Atheism

[Crankmas]

having religion forced upon one seems to be the recurring theme here, I felt that way about tequila a time or two but my folks were avid golfers so church attendance wasn't so foreboding for me, its the Greek thingy- nothing in excess ja mon

[heidiramma]

Shamis, you're my new athiest best friend. You make sense in a time when everything doesn't. I did the Catholic thing, confession, communion, but stopped 'going through the motions after that and listened to MY OWN BRAIN rather than what I was told to believe "just because".

I took Death, Dying, and Religions course at college, and came to a similar conclusion - either every gosh darn thing is holy/spiritual/worshipped or everything is just matter, as it is, and we treat it with respect and fairly because we are good (or not!), and not because of religious beliefs or fear etc.

Things make more sense biologically, sequentially, ecologically. . . rather than occurring because god felt good on this day and shat on mankind the next. Cause a loving god that then hates and kills and condemns, then blesses. . .
well, then 1)It's a female god; and 2)that is fucked up and I couldn't trust anything being rational/predictable/just.

So, yeah, long ramble short, right on man, right on. Born, live!, and die when it's over. Just enjoy the time you got. There's no fear in the inevitable.

[charlie]

I was born and raised Southern Baptist. Even tho I attended Church until I graduated High school (w/ my Grandma so she had someone to sit with), I lost my faith around 13 or so. Avowed atheist, turned agnostic, now I really have no way of knowing what box I should be stuck in. If anything I consider myself not a theist, but a Humanist. The last few years the religious truths that make the most sense to me are Buddhist teachings.

I believe every person has the potential for divinity. Goodness is in each of us. Some people call it God, some call it morality, some call it fairness or truth. I have always had a problem with personification of these things, and doctrines are often built on this concept. I simply decided to quit getting bogged down by ontological details and embrace the underlying themes of religious doctrines/actions/discussions. When someone prays at a funeral, blesses the food before meals, or thanks God for the ability to keep working in a soup kitchen I do not quibble with their understanding. If it fosters the goodness in them, I'm all for it. If that kind of thing makes you uncomfortable, I think you're limiting yourself.

I retain an undying faith that if you live your life well, err on the side of good instead of evil, and keep searching for growth and working toward the betterment of yourself and others then things will work out well.

..... I am not an angry man. Hate and anger eat one from within and turn the world into a place less worth living in. Like the Lurkist I am in utter awe of the world's beauty....

That to me is Godliness. No need to quibble with the names or the structure behind it. Faith should be a very personal thing.

Something I read stuck with me a while back, a priest talking to another priest about an atheist man doing many good things in the world. He was very worried because this man had lost his faith. The other guys says, "Perhaps God walks with him and he does not know it."

[Huggybone]

Man, I can't leave you kids alone...I leave for a few months and there are 12 pages about atheism? Good God, get it together people.

[the lurkist]

Charlie put his finger on it. Caribe too. Hell, everyone did! Its all good!

[anticlmber]

good and hot, just like hell will be for you sinners.

[Lander]

God! wait... Man! What a long thread. Well I might as well throw my two cents into this overflowing pot.

To go all the way back to the cartoon in question. Apparently, the pope said something about atheists causing more havoc than anybody which the cartoonist found to be absurd. I dont know what the quote was but he may have been referring to the many tens of millions of people killed in the soviet union and china by their officially atheistic governments. Now they certainly werent murdered in the name of atheism. They were just in the way of the regime and its goals, ideology or the glorious leader was really paranoid. A lot of people may have been killed in the name of religion although I cant see how it could be nearly as many when you look at the huge numbers of Stalins and others victims. But I think religion is just an excuse. Whether its medeval crusaders or al-quaida the goal is always to gain political power. Just like the godless commies.

[anticlmber]

people step/run way from god because, "god let me down", "where was god when this happened", "i go to church but i don't feel anything." they act like god is superman, waiting to leap from the shadows at the moment's notice. god is always there but you have to talk to him daily. otherwise it's like paying a psychiatrist every week but not going to him. one day you have a nervous breakdown and then yell at your shrink for letting it happen. how's he to know what is up with you if you never talk to him?

[gulliver]

Atheism isn't communism or a religion. That's a weak argument.

People murdered following religious doctrine no matter how poor their interpretation of it isn't necessarily about political power either.

[the lurkist]

crusades, inquisition, pogroms, kkk, holocaust, aremenian genocide, hutu vs tutsi, hindu vs muslim, hindu vs sihk, jew vs middle east, religious extremism and intolerance throughout the ages, etc.... are indeed only tools to the same end. Consolidating power and getting the masses behind a policy. Pure and simple jingoism. The faction of the conservative religious right tipped the balance in GW's favor in 2000 and 2004 for the same reasons. Now we have been occupying a foreign country for 7 years with the same thinnly veiled rationale- God is on our side.
If the total number of deaths in the twentieth century at the hands of the godless commies trumps the death in the name of one religion or another, then it is only because there were more people to kill in the twentieth century. The acts of conquest, persecution, conversion at the tip of a sword, etc... are as old as civilization.
The adamant non believers are justified in their loathing of organized religion as the root of mankinds suffering.