Why do Americans still dislike atheists?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by Fraggle Rocker, May 15, 2011.

  1. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    "sacrifice the present for the future"
    And that's exactly why a society of theists is fucked. This means driving huge SUVs is good, living beyond the carrying capacity of the Earth is fine, and guess what, these people get divorced as much as atheists.
     
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  3. SciWriter Valued Senior Member

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    The God of the Old Testament
    (Imagined)

    Of all my rotten luck, The God of the Old Testament
    Appeared and proclaimed, “I am Yahweh, never absent,
    For, those schooled from infancy in My strange ways
    Have become desensitized to MY horrific side
    And so they continue to keep Me very much alive
    Through their thoughts; so, Fire away at Me;
    I no longer bite that hard, you see.”

    “You’re too easy of a target to attack for free—
    So it would be rather unfair of me.”

    “True, and I won’t deny it—
    It’s all there in the Testament.
    I was the most unpleasant character
    That anyone ever made up in literary fiction.

    “I was revealed to be jealous and proud of it,
    Petty, unjust, controlling, vindictive,
    An ethic cleanser, genocidal, infanticidal,
    Filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal,
    Homophobic, misogynistic, sadomasochistic,
    And much more, and a Bully—who gave it
    Free will only if it matched My own Will.”

    “Peace be with you.
    How about the New Testament
    To replace and hide Your scent,
    As many religions have already
    Done through Jesus sent?”

    “Yes, that Testament is quite opposite in tone,
    But I am still the Father of Jesus sown,
    So, the problem of Me can never really go away.
    I am what I was, still here unto the present day.”

    “Well, so long. You’re the worst role model, yet,
    That human mammals have ever dreamed up.
    Who would imitate, emulate,
    Or follow You as a ‘leader’?”

    “Well, My followers are those numerous slaves
    Who excuse my mysterious [insane] ways,
    Along with my exclusive desert tribe.”

    “Well, You’re the Boss, and, anyway,
    Who ever said that a God had to be perfect and good?”

    “Everyone that I told—and those who thought I should.”

    “Oh well, never mind; whatever pleases.
    So, um, Joseph was not
    The biological father of Jesus?”

    “No, I was.”

    “So Jesus didn’t really descend from David?”

    “That was on his mother’s side.”

    “Well, my ancestors descended from the trees.
    Hey, why don’t Catholics get the 72 virgins
    That Islam gives for martyrdom for their sins?”

    “I told each religious faith a different story.”

    “You also gave a bible half-different
    To the Mormon founder,
    Joseph Smith, finely engraved
    On golden plates he discovered?”

    “Sure. I thought at the time ‘why not’.”

    “You had Islam add different things
    To their Koran, as well?”

    “Yes of the many more ways to avoid Hell.”

    “And You told only the Catholics
    That there were umpteen levels of angels
    And that bread was your body
    And that wine was your blood?”

    “Yep, I told just them and a few other selves,
    But they made up the Saints themselves.”

    “And You presented differing visions
    To the Lutherans,
    The Episcopals, and the Jewish,
    And to many other also-rans?”

    “Pretty much, except that a King of England
    Founded the Episcopals—the Anglicans, of course,
    Since his own religion wouldn’t give him a divorce.”

    “And you killed everyone but Noah
    And his family in the Great Flood, wet,
    Even young children and their pets?”

    “Sure, again, why not? Life is cheap.
    However, My creation of the rainbow
    Says that I’ll never be so cruel again.
    What can I say—I goofed. My sin.”

    “But You are infallible, and even omniscient
    And so You know all of the future meant.”

    “My omnipotence of changing my mind got in the way.”

    “But your omniscience knew you would… one day.”

    “Yeah, I know—it’s a paradox; oh, the strife.
    And I can still technically end all life
    By means other than a flood.”

    “You burned people in Hell, not saved,
    When they didn’t follow
    The unfree will that you gave?”

    “Yes, because I was not a loving God.”

    “Well. God, who made You?”
    “No problem—either I was Eternal or I made Myself be”

    “This is remarkably the same, but for Thee,
    As the Universal ingredients would be.”

    “Then who would need me—wait,
    I don’t want the answer told.”

    “Is the Earth only about 4000 years old?”

    “Of course not, but I may have let that slip to some
    To tease their intelligence apart from being dumb.”

    “Do you mind-read
    The thoughts of every human,
    Using all of your acumen,
    And write the earthly script
    For each event,
    Being so omnipresent?”

    “I tried that, at first, but it didn’t work for Me
    To put my finger on every atom that be
    And micromanage its doings for all of thee.”

    “That’s called ‘God’s Will’, by some, even now.
    What went wrong? Was it the where and how?”

    “It disrupted the atoms’ normal & natural movements.”

    “And that’s what caused the storms unfocused,
    The lightning bolts, and the plagues of locusts?”

