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Time to Talk about Religion

MrWonka

MrWonka

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I'm an Atheist, but for the most part, I generally don't care what you believe unless you're trying to shove your silly beliefs down my throat or trying to judge me negatively it's generally none of my business, and I won't make a big deal about it. But I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to keep doing that. I used to not worry too much about it because I had confidence that our courts would consistently uphold the freedom of religion so even though I knew there were a lot of wack jobs in this country I wasn't too concerned about them causing a ton of harm. Particularly since Gay Marriage was legalized.

But now that religious nuts are on the verge of remaking the courts it may be time to get a little more serious about snapping the zealots out of their delusional beliefs. I don't really want to because I know there are many people for whom the afterlife is scary, and religion gives them comfort, but I'm not sure there's much choice at this point.

Got does not exist. God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa Claus used to scare you into being a good boy. Gods like Zeus and Poseidon were first invented for the purposes of explaining difficult concepts to their children. The village elders didn't want to sound stupid in front of their kids and they didn't have T.V. to entertain them so they made up all kinds of ridiculous stories to explain things like Rain, Thunder, the tides, the rough seas, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and where they all came from.

It was all bull****, and most of the original storytellers new this, but eventually they realized that these gods they created could be used more purposefully. You see back in those days they didn't have CSI. There were no security cameras, fingerprinting, or DNA tests. If you committed a crime in those days there was a pretty good chance you were going to get away with it. So the elders decided to be a bit more proactive. They started using these stories to convince young people that if they didn't behave properly they would anger the gods and bring about famine, floods, or horrible storms.

Of course eventually, someone climbed up on top of Mount Olympus and realized Zeus wasn't really up there so over time the gods became more abstract and invisible. Under Judaism and Christianity, they put the gods up in the sky and out of reach. But the same concepts exist in all religions. The idea that there are magical beings watching over everything you do who will judge you based on your misdeeds. Zeus, the Argus, Yahweh, Santa Claus... Even Hinduism and Buddhism have the concept of Karma which isn't a being so much but is designed to convince people that all the bad things they do will be revisited upon them by some mystical force.

Even today modern parents know damn well Santa Claus isn't real, but they still use it to frighten their kids into behaving when they're not around. It's amazing how you can know full well what you're doing to your children, but still, have no clue that your religious leaders are doing the exact same thing to you.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have anything you'd ever liked to ask an Atheists please feel free. It's time to wake up.
 
MrWonka said:
I'm an Atheist, but for the most part, I generally don't care what you believe unless you're trying to shove your silly beliefs down my throat or trying to judge me negatively it's generally none of my business, and I won't make a big deal about it. But I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to keep doing that. I used to not worry too much about it because I had confidence that our courts would consistently uphold the freedom of religion so even though I knew there were a lot of wack jobs in this country I wasn't too concerned about them causing a ton of harm. Particularly since Gay Marriage was legalized.

But now that religious nuts are on the verge of remaking the courts it may be time to get a little more serious about snapping the zealots out of their delusional beliefs. I don't really want to because I know there are many people for whom the afterlife is scary, and religion gives them comfort, but I'm not sure there's much choice at this point.

Got does not exist. God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa Claus used to scare you into being a good boy. Gods like Zeus and Poseidon were first invented for the purposes of explaining difficult concepts to their children. The village elders didn't want to sound stupid in front of their kids and they didn't have T.V. to entertain them so they made up all kinds of ridiculous stories to explain things like Rain, Thunder, the tides, the rough seas, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and where they all came from.

It was all bull****, and most of the original storytellers new this, but eventually they realized that these gods they created could be used more purposefully. You see back in those days they didn't have CSI. There were no security cameras, fingerprinting, or DNA tests. If you committed a crime in those days there was a pretty good chance you were going to get away with it. So the elders decided to be a bit more proactive. They started using these stories to convince young people that if they didn't behave properly they would anger the gods and bring about famine, floods, or horrible storms.

Of course eventually, someone climbed up on top of Mount Olympus and realized Zeus wasn't really up there so over time the gods became more abstract and invisible. Under Judaism and Christianity, they put the gods up in the sky and out of reach. But the same concepts exist in all religions. The idea that there are magical beings watching over everything you do who will judge you based on your misdeeds. Zeus, the Argus, Yahweh, Santa Claus... Even Hinduism and Buddhism have the concept of Karma which isn't a being so much but is designed to convince people that all the bad things they do will be revisited upon them by some mystical force.

