Another horrible person who's only reason for being anything less than horrible is fairies.

What a tired story.

(May 24, 2013 at 2:48 pm)goodnews Wrote: If you atheists do not like being called a religion , your dispute is not with me, but with the interpretation of a dictionary suplied by one of your own bretheren. I have given my views on religion, being the same found in the scriptures, many times, but oddly, it would seem that, it helps not your cause, when you learn the scriptures reffer to religion as the abomination of the earth, mens doctrins as plagues, the mother church as the Great whore and all the churches that came from it harlots. If there is anyone on this forum who should be opposed to being called religious its me, however I dont get offended, its only a word and many of the atheists here call me names far worse, for no reason, but then I used to steal, pouch and deal drugs on the streets of Cape Town and spend time in dark places where profanity is a language and pure evil a means of survival, so my hide is prehaps not as soft as some go figar

(May 24, 2013 at 2:48 pm)goodnews Wrote: If you atheists do not like being called a religion , your dispute is not with me, but with the interpretation of a dictionary suplied by one of your own bretheren.

Fail. Almost every post you make, makes it more evident that you're not familiar with dictionaries and in this case it's not any different.

Quote:I have given my views on religion, being the same found in the scriptures, many times, but oddly, it would seem that, it helps not your cause, when you learn the scriptures reffer to religion as the abomination of the earth, mens doctrins as plagues, the mother church as the Great whore and all the churches that came from it harlots.

Wow, I never thought that I would find anyone who's more fond of using commas than me

Quote:If there is anyone on this forum who should be opposed to being called religious its me, however I dont get offended, its only a word and many of the atheists here call me names far worse, for no reason, but then I used to steal, pouch and deal drugs on the streets of Cape Town and spend time in dark places where profanity is a language and pure evil a means of survival, so my hide is prehaps not as soft as some go figar

How come that when people seem to lose the ground they stand upon that they start talking about how thick skin they've got? Yes, yes, you're so special for not belonging to a religion and not being atheist, you must be quite the hipster in the anti-religious sense. How marvelous.

goodnews:

Being a theist doesn't make someone religious. Having a religion makes someone religious. You can be a theist and not have a religion because theism isn't a religion. You can be an atheist and have a religion, but the religion can't be atheism, because atheism isn't a religion any more than theism is.

For example, I am an atheist with a religion. My religion is Unitarian Universalism.

You could say someone who goes fly fishing every Saturday is religious about it, but that's a very different sense of the word.

(May 24, 2013 at 11:59 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: You're welcome.

Although the Piraha believe spirits exist, I could find nothing on them 'calling on' the spirits or spirits looking after them. They do make amulets to protect them from spirits. They seem to interpret some of the natural things they see as being manifestations of spirits. Although they accept the existence of spirits, they don't seem to worship them. The absolute sense of worship is to show reverent love and devotion.

However, the Piraha are certainly not free of superstition, despite their built-in skepticism in not believing stories about something that the tellers haven't seen for themselves.

You make a noteworthy point. According to my definitions and beliefs though, worshipping a deity other than God means giving the rights of God to other than God. Having an amulet means you believe that it will protect you in a 'supernatural' way, the only being that can provide a 'supernatural' type of protection is God, so calling upon spirits believing that they will hear you or that you will hear them and they will grant you something is the embodiment of worship. Having an amulet is automatically considered worship according to me (because Islam says so obviously ) That's the kind of stuff they seem to be doing and it does sounds closer to polytheism than atheism, in fact I just saw a picture of them wearing all these different amulets together, they look pretty devoted to it. 

I think this is just about definitions really, but what they are doing is definitely considered polytheism according to me. Although I only did a quick bit of research and this issue definitely requires further exploration.

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(May 24, 2013 at 12:45 pm)Minimalist Wrote: You strike me as the kind who hangs out in gay bathrooms.

Only one bathroom I hang out in, Mrs Min's For a BJ obviously...

To the OP, many atheists start out religious and lose their faith after certain events. I used to be an evangelical fundamentalist, meaning that I believed the Bible was literally true and tried to convert other people to Christianity.

My first objections were personal. I was treated very badly by people who had been my friends. Only then did I notice that most people who go to school to study the Bible end up losing faith in it once they learned the history behind it.

Once the Bible fell, that was it for me. I find that it's usually a combination of things that cause people to lose their religion. However, once you don't believe, you can understand the arguments against religion because you're not bound to it anymore.

My biggest problem with Christianity is that it devalues humans and forces you to accept that devaluation. It teaches you that your whole nature is to be bad and any good you have done is the result of god. Not only that, but you must beg forgiveness for your bad nature from the very god that gave it to you.

It is human nature to do evil, but it is also human nature to do good.

(May 24, 2013 at 2:58 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Another horrible person who's only reason for being anything less than horrible is fairies.

What a tired story.

I'm glad none of my religious friends are like him. If their faith ever waivers i could wake up dead tomorrow!

My problem with Christianity is the fact that it isn't enough for many Christians to live their lives as they see fit, but wish to impose their nonsense on everyone else.

True, cato, but that is more of a problem with some Christians, not Christianity.

I don't think the server is big enough to handle going down that road...