if you like to read and have some time to kill.
some rational writings about religion, god, and such.
A lot of people bring this up when talking about religion and ‘famous’ atheists. For so long it seemed to only be mass-murdering dictators, although I’ve heard that Hitler was christian, Mao is often listed and he was atheist and killed millions of people. Now we have scientists and philosophers as much better examples. Anyway, the point is that bringing these dictators into the conversation only illustrates that an ideology cannot be forced onto people, used to brainwash them, and make them lose the power to think for themselves. It goes for pretty much everyone. No matter what it is—atheism, nationalism, Christianity—forcing people to ‘believe’ in something without question will never turn out well.
I’m not really sure what point this person is trying to make about ‘true atheists’.
(Source: christinsanity)
Maybe if i was raised atheist, instead of catholic, this would not be such a complicated thing to do. This is why children should be raised without religious indoctrination.
(Source: lmaoatheist)
OMG. Love this. Turns out this site was started as a joke/parody*. I think after I saw this Mr. Gruff thing I started to come to terms with my atheism because I actually took offense to their accusations of being bitter and grumpy.
*There is some question on the interwebs about whether this site is real or a parody. This links back to the Objective Ministries site’s section called Mall Mission. Read for yourself the section on “Mall Walkers” and tell me if someone could actually write that with a straight face. I think for their purposes of sincere satire, they want to seem legit by posting some ads for real wacko Christian stuff (like Chuck Norris’ site). Some of those ads are clearly jokes (Shoes of the Fisherman?).
(Source: lmaoatheist)
I used to really honestly have faith that things will always work out in the end, that there is an unseen plan and everything happens for a reason. I can’t say whether there’s a god behind it or not—I’ve never had much faith in religion. It was just faith that I would be ok.
When I see what’s happening on the other side of the world I realize that it’s just pure luck that things work out for me. If everything happens for a reason then what’s the reason behind children dying of starvation, children being forced to kill people and recruited as child soldiers?
If we can strip away this belief that we all have this specific destiny then maybe we can deal with the fact that we’re all responsible for each other; it’s not God’s problem. God isn’t the one helping this little girl, it’s other people—people who feel a responsibility to help others. Her future plans are based on luck and her own willpower, and in many cases the actions of others.
So I don’t want to be a downer on Thanksgiving. I feel pretty grateful for my life so I think I should be nice to people. Maybe I can help someone someday.
“Is it moral to believe that your sins can be forgiven by the punishment of another person? I would submit that the doctrine of vicarious redemption by human sacrifice is utterly immoral.”
- Christopher Hitchens
how can anyone even argue with this?
one of the reasons I want nothing to do with christian stuff— it’s so freakin’ morbid. when i was a kid i used to get sick every Good Friday during the stations of the cross thing.
Oh yeah and tomorrow is a church holiday— Happy All Saints day everyone!
(Source: brainyquote.com)
Feminism and other isms, part 1
General disclaimer: This are my opinions. Proceed accordingly.
Specific disclaimer: I’ve been hanging onto to this for a few days, fearing that it’s complete drivel. Proceed accordingly.
Part 1. Where I’m coming from.
I would be reluctant to call myself a feminist* for a few reasons but not because I don’t identify with the struggles or that I’m against the cause. I don’t like labels. I feel that if I go unlabeled it’s one less wall I need to break down in order to get my point of view across to the opposing side. It’s one less prejudice to dispel. I don’t want the stereotypical anti-feminists to assume that I’m a stereotypical feminist who hates men, because it’s not true. I’m not an extremist, I can’t admit to hating an entire group of people—there are exceptions to all generalizations, usually important ones. So to generalize, labeling myself a feminist I would be excluding half of the population from the goal of progress, denying the importance of masculinity and overemphasizing the difference between genders. It also seems to assume that there’s a negative view of men and an unspoken judgement that men are bad.
Really, my problem is with the status quo, how society has been run for the last millennia since recorded history, and how it’s being maintained now in the US. Or in some ways reverting back to the pre-feminist days—the imaginary, glory days of an overly idealized past—and the reason for it is religion. Religion gets mixed up in everything it shouldn’t and the only solution is atheism, which of course is the number one most feared idea of the religious.
*This is all assuming that I was in the public eye as a champion of a social cause. Whatever I’m trying to do is more important that what I call myself and people get hung up on labels and such.
Another reason to be atheist?
According to the Westboro Baptist Church the idea that God loves everyone is the “greatest lie ever told.”
Suppose they are right, and by some crazy absence of logic and reason God is a hateful entity, then this would present a convincing case for Atheism. Also, it might be a good case for Satanism, since “the Westboro God” hates everyone in the world except for the Phelpses (the family that is also the Westboro Baptist Church), then who could possibly love the rest of us but Satan? I mean, if there is a Heaven and Hell and the Westboro people are going to Heaven, then send me to Hell, I’m totally ok with it.
I’m pretty convinced that whatever created the Earth and the universe, is not concerned with a bunch of paranoid, delusional and hateful outcasts from Kansas or the silly book written hundreds of years ago that provides citations for their hate-speech. The god they believe in is a reflection of themselves and therefore extremely limited in logic, reason, understanding, empathy, etc. Of course their god is not the New Testament God that most Christians believe in, either. They quote mostly the Old Testament, from what I’ve seen, which is what Jesus ostensibly wanted to lead people away from. More specifically, from what I was taught as a Christian, Jesus wanted people to see God as different from the angry God portrayed in the O.T. Furthermore, if they are going to obey the rules set down in the O.T., they will have a hell of a time since there are a ton of contradictions.
My greatest wish is that the families of the soldiers who have died, whose funerals the WBC have chosen as their protest grounds, have the super-natural strength to ignore them and their hate, because they are not worth the energy.
