Atheist thread

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Maybe I'm overreacting but the nice things Steve Harvey said about Michael mean nothing to me knowing he's a chauvinistic, sexist, homophobic and ignorant asshole. He offended me as a woman, as an atheist, I'm also offended for the gay friends I've had. It made cringe he meant all the crap he said. :angry: Unlike conservative zealots like him, we based our values and morals on conducting ourselves as ethically as possible, doing the right thing without getting anything in return and empathy, we don't need any deity or a "holy book" to be good people and respective other individuals.

 

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

You'd never see atheists commiting crimes in the name of atheism, you'd never see atheists murdering believers because they were offended by them or don't agree with their non belief in gods.

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

And yet Atheists have no morals? Give me a break!

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Here's a comment that I heard from a dumb Christian today

''We need religion, because without religion everyone would turn gay''

Are you sure it is not a closet gay person? Otherwise I don't know why he/she feels that without religion everyone (ie. him/her) would turn gay. LOL.

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Are you sure it is not a closet gay person? Otherwise I don't know why he/she feels that without religion everyone (ie. him/her) would turn gay. LOL.

It would certainly make sense, sometimes the people who think that way and speak out about homosexuality the most are trying to repress their own sexuality. My brother is gay and was in church and a xian school when he came out, his mentor put him in touch with a man who was preaching in churches about being "rescued" out of homosexuality. He had married a woman but did not have any children. My mother and I didn't buy into but my brother did because he was desperate and he listened to the cd his mentor gave him of a sermon this man gave. He was soon put in touch with this man, and very soon my brother was being sent sexually explicit messages by this man. No surprises there!

We informed my brother's mentor of this and he spoke to the man and told him to tell his wife what he'd done. The man claimed that he told his wife but I'm not convinced. Even after this the mentor was still holding onto the belief that gay people can be "healed". We took a trip to the police station but because my brother was 16 and consenting before the messages got too much there was nothing that could be done, but they did enter his name and the details we gave into their system in case his name happened to come up again in relation to the same matter.

My brother was at school when we did this, and we told him about it when he got home. He broke down and I picked him up from a fetal position on the floor crying. It was awful and I hate that xians can do this kind of thing and get away with it. They're so adamant that they're right about homosexuality being "wrong" that they don't even realise or care that they're mentally and emotionally abusing gay people. Personally, I also see the man who claimed to have been "healed" as a victim also, he did try to delude himself into thinking he was straight and marry a woman. It shows how far people will go when they believe their faith is right and it's scary.

My mother check this man's wife's facebook after a while and saw that all of the wedding pictures had been taken down. That made us wonder if the wife had finally found out about what happened, or perhaps her husband had got himself into a relationship with a man, I don't know what happened for sure, just speculating. These days my brother is not in church (my whole family used to be) and neither is my mother. He's very happy now and is in a relationship with a man who cooks, cleans, knows how to fix things and spoils him. Things only got better once he got away from xianity and I'm very glad that he, myself and my mother got away from it, a lot never do.

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It would certainly make sense, sometimes the people who think that way and speak out about homosexuality the most are trying to repress their own sexuality. My brother is gay and was in church and a xian school when he came out, his mentor put him in touch with a man who was preaching in churches about being "rescued" out of homosexuality. He had married a woman but did not have any children. My mother and I didn't buy into but my brother did because he was desperate and he listened to the cd his mentor gave him of a sermon this man gave. He was soon put in touch with this man, and very soon my brother was being sent sexually explicit messages by this man. No surprises there!

We informed my brother's mentor of this and he spoke to the man and told him to tell his wife what he'd done. The man claimed that he told his wife but I'm not convinced. Even after this the mentor was still holding onto the belief that gay people can be "healed". We took a trip to the police station but because my brother was 16 and consenting before the messages got too much there was nothing that could be done, but they did enter his name and the details we gave into their system in case his name happened to come up again in relation to the same matter.

My brother was at school when we did this, and we told him about it when he got home. He broke down and I picked him up from a fetal position on the floor crying. It was awful and I hate that xians can do this kind of thing and get away with it. They're so adamant that they're right about homosexuality being "wrong" that they don't even realise or care that they're mentally and emotionally abusing gay people. Personally, I also see the man who claimed to have been "healed" as a victim also, he did try to delude himself into thinking he was straight and marry a woman. It shows how far people will go when they believe their faith is right and it's scary.

