(September 22, 2015 at 2:29 am)Rhythm Wrote: You're reacting poorly to his face, Losty.  Off to the lake of fire you go.

Don't worry Losty.  I'll send you a flame resistant postcard.

Do we get conjugal visits in hell?

Mystic:

I hope your book works out well. I want to point out however that weak atheism cannot be "wrong". It is the default state of not feeling strongly enough to believe in God, nor strongly enough to rule it out as a possibility. It makes no claims, so it cannot be wrong.

If you are talking against strong atheism, the active belief that there is no God, that is a different matter to which I think you should be explicit about.

(September 22, 2015 at 2:34 am)Losty Wrote: Do we get conjugal visits in hell?

Afraid not.  That would be heaven.

(September 21, 2015 at 10:25 pm)MysticKnight Wrote:

Quote:Please tell me you see what you just did. You complained that atheists take a stance that other people should not believe in god. Then when I told you that I don't give any fucks if you believe in god, you responded by telling me if I don't believe in gods power I will be lost. O_o hypocrit much?

From Theist perspective, we should care if you believe in God or not, because you will not find your way without his light, and you will not fulfill your purpose without his guidance from our perspective.   Therefore from our perspective, we care to for you to be reminded of his path and light. 
However from an Atheist perspective, they simply believe they don't know whether or not God exists. At least this is what you are saying. Therefore from this point of view,  you should not easily dismiss knowledge of God in others or the possibility that you can know God exists. Nor should you act like it doesn't matter whether you know God exists or not.

Thanks for the concern mate but really, no need. We're ok without all the mumbo jumbo cheers. Just bother someone else with that stuff ok?

It really doesn't matter one bit to me what people believe. I don't care that you think you know this god thing you can't provide any evidence for, and that's cool, it really is. It's just that none of us care, about your beliefs or your 'god' thing. It really doesn't matter. I've lived a perfectly happy and fulfilling life without ever believing in an unevidenced super being, after all.

Right. If people want to believe that God is somehow the reason we can live our lives, and God did this and God did that, and if God didn't exist things would fall to pieces...

Fine. If that's true, yay God. But it makes no practical difference whether everything is hanging round his neck or not hanging from anything. I'd congratulate him on his work, if I thought it was any good.

How much thanks does an all powerful being really deserve for expending zero effort in creating all this, ultimately for his own amusement?

(September 21, 2015 at 10:11 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote:

(September 21, 2015 at 7:28 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: I'm not crying about how anyone treats me because...

Yeah, that explains this thread.

Haha.

Yeah, it's the funniest thing to see the OP post a demonstrable persecution complex which makes him want to emulate his Jewish zombie god and get some stigmata put in his hands and feet, and yet have the audacity to post a picture that says "lulz, just jokes".

(September 21, 2015 at 7:23 pm)Losty Wrote:

(September 21, 2015 at 7:18 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: How does Stalin (who WAS atheist)  NOT fall under the definition of a "militant atheist"?

How many people did he kill in the name of atheism?

He was an atheist, and he was a militant communist, but he was not a militant atheist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism

Quote:State promotion of atheism as a public norm first came to prominence in Revolutionary France (1789–1799). Revolutionary Mexico followed similar policies from 1917, as did Marxist–Leninist states. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991) and the Soviet Union (1922–1991) had a long history of state atheism, whereby those seeking social success generally had to profess atheism and to stay away from houses of worship; this trend became especially militant during the middle Stalinist era from 1929 to 1939. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress public religious expression over wide areas of its influence, including places such as central Asia.

Quote:Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed (a much greater number was subjected to persecution). Most seminaries were closed, and publication of religious writing was banned. The Russian Orthodox Church, which had 54,000 parishes before World War I, was reduced to 500 by 1940. A meeting of the Antireligious Commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that occurred on 23 May 1929 estimated the portion of believers in the USSR at 80 percent, though this percentage may be understated to prove the successfulness of the struggle with religion.

(September 22, 2015 at 5:48 am)Huggy74 Wrote:

(September 21, 2015 at 7:23 pm)Losty Wrote: How many people did he kill in the name of atheism?

He was an atheist, and he was a militant communist, but he was not a militant atheist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism

Quote:State promotion of atheism as a public norm first came to prominence in Revolutionary France (1789–1799). Revolutionary Mexico followed similar policies from 1917, as did Marxist–Leninist states. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991) and the Soviet Union (1922–1991) had a long history of state atheism, whereby those seeking social success generally had to profess atheism and to stay away from houses of worship; this trend became especially militant during the middle Stalinist era from 1929 to 1939. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress public religious expression over wide areas of its influence, including places such as central Asia.

Quote:Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed (a much greater number was subjected to persecution). Most seminaries were closed, and publication of religious writing was banned. The Russian Orthodox Church, which had 54,000 parishes before World War I, was reduced to 500 by 1940. A meeting of the Antireligious Commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that occurred on 23 May 1929 estimated the portion of believers in the USSR at 80 percent, though this percentage may be understated to prove the successfulness of the struggle with religion.

Communist oppression of religion wasn't about promoting atheism; it was about promoting the State as the sole source of authority, guidance, and power. That wasn't militant atheism, but militant power dynamics. Theists pretty much never get this right because it's far more convenient to say, "Look! Stalin was an atheist and he was HORRIBLE!"


Never mind the fact that this is virtually the only example they come up with that isn't an outright misrepresentation (Hitler gets mentioned a lot, but he was Christian). Never mind the fact that religious people (some even claiming to be deities themselves) likely comprise the vast majority of history's most brutal rulers. Never mind that religious violence is far more typical and rampant than atheist violence. Never mind that atheists make up less than 1% of prison populations even though they comprise up to 23% of the general, American populace. Never mind any of that...atheists are bad people, and militant atheists are just like Stalin.


Fuck off with that shit.

Yeah - I always make it a point of principle to line up against the wall anyone who doesn't think the way I want them to and shag shoot them. Typical atheist.