14th January 2010
“We realised that all our doubts, all the things we had been fobbed off about by priests and teachers, we had been right about all along. We were right to ask these questions and, no, they didn't have an answer, they were just very good at telling you to stop looking for it.”
January 14th, 2010 at 2:09
This hits a home run at describing a part of what has been going on here during the last several days. Atheists have been asking for evidence supporting a belief in a god or gods and are being told in so many words, as the quote from above so succinctly puts it, “Stop looking for it!”
There used to be a quote, used as an advertisement for the United Negro College Fund which stated, quite clearly (and accurately, I might add), “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” That is what I feel every time one of the theists here refuses to address honest, plain spoken questions, but rather wastes their minds by saying (once again, in so many words), “I say, therefore it is.”
BAT
January 14th, 2010 at 3:02
Great quote, but it makes one wonder; how many clergy genuinely believe the verbiage they spew and how many know it is BS?
January 14th, 2010 at 3:08
The percentage of those who know it’s BS has to be extremely high in these times. There are too many logical arguments against their religious positions. And talk about a cake walk. For a person who is intellectually weak or lazy, there is no easier job than preaching – and if you fool enough of the sheep, it can be quite lucrative. Quite lucrative, indeed.
January 14th, 2010 at 4:22
According to Dan Barker, the former evangelist preacher who is now the head of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, there are many members of the clergy that after years of peddling salvation/damnation ended up losing their faith and are now secret atheists. But not many have the courage to do what Barker did and give it up. They know they’d lose everything – family, friends and their standing in the community. So they keep preaching, while not believing any of it anymore. Sad.
If you haven’t read Barker’s book, “Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists”, I highly recommend it. There’s a guy that paid a high price to give up the ghost and ultimately became happier and more fulfilled.
January 14th, 2010 at 4:37
“Became happier and more fulfilled”
Yeah…! Thats what you think.
Barker is only someone who has the ability to shut off his mind for a while & pretend to be happy and will later faced eternall hell.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:59
Just like the quote says, here chimes in one of our favorite preachers of the month (above me here). Who, like so many other preachers when they can no longer think of what to say, use their ‘ace in the hole’ threat of eternal damnation.
Sadly, it works all to often with those who have some doubts about their convictions concerning the afterlife, and still must consider the options of heaven and hell. These doubts are also exacerbated when they are out there searching all alone. That is why I’m so glad we have a community here where we can maybe help others get through the trying times one goes through in their unending quest for the truth.
January 14th, 2010 at 6:09
Yesterday I asked old solomon:
Solomon:
With hell being in the mind and thus the eye of the beholder, might I ask? Are you a cleric?
And his response was:
Dear John,
I’am no cleric. I’am an ordinary happy normal average man who fear & love god & supports truth.
“Hell being in the mind and thus the eye of the beholder” How often does ones eye play tricks and fool?
I rest my case!
January 14th, 2010 at 8:18
Dear John,
I did’nt quite make it out what the nonsense you are babbling about.
January 14th, 2010 at 8:38
Dear Tony Provenzano,
You are hiding upon the face of truth. You are actually spreading your fabricated lies to all those poor people. We are not alone, god, the greatest, the most powerful is always with us.
January 14th, 2010 at 9:38
Tell that to the people in Haiti.
January 14th, 2010 at 11:22
solomon:
Give us an example of how he is “with us”.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:42
No matter what you say or what you do or what you believe or what you don’t believe. God is still God always was and always will be. No amount of debating will ever change that .
January 14th, 2010 at 12:48
Tech:
No amount of debate or reason will change your opinion obviously. Not that I’ve seen you actually attempt to debate anything, why is that I wonder?
January 14th, 2010 at 12:58
Searching for the truth is not encouraged by religious leaders for obvious reasons. The very first commandment is “You shall have no other Gods but me”.
Written before the time of atheism but I think it says a great deal about how worried religious leaders were about their flock (and their money) leaving christianity.
The same is still true today.
Tech, are the commandments are in any particular order of importance?