My mother check this man's wife's facebook after a while and saw that all of the wedding pictures had been taken down. That made us wonder if the wife had finally found out about what happened, or perhaps her husband had got himself into a relationship with a man, I don't know what happened for sure, just speculating. These days my brother is not in church (my whole family used to be) and neither is my mother. He's very happy now and is in a relationship with a man who cooks, cleans, knows how to fix things and spoils him. Things only got better once he got away from xianity and I'm very glad that he, myself and my mother got away from it, a lot never do.

Religion has ruined the lives of many gay people, and it's really sad to see. Glad your brothers happy now.

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Boy Says He Didn't Go To Heaven; Publisher Says It Will Pull Book

NPR, January 15, 2015

Nearly five years after it hit best-seller lists, a book that purported to be a 6-year-old boy's story of visiting angels and heaven after being injured in a bad car crash is being pulled from shelves. The young man at the center of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, Alex Malarkey, said this week that the story was all made up.

The book's publisher, Tyndale House, had promoted it as "a supernatural encounter that will give you new insights on Heaven, angels, and hearing the voice of God."

But Thursday, Tyndale House confirmed to NPR that it is taking "the book and all ancillary products out of print."

The decision to pull the book comes after Alex Malarkey wrote an open letter to retailer LifeWay and others who sell Christian books and religious materials. It was published this week on the Pulpit and Pen website.

"I did not die. I did not go to Heaven," Alex wrote. He continued, "I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible."

He concluded, "Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough."

Here are a few key background details of the story: Alex Malarkey was paralyzed at the age of 6 when he was in a car wreck. He then spent two months in a coma. He's now a teenager. The book lists him as a co-author along with his father, Kevin Malarkey.

Calling the book a "spiritual memoir," The Washington Post notes that it "became part of a popular genre of 'heavenly tourism,' which has been controversial among orthodox Christians."

Alex's parents are now divorced; he and his siblings live with his mother, Beth Malarkey, who has previously spoken out against the book featuring her son. She has also said that profits from the book haven't been going to Alex. Another book about a boy who said he had gone to heaven, Heaven Is For Real, has been turned into a movie.

Last spring, Beth Malarkey wrote a blog post stating, "Alex's name and identity are being used against his wishes (I have spoken before and posted about it that Alex has tried to publicly speak out against the book), on something that he is opposed to and knows to be in error according to the Bible."

She added, "I am fully aware of what it feels like to be pulled in. There are many who are scamming and using the Word of God to do it. They are good, especially if you are not digging into your Bible and truly studying it. They study their audience and even read 'success' books to try to build better and bigger ... 'ministries/businesses.' "

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It would certainly make sense, sometimes the people who think that way and speak out about homosexuality the most are trying to repress their own sexuality....

Yes. Christianity claims that God can heal homosexuality, but when I look around I certainly do not see that happening. There is that so called ex-gay movement, but I have read stories by those people and it's clear that they are still gay they are only repressing it. That's not "healing".

This story is heartbreaking. Although the Christian background of the the therapist as the source of his bias is not really emphasized in this report, but Reekers is a Southern Baptist Minister so it's clear that's the root of his views about homosexuality being "deviant" and "cureable". Unfortunately that view can lead to tragedies like this:

Oh, and is anyone surprised about this? LOL.

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

The "reparative therapy" group trying to help gay men change their sexuality shut down a while ago after almst 40 years of operation, they even apologised. That's a lot more than what you'll get from most of those people so that's something. I saw that as a pretty big victory, more xians seem to be facing up to the fact that people can't just choose a different sexuality, some may be able to force themselves to be with someone of the opposite sex and repress their real sexuality but that does not tend to end well.

I saw the story about the "6 year old who went to heaven" last night, I'm not surprised it was a bunch of crap. Some children have very vivid imaginations and he probably fed off of the excitement of the people around him which would have encouraged him to give more details and stick to the story. Usually people would be more skeptical about a fantastic story told by a kid, but when it's on the subject of religion the lines between fantasy and reality can be blurred.

People also get themselves confused between clinical death and brain death, the two are very different. People often cite NDE experiences as "proof" of the afterlife but in reality, a person is not dead when they experience those things. Hypoxia induced hallucinations is likely what they're experiencing. Dreams experienced during sleep paralysis can also seem very real, I've had it happen myself. I'd woken up in a state of paralysis and had both auditory and visual experiences, but I was not properly awake and they were not real. The human mind is very powerful and has a great potential to fool a person under the right circumstances.

