If you are tired of the myths and superstitions of religion......

[bomberfox]

Jehovah is not the God of catholicism and He can give you something no amount of money can buy...peace and contentment now and true hope for an everlasting future...but of course, it is your choice to turn that offer down or not...

Need to be shown that this everlasting life exists.

 

[calamity]

1. You don’t think church employees should get reilef like other employees?
2. Amazon, Nike, and Apple are sitting on tens of billions of dollars. Should their employees have been denied checks as well?
3. The so called ‘billions’ you cite are gifts given to God by members to be enjoyed by all. Do you express similar outrage when art is given to a museum or a university? Do you demand they have donations taxed? Why not?

I know. God is always in need of money. Funny how the ruler of the universe is always short on cash.

 

[bomberfox]

this is really not a problem I have.
I am an agnostic atheist. I am not 'tired of the myths and superstitions' . I think of them as stories that infuse the cultural, historic and social times from which they were drawn, with a little bit of magic, a little bit of mysticism, a little bit of this and that. They don't bother me any more than any other fictional accounts out there. Beowolf was far more dull a read than Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes so I put Beowolf down and kept on reading about those Gods and Demigods of hers.

Nobody forces religious myths or superstitions on me. I can go months and months and months without anyone trying and if I don't want to hear about the death and resurrection of Jesus for example, I don't have to. I excuse myself and shut the door. If this religion stuff is in a thread here, I don't click unless I am in the mood

As for humanism, I rather like those ideas, and they are closer to my philosophy.

Children who are born in cults dont get much of a choice.

 

[bomberfox]

Until you can prove God doesn't exist then atheism will always be a myth...I've never once claimed faith/belief is not needed and it's quite obvious you do not have the capability to possess either...

So you agree that jehovah is a myth. That is essentially what you are saying when you say those that dont believe are following a fairy tale.

 

[calamity]

I tend to be pluralistic, which immediately precludes me from joining or belonging to any particular religion since they tend to be sectarian and unwilling to coexist with those holding different views. Obviously, any religion that says, "Do it this way or you burn in hell," will never be on my list of groups to join.

 

[Noodlegawd]

Atheism is the biggest myth of all...

Of course, there's a rational basis for the claim. Oh wait, nope. Just a 2000+ year old book.

 

[btthegreat]

Children who are born in cults dont get much of a choice.

Guy, they choose all the time. They decide to change churches, or just get bored and drift away. A lot who show up do it for the social aspect as opposed to the religion. Some just don't like their pastor or priest, or feel disenchanted with the theology. Others just can't be bothered waking up and getting dressed, or can't make the time. Attendance is down at almost all places of worship, fewer people identify with the church of their parents over the last two generations, and more of them see organized church as a smaller and smaller part of their lives and the pace of disinterest is accelerating. Its astonishing that you have not heard the numbers. https://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/church-membership-down-sharply-past-two-decades.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_attendance
" a 2005 study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that just 22% of Americans attend services weekly.[15]). This compares to other countries claims such as 15% of French citizens, 10% of British citizens,[16] 8.8% of Australian citizens and 5.6% of Dutch citizens.[17] In the U.K., in 2011, an average once-a-week attendance in Anglican churches went down by 0.3% compared with 2012, thus exhibiting a stabilizing trend.[18] Previously, starting from 2000, an average rate of weekly church attendance in Britain was dropping down 1% annually. In 2013, the Pew Research Center reported that 37% of all Americans attended church on a weekly basis.[19] In its turn, Gallup estimated the once-a-week church attendance of the Americans in 2013 as 39%.[20] "

These have to be the weakest most ineffective, pathetic excuse for a 'cults' I can think of. As for those poor cult indoctrinated kids of Gen X/Y they are jumping out of the pews as soon as they hit puberty and they show no sign of going back.

 

[Valery]

The group you described should see a psychiatrist.

 

[Lisa]

The group you described should see a psychiatrist.

Why would Humanists need to see a psychiatrist?

 

[Valery]

Why would Humanists need to see a psychiatrist?

Because their thinking is not in line with reality. They believe an IPhone can build itself — that is the only possible conclusion from the way they think the universe and the world created itself.

 

[Valery]

There very well is a lot of strange stuff happening that we as yet have no clue on how to explain.

That is, you don't have a clue because you refuse to believe what is obvious.

 

[Allan]

Atheism is known for it's murder of 100 million people in the last century. Your turn.

Crusades and other religious wars. Your turn.

 

[bongsaway]

lol...I'll be 68 in April and yes, I can say the same, for those reasons and more...I just don't worry about tomorrow cuz I know God has got this...

