What exactly is atheism? (offshoot of same sex thread)

I've never had an atheist mock my beliefs, nor taunt me, nor throw stones at me nor try to convert me. Perhaps if there were a few more atheists around we might have a better world.
Atheists don't send missionaries around the world, don't go on crusades, have Inquistions nor pogroms. they make think that those of us who have a belief are daft which is fine at least they don't kill us for our beliefs.
 
A very good series to watch is Wonders of the Universe, by a favorite physicist of mine Brian Cox. He explains things very simply and is well worth a watch.
 
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As I said on another thread, isn't America turning into a facist state?

The interference is one sided for the most part, only one religion feels the need to impose so much on anyone else. The Muslims take umbrage of course when they feel threatened but to be honest they've had to put up with as much as we have from the same religious fervour. Only the Christians care about who isn't a Christian and if they are what brand they are.
There are very few Christian sects who don't feel the need to shove their beliefs on us, possibly only the Quakers and the Amish don't preach at us and urge us to convert. If Christians could stop trying to convert the rest of the world to their beliefs, it would be a much more comfortable world. I'm sure they mean well but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I think you have a lot of hate for Christians. But of course your definition of a Christian and my definition of a Christian are probably quite different.

Isn't there scripture that says go forth and spread the word, and another indicating all true Christians are meant to be an evangelist. I can't remember the verses, was a long time ago I read the bible.

Of course there is. But it does not say go out and force anyone to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

I didn't say it was the first Bible in English.
Methinks you didn't read my link and don't know as much as English history as you think. http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/
"The Anglican ChurchĀ’s King James Bible took decades to overcome the more popular Protestant ChurchĀ’s Geneva Bible. One of the greatest ironies of history, is that many Protestant Christian churches today embrace the King James Bible exclusively as the Ā“onlyĀ” legitimate English language translationĀ… yet it is not even a Protestant translation! It was printed to compete with the Protestant Geneva Bible, by authorities who throughout most of history were hostile to ProtestantsĀ… and killed them. While many Protestants are quick to assign the full blame of persecution to the Roman Catholic Church, it should be noted that even after England broke from Roman Catholicism in the 1500Ā’s, the Church of England (The Anglican Church) continued to persecute Protestants throughout the 1600Ā’s. One famous example of this is John Bunyan, who while in prison for the crime of preaching the Gospel, wrote one of Christian historyĀ’s greatest books, PilgrimĀ’s Progress. Throughout the 1600Ā’s, as the Puritans and the Pilgrims fled the religious persecution of England to cross the Atlantic and start a new free nation in America, they took with them their precious Geneva Bible, and rejected the KingĀ’s Bible. America was founded upon the Geneva Bible, not the King James Bible.
Protestants today are largely unaware of their own history, and unaware of the Geneva Bible (which is textually 95% the same as the King James Version, but 50 years older than the King James Version, and not influenced by the Roman Catholic Rheims New Testament that the King James translators admittedly took into consideration). "


If you believe in the 'Old Testament' you will know that Jesus wasn't the messiah..... you can't have it both ways.

Well, I can have it any way my belief leads me after reading the Old and New Testaments. Evidently you and I understand the Old Testament differently. So be it.

Sadly, too many 'protestant' churches no longer follow the King James Bible, but one of the newer translations based on Hort and Wescott.

Apparently you are not aware that the translators of the King James relied mostly on the Textus Receptus, but also on Tynsdale's translations. They were aware of the Catholic Bible, the Geneva Bible, and others, including the peshitta.

...and what those people are doing with their bodies, and who they marry, and...

What Christians have you known?

Ever here of a little thing called the Crusades? There were a long time ago, but there was more than one, but I suppose you could have missed them

I am aware of them. Who raised the crusaders and dispatched them?

And the Inquisition. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html

And the Pogroms

And the terrorism and forced conversions...in the present day http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.indian/2007-11/msg00125.html

sSome very strong accusations about Christian groups http://freetruth.50webs.org/D4f.htm

However I've heard from many Nepalese that the Christian groups are very aggressive and are trying to rid the country of both Buddhists and Hindus. so much of this I know is true.
http://freetruth.50webs.org/D4h.htm#Nepal

If they are doing it in a way that does not comport with the teachings of Christ, they would be wrong.

DARN IT!!!! I can't believe I forgot to mention Torquemada and the boys... I ALWAYS throw that one out along with the Crusades in conversations like this.

Thanks for adding it

As for the rest, sadly it does not surprise me at all.

