Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by david perry on September 26, 2010 at 1:47am

I would have to agree with this at least, even though it is on the polemical side.
They would have less trouble with atheists if we believed in something I suppose. They can't seem to get their heads around the idea of not believing.
It doesn't require atheism to see the damage religion has done to human society, but the converse would seem to be true. They get their panties in a bunch over Islam and its role in middle eastern government, yet refuse to see that christianity has done at least as much harm to the west. One small example:
This current crop of religious loonies the tea party gave us: if Christine O'Donnell is the joke, I shudder to think what the punchline is. How much rational thought does it take to see that these people are potentially quite dangerous?

Permalink Reply by Kelly M on December 11, 2010 at 8:34am

History PROVES this to be quite dangerous as well, but these people aren't gonna see it. They have already put their brains to sleep where logic and rationale are concerned, and deep thought is way to inconvenient. It's easier to believe what they have been told to believe. What pisses me off, is that we have to live with the consequences of their lazy flaccid minds.
So, how do you deal with people like that? Is there an answer other than just wait for religion to burn itself out, and hopefully before these morons fulfill and act out their own made up prophecies? I think if anyone has the right to be mad....it's those of us who are atheists and agnostics.

Permalink Reply by david perry on December 11, 2010 at 11:18am

Hey, I didn't get the memo: when did A/N change?  The upgrade must have been very recent.

At any rate, I'm all for religion just letting it burn itself out, the xtians are doing it to themselves, but we can, perhaps are even obligated in a way to stoke the fire. You have these morons protesting at military funerals, continuing scandals with the carny preachers, a pope that does for catholicism what Dick Cheney did for democracy, all in all they do a good job of making fools of themselves. This thing with the billboards is great, illustrating just how tolerant they are, I think much more could be done in the way of propaganda.

Which still does not help address the grave problem on the horizon: Islam.  Granted, the younger generations are trying to get away, but due to it's nature, the socializing aspects of it persist.  Perhaps the US won't see the same problems as in Europe with the Muslim immigrant population, but they aren't exactly coping with it well on either side, for the simple fact they many Moslem's refuse to assimilate. There's a lot of trouble in the UK  and France(some in Germany), and it's worse in Sweden, where they have gone overboard in the name of tolerance, much to their regret. If history is any guide, Europe's problems somehow seem to become ours as well eventually.

Permalink Reply by Craigart14 on July 17, 2011 at 4:42pm

At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little, I'm going to suggest that the US is in grave danger from Christian fascists.  Part of the problem is simply that they have co-opted the word "Christian," so it seems as if they speak for ALL Christians, though fundies and evangelicals have little in common with mainstream Catholics and Protestants.  Rick Perry is holding a day or prayer in Texas in August, with guest preachers who are Christian Zionists (pushing for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem in order to hasten Armageddon), Dominionists (seeking world conquest for Jesus), and just plain batshit nutjobs arguing that Oprah Winfrey is the herald of the anti-Christ and that the Statue of Liberty is a demon given to the US by the Freemasons, who are controlled by the Illuminati.  Fundy PR has created a controversy around evolution and seems to have convinced Americans that science is democratic, so they can vote God into science classes.  The military is full of fundies, and many congress people and senators are born again, as are the Republican governors trying to strip the middle class of rights and opportunities.  I wish journalists, if there are any left, would get on the stick and investigate ties to the Family, the Promise Keepers, and the International Christian Brotherhood.  I doubt that mainstream believers understand how radically reactionary these people are.  You know, Tom Delay, for one example, was called "Hot Tub Tommy" until he found Jesus.  Then he became known as "The Hammer."  John Boehner is a fundy.  Michelle Bachmann went to law school because her husband told her to, and believes that women should be submissive towards their husbands.  So a vote for Michelle is really a vote for Marcus.  They hate government handouts--except for the ones they are getting.  A lot of the unfathomable behavior coming from Republican governors points to fundamentalism, but few people in the main stream will see that because their religion and Ted Haggard's are so different from each other.  As one famous author (Sinclair Lewis or Upton Sinclair, can't remember which) said, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."