Whatcha doing tomorrow? Stop by the Minnesota Atheists Summer Picnic.
I may stop by. Usually I find atheists to be incredibly smart, funny and genuine people. I pretty much think that the more atheists we have, the better. I totally believe in your right to believe in silly, ancient mythologies. I don’t think it is correlated in the slightest with morality. Yes, religious institutions do a lot of good in the world, but they also do a lot of bad. On balance, I think that we would be better off without it.
You’ll note, perhaps, that this post is listed under politics. That is because the important part about this stuff is not what you do in the privacy of your room or your church. It’s what you do in the public space, with our laws and our elections.
This is what bothers people like Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers and myself: the notion that religious ideas are supposed to be “respected” in arguments about politics or science. I do respect your right to your religion. I do not respect your right to introduce completely subjective mythologies into the debate. Nor do I approve of litmus tests for electoral candidates based on these completely subjective mythologies.
Religion would be fine except that it teaches us that all completely unjustified beliefs should be respected and accepted. They shouldn’t be. What internal rationales you use to reach your opinions is your business, but when it comes to the public debate arguments will all be held to the same scrutiny. Religious ones do not get a free pass.
So throw down those chains of silly superstitions and come have a hotdog.
lolife 
I agree with your second paragraph. I don’t agree with your third. My faith is not detrimental to anyone…
The implementation of religion into politics has historically caused ..hmm, how do we say…fucking bloodshed of epic proportions..
and yes, Christianity is a minority religion.
Idiots that vote primarily on faith (basically anti-abortion folks at this time) are no different than those that vote gun rights….
It will be interesting to see what the right does with Rudy…
I also did a “you tube” search of Atheisism…it appears at first glance that many famous athesists have been scientists, philosophers and mathamaticians….folks who function in a concrete sequential world…”prove it” people for lack of a better term….
yet while they will analyze, test, research, fail, try again, look at from every angle, re-test, theorize, hypothosize, synthesize etc….and they obviously follow a belief system in their own research trying to prove or to dissprove things…
it seems that they are able to brush aside religion and faith a bit to easily and to quickly…
Is it possible, for sake of discussion, that there are things in the universe that we are not able to comprehend?
I can not agrgue with you about Man’s ability to fuckup anything and everything.
Nor can you argue that the thousands of “mother theresas” in the world that do nothing but feed the poor and clothe the naked are doing something wrong.
I sometimes get tired of atheisists as I do the animal rights activists that don’t have a bird feeder in their backyard. ie….I hear you talking but what are you doing?
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lol, it took me a long time to get the joke in that last line.
The bumper sticker is amusing but wrong. Atheists claim that there is no proof that there is a God. That is all they claim in regards to God. Many go on to say “there is no God” because, given a lack of proof, it is the most successful theory to date. Almost every, if not every, atheist admits that God is not impossible, just like the flying spaghetti monster is not impossible.
So, as I mentioned in the post, atheism as a social construct is a political movement about the critical thinking required for public debate. Many current public debates lack this. Many religious people vote for retards because of this. It’s important that we not let rationale take a back seat to “faith” because your faith and bin laden’s faith are both equally “faiths”. It’s no way to run a country or a society, when any two people’s faiths may be at odds, not to mention the fucking chaos when you get a multitude of faiths.
While I respect your right to your faith, I think your faith is detrimental to the politics and policies of this country and, on a personal level, I think it is unnecessary mythology that serves no purpose except to make you feel like you can avoid the universal fact that nothing lasts forever.
There are mysteries. Believing in Christian myths (not the most popular religion on earth, I’ll remind you) does nothing to bring them closer.
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so, then you sit around and visit about the stuff you don’t believe in??
or
it is a group of people that believe the same thing and get together to discuss and learn about that belief?
or
you get enough “satan worshippers” together in one spot and the actual lack of a lightening bolt from heaven will prove that God does not exist?
(trying to be funny, not insulting)
actually I have spent a bit of time reading and listening to the atheistic point of view…while I don’t agree, I understand the point of view
imho, I have found atheists to have more of an issue with “the church” than with God…
“The Church” is man, and man is imperfect. As long as atheists treat others the way the would like to be treated, feed the hungry and cloth the naked…” I don’t think there is really much of an issue….
I saw a bumper sticker that said “At least Atheists believe in something” I found that amusing.
ps. if it gets cloudy,…squat.
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