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Bible Belt Atheist
September 26, 2015 at 7:30 am
Nice short doc about preacher that decided to cut the bullshit and small growing community of atheists where they are being looked down.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100...yer-region
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Bible Belt Atheist
September 26, 2015 at 10:32 am
Short documentary by Jason Cohn and Camille Servan-Schreiber, published in the NY Times Sept. 22, 2015.
From the documentary "Bible Belt Atheist"
"In 2013, Jerry DeWitt, a former pastor (in rural Louisiana!) formed an atheist congregation in a coffee shop in the heart of the Bible Belt."
I don't usually like it when I find ONLY a video. I'm old-fashioned. Reading, for me, is faster, and I retain the information better. But I watched all 7:51 of this one, and I just had add my recommendation - this is good. This is wonderful and logical and heart-warming and EXACTLY HOW I FEEL. I love it when Jerry asks: "What if your WHOLE WORLD is a cult?"
Let me know what you guys think.
Here is a link to a version that has a short summary under the video:
Bible Belt Atheist (with a summary)
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
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RE: Bible Belt Atheist
September 26, 2015 at 11:12 am
I think it was CNN that had a special on atheists a few months back, and this guy was featured on it.
From where I'm standing, if I just heard about what this guy was doing without understanding the culture he and the many other atheists lives in, I would think it was silly and unnecessary, and I still do in a way, but to see what it is they combat, to see how preaching and church going is a practical way of life for them- not just a spiritual link, but a communal one, I can't judge them for that. Instead, what I find silly is that it is necessary for them to meet up like this and have mock congregations, and that it was made this way for them by the Bible Belt.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:
"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."
For context, this is the previous verse:
"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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RE: Bible Belt Atheist
September 26, 2015 at 11:34 am
(This post was last modified: September 26, 2015 at 11:45 am by TheRocketSurgeon.)
(September 26, 2015 at 11:12 am)Exian Wrote: I think it was CNN that had a special on atheists a few months back, and this guy was featured on it.
From where I'm standing, if I just heard about what this guy was doing without understanding the culture he and the many other atheists lives in, I would think it was silly and unnecessary, and I still do in a way, but to see what it is they combat, to see how preaching and church going is a practical way of life for them- not just a spiritual link, but a communal one, I can't judge them for that. Instead, what I find silly is that it is necessary for them to meet up like this and have mock congregations, and that it was made this way for them by the Bible Belt.
I graduated college (and lived, of course), in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
It (and the area around it) are where my family are from.
I'll have to go check out their gathering, when I'm down visiting my folks again. Thanks for the heads up!
They meet in Stellar Beans, a coffee shop that is literally four blocks from my old house.
I lived on the corner of Mill and Kirkman, across the street from the Bishop Nolan Episcopal Day School. The coffee shop is one block south and four blocks west of my old house. That's so crazy!
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2307272,-93.214438,17z
Hard to imagine an atheists group in that town. But it is the town where I first realized (and said to others) that I was an atheist, back in college.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
