Atheists largely come from religious backgrounds. In the face of no evidence and its contradiction to science supporting it ,they become non believers. It is difficult to understand why others do not see that.
When someone says they have a personal relationship with jesus it gives me the creeps. There is a lot of historical conflict on whether he existed at all. Then. he would be dead for 2 centuries if he did. No relationship is possible without taking great mental leaps to arrive there, you should have no trouble understanding why we question such a thing. It is about belief. We do not believe. In the face of no evidence and huge contradictions to science and evidence ,some of you say you do. We are not trying to be mean, we just do not understand why you can not see the obvious truth.
I’m sorry, I originally thought they were your words… then I saw your reply… by then it was too late to edit my edit.
I find it hard to just mind my own business when I see someone throw out that argument. And when you counter it they refer straight to communism. Communism (or the way it was executed) is just another excuse to do evil to people, and using it as a counter-argument is annoying.
whoa! double-post. And I didn’t press submit twice or anything.
I’m sorry, I originally thought they were your words… then I saw your reply… by then it was too late to edit my edit.
I find it hard to just mind my own business when I see someone throw out that argument. And when you counter it they refer straight to communism. Communism (or the way it was executed) is just another excuse to do evil to people, and using it as a counter-argument is annoying.
I just want to add that if I’d never read GD or weekly pitting of Der Trihs, the **Red Shirt ** would never have blipped on my radar as someone who is so polarizing. When he posts in CS, he’s Just Antoher Poster, i.e. a generally nice guy with good input to the forum.
IOW, he’s not a Pony.
Now let’s return to the **Lib ** thread, which, as with any thread he starts or participates in, end up being about Lib.
Reality TV is only my second religion. The one I resort to when the altar of Formula One sits empty from October to March.
I agree mostly with George Kaplin’s initial post.
I’m an atheist, and I believe that people who believe in God are wrong. However, that doesn’t mean that I somehow think that their powers of reasoning are non-existant, or that they are stupid, or that they are bad people.
Most of the people I spend time with and care about believe in God. It’s very clear that a person, whatever his or her beliefs, needs to be able to get around in life respecting and interacting with people who have different beliefs, some of which he might know are wrong.
I’m sure that, aside from religious beliefs, plenty of my friends have crazy beliefs that I feel are wrong; I’m sure the opposite is true as well. Still, at some point we all choose to live together, and accept the fact that diversity of belief is a fact of life which affects us all equally. Every person exists on both sides of the “I’m right/you’re wrong” spectrum, and since no one lives outside of the controlled system of humanity, there’s really no way to objectively claim that some beliefs equal insanity while others are normal[sup]*[/sup].
If a person can live in society in a relatively constructive way, then his or her beliefs are untouchable. Not that I can’t believe your beliefs are wrong, but in the sense that I’d better not make too big a deal of it, or really care about it that much, because, well, life’s too short and we seem to be able to get along despite our differing beliefs.
So, while I might not agree with Liberal in a religious sense, I wholeheartedly agree with this pitting. Who chooses to live in a world where everyone but you is infected with an evil, debilitating and contagious disease that turns the infected into monsters? Isn’t there a Will Smith movie out now about something like that?
([sup]*[/sup]Let me add that I know there are those who argue that religion causes grief, pain and suffering, and is the cause of the world’s ills. That’s a tangential issue, but the fact that I’ve known assholes of all creeds (or lack thereof) would seem to show otherwise)
Nope, no religious background here. I’m 100 per cent religion free and so are (were) my parents (dad is dead). It was never really an issue when I grew up. We never went to church, never talked about religious beliefs. We never cared.
This is why I get mildly upset when religious people say that atheism is a form of faith. To me, there never was faith to begin with. There was no religion, no prayers, no church. Of course, i was aware that such things eisted, but only in the same way I knew some people were Rotary members and others were members of whatever party, left or right.
So, on a personal level, religion is like being member of any kind of club, where the members slap each others’ backs and look down on non members. If that makes them happy, I have no problem with that. When they start thinking that their secret handshakes and rituals should apply to everyone, members and non members alike, I’m all for armed resistance.
Nah, this is only a class 4. We need lekatt to make it official. I’ve previously compared such collaborative wackiness as “Voltrons of Crazy,” which I think would make it official.
Not being mean to you, Lib. I think I’m every bit as crazy as you are (maybe that’s an insult, depending on how wacko you think I am.)
Well, I am no fan of **Liberal ** or DT, but **lekatt ** is batshit insane and a 100% bore. I know with *Liberal ** & DT I am still talking to (semi-)rational humans that I can communicate with, especially in non-sensitive threads. **lekatt ** is full out bat-shit insane in every thread I run into him in. If I see people engage him in conversation, he gets even crazier. I made the mistake once of taking him seriously, he’s crazier than any troll. I mean that is a whole lot of crazy.
Jim
- I even share Lib’s hate of Jackson, not as strong, but I find Jackson despicable.
This is a debatable point, but once you start getting into Neil Diamond fandom, consciousness of subjectivity is a far more dubious proposition.
Megadittoes!
Ya know, it’s just a god, for dog’s sake.
What Exit?, we are completely on the same page. I don’t mean to put anyone near lekatt’s level of crazy. But without him, you can’t call it a perfect storm.
For normal atheists, it is not, of course but for raving loons like DT, it certainly is. Look at him, he has all the trappings of a religious zealot. The same old sayings he repeats endlessly without stopping to reason them out, the need to get on everyone’s face to preach them, the absolute deafness to outside views, the name calling. He is a religious atheist. He may not believe in a god, but he has a religion with his own traditions, dogmas, beliefs and formulas.
You guys totally missed the point of my post. I’m not saying that religion is in some way equivalent to the Khmer Rouge. My point is that, if we were discussing the Khmer Rouge, would you also refrain from in any way calling them delusional etc?
And of course I agree with Czarcasm’s post.
I think you mean, “Valterons of Crazy.” Voltron was a set of five giant robot lions that could combine to make a humanoid, sword-wielding robot, which would then fight giant monsters from outer space.
Which, clearly, is an entirely rational concept.
No, actually, we got that part of your post; we were pointing out why the question was irrelevant. For it to be relevant, you need to demonstrate that the Khmer Rouge is in a relevant sense similar to religion.
If you have no such obligation, I can counter your point easily. If we were discussing someone’s beloved newborn child, would you intentionally tell them what an ugly, smelly little defecto they’d popped out? If you wouldn’t, you have no business insulting their beloved religion.
Daniel
Also, can I get some example of the contentless god bashing that Der Trihs does all the time? I admit I don’t read that much on the debate forum. But I have caught a few of his posts, and they have mostly been interesting.
Both are general debatable topics that are not to do with someones’ family or friends.
One can meaningfully discuss the impact of both the Khmer Rouge and religion on society. You can’t discuss the impact of someones child.
Im sure I can do better, but is it really necessary?
Huh. Does this mean that Der Trihs’s existence is caused by too much atheist stress?
This is an interesting idea.
This is a phenomenon which never ceases to amaze me. I’ve seen it repeated across history and cultures. The following question iss probably more suited for GD, for it may well be unanswerable, but since the post was here I’ll ask it here. Why do extremists tend to get the credit for the actions of masses of moderates?
Enjoy,
Steven
A bacteria, really. Which is DT’s point to begin with. That religion is an infection.