Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[Ignorant]

Or maybe it just means they need to look into some other method of biblical interpretation besides Fundamentalism?

[Mystical]

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No they are not. I live in a country where until 1974 a married woman was legally her husband's non-wasting chattel, ie with the same legal status as the dining table, because it was based on catholic theology which hasn't changed since then.

Regarding women's power within the church, how many women were part of the conclave which settled definitively the church's position on the family and women's reproductive rights? 0, yes that's right not one woman involved. Face facts c_l you're part of a church that considers you a thing, or at best a slave.

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Then I'd say that sounds like a cultural thing more than any sort of official Church teaching. If you are saying Catholic theology teaches that women are objects, the burden is on you to show the Catechism verse that states such. 

Sorry, I'mnot a Catholic so I dont know what a 'Catechism verse' is. Does this count? It's from God's own mouth.

Deuteronomy 21:10-14 NAB)

"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house. But before she may live there, she must shave her head and pare her nails and lay aside her captive's garb. After she has mourned her father and mother for a full month, you may have relations with her, and you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife. However, if later on you lose your liking for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she wishes it; but you shall not sell her or enslave her, since she was married to you under compulsion.

Sure it's in the old testament, the less regarded part of the bible, but Jesus said not a letter of OT law shall be overturned until the end of times (see my signature for reference).

Your comment was that women's senior most position in the Church is a flower arranger. Yes, that comment is 100% false. 

Then what is actually the ceiling for women within the Catholic church?

But anyway, as far as reproductive rights go - our teaching on abortion is based on our teaching concerning human dignity and the belief that it is immoral to take away innocent human life. It is not based on a belief that women are objects. Ironically enough, it is a fundamental belief that every human being has inherent and equal dignity, regardless of anything. Including age and gender.  

That may be the case for you and your Creed now. However, were you born thousands of years ago, things would be totally different under the same god that you worship now. 

What it says is so disgusting I feel like it needs hide quotes

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Numbers 31:17 (Moses) “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women that hath known man by lying with him.” In other words: women that might be pregnant, which clearly is abortion for the fetus.

Hosea 13:16 God promises to dash to pieces the infants of Samaria and the “their women with child shall be ripped up”.  Once again this god kills the unborn, including their pregnant mothers.

1 Samuel 15:3 God commands the death of helpless “suckling” infants.  This literally means that the children god killed were still nursing.

Psalms 135:8 & 136:10 Here god is praised for slaughtering little babies.
Psalms 137:9 Here god commands that infants should be “dashed upon the rocks”

Leviticus 20:9 [i]“For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.”
[/i]
Judges 11:30-40 Jephthah killed his young daughter (his only child) by burning her alive as a burnt sacrifice to the lord for he commanded it.



Psalms 137:8-9 Prayer/song of vengeance “0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.  Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”
2 Kings 6:28-29 [i]“And the king said unto her, What aileth thee?  And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.  So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.”[/i]

Leviticus 26:30 “And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.”

Judges 19:24-29 “Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.  But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered.  Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.  And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.” To put it very bluntly this poor, young lady was murdered by her mate for being raped.


Quoting the bible.
So what were we talking about? ohhhh yeah the value of human life as determined by those of your faith. 

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Also ironically enough, my aunt's pro life stance, which stemmed from her Catholicism, is what saved my sister when she was in my teenage mom's womb. Because SHE, a woman, was/is not an object or a "thing." But a human being who deserves to stay alive.

Thats funny my mom was forced into an abortion because of her dogmatic parents' beliefs. In any case, I'm an atheist and I'm anti abortion as well. *high fives Catholic Lady

[vorlon13]

Or maybe it just means they need to look into some other method of biblical interpretation besides Fundamentalism?

How many souls can a heretic win for Jesus here ?

[Tonus]

Sure it's in the old testament, the less regarded part of the bible,

Poor Yahweh, he gets treated like that uncle that finagles an invite to all of the family functions, and everyone tries to pretend he's not there even after he gets blitzed on cheap beer and falls into the pool.

[Mystical]

Sure it's in the old testament, the less regarded part of the bible,

Poor Yahweh, he gets treated like that uncle that finagles an invite to all of the family functions, and everyone tries to pretend he's not there even after he gets blitzed on cheap beer and falls into the pool.

 

You crack me up!

[Balaco]

OP

I put together a few links you may find relevant. 

The first has a list of all the transitional fossils. I'd do a search for Tiktaalic, it's the transition from fish to land animal. Oh and if you want a modern day transition? Look up Skinks! they're migrating into the mountains and can both lay eggs aNd give live birth! 

