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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wkmac" data-source="post: 984751" data-attributes="member: 2189">Is this a case of an atheist who has studied the issue, looked at the alleged evidence to determine no god exists or is it more common of what is called a "backsliding" soldier who had been doing their own thing so to speak and now the heat is on they return to a belief that gives them reason to think they might get out of this one?  Not saying an atheist in a foxhole can't have a miraculous conversation back to belief, my neighbor who'd been a lifetime atheist wasn't in a foxhole but a miraculous situation in her life took place and for her the only explanation was that god did it and she now believes.  I actually believe we are biologically programmed to a belief in a god and this belief gene if you will has evolved to be incredibly strong.   However I'll also concede all babies at birth are atheists and over time they just take on the belief of their parents as they are taught as they grow.  We have a christian tradition in the west thanks to Roman conquest but erase that and our traditions would be the old polytheism and nature worship of pre-Roman days.  I myself would likely have been raised with belief in Celtic or Norse gods of some type.To a broader point, Klein seemed to suggest in an earlier post that atheism will almost displace belief soon and I don't believe that at all.  What will likely happen is what has happened several times even in our own western traditions and that is god will evolve to adapt to new understandings.  If one reads the bible (an exercise regardless of belief outcome I strongly encourage all to do) You will clearly see that the God to the patriarchs was different to the god of Moses and Israel and then god changed again during the period of the divided Kingdom, changed again during and post captivity, changed again with the advent of Jesus and in the last 2k years has modified yet again several times as our knowledge of life and state of nature has grown.When Copernicus, Kepler and even Galileo forced man to rethink his place in the universe, it took a couple of hundred years  for belief to change from a geocentric to a heliocentric world and now is completely comfortable and works in that world.  Darwin, who at the time was christian himself proposed a new idea of the state of nature in evolution and then less than a century later Father George Lemaitre, discovered an expanding universe which became the big bang theory. Now evolutionary biology and genetic science is adding to evolutionary science and our ability to peer further and further into space is opening up the window of Lemaitre's worldview.  What if we are finally able to see beyond our universe and see 1000's of other universes?  The idea of coming from nothing so to speak gets thrown a real curve.  Now evolution and big bang are 2 separate concepts, one is biology and the other cosmology and separated by 10 billion years at least but the point is, like Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, it has been christians themselves, not atheists, that have been the biggest force in undermining the present belief which in time ultimately displaces the old and becomes the new accepted belief.  Atheists may just see the knowledge and evidence and like freethinkers back in the day who stayed hidden, are just getting out ahead of the knowledge acceptance curve.Atheists are a very small minority and will remain so for the time being (that's how I see it and I am atheist) but christians like in so many other cases always need a scapegoat, a devil if you will to blame but the truth is, the biggest source of dramatic change in the world of belief comes from within your world to begin with.  Maybe instead of looking outward, belief should look inward but then this might mean faith would have to read the very book on which it's suppose to be built and I like some here have said, "gee I just want to believe, not think about it!"There's your first problem!</blockquote>

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