    “Yes, so I stopped making such a mess of things.”

    “So, the prayers of six million Jews, pleaded,
    In the holocaust, went all unheeded?”

    “Yes, plus I have better things to do, my sooth,
    Than look after some old experiment of Mine
    From my misspent youth.”

    “Did you really make Adam and Eve
    And all of Earth and Nature, as we believe?”

    “Yes, I made Nature,
    Including the humans, in My image.”

    “It shows in their rage.”

    “Thank you.”

    “God, it’s ID deja-vu all over again—
    I really have to move on.”

    “No, wait. I like your questions.
    I’m mellower now, this being My new direction.
    Not as many strictly admit to Me anymore.”

    “How come so many of the gospels were omitted
    From the New Catholic Testament,
    Like those of Thomas, Peter, Nicodemus,
    Philip, Bartholomew, and more,
    As well as whole books kept from us,
    Although You told some other religions to keep them,
    Such as the Book of Revelations?”

    “Those gospels were embarrassing and wild;
    They told about My Son doing magic tricks
    And practical jokes on people when He was a child.”

    “Oh, we never heard much about his youth.
    And didn’t You send the Mormons proof
    That Jesus spent an early era
    In what was to become America?”

    “Probably.”

    “What about the trillions of galaxies in the sky?”

    “They’re just for show and scenery on high.”

    “Where’s all your rantings and ravings
    That I’ve heard about?”

    “I now take Prozac for My mood swings and bouts.”

    “You don’t really exist, do You, as mental,
    For how could You have an emotional system—
    A composite—and still be absolute and fundamental?”

    “No, I don’t exist, for how could I since I am so horrible?
    Human mammals made all of Me up
    As a very bad example,
    As it turned out, from their many fears
    In the childhood of their species’ years.
    Unfortunately, it caught on to their children’s ears.”

    “So, yet You still subsist
    In this indefinite locus of wishes?”

    “Yes, sort of.
    I am sustained here since many children
    Have learned to obey and listen
    To what is/was told to them,
    For this obeying was an
    Evolutionarily useful thing,
    As many of their obedience
    Resulted from warnings of things
    That were truly dangerous,
    And so the children grew up
    To indoctrinate their own children
    In all the ‘knowledge’.”

    “We’ll have to offer more reason
    To those so indoctrinated.
    Now farewell to You, the impersonated.”

    “See you. Pay no attention to Me as certain,
    But to all those blinded by the curtain.”

    He soon dozed off into never land.​
     
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  5. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    ^are you saying God is neither real nor fake?
     
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  7. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    "Illuminati ti ti ti Seceret Society do Exist"
     
  8. SciWriter Valued Senior Member

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    3,028
    I interviewed all of the Gods, but only in my imagination.
     
  9. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    5,134
    But theres only one God? If you had the power to create would you create others who could undermine you? No you would not.
     
  10. SciWriter Valued Senior Member

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    3,028
    There are Theities and Deities, meaning interfering and non-interfering Gods, plus many specializations of these.


    INTO THE LANDS OF ALL THE GODS

    Into the realm of supernatural figmentations
    I drifted off, within my newest imagination.
    To interview all the ‘living’ Gods there;
    Some who’ve left and some yet ruling everywhere.

    Notions of ‘God’ are of the wide purview
    Of the inquiring mind confined, their ‘why’—
    That wide expanse of fables, faith, hoaxes,
    Lies, imaginations, fictions, guesses,

    Foggy notions, concoctions, phantasms,
    Fantasies, falsehoods, conceptions,
    Decrees, fiats, misrepresentations,
    Dead ideas, magic, proclamations,
    Wild tales, anecdotes, revelations,
    Untruths, revelations, hearsay, scrap heaps,
    Yarns, and fish stories stated as beliefs
    In that unseeable supernatural station
    Through faith’s without knowledge ration;
    These are all figmentations of the imagination.

    Strewn about this great panoramic realm
    Of the One possibly conceivable at the helm
    Are all of the unknowable fabrications
    Often Dreamt up via exaggerations
    By the human race of mammal sapiens.

    The realm of such Pronouncements has come to be
    Superposed at the furthest edge of Reality,
    Poised by the scope of some wishful thinking,
    By all those dreaming and wild supposing,
    Who wish for such legends to be ever
    Actualized and realized; however,
    These ideas have never ever made it
    Into our observable realistic habitat in any way,
    They but remaining in the minds, joint,
    Of the God-beholders—
    Even as varying viewpoints.

    Without so much much as a word to say,
    I passed those to whom most no longer pray,
    Nor believe in, but once did, namely,
    Those of the graveyard tombstones now so unholy:

    Astrology—the God of the Stars that plod,
    Eternally blazed and marbled in the sod,
    The monuments of Diana the Moon God,
    Apollo the Sun God , Baal, Zeus, Wotan,
    Aphrodite, Thor, Mithras, Isis, Amon,
    Poseidon, the Druid Gods, and on and on, anon.

