Can I just say on this question, you have to have an unprejudiced open mind on it and you have to study it.
You hear all these stories about a priest looking cross eyed at some fella when they were 10 and ever since they knew atheism was the way to go. You still believe Moscow is the capital city of Russia, that your geography teacher taught you, and any dislike of that teacher wouldn't affect your decision on the matter, so why should it with respect to priests? Some people are clearly wallowing in that kind of prejudice, because that's what it is, and there is not a lot of point debating with people like that.
Secondly you have to study it. Again there are people out there who tuned into religion until they were 10, they heard that God loved them but never bothered to study the complexities that that actually leads to, but will dismiss you on the basis of their knowledge of the subject when they were 10.
Its complicated and if you are not prepared to study the issue, i.e. theology from a Christian perspective, not Dawkins etc who are not talking about theology, then I don't know how one can be so dogmatic about it?
if you look at the Hindu tradition --there is a garden of Eden there is a apple tree but as Yeats said YOU CAN PLUCK TILL TIME AND TIMES ARE DONE THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN AND THE SILVER APPLES OF THE MOON.
This is the tree of knowledge that ALL I MEAN ALL are entitled to learn from forever .
no blaming of women who were seduced by gods evil assistant the snake -- who without hands or good looks still managed to seduce her .
the christian faith is something i support but it has been hijacked by Hollywood types to enslave the masses in order to rob them of their money and sanity especially their sanity .
i am not saying the Hindus are correct but i am saying they are less wrong .
god exists -- he /it is everywhere --in each of our cells and in the spaces surrounding our cells .
god is knowledge --knowledge is god -- i met god when i was 16 years of age alone in a wood miles from anywhere .
it lasted about 40 seconds --- god is within me -i have the exact same amount of god as everyone else on the planet regardless of skin color or amount of limbs or literacy .
he can not be sold or given or owned --no organization no matter how large can claim to own an ounce more than i own of god .
if you ever met him the experience would influence everything you do for the rest of your days .
there is not a supreme being --- we are the supreme being .
GOD IS WITHIN YOU . Jesus Christ in his sermon from the mount.
