the good things about atheism.

[La Comédie Noire]

You know everytime I tell someone "I'm an atheist." they always say "oh..i'm sorry that must be so depressing. :(" but really it's not.

I find great joy In the fact that by a pure accident of nature I have been given the faculties to create, love, and think without owing it to anybody. So I'd like a little help in creating a list of the positive aspects of atheism to show people that it's not bad at all. I'll start.

1. Sex is not forbidden. :D

[BurnTheOliveTree]

You aren't obligated to bore yourself shitless every Sunday, mumble nonsense into the sky, sit on those damn uncomfortable pews, say grace, endure the local priests and pastors, give petty sums of money to boring causes like a roof-repair fund... List goes on.

There's also the issue of necessarily believing that the majority of the world's population are going to be tortured forever and ever and ever after they die, with no hope of escape or relent. This inevitably includes some loved ones, friends, family, etc. I for one, should I ever convert, would spend most of my life in despair. That or I would try and find some way to fight against the entities that make hell a reality.


But I won't convert without evidence, and there isn't any, so I'm in luck. :)

-Alex

[pusher robot]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 28, 2007 06:38 pm
1. Sex is not forbidden. :D
What religion forbids sex?

[Qwerty Dvorak]

He probably means sex outside of marriage.

[Publius]

Originally posted by pusher [email protected] 29, 2007 04:52 pm




What religion forbids sex?

Shakers.

Catholic Church, for priests.

[Jazzratt]

I like being able to feel smugly superior.

[Marsella]

Not have to worry about burning in hell if I wack off. It would be a bit of a turn-off.

[freakazoid]

give petty sums of money to boring causes like a roof-repair fund

Yeah, because those poor people actually deserve being poor, <_<.

[Jazzratt]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 09:20 pm

give petty sums of money to boring causes like a roof-repair fund

Yeah, because those poor people actually deserve being poor, <_<.
What was being referred to was the habit of church parasites expecting people to pay for their roofing.

[Dean]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 09:20 pm

give petty sums of money to boring causes like a roof-repair fund

Yeah, because those poor people actually deserve being poor, <_<.
A local church has multi-million dollar coffers. The congregation is mostly poor working class people who are conned into giving money to a church which does nothing for the poor.

Some churches do good. I might go so far as to say most do. But they mostly don&#39;t; most of the money is for upkeep of something that, according to Matthew, should not even exist in a Christian church.

[freakazoid]

What was being referred to was the habit of church parasites expecting people to pay for their roofing.

Are you talking about the church buildings roofing or something else? Is it bad for the people that use the building to help out?


But they mostly don&#39;t; most of the money is for upkeep of something that, according to Matthew, should not even exist in a Christian church.

Yup. But this isn&#39;t the fault of Christianity, this is a fault of greedy people who would take advantage of others, be it through religion or through politics.

[Dean]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 05:05 am
Yup. But this isn&#39;t the fault of Christianity, this is a fault of greedy people who would take advantage of others, be it through religion or through politics.
I was talking about the "Christian" churches, not the religion in general. Authorities in the name of humanist ideologies are rarely representative of such ideologies.

...that&#39;s why a revolution free of idolatry is necessary. Funny, that vice is spoken of seriously and directly in both Testaments and in Marx&#39;s and Lenin&#39;s writings, but many self - proclaimed Marxists I&#39;ve talked to online seem very idolatrous of the images of Marx, Lenin, Mao, etc.

[BurnTheOliveTree]

Certainly my local churches aren&#39;t even remotely poor. And when it gets to the point of asking random people on the street, who could well be poor, to support a petty thing like repairing a roof... Bugger them. :)

-Alex

[Dean]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 11:57 am
Certainly my local churches aren&#39;t even remotely poor. And when it gets to the point of asking random people on the street, who could well be poor, to support a petty thing like repairing a roof... Bugger them. :)
I don&#39;t know why I didn&#39;t think of this earlier... just the other day my girlfriend and I were walking to a restaurant in Richmond when we passed by a huge church and she said "why do they need so much space? It&#39;s not fair" or something to that effect. We turned the corner and there was a person who was clearly homeless, and I pointed out that any church should let them sleep there at night if they were worth their word.

