I will speak for myself, thanks. I have no intent or desire to "convert" anybody. Free Will is Free Will. I'm not a "Bible thumper", preaching the Good News and gospel, but I do refer to Scripture if it is within context of a conversation. I do stand up for religions (yes, plural .. I like them all), religious people (especially volunteers) and the Church (many denominations). I don't think religions should be pitted and battled against one another. I'm not happy with any group of people who use torture to try to convert another. That's heathen, barbaric and rude. And it's a lack of understanding, respect and appreciation. The very thing that calls me out is when people HATE on religion and God, and when they attack or fight. That's when I come forward with reality-based factual information and my "fixed position" is that people need to be aware of things they are NOT aware of and consider things they do not consider. I say it many times: both government and religion are INNATE. Human beings hate on both government and religion. Neither are in their perfected forms .. but they ARE innate. We do not create them, we only express and externalize them. I don't call myself a Christian or Catholic (although I am born to two Catholic families .. one devout, the other obligatory). I don't call myself much of anything. I Testify, and if that distinguishes me as some thing by the power of the Noun .. then I have a say in that.
but I do react......I was responding to a scenario I had in my head of me going door to door like a Jejovah witness or something....
It is going to be common to encounter atheists in contrast to the religous fundamentalists. Theists sometimes seem to be unaware of the fact that what they state under their conception of god-guided love is actually bigotry. They are always under the misconception that their god gives them a special understanding of morality that must be imposed on others. Atheists are tired of being treated as less than human, and they are rising against the myriad of wars Christians love to wage against non-Christians in that supposed name of love. Humanity should not have allowed Christians to get away with the obvious crimes they did in the past, killing supposed witches, preventing black people from having rights, preventing interracial marriage, and now preventing same-sex marriage, all in the name of their god who tells them that they must make the world the way he wants it. We should not be allowing Christians to have so much power that they prevent humans from being recognized as human. Rights should not be denied to humans, especially when those rights only seem to trouble the religious people who have done more harm to society than any other faction yet act appalled by what they detest as sin. The world is changing, and thank goodness for that, because as society becomes more aware of how just destructive religion is and always was, the more we can finally fight against that which is only working against societal progress.
Yes, quite. Gina at least 75 % of adults in the US believe in god, though it is declining. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/poll-americans-belief-god-strong-declining Atheists are a minority still by a long shot. Much more so in some states than others.
Ok, so Airy Fox came into the thread later, and was kinda asked to, that is one poster. When provoked you're gonna hear peoples opinions that perhaps are usually kept to themselves to avoid upset. I certainly wouldn't want to offend or knock someone's faith with my own beliefs.
But don't forget...the christians are sooo persecuted by a small minority of people willing to call them out for the shit they are responsible for.
Honestly, I never start conversations with christians about their faith because frankly, I don't care what they have to say about it. It's their thing. But it they want to approach me in an offensive way, I really don't care if I offend them or not. They may think that it's just them because they really want to believe that but it isn't. It's the exact same way in science, business, etc. If you try to publish a study claiming Earth is actually flat, you're going to be called a fool and laughed out of science. If you present a business model to the board of directors that is utter garbage and will never work...prepare to pay the price. They don't care about your feelings. But if you are religious and anyone has the balls to say you're wrong...well....now that's discrimination and peoples rights being trampled. Damn. I'm so sick of this shit that I wish I was wrong and Jesus would return to take all of these people away so the rest of us can live in peace.
Personally, I don't have a problem communicating with people of different views, beliefs and knowledge bases. That's fine. I also have no problem conversing with people when there is natural dislike, within reasonable limits. But I do have an issue with personal attacks, accusation, name calling, insulting, verbally abusing, ridiculing, battle tactics, arguing and debating for the sake of arguing and debating, or out of habit. I personally never intend to offend anyone, and I'm always willing to clarify and explain myself if somebody has felt offended.
Well, you may have a lot of retyping to do then because I bet you haven't made two posts in a row in this thread without belittling someone in some way. If you didn't mean to...fine. Just take this as a heads up then because I bet I'm not the only one who noticed.
That's interesting. I might be under the heavy influence of the internet (where I spend the most of my time). Those statistics seem to play out very differently in "the new world" (the internet).
Hey, we all believe in what we think we need to to keep us going, whether the world is round, whether when we die someone is waiting for us, or whether we get to be reborn again and live our lives differently. There needn't be such arguements about it, but I do have to point out that religion is not peaceful, not by far, and for the most is not accepting.
I was just going to quote a post you made about all the threads with insulting atheists and ask how often you have that crap happen irl. the anonymitity of the internet lets all the trolls say the things they would never say while looking you in the face out on the street. i mean you dont see atheists going to churches and surrounding it with signs about fags or evils done. I never have seen atheists outside on a soapbox except for one time....
clearly you have not heard of the reason rally. They were on the corners, in the parks, and all over town. And ask anyone there that day and every one of them will tell you that Dr. Dawkins was the leader.
Insulting atheists, such as saying they don't know life? Go back and reread because I also acknowledged that even plenty of spiritual and religious people don't know life (eternity). Eternity is right now, not something that begins at some point in the future. Any idea how many people think eternity is something that is not here, not now and far away? They think eternity is "yet to be" or "yet to come". It isn't a matter of belief, it is a matter of knowing and understanding it. The most definite, absolute truth is that life sure is eternal!! That's not an insult, by the way. But my frustrations have gone before my manners, plenty of times (here, there and everywhere).
Ok. I'm convinced that this thread was started as a way to lecture you heathens. I'm also probably blocked by certain members which is probably for the best for them. God said I must be a tool of satan with my blasphemy and trickery....and logic.
Actually, I think the percentage of believers is higher than that: a little over 80%. The Pew Survey for Religion in Public Life found that in 2012, people unaffiliated with religion accounted for a little less than 20% of the population,but atheists account for only 2.4% (up from 1.6% in 2007), while agnostics account for 3,3% ( up from 2.1% in 2007.) So there are now more atheists than Mormons, but we're still talking about a pretty small, albeit growing, minority.