Even today modern parents know damn well Santa Claus isn't real, but they still use it to frighten their kids into behaving when they're not around. It's amazing how you can know full well what you're doing to your children, but still, have no clue that your religious leaders are doing the exact same thing to you.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have anything you'd ever liked to ask an Atheists please feel free. It's time to wake up.
Click to expand...
Maybe people will wake up. For years, I've heard the same nonsense: they will never over turn R v W, religion is on the wane, we can never become an authoritarian nation, Hillary and Trump are the same, etc.

Well, surprise!
 
I would suggest that you aren't so much atheist as you are anti-theist.
 
MrWonka said:
I'm an Atheist, but for the most part, I generally don't care what you believe unless you're trying to shove your silly beliefs down my throat or trying to judge me negatively it's generally none of my business, and I won't make a big deal about it. But I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to keep doing that. I used to not worry too much about it because I had confidence that our courts would consistently uphold the freedom of religion so even though I knew there were a lot of wack jobs in this country I wasn't too concerned about them causing a ton of harm. Particularly since Gay Marriage was legalized.

But now that religious nuts are on the verge of remaking the courts it may be time to get a little more serious about snapping the zealots out of their delusional beliefs. I don't really want to because I know there are many people for whom the afterlife is scary, and religion gives them comfort, but I'm not sure there's much choice at this point.

Got does not exist. God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa Claus used to scare you into being a good boy. Gods like Zeus and Poseidon were first invented for the purposes of explaining difficult concepts to their children. The village elders didn't want to sound stupid in front of their kids and they didn't have T.V. to entertain them so they made up all kinds of ridiculous stories to explain things like Rain, Thunder, the tides, the rough seas, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and where they all came from.

It was all bull****, and most of the original storytellers new this, but eventually they realized that these gods they created could be used more purposefully. You see back in those days they didn't have CSI. There were no security cameras, fingerprinting, or DNA tests. If you committed a crime in those days there was a pretty good chance you were going to get away with it. So the elders decided to be a bit more proactive. They started using these stories to convince young people that if they didn't behave properly they would anger the gods and bring about famine, floods, or horrible storms.

Of course eventually, someone climbed up on top of Mount Olympus and realized Zeus wasn't really up there so over time the gods became more abstract and invisible. Under Judaism and Christianity, they put the gods up in the sky and out of reach. But the same concepts exist in all religions. The idea that there are magical beings watching over everything you do who will judge you based on your misdeeds. Zeus, the Argus, Yahweh, Santa Claus... Even Hinduism and Buddhism have the concept of Karma which isn't a being so much but is designed to convince people that all the bad things they do will be revisited upon them by some mystical force.

Even today modern parents know damn well Santa Claus isn't real, but they still use it to frighten their kids into behaving when they're not around. It's amazing how you can know full well what you're doing to your children, but still, have no clue that your religious leaders are doing the exact same thing to you.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have anything you'd ever liked to ask an Atheists please feel free. It's time to wake up.
Click to expand...

I thought you didn't like people who crammed their beliefs down your throat? (review your first sentence above) Telling people it's time for them to wake up is akin to cramming beliefs down their throat. Dontcha' think?
 
MrWonka said:
I'm an Atheist, but for the most part, I generally don't care what you believe unless you're trying to shove your silly beliefs down my throat or trying to judge me negatively it's generally none of my business, and I won't make a big deal about it. But I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to keep doing that. I used to not worry too much about it because I had confidence that our courts would consistently uphold the freedom of religion so even though I knew there were a lot of wack jobs in this country I wasn't too concerned about them causing a ton of harm. Particularly since Gay Marriage was legalized.
Click to expand...

Freedom of religion merely means the right to believe, or not believe, whatever you want. We already agree on that premise.

But now that religious nuts are on the verge of remaking the courts it may be time to get a little more serious about snapping the zealots out of their delusional beliefs. I don't really want to because I know there are many people for whom the afterlife is scary, and religion gives them comfort, but I'm not sure there's much choice at this point.
Click to expand...

