29th September 2011
“The idea that people require religious myths to sustain meaning, purpose and goodness in their lives reflects very badly on those that subscribe to the idea.”
Anon.
“The idea that people require religious myths to sustain meaning, purpose and goodness in their lives reflects very badly on those that subscribe to the idea.”
Anon.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:19
Or at best maybe a grave lack of imagination. Don’t you tend to value things that are in finite supply, like, say, your life? Becoming an atheist made me a better human being because it drastically narrowed my focus. You have to be nice to people NOW. You have to enjoy life NOW. You have to consider how your actions impact others NOW. How does believing in flying horses and substitutional atonement necessarily lead to better moral choices? I think the evidence shows they do not.
September 29th, 2011 at 2:47
CAPT Z…………………………………….
i agree with you….and i think Einstein would also have agreed
with you. i think that sinjin mentioned a while ago that there
is SO much in our world, our incredible universe, and our lives
that can inspire awe and reverence…..so much to
astonish and enlighten and delight us, that adhering
to religious myths simply dissolves into a kind of
pointless, meaningless diversionary waste of our
time and faculties .
you’re right . NOW have is what we have…..and ALL we
have. there are wonders all around us that make our
reality ever more fascinating than silly stories of
dragons and fairies…..and angels.
September 29th, 2011 at 14:04
Hi Everybody!
Captain you say “Becoming an atheist made me a better human” and certainly I think we can all understand how that would be but I wonder if you ever really “became an atheist”?
Maybe you feel you did but I can’t ever remember being anything but an atheist, even before I knew what that was. When I was very young my parents took me to church and I remember being struck with a sense of absurdity when I was told the bible stories.
I remember being a kid and trying to pray and thinking “this is a waste of time”. I’ve gone through times when I felt a sneaking suspicion that I was being observed sort of like in the movie “The Adjustment Bureau http://www.theadjustmentbureau.com/index.php
As I got older I just realized that this is all just imagination. That dwelling on it was costing me time, that this is not a spiritual world but a temporal world.
That we are all trapped up in time in a temporal world, a temporal existence. That freedom from it is death, and end.
This current of realization has run though me all of my life and I wonder if it also has run through yours?
That to be an atheist is maybe about having always been an atheist at heart.
I can think of nothing that can prepare a person for living a good life, here and now as you say, and rich and full as R j has pointed out, than living life without a devine presence.
Pascal was a fool. No god would be worth living through eternity with were he not benevolent. Be good and if you are wrong and there is a god he will greet you and your goodness into his heaven because you will be preceisely the person he would want to spend eternity with. No god worth his salt would hold as a stipulation for entry into heaven that the person acknowledge and worship him prior to judgement. No benevolent god would want to spend eternity with a snivelling, blindly obediant, yes man, sheep. No if there is no god as we believe, live for the day, be who you are, and it won’t matter either way.
Goodness is its own reward, it requires no supernatural pass/fail.
September 29th, 2011 at 15:36
Amen! Preach it brothers.
Er, um. Y’know what I mean…
September 29th, 2011 at 16:44
Why Christians favor small government
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/why-christians-favor-small-government/2011/09/28/gIQA3g9b5K_blog.html#weighIn
Norman Miller says:
Hold on! “Most American Christians favor small government because we know that large government will always fall into the hands of those wealthy enough to buy favor.:” Ah not so fast.
Most American Christians favor small government because they know it is far simpler to manipulate a smaller government than a larger one. That it is far simpler to infuse the governance of the state with religious influence if the state is smaller.
Stop pretending that Christians are nice people filled with love and hope. This is not the case. Christians, like Muslims and Jews, are not nice people.
September 29th, 2011 at 20:45
POST AT 1644…… Last Paragraph
i’m not nice people either. i’m pissed off at nice people.
especially the nice people who want to make sure a failed
terrorist gets ” FAIR ” legal treatment. remember the
assh–e who tried to blow up an airliner on Xmas Eve
2 years ago ???? well, now this turd (whose been kept alive
courtesy of U.S. tax dollars) has fired his lawyers, and has
decided to represent himself in court. and, the
nice people are wringing their hands because they cant
decide if this IS FAIR TO HIM !!!!
well screw that duck. if the bomb , which he had in
HIS UNDERWEAR , had gone off, how freakin’ FAIR
would that have been to the other sorry folks on
that plane ????? and yet, an INEXCUSEABLE 2 years
later, the NICE folks are worried abouts this
schmuck’s RIGHTS !!!!!!
GIVE ME A BREAK, NICE PROPLE !!!!! ya shoulda
shot the motherf—er thru the eye when he came
off the plane.
i mean i’m pissed. lissen nice people …………. you
can take your Christian Charity, and your Christian
Forgiveness, and you can put it wher the moon
dont shine.
there’s nothing wrong with treating people with
civility, and courtesy, and respect. but i gotta
tell ya……the phoney-nice religionistas really
PISS ME OFF !!
thank you for allowing me this small rant.
September 29th, 2011 at 20:58
R j! I’d buy you a beer but I can’t. So here is something to cheer you up.
America’s secular revival
http://www.salon.com/news/alternet/?story=/news/feature/2011/09/29/american_secularism
September 29th, 2011 at 21:24
thank you SIN
that DID cheer me up !
September 29th, 2011 at 21:29
And this is precisely why there needs to be a secular revival:
Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error
http://tribune.com.pk/story/259907/girl-accused-of-blasphemy-for-a-spelling-error/comment-page-3/#comment-357727
September 30th, 2011 at 1:01
POST AT 2129….WITH ATTACHED STORY
SIN……………..
this stort flirts with insanity. the little kid makes a minor
screw-up , and the whole town’s ready nto ream her !!
UN-F—ing-BELIEVEABLE !!
BUT WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT !!??!!
that ENTIRE part of the world is populated with [sychotic
morons. i’m just gonna say this straight out……. i hate
those stupid horse-f–ks, i hate their stupid culture,
their dumdassed language, and most of all i hate
their moron religion. they’ve been assh–es for centuries…and
they still are. WHY OH WHY does the U.S. put up with
these apes??????????????????
it absolutely kills me that the iranian president ,
mr. mok-mooed din-ee jhad, shook down the U.S. for
one and a half mil to return 3 of our citizens who were
about as big a danger to his country as a
3-toed sloth.
wel hell, i could go on, but what’s the point ?
as long as the rest of the world takes these dolts
seriously, things will just get worse.
the little girl who made the mistake on her paper
is lucky she didnt get her f–king head chopped off !!!