I noticed that other search results for Black Nonbelievers of Chicago deal with " married to a nonbeliever" , " another word for nonbeliever" or " bible verses for nonbelievers". I imagine the first option dealing with being married to a nonbeliever has fundamentalist Christians in particular wondering how they can live with a spouse who never shared or no longer shares their chosen religious beliefs. Another word for nonbeliever could be non- Christian. Why should there be bible verses for nonbelievers. Reading passages from the bible usually isn't going to inspire a nonbeliever to convert to Christianity since Christians cannot prove any of the claims in their religious text are true with the use of verifiable , convincing and conclusive evidence and a good reason for accepting the claims in their texts as " true and infallible", why should nonbelievers care what is written in the bible verses that are supposed to be " for them" ? Nonbeliever isn't really the best word to describe an atheist in my personal opinion. A Christian is a nonbeliever in the eyes of a Muslim even though that Christian may belong to a religion, they are still a nonbeliever in the eyes of Muslims because they do not accept the beliefs and practices of Islam as being "true". Christians and Muslims are both nonbelievers in the eyes of Hindu's, Wiccans and Baha'is since they do not view the beliefs and practices of Hindus, Wiccans or the Baha'is as being "true". Do you see what I am getting at? Mostly every fundamentalist religious person in particular, who believes that their religion and their specific denomination are the " one and only true denomination and religion" deny the beliefs and practices of all the other denominations of their religion or other religion as having any validity, so therefore every religious person is a nonbeliever in someone else's religion.
Religious people can be categorized as nonbelievers too, in that sense of the word. An atheist describes one who does not believe in the existence of a god and most atheists usually don't believe in an afterlife since there are no good reasons to believe in such concepts, which may include there being no good moral reasons to believe in such concepts and no sufficient, testable and conclusive evidence to prove that a deity or an afterlife exists.
Other atheists can call themselves " nonbelievers" if they wish, I prefer atheist for myself. I believe in lots of things. I am just not a person who believes in deities, afterlives or any other supernatural concepts due to lack of testable evidence or moral reason to believe in such concepts and this includes my denying that the claims of any religious texts are " true" or that all of the passages in such texts provide good " moral" advice. Many such texts do not provide good moral advice. The Torah and the Christian Bible both support slavery, genocide, submission of women, degrade the relationships of sexually-active gay male couples, call for the execution of disobedient children , prostitutes, women who cheat on their husbands and people who worship deities other than Yahweh.
Jesus insults a woman whose daughter is possibly being possessed by demons because she is not Jewish. Jesus insists that his message is only for the House of Israel, which means that he has only come to preach to the Hebrews. St. Paul is a heretic by the religious standards of the Jews. He proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah talked about in the Hebrew texts and this not so.
In the Book of Isaiah for instance, which is among the writings of the ancient Hebrews that are believed to have come from the mouths of Jewish prophets, Yahweh tells the Jews that they are his witnesses, the Jews are witnesses to the fact that before Yahweh, there were no other gods in existence and that no other gods were created after him and that apart from Yahweh, there is no savior.
This passage is where the fundamentalist Christian denomination known as The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society also known as the "Jehovah's Witnesses" get their denominational title from. However, what the JW's and all other Christians seem to overlook or ignore is that Yahweh, from what I can tell, in this passage seems to be saying to the Jews who are his chosen people is that Yahweh himself, is the only one that can save his mortal human creations from the horrible fate that he has in store for them. This throws the idea of Jesus as being the Messiah right out of the window if you ask me. Jewish history also reveals that the ancient Hebrews were polytheistic at one time and that Yahweh had a wife but as time went on the Hebrews discarded polytheism and Yahweh's wife Asherah who was a fertility goddess of the Canaanites. There are graves that have been found in Israel that have inscriptions dedicated to Yahweh and his wife Asherah. The Latter-day Saint movement also known as Mormonism is a Christian movement which consists of numerous branches, with the largest and the most well-known being the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( referred to as the LDS Church who are sometimes called Orthodox Mormons) acknowledge that despite the fact that Yahweh is the one and only deity who makes decisions regarding his human creations that there are other deities who exist under his command including his multiple wives and his main wife who is referred to by the Latter-day Saints also known as Mormons as the " Heavenly Mother". Yahweh and his wives live on a planet near the star known as Kolob. Mormon males believe that in they follow all the commands of their religious texts which includes the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price and the Bible ( containing both the Jewish and Christian religious texts) that in the afterlife they will become a god, inherit their own planet and shall be given multiple wives whom they impregnate with their spirit children who shall live on the planet in which the men rule with their wives.
