RE: Why can't we accept it?
April 22, 2014 at 5:57 am
(This post was last modified: April 22, 2014 at 6:02 am by Atheist And Proud.)
(April 21, 2014 at 12:39 pm)Kitanetos Wrote:(April 21, 2014 at 12:36 pm)Atheist And Proud Wrote: Yes but not every person who believes in God is harmful so they don't need to be an Atheist thats what I've been trying to say.
The point in this instance, then, should not be reliant upon the concept of harm. Rather, it should be based on the reasonable understanding of valuing the harsh truth over the comfortable lie.
There is no valid, logical reason to believe in that which there is no evidence to support its existence. Making the claim that religious belief makes theists feel good is begging the question.
All i'm trying to say is people should be able to believe in what they want. Aslong as it doesn't affect other people around them. I mean I know a couple of religious people that are really nice people, they don't try to change my views or anything....
(April 21, 2014 at 12:49 pm)Raeven Wrote: AAP, you don't understand how insidious religious creep has become in this country, the USA.
I remember a time when things were more like they are in the UK. You believe what you believe, and I believe what I believe, and you keep yours in church, and I'll keep mine to myself. But that's no longer the case.
A big part of the growing fundamentalist Xtian movement in the USA is not only to proselytize, but to impose those beliefs directly into the government that governs us all. For a long time, atheists took the laissez faire approach you advocate. What we have gotten for our live-and-let-live approach is the Ten Commandments shoved in our faces at courthouses throughout the country; a fully false but now quite persistent meme that our nation was founded as a Xtian nation (exactly the opposite is in fact true); public meetings now opened with prayer. Atheists here have begun to realize that if they don't fight back, we will lose our rights to ignore what Xtians believe. The militancy of certain religious groups here is hard to grasp unless you have lived it. Shunning is a big tool in their toolbox.
I have a wonderful community of non-believer friends. It's not hard to form a community without religion if you choose to do that.
I'm all for letting people believe what they want and always have been. But I am no longer indifferent to the harm I suffer from the spread of religious practices within my government. I speak out much more often now, and I'll continue to do so.
I am also incapable of putting even a tacit imprimatur on the validity of notions that don't withstand even the most basic scrutiny with a critical eye. To put the creation story up as an equally valid alternative to, say, the fossil record, is, in my opinion, an insult to the nobility of science and its reliability as a method. One is a pretty story so people don't have to think about things too much; the other is the truth. When someone tells me they don't "believe" in evolution, they may as well say they don't "believe" in the food they're eating as we enjoy our lunch.
If you lived here as an atheist, you'd understand, I think.
Still on every single religious person in America is going to be nasty about Atheists.
(April 21, 2014 at 12:53 pm)Stimbo Wrote:(April 21, 2014 at 11:50 am)Atheist And Proud Wrote: Yes but they should be able to believe what they want to believe. I mean if they are religious and what they believe isn't harmful or sways peoples views around them then they should be able to believe what ever they want...
Though only if it isn't harmful...
They're going to do that anyway, whatever we or anyone else think.
not all religious people think that way. I know a few religious people that are really friendly despite the fact I'm an atheist
