Atheists : Are you on a crusade?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by Kellisness, Mar 11, 2011.

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Atheists : Are you on a crusade?

  1. Yes!

    53.3%
  2. No

    46.7%
  1. Kellisness Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    196
    Spidergoat, if you wanted power and control, you'd use whatever tools at your disposal to attain it. If you wanted people to fight wars on your behalf, those people would need a motivation, something powerful. Religion can and has been used in that way. If you think about it, most religious people are pretty peaceful, and yet look at how many wars there have been and still are over religion. It doesn't make any sense. Religions have always been used as tools for power and control. I believe in god but I would never get involved in anything like that because I don't belong to any religious "tribe", as it were. It's very easy to manipulate religious people into playing down the peaceful aspects of their religion and artificially emphasising the not so peaceful aspects. Israel / Palestine is the part of the world where Jesus lived and taught (I don't believe this myself but many do) and yet it is also a place of mass long term conflict. That's how easy it is to manipulate people. Religion isn't the problem, it's the fact that it can be manipulated, and so it is.

    Take any religion. For the most part, it is the "good" things in it that attract people to it (ie be good, love others, etc etc etc). Wars are not built on those things. They can't be, it doesn't work. They're built on the tribal / identity / cultural aspects that can so easily be played up. Look at how football hooligans behave. Yet it's not about football.
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Why can religion be used in this way? I suggest because it conditions people to accept things on faith, and by authority, rather than by evidence.

    Religion also divides humanity into believers and unbelievers, and so it reinforces the tribal aspects of humanity, even if the tribe is not an ethnic group.

    Let me ask you this, if you believe in God, but not organized religion, where do your values come from?
     
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  5. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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  7. Kellisness Registered Senior Member

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    196
    Spidergoat, look around. We live in a world where most people take a lot of things on faith and on authority.

    If an individual wants to follow a religion because they feel that it will help them to be more moral, or simply because they agree with its principles, there's nothing wrong with that. Actually it's a good thing.

    Just as all countries have negative aspects to their history and culture, as well as positive things, so do religions. And all religions feature the promotion of morals and positive principles. No war can ever result from that. You can't create a bad thing out of good things.

    My values come from myself. Religion isn't necessary. But it benefits many.
     
  8. universaldistress Extravagantly Introverted ... Valued Senior Member

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    I wasn't, but since I met Kellish . . .
     
  9. Kellisness Registered Senior Member

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    196
    You didn't meet me.
     
  10. Jan Ardena OM!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,968
    Spider,

    where do your values come from?

    jan.
     
  11. universaldistress Extravagantly Introverted ... Valued Senior Member

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    ever heard the term "met online".
     
  12. Kellisness Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    196
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Bushido.
     
  14. Arkonos Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    34
    I am very happy with this answer, despite the fact that it, like the 10 commandments, isn't exactly a fully realised system of values.
     
  15. universaldistress Extravagantly Introverted ... Valued Senior Member

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    1,468
    So there you go, or does it require more formal an introduction?
     
  16. Jan Ardena OM!!! Valued Senior Member

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    13,968
    What is Bushido?

    jan.
     
  17. sifreak21 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,671
    again
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades

    post any evidence or proof you might have of your claim

    atheism is on the rise not because of a crusade because the younger generation is reading the bible and realising how much bullshit is actually in it. has ABSOLUTLY NOTHING to do with a crusade.. do you see atheist outside with bullhorns all over the place spewing bullcrap?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMamgtY6Po4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6V9hiAJsbM
    uh oh wait for it..
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orKJyfeN1EU
    religious got KO'd
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2011
  18. 420Joey SF's Incontestable Pimp Valued Senior Member

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    1,189
    Sirfreak can you justify your subscription to "athiesm"? Are you really any different from religious nutjobs? Athiesm is the belief that god does not exist. Religious people hold the belief that god does exist. Neither can be proven and both require faith. Who cares, agnostic athiesm makes more sense.

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    "Athiesm on the rise" is a stupid comment, surely once you re-read it, you will understand why.

    Comparing athiesm to religion (I dont know how bible equates with religion but okay) is meaningless.
     
  19. SciWriter Valued Senior Member

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    3,028
    Well, then what is the basic stuff made of?
     
  20. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Don't have google? It's the code of the Samurai. The way of the warrior.

    But it's a joke. I decide my own values, which roughly coincide with liberal/ democratic values. Much of it comes from literature.
     
  21. Thoreau Valued Senior Member

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    3,380
    I'm glad we don't have too many of those where I'm at. The last time I came across one in close proximity was a few years back when a bunch of friends and I went out to celebrate my ex's birthday. There was 3 people standing on the corner of an intersection in what we call "the strip" - an area known for it's bars. Originally, my intentions were simple to ignore them and walk past. Then, the female of the group called me a sinner and a fag (I was holding hands with my ex). So, I took that as a challenge.

    After about 10 minutes, I literally left two of them crying in confusion after I had thrown out in the open all of their bibles contraditions (at least the ones I could remember at the time) and asked for an explination. I touched on everything from the two contraditing creation stories, to the historical meanings of the verses in Romans that prohibited man lying with man (and how they were more likely meant not to ban homosexuality but to enfore procreation due to the population crisis at the time in the region), to the ignorance of believing in a walking, talking serpent, and to the immorality and intolerance of their God, according to the Bible. There was much more that I brought up. And with all my questions and all my demands for an explination, the one answer that they repeated was, "Who are we to try to understand God's ways?"

    And of course I then called out their hypocrisy of how they were on the corner preaching the "will of God" and then later admitted that they don't understand God. That one stopped them in their tracks. The girl started crying, I imagine due to the struggles of trying to believe her own faith in the midst of logical reasoning. And soon the shorter of the two males began crying because. I asked why he cried and he stated "because I don't have all the answers and you're accusing me that I do. It's not right". I merely replied that "Your the one that said you had all the answers and that they were in that book" (pointing as the bible in his hand).

    I do wish there were more Jesus freaks here. I don't enjoy making any of them cry because I don't wish suffering even on my worst enemy. But I will call them out if they are being hypocritical.

    The only other time I've had an experience similar to that was about 5 years ago when I encountered about a hundred of them rallying in front of an abortion clinic (which was right next to my bank). I attempted to have a civil conversation with them but as soon as I brought up a legitimate point, I was quickly dulled out by abnoxiously loud and off-key singing of hymns. They refused to talk, of course.
     
  22. Thoreau Valued Senior Member

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    We can play that game too.

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  23. 420Joey SF's Incontestable Pimp Valued Senior Member

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    I am not a christian and that is pretty funny. I don't believe in organized religion just that there is a god. But than again, If you would have read my post you would have known that.
     

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