Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith Pinster on March 15, 2011 at 10:21pm

First, I think it is a sad state of affairs that the petition only has 830 signatures and it's been up for almost 2 months.  I added it directly to my facebook page, hopefully that will generate more attention to it.

 

As for what we can do - we are doing it.  Xianity is shrinking drastically in our youth.  There are atheist groups, not only in many colleges today, but spreading into high schools across the nation.  But it won't happen over night.  We have to maintain.  We have to persist.  We have to keep having conversations with people online and ask questions and show them just how delusional their fairy tales are. 

 

I've posted in other threads here and elsewhere about how to communicate with xians.  This story actually drives home a point that I've tried to make.  Religion not only allows, but forcefully encourages it's followers to think and act on a purely emotional basis.  I'm sure this crazy bitch feels completely justified in doing that to the poor animal.  When you converse with xians, you need to stay away from any emotional aspect of the conversation.  That is their realm and they will always win those arguments.  Another thing to remember is that it is highly unlikely that we will get the person that we are talking to to have anything close to a reasonable thought.  When we engage these idiots, we need to remember that we are doing this for the audience.  The more level headed we are, the more it makes the xians look like the imbeciles that they are and the more it makes the people who are watching our conversations think about their belief system.

 

We need to just keep picking away.

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Permalink Reply by scLovely on March 19, 2011 at 8:56pm

Thank you for posting my petition! It needs all of the help it can get :(

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Permalink Reply by Keith Pinster on March 19, 2011 at 9:33pm

More than happy to.  People who do that sort of thing to animals need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fraser on March 19, 2011 at 1:32am

Sadly, we're pretty much a Christian nation. I personally cannot name a single politician at any level of government that isn't Christian (I'd love if someone could find me one), in many states there's a law stating you must believe in a higher being in order to run for office, and the separation of church and state is a complete sham. The government is full of moderate to fundamental Christians who are making laws that coincide with their religion's beliefs.

 

The separation of church and state is so thinly veiled it's sad. It's blatantly obvious that they are one in the same. Christian leaders push for pro-Christian legislation while allowing religion to earn completely untaxed income so they can spread the agenda of the religion and the government leaders. In antiquity, the church was the government...seems like it still is.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on March 19, 2011 at 9:10am

Congressman Pete Stark has publicly stated he has no god belief.  There are others as well who either clearly don't believe or come very close.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on March 19, 2011 at 9:14am

Also, don't ever say we are a christian nation.  That is just what the bastards want:  de facto submission.  As soon as they can get us all to become resigned to that idea, they will make it law.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fraser on March 19, 2011 at 1:27pm

I'm not submitting at all, just callin' it like I see it. It's sad but true, and I feel atheists need to become more prominent in politics.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on March 19, 2011 at 2:00pm

Give it time. Atheism is becoming more and more accepted. Large voting blocs still use religious beliefs character gauges and until that perception fades away, it will be difficult for openly atheistic politicians to get elected in most regions.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Pinster on March 19, 2011 at 2:30pm

One problem that we have is that, without a congealing factor, like religion, it's hard to get atheists to really bond into an active, strong group.  And I think we would be able to make great headway if we could, but unfortunately, I don't see it happen.  There are too many passive atheists that don't have a problem with religious leaders "as long as they aren't effected too much".  A lot of people don't understand the repercussions of allowing the religious to have such a strong foothold.  It's amazing how many people don't understand that, since religion is a delusion, the religious leaders are really delusional leaders.  But because the delusional superstition of religion is so widely accepted, it's the one delusion they don't have a problem with.  If these people had any other delusion, they would be kicked out in a heartbeat.

 

In just about every forum I post, I try to add a message as to what I think the most dangerous part of religion is.  That is the brain patterning of allowing a belief to propagate in your mind, despite the lack of evidence for, or even the mountains of evidence again that belief.  That is what religion teaches: to steadfastly believe something, just because you want to, or (as is so often the case in xianity) because you have a prejudice that you desperately want to hold on to.  Once a mind is patterned to do this with religion, why would it do anything else with other circumstantial situations (like politics)?  It is a very scary thought.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on March 19, 2011 at 2:53pm

While I think treating atheism as a cause to gain acceptance is worthy of all our efforts, I am unconvinced that atheism is the banner that all rational causes should fall under. Atheism is not a positive trait that can be used to rally the troops, so to speak. And, of course, I use positive trait in the sense that it doesn't actually add values and traits. Some might argue that Scientific Atheism does, but that is still something different than the run of the mill definition of atheism.

Groups like Humanists or Skeptics are positive trait groups that offer a rallying point for people looking to market themselves, whether in politics or in general.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on March 19, 2011 at 3:06pm

Right now, the one thing that ought to bring atheists together is the idea that religion is a threat to our very lives, which I believe it is both directly and indirectly.  The theocrats have already positioned themselves to take over and sweep aside our secular Constitution.  All they need is an excuse.  Then, it wouldn't surprise me if the same thing that happened in Spain, Chile, and Argentina happens here.  Secularists will disappear and end up in secret graves or dumped at sea.  Even if they don't do that to us, a world with nuclear weapons run by competing religions is destined for a bleak future.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on March 19, 2011 at 3:25pm

I don't share your fears of that bleak future.  Not to say that it is an impossibility.  I just don't think it is very probable.  Not in the United States, at least.  And I live in Missouri, so I don't have a coastal perspective of this country.  I'm surrounded by religion and the religious.

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