It&#39;s sad, really, though. It&#39;s so simple and relatively cheap to clothe, feed and shelter those who need it in the U.S. - if we didn&#39;t give that 30Bn to Israel we&#39;d have plenty left after that, too.

[pusher robot]

We turned the corner and there was a person who was clearly homeless, and I pointed out that any church should let them sleep there at night if they were worth their word.

Most charitable homeless shelters and soup kitchens are in fact operated by churches.


It&#39;s sad, really, though. It&#39;s so simple and relatively cheap to clothe, feed and shelter those who need it in the U.S. - if we didn&#39;t give that 30Bn to Israel we&#39;d have plenty left after that, too.

It&#39;s not a question of costs, though. That&#39;s a "big lie." There&#39;s certainly no shortage of charity to provide people with food, clothes, and shelter. It is a question of freedom. You are probably aware that most of the homeless in the United States have moderate to severe mental problems. Most could live relatively normal, productive lives if they took their medications. But what do you do if they refuse to take their meds? The drug addicts could check themselves into any one of many free recovery programs. But what if they&#39;d rather not? Those with mental retardation would surely be much better off if they joined a halfway house or sought assistance from any other of the many assistance programs. But what do you do if they simply don&#39;t want to? You also have the bum minority out there too, who are mentally healthy but for whatever reason totally disinclined to do any labor. They are offered work and permanent housing but refuse to accept it.

The bottom line is that so long as people have the freedom to refuse their medication, the freedom to refuse treatment, the freedom to refuse direction, and the freedom to refuse assistance, there will be homeless and vagrants because that&#39;s what some people choose to be.

[BurnTheOliveTree]

most of the homeless in the United States have moderate to severe mental problems.

What??

I hope you have some kind of evidence for this... That seems to me about as prejudicial as it gets.

-Alex

[freakazoid]

Certainly my local churches aren&#39;t even remotely poor. And when it gets to the point of asking random people on the street, who could well be poor, to support a petty thing like repairing a roof... Bugger them. smile.gif

You talk about this roofing repair thing as if this actually happened at some place near you, did it? And if so, shame on them, :angry:

[pusher robot]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 04:38 pm

most of the homeless in the United States have moderate to severe mental problems.

What??

I hope you have some kind of evidence for this... That seems to me about as prejudicial as it gets.

-Alex

Nearly every homeless person with serious mental illness has been involved with local mental health care. By current estimates, as many as 700,000 Americans are homeless on any given night (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 1999). An estimated one-fourth of these people have serious mental illnesses, and more than one-half have an alcohol and/or drug problem (National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, 2001).

http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/homelessness/about.asp

It&#39;s true. Believe it or not, there are plenty of resources available for those who would avail themselves of them. The persistent homeless are the ones that refuse to accept the help that is offered.

[BurnTheOliveTree]

You talk about this roofing repair thing as if this actually happened at some place near you, did it?

Well, sort of. There was an idiot in the town center who claimed to represent a local church, and was asking for money to repair it&#39;s roof. He could well have been a lunatic, and this was some years back.

It doesn&#39;t seem an uncommon thing, though. A nastier example would be the "Jesus Army" who were once bussed in en masse to our town, and promptly began marching, war-style, along the streets, actually blocking them up. As I remember, some had drums. They took the army thing quite seriously. Anyway, they shoved a leaflet at me, despite my blatant hostility. It was something about keeping schools christian in the third world, anti-secularist propaganda, essentially. They weren&#39;t even the nice variety of christian like yourself or Edric. I remember one shouting at a friend of mine who&#39;d decided to debate him on theology, and tied him in absurd knots. It was half-funny and I half wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to fuck off.

-Alex

[freakazoid]

Well, sort of. There was an idiot in the town center who claimed to represent a local church, and was asking for money to repair it&#39;s roof. He could well have been a lunatic, and this was some years back.

I see.


I remember one shouting at a friend of mine who&#39;d decided to debate him on theology, and tied him in absurd knots.

lol, It seems to me that the mean ones are the ones who can not actually defend there beliefs and so they get real defensive and angry. :(


They weren&#39;t even the nice variety of christian like yourself or Edric.

Thanks, :D I try to do my best.

