Originally Posted by Fats Schindee

So because the majority of the country practices Christianity, we non-Christians should have to deal with Christian dogma being legislated into law and affecting our lives? Interesting logic. The majority of this country is also female (51%), so I guess you should cut off your penis and testicles and "get over it"! Unless you are already a woman, in which case, "you rule"!





So just as long as there is a fantastical, non-realistic (and by this I don't mean "non-plausible" [as "realistic" is commonly equated with "plausible"] - as I'm sure an afterlife is plausible to many - but I mean that it has no basis in reality) element to funeral, it would be comforting to you? Say that Jack dies, and at his funeral someone just says "Jack was a bastard, and now he will rot in Hell with Satan for eternity"... that would be just as comforting? It does involve a theist view with a "higher spirit". Can't a funeral where loved ones show up and celebrate the life (reality) of the deceased and empathize/commiserate about his/her passing (reality) be just as comforting?



"Agnostics I can understand, but Christianity just seems like a joy destroying quest with an agenda to undermine one of the primary components of this societies culture especially when attempts are made to completely remove it from public life."

Besides the fact that, as you mentioned above, the majority of our country are Christians (but we do have laws, and logic, that tell us that just because a majority believe one thing, the minority does not have to believe this as well), my above statement makes just as much sense as the same one you made about atheism. Now, I don't really agree with either statement, but the reasoning used for the former can be applied to the latter. We take "components of this societies culture" to mean the freedom to believe in what you want (your case - Christianity; mine - atheism). And we take "attempts to completely remove it from public life" as the opposition to making laws (applicable to all citizens, of course) regulating the beliefs of one religion or another. We know that is doesn't mean the complete abolition of religion - what you make it sound like in your statement. Just like I would hope that you wouldn't try to completely remove my right to "practice" atheism from public life.



Again, the statement, "Agnostics I can understand, but Christians", works just as well from the other side...

In reality, we are all agnostic. As we've concluded over these thousands of posts, you cannot prove either the existence or non-existence of God or gods or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. So none of us "know" for sure. Yes, we "believe" or "think" or "feel"... but we don't really know. We just lean one way or the other, and some people to further extremes. I lean toward the atheist side based on everything that I have learned, read, heard, experienced, reasoned, discussed, contemplated, discovered and thought over my 32 years on this earth (including 18 years raised as a Christian). It just makes more sense to me...

Originally Posted by Fats Schindee

So because the majority of the country practices Christianity, we non-Christians should have to deal with Christian dogma being legislated into law and affecting our lives? Interesting logic.

Originally Posted by Stan Marsh

No, nobody wants to be ruled by a minority Atheist religion. Get over yourself.

Originally Posted by Flyin145s

What gets me on the flip side of some of this is the notion that the entire universe exists as a great, cosmic mistake...a big accident.

From the size of our planet to it's perfect positioning, with orbiting moon to provide it's gravitational influence, down to the tiniest microbe, it's all just a big, random happenstance.

Even science will tell you that we can't get life from where no life existed, yet we're to believe that exactly that happened strickly by accident.

I don't know what the odds of all that are, but I once heard it described as setting a nuclear bomb off and getting part of the debris to suddenly form a fully functioning 747.

If our planet were larger or smaller, or further or closer to the sun, we wouldn't be here.

Another complexity I read about (and just cut-and-pasted) was taking the example of the E. coli bacteria.

The bacterial flagellum is what propels E. coli bacteria through its microscopic world. It consists of about 40 individual protein parts including a stator, rotor, drive-shaft, U-joint, and propeller. It's a microscopic outboard motor! The individual parts come into focus when magnified 50,000 times (using electron micrographs). And even though these microscopic outboard motors run at an incredible 100,000 rpm, they can stop on a microscopic dime. It takes only a quarter turn for them to stop, shift directions and start spinning 100,000 rpm in the opposite direction! The flagellar motor has two gears (forward and reverse), is water-cooled, and is hardwired into a signal transduction (sensory mechanism) so that it receives feedback from its environment.

But all this was, again, just a big mistake. A random act that could have never happened, in which case, this entire universe (our own galaxy taking 100,000 years to cross if travelling at the speed of light) would be existing right now without any life in it anywhere. A never-ending chasam of emptiness, existing unaware, unappreciated by anyone or anything, because noBODY exists to know about it.

But here we are talking about it. Contemplating it. Not just "life" like bacteria or a plant somewhere, but as individual, cognative and reasoning beings...all by accident.

Ooops!

Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth

Also Atheism is not a religion. This is one of the most tired ploys in the book.
religion - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education

Originally Posted by Stan Marsh

Yes it is.

I've dated one, and she pushed her beliefs on me just the same as any religious person I met. Your all radicals, get over it.

Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth

Also Atheism is not a religion. This is one of the most tired ploys in the book.
religion - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education

Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth

Wow...a generalization from one person. Awesome. I can do the same. All you **** Christians holding "God Hates F@gs" signs at soldier funerals. All of you are crazy.

Do you want to elaborate anymore?

Originally Posted by Red Swingline

From your link...
I see considerable zeal demonstrated here.

Take it easy though Wes, Stan was generalizing about both sides quite evenly. I agree whole heartedly that those people who do that are evil to the core. There is absolutely nothing Biblical about what they do and it's a shame they brand themselves "Christians". I can call myself a Unicorn, but it doesn't mean I am one.