Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on January 16, 2012 at 9:41pm

Well, if 77% of the country can be considered a "minority", then yes, christians are a minority.  Republican Politicians who don't make pretend outrage part of their speechifying....  such a tiny minority, they're probably being hidden in a flock of dodo birds.

 

 from the reference above

Permalink Reply by Julie Carter on January 17, 2012 at 1:25am

I swear, politicians are so full of bullshit these days, I almost can't take it! Since religion is one of my most hated things, the religious crap they spew gets me the most heated (usually), but they're just generally clueless, insensitive, self-interested, ignorant assholes. Damn, I hate politics. It's one of those things that I have to quite often ignore because I literally can't handle how upset it gets me sometimes. Life is hard enough, and I can't handle politics turning my life into one, long, super angry event. But that's what would happen if I really focused on statements like this every time I saw one!

Permalink Reply by Mick Wright on January 17, 2012 at 1:59am

Okay, normally I don't do this, but this is too fuckin' freakishly similar to share.

Look at the picture of that guy's face in the report. Now look at this rage face, one commonly used to mean someone in the act of saying or doing something completely retarded:

Permalink Reply by Pat on January 17, 2012 at 7:01am

This is the type of math you get when a parent, who got their GED after taking the test 3 times, home schools their children with a curriculum from the Creation Institute.  

The good news is the chart posted by Sentient.  A 14% drop in christians. Granted, it's over a 50 year period, and the progress is slow, but at least it's progress.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on January 17, 2012 at 7:42am

Yeah, but we're accelerating, particularly in the under-30 crowd.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on January 17, 2012 at 7:11am

There are some christians out there who will twist any attack or challenge of their faith into "persecution," one of the hottest of all hot-button words.  I find it amazing that these same people want to insist that the US is a christian nation, yet will turn around and attempt to assert that they are a minority under attack!

I suspect what is going on here is that, after having it THEIR way for a very long time, these christians are discovering that there are other opinions out there, other points of view, and that theirs doesn't have the universal support that they would like to believe it has. The most uncomfortable revelation of all may be that those opposing opinions - OURS - have substance behind them and that the foundation of their faith is based more in repeated lies and prevarications than in any established fact.

Permalink Reply by Mick Wright on January 17, 2012 at 7:17am

Bingo. When you look at how people have been persecuted (very often by Christians but we don't even need to go there for this point to be made) in the world's history, you see burnings, hangings, torture, systematic extermination of people and stamping-out of ways of life.

These silly buggers are calling persecution because people are, at worst, being sarcastic. The only systematic destruction that's going on that could possibly harm Christianity as a movement? The destruction of human ignorance. They're not being hurt by secularism, they're being hurt by the expansion of knowledge.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on January 17, 2012 at 7:39am

It may be that, at some level, they recognize that knowledge and ignorance don't get along, that faith and reason have no intersection set, and that their unfounded belief is being displaced by something WITH a foundation, with form and substance and corroboration, all things their faith lacks.  That faith has been a long-standing facet of their everyday life, and to realize, either consciously or unconsciously, that it's being pushed aside because it hasn't a leg to stand on is going to be intensely uncomfortable and downright painful in places.

Their reaction predictably comes of their irrationality, no great surprise, as they haven't been used to think rationally about their belief. If their reaction is couched in anger and incoherence, we shouldn't be surprised. It doesn't change the fact that we need to stick TO FACTS, even as they need to adjust to the realization that they have NONE.

They may be in the majority, but it is a shrinking majority. We may be a minority, but a minority growing and on the move.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on January 17, 2012 at 8:07am

http://www.thinkatheist.com/profiles/blogs/josh-mcdowell-the-intern...

http://atheistatlarge.org/2011/10/apologist-josh-mcdowell-internet-...

http://blog.ourchurch.com/2011/08/09/josh-mcdowell-internet-is-the-...

Pick your version.

Yeah, absolutely, knowledge is the enemy of religion, and they know it.  They even admit it and talk about the fair playing field as if it was a bad thing.  I just can't imagine someone making that sort of admission and not seeing what it says about their position.  I saw some vaguely similar things when I was in the Catholic church, as a child, but I never understood it.  I was a snarky little bastard, since I had seen through all of the delusion before I was 10, and these silly people still couldn't see it.

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on January 17, 2012 at 8:17am

I was a snarky little bastard

You still are :)

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on January 17, 2012 at 8:38am

Nah, it's just the confusion that comes from not being able to see the facial expressions and intonation that go along with the words, here in text only.  I'm just misunderstood.

Permalink Reply by Phil on January 17, 2012 at 6:25pm

I suspect what is going on here is that, after having it THEIR way for a very long time, these christians are discovering that there are other opinions out there, other points of view, and that theirs doesn't have the universal support that they would like to believe it has. The most uncomfortable revelation of all may be that those opposing opinions - OURS - have substance behind them and that the foundation of their faith is based more in repeated lies and prevarications than in any established fact. Loren

And don't let 'em forget it. No deference, no respect. Keep the pressure on. No accommodation.