The main reason I lumped all these together is just to show what seems to happen in these threads. No one wants to define what a Christian is, but rather to lump all people who call themselves Christians together. That leaves no room to show that some who call themselves Christian, are not acting like Christians as shown in the Bible. Rather, everyone wants to say that anyone who calls themselves Christian but doesn't live according to the Bible, is representative of all Christians.

Hey if you all are correct in what you believe, wonderful for you. I don't see that I will have any good or bad things different from you. However, if I am correct wonderful for me, but not for you. We all have choices.

I am not how you wish to portray me. You don't know my lifestyle, you don't know if I live by what the Bible teaches or not. And if not, how far I stray or how closely I get to it. Yet you seem to want to show all Christians as monsters, and by association, me and any other person who strives to follow the teachings of Christ as shown in the Bible.

What is a sad to me, is that apparently you have not met anyone who really tries to live by what the Bible teaches. That is a shame.

Go for it guys. I am done with this.
 
I think you have a lot of hate for Christians. But of course your definition of a Christian and my definition of a Christian are probably quite different.



Of course there is. But it does not say go out and force anyone to be a believer in Jesus Christ.



Well, I can have it any way my belief leads me after reading the Old and New Testaments. Evidently you and I understand the Old Testament differently. So be it.

Sadly, too many 'protestant' churches no longer follow the King James Bible, but one of the newer translations based on Hort and Wescott.

Apparently you are not aware that the translators of the King James relied mostly on the Textus Receptus, but also on Tynsdale's translations. They were aware of the Catholic Bible, the Geneva Bible, and others, including the peshitta.



What Christians have you known?



I am aware of them. Who raised the crusaders and dispatched them?



If they are doing it in a way that does not comport with the teachings of Christ, they would be wrong.



The main reason I lumped all these together is just to show what seems to happen in these threads. No one wants to define what a Christian is, but rather to lump all people who call themselves Christians together. That leaves no room to show that some who call themselves Christian are not acting like Christians as shown in the Bible. Then everyone wants to say that anyone who calls themselves Christian but doesn't live according to the Bible, is representative of all Christians.

Hey if you all are correct in what you believe, wonderful for you. I don't see that I will have any good or bad things different from you. However, if I am correct wonderful for me, but not for you. We all have choices.

I am not how you wish to portray me. You don't know my lifestyle, you don't know f I live by what the Bible teaches or not. And if not, how far I stray or how closely I get to it. Yet you seem to want to show all Christians as monsters, and by association, me and any other person who strives to follow the teachings of Christ as shown in the Bible.

Go for it guys. I am done with this.

My post back a few was in agreement. People are what I believe in, not the constitution. That's up to the individual.

You'll find that there had been a few of us sharing honestly in this thread, and some just dropping in one liners to incite.

The comment about evangelicalism wasn't a dig, I was curious if people are taught to go out and spread the word, a phrase commonly used. Or is it only some groups that do it.





I think there had been some

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I'm not sure what the bacon means?

Religion has been used as a political tool from day one. "Belief" is very powerful.

I know atheists who keep it to themselves as well as people of faith. But even "atheists" believe in something... and those beliefs are exploited. For example, a very good childhood friend of mine is atheist and because of that he jumped right on the Obamacare bandwagon of wanting to force Christian based organizations to provide coverage for abortion.

Even though he's also homosexual and feels it's not right to legislate who someone can marry, he didn't hesitate to support legislation that would force somebody else to do something contrary to their beliefs. Eventually, he saw the irony in it and capitulated... but the point is, his "beliefs" were used to garner support from a political power, in both cases actually.

What I should have asked here is, what does being an atheist have to do with Obamacare, abortion, homosexuality and politics?
 
What is a sad to me, is that apparently you have not met anyone who really tries to live by what the Bible teaches. That is a shame.

Well I have met many good people that were Christians. I think when posting, it's hard to express in typed words, and text can be messy. Unfortunately, when people are trying to make a point, we all tend to use the most extream or shocking end of the spectrum to get the desired reaction across. I have much respect for spiritual people of faith who have strong resolve. I once worked with a team of Christians (the reason I single out Christians is because it was a Christian organisation) who went in to save\assist women from violent domestic relationships, they would physically put themselves on the line to protect mothers and their children. I was amazed at their bravery and ability to handle situations many times. They told me it was their faith in god to protect them, I never doubted it.

Maybe I don't balance things out as much as I think I do when writing things up.
 
I don't hate 'Christians' at all, so please don't patronise me.

