I may be an extremely liberal Methodist (“all of my best friends are atheists”) but I accidentally gave a weird reaction to an atheist.
When I was at the University of Toronto I wrote a thesis on Sir John Cheke, a 16th-century English scholar of ancient Greek (OK, this anecdote gets better…) At a club one night I was with some friends and for some reason we got to talking about religion. One of my friends avowed that she was an atheist–to which my response was “Wow! I’m writing a thesis about the guy who invented that word!!”
Ok, enough irony. You’re right, Opus. WP’s response is EXACTLY the bullshit response that all atheists (myself included) hate. I don’t want you praying for me. If you REALLY want to do something, go out and work at a soup kitchen for a little while. Don’t waste your time praying for me. I don’t beleive in it, and I don’t want it. Make a REAL difference in the world. DO something.
Ok, now I’m confused. By “inventing” you mean, determined the proper pronounciation of?
In that case Cheke also invented the word “theist” - and “genesis”,“drama”,“anonymity”,“pornography”…
Or are you referring to his humanism? Or, is there some little known fact that you dug up in your research that shows he actually coined the word and brought it into popular usage?
THANK YOU OPUS!! For a Christian to tell me he’s “sorry” is an insult to my beliefs. What if I said to a person who proclaims himself a Christian, “I’m sorry you worship a dead carpenter, but I believe that (insert non-Christian religion here) is the one true way.”
The above comment may offend Christians, but like Bill Hicks said, “Forgive me.”
I’ve got good news for all atheists. The next time a Christian tells you you’re going to hell, don’t believe it, because I’ve got PROOF that you’re not. Consider this:
J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, is an atheist.
Babylon 5 is one of the best shows ever made for TV.
In fact, it’s so good, watching it is like being in Heaven.
Therefore, if JMS went to Hell, all torment would instantly cease due to an eternal supply of Babylon 5.
Since this is a logical contradiction, I can only conclude that atheists don’t go to Hell. QED.
Once, in my undergraduate years (or maybe it was my high school years – it’s kind of a blur), I was wandering around the lobby during a classical concert. Some other boy, about 8 or 9 years old, was also sitting there in the lobby. I struck up a conversation with him. He told me he was waiting there because after the concert there was going to be something akin to a Bar Mitzvah reception going on in the same lobby. He wanted to know if I’d like to stay, and I responded, “No thanks, I’m not Jewish.”
“Well, you know,” the boy began, “Christians can come to this thing too.”
“Oh, I’m not Christian either,” I replied.
This stunned him. In utter confusion, he asked, “B-b-but if you’re not Jewish, and you’re not Christan, what are you?!”
Heh. To this day, that ecounter reminds me of that scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake and Elwood set up to play in a bar, and they ask the waitress what kind of music they play there, and she replies, “Oh, both kinds – country and western.”
The best response I ever got was from a door-to-door Mormon. Luckily I was just in the middle of a D&D game, which had broken down to an insult contest (like they do from time to time.) One of those games that starts at midnight and “the middle” is about 8 a.m., but I digress. So these two poor ‘old’ ladies come up to my door and I answer in my all black clothes with a red dragon eating a sacrifice type tee-shirt on, Sex Pistols’ “God save the Queen” on in the living room really loud. And they, of course, ask if I have asked for Jesus to be my personal saviour and blah blah blah blah blah… To which I reply “Well, I was baptised when I was eight, but i’m not sure if it counted cause I had no choice in it.” (for the record I’m agnostic with tendancies towards Zen thinking)
Well the Ladies get all indignant that I would mention it was not “By choice”. I suppose they took it personally like I was saying if I had MY way… So the lead beeotch instantly comes off with “What are you some kind of a Satanist?” to which I immediately reply “Do you have a daughter?” ::evil grin::
Haven’t been bothered since.
Punk snot dead,
broccoli
BTW I think Jimmy Pop Ali said it best when he sang “Crucified and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt”