Thanks; glad no offence was given. As said, different personal takes on an issue. A small part of my position on the matter is, I think, that (unlike yourself) I feel no particular fondness for the general “props” of the C of E, despite having had a fair amount of not-directly-participating exposure to it in childhood.
A perceived tangible benefit from long ago – involving my maternal grandparents, who had their first child of several, in 1916 (I’m in my sixties, and they started on the reproduction bit when relatively “elderly”). Said grandparents had grown up Anglican, but concluded in their late teens / twenties, that religion was bunk: rejected it, and continued to do so throughout their lives. They had their kids C of E-christened, though: being apprehensive that they might suffer discrimination re education / jobs / just socially, should they not have been christened. That might indeed have been a factor to reckon with in Great Britain, three-quarters of a century ago; nowadays, of course, it would matter re such considerations, to almost nobody in the country.
William Murray has said on the record that the prayer he had to recite each day, the one that led to the Supreme Court case, was indeed unconstitutional.
Polls indicate that atheists are considered WORSE than terrorists!
And you can google it and find all kinds of people saying it; on message boards, fox news, christian sites, even so-called liberal biased news media like cnn and msnbc can be found disparaging atheists and atheism.
ask rush limbaugh
and roger ailles
and david limbaugh
ann coulter
michelle malkin
jeff jacoby
glenn beck
duck dynasty
the duggars
anyone at fox news
and THEY will tell you;
christians are MORALLY SUPERIOR to atheists
atheists have NO morals
perhaps this is your first time on a message board?
maybe you just landed on the planet?
I don’t know why you have not seen THOUSANDS of conservatives, christians denouncing atheists as being immoral and CLEARLY stating that christians ARE morally superior.
I have no doubt that even on this message board, if you find a topic regarding atheists and immorality, you will find conservatives stating that very thing and wondering “where do you atheists get your morals if not from the bible?)”
I’m a Christian, but I love those “be good for goodness’ sake” ads. I find the idea of doing good out of fear of punishment or hope of reward from some deity (not the kind I believe in, btw; I believe in the divine and demonic, but not deities or demons) repugnant. I have little patience for “non believers are immoral” or “believers are mentally deficient” attitudes.
You will find a topic on just about everything on this board.
You will find conservatives positing that atheists cannot be ethical on this board.
You will find such opinions get very short shrift on this board.
You will not find many people, even the conservatives, who credit the opinions of those you listed on this board.
As for polls? Watch the BBC “House of Cards” trilogy, or at least post the actual questions in the polls.