There are religious individuals who believe in some really questionable, insane things. This is true. There are also people who are not religious who believe in some equally questionable and insane things.

I only care about the individuals with the greater influence in our society. Right now, those people are not the religious zealots...

Got does not exist. God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa Claus used to scare you into being a good boy. Gods like Zeus and Poseidon were first invented for the purposes of explaining difficult concepts to their children. The village elders didn't want to sound stupid in front of their kids and they didn't have T.V. to entertain them so they made up all kinds of ridiculous stories to explain things like Rain, Thunder, the tides, the rough seas, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and where they all came from.

It was all bull****, and most of the original storytellers new this, but eventually they realized that these gods they created could be used more purposefully. You see back in those days they didn't have CSI. There were no security cameras, fingerprinting, or DNA tests. If you committed a crime in those days there was a pretty good chance you were going to get away with it. So the elders decided to be a bit more proactive. They started using these stories to convince young people that if they didn't behave properly they would anger the gods and bring about famine, floods, or horrible storms.

Of course eventually, someone climbed up on top of Mount Olympus and realized Zeus wasn't really up there so over time the gods became more abstract and invisible. Under Judaism and Christianity, they put the gods up in the sky and out of reach. But the same concepts exist in all religions. The idea that there are magical beings watching over everything you do who will judge you based on your misdeeds. Zeus, the Argus, Yahweh, Santa Claus... Even Hinduism and Buddhism have the concept of Karma which isn't a being so much but is designed to convince people that all the bad things they do will be revisited upon them by some mystical force.

Even today modern parents know damn well Santa Claus isn't real, but they still use it to frighten their kids into behaving when they're not around. It's amazing how you can know full well what you're doing to your children, but still, have no clue that your religious leaders are doing the exact same thing to you.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have anything you'd ever liked to ask an Atheists please feel free. It's time to wake up.
Click to expand...

So the society you are living in isn't as secular as you'd like it to be. So what? As you've already stated, as long as people don't shove their silly ideas down your throat, you don't care.
 
Lutherf said:
I would suggest that you aren't so much atheist as you are anti-theist.
Click to expand...

I would suggest that he is talking about people who would use religion for politics instead of as a comfort. In which case anti theist is a the position we should be taking.
 
What religious nuts are you talking about, the guy Trump wants on the bench has said publicly that "The Supreme court has ruled on Roe Vs. Wade already." What seems to be your problem?
 
To get to the heart of the matter, as long as we separate church and state, and as long as we don't impose our beliefs on others it should not matter what anyone believes or doesn't.

I don't want any religion, mine nor anyone else's, directly involved in or supported by government.
 
trixare4kids said:
Telling people it's time for them to wake up is akin to cramming beliefs down their throat. Dontcha' think?
Click to expand...

Teaching is very different than forcing. Cramming would be if I packed a court with Atheists, and then started passing laws discriminating against religious people, or imposing our religious beliefs upon you.

The good news is that Atheists don't have religious beliefs so you don't have to worry about that happening.
 
Atheists are keen to expound upon the negatives that religion has produced in society, but I seriously doubt if they've ever stopped to consider the positives. For example, this religion that draws the ire of liberals (Christianity) is the guiding motivation behind much giving and charitable work that occurs each day. The Christians in my town are the only ones who will actively run a homeless mission, which is trying work due to the addiction and mental illnesses present in many of the homeless. Housing the homeless each night keeps many from being on the street, or invading your nice, well kept neighborhood.
 
lefty Louie said:
What religious nuts are you talking about, the guy Trump wants on the bench has said publicly that "The Supreme court has ruled on Roe Vs. Wade already." What seems to be your problem?
Click to expand...

Please. I can't tell you how many Christians I've heard say that they didn't particularly like Trump, but they voted for him for one reason and one reason only. Abortion. Making sure they could put as many anti-abortion judges on the court as possible was the sole deciding factor for roughly 40% of the Republican party. If you think for one second Trump's judges will uphold Roe vs Wade you're delusional. The only hope there is for defenders of a woman's right to choose currently on the court is Roberts going against the other four.
 
soylentgreen said:
I would suggest that he is talking about people who would use religion for politics instead of as a comfort. In which case anti theist is a the position we should be taking.
Click to expand...