January 14th, 2010 at 13:32
Peb all the commandments are to be obeyed. As most Christians will try to do they’re best to do. Read them and try to keep them you’ll find they for your own good and all humanity. Lets not knock”Good”. The world could do with a lot more of it.
January 14th, 2010 at 14:25
Dear Hypatia,
‘god, the greatest, the most powerful is always with us’
If not of god always with us, we might have long gone astray, following the footsteps of the foolish lots. God shows us and leads us to the correct path, strengthtens our hearts & souls, makes us feel confident having the most powerful entity backing our goals & deeds.
What do you expect? Each one of us becomes SUPERMAN?
January 14th, 2010 at 14:29
Dear Atheist MC,
I wish I could tell them but they’re all dead & injured.
January 14th, 2010 at 14:52
This quote is interesting. It’s a shame that we don’t have a few famous people who could become, “anti-clergy.” They could go head-to-head every Sunday morning with all clergy during their invisible-being worship functions to help people make informed decisions. Do you suppose they would get invited to many of these weekly events?
We could have Catholic, Protestant and Muslim anti-clergy, complete with a rank structure mirroring these churches. An anti-priest, anti-bishop and so on …even an anti-pope. Of course his/her office would have to be the Vatican outhouse. He/she will literally refuse to stand …or sit on pomp and circumstance.
January 14th, 2010 at 15:02
I made a point of ignoring solomon but the comment “I wish I could tell them but they’re all dead & injured.” regarding the tragedy in Haiti sums up what his religion has taught him. An evil religion followed blindly by fools.
January 14th, 2010 at 15:14
Lost amid the terrible news from Haiti is word from the peaceful Islamic countries –
“Afghan blast kills 15 civilians, one policeman” – in a market
“Civilians killed in Iraq bombing” – 7 dead, 6 maimed
“Iran scientist slain in bombing outside his home” – was against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
It’s odd, isn’t it, that peace smells just like cordite and burned bodies.
January 14th, 2010 at 15:29
Yes Captain,the news of Haiti is very sad indeed.As for your other coments. That is sad also.There is too much killing going on in this old world.
January 14th, 2010 at 15:38
Peb,” Evil Religion followed blindly by fools”. I’m glad you said Religion. Because a true practicing Christian would have nothing to do with all the violence in the world today.
January 14th, 2010 at 15:59
tech:
That sure sounds like a big christian turn around from all the blood, death and torture from the last 1500 years and what some darker and powerful muslim clerics are now teaching towards folks that don’t believe or “tow that line”!
January 14th, 2010 at 16:11
John, what the Muslims do or don’t do, I don’t keep track of. I don’t time to at it. John never compare the Muslims and Christians they totally different. You can not tar everyone with the same brush.
January 14th, 2010 at 16:37
I know that it can be time-consuming to be abreast of all current events. We shant demand that of you. However, if you do have time to post your gibberish (and you seem to have plenty of it), please take the time to proofread it before hitting the “submit comment” button. You would sound somewhat less foolish, despite the garbage that you are peddling.
January 14th, 2010 at 17:31
Solomon: Is God all powerful (omnipotent) in your opinion? or Does he have every power?
If so, does he have the power to make a rock so heavy that he cannot move it? Please answer truthfully in your opinion.
January 14th, 2010 at 17:36
CHRISTIAN Evangelist Pat Robertson:
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said on Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club.” “They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal.”
So, the earthquake in Haiti is God’s retribution against the Haitians because they made a deal with the Devil to get out from under their French colonial masters. Classy.
January 14th, 2010 at 17:40
One wonders why a benevolent God wouldn’t have helped the Haitian slaves in their bid for freedom so they had to turn to the apparently more compassionate prince of darkness. Possibly because slavery is well supported by God’s book and he didn’t want to appear inconsistent.
January 14th, 2010 at 18:13
Classic 🙂
January 14th, 2010 at 18:57
That quote from the Christian evangelist is staggering and could even stop small minded people from giving money to a relief agency charity.
It proves the point that it takes religion to make good people do bad things.
January 14th, 2010 at 19:07
Hmmmm, if that is the case, I wonder what the British, Americans, French, Australians, Canadians and several other countries did to god to make him kill tens of millions of them in WWII?
January 14th, 2010 at 19:09
Those Indonesians must have really ticked him off a few years ago too!
January 14th, 2010 at 19:15
Isn’t it funny how this god manages to kill indiscriminately within a population of people, instead of just taking out the bad ones? Perhaps he just killed and maimed only those Haitians who had a part in the “deal with the devil.” Impossible considering that many of them were not even born yet.
Further, why would anyone believe such stupidity, regardless of who said it?
January 14th, 2010 at 19:16
Oh wait, it was the devil that did all this killing wasn’t it? Sorry, my bad.
January 14th, 2010 at 19:44
Note: Hurricane Katrina spared the sinful (presumably) French Quarter while taking out many of the poorest. Poor people really really seem to have it coming.
January 14th, 2010 at 21:01
People die everyday man. Its unfortunate what happened to Haiti I don’t think that it was the judgment of any God. I think the scientist already have that figured out.
January 14th, 2010 at 22:04
There have been numerous instances over the years where clergy, or religious men of note, have made absurd claims regarding the death of large numbers of people. God supposedly punishing 6 million Jews in WWII was one such event. It’s bad enough they push the religious agenda without evidence, but even more so when they assume to speak for the intentions and actions of their deity.
January 14th, 2010 at 22:32
Solomon,
Everything you say is pure conjecture.
It wouldn’t matter if your god existed or not – because the world would be exactly the same either way!
January 14th, 2010 at 23:12
I’m seeing endless posts from theists offering their “prayers” for Haiti. Since the members of this site generally deal with more tangible things, I hope you’ll make a donation to the relief effort. Former President Clinton’s foundation is an excellent way to do this.
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake/
January 14th, 2010 at 23:18
Tech and Solomon
You are both obviously really strong believers in your gods but one of you must be wrong at least.
Did your god send Jesus as a son of god or just another prophet.
Please tell us how the other religion is false as they can’t both be right, we want to know how to tell the difference.
January 15th, 2010 at 0:17
Dear Admin;
We pray that you silence both Tech and Solomon until they pass basic spelling, grammar, and logic tests. Please. Ramen.
Come on, how long will you indulge these trolls’ bad behavior? They repeat the same silly nonsense and eat up the comments section. It is getting old.
Sincerely bored;
Steve
January 15th, 2010 at 0:57
Steve:
I’d settle for some well-reasoned arguments!
January 15th, 2010 at 1:19
tech, you are seriously dating yourself when you talk about the 10 commandments. Don’t you know that there are really only two? Check it out:
January 15th, 2010 at 1:21
OK. Fair play to you, Admin. I guess I was just being grumpy and intolerant.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:30
Dear MagicAintReal, (on your Jan 14 2010 at 17:31)
You are asking me chicken feed questions.What do you think of me? Some ordinary fundie?Yes my god is all mighty & powerful. You are telling me god cannot move that lousy rock of yours! Have you forgotton that the lousy rock including you & this massive earth are now moving at enormous speed around the sun! Is this what science teaches you? Next time don’t ask this kind of question, you’ll be cursed by your Atheist friends.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:56
Dear Hypatia,
Can you point which part of my opinion is mere guessing?
January 15th, 2010 at 2:03
Dear Admin;
Thank you for your consideration. This site is the most fair site that I have come across.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:52
Dear tony cynic,
If you want to know or compare which one is right you can browse to various religous sites, then you can judge it for yourself. Theres no point for me to clarify since all these while you have been fooling around with my opinions.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:30
solomon:
All of it. Every single word.
BTW in what sense is your god “mighty & powerful”? He makes no difference to anything, anywhere. He is a pathetic, ineffectual god.
January 16th, 2010 at 0:15
Above is a sample of a comment out of argument.