# People who believe in a god should be locked up **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 10, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684 "2009-12-10T03:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/21 "2009-12-10T04:09:07Z")
[I took the liberty of quickly drawing The Cleveland Steamer’s portrait.](http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4557/img0001eht.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/22 "2009-12-10T04:18:31Z")
I would like to see **The Cleveland Steamer** helping out with the gang at Chick publishing. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/23 "2009-12-10T04:29:27Z")
> [@Chakra Nadmara](#): > > [I took the liberty of quickly drawing The Cleveland Steamer’s portrait.](http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4557/img0001eht.jpg) You really just drew that now? That’s pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Cleveland_Steamer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/24 "2009-12-10T04:33:31Z")
> [@Chakra Nadmara](#): > > [I took the liberty of quickly drawing The Cleveland Steamer’s portrait.](http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4557/img0001eht.jpg) How did you turn my computer into a mirror? If I wasn’t so opposed to the supernatural, I would say you were a demon. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/25 "2009-12-10T04:38:48Z")
I’ll respond to the OP’s witnessing the way I would to any witnessing: OK, thanks, you can stop now. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/26 "2009-12-10T04:52:50Z")
Despite his second post, I halfway suspect the OP is actually a religious person who feels persecuted for his beliefs. Perhaps he (or she) suggested rounding up religious people in the hope of finding a lot of people on this board enthusiastic about the idea. Then his paranoia would be given credence, and he could yell about how everyone is out to get him because he believes in god. If so, I think he will be disappointed. Speaking just for myself, I’m an atheist who wishes religion would go away. But I have no desire to outlaw it, or take any action beyond talking about beliefs with people who feel like talking about it with me. My hope is that over time people will come to realize that religion is a bit silly at the least, harmful in the extreme, and that it will eventually just fall away from humanity like a scab. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/27 "2009-12-10T05:04:07Z")
When communist totalistic states tried it people still ‘worshiped’, but sometimes they’d worship ideology or political leaders. In North Korea atheism is forced on everyone. I have no idea if the people believe it or not (or just pay lip service to it) but worship of the Kims has taken on the role of worship of God. Same with worship of Stalin or Mao. Totalistic states try to ban religion. It doesn’t seem to work from what I can tell and sometimes the people just end up worshiping politicians instead. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/28 "2009-12-10T05:27:54Z")
> [@The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](#): > > Witnessing: If was not for logistical problems (too many believers), people who believe in a magic spirit (god) should be locked up. I would like to see a plan put in place to start doing this in 20 years. In a hundred years, believing in God should be a crime punishable by death. One problem is, those in charge of enforcing your law may be believers who let others believers off with a [warning](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541909) instead of death and we’d have to spend all of our resources investingating that and implanting [chips](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541741) in people to control every action they make. The second problem is, it’s possible that you’re just a fucking nutball who wants to tackle problems that aren’t really a huge problem to 99\*\*.\*\*99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the population except in your own mind. If that turns out to be the case, who cares what you think? But maybe I’m incorrect. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/29 "2009-12-10T07:17:53Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > EDIT: I see \*\*Captain Amazing \*\* beat me to it Bwahaha! Bow before me and my superior citation skills! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/30 "2009-12-10T07:31:40Z")
Meh. If this thread is supposed to be a parody of conventional witnessing threads, it fails because I don’t offhand recall any religious types seriously proposing jail or death for nonbelievers. I’m fully prepared to stand corrected, though. It’s possible I just don’t retain the content of most witnessing threads, since they’re dumb and I tend to lump them together. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684/31 "2009-12-10T07:34:12Z")
There is a different verb than “witnessing” that we tend to use to describe this sort of thread. Beyond a reminder of Bolt’s excellent dialogue, this threrad has no useful purpose. Closed. [/Moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-believe-in-a-god-should-be-locked-up/520684.md?page=1)