Religion is often used as a tool for other than just politics. Religion has also been very profitable from some scum evangelicals.

I agree with the poster that I don't care for anyone to try and convert me to their religion. What you want to believe is your choice but don't think others may feel the same way.

But there is a tendency for some religious people to get others to join them. I think it is the same thing when you see some strange light blinking in the sky and the first thing you do is to get someone else to witnesss what you see. If someone else sees it then you know it must be real.
 
MrWonka said:
Please. I can't tell you how many Christians I've heard say that they didn't particularly like Trump, but they voted for him for one reason and one reason only. Abortion. Making sure they could put as many anti-abortion judges on the court as possible was the sole deciding factor for roughly 40% of the Republican party. If you think for one second Trump's judges will uphold Roe vs Wade you're delusional. The only hope there is for defenders of a woman's right to choose currently on the court is Roberts going against the other four.
Click to expand...

You're just making things up for the sake of shock-posting. Provide actual facts that prove your theory here.
 
Lutherf said:
I would suggest that you aren't so much atheist as you are anti-theist.
Click to expand...

I am an Atheist. What I'm suggesting is that we have reached a point where anti-theism may be necessary to defend ourselves. It is clear that many theists are anti-atheism and willing to use political force to impose their religious beliefs. If we can no longer rely on the court to protect us from them then we have to start attacking the root of their delusional beliefs in entirely.
 
Josie said:
You're just making things up for the sake of shock-posting.
Click to expand...

You are too delusional to be persuaded by facts. Until you see them overturn with your own eyes there's nothing you will believe.
 
Crosscheck said:
Religion is often used as a tool for other than just politics. Religion has also been very profitable from some scum evangelicals.

I agree with the poster that I don't care for anyone to try and convert me to their religion. What you want to believe is your choice but don't think others may feel the same way.

But there is a tendency for some religious people to get others to join them. I think it is the same thing when you see some strange light blinking in the sky and the first thing you do is to get someone else to witnesss what you see. If someone else sees it then you know it must be real.
Click to expand...

It will not be conversion that you should be worried about, that will be the alternative offered. Try persecution instead. If you are a women your rights will be removed as men once again are allowed to decide what a woman can think or do. If you are gay then jail time is coming. An if your an atheist then death is all you have to look forward to.

After all these are conservatives who opine for the good old days when religion ruled.
 
MrWonka said:
You are too delusional to be persuaded by facts. Until you see them overturn with your own eyes there's nothing you will believe.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll bite. :)

Maybe someone reading this isn't "too delusional to be persuaded by facts". Maybe that person or people reading this COULD be persuaded to your side. Don't you want them to be? Don't you want people to see that we need to protect ourselves from the Court? Isn't this a situation that requires immediate attention and the more people on board will help stop the perfect storm that is about to happen in the US?

Don't drop the ball now --- this is too important! Tell them who these "anti-atheists" are and what they plan on doing to our country. Provide every single quote to bolster your argument so that these people will have no reason to not agree with you. Do it, Wonka. Time is running out!
 
truthatallcost said:
this religion that draws the ire of liberals (Christianity) is the guiding motivation behind much giving and charitable work that occurs each day.
Click to expand...
Lovely, but we wouldn't need charity in the first place if Christians weren't blocking our attempts to reform our social safety net. The reason? Because Christians love to use their religion as an excuse to convert people. Lure them in with bread and water and then once they are there you can proselytize. Truly good people are willing to help without the brainwashing.

Christians are like nice guys who are only nice to a girl in order to get her to sleep with them. If they can't get laid they any longer want to help. I've often said that one of the most altruistic things you can do in life is shut up and pay your taxes. All too often charity is used as a PR tool. Make yourself seem generous by giving away small amounts of money that you don't really need. But taxes? You don't get to chose whether you pay them or not so you can't brag about the fact that you did it.

truthatallcost said:
The Christians in my town are the only ones who will actively run a homeless mission, which is trying work due to the addiction and mental illnesses present in many of the homeless. Housing the homeless each night keeps many from being on the street, or invading your nice, well kept neighborhood.
Click to expand...

But they're also the ones preventing the government from just building a homeless shelter where those homeless people could get the same benefits without being proselytized.

