*Rolls eyes*
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And, to borrow from Duckphup:
Think of it as a Public Service.
It is the moral responsibility and ethical duty of rational people to protect vulnerable minds from being contaminated by Bronze Age myths and willful ignorance. Beyond that, Christianity represents a huge threat to the well-being and survival of our country and to the whole world... and so it must be confronted.
http://www.yuricareport.com/dominionism/...
http://www.yuricareport.com/dominionism/...
I prefer the term 'Rationalist', or 'Free Thinker', as opposed to 'atheist', or 'unbeliever', since those terms capture more of the people who think that religious beliefs are stupid and irrelevant than the term 'atheist' does. Those terms capture the main reason that people BECOME Atheists... i.e., they have learned how to THINK properly. Once someone learns how to think properly, religious belief is one of the first casualties. Religious belief... particularly the Abrahamic death cults of desert monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)... simply cannot withstand the glaring light of reason and critical thought. It just evaporates. Poof. The fact that Christians assert and promote such ridiculous beliefs is a clear indication that they CAN'T (or WON'T) think properly.
Rational people recognize that some people who visit this forum are truly, sincerely seeking answers... with an open mind (willing to honestly consider alternative possibilities), and with intellectual honesty (willingness to freely question and doubt their own presumptions). That being the case, it is the MORAL OBLIGATION of rational people to HELP them keep their minds open, and to make them aware of some of those alternative possibilities. Inevitably, those alternative possibilities DO NOT include things like a terrarium earth, talking snakes and donkeys, demons, friendly spirits, evil spirits, walking on water, multiplying loaves and fishes, people raising from the dead, stopping the sun in its tracks, parting seas, people being bodily sucked up into heaven (which, by the way, lies on the other side of the sky), world-wide floods, creating people from dust bunnies and ribs, magical trees of knowledge, gods speaking from burning bushes... and ritual cannibalism by eating god in the form of a cracker.
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"A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism” ~ Donald Morgan
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So, when someone comes along in a PUBLIC FORUM, regurgitating dogmatic slogans, and the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of a tribe of ignorant Bronze Age fishermen and wandering goat herders, and declaring them to represent some kind of cosmic 'TRUTH' (without the least bit of credible evidence)... well, by golly, that just HAS TO BE confronted.
All faith-based religious belief is fully deserving of all the scorn and ridicule that can be heaped upon it. It is a simple matter of people with rational minds having a moral obligation to stand in opposition to willful ignorance. It is quite necessary that this be done, if we are to have any hope that the human race will survive and evolve to meet its full potential. So, when these myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions are presented and declared to 'TRUTH', in the venue of a PUBLIC FORUM, a confrontation is inevitable.
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"I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do." ~ D. Dale Gulledge
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In order to have a rational view of the universe, it is necessary that one possess the mental faculties that facilitate reason, logic and critical thought. The things that are entailed by Christian beliefs demonstrate, beyond any doubt, a lack of those capabilities. Christians do serve a useful purpose in this forum, though... as a classic 'bad example'. They obligingly provide assertions about impossible happenings and circumstances, and magical delusions, and glaring misconceptions about science and nature and the universe... which can then be rationally confronted and exposed, and their preposterousness revealed.
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"The god who is reputed to have created fleas to keep dogs from moping over their situation must also have created fundamentalists to keep rationalists from getting flabby. Let us be duly thankful for our blessings." ~ Garrett Hardin
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Again... rational people are not trying to convert Christians... we are trying to protect people FROM Christians, and the insidious mind killing delusions and willful ignorance which they seek to spread, as if they were some kind of organized, dogmatic insanity virus.
However, rational people generally DO respect everyone's right (in the privacy of their own minds) to delude themselves in whatever fashion they deem fit.
Science, logic, reason, and critical thought have long been regarded (by religious people) as the enemies of religion. Considering that those are the tools of highly intelligent people, it should not come as a huge shock to learn that intelligence (or lack of it) has some connection to religious belief. In fact, there are about 40 studies, conducted over the past 80 years or so, that reveal a statistically significant NEGATIVE CORRELATION between intelligence and religiosity. In plainer language, that means that they found that the more intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to be religious... or, conversely, the LESS intelligent a person is, the MORE likely that person is to be religious.
If you think about it, those findings make a lot of sense. Intelligence tests mainly provide an indication of reasoning ability and problem solving ability... logic, reason and critical thought. These are the very qualities that see through religion, and recognize it for what it is; i.e., religion cannot survive the glaring light of reason and critical thought. This was well understood by important figures in religious history. This is why the early church destroyed all the 'tainted' (non-canonical) writings, which were in conflict with dogma... Greek philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, engineering... all the good stuff. By this means, Christianity dragged humanity directly into the Dark Ages.
Just to illustrate the point, let's see what Martin Luther, the 'father' of protestantism, had to say about 'reason' and secular knowledge:
"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther
"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason... Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther
"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther
Christianity is essentially a criminal business enterprise... in fact, it is the world's longest running and most successful Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scam. The product they are selling is the illusion of 'salvation'... and the 'pay plan' doesn't kick in until after you're dead. Meanwhile the victims (having been deceived into believing that it is their God-given duty) are out there busily recruiting MORE victims. What a racket! FORTUNATELY, it only works on those who are gullible enough, and sufficiently lacking in critical thinking skills, to fall for it. UNfortunately, THAT accounts for about 75% of the population of the USA. (There are a lot more people who DON'T know how to think properly than there are people who DO know how to think properly.) That is why there are a lot more religious people in the USA than there are 'Free-thinkers'... including Atheists. Also, Christians are generally too dense to realize that proselytizing (spreading the 'good news') is a key element of the Christian MLM MARKETING PLAN, which was instituted after Christianity lost the political power that had previously allowed them to simply torture and kill anybody who did not comply. Now, they obliviously try to just pester and annoy people to death, through persistent obnoxiousness. If you stop to think about it, you will realize that Christians are very much like the Borg, on Star Trek Next Generation: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." I would not be surprised to learn that thoughts of Christianity provided the 'creative spark' for the Borg concept.
Interestingly, statistics on supernatural beliefs count the USA on a par with backward, developing Third World nations, rather than among modern, advanced industrial powers.
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"Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered." ~ Victor J. Stenger
"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure." ~ Harvard Lampoon, "Doon" (paraphrase)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/recons...
http://home.ca.inter.net/oblio/home.htm...