I know it's an old joke but I like to use it to describe myself sometimes...
'A christian, a jew, and an atheist are all about to be executed during the french revolution. The christian is taken up first to the guillotine and is laid down under the blade. "My God will save me", he yells just before the executioner pulls the handle. The mighty blade swooshes down, but suddenly stops short, just an inch above the man's neck. The executioner, feeling that he certainly can't kill a man saved by God, sets the christian free. The jew is dragged next, kicking and screaming up to his death. He yells out "My God will save me", as the handle is yanked. Just as before, the blade stops short, and the man is set free. The skeptical atheist has witnessed all this, and in his skeptical way, he examines the death machine with his eyes, and happens upon a pebble stuck in the gears. He proudly walks up, confident in his knowledge of the world and says, "well here's your problem".
The moral to that story is, "There's a time and place for skepticism".
Thats me. And I've been that way for as long as I can remember. I have no recollection of ever "believing" anything I didn't know to be true. My mother and I remember a talk we had when I was six. We were sitting on the edge of my bed one cold winter morning in Detroit, and I was crying. I was afraid that my mom was one of those morons that actually believed in Santa Claus. I was scared that she might leave the responsibility of putting presents under the tree to some imaginary fat guy with, get this, a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer. She is raised catholic and might believe anything....
I'm not especially popular at parties.
I've never been afraid of the dark, because dead things don't friggin' move, and consequently I've tripped in quite a few holes.
But it's for this reason that I have always been an atheist. Not because of any evidence or lack there of. I've never felt in my life that the burden of proof lay with me. I've never had a "profound spiritual dilema". I've not really found the need in my life to research science or religion to "justify" my knowledge of the world. So, therefore, I'm not exactly up on all the jargun and scientific lingo. I know a bit more than most, but not much more. I'm about the smartest dumb guy you'll ever meet.
You see, for me, religion and God and satan and morals and evolution and heaven and hell and big bang and "Goddidit" doesn't even come into play.
Even though all life on this planet, as we know it to be, dies and just rots away, I'm to believe that we humans, the some how most special creature, do not "actually" die. Oh no!! We live on! Complete with all of our thoughts and memories, and all our knowledge and understanding. That we live on, in some spiritual invisible plain of existence. But wait!! Thats not all! We live on FOREVER!! WOW! We'll always be somewhere! We'll never cease to be! We'll never stop existing! What comfort in that thought, huh folks?
It falls in exactly with the understanding of how evolution works. Think of a creature that has based it's entire process of developement and adaptation to it's evironment on natural selection, and think of that creature developing the ability to reason. A creature who strives mostly above all to pass along it's genes, might easily come up with the idea of eternal life to cope with the realization that it will one day die.
I know it's not the news from lake Wobegon, but it's the truth. When your dead, your dead, dead. Not like not dead. Your really dead. All of our families who have fallen are gone. It's hard to except, I know. But thats pretty much the whole existential story.
Science, in my opinion, was invented because some guy like me thought, "No way..." when told the story of creation. It's not science's fault that people came up with this rediculous story. I mean, come on. The theist started this arguement.
Yes, I do tend to think that people who believe are deluding themselves. And because there are 14 Gajillion believers out there I have to put up with laws that limit my freedom. One would think that I would be safe in a country that was founded primarily on THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH OF STATE but it's becoming more and more of problem lately and I don't like it.
I also don't like the fact that this forum doesn't have a spellcheck. I know what you guys are up to. You wanna see just how smart us posters really are. I get ya. I'm down.
I gotta stop. I could ramble on forever. I need to work out or somethin'. Get a life. geez.....
'A christian, a jew, and an atheist are all about to be executed during the french revolution. The christian is taken up first to the guillotine and is laid down under the blade. "My God will save me", he yells just before the executioner pulls the handle. The mighty blade swooshes down, but suddenly stops short, just an inch above the man's neck. The executioner, feeling that he certainly can't kill a man saved by God, sets the christian free. The jew is dragged next, kicking and screaming up to his death. He yells out "My God will save me", as the handle is yanked. Just as before, the blade stops short, and the man is set free. The skeptical atheist has witnessed all this, and in his skeptical way, he examines the death machine with his eyes, and happens upon a pebble stuck in the gears. He proudly walks up, confident in his knowledge of the world and says, "well here's your problem".
The moral to that story is, "There's a time and place for skepticism".
Thats me. And I've been that way for as long as I can remember. I have no recollection of ever "believing" anything I didn't know to be true. My mother and I remember a talk we had when I was six. We were sitting on the edge of my bed one cold winter morning in Detroit, and I was crying. I was afraid that my mom was one of those morons that actually believed in Santa Claus. I was scared that she might leave the responsibility of putting presents under the tree to some imaginary fat guy with, get this, a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer. She is raised catholic and might believe anything....
I'm not especially popular at parties.
I've never been afraid of the dark, because dead things don't friggin' move, and consequently I've tripped in quite a few holes.
But it's for this reason that I have always been an atheist. Not because of any evidence or lack there of. I've never felt in my life that the burden of proof lay with me. I've never had a "profound spiritual dilema". I've not really found the need in my life to research science or religion to "justify" my knowledge of the world. So, therefore, I'm not exactly up on all the jargun and scientific lingo. I know a bit more than most, but not much more. I'm about the smartest dumb guy you'll ever meet.
You see, for me, religion and God and satan and morals and evolution and heaven and hell and big bang and "Goddidit" doesn't even come into play.
Even though all life on this planet, as we know it to be, dies and just rots away, I'm to believe that we humans, the some how most special creature, do not "actually" die. Oh no!! We live on! Complete with all of our thoughts and memories, and all our knowledge and understanding. That we live on, in some spiritual invisible plain of existence. But wait!! Thats not all! We live on FOREVER!! WOW! We'll always be somewhere! We'll never cease to be! We'll never stop existing! What comfort in that thought, huh folks?
It falls in exactly with the understanding of how evolution works. Think of a creature that has based it's entire process of developement and adaptation to it's evironment on natural selection, and think of that creature developing the ability to reason. A creature who strives mostly above all to pass along it's genes, might easily come up with the idea of eternal life to cope with the realization that it will one day die.
I know it's not the news from lake Wobegon, but it's the truth. When your dead, your dead, dead. Not like not dead. Your really dead. All of our families who have fallen are gone. It's hard to except, I know. But thats pretty much the whole existential story.
Science, in my opinion, was invented because some guy like me thought, "No way..." when told the story of creation. It's not science's fault that people came up with this rediculous story. I mean, come on. The theist started this arguement.
Yes, I do tend to think that people who believe are deluding themselves. And because there are 14 Gajillion believers out there I have to put up with laws that limit my freedom. One would think that I would be safe in a country that was founded primarily on THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH OF STATE but it's becoming more and more of problem lately and I don't like it.
I also don't like the fact that this forum doesn't have a spellcheck. I know what you guys are up to. You wanna see just how smart us posters really are. I get ya. I'm down.
I gotta stop. I could ramble on forever. I need to work out or somethin'. Get a life. geez.....
Enjoy your time here it is a great place to hang out with cool mix of atheists and theists.
![[Image: Untitled2_zpswaosccbr.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i1140.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn569%2Fthesummerqueen%2FUntitled2_zpswaosccbr.png)
![[Image: blasphemer.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i4.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy108%2Frschilla%2Fblasphemer.jpg)
from Oz Speakeasy. 
