I am an atheist and have been since childhood. Although I have been an atheist since childhood, I grew up reading the Bible and reading literature from Hal Lindsey and watching John Hagee on TV. I have tried to seek out truth where ever it leads me and have tried to allow religion to sway me. As I grew older religion made less sense, but until recently. Recently, I have considered hypothetically that what if a god exists and we are in the end times? What if this is exactly what is suppose to happen in the last days? Anyone familiar with Lindsey understands this. I realize that asking what if is a giant leap, but I would think that it is worth consideration. What if our distaste for religion, our intellectualism, and our misunderstanding of a god is suppose to happen. Actually, as you know it is supposedly predicted in the Bible. I realize that I just pissed off a bunch of my fellow atheists, but that is not my intention. I value truth more than anything and I have to consider given the state of the world and the fact that the very fact that anything at all exists the way it does is beyond me. So, is it possible that we atheists are deluding ourselves?

in short, no

A bit more detailed.. We have no reason to believe, so why should we? Blind trust and thousands of years of brain washing brought only problems to mankind, whatever "good" religions did could have been exceeded by mankind alone if it wasn't for indoctrination and intimidation from religious authorities. There is nothing good about gods and religions so why should we be intimidated by some thousands of years old fairy tales to think for ourselves and use our logic to figure out what is wrong or right, and our reason to do the right or wrong thing from our perspective. If Mr. Imaginary Peeping Tom wanted us to live by his(incoherent and contradicting) word(s) he wouldn't have thousands and thousands of different versions of it, and he wouldn't be depending on some book for us to stick to it or even just consider it. So no, WE are not the ones deluding ourrselves.

I have to add something.. you say this and that in the bible..

The bible is a book written by people, selected writings from many people put together, based on many other religions.

Other than hearsay and incoherent blathering in the book we have no reason to believe it is inspired by some supernatural being, furthermore, the vast amount of lies, about the world and everything in it, suggest NOT to believe the book at all. Of course there are some facts about the world, some true knowledge, from humans. The rest is a fruit of imagination, scare tactics, contradictions, horrific fairy tales and in short, tons of bull.

You say bible predicted this and that.. well not precisely for sure, just like i can make 100 predictions now for the next 50 years, suck them out of my fingers, and many of them simply have to be true, the odds suggest so, just like astrology with unclear predictions sometimes hits the spot, that is actually the whole point, once in a while a prediction will come true, the more cloudy the prediction, the easier you can compare it to something happening to you.

However, let me get back to the bible.. how can i make critical decisions based on a book which is so full of mistakes, obsolete knowledge, pseudo morality and threats written by people from the bronze age who used infected blood to heal people (or rather not heal them)

How can i read the crap i know is wrong and is plain moronic and on the other hand take some from the book and make the whole thing my guide for life and make it the source of belief in some supernatural omniscient omnipotent and ultimatively benevolent being when i know things like this:

Why does genesis have 2 different versions?

Genesis 1:25-27

man and woman created at same time, animals AFTER the humans

Genesis 2:18-19

animals created first, then man created before the woman

Joshua 10:12-13

"sun stands still" makes ABSOLUTELY no sense, if anything the earth would stand still and not the sun.. sure you can twist and stretch it all you want but thats what the book says.

more scientific errors

(1) Rabbits don't chew cud.

Deuteronomy 14:6-7 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat the camel, the rabbit, or the coney. (2) No insects (including grasshoppers) are 4-legged.

Leviticus 11:20-22 All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. (3) This is only possible on a flat earth.

Matthew 4:8 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

(4) pi = 3?

1 Kings 7:23 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim . . . It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.

(5) The earth moves. It does not have a foundation, tectonic plates move, earth moves around itself, earth moves around the sun, earth moves within the universe.

Psalms 104:5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

do i really need more examples?

The omnipotent all knowing being creates the universe out of less than thin air.. but needs some dirt to create the man and his rib to create the woman? In his image? so he has both male and female looks? Oh wait he did say in OUR image Genesis 1:26

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness

So there must be a female god hmm.. and we know even which one, but they left it away to fit to their world ruled by men..

Anyhow, so that omnipotent all loving being creates the humans, lets them eat ANYTHING except the fruit which will make them intelligent enough to distinguish evil from good, leaves the snake there to deceive them, which as the one and only creator, of course he created along with its wickedness..

His brainless tool the human, at least the female version of it which didn't even hear god's word that it shouldn't eat the fruit, eats it and convinces the man to eat it too.. THAT is the point when they know it was wrong (well lets say its wrong to turn from a brainless tool into a more intelligent being with a moral compass) but gaining that knowledge is reason enough to almost eradicate them, instead throwing them out of his super garden?

But lets go a step back.. if.. he knows everything, how comes he didn't know Eve would eat it and then make Adam eat it as well? God not being omniscient is shown in many parts of the bible.. but lets ignore that, we continue with the story..

Adam and Eve get 2 kids, 2 boys, one kills the other, which god obviously didn't prevent from happening, although it happened in his name.. but that left Adam and Eve only with Cain, so how comes there are so many other people to multiply? incest? They were on the earth already? doesn't make much sense.. well for most people the whole bible doesn't make much sense but lets keep checking few things..

Blood sacrifices in the name of God, burnt offerings, dashing infants against rocks, cooking food with your own feces, genocide and kidnapping over 30000 virgins, slavery and beating slaves, raping children and forcing them into marriage.. so many more atrocities in the name of some imaginary friend..

and the best of all, do not love the world

"1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."

The best law of all, screw that place, you won't be there for long anyway, right?

Ah there is so much idiocy in the book.. here a short summary

around 100 contradictions in the old testament

http://www.skeptically.org/bible/id8.html

almost 200 contradictions in the new testament

http://www.skeptically.org/bible/id6.html

violence in the bible

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html

all that from an all loving being.. wow

And there is even much more.. and on top of that we have history showing us what happened because of that allegedly omnipotent omniscient benevolent being.. something that makes me ashamed to be human.

So again i really don't think the ones who wouldn't buy such crap when they think about it are the delusional ones, not sure what makes you think so but it would take some serious damage to my brain to even try to accept all this being true.. which is impossible because you can't believe things that exclude each other, without cherry picking and irrational thinking, so who is delusional? Who is protecting a morbid illusion with all their imagination can offer?

You can't cherry pick the stuff you like from that book if you say it is the ultimate truth and the unchanging word of god, turn off rational thinking and protect it all with ignorance or simply and reasonably reject it, which we did, and same with all the other books, that bit of correct knowledge isn't worth the whole package.. more the opposite.

All that stuff was known to people long before christianity.. and in meantime a halfway smart 10 year old has that bit of bible's accurate and healthy teachings in the tip of their finger, but we tell them to stop believing in Santa, so why not do the same with God?

Every generation has claimed we are witnessing the end of times.