Good job christians in Oklahoma. =(

[James Murphy]

no no and no ryan... NO

i will NOT stop... i do NOT respect religion, not one little bit... it's the RIDICULOUSLY undue resepct that religion and religious people DEMAND that makes it taboo to question anything about it... and that is MASSIVELY to the detriment of mankind... turn on the fucking news if you don't believe it.

look.. if you come on here and say you believe in leprechauns, you can very well expect that some people will outright laugh at you and many will question your beliefs and call them silly, and NO ONE will demand tbat your belief in leprechauns is above criticism, argument, or satire, and that's because in the age of reason NO unsubstantiated belief is above others and none of them get a free pass, so religion does NOT get a free pass either.

and this unwarranted über-respect that the religious insist is their due is the only reason the discussions aren't civil... because they get "offended". so what? your little religious feelings might get hurt?? tough nutz. what if my feelings got hurt whenever someone didn't notice how nice the interior of my car smelled?... i'd get over it, that's what.

no, religion should be just as up for debate as anything else , be it sports , music, or politics and anything between and beyond... religion is just the only one of those who's "proprietors" (let's be real, they ARE in business) seem to feel that they and their faith should be held above the criticism, scrutiny, and yes, even derision that everything else in the world has to endure. this sad little paradigm needs a shift... BIG TIME.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone just received DEATH THREATS over their fucking cartoon show not even actually showing an animated Mohamed... are you fucking kidding me?? WTF??? Christianity is heded down the same path as Islam, and it's millions of people with thought like yours that's sending it there.

and you have the nerve to suggest that we can't discuss, in a thread about a highly invasive law, the very thing that is the driving force behind it being placed on the books? did you think that one through at all?

no ryan... no free pass for religion buddy.. no no no no no.

 

[CatharsisStudios]

actually murph i totally see where you are comming from, sometimes you just gotta sit back and let the world fuck its self over man, just learn to not care haha i am not saying anyone is right that the oklahoma crazy ass christians are right or the people 100% agianst this law are right. i simply just don't care i've got other stuff to worry about haha, untill it effects me i don't really care and i'll proably end up eating the words


i am acting like america in ww2



its not my problem.


-milk falls over-

NOW ITS MY PROBLEM

 

[coldthrn]

Being from Oklahoma, people like to talk. Yea yea yea this law is all fucked up. I have to ask, are any of you writing to the Oklahoma Senate giving a logical augment on why this is wrong? People bitch and moan but do nothing to stop it. Militant atheist, do you think arguing to Christians or other religious people are going to convert them ? Actions speak louder than words. There are people that live there lives trying to be Christ-like. Giving their money, time in homeless shelters, adopting special needs children, visiting nursing homes and other compassionate acts in the name of Christ. Yes, there are people who use religion as a shield for their selfish acts just like government officials, cops, school teachers and coaches. What are you doing in the name of Atheism / Humanism, sitting and talking on a forum about how fucked up Christians are? If you want to remove religion or make a change you will have to organize and one up them in compassionate acts in the name of Reason and Humanism. A mother Teresa, a host of martyrs, good will missionary's of Atheism in all countries and financial backing would give you a leg to stand on. Otherwise your just wasting your time.

 

[CatharsisStudios]

cauthen, when i turn 21 i am buying you a beer for that.

 

[coldthrn]

Im found of Hoegaarden

 

[Glenn Fricker]

What are you doing in the name of Atheism / Humanism, sitting and talking on a forum about how fucked up Christians are? If you want to remove religion or make a change you will have to organize and one up them in compassionate acts in the name of Reason and Humanism..

I've donated off every single paycheck I've ever made for the last 16 years to the homeless.

BTW, I'm Canadian, so I don't think writing the Oklahoma state senate will do much good.

 

[STINNETT]

Being from Oklahoma, people like to talk. Yea yea yea this law is all fucked up. I have to ask, are any of you writing to the Oklahoma Senate giving a logical augment on why this is wrong? People bitch and moan but do nothing to stop it. Militant atheist, do you think arguing to Christians or other religious people are going to convert them ? Actions speak louder than words. There are people that live there lives trying to be Christ-like. Giving their money, time in homeless shelters, adopting special needs children, visiting nursing homes and other compassionate acts in the name of Christ. Yes, there are people who use religion as a shield for their selfish acts just like government officials, cops, school teachers and coaches. What are you doing in the name of Atheism / Humanism, sitting and talking on a forum about how fucked up Christians are? If you want to remove religion or make a change you will have to organize and one up them in compassionate acts in the name of Reason and Humanism. A mother Teresa, a host of martyrs, good will missionary's of Atheism in all countries and financial backing would give you a leg to stand on. Otherwise your just wasting your time.

Rest assured that all of that stuff is going on right now on a grand scale. There is no shortage of compassion in the world with no strings attached. (The best kind in my opinion). You don't do it "in the name of atheism", you do it because it's the right thing to do. You don't help the less fortunate or the victims of a disaster because it gives you an opportunity to push your beliefs on them. I deplore the word "missionary", and I doubt you would find a truly secular person who doesn't.

