debate this one.
So i thought i'd write a second rant, seen as how i had such a large response from my first one. First of all, i want to add to a few things that i wrote, and didnt elaborate on. secondly, and again alot of the material is again coming from Sam Harris. thirdly, i started off my last rant with a sense civilary, but its clear that when talking and debating religion civilary is hard to come by...and its usually the people who believe in god getting bent. so fuck it, ill just be blunt and disregaurd any sense of trying to be civil.
Id like to start off with what an atheist is in itself. id like to say that Atheism is not a philosophy, its not even a veiw of the world...it's simply an admission of the obvious. In fact Atheism is a term that should'nt even exsist. nobody even needs to identify them selfs as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-theropyst". we dont have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traveled the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in response to unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply someone who that the 260 million americans claiming to "never doubt the exsistance of god" should be obligated to preseant some form of factual evidence for his exsistence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness everyday.An atheist is a person who believes that even one murder of an innocent little girl in a million years should cast doubt on a loving and caring god. And the truth is all people who are religious know exactly what it's like to be an atheist, with respect to the beliefs of all other religions that you dismiss. Isnt it obvious how all other religions are fooling themselves? isnt it obvious that anyone who thinks their holy book, is the perfect word of the creator of the universe, is wrong. they need to Understand that the way they view islam, or judism or any other religion is exactly how they veiw christianity. and it's the way we as atheists view all religions. And while im sure Atheists commit their fair share of crimes in america, just as much as the average human being would, and yet atheist are the most reviled minority in the united states. Recently the muslim world gathered in hordes around europe burning embassies, issuing threats, taking hostages and even killing people becasue some danish newspaper made a cartoon depicting the prophet muhammad. when was the last atheist riot, when was that last time you saw atheist taking hostages and killing people?
Next i want to get into what i wrote in my first rant reguarding how the greek gods, and religion is all now refered to as greek mythology. i fimrly belive that the biblical god is fiction, like zeuz and the thousands of other greek gods whom most of human beings now ignore and refer to as mythology. can you prove that zeus didnt exsist? of course not, and yet, just imagine if we lived in a society where people spent tens of billions of dollars of their personal money, each year trying to propitiating the gods of mount olympus, where the government spent billions in tax dollars