The Old Testament is Jewish, it's written as I've said by Jews, about Jews and for Jews, that someone chooses to see it as being something else I can't help but they are wrong. It's like me insisting that the American Constitution is something specifically Danish, nothing to do with America and that you've read it all wrong anyway but I'm correct. It simply isn't true. Especially when you pick and choose which bits of it you will believe.

When you talk about the King James Bible I think you forget that it's not specially a Christian thing, it's about British history so it's something, having studied it, I actually know about. However like the Old Testament it's ingrained in you to believe you are right about it. You won't believe anything I can cite as you can't bring yourself to believe what I say about the Old Testament.

As for the definition of Christians we can only go on what people tell us about themselves, if they say they are Christians are we to challenge them because it isn't how you say it should be? I don't see all Christians as being the same but I do see ones that are causing damage to not just non Christians but to other Christians as well.


As for the Crusades, it is actually relevant to today as many Muslims still hold Christianity and with it the West for the appalling bloodshed of their people. You may think it's just history but it laid the foundations for what was to come, the Inqusition, the Holocaust and the hatred of non Christians. America is a modern country, it moves quickly into the future, it's people look forward not back, in the Old World, time moves slower, even in my part of the world the Vikings could come back and find not so much changed, the country is eternal and so it is with history handed down from generation to generation so the Crusades don't seem so far away to us as maybe you think they are.

Some Christians have thought about the Crusades and their legacy though.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm
 
Because you're atehist and a liberal, right? ROFL

Ok, my problem is I don't get all the reference to political posturing. When I ask what has it got to do with it, its because I have no idea what your talking about, or the relevance.
 
In short atheism is a religion of people who, by and large, think they are smarter than anyone and everyone who is religious.
They have their evangelists, Michael Newdow, Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette, of the four, only Jillette is honest enough to state plainly why he will never attack Islam the way he does other religions, i.e.,
we haven’t tacked Islam because we have families.
The zealous fervor that they hate religions and those who practice them is no less ugly than the Nazis killing Jews by the numbers during WWII.
 
In short atheism is a religion of people who, by and large, think they are smarter than anyone and everyone who is religious.
They have their evangelists, Michael Newdow, Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette, of the four, only Jillette is honest enough to state plainly why he will never attack Islam the way he does other religions, i.e.,
The zealous fervor that they hate religions and those who practice them is no less ugly than the Nazis killing Jews by the numbers during WWII.

You should be learning from these smart people. But you can only lead a horse to water.

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Ok, my problem is I don't get all the reference to political posturing. When I ask what has it got to do with it, its because I have no idea what your talking about, or the relevance.


Okay, buddy... what don't you understand?

Let's go with the basics until you present a specific question.

It's not always the case, but in general Christians tend to be conservative and align themselves with Repbublicans or more recently the Tea Party. If you understand the Christian concept of being a "good steward of one's money" this makes absolute sense. They see themselves as moral which makes them correct because they are on the side of "Right".

It's not always the case, but in general Atheists tend to be liberal (modern definition) and align themselves with Democrats. They tend to see themselves as intellectuals which gives them justification for being correct because they are on the side of "Science."

History is rife with examples of tyrants using "beliefs" to their advantage to garner support and bring numbers to "their side." Even today, people's beliefs are exploited for political gain. So, you see... you can not separate "religion" from "politics".

As for me and mine? Libertarians don't give a rat's patoot what you believe in as long as you don't try to legislate it onto others. Perhaps that's why we number the fewest. We aren't trying to force anything down anyone's throat.
 
Okay, buddy... what don't you understand?

Let's go with the basics until you present a specific question.

It's not always the case, but in general Christians tend to be conservative and align themselves with Repbublicans or more recently the Tea Party. If you understand the Christian concept of being a "good steward of one's money" this makes absolute sense. They see themselves as moral which makes them correct because they are on the side of "Right".

It's not always the case, but in general Atheists tend to be liberal (modern definition) and align themselves with Democrats. They tend to see themselves as intellectuals which gives them justification for being correct because they are on the side of "Science."

History is rife with examples of tyrants using "beliefs" to their advantage to garner support and bring numbers to "their side." Even today, people's beliefs are exploited for political gain. So, you see... you can not separate "religion" from "politics".

As for me and mine? Libertarians don't give a rat's patoot what you believe in as long as you don't try to legislate it onto others. Perhaps that's why we number the fewest. We aren't trying to force anything down anyone's throat.

Ok, thanks for clarification. Is this your opinion, or is this common knowledge?

Well generally science is based on facts and evidence. People have a hard time accepting these things if they are trying to sell you snake oil. But is skeptical in nature, don't think atheism is science driven.

I just get lost in comments that turn to politics and miss the significance.



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