Happiness level after embracing atheism

[Jackalope]

A fast food worker as an individual cannot afford a fleet of lawyers or a superpac like a CEO.

Most fast food workers in the US don't pay income taxes.  In fact, they get extra money in the form of "earned income credit".  Nothing against them - just a fact.

That is not universally true.  In order to qualify for anything under the EIC, you either need to make less than ~53K and have qualifying children, or make less than 14K.  A single person non-parent working minimum wage full time in my state absolutely does not qualify.

[Athene]

That was pretty fucking sleazy, Lek...as if your specific brand of  bullshit is any better.  

What's meaningless is any pretense of care and concern, when you'd really just like to "win one for the team." Don't bother denying it; You've already admitted that you'd be a selfishly callous, criminally-minded bastard without your bedtime story.

So, obviously giving a shit doesn't come naturally to you.
Sleazy weasel.

Gee.  All I said was that I'd cheat on my taxes if I was an atheist!  I know of more that one atheist who tries to get theists to become atheists because they honestly want to do what's best for those individuals.  I guess that's OK with you, but not the other way around.  I get slapped around all the time in this forum and I don't recall any atheist telling the slappers that they are scum for being mean to me.  And I wasn't even being mean!  Grow up and take a look at your own posts.  Listening to you all would make somebody think that you're all paragons of virtue.

I called you sleazy because of the shameless self-promotion you injected into your response to a forum member's personal struggles.

You did more than attempt to exploit another poster's hardship in order to "win one for Da Lord". You went the extra mile in suggesting that that her prior beliefs as an actual Christian (Catholic) weren't Christian enough; because she didn't observe Lek's preferred rendition of the same horseshit.

[robvalue]

Well, I'm a stunned mullet. I'll just chalk this one up to experience and move on.

[Ravenshire]

I didn't say all.  The post I was responding to in conjunction with your prior post on the topic appears to imply that you think atheists are more likely to cheat on their taxes.

I didn't intend to imply that.  I was talking only about myself, but I can see how you could take that meaning from it.  Being a christian does keep me from doing many things that I would otherwise do.  It's just a fact.

It is truly fucking sad that you need an imaginary sky-daddy figure to keep you in check.

Never. Stop. Believing. I'd hate to see what you'd be capable of without it.

[robvalue]

The saddest thing is, I don't believe him. I believe that he believes this kind of stuff, but I honestly don't think he'd act the way he describes if he lost his faith. It's part of the brainwashing to equate atheism with immorality and nihilism.

If he's got empathy and a conscience, he would discover those things won't disappear just because he doesn't think Jesus is looking over his shoulder. Those are real things that keep us in check, it's just religion gives us magical explanations for this rather than scientific ones. We do have scientific ones, that's the saddest part. This isn't even gap filling, it's crossing out and replacing.

Now, if he doesn't have a conscience and empathy, all bets are off. But I highly doubt this is the case.

[Ravenshire]

Maybe it's true in Lek's case, Rob. Then again, maybe it's not. People can and have done some stupid shit upon losing their faith.

[robvalue]

Sure, I'd expect people to be out of whack right after losing religion and possibly acting a bit mental for a bit. But I'd say in 95% of cases they will realize, "Oh. Actually, I don't want to behave like a twat after all." They'll realize the invisible leash wasn't the thing keeping them from straying.

Maybe Lek, for whatever reason, genuinely can't behave decently without the belief in a supernatural spy. Maybe so. But I've heard so many people who have said this exact kind of thing, and then found out they were wrong.

[Ravenshire]

Maybe I'm just too cynical.

[Athene]

Maybe I'm just too cynical.

Maybe, maybe not...Doesn't matter.
New usernames do, and yours is quite excellent.

[robvalue]

Yeah, what a cool ass name!