Atheism, Miscellaneous, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous

Atheism

Atheism "The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites”(Jefferson). Atheism is the belief that God does not exist and Judaism believes in only a unitary God and Christianity believes in the Trinity of God. This natural progression might be thought of as the stair steps to truth, but whose truth is the real question we need to answer, and I can assure you that it cannot be answered in a mere 8 pages. Disregard you’re current opinion and give merit to each point of view, and then decide which is right for you. “As of 1994 there were an estimated 240 million atheists around the world comprising slightly more than 4 percent of the world’s population, including those who profess atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion”(Michael). Disbelief in God might be considered arrogant, but as you can see the group we refer to as atheists includes not only simple-minded imbeciles, but also the great American diplomat, Thomas Jefferson. “Atheists are frequently asked what atheism has to offer as opposed to religion. To answer this question, I need to assume that there are no gods or supernatural entities to reward us with a peaceful eternity if we follow some established morality. If the reason for this assumption is proven false, then the question is meaningless, as atheism ceases to exist”(Goluboff). A strong one-sided statement that gives little attention the fact that we presently are occupying a planet that has been created, hence the word created. Atheist beliefs leave an open-ended answer to the concept of creation. Granted Christianity and Judaism provide a supernatural answer to the question of creation, but the fact still remains that they do provide an answer. Considering the thought of not belonging to a faith or belief of a superior being raises the question as to what moral code an atheist will commit him/herself to. Might this be the moral standard forced upon us by the government? As a practicing Christian, I am unsure of the moral standard adhered to by the group that claims to disbelieve in any sort of god, although, through my studies of this topic I have reached the consensus that atheists aren’t any more immoral or deceitful than any one else. As with any branch of religion or in this case non- religion there are several different derivatives of atheism. “The denial of god’s existence is also known as strong, or positive, atheism, whereas the lack of belief in god is known as negative, or weak, atheism”(Michael). As you can see there is a large spectrum here for someone to fall into. As with any religion or any grouping of people not everyone is entirely loyal to their group’s beliefs. For example, a person may be a republican, but prefers the prosperity of a democratic economy. This wide spectrum of beliefs not only refers to what an atheist believes in his heart and justifies with his mind, but it should also give a good prediction of the inevitable goal and possible outcomes of an atheist’s life. For example, a positive atheist may contribute a great deal of time and energy disputing the power and presence of God, but a negative atheist might be more likely to pursue secular goals or personal ambitions, and simply be content with his/her disbelief. Within atheism there is no support or reward for your beliefs. If an individual prefers to not believe then he/she also is willing to gamble what could be considered the greatest gift of all, eternal life. If a person decides to believe and finds out in the end that he/she is wrong then this person has only lost something that was never possible in the first place. So in conclusion the believer has risked nothing and the non-believer has risked everything. “Personal God, the Creator and Sovereign of the Universe, a Unitary Being, remains central in Jewish religious thought”(Leeming 88). This seems to be a natural transition from no God to one unitary God. Judaism could be considered one step away from atheism and one step closer to Christianity. Judaism could also be referred to as the sister of Christianity, and as we will see some of the beliefs are similar. The Hebrew Bible also referred to as the Torah and defined as the, “revealed will of God”(Newman 79) contains the reasons for the Jewish beliefs and customs. Some of these customs include praying before and after meals, diet, marriage, mourning, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, confirmation, and divorce (Newman 180-238). The aspects of Judaism that I found most interesting are the views on diet, divorce, and most importantly, not believing in the trinity. “Certain animals, considered unclean, are not to be eaten. into this category fall pigs as well as fish without fins or scales. Edible animals—those that have split hooves and chew their cuds—must be properly slaughtered (kāshēr, "fit") and the blood fully drained before the meat can be eaten. Meat and milk products are not to be eaten together” (Michael). This seems to be a move toward witchcraft or a cult of some kind. I find it hard to believe that drinking a glass of milk or eating a pork chop resembles a hellish act. I’m sure that within every religion there are odd beliefs such as this one, but I hope God doesn’t send me to hell because of my infatuation with ham and milk products. These are only the thoughts of the author, and should in no way bias your opinion, because I am not in any way experienced enough in Judaism or the Bible to intelligently dispute these beliefs. I was married in a Catholic Church, which strictly forbids divorce. Divorce will not only result in a lost marriage, but will remove you as a member of the church, and this is why I found the Jewish view on divorce very interesting. “Divorce has always been accepted, when necessary, in the Jewish religion, and can be secured for a considerable number of reasons”(Newman 266). The concept of a strict religion such as Judaism and divorce coinciding seems to be contradictory. The Judaic marriage ceremony contains several elaborate rules and traditions which makes it even harder to believe that marriage can be discounted this easily. “The so called New Testament contains the Scriptures of Christianity, and they, while of interest to Jews as an out growth in part of the Hebrew Bible, are not included among the sacred writings of Judaism”(Newman 124). The reasoning for not believing in the New Testament is because the Jewish faith does not believe in the Trinity of God or Jesus as a divine creature. So my first question for the Jewish faith is why don’t you believe in Jesus as a Divine entity. In an attempt to answer this question I contacted Rabbi Reuven Lauffer from Jerusalem via the