    I ever hurried past the ledgering
    Of those older Mythologies preceding
    The formation of the Old Testament story—
    Those ancient superstitions whose very
    And various olden amalgamations
    Came forth to form it whole for our salvation.

    I paused at that Old Testament maligned,
    To mark the old but lingering lines
    Of the ‘knowing’ of more invisibles,
    The beliefs in imagined angelic creatures…

    There were Angels standing, frozen in stone,
    Over the timeworn memorials’ poems,
    And atop the crumbling gateposts,
    They being the livelier and near-living ghosts
    Of the representations of the three spheres
    Of the heavenly host: the demigod-near
    Seraphims, Cherubims, Ophanims,
    Thrones, Principalities, Dominions,
    Powers, Archangels, Angels, and, those final,
    And perhaps the most useful—the Guardian Angels
    That are said to protect children from falls.
    There, Amaranth, its dead red leaves never
    Ever fading on this Earth unto forever,
    Gave some color around the graveyard pallor
    And to the dateless headstones’ squalor.

    There’s a garish purplish maroon view, on high,
    Of streaking lights of an electromagnetic sky,
    Heretofore never imagined by my self;
    I strolled on and into the vale itself.

    Every-thing, every order happens for a reason?
    Yes, for the most part, for most seasons,
    But not for the bottommost cause the first,
    For there was nothing before it to reason it forth.​
     
  11. CptBork Valued Senior Member

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    6,460
    Ok, that's understandable. Allegations and suspicions can't be used as a basis for definitive conclusions or actions, but they should at minimum warrant a more detailed investigation to determine their veracity.
     
  12. Yazata Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,902
    I agree.

    I don't think that the US military has any official policy of discrimination against non-Christian personnel. The system doesn't seem to care very much what a person's religion is (or isn't), provided that unit cohesion and effectiveness are maintained.

    I know that they survey the forces about what their religious needs are and have been actively recruiting non-Christian chaplains (both commissioned chaplains and civilian volunteers) to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse force. I'm sure that atheists and agnostics are viewed in pretty much the same way.

    But I also think that there are a few individuals within the military, typically fundies, who care very much what their fellow soldiers believe. So if a non-Christian soldier finds him or herself under the command of a militant religious superior, that individual might experience some unofficial discrimination on occasion.

    The military tries to keep a lid on that kind of behavior, but it's going to be hard to document in many cases, since it can be subtle.
     
  13. yaracuy Banned Banned

    Messages:
    364
    What does all that bull have to do with


    Why do Americans still dislike atheists?

    Atheist , bull shit more then a then a goat
     
  14. NMSquirrel OCD ADHD THC IMO UR12 Valued Senior Member

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    God forbid..he may be forced to pray..

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  15. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    8,423
    Fraggle,

    The answer to your question is that theism is an ingrained in the identity of most Americans. Atheists pose a direct challenge to their identities which is often psychologically interpreted as an attempt to kill them. So, in short American theists hate American atheists because they think American atheists are trying to kill them.
     
  16. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    3,522
    That would be a violation of the rights he is fighting for. That's nothing to make light of. :bugeye:
     
  17. NMSquirrel OCD ADHD THC IMO UR12 Valued Senior Member

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    5,478
    my point was more of it doesn't take any effort to pray..(as opposed to making them clean the latrine)
     
  18. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    3,522
    Doesn't take any effort to ignore many rights violations...
     
  19. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    5,902
    If God existed, I'd hope that he would forbid it. Yes.

    (I'm very surprised that you wrote that.)

    Here's the thing --

    Freedom of religion applies in the military, just as it does in the rest of American life.

    It's a vitally important principle, one that's basic to who we are as Americans, and it's something that can't and mustn't be shrugged off with a smug and arrogant sneer.

    If you believe that you, as a Christian, have any right to practice your own religion in this country, then other people need to have equal right to practice theirs. Or to practice no religion at all, if that's their choice.

    That's a big reason why millions of people from minority and dissenting religious sects from all around the world moved to this country in the 18'th, 19'th and 20'th centuries. Because they hoped and they trusted that religious majorities wouldn't persecute them here.

    The freedom of conscience that they sought is one of things that the United States military exists to protect.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2011
  20. SciWriter Valued Senior Member

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    3,028
    If God has the attributes that the believers cite, such as omnipotent, creator, no material manifestation, invisible, beyond all, and unexplainable .... how do they explain Him to themselves ?
     
  21. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    5,134
    God will always exist, even if it be only in my mind.
     
  22. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Oh, like smurfs!
     
  23. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    No. I have no faith smurfs exist.
     

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