My mother in her later years became a nun in the catholic religion, you sound like her. I once asked her if I do nothing but sit in the house and pray for a job will I get one? What do you suppose she answered?

 

[Allan]

I don't have to...I know he doesn't exist outside of pagan fantasies...

If you can't prove that the Easter Bunny doesn't exist you can't demand people prove God doesn't exist.

If I think the Easter Bunny exists and there's not a shred of evidence to prove it then that's just delusional isn't it?

All Gods are the thing of legend, a relic of superstition and lack of understanding of natural phenomena. As people became more educated and science explained the universe religion was abandoned as anachronistic. To believe in God today requires wearing a blindfold to knowledge. It exists mostly because religious leaders can make money from it.

 

[ataraxia]

Because their thinking is not in line with reality. They believe an IPhone can build itself — that is the only possible conclusion from the way they think the universe and the world created itself.

No, there are very few scientists who believe this anymore. Such cosmological/teleological arguments for the existence of God hit a peak back in medieval times, probably with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century or so. They have been on the wane with the rise of modern science, especially since David Hume’s “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” around the mid-18th century.

What’s more is that the level of atheism/agnosticism goes up as you go up in the level of the scientists. The level of belief among average every day scientists it’s not too different from that of the average lay public. But 93% of the elite National Academy of Sciences is atheist or agnostic. As we have learned more, the need for a god to explain things has gone down, not up.

“Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation...One can’t prove that God doesn’t exist. But science makes God unnecessary. … The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.”
-Stephen Hawking

 

[Valery]

No, there are very few scientists who believe this anymor

Surely you aren't saying that when a lot of people believe something it must be true?

 

[calamity]

Because their thinking is not in line with reality. They believe an IPhone can build itself — that is the only possible conclusion from the way they think the universe and the world created itself.

Wow, maybe you should read a book on how the universe began.

 

[Valery]

Wow, maybe you should read a book on how the universe began.

Why, did your phone come to be in the same manner?

 

[ataraxia]

Surely you aren't saying that when a lot of people believe something it must be true?

We don't know if anything is ever true. Everything we know could be a hallucination induced by some aliens running laboratory tests on our brains which are sitting in a vat somewhere in their lab. Who knows?

The best we can ever do is use our best up-to-date observations, knowledge, and experience, and the best thinking we can bring to those observations to make sense of them. The emphasis is on the *method* used to make those conclusions. But those conclusions always remain contingent on further observations. Those observations and the best thinking about them are gradually leading away from the hypothesis of a creator God. In fact, WHY we ever came up with such a hypothesis in the first place is coming to be understood more as well as we learn more about our own psychology.

Now religious people believe they have a "sixth sense", the sense of faith, which is infallible and can give them insight into what is ultimately true and the otherworldly realm. But any time they have told us what this sense is telling them (in any way that is not completely vague), it has NOT turned out to be true, and just a projection of their own latest understanding, biases, and opinions to "ultimate reality". When this is pointed out, they are quick to "correctly re-interpret" or do "correct exegesis" to have their scripture coming out saying the more recent understandings and socially acceptable practices- until, of course, they change their mind yet again. This has happened enough times now that it's getting old and the game is becoming obvious.

 

[ataraxia]

Why, did your phone come to be in the same manner?

Not everything is like everything else.

 

[Mashmont]

My mother in her later years became a nun in the catholic religion, you sound like her. I once asked her if I do nothing but sit in the house and pray for a job will I get one? What do you suppose she answered?

Your mother became a nun, and you became an atheist?? How does that happen?

 

[Mashmont]

Crusades and other religious wars. Your turn.

Death camps, concentration camps, rape rooms, torture centers, purges. Murder of thousands of priests and nuns and tens of millions of Christians. All in the past 90 years. All in the name of atheism and atheist regimes. Your turn

 

[Allan]

Death camps, concentration camps, rape rooms, torture centers, purges. Murder of thousands of priests and nuns and tens of millions of Christians. All in the past 90 years. All in the name of atheism and atheist regimes. Your turn

The Vatican takes a back seat to no one when it comes to torture.

 

[Mashmont]

The Vatican takes a back seat to no one when it comes to torture.

Really? When was the last time the pope tortured anybody?

 

[911Sparky]

I'd buy into it if I woke up 28 years old tomorrow and some bearded dude in a robe said, "Just know that my dad and I love you, Cal."

I'll go with that if I can have the body of a 28 year old and still maintain the lifetime of knowledge I have collected. No way do I want to be 28 with the knowledge I had at 28.