[blackstone]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 11:57 am
Certainly my local churches aren&#39;t even remotely poor. And when it gets to the point of asking random people on the street, who could well be poor, to support a petty thing like repairing a roof... Bugger them. :)

-Alex
Yeah, God forbid, the roof of the Church you goto needs repair. How selfish of them to ask for money to fix it you say as rain drips on your head.

[BurnTheOliveTree]

Yeah, God forbid, the roof of the Church you goto needs repair. How selfish of them to ask for money to fix it you say as rain drips on your head.

I don&#39;t attend a church, neanderthal. You missed the point about as utterly as possible.

-Alex

[EwokUtopia]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 28, 2007 06:38 pm
I find great joy In the fact that by a pure accident of nature I have been given the faculties to create, love, and think without owing it to anybody.
Im sorry, did you say accident?

[Calls Richard Dawkins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjqUmuMhTsM)]

[Qwerty Dvorak]

It&#39;s true. Believe it or not, there are plenty of resources available for those who would avail themselves of them. The persistent homeless are the ones that refuse to accept the help that is offered.
Then you were wrong. One fourth, not most, have serious mental illnesses. I imagine pretty much all of these people would also fit into the "alcohol and/or drug problem" bracket. Besides, I wouldn&#39;t really class an alcohol or drug problem as a mental illness and in any case it is generally accepted that drink and drug problems are a product of an impoverish, neglected society.

[RedAnarchist]

Why is it always a roof that needs fixing? Are their doors, walls and furniture unbreakable or something? If they are going to scam money out of naive people, why don&#39;t they at least change their story a bit every so often?

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by RA
If they are going to scam money out of naive people, why don&#39;t they at least change their story a bit every so often?

Most people don&#39;t listen to what the priest says (they know this).

[Dr Mindbender]

Originally posted by EwokUtopia+August 02, 2007 06:15 pm--> (EwokUtopia @ August 02, 2007 06:15 pm)
Comrade [email protected] 28, 2007 06:38 pm
I find great joy In the fact that by a pure accident of nature I have been given the faculties to create, love, and think without owing it to anybody.
Im sorry, did you say accident?

[Calls Richard Dawkins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjqUmuMhTsM)] [/b]
ha ha am i the only one that was expecting them to trade punches? :lol:

[Tommy-K]

We can drink, smoke and pump our bodies full of whatever chemicals we want without feeling bad for &#39;giving in to temptation&#39;.

[Tommy-K]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 10:11 pm

You talk about this roofing repair thing as if this actually happened at some place near you, did it?

Well, sort of. There was an idiot in the town center who claimed to represent a local church, and was asking for money to repair it&#39;s roof. He could well have been a lunatic, and this was some years back.

It doesn&#39;t seem an uncommon thing, though. A nastier example would be the "Jesus Army" who were once bussed in en masse to our town, and promptly began marching, war-style, along the streets, actually blocking them up. As I remember, some had drums. They took the army thing quite seriously. Anyway, they shoved a leaflet at me, despite my blatant hostility. It was something about keeping schools christian in the third world, anti-secularist propaganda, essentially. They weren&#39;t even the nice variety of christian like yourself or Edric. I remember one shouting at a friend of mine who&#39;d decided to debate him on theology, and tied him in absurd knots. It was half-funny and I half wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to fuck off.

-Alex
The Jesus Army bus came to our town aswell (Ipswich). They all piled out and started throwing a ball around in the car park, it was weird...

They do seem a bit militant. Quite frightening really. And as for keeping third world schools Christian? How about we try and make sure they have enough moeny and resources before we start worrying about their fucking religious ethic (of which there should be none).

[Tommy-K]

Originally posted by blackstone+July 31, 2007 07:32 pm--> (blackstone @ July 31, 2007 07:32 pm)
[email protected] 30, 2007 11:57 am
Certainly my local churches aren&#39;t even remotely poor. And when it gets to the point of asking random people on the street, who could well be poor, to support a petty thing like repairing a roof... Bugger them. :)

-Alex
Yeah, God forbid, the roof of the Church you goto needs repair. How selfish of them to ask for money to fix it you say as rain drips on your head. [/b]
They don&#39;t need to ask for money from the predominately working class congregation. Why don&#39;t they just sell one of their big fuck-off statues of &#39;our Lord and Saviour&#39; to pay for it?