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An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:42 pm
All my life, I thought it was odd that my polling place happened to be a church. I always figured that would be the last place polls would be because of the "separation of church and state" thing, but I guess not. Then, last year, the year right before I would be able to vote, I finally asked my dad why our polling place was a church, and I found out that the church was actually no longer a church. Yes, as it turned out, the church closed down, and had been converted into a community center! I was surprised, as this had never happened before, as far as I was aware! Because of that, I felt a mild sense of satisfaction. I don't know, should it be regarded as a victory for atheism to have a Christian church converted into a secular community center, or is it just no big deal?
"Sisters, you know only the north; I have traveled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did--not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to."
-Ruta Skadi, The Subtle Knife
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Happens all the time here 
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:44 pm
hahahahaha
Sorry - down here churches are turned into just about everything and back again...simply because there are so many! Some of them ARE quite beautiful though. It's probably more a question of economics than anything else.
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:45 pm
I don't see atheism as some kind of organized cult wanting to take over the world, so tbh, I don't see it as a victory.
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Where is "here"? I'm sorry, but I have no idea where you guys are.
"Sisters, you know only the north; I have traveled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did--not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to."
-Ruta Skadi, The Subtle Knife
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:53 pm
England.
Y'know, that place where the rest of the world usually comes from.
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 3:55 pm
You mean the place that the rest of the world runs away from. 
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Hey, give us some credit. We sent the Australians away ourselves.
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Happens all the time in Sweden. A church just close to me just turned into a new H&M.
![[Image: lrg_HM.gif]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.logotypes101.com%2Ffiles%2F189%2Fafb3d140d94c2c379e0601d444b7a906%2Flrg_HM.gif)
As a backfire, those god damn Scientologists bought an old sugerfactory for 50 million SEK (5 million dollars) in Malmoe and turned it into a science fiction freakshow.
"We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat."
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RE: An atheist victory?
January 13, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Here in the bible belt, if a church is shut down, it pretty much just stays empty unless some other religious group or denomination buys it. But, alas, if a church shuts down it's not necessarily because there are fewer religious and more atheists, but because the town is shrinking and there aren't enough dedicated church goers to support having a church. This is what happened to the church I grew up attending. The town now owns it and the church hall which is used for community events by anyone who wants to rent it. Even though there are few church goers, the ones who don't go still believe but just don't want to spend an hour every week in the pews.
But yes, every time I see an empty, abandoned church, I see it as a victory for reason.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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