Jesus was the first Christian. If Christianity taught to kill all non-Christians then he would have been the ONLY Christian. Common sense.
First, Jesus was a jew that was murdered for speaking against the church. Christianity didn't form until after he (supposedly) proved his divinity by returning from the dead. Also, the religion is in a way a subsect of Judaism, borrowing much from that religion as well. But it's not that Christians ONLY killed all non-believers ... if you look at the inquisition, people were basically given an ultimatum -- believe in my god, or die. If you eliminate as many in the out-group as possible, or make them at least follow your dogma, then it's easy to see how the in-group might grow larger.
I know. Atheism doesn't teach anything at all. And by your own logic, without God, there are no atheists. So if there is no God, how can there be atheists?
Wha? No. Did you not listen (read)? I said, atheism is a response to A
CLAIM ABOUT GODS! Without God CLAIMS, there are no atheists.
Atheism is not evidence of a God, rather evidence that people
make shyt up to feel better about the universe and life & death. I'm having a hard time believing you are really agnostic ... at least how agnostics are usually defined. For the most part they've researched some of this basic stuff.
Also, what is the atheist's purpose of following a moral code? And how does an atheist determine right and wrong? Is it wrong to kill my neighbor and take his food? Isn't that evolution? Survival of the fittest?
An atheist follows a moral code for the same reason anyone else does. Self-preservation, empathy .... realizing that if we killed, raped, or annoyed others that there are 6 billion other people who might wanna do something as equally detrimental to us. The main difference between atheists and theists on the case of morality, is
our only motivations are based on real, tangible consequences that manifest in the real world. Theists, generally speaking, also fear something that hasn't been, and perhaps can't be proven to exist.
An atheist determines right from wrong by the same means anyone else does. Well, one, we're taught from a young age by society as to which actions are deemed acceptable, and which are not. And that changes as we grow up and ethical questions get more complex. Personally,
my sense of morality comes from a weighing of the positive consequences for any action to the negative or harmful ones. If something I do harms someone, then generally I'll view it as something not to be done, and vice versa. Very basic, "common sense" stuff as you like to view it.
Evolution doesn't say you should kill your neighbor, and that's not survival of the fittest. As a matter of fact, the reason our species was able to
survive was our ability to reason, and work together in small communities. Ultimately, it's not beneficial to club someone over the head and take their stuff because a larger force might try to reciprocate, and we have inherent empathy. Evolution works such that it's
not always the biggest, fastest, smartest always survives. It's about what's best at
adapting to it's enviroment at a given time in Earth's history. Dinosaurs aren't around anymore. Our intelligence might be our own demise, as we've created WMD's, and have been at the brink of nuclear war many times in the short time of their creation. Good questions though.