I am an ex-JW and an ex-Mormon, I do think that the Mormons are correct about the polytheism issue and about the baptism of the dead which Jesus does after he asphyxiates on the torture stake ( according to the JW's as the cross is a pre-Christian pagan symbol) and such baptisms of the dead are mentioned in the Torah, I believe. The Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants as well as the Pearl of Great Price are Christian religious texts that are only used by those sects and branches involved with the Latter-day Saint Movement also known as Mormonism. The Mormon version of hell is much different than that of the Catholic, Orthodox or numerous Protestant denominations, sects, branches, splinter-groups or movements in Christianity. In Mormonism, hell is being cast into outer darkness where you are tormented by your own thoughts of all that you did wrong for eternity, this is where ex-Mormons and truly immoral people go after they die which is amongst the three heavens that you are put in. It is better than earth but is not as good as the other two levels of heaven. Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists for instance, believe that hell is being annihilated by Yahweh's heavenly army at the Battle of Armageddon and remaining dead for all of eternity for " sins" that you committed during your earthly life ( the JW's version afterlife consists of living on the earth which is restored into the Edenic paradise that they believe it once was, with 144,000 of their leaders going to heaven to rule with Yahweh and Jesus over those that live on the earth, while the SDA's go to live in heaven with Jesus). I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness until I left the denomination at age 22 and later converted to Seventh-day Adventism and then to Mormonism which were just three of the twenty religious groups that I was involved with before becoming an atheist. So I am also a former Seventh-day Adventist and a former Latter-day Saint as well.
The JW's and SDA's and possibly the Christadelphian denomination are descendants of the Millerite Movement. Many JW's don't seem to take this into account. SDA's, in my opinion are a little bit more accurate in their interpretation of the Bible which they usually take quite literally. SDA's are much larger than the JW and Mormon (specifically the members of the LDS Church i.e. Orthodox Mormon) denominations combined. The Jehovah's Witnesses have 7 million members worldwide in their denominational church, Orthodox Mormons have 14 million members worldwide in their particular branch of the LDS movement and I believe that the Seventh-day Adventists have around 24 million members worldwide in their denomination. Seventh-day Adventists are far less known than either the JW's or the Orthodox Mormons. A vegetarian diet is strongly encouraged and they view the founder of their denomination, Ellen G. White as a prophetess in much the same way that Orthodox Mormons and most other branches of Mormonism view the founder of the Latter-day Saint movement, Joseph Smith as being a prophet. Ellen White's writings are also highly revered, so are Joseph Smith's. Adventists believe that the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church which is the largest Christian denomination in the world ( I am also a former Roman Catholic) is the anti-Christ. My beloved father is a Seventh-day Adventist although he is quite liberal. He is ethnically Jewish but his family have been involved with the Adventist denomination possibly since it was founded and even before that they were involved with various Christian denominations, sects, branches, splinter-groups and movements. My father's side of the family haven't been involved with Judaism for a long time. I am an atheist but I do participate in secular Jewish culture as I do consider Judaism as being a part of my heritage. BTW, I should have mentioned that the ancient Jews did not believe in an afterlife for quite some time. Everyone went to the grave ( Gehenna) where they went for eternity whether they were good or bad in the eyes of the ancient Jews.
Most of my family is religious. They are mostly JW's, SDA's and Roman Catholics. I am the only non-religious person as well as the only atheist in my family that I know of. As an atheist, I don't call myself a "nonbeliever". I believe in lots of things, I just don't believe in any deity, an afterlife or in any other supernatural concept due to the lack of convincing evidence.
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