But I digress. The goal of this thread isn't to discuss the positives and negatives of religion. It's to discuss the accuracy of it. With hundreds of religions throughout history, it is pure arrogance to assume that any of them are actually accurate at all. Why would a god who could snap his fingers and speak directly to his people waste his time spreading his message via the worlds longest game of telephone?
 
MrWonka said:
I'm an Atheist, but for the most part, I generally don't care what you believe unless you're trying to shove your silly beliefs down my throat or trying to judge me negatively it's generally none of my business, and I won't make a big deal about it. But I'm starting to wonder if we can afford to keep doing that. I used to not worry too much about it because I had confidence that our courts would consistently uphold the freedom of religion so even though I knew there were a lot of wack jobs in this country I wasn't too concerned about them causing a ton of harm. Particularly since Gay Marriage was legalized.

But now that religious nuts are on the verge of remaking the courts it may be time to get a little more serious about snapping the zealots out of their delusional beliefs. I don't really want to because I know there are many people for whom the afterlife is scary, and religion gives them comfort, but I'm not sure there's much choice at this point.

Got does not exist. God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa Claus used to scare you into being a good boy. Gods like Zeus and Poseidon were first invented for the purposes of explaining difficult concepts to their children. The village elders didn't want to sound stupid in front of their kids and they didn't have T.V. to entertain them so they made up all kinds of ridiculous stories to explain things like Rain, Thunder, the tides, the rough seas, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and where they all came from.

It was all bull****, and most of the original storytellers new this, but eventually they realized that these gods they created could be used more purposefully. You see back in those days they didn't have CSI. There were no security cameras, fingerprinting, or DNA tests. If you committed a crime in those days there was a pretty good chance you were going to get away with it. So the elders decided to be a bit more proactive. They started using these stories to convince young people that if they didn't behave properly they would anger the gods and bring about famine, floods, or horrible storms.

Of course eventually, someone climbed up on top of Mount Olympus and realized Zeus wasn't really up there so over time the gods became more abstract and invisible. Under Judaism and Christianity, they put the gods up in the sky and out of reach. But the same concepts exist in all religions. The idea that there are magical beings watching over everything you do who will judge you based on your misdeeds. Zeus, the Argus, Yahweh, Santa Claus... Even Hinduism and Buddhism have the concept of Karma which isn't a being so much but is designed to convince people that all the bad things they do will be revisited upon them by some mystical force.

Even today modern parents know damn well Santa Claus isn't real, but they still use it to frighten their kids into behaving when they're not around. It's amazing how you can know full well what you're doing to your children, but still, have no clue that your religious leaders are doing the exact same thing to you.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have anything you'd ever liked to ask an Atheists please feel free. It's time to wake up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have a question. Why do you care if someone judges you negatively? You obviously judge those with religious beliefs negatively and I sure don’t care about that.
 
MrWonka said:
Please. I can't tell you how many Christians I've heard say that they didn't particularly like Trump, but they voted for him for one reason and one reason only. Abortion. Making sure they could put as many anti-abortion judges on the court as possible was the sole deciding factor for roughly 40% of the Republican party. If you think for one second Trump's judges will uphold Roe vs Wade you're delusional. The only hope there is for defenders of a woman's right to choose currently on the court is Roberts going against the other four.
Click to expand...
I can't comment on the number of people you spoke with or what their opinions to you were, but I do have to say, using your logic we cannot trust anything that anyone says. A judge says the matter R Vs. W was been decided, but you don't believe him, OK Hillary said she didn't know having a server in her basement wasn't against protocol, I don't believer her, Obama said, the affordable care act was affordable, so he was lying too then, just using your logic of course.


Personally I tend to agree with your logic, I don't trust 99.9% of politicians, are you with me on that?
 
It's probably time we created a separate country for liberals and progressives to go into the 21st century and let red staters have their middle-ages society.

The left apparently refuses to fight and any suggestion that they should to match the right-wing means you're "mean", so I have no hope left.
 
A thread titled “Time to talk about religion”, started by an atheist? Now that’s funny.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Moved to the appropriate forum.
 
X Factor said:
Yeah, I have a question. Why do you care if someone judges you negatively? You obviously judge those with religious beliefs negatively and I sure don’t care about that.
Click to expand...

You sure did when Obama was President.
 
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