Can’t help but grin. Andrew is a coffee expert, smart code-head and faithful sky-bully believer.
“Those stupid atheist slogans on buses annoy me no end”
Probably the same amount that I get annoyed by pithy posters in public view, religious education in public schools and slogans on the side of buses promising the meaning of life through a short course and a fee.
Believing in the Sky Bully was something we needed when we were cavemen. When we feared the sky, when we feared storms, when we sacrificed wheat and lambs in order to ensure good weather.
And yes, it annoys me that the crash on the Hudson last week is being hailed as a ‘miracle‘ and not as solely the skill of a highly trained professional human being.
Humans FTW!
What annoys me is the current thinking and attitude from so-called Christians that Atheists should be ‘taken down a peg or two’.
(FWIW it’s worse in America where Atheism = Communism)
*IF* there is a sky bully, why don’t these religious types accept that it is up to him(and SOLELY him) to judge atheists?
Why do they feel the need to “convert” or chastise anyone with differing views?
What worries me far more is the fact there are Bishops legislating law in this country and nearly every member of the commons has a religious faith.
That’s democracy!!
Also forgot to mention – my all time favourite conversation with a religious person – in this case a Catholic who has been known to phone complete strangers and mutter things down phones to “cure” lots of different things.
Watching the news there was a story on some people in carlisle lamenting moving a stone (which some worshipped), after several floods.
Said Catholic was laughing. I pointed out that to some the worshipping of a stone is absurd as worshipping a invisible, omnipresent being.
I was told I was insulting Catholics by comparing them to nutters and cults.
I simply pointed out that the difference between a cult and a religion was sheer numbers, which didn’t go down very well, and that said Catholic had been laughing at Stone worshippers, insulting them.
We apparently agreed to disagree! (Just don’t mention the talking snake story)
Wow, Gaz. I grew up in America and to say that in America “Atheism = Communism” is a decidedly ignorant statement. That’s just a generalization that simply can’t be made. Unless, you have some proof?
actually, these days, I wish it was back to “atheism = communism”. Nowadays it’s “atheism = ATTACK THEM AND DRIVE THEM FROM THE SIGHT OF DECENT GOD-FEARIN’ FOLKS!!!!”
I’m with Blaise Pascal on this one – I wager the existence of God…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager
Darrylxxx – I think this wager is firmly debunked.
How do you know you are wagering on the existence of the correct God? Or perhaps you believe in all Gods equally? In which case don’t forget it is Woden’s Day tomorrow, remember to make your offerings!
Or even if you have managed to pick the one true God to worship, then given that he is omniscient, will he not see through such fence-sitting trickery?
I think the essential issue is that Faith/Belief is not a choice – it’s like many things – you can pass through phases.
I believed in God when I was a young child because I had no doubt he existed. I also had no doubt in Santa.
As I grew up, I lost that belief because my rational mind refused it. If somehow my rational mind is subverted (or damaged), then possibly my faith in God will return. I cannot choose to believe in God any more than I can choose to believe in Santa, moon ponies or a free lunch.
So, yes, it may seem that I’m positing that to believe in God you have to be brain-damaged or infantile.
I think you’re reading too much into the use of the word “miracle”. In everyday discourse, it has ceased to mean “act of God” and now merely means “something incredibly unlikely”.
Except I read too many “Thank God” and references to miracles.
@Rissko I don’t think it can be debunked his side of the second coming or irrefutable proof… that’s the point. I believe/wager that an omniscient being exists that takes many forms. And no, I don’t feel the need to bow down to all forms equally. Also I don’t believe there is such a thing as a “correct god”, just the possibility or likelihood of A god… and yes, he probably sees right through me! 🙂
I do believe you are all stuck in the late 18th century (very) Western European concept of God.
Before anyone goes any further, put your prejudices down, step away from the web and check your premises. There are *thousands* of years of different theological schools of thought on all this, yet you (we) always focus on a very late interpretation. Arrogant, no? Even most _Christians_ don’t know much of the split in the Orthodoxy (aside from ‘themmuns sometimes have big and impressive beards’), let along what happened before the political council of Nicaea that set the *snip lots of stuff*
But moon ponies? Where can I gets me one of those?
@Jess : Does personal experience on both coasts not count?
Ignorant generalization? No. Small sample size? Yes.
I also think all French people are obnoxious, but again that’s because I worked with a large number of rude Frenchmen.
You also cannot deny most of the 80’s propeganda on the subject.
Two comments to add to this thread …
(a) there are lots of rational discussion on non-theism in the US, but mostly on the coast, away from our very special regiously nuts
(b) I believe that God is zero divided by zero