 

[nikirox]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

The "reparative therapy" group trying to help gay men change their sexuality shut down a while ago after almst 40 years of operation, they even apologised. That's a lot more than what you'll get from most of those people so that's something. I saw that as a pretty big victory, more xians seem to be facing up to the fact that people can't just choose a different sexuality, some may be able to force themselves to be with someone of the opposite sex and repress their real sexuality but that does not tend to end well.

I saw the story about the "6 year old who went to heaven" last night, I'm not surprised it was a bunch of crap. Some children have very vivid imaginations and he probably fed off of the excitement of the people around him which would have encouraged him to give more details and stick to the story. Usually people would be more skeptical about a fantastic story told by a kid, but when it's on the subject of religion the lines between fantasy and reality can be blurred.

People also get themselves confused between clinical death and brain death, the two are very different. People often cite NDE experiences as "proof" of the afterlife but in reality, a person is not dead when they experience those things. Hypoxia induced hallucinations is likely what they're experiencing. Dreams experienced during sleep paralysis can also seem very real, I've had it happen myself. I'd woken up in a state of paralysis and had both auditory and visual experiences, but I was not properly awake and they were not real. The human mind is very powerful and has a great potential to fool a person under the right circumstances.

Probably they couldn't profit more with that.

Is costing me a lot of work even today to forget the humiliation among other experiences i had there, that even my mother feels guilty for sending me there... Also, I had already realized that what was happening inside the school had nothing to do with the actual reality.
I can't say that i was all bad experiences, but if i put it in the balance the worst things win over the good things.

Almost a month ago i was having a conversation with my ex? best friend and he concluded that the bad things that happened in my life are just the result as I do not believe in god, and all this in reference to that i told him that I almost lost my dear mother.
How can't this be an attack?


Religion divides...

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Probably they couldn't profit more with that.

Is costing me a lot of work even today to forget the humiliation among other experiences i had there, that even my mother feels guilty for sending me there... Also, I had already realized that what was happening inside the school had nothing to do with the actual reality.
I can't say that i was all bad experiences, but if i put it in the balance the worst things win over the good things.

Almost a month ago i was having a conversation with my ex? best friend and he concluded that the bad things that happened in my life are just the result as I do not believe in god, and all this in reference to that i told him that I almost lost my dear mother.
How can't this be an attack?


Religion divides...

That's awful, I'm sorry to hear about all of that. This "friend" has no idea. Blaming you for bad things is garbage, and it certainly isn't an incentive to join or rejoin that kind of faith system. If you don't believe in our god, bad things will happen to you and it's your fault. This kind of thinking makes me sick! The problem with people who think this way is that they often don't care if you're hurt by what they've said because they're so convinced that they're right. A lot of the bad things that happened in my life happened while I did believe in a god, but I bet he'd have an excuse for that, they find a way to make everything fit into their way of thinking.

I hope things improve for you soon.

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

According to Christian the bad things happening to non-believers is because they do not believe but then how do they explain the bad things happening to Christians? They will say it's "God testing them". It's just BS - good and bad things randomly happen to good or bad people, to believers and non-believers, there is no system in that.

 

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Religions have caused more harm and tragedies than good IMHO. I seriously don't get how women, the LGBTT, people from former colonies can still be adherents to any of those cults if god and his club of fans treat them as second class citizen, wish them to be dead because according to them they are an abomination or religions were used as a tool to enslave, torture and slaughter them.

It seems the "conversion therapy" continues to be used as a "treatment" due to the case I read about a transgender girl who committed suicide by being hit trailer tractor. Her parents forced her to take that treatment instead of allowing the hormonal one. Leelah Alcorn was her name she chose, I know it's the daily fail but that story is unfortunately true.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-parents-walking-tractor-trailer-highway.html

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It's mind boggling to me how anyone can still believe in this shit in 2015.

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

I've seen a lot of xians trying to explain certain things in the bible away if they're too inconvenient to e to be taken literally. They seem to be realising the ridiculousness of at least some of it. A 600 year old man building a giant boat and putting different kinds of the world's animals on it is pretty crazy. Thing is, why do they get to chose what is and isn't meant to be literal and why? By what criteria? Seems like a matter of convenience and not much more.

