Writing a paper to send to my local priest

JohnMc1

Dumbledore wrote: »

Like many others on this forum, I wish to leave the Catholic Church as I do not believe in god and I do not wish ot be counted as something I am not. I feel if I am officialy regarded as Catholic the church can claim yet another member and more power.
I wish to write to my local priest(who is a very nice man) and tell him this, but I also want to have valid reasons for leaving. So I want to write an essay saying why I do not believe. One of the issues is the history of the bible, and how many times it has been chopped and changed over time, and how there is no way it could tehrefore be the word of god after so much editing. A quick Wikipedia search of the bible did little to help me, so does anybody know where I can find links to reputable sources that will explain this history of the bible? Any help would be much appreciated.

I apologise for any spellign or grammatical mistakes, these school computers have no spellcheckers.

p.s. I also plan to propse a night of debate with himself and two friends agaisnt myself and my two atheist friends, to give him one last chance to make me believe. If this happens I will of course post a loose transcript and it should be very entertaining!

Leave it be for the time being. There is nothing wrong with questioning God's existence at one point or another in your life [Even devout Christians/Religious people questioned their faith at time or another]. Debating is pointless because you either believe or you don't. Its a personal decision and should be handled as such. Just don't go to Mass for the time being and after some time if you feel you still don't believe then leave it at that.

Dumbledore

seanybiker wrote: »

Ha Ha I have heard some stupid things in me time but this takes the buscuit.
You dont believe in god so you want to debate it with a priest and try to take the [I used a word that one of the moderators doesn't like!!!!] outta his beliefs. How old are ya??????

A lot of people dont believe because they feel it was forced upon them in their early life. Now you are doing to someone else what many of us had to indure. Could you not just let him have his beliefs and you have your own beliefs and that be it.
Im not a believer but I dont have the urge to have a sit down with a priest and try prove him wrong, or give him a "chance to make you a believer". I must say giving him a chance is really nice of you. I'm sure the amount of sleep the poor chap is gonna lose over you is bad for his health.
Your a non believer and ya dont even know why sure. You checked wickipedia for [I used a word that one of the moderators doesn't like!!!!] sake to get some arguments. Ha Ha. Surely to [I used a word that one of the moderators doesn't like!!!!] ya must have your own idea why you're an atheist.


Now Im off to the car forum to write them a letter as to why bikes are better than cars. I hope some people think I'm a cool biker for doing that.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Eh firstly you need to calm down a bit, nobody asked for your sarcasm, insulting, and profanity-laced post.
I never said I was planning to "rip the p*ss" out of anybody's beliefs, I said I want a formal debate, where he could rpesent his arguments and I could present mine, and at the end I would reconsider my beliefs.
As I said I checked Wikipedia as teh very first step for my arguments as is common practice, I certainly did not plan to rely on it as my evidence and you seem to forget Wikipedia is often cited by reputable sources.
I know why I am not a believer, and it is because as a naturaly sceptic I feel the evidence against there being a god is stronger than the evidence for one. I never stated there was definately not a god.

Stephen

Dumbledore wrote: »

As I said I checked Wikipedia as teh very first step for my arguments as is common practice, I certainly did not plan to rely on it as my evidence and you seem to forget Wikipedia is often cited by reputable sources.

Eh, I don't think so. Try citing Wikipedia in your work when you go to college and see what happens!

sink

Wikipedia is only useful for a brief introduction to any topic and is not to be relied upon. What it does provide is it's own references in the form of links or ISBN numbers for books and also sometimes provides a list for further reading. If I want to learn about something of which I have little or no knowledge Wikipedia is usually the fist point of call but not the last.

Dumbledore

sink wrote: »

Wikipedia is only useful for a brief introduction to any topic and is not to be relied upon. What it does provide is it's own references in the form of links or ISBN numbers for books and also sometimes provides a list for further reading. If I want to learn about something of which I have little or no knowledge Wikipedia is usually the fist point of call but not the last.

Exactly what I meant. And to clear it up, when I said Wikipedia is cited by reputable sources, I meant that there is often citation for each statement, which at the bottom of the page will redirect you to the the original source, which is usually quite good. Obviously being in school I know Wikipedia is not a valid source in itself, but is a very good starting point.