Obviously, the only way to settle this matter is by throwing Der Trihs into a pond.
If he comes to the surface, he’s an anti-religious bigot and must be stoned to death, or at least given a severe talking-to.
If he sinks, well, that’s one less atheist that’ll be ringing my doorbell at 9 a.m. on weekends and leaving literature in public restrooms.
Der Trihs, why can’t you conceive of the possibility of two people being best friends and hold differing views on something? What is the basis for your conviction that all theists are rabid-anti-atheists? Are all vegetarians rabid anti-carnivores? What is the basis for this martyr complex of yours? I agree that some theists may feel this way, and they may even be the most vocal ones, but your constant insistence that everyone who believes in God is automatically an ignorant, arrogant, bigot is ridiculous.
I can; but Lord Ashtar doesn’t strike me as one. And “my best friend is a <despised category>” is such a cliche that it’s hard to take seriously.
Not all; but most. As for why, there’s the polls that show such intolerance and distrust for atheists. And the general behavior and attitude of believers.
In all fairness, I believe he was referring to Lord Ashtar in this particular case, not all religionists, whereas I was referring to religionists in general, rather than just Liberal in my previous post.
I suppose I was just confused by the fact that Der Trihs has a record for constantly stating that anyone who believes in God is feeble-minded, or delusional, or both. Which, as has been pointed out any number of times, is an exception to the “no insulting other posters” rule.
Good thing none of that applies to me. Then again, as I said before, I like sugar in my porridge.
Similar to how when I call Der Trihs a bigot, I’m referring to him alone and not all atheists.
“Bigot” in this case apparently meaning that since you have no basis for your beliefs you throw insults instead. I suppose it’s easier to claim that people who point out you are wrong are bigots than actually defending your indefensible beliefs.
Just as you have no basis for your belief that all religious people are stupid, evil, and criminal, and so you throw insults instead.
It’s mildly annoying, but no different from people who rant about how inferior the niggers/spicks/kikes/chinks/whatever are.
Regards,
Shodan
Is he ranting? I don’t sense it.
And true.
In fact, I think this is one reason he pisses people off. (By far not the only reason, but one.) He just doesn’t get all that upset. His views and language are harsh and blunt, but I can’t recall a single instance of him actually getting frothy at the mouth in his posts.
Or, as friends, they respect one each others’ views, and agree to disagree. I know, the concept of doing such is hard to believe.
By your logic, a Christian could never be friends with a Jew, who could never be friends with a Muslim, who could never be friends with a Hindu, who could never be friends with a Sikh, who could never be friends with a Buddhist…you see where this is going? People can disagree with each other about all kinds of things.
Likewise, I have friends who so many different political views, and yet, we all manage not to treat each other like shit, or “suck up to one another.” Even those “evil conservatives” who want to “enslave women and minorities”.
I readily admit that there is probably nothing that you would find to be a rational basis for anything I believe, but that has nothing to do with the fact that you are indeed a bigot. I don’t intend the word in the insulting sense, but rather in a descriptive one. Let’s review some of the definitions of the word, shall we?
I feel this is a fair characterization of your posting history here on the topic of religion and politics (let’s not forget that we’re not just discussing theism vs. atheism here). I’m sure you disagree.
People can be atheists and not be arrogant bigots. That’s what we’re all trying to say to you. At least half your posts are hateful rants, so much that you’ve developed a reputation for such. You are among a bunch of other atheists here, and even we can’t stand your style.
The problem which you guys ignore is that you can’t show that God sees things your admittedly more moral way, as opposed to seeing things the way the homophobes see it. If you believe in God, and the God you believe in revealed himself to you and told you homosexuality was a sin, what would you do?
It is hard to believe, because atheism isn’t a “view”. We didn’t just pick our horse at random like believers, our side has huge amounts of actual evidence. For an atheist, respecting a theist is like respecting something like a conspiracy nut. If you like the guy you ignore his rants, and nod politely waiting for him to finish. “Yes, I understand you think Obama was born in Kenya. Personally I kno… I mean I think… No no (oh god, he’s gonna start ranting) ok, let’s just agree to disagree. Hey how about this weather eh?”
You may even geniunely respect the person if he’s smart in other areas, but it’s impossible to respect his crazy religious views. Religious people don’t seem to understand this, because they assume we chose our “belief” like they did.
His atheist friend does not respect his views. He’s faking.
Actually there are textual analysis methods which could show to a good degree of confidence that the seven day passage was closer to the original than your eight day modification. Showing that either of them has the slightest relation to what really happened is another matter. Actually that problem is easy - they are both equally wrong, one just being wrong for longer than yours.
Tracking versions of Hamlet doesn’t make the story any more real.
I don’t think you’re a bigot, but I do think you can be more insulting than is necessary, just as I can. That’s definitely something for me to work on.
I think this is an excellent example of a major problem with religions where the adherents hold their holy books as inerrant. The fact that the Christian religion has had as many schisms as it has indicates to me that they are squabbling over truly unimportant things. An example of this would be the recent exodus of many Episcopalians to the Anglican church due to the ordaining of homosexual ministers. That’s an issue that I just don’t care about. I don’t care if you’re gay, if you have something useful to teach and feel called to the ministry, then I’ll make my own judgment after I’ve listened to what you have to say. I take what Paul said to the Thessalonians to heart:
In fact, I’ve used that to brush aside some of Paul’s own teachings, since they don’t ring as true to me. I hold certain things in the Qu’ran as true and others as not, along with teachings in Buddhism, Judaism, the Gnostic Gospels, various New Age philosophies, and anything else I can find.
Bottom line is that I haven’t yet found a particular religion that I think has it all correct. I’m still searching. I may not find it in my lifetime, but I’ll keep looking. We all have to find, as a Wiccan ex-girlfriend of mine once put it, our own truth.
You figured this all out without knowing me or my friend. Absolutely astounding.