be good faithful. I was convicted of Sin. I started to hunger for the things of God and now the things I use to hate I love and the things I love now I dislike. I do not need to see an Angel, I do not need God to appear to me in a smoky cloud. I have witness the biggest miracle I could ever see--- God changing my heart. He turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Now able to respond to his word, love righteousness and despise sin.
Some key scriptures that have given me more insight to fully describe what I can only describe as the definition of "Being born again"
John 3:3
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
In short this verse summarizes my experience:
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Lastly,
I wanted to include two links below in case you read through my whole spiel.
th-cam.com/video/eKYMji4vr9E/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/dQ_49Qx6KLE/w-d-xo.html
p.s sorry for the spelling mistakes, hard to type on my laptop
@@CheknoEternity You'd be surprise how close your assertion is to what the bible has to say. Im completely open to hearing about other religions and questioning my own religion. Rather I constantly look for new "vision of the world" rather without this process I would have never arrived to the Christian worldview. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the Christian religion and any other religion. It is not a works based religion. Meaning that in order to be accepted by God we have to do this or that. Rather it teaches that Men can do nothing for God, they fall short of the glory of God. They can never earn their way to heaven through their behavior modification or rituals. Even so, it was the religious people of the day that ultimately put Jesus to death. Jesus again and again, called out religious hypocrisy. The Christian faith teaches that the biggest prove of our faith is the transformation that has occurred in us. Not out of our own doing but out of the working of God in us.
When one is drawn to God one becomes more himself, one knows himself more. Before we are drawn to him and our evils exposed by him. We go on thinking we are "good people". We are blinded by our own ambitions, pleasures, and personal agendas.
"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. “I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you"
Faith in two parts :
I: th-cam.com/video/9Nh-_PEH25o/w-d-xo.html
II: th-cam.com/video/56HO390emvc/w-d-xo.html
Triune God
th-cam.com/video/eKYMji4vr9E/w-d-xo.html
@@edgarbahena4454 The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.
When superstitious Bronze Age primitives invented God, they gave him every day single human character flaw they had, because they simply projected their own uneducated thoughts onto their imaginary God. Men created God in their own religion
I met Alex at a house party at university. We shared beers and just chatted. Cool guy. I doubt he remembers me, but man, it's interesting seeing how different he is in debate
It's always kind of a bizarre feeling, seeing somebody you once knew.
I’m curious .. how is he so different? Did he come across as overly intellectual and philosophical when you met him?
When I came to the realization as a young man that there was no god I became much happier and freer, because my mind was no longer overrun with nonsense. Religious people often say, 'the truth shall set you free', and they of course mean that if you 'believe' then happiness and meaning follow. I do not see increased happiness or meaning in friends who are religious; just the opposite. What sets you free is leaving religious silliness behind and living your life in the real world.
In heaven no unclean person is allowed in, you are unclean if you have sinned just once like lying, stealing, sexual immorality, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, evil thoughts etc Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) can put his sinless righteousness on you since He died on the cross, rose from the dead so REPENT AND BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 I hope that someday you will clear your mind of religious nonsense and start living in the real world. We'll all be better off for it, including you.
Before rejecting God we need to study the issue cautiously because we're dealing with our eternal destiny. The freedom the Bible talks about is freedom from condemnation not freedom to do what we want or to be who we are. Living life our way will take us to bankruptcy. We need the wisdom of God to guide us.
@@fernandosviewpoint I have studied the issue carefully, and that's why I made the decision to live in the real world, free of non-existent gods and devils, heavens and hells. I wonder how you came to believe in Jesus and not one of the other thousands of gods created by man from caveman times onward. Did you do a careful study?
@@fernandosviewpoint The issue at hand is sin and God’s nature of being just. Sin brings suffering (the pleasure is short term, and the suffering is long term-on earth and in hell forever). God brings Righteousness (may have short term suffering followed by long term pleasure- on earth and in Heaven).
If you love yourself repent of your sins (lying, hatred, unforgiveness, sexual sins, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, stealing, dishonouring your parents etc) & believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. (Jesus died on the Cross as a sacrifice and defeated death by rising from the dead)
I cant believe its 2023 and we still have this discussion.
This lecture describes very well what I feel and went through myself!
Thanks
Its so lovley to hear a debate where everyone isn't speaking over each other and isn't shouting
All Humans need to repent & Believe in Jesus as their God. Why? Because all Humans have sinned (lied, lusted sexually, stolen, dishonoured parents, unbelief etc). Avoid the fires of Hell (justice of God) and choose Heaven today. Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead. GOD IS HOLY
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363
Nah I’d rather not shame myself for arbitrary 2000 year old rules tampered with over like 4 language translations.
@@thereisnonegoodbutgodjohn363 I could say the same thing about allah 🤷
@@JellieThePink God through the Holy Spirit has shown me several things relating to the afterlife with the purpose of convincing people like yourself. Stuff like Heaven and Hell, Angels, and evil Spirits the Lord Jesus (not worthy at all), a miracle happened to me that saved my life (thank you God) & so much more. I am more than happy to give further details.
@@Ibis_W0lfie People underestimate hell, it is bad because it is separation from God. In a vision I was shown a person who claimed to be Christian but started fornication (premarital sex), He died relatively young and went to hell forever (1 Cor 6:9). God’s holiness means He will not coexist with sinners forever therefore Repent (Luke 13:3) and have a relationship with Jesus.
