Atheism As A REJECTION OF--Not Disbelief In--An Evil God (birth control, hell, churches)
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"We are the masters (or mistresses) of our own despair."
You are the moderator of this forum, the goddess of determination. You apparently know the life histories of every one here. All good stuff for creative writing. Ha.
You weren't answered and you were screwed. There is no deity to blame. Its was not religions fault.
If we blame religion for the bad, then blame it for the good too.
There is no deity to blame.
To an extent, it was my own fault I bought the load of horse-pucky that religion sold. That was my role.
To an extent, religion is responsible for selling a false bill of goods. That was their role.
At this point it's water over the bridge for me and I'm sure for most non-theists. There are no scores to settle. But I do my small part to make sure that religious ideation does not have an effortless time of duping others.
It is true that religion is not all bad. It often provides refuge and community and support. It organizes good works. Both ordinary adherents and leadership can be very good people.
It is also true that you can substitute "humanity" for "religion" in the above sentence and it would be equally true.
This is different than what I said. I said, believing in some thing more is far more reliable than denying it all.
I believe in some thing more. I use a measurement. Just go outside and look around. You are part of that system. its is bigger and more complex than you. There is no deity and there is magic. We are stats. You weren't answered and you were screwed. There is no deity to blame. Its was not religions fault.
If we blame religion for the bad, then blame it for the good too.
Yes, I do agree that there is more in the universe than just us, obviously. I recognize that we are all part of a system - as you said, go outside and look around, one can SEE that system. I don't have to take it on faith that the system exists.
I wasn't answered because there is no deity. You said it yourself, twice: "There is no deity and there is no magic." And. "There is no deity to blame."
But it IS religion's fault. Without religion, I would never have thought to beseech a deity in the first place. It was via religion that the promise was made:
Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete. -- Matthew 7:7 (Among other verses)
Joy? I forgot what that feels like. I only have vague memories of feeling joy back when I was in high school and college. Not only is my joy not complete, it has been completely taken from me. The best, THE best emotion I ever feel now is contentment. Period. Nothing else.
Is it religion's fault? Well ... it isn't religion's fault that I wasn't answered. Especially since it's pretty obvious to me that there are no deities - or at least no deities that pull and yank and manipulate the strings of our lives. I can blame religion for offering up a promise it could never keep - and no doubt the authors of the Bible knew it could never keep the promises written in Matthew.
Therefore, why should I give religion credit for good things? The ONLY thing I'll give religion credit for is that, yes, it has helped some people on an individual basis climb out of a bad place in their lives. It can be used as a crutch for those who cannot or refuse to see the illusory nature of religion's message.
There is no logical reason why blaming it for bad things means we must "blame" it for good things, too. I don't believe for a nanosecond the two are at all equal. Especially since religion as an institution has done far more harm than good to the human condition.
'Religion as an institution doing more harm than good....' but the Golden Rule of Leviticus 19:18 only does good.
If everyone on Earth lived by the Golden Rule what bad would we see on Earth.
Also, Jesus gave a NEW commandment found at John 13:34-35 to have self-sacrificing love for others as he has.
In other words, we are NOW to love neighbor MORE than self, MORE than the Golden Rule.
So, to me it is false religion that had done the harm to the human condition.
Corrupted religion taught as being Scripture but is Not really what Scripture teaches.
I feel particularly blessed NOT to have come to believe in God, let alone Jesus, through the dogma of religion. I have no confusion about the nature of God whatsoever because I experienced Him directly. I identified the mind of Jesus as His EXACT consciousness. That is why I adopted Christianity.
As an atheist, I had zero expectations about God which is why I have no angst about God not living up to my expectations. But now I KNOW He is there because I am never alone and have not been since my encounters. It seems to me all the angst and discord revolves around the human-created expectations about God which is rather puerile, IMO.
Unfortunately, I find the dominant dogma and doctrines antithetic to Christ as He is described as revealing Himself on the Cross. The widespread acceptance of the primitive and barbaric explanation of why He endured the Cross and forgave us for our brutality and ignorance is an enigma to me. It is so completely OPPOSITE of the mind of Christ and the True Nature of God's Holy Spirit as revealed by Jesus!!!
It seems to me to be an even split, especially in the little circle of resident theists vs. atheists who seek to spar with one another on a regular basis. One throws out bait, and another swallows the hook, and off you all go, and both sides of the argument do it. I think you all secretly enjoy it, to tell the truth.
I enjoy refuting the arguments in what is for me a foreign language language, but the constant ad hominems are annoying, as are the deliberate derails.
But it is amusing to hear the whine that the religious and spiritual are here to discuss their beliefs in a deliberate derail that actually kills any discussion.
In order to entice pagans to join their brand new religion, early Christian leaders wrote an eye-watering promise into the four gospels they claimed their avatar god Jesus made, "If you ask the Father for ANYTHING in my name he will give it to you." It was brilliant strategy. Get 'em roped into Christianity first and worry about how to justify unfulfilled phony promises later. And indeed eventually, as might be expected, pagan converts started complaining that their prayers weren't being answered. Time for the church leaders to go to work.
"How do we stop these pagans from leaving Christianity because Jesus isn't answering their prayers?" "Just tell them they have to do certain things to get their prayers answered."
and so on and so on and so on and so on......... Are you all catching on to the ruse now?
The one not "catching on" is you.
What you are really so tweaked out about...is that some interpret, and others even teach, metaphorical and allegorical works of literary art as literal accounts of occurrences and people/beings.
You know logically and reasonably that things didn't actually go down like that & are fully invented and/or embellished, and that the characters are fully representative and/ or embellished. But instead of just noting that, you go off on what the representative characters thought, or what they did or didn't do. This does not make sense...it is irrational.
If it bothers you that much...go off on those that would believe and/or teach these things from a literal basis, and especially those that coerce others or make money off of them from it.
But to get all twisted up about the attitude and/or actions and inactions of representative characters from works of literary art, and actually blame these artistic entities and hold them responsible for things, is indicative of some kinda issues...and depending on the level of twisting, serious issues.
Just curious--does God owe any duty of care to children as they are gunned down in elementary school--as they pray to God to deliver them from the evil men who are about to kill them? Does Jesus really love these children? Couldn't Jesus if he was real just make the gunman's gun jam?
But thanks for showing us your superpowers of not only being able to use clairvoyance and clairaudience to see what happened in some far away place, but being able to use those powers to see backwards in time, as well.
I'd keep those powers under wraps though or the government will come after you.
I was being facetious, though I think my answer is the one you can and should very often expect from those who have been able to connect with God in ways you apparently have not. Not much in the way of clairvoyance or clairaudience in any case. Just some insight I've gained along the way in this forum...
I had to look up clairaudience, so thanks for that in any case!
Just curious--does God owe any duty of care to children as they are gunned down in elementary school--as they pray to God to deliver them from the evil men who are about to kill them? Does Jesus really love these children? Couldn't Jesus if he was real just make the gunman's gun jam?
Similar to what I have asked about freeing the Jews from the Egyptians. Instead of all the plagues and having to part the Red Sea, couldn't god have just put the Egyptians to sleep for a few days?
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