Christians forgive themselves

[ronedee]

Since when do I persecute atheists?

*sigh*.."persecution"...in general.

Not only is this not a disadvantage to us, it's actually a disadvantage to you. You are dogmatically required to hold certain beliefs, so when reality disputes your beliefs, you are forced either to change the definition of reality and knowledge so that you can interpret them as not contradicting your beliefs, or you just deny reality outright. That's not a problem we face. We're not perfect about it, but we do try our best to allow reality to define our beliefs and discard them when further discovery reveals them to be of no value.

You want to define the truth, we want to discover it. You hold your beliefs as sacred, we view beliefs as ephemeral and of limited value. Because of that, we'll always have the advantage.

What "change of definition" are you talking about? And what "certain belief" about creation is it that I'm wrong about?

You've told me a lot about myself! But, nothing about why "everything" exists.

I'm listening? What answers do you have for me to "change" my mind?

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So, first of all, was this even a response to me? I mean, you quoted me, but then you seemed to spin off in some completely different direction that didn't address anything I said. It's weird.

I was trying to say that there are many reasons for "persecution". But no hard fast reason. Its subjective and selective depending on many, many factors. My experiences of it are on the net exclusively. But, I'm a bit intimidating in person and that probably has a little to do with that. Although my dad (atheist) and brother (aggy) have no problem getting in my face about religion.

That said, I'm not just going from my experiences; I do listen when other people speak here, so I know for a fact that many other atheists, more than just me, are capable of talking to christians without "persecuting" them, making your accusation of persecution here demonstrably false by definition.

No. You are not the subject of persecution here. So you don't have that first hand knowledge.

You understand that I think literally nothing is a consequence of god, because there isn't one, right? In this religious question, there is only the catholic church, from my perspective; one organization making the rules, and then breaking them as it sees fit. Whether or not it's written down as a rule makes no difference; the organization is hypocritical and harmful, and to merely make excuses that they aren't following the rules, as if that absolves you of any connection to the organization you are a part of, is just a desperate attempt to evade responsibility.

How about this? Next time a catholic sex abuse scandal comes up in the news, instead of just going "not in the rules, not our responsibility, nothing to see here," you instead repudiate the actions of those claiming to represent you and actually contribute to some positive changes?

When did I say "not in the rules"? You know not to whom you speak!

You've taken a page(vaguely) from my past posts. No need to preach to the choir on this one.

This bothers me: are you really saying that any answer, even an incorrect one, is better than actually admitting that you don't know?

No. I meant... we "both" have "no proof". But, everything exists.

I say if atheists were right, we wouldn't be talking right now. In fact, no one would.