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Part 3 of the Samson story.

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

I've seen a lot of xians trying to explain certain things in the bible away if they're too inconvenient to e to be taken literally. They seem to be realising the ridiculousness of at least some of it. A 600 year old man building a giant boat and putting different kinds of the world's animals on it is pretty crazy. Thing is, why do they get to chose what is and isn't meant to be literal and why? By what criteria? Seems like a matter of convenience and not much more.

Talking about Noah:

And Job:

LOL. I like these cartoons.

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Love letters to Richard Dawkins.

 

[LastTear]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

According to Christian the bad things happening to non-believers is because they do not believe but then how do they explain the bad things happening to Christians? They will say it's "God testing them". It's just BS - good and bad things randomly happen to good or bad people, to believers and non-believers, there is no system in that.

Agree, for me any belief completely ended on the Boxing Day Tsunami, especially as a natural disaster is considered an 'act of God'

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Agree, for me any belief completely ended on the Boxing Day Tsunami, especially as a natural disaster is considered an 'act of God'

Well, there are stories in the Old Testament about god sending natural disasters to kill people who weren't doing what he wanted. The story of Noah's ark is a good example of that. Of course we were told that the people who were drowned were evil (everyone on the planet except Noah and his family? SERIOUSLY?!) but on the xian god's list of "evil" is not believing in the xian god despite there being no solid evidence to even prove its existence, plus, there are hundreds of other gods that people have claimed to exist through human history.

It's very interesting, according to the xian bible, the xian god demands to be worshiped all the time, gets angry when questioned, and people have to believe and do everything it wants all the time or they will be sent to a place of torture for eternity. Ironically, pride, arrogance and egotistical behaviour are all things the xian god hates in people. I guess there's only room for one being to behave like that, and we know who that is...

 

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Agree, for me any belief completely ended on the Boxing Day Tsunami, especially as a natural disaster is considered an 'act of God'

Which reminded me of this...

That video of Richard Dawkins made :lmao, it made me think xtians are closeted gays obssessed with sodomy.

 

[MJresearcher]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Love letters to Richard Dawkins.

I love this video so much!!! I loved the first one he did too. I like how he says the words the way the person has spelled them. Awesome!

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Here's something I've noticed

In every survey I've ever filled out (whether it be for a new job or college I'm attending) and the question comes up asking what's your religion. It will give you a number of boxes to tick, and none of them have the atheist option. The only option it has for atheists is ''non-religious''

Lots of people will say it's not a big deal, and it really isn't, but I can't help but feel that people are afraid of the word ''atheist''. Just the word alone offends people, and I think that's ridiculous

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It's very interesting, according to the xian bible, the xian god demands to be worshiped all the time, gets angry when questioned, and people have to believe and do everything it wants all the time or they will be sent to a place of torture for eternity. Ironically, pride, arrogance and egotistical behaviour are all things the xian god hates in people. I guess there's only room for one being to behave like that, and we know who that is...

That's why I like Darkmatter2525's videos on YouTube. Because the God he portrays (jealous, cruel, sadistic, contradictory, arrogant etc.) is exactly how God is in the Bible - only people somehow turn a blind eye on that.

The story of Noah's ark is a good example of that. Of course we were told that the people who were drowned were evil (everyone on the planet except Noah and his family? SERIOUSLY?!)

Or Lot and his family. Here it is as depicted by Darkmatter.

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It makes me laugh when I hear people say that they get their morals from the bible. The people who say that have clearly never read it.

Most Atheists probably know more about the bible than most Christians

 

[HIStory]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It makes me laugh when I hear people say that they get their morals from the bible.

Oh yeah, Biblical morals. LOL.

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Love letters to Richard Dawkins.

''Because you're gay''

LOL!!!!

 

[Lil]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

^^that really cracked me up :lol: the letters on their own are laughable at best, but the way he reads them and his British accent just make it incredibly funny:rofl:

 

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

It was adorably hilarious Richard took a minute to figure out how to say biatch. :lol: It also cracked me up "fu.ck you, you fu.ckity fu.cker!" :lmao:

 

[analogue]

Re: Athesit Thread (For non-believers only)

Those religious people in that Richard Dawkins video made some really good point. I for one am convinced!