Lets take a little break from politics and have us a real atheist conversation.
Personally, I’m open to the idea of the existence of supernatural phenomena, and I believe mainstream religions are actually complicated incomplete stories full of misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and half-truths.
Basically, I think that these stories are not as simple and straightforward as they seem to be to religious people. I feel like there is a lot more to them. Concluding that all these stories are just made up or came out of nowhere is kind of hard for me.
I don’t think he doesn’t exist. I simply don’t know. Anyways, the question of whether he exists or not isn’t even what keeps me up at night. It’s which god is which, and where did they come from. Yahweh, Allah… etc. Yahweh’s origins seem to be unknown. Are they the same deities? Who was Jesus, and why was his depiction so different compared to Yahweh, the OT god. Yahweh was depicted as a god of war, while Jesus preached love and forgiveness. Aren’t they supposed to be one? Gnostic texts say otherwise. Why was the church so fixated on censoring and persecuting Gnositcs in the 2nd century? And what about their alleged connections to the Knights Templar? Although, this is speculation. There’s just so many questions. You’ll find out just how complicated this stuff is once you dive into it. It’s why I said that it’s not as simple and straightforward as it’s made to look.
Yes, history and theology are indeed quite fascinating.
How would we go about differentiating fact from imagination?
It’s very hard considering that the knowledge is decentralized unlike mainstream religion. What I’ve been advised to do, is consider the origins and context of what you’re looking at first, compare it with other documents, analyze your observations, use critical thinking, talk to people who are researching the same things, and overall, just keep an open mind. That doesn’t mean that you accept everything. It means that you should just consider the possibility.