The last minority group in the West that can be openly ridiculed and slammed

[Kenneth R.]

you just said that you'd see no necessary group to define you, then claimed identity to a group...

 

[infoterror]

In what way? Just because the a- prefix? I dunno about all atheists but I can speak for quite a few of them when I describe myself as also a humanist. I affirm humanity and the value of our lives on earth.

FUCK HUMANISM

 

[speed]

I don't understand the apprehension the word is approached with. Atheism is a simple statement about your God-belief, specifically, a simple statement that could be expressed in binary as follows: 0. "What is your God-belief?" "0." There is none. The world is a far more interesting and complex place than the simple sketch of a world view that any religion describes. I see no need to necesserily have an "ism" that describes me, though I consider myself an atheist.

Although I pretty much totally agree with you, one cannot prove Atheism, as the existence of God is not falsifiable; the same goes for believing in God. Now agnosticism, ties together these loose ends.

 

[The_Isle]

HUMANISM FOR THE WIN

 

[10293847]

When you can't fit in public seats, like on buses and planes, then you are too fat. I think people like this must compensate out of their own pocket to provide themselves a seat, or whatever it would take to accommodate themselves. Even better would be to fine these people if they weigh more than they should, by creating a law to prove how much you weigh, given your height/weight ratio.

Of course, this is only for the morbidly obese (that label always cracks me up).

But even worse than fat people are smokers. You people are the plague of the earth! Don't ruin my breathing air with your disgusting habit.

 

[Iridium]

you just said that you'd see no necessary group to define you, then claimed identity to a group...

I see no necessity for it, but I believe it is the term that most accurately describes my state of God-belief. What I'm saying is that I label myself an atheist because it is the most concise manner of communicating my lack of God-belief, not because I feel the need to associate myself with an "-ism." This was originally in reply to the humanist post.

Although I pretty much totally agree with you, one cannot prove Atheism, as the existence of God is not falsifiable; the same goes for believing in God. Now agnosticism, ties together these loose ends.

Just because I don't believe in any gods does not mean I do not believe in the possibility of something resembling a deity existing. If God feels like proving his existence to me, fine, but until then, I simply see no reason to believe in it.

 

[RookParliament]

our wonderfully hypocritical government calls displaying the 10 commandments in a public/gov. building unconstitutional, yet prints "in god we trust" on the money and "under god" in the nation's pledge. always irked me how they can get away with such contradiction. either they allow it or they don't.

Wartime does funny things to people's need to know that God supports them.

 

[RookParliament]

you just said that you'd see no necessary group to define you, then claimed identity to a group...

You can't not be part of a group. Being atheist is just a label for beliefs, and there happen to be more than one person out there that believes there is no God.

Surprisingly enough we're right.

 

[AsModEe]

I've found that people in Texas still aren't all that accepting of atheism at times. Or at least, they're highly disturbed by someone being an atheist even if they're nice to them.

that's funny, because here, atheism is pretty common and I could almost say that it is well viewed. But atheists here are pretty moderate and usually bring good arguments instead of being atheists just for fun.

 

[dreaming neon darkspot]

I was talking to a Christain friend of mine (well, a kid I know who's really Christian, I don't know if he considers me a friend), and saying that I don't believe there's any kind of diety guidng us - specifically, "I don't believe in God, therefore I won't go to Hell for being an atheist because I don't believe the place exists."
His reposnse was "Well, that's like saying 'I don't believe in that wall over there, so I'm going to walk through it.'"

So why is Christianty the most widely-accepted belief? How does God make any more sense than Brahma (if that's the Hindu god, I'm not sure) or Allah or Zeus? And why is it that "god" is actually a title, yet the Christian diety took it for his name? Is that just proving how insecure God/Christians in general about his existance, that they try to erradicate belief in all other higher powers and religions?

Just some questions for contemplation

 

[speed]

Heres the official list of membership of world religions off the internet, thus I dont know how accurate it is.

And as for your comment Dreaming Neon Darkspot, Christianity became so widely popular because, and these are based on history not the religion itself, and also I am a great student of the time Christianity was made into a state religion by Constantine as I believe this was as important an event as Pauls preaching or Jesus dying on the cross: 1) Paul spread the religion to everyone, adding a code of ethcs and life that Jesus forgot or was too naive to put in place; 2) it originally was marketed to the masses of the poor who accepted a religion that offerred them immortality; 3) it organized itself during the 4th century, discarding the many different forms of its thought and practice that did not follow a strict dogmatic form of teaching and belief that could easily be controlled by the then Roman government; 4) As I previously mentioned, Constantine who apparently had little religious conviction himself, decided to make Christianity the world religion of the entire west bolstering his own political power and support; 5) Diocletian kept the Roman Empire together right before COnstantine by essentially setting up the system of feudalism that would last for more than a thousand years, the church would step into the role of the one place to turn to, the divine mediator for the vast majority of the population who were nothing but serfs; 6) instead of disappearing or collapsing on its own corruption and internal lack of coherence and logic in then 15th and 16th centuries ( everyone should know of the papacy of Alexander VI, his son CCesare Borgia, Pope Innocent VIII, the Catholic church was corrupt, and the popes threatened to turn the papacy into a secular institution) it spawned Protestantism, which in turn, forced the Catholic church to reform instead of die; 7) It is a missionary religion. Only Islam rivals its missionary fervor.

Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)

1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism: 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
6. Buddhism: 376 million
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 15 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 7 million
14. Jainism: 4.2 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22. Scientology: 500 thousand

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Interesting......I was sure that Christianity was not the number one world religion. Don't know where I got that.

 

[NeverIsForever]

Definitely agree with the "missionary religion" bit. I don't have a problem with Christianity, but I don't particularly appreciate Christians who proselytize. If religion is their cup of tea then fine, but they have no place telling me what I should believe. (Although when a couple of them showed up at the place where I work two days ago to hand out pamphlets about Jesus, it sparked a pretty interesting theological discussion between one of my co-workers and myself after they'd left. So I guess they're good for something after all :Spin: )

 

[Kenneth R.]

Interesting......I was sure that Christianity was not the number one world religion. Don't know where I got that.

perhaps it is by way of number of people who claim to be, but i'm certain it isn't by way of people who practice what it preaches.

 

[Valgeir]

Interesting......I was sure that Christianity was not the number one world religion. Don't know where I got that.

You may have been thinking "fastest growing" instead of largest. Christianity has been the biggest for a while, but Islam is the fastest growing (according to my 2003 edition of one of those world record books, so don't hold me accountable if my information is a bit outdated).

 

[infoterror]

I discriminate against fat people, stupid people, trivial people and AIDS victims. I don't care about the moral dimensions; morality is egoism. I want better quality humans. DEATH TO THE UNDERMEN.

 

[infoterror]

[*]Judaism: 14 million

That's just 2.4 Official Holocaust(tm)s!!!