At least your brand of Christianity that you were raised in fostered education and curiosity. I was raised being preached to by "hellfire and brimstone" preachers who may or may not have graduated from secondary school. It took me until my 30s to crawl out of that ignorance. You are a brilliant young man that is teaching me a great deal, thank you.
Antony Flew was an advocate of atheism until 80's finally realized Christianity and Theism are not inherently tight together and published his book : There is A God.
What exactly did Alex O'Connor teach that indicates his intellect? Can you even name one? All his speeches are just childish 8-years-old wishful thinking.
@@adamc1694 *Richard Carrier* wrote to Flew in 2004 and asked a number of questions:
Here's a part of his reply (written in his own hand):
*_"My one and only piece of relevant evidence_*_ [for an Aristotelian Gѻd] is the _*_apparent_*_ impossibility of providing a naturalistic theory of the origin from DNA of the first reproducing species... [In fact] the only reason which I have for beginning to think of believing in a First Cause gѻd is the impossibility of providing a naturalistic account of the origin of the first reproducing organisms."_
That is a GotG argument. Flew was not a Biologist nor a Biochemist, he had no qualifications in that field at all.
In another BBC interview with Joan Bakewell Flew retracts his certainty of the unexplainable complexity of DNA, noting that the _"starting point"_ for life _"is a thing that still needs a naturalistic explanation"_ but though _"many people after the findings of DNA looked around and wondered whether they'd ever be able to find it, and _*_thought it would simply be impossible_*_ to do it,"_ Flew instead concedes, *_"Well, it isn't."_*
Flew later said: *_"I now realize that I have made a fooI of myself_*_ by believing that there were no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction."_
Why did he say this? Well he added: *_"I have been mistaught by Gerald Schroeder_*_ ... it was precisely because he appeared to be so well qualified as a _*_physicist_*_ (which I am not) that I was never inclined to question what he said about physics."_ So, he trusted a *physicist* on the subject of *biochemistry* (it would seem Flew does not recognize the difference.) This attitude seems to pervade Flew's method of truthseeking, of looking to a single author for authoritative information and never checking their claims.
Flew's 2007 book _"There Is a Gѻd: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind"_ (2007) was in fact written by an evangelical preacher named Bob Hostetler, with considerable assistance from the book's co-author, evangelical promoter and businessman Roy Abraham Varghese. Mark Oppenheimer's, article _"The Turning of an Atheist,"_ NYT Nov 2007, confirms that, Flew has now confessed to the fact that *he did not write a word of this book* (even though it is sold under his name), and apparently knows (or remembers) little of its contents.
So yes, Flew did abandon Atheism for Deism - I guess this is what happens when you start reaching the end and lose all your powers of rationality and get used by people with an agenda.
@@L.Ron_Dow @adamc1694 won't reply to you because once you start presenting good arguments, he'll just call you names and run away like a coward. He thinks of himself as an intellectual, but just repeats the same old and tired arguments. He also has a really funny vendetta against Alex just because he can't handle someone who's smarter than him. Either way, your response completely and utterly destroyed him.
@@adamc1694 Your argument is basically "Well just because The Little Mermaid is fictional doesn't mean mermaids don't exist." Also, Alex already wrote a review for that book on his Goodreads account. I've presented this to you and you've ignored it because you'd rather stay in your ignorant bubble than learn something new. No wonder you're a theist. You're too ignorant to be anything else.
My reasoning is much more simple: he doesn't make me win in online games, therefore he's not real.
Now THAT is the only reason you need not to belive in God. If he would exist i would be grandmaster in league of legends. But guess what, i'm not, so he dosen't exist.
@@andrijazavrtnik2411neither am I. It’s okay. You’re both mediocre at Lol
not enough faith idiot
Other guys are just praying harder🤷🏼♂️
He did not make him grow you up :(
I love that he includes the most likely theist counterpoints in his presentation -- and with intellectual honesty. Brilliant technique. But mostly I love how be presents the central question as a simple choice: Which hypothesis better explains our reality? Theism or atheism? Without understanding it with that much clarity, this is how and why I transitioned from Christianity to Atheism when I was about the same age as Alex. I simply looked at the world around me, and everything made much more sense when I considered the idea that no omnipotent god was at the controls, that we lived instead in a random, naturalistic universe.
Truth makes sense most of the time but not always. Dig deep enough and you'll find some WEIRD stuff.
This universe is based only on physics and probability. Even the conscience and the spirit, according to quantic theory. Everything else is just philosophy and illusion. (Sorry for my bad english!)
Atheism has no way of accounting for the world we live in. It is honestly the worst worldview in terms of intellectual rigor.
For example, there is no justification for objective truth, logic, reason, or morality. No justification for an intelligible universe which is uniform and governed by laws.
The atheist must stand on the Christian worldview in order to make any claim whatsoever. They appeal to science, morals, and logic, but only because they rely upon the foundation that God gives them.
In other words, the atheist gets tools from God (logic, reason, morals, etc.) and then tries to use them to say God doesn’t exist. It’s futile thinking.
Jesus loves you still, you will find your faith again
You write as if theism and atheism were the only choices. In my view both are wrong. 'Physicists say the universe is fine-tuned for Life'. ( Dawkins). A fine-tuned universe precludes any Religious God, there can be zero physical interference. Fine-tuning requires a fine-tuner, so a creator is entirely possible, if not likely.
If a perfect loving god exists then it shouldn't matter if you worship him or not, he wouldn't punish you, as he is loving and perfect.
It does matter
@@Ichigoat794 why would he want to be worshipped if he's a perfect loving God?