Why Are Athiest Assholes?

The BBQ Pit
101

Wow. Vehement exception.

The point I was trying to make is that to follow a faith based religion requires a lot of thinking. I was responding to a poster who claimed that anyone who had any kind of faith was intellectually lazy.

I do believe that an intelligent person can spend a lifetime studying human behavior, psychology and history, all the while putting strenuous effort into attempting to understand how things work…and come up with a completely different outlook on life than you have. It doesn’t make any of you less intelligent than the other…it just means we’re all different. Its stupid to keep slagging on each other.

102

I agree heartily. I look forward to your retraction of the idea that atheism is ipso facto intellectually lazy.

103

WOW! So much good stuff. What my ham-handed attempt was to spark debate on this issue but without the pleasantries that would be necessary in Great Debates.
Also, I wanted the input of the Atheist-Fundamentalists as well, so I figured a somewhat provocative title for this thread in order to um… “fill the pews”.

I need to compose some answers and thoughts about what I see here. So I will be back in a moment, as if anybody may care.

In answer to Beeblebrox my beliefs are pretty simple, for me anyways.
Call me a seriously backsliding Baptist with some faith holes.
Perhaps a Bap-nostic? :wink:

See you all in a few.

104

Yaaay Apache! Me too! I had the wonderful experience of growing up in a General Association of Regular Baptist Churches fundamentalist organization.

I’m always interested to meet other backsliders.

105

I retract the idea that atheism is ipso facto intellectually lazy.

You like dat?:wink:

106

No, it doesn’t. That is not to say that a great many religious people don’t think about their religion; many do. But faith-based religions don’t require thinking; one can as easily sit back, listen to the pastor, believe what they’re told, and never think about or question their religion at all.

My great-grandfather (who raised my mother and her siblings after their parents’ deaths) was a wonderful man and extremely devout. He was completely illiterate and couldn’t have read the Bible or any book debating the Bible; he could only know what the church told him.

107

I’ve always liked the Rabbis (spelling?) that I’ve met.

Men who openly debate the meaning of their holy texts and how they should apply it’s teaching to the modern world.

Then I see some of the christian religious leaders :frowning:

Some days I swear I want to use baby jesus as a blunt weapon.

If Jesus want’s me to be saved, he can get off his ass and tell me.

108

Squish, you’re right. We’ve all seen religous people who are content to be sheep and never think for themselves. I should have said that to follow a faith-based religion requires a lot of thinking for me. I’ve had the misfortune to be born both a skeptical and a spiritual person.

CRorex, I’ve been impressed by the Jewish faith as well. They have an evolving faith. Also, they don’t condemn each other to hell as often as Christians do for disagreeing with each other.