I'm a member of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and also a local Freethinkers organization that is currently looking for new ways to make an impact locally. I'm not just an internet combatant. But part of making a change in society is always challenging people to defend irrational belief systems. Forcing what is currently "off limits" in many places to be cracked wide open, right in front of everyone. If a single person has their perspective shifted, their consciousness raised, or their mind inspired by one of these nasty religious threads - then I'm happy and I hope I was a part of it.

 

[Bekanor]

What are you doing in the name of Atheism / Humanism, sitting and talking on a forum about how fucked up Christians are? If you want to remove religion or make a change you will have to organize and one up them in compassionate acts in the name of Reason and Humanism. A mother Teresa, a host of martyrs, good will missionary's of Atheism in all countries and financial backing would give you a leg to stand on. Otherwise your just wasting your time.

Raising awareness.

 

[JBroll]

Aaron, if you're going to try to educate people on what the Bible really says, you need to be more mindful of a certain few verses ("I came not to abolish the law, blahblahblah" and suchlike) that you're conveniently ignoring, a few facts about authorship that you're somehow leaving out (like how detached John was from people who weren't basically pulling a Mel Gibson on the revolutionary periods), and a few facts from elementary logic - say, for example, that given contradictions (like those that exist all over the damned Bible) one can prove *anything* - before trying to put across a reasonable interpretation. That last one alone puts a serious hole in any theology, so get to work.

(Other) Jeff, you're forgetting that Texas stays in the union largely out of pity and partially because it is known that the granola-munching hippies filling the rest of the country need some gun-toting yokels for balance - if we left, we'd wind up bombing SoCal every few months anyway just because a state should only be allowed to collectively smoke marijuana, wear hideous clothing, and sing Kumbaya for an evening at a time *at most*.

Everyone else... if you're not doing some part to help proper sex education, and you still feel entitled to throw catchphrases around, keep in mind that we have an 'educational' system *and it is fucked*.

Jeff

 

[James Murphy]

Rest assured that all of that stuff is going on right now on a grand scale. There is no shortage of compassion in the world with no strings attached. (The best kind in my opinion). You don't do it "in the name of atheism", you do it because it's the right thing to do. You don't help the less fortunate or the victims of a disaster because it gives you an opportunity to push your beliefs on them. I deplore the word "missionary", and I doubt you would find a truly secular person who doesn't.

I'm a member of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and also a local Freethinkers organization that is currently looking for new ways to make an impact locally. I'm not just an internet combatant. But part of making a change in society is always challenging people to defend irrational belief systems. Forcing what is currently "off limits" in many places to be cracked wide open, right in front of everyone. If a single person has their perspective shifted, their consciousness raised, or their mind inspired by one of these nasty religious threads - then I'm happy and I hope I was a part of it.

Will, if we ever meet i am buying you a beer for that.


and yes Cauthen & Ryan, Will nailed it... atheists don't do things "in the name of atheism" for the most part... other than talk about it. no, we do our good works secularly, anonymously, and without divine coercion, or the need for a state sanctioned tax shelter to do them.

frankly, if you need a tax shelter and the threat of hell to do good works... well, then quite a pall of suspicion falls over the proceedings in my book.


i think it's clear, despite the fumbling attempts to insinuate it, that no one is saying there aren't religious people who are totally altruistic... my parents are two examples, just two nice old people that go to church..... e.g., my mom knits caps for cancer patients to keep their heads warm, at her own expense with no compensation, she's done over a hundred in the past several months alone, and passes them out at two local cancer centers...but she could and would do that withOUT religion.

i give blood and donate money to the red cross, and when i have the time, volunteer at a nearby animal shelter....and i didn't need any supernatural imperative.

 

[FloridaRolf]

I love you guys

 

[John_C]

TO reiterate what JBroll said:

It is elementary logic that just ONE contradiction allows you to prove ANYTHING. This means that given sufficiently complex logical steps, the Bible can be said to support anything.

 

[CatharsisStudios]

good people do good things
bad people do bad things

 

[STINNETT]

good people do good things
bad people do bad things

...but for good people to do bad things - that takes religion.

~
Steven Weinberg.

 

[neverpurify]

aaron - sorry you took what I said out of context. I surely can't say that a woman couldn't or wouldn't care for the child of a rapist or any child that was conceived during any f'ed up situation.

 

[James Murphy]

...but for good people to do bad things - that takes religion.

~
Steven Weinberg.

YES!! i love that weinberg quote, and it's sooo true, and i've quoted it in this forum before. Ryan offered up the opportunity to reference it in this thread on a silver platter, and for someone to beat me to that, i'm not surprised it was Will.

here's the quote in it's entirety:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]"[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]Relig[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]ion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[SocialNumb]

 

[~BURNY~]

good people do good things
bad people do bad things

Oh boy...:zombie:

Dude... Come on.

 

[James Murphy]

ha ha ha... that's great!

 

[Joematthews]

So much win. So, so, so much win.