Internet and he answered me quite eloquently and convincingly. First, he points out that, “He (Jesus) was not descended from the House of David,”(Lauffer). Secondly He points out that, “The main predictions concerning the Messiah are that he will bring peace to the world, gather the Jewish people from their exile to the land of Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. After Jesus' appearance, the Temple was destroyed, the Jews were exiled all over the world and we (the Jews) have not even had one day of peace in the past 2,000 years. (Many of the wars in fact were started and fought by followers of Jesus) These events are enough to show that he was not the messiah”(Lauffer). Thirdly he states, “Messiah's Qualifications: Messiah is a prophet, a scholar and a pious king. Jesus made a prediction that "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand." (Mark 1:15) That was 2000 years ago, has the kingdom of God come? Do you call the holocaust, Pol Pot and Stalin a world in which the kingdom of God has come? Jesus was not a great scholar - one of the requirements of the Messiah. (Travers Herford, The Pharisees, p. 206) Was Jesus a king? He was not anointed as king by a prophet (as was the rule in Jewish kings), he was not appointed by any judicial body as a leader and he did not rule over the Jewish people nor was he accepted by them. He was arrested, tortured and killed by the Romans like a common criminal. He had no army or government. The answer to my question is an obvious, "no" (Lauffer). Rabbi Lauffer continues to argue his position in depth, but as you can see the point I am trying to make here is that Judaism cannot be easily discounted. As I have shown there is a great deal of support coming from the Christian Bible that can be used to discount the divinity of Jesus Christ. There are many similarities between Judaism and Christianity including the belief in creation. Now we need to consider how Judaism accounts for creation. “For Jews and Christians the Bible is the holy word of God of which Genesis is the first book of five (the Pentateuch or Torah). Genesis contains the creation myth that forms the basis of the Judeo-Christian tradition” (Leeming 113). The book of Genesis explains how God created the world for Judaism and Christianity. Judaism is not a small step from atheism, but more realistically, it is a mountain climb. Judaism has existed for over 3000 years and has membership that exceeds 10 million. Although Judaism is very distant from atheism it is not very distant from Christianity. The Trinity of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, combined to make one God; this Trinity represents one of the most important beliefs of Christianity. Christianity takes Judaism one step further and adds Jesus Christ as a divine entity. The doctrine says that the three are coequal, and all exist separately and have always existed in the Godhead. Within Christianity there are many different divisions or religious preferences some of which include Lutheran, Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, and Pentecostal. There are many more, but the point here is that within each religion there many differences, but they all believe in the Trinity, and if you truly want to learn about this Trinity then the best place to go is a Christian church. You may be wondering how much it will cost to become a member of one these churches, and to your disappointment you will find out that it cost a great deal. The great thing about this huge lump sum is that Jesus Christ has already paid it in his sacrificial death. Jesus paid more for your membership to a church than any other man ever will. This characteristic alone separates Christianity from all other religions. This payment was the compensation for all sins past, present, and future. Jesus traded his blood for your salvation, and all he asks in return is that you believe that he did this for humanity, and that you believe in him. This is another point of appeal not available in the other religions. If you haven’t noticed God just got personalized by bringing Jesus into a human existence, and this is what separates Christianity from all the other beliefs. Most other religions wouldn’t hear of having a mortal represent the almighty, but Christianity does it quite well and without insult. This mortal (Jesus) offers this salvation almost “free of charge”, not to only a few, but to all. There are of course certain stipulations to obtaining and retaining this salvation from Jesus. The “Bible” can be defined as God’s word and this Bible contains criterion that you should and must follow. In Exodus 20 there is a list of 10 of these criteria for being a Christian. For example “Thou shalt not kill”, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, “Thou shalt not steal”, “Thou shalt not bear false witness”, are four or the Ten Commandments. These commandments don’t seem so much like laws or criteria as mush as they seem like common sense. These rules are more like something you know right from birth. Almost every person stole something when they were small, but from my own personal experience I knew that it was wrong even before someone reminded me that this was wrong. God’s law is more like a natural law that every one should adhere to even if they are not Christians. If you do follow these rules and accept Jesus then the reward will be very great, the reward will be eternal life or a life in heaven. These rules are not easy and might cause some hardship. This transformation will be difficult and certainly cannot be considered a free lunch, but the alternative might also be appealing if all your looking for is eternal life, because you can experience eternal life somewhere else besides heaven. This brings us to another Christian belief and that is the belief in hell. This belief is crucial to keeping Christians and society from doing wrong or not adhering to God’s laws. When I mentioned appealing I was being sarcastic because hell is not considered appealing in Christian belief. Hell could be defined as living your worst nightmare for eternity. Hell is a prison for those who didn’t believe, and this prison sentence goes without the luxury of parole or a predetermined amount of prison time. To the contrary, this is a sentence for eternity. This report has presented Atheism, Judaism, and Christianity and within each there is more to be learned and studied. I would encourage anyone to do a great deal more studying than this report before they decide which is the right choice for them. Just be very sure that your choice is the right one, because if you choose the wrong one you could pay the ultimate price, your soul. Bibliography:

Word Count: 2536

DMCA Notifications and Requests