Te rest of the links are just to cknversations here at AF past that might be relevant to your studies on cosmological event, etc.

Cheers!


http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/
(

http://atheistforums.org/thread-44724-po...and+effect


http://atheistforums.org/thread-36611.ht...and+effect

Fine tuning
http://atheistforums.org/thread-45868-po...smological

Thanks for all the resources. This weekend when I have more time I plan on looking into these, along with those other topics I've been meaning to get to. As for miracles, I'm still not 100% sure on my stance but it does seem like there's plausible atheistic explanations for them...either way I don't feel like miracles as a topic would be enough to decide my faith, so I won't be focusing on them too much.

For now, I've been doing some lighter research into atheists who converted into religion. Leah Libresco for example was apparently a notable atheist blogger who converted to Catholicism as it satisfied her questions about morals, primarily. I'm not sure how common it is, but in general why do you guys think some atheists end up converting to a religion?

[Jesster]

I'm not sure how common it is, but in general why do you guys think some atheists end up converting to a religion?

Everyone has their own beliefs for their own reasons. I can't generalize this one. You'd have to ask the individual to see if you agree with their reasons.

[Whateverist]

Yeah, I don't know either. I think it must always be an individual choice, making the reasons individual as well. I don't think there is any concrete basis upon which the choice becomes simple for everyone. We all bring our own preferences and desires to the decision. What kind of life do we want to live, which choice is compatible with that life?

[Aoi Magi]

For now, I've been doing some lighter research into atheists who converted into religion. Leah Libresco for example was apparently a notable atheist blogger who converted to Catholicism as it satisfied her questions about morals, primarily. I'm not sure how common it is, but in general why do you guys think some atheists end up converting to a religion?

"notable atheist blogger"? Have you tried to actually find any "atheistic" entries from her? And if she really bases her morality on a book condoning rape, infanticide, genocide, incest, slavery... I'd really be scared of her.

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Theists can convert to atheism, and atheists can convert to theism, it mostly happens during personal emotional traumas, for example a parent might leave the faith that'd shun their child for being gay, similarly a parent might arrive at faith in order to find comfort for their child's death. Reason and logic can help you with seeing the reality, but reality is harsh and not everyone is willing to face it, sometimes the comfort of faith is much more welcoming.

[Mystical]

Belaco, good luck with your search. Honestly I also could give hundreds of reasons why somene would pick up a religion. I've seen my own cousin go from Catholic to atheist to christian band to atheist to deist to Buddhist back to atheist then Christian, and I do believe there was some Taoism in there somewhere at some point. In the end he settles with "officially a good christian" amd has good standing as a financer in the small town he lives in, but if you know more than the outside appearance like I became privy to, you'd know he's bisexual and has secret sex swap/orgy clubs with his wife. He runs a sex blog, e

 So, with humans in general, not everything is as it seems.  

America's Bible Belt states indulge in more online porn than other less religious states

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Cath Martin
23 October 2014
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(AP)
A new study has found that US states with a higher degree of religiosity are more likely to be searching for sex on the web.

The study was compiled by researchers at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, and based on two years of data from Google Trends across US states.

Researchers found that states identified as religiously conservative and politically conservative were indulging in more online pornography than other more liberal states.

Religiously conservative states had higher proportions of searches for generalised sex terms, while politically conservative states were more likely to use specific terms like "free porn" or "xxx".

"Across two separate years, and controlling for demographic variables, we observed moderate-to-large positive associations between: greater proportions of state-level religiosity and general web searching for sexual content and greater proportions of state-level conservatism and image-specific searching for sex," said the study authors.


They concluded that higher degrees of sexual restriction may be a contributing factor in the findings.

"It is possible that liberal citizens in states higher in religiosity or conservatism search more for sexual content due to living in a more sexually-restricted environment," they said, according to the Daily Mail.

The news will be disheartening to churches that are increasingly recognising the problem of pornography consumption among those sitting in their pews each Sunday.

A recent Barna study commissioned by Prove Men Ministries found that there was little difference between Christians and non-Christians when it came to levels of pornography consumption.

While 64 per cent of Christian men and 15 per cent of Christian women said they viewed pornography at least once a month, this figure was 65 per cent among non-Christian men and 30 per cent among non-Christian women.

A massive 79 per cent of Christian men aged 18 to 30 said they watched pornography at least once a month, while nearly a third (29 per cent) said they watched it daily.

Prove Men Ministries president Joel Hesch said the issue needed to be openly addressed in the church and that the church should be a "safe place" to talk about it.

"[Pornography] is addicting. It is a problem not just affecting individuals, but families. The church needs to be the frontrunner in this," he said.  

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...vmTTcb_R4g

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