Why are you an atheist?
Can you easily answer the question "Why are you a Christian?" I doubt that you would want to claim that it is just because your parents were Christians or you happen to live in a Christian country, but that is probably the proximal reason why most Christians are Christian. Mature Christians would probably come up with a number of rationales for why they remain Christian, despite the changes of attitude and opinion that they underwent at various times in life.
The question for atheists who are Christian apostates is "Why did you reject your religion?" That process is seldom simple. For many of us, it evolved over a number of years, and there were many factors that led to rejection of belief in God and/or Christ. I would say that the reasons I give today for not being a believer are a bit different from those I would have given at the time of my decision to reject belief. Now I would consider myself a "strong atheist", and I have posted some of my thoughts on this in other threads.
What effected your life in some way, that after hearing about Christ you rejected His call?
What call? I would say that one of the major reasons for rejecting belief in God (and consequently, Christ) was the lack of a call, or "divine silence"--the lack of evidence that God existed. This did not (and continues not to) be what one would expect if God really did exist. After all, if a truly omnipotent being wants you to believe in it, why would there be any question of its existence? After you reject belief in God, a lot of other things seem to fall into place--why minds seem to be totally dependent on physical brains, the lack of evidence that miracles are real, the fact that there are so many different religions, the fact that religions tend to spread geographically from a single location rather than to be distributed across many different locations, the bad historical track record of religious explanations for physical phenomena, and so on.
How do you percieve Jesus?
Not at all.
Ok, sorry, but I couldn't resist that. There may or may not have been a real person who inspired the legend, but subsequent stories of his life made a lot of sense in an era where there was no shortage of messiahs and holy men. Jesus happened to be the story that survived its competitors.
Who's information do you refer to and base this perspective on?
It makes more sense to ask for authoritative sources from people who subscribe to religious authorities. Atheists tend not to be disciples, although they may find various arguments persuasive or non-persuasive.
If God came into or would come into your life and effected it in some way, would you accept that? What would that be in your ideal reality?
That's hard to say. I suppose a lot would depend on what kind of entrance God chose to make. I tend not to put much faith in God's human spokesmen, so he would need to find some other way of getting through to me. My ideal reality would be one in which I could continue to exist in absolute bliss and contentment for eternity, never feeling any pain or disappointment. Do you have some special insight into how I could bring about such a wonderful state of existence, other than wishful thinking and self-deception? Some use drugs, although the desired state never seems to last. Religion supplies the expectation, but uncertain results.
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Topic: The atheist debate. (Read 1352 times)