How about… no? I point you towards the direction of the USSR and Communist China, among other nation-states. You’re welcome. Now tell me again how you’re being oppressed so I can laugh.
Again, I point out to you my statement, which was that you’d find that the religious do less to bother atheists than atheists do to bother the religious. Most religious people don’t think to themselves, “Hmmm. What can I do to annoy some atheists today?”. Atheists, on the other hand, seem to literally complain about everything from a student led prayer at commencement to a nativity scene at Christmas time to a local police station donating basketball rims to a local church who runs a youth group to a government website linking to some religious-affiliated organization which provides free supplies to women with small children. It’s a nice way to make yourself hated (but don’t tell the atheists that!).
No. An argument’s validity is determined solely by whether or not the conclusion flows from the argument’s premises (simplified). If we’re going to get into some kind of “I’m-so-much-smarter-than-you!” type debate, actually know what the terms you’re using mean.
I’ll agree that his quote is so over-the-top as to be absurd; I simply think that someone who does advocate for penalties to the religious is — for all intents and purposes — advocating punishment. “He doesn’t really mean punishment; he means, perhaps, registration and extra taxation for the religious; and although he would forbid the religious to have children, surely he wouldn’t go so far as to mandate castration” seems like pretty tepid defense to me.
And here we go again, the attempt to equate Communism and atheism so the believers can claim atheists are all mass murderers.
No, they go around trying to ram their beliefs down the throat of everyone else; both atheists and believers who happen to disagree with them.
Believers hate atheists for just existing. And what makes you assume that it’s atheists who are making those complaints? Plenty of members of less powerful religions support separation between church and state since they know they’ll get stomped on right along with atheists. They don’t want their kids to be singled out by teachers or beaten up in school for not saying the “right” prayer. And there’s more of them than there are atheists.
Who’s equating communism with atheism? You wanted to claim that atheists are being persecuted by Christians. Fact is, you don’t know what persecution is. Talk to some of those religious folk who lived in any part of the USSR or China around the middle of the 20th century before you start talking about ‘being persecuted’.
(But that doesn’t count, does it?)
Oh, sure. You could go back a couple of centuries to find en masse persecution of atheists by Christians, but I’m not really akin to bring up things that happened before anyone presently alive on the planet was born.
So you agree that Christians don’t go around trying to bother atheists, then?
I stopped reading after your first sentence. Does that even make sense to you?
I disagree. There are many Christians who keep to themselves. Not all Christians try to ram Christian doctrine down people’s throats.
If you are saying all Christians are like this, I’m going to need to see literature to back up this claim. I doubt there is any literature out there that proves that all people are the same.
Again, I disagree. Not all believers hate atheists for existing. Please, provide literature to back up vague generalizations like these. Stereotyping does not make a solid argument.
Indeed, I did not. But I graciously accept your unwillingness to entertain the point as a concession of defeat
You don’t know what persecution is. No one is stopping you from being an atheist. You’re not being forced to convert. You’re not beaten or jailed for being an atheist. You’re not being fined for being an atheist. And so on and so forth. If you’re going to claim “Persecution!”, you should at least make sure you’re actually being persecuted.
Okay, fine. No atheists were ever persecuted. Is that better?
And the Mojave desert cross was stolen after SCOTUS ruled it could stay up.
In fact, there are many Christian denominations that take it as a given that they are REQUIRED to spread the good word. It is fundamental to them that they try to convince non-believers (ie atheists) and convert them to the word of the lord.
They are actually ACTIVE in the process of NOT LEAVING PEOPLE ALONE. It is one of the things they are REQUIRED to do.
No, because for all its flaws by and large the government won’t let them. They still do so of course, but they aren’t allowed to get away with anything like dragging atheists out of their homes and beating them to death. Nor did I say they were just out to persecute atheists; they are out to persecute everyone, including each other.
Um, centuries of religious wars and conflicts with everyone trying to push their particular sect on everyone else? Constant attempts to push religion into law? Proposition 8 has already been mentioned, as has school prayer. Do you want a cite for the sky being blue next?
They were only being persecuted by other religious folks. Communism is just another religion. It simply replaces worship of a magical sky fairy with worship of a magical state. Atheists who didn’t like Communism, or spoke out against didn’t get a special pass for being atheists.
