Of course I believe it. I don’t say things I don’t believe, at least not with a straight face.
Atheism may still exist as something that some people believe – so does marxism. But as a “movement” it is just as dead as dreadful communism. Indeed, atheism was inextricably linked to marxist theory – and the enforcement of it hastened the fall of the evil Bolshevik empire.
You don’t seem to understand what I mean by atheism. You don’t seem to understand that once it was the common wisdom of “enlightened” people that faith was in decline and science and reason would replace it in the hearts and minds of man.
There are a lot of people who don’t believe in God? Well sure, I think it’s what, 5% or 10% depending on who does the polling, right? BFD.
And you know, take that 5 or 10 percent and put them in an airliner in trouble, or let them get a serious illness, and you’ll find out how many are really atheists.
Don’t tell me that those experiences somehow render the thoughts of a human less valid, less REAL than his thoughts when placid. We are all going to die, buddy. You, me, everybody. What do you think about that? It’s GOING to happen. Maybe not today, but someday. What do you think about that?
“This day is called the Feast of Crispian,” --Henry V
No thanks, there’s just so much trolling I can stand.
The hypothesis that you are not a paranoid wacko becomes less tenable every day. Where are you getting this stuff?!!! I did mention a hypothetical social club in my analogy, but it was clearly being compared to the US, not this message board. And it was prefaced with the phrase “back to the OP”. I don’t see any mention of you in the OP. Do you? Why do you think that everything is about you?
I haven’t been twisting everything everyone says. I haven’t been interpreting comments that have nothing to do with me as attacks on me. I haven’t been randomly attacking other posters. Let’s see, who has? That would be… you, and only you.
No, the problem is that rather than offering a rational discussion of why you disagree with us, you have simply been attacking other posters. tracer disagreed with puffington, and I disagreed with his disagreement. None of us have gotten angry with each other or launched personal attacks against each other (at least, not that I know of). Instead we’ve had a reasoned discussion. I think that there’s a lesson you should learn from that.
It what world? Here in Reality Land, it’s known as an insult, and not that sophisticated of one at that.
Considering the lack of self-knowledge, and knowledge in general, I hardly think that that is a likely conclusion.
In other words, you were being a troll. Now that you’ve clearly admitted to being a troll, why are you bothering with this pathetic attempt at convincing us otherwise?
[sarcasm]Yes, that’s right. The only that bothers us about you is the fact that you believe in God. The fact that you’re an egocentric jackass doesn’t bother us at all; it’s solely your belief in God that annoys us. If an atheist were to go around insulting us and completely misinterpreting what we said, we wouldn’t mind at all.[/sarcasm]
Not when the charge is completely baseless and the person making the charge is a bigot himself.
Any quotes in which Cecil seriously says this?
What? People that attack anyone who disagrees with their Holy Writ? No, I think that’s another group…
What makes you think that? And even if there is no lasting consequence, what about being considerate just for the sake of being considerate? Or are you only considerate when there’s the promise of Eternal Paradise as a reward? Somehow, I can’t imagine Jesus saying “Well, as long as there aren’t any lasting consequences, it’s okay to steal”.
No, stuck pigs are much less patient. But have we mentioned that you are rude? Yes. Have you been rude? Yes. So what are you complaining about?
Oh, well that certainly is an intelligent rebuttal : :rolleyes::
I beg your pardon sir! That’s rather a personal question, isn’t it?
Oh ok, fine, you caught me. My “beef” is that I’m scared to death that I’m queer. It’s all I ever think about. There are you happy? You pushed, and you pushed, and you PUSHED, and finally you forced it out of me you gay-bashing homo!
Oh God I don’t want to live with this truth!
NO PLEASE GOD NO!!!
(exit stage left, sound of gunshot)
curtain.
Do you have any basis for calling it “bigoted”? Other than puffington’s explanation that this was not out of self-interest?
Let’s see… on one hand we have the Bill of Rights, in which the government denies having authority over religion, and puffington’s addition of a treaty that clearly states that the US is not founded on Christian ideas. On the other hand, there is your completely unsupported opinion (not fact; for it to be fact it would have to be clearly true) that it was. Who has a stronger case?
Truth isn’t a popularity contest.
No, his phrase “damn religion” was clearly referring to the idea that some people are less human than others, not faith in general.
[/quote]
and ends his epistle with an obscene and bogus quote
[/quote]
Are you denying his claim that the quote is not in the Bible?
No, it’s to point out that people who say that they are following their relgion aren’t really.
We’re saying that if you want to argue against a particular point, that’s valid, but pointless name-calling is a pasttime that the more mature members of this message board gave up years ago.
Okay, so you commented on it. Then someone clarified what it meant, and you went into La-La-Land, making a bunch of ridiculous comments implying that puffington’s comment was a personal insult directed at you and that all homosexuals are a bunch of whining brats.
It is a miracle! I have arisen from recent self-inflicted death! Verily it is true, Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven. My spirt is clensed now. Praise be to God.
And to all you who will cast stones upon me, and hate me, and mock me, and do unto me badnesses I say unto thee:
Pricks and scones may roam the foam,
but nudes they do alert me.
And I suppose that it never occurred to you that the condition of your face is not visible to the rest of us?
What do you mean “as a movement”? Atheism is not an inherently evangelistic belief system. Does the fact that Atheists don’t tend to go around bugging non-Atheists about them (the non-Atheists) not being Atheists somehow make Atheism invalid?
ATheism and Marxism are completely different belief systems; in fact, the deification of the “historical dialecticalism”
Gee, you don’t think that a system of central planning that had a tendency to kill of innovators had anything to do with it?
The belief that Atheism will win over Theism is common among Atheists, but it is not an integral part of Atheism.
[sarcasm]Oh, well then. If there are so few fellow Atheists, I guess I should give it up. Wouldn’t want to be a member of a minority group if I can help it[/sarcasm].
No, thanks. I’m against such unethical experimentation on unwilling subjects. And there’s a difference between being open to tghe idea of there being a god and having a fanatical devotion to the idea.
But if I were to put a bunch of people in an airliner in trouble, I’m sure that very few Christians would be calm in the knowledge that whatever happens, God would take care of them. No, I think most of them would be screaming “Please God, oh please God, don’t let me die” or something to that effect. In my experience, the “faith” of most Christians is very shallow.
And I suppose that it never occurred to you that the condition of your face is not visible to the rest of us?
What do you mean “as a movement”? Atheism is not an inherently evangelistic belief system. Does the fact that Atheists don’t tend to go around bugging non-Atheists about them (the non-Atheists) not being Atheists somehow make Atheism invalid?
Atheism and Marxism are completely different belief systems; in fact, the deification of the “historical dialectic” makes Marxism seem Theist to me.
Gee, you don’t think that a system of central planning that had a tendency to kill of innovators, or any of the other inherent problems of Marxism, had anything to do with it?
The belief that Atheism will win over Theism is common among Atheists, but it is not an integral part of Atheism.
[sarcasm]Oh, well then. If there are so few fellow Atheists, I guess I should give it up. Wouldn’t want to be a member of a minority group if I can help it[/sarcasm].
No, thanks. I’m against such unethical experimentation on unwilling subjects. And there’s a difference between being open to tghe idea of there being a god and having a fanatical devotion to the idea.
But if I were to put a bunch of people in an airliner in trouble, I’m sure that very few Christians would be calm in the knowledge that whatever happens, God would take care of them. No, I think most of them would be screaming “Please God, oh please God, don’t let me die” or something to that effect. In my experience, the “faith” of most Christians is very shallow.
Lionel, I can see you’re wondering why everyone is calling you a troll. After all, you’re only offering your opinion, right? Well, when someone offers up logic as convoluted as yours, we are forced to assume one of two things :
You’re trying to provoke a reaction
or
Somebody has been typing out sign language dictated to them by a gorilla and signing the name Lionel Mandrake to it.
I’d like to think both are true.
And it’s none of your business, but I have short hair and a full time job.
Also, just because I say this country isn’t based on Christianity, that doesn’t make me an atheist. I think it would be foolish of me to deny God’s existance when I have no proof. I think blind faith is foolish for the same reason. But I’m not trying to convert anyone to my line of thinking (unlike many millions of Christians), nor do I think everyone will eventually come around to my beliefs. Believe what you want to believe as long as you don’t hurt anybody doing it.
You seem to be full of rage and hatred, Lionel. Maybe you need to find Jesus or something
Is that you, Satan/Brian? Nice disguise! You had us all fooled for several days. The bible-thumping was a great touch. But it’s not nice to violate the SMDB’s one-username-per-user rule!
Better hope Issac Bruce is one of them. He’ll call on the name of Jesus and save everyone-or is it just himself, I’m not real clear on that. I think he ought to prove what he said and try the gun thing. Thatwould show us! FWIW, heres a link to a mailbag question about the number of folks in each religion. Guess what? Athiesm is number 2. http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mreligio.html
Thank you for putting that into print, for it has now confirmed my suspicions that this is the guiding principle of fundy-christianity. Christianity as the ultimate no-frills, low-premium, guaranteed acceptance life insurance policy. Note the lack of reference to charity and ggod will toward others, or love, acceptance, peace, human decency…nope. Just save my ass when I’m in trouble 'cuz I go to church regularly.
Pfffft. I think me and the rest of us dumb-ass atheists are happy where we are thanks.
“This is your Captain speaking; kindly bend over and kiss your holier-than-thou ass Good-bye. That is all.”
Z
All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
Tallyho! A good day to all and sundry.
Somebody asked me a few posts back what my “beef” was with homersexuals. I then admitted my dreadful fear that I’m a latent, shot myself, was ressurected with renewed faith, and went to bed. But still, the question got me to thinking about something. . .
I saw Camille Paglia on C-span a number of years ago, giving a brilliant speech at Georgetown University in DC. I dug up the videotape and transcribed the following:
Bravo! You go girl!
But alas, there is more to it than that Camille. It isn’t just the hatred of left-wing bigots toward faith that has kept gays from being taken seriously by the mainstream of America. There is another reason: gays are funny. Or rather, gays define themselves by their sexuality: and sex is funny. Hilarious in fact.
Picture a man and a woman who are married to each other and who are also both professional people, very button down and proper. Picture them putting in a hard and very proper and professional day at work and then going home. They go into the bedroom together, and the door they shut very firmly, perhaps they even lock it. And then they rip off their clothes and start crawling all over each other. Tongues are involved in the procedure. There may be some sweating. Soon they are saying things like, “Ohhh baby, baby!” and “That’s it, that’s it, gimme your hot monkey love!” and “Ahhhhrrrraguuuu!(sigh)”.
Now I ask you, can you really take people like that seriously? No wonder they shut the door! What if you had to watch your lawyer act like that, and then ten seconds later had to discuss contract law with her? Could you keep a straight face?
And that’s only hetero sex. Gay sex is even funnier yet, because incongruity is the soul of humor and gay sex is very incongruous. Most men want women. Most women want men. Those who want otherwise are in the minority, and thus less often encountered, and thus incongruous. So we have something that is already very funny; the sexual act, and we are adding an element of surprise to it that renders it even more hilarious.
Those who are so in-your-face gay, those to whom it is the be-all, the thing they most want to talk about, those who in short derfine themselves AS what they do in bed – “I’m gay” – are funny. There is always a snigger, repressed or not.
I don’t repress it. Many of you here on this board do. This is because you are PC crybabies with boards shoved so far up your butts that you’ve got lumps in the back of your necks.
Ta ta!
“This day is called the Feast of Crispian,” --Henry V
Lionel, gratuitous insults are more appropriate to The BBQ Pit than here. You might find that forum more to your liking. If you’re going to stay here, try to restrain yourself a bit better; you have been flinging about insults without provocation since your first post. This remark of yours, among many others, is an example of behavior to avoid: “This is because you are PC crybabies with boards shoved so far up your butts that you’ve got lumps in the back of your necks.” Thank you.
You're not? Why put up a post then? What's the point? You don't feel that your ideas have any value? You don't think you are right? You don't post in the hope of convincing others?
Why do you post then?
Typing practice?
Boredom?
Zen sport? (that's why I do it, since I know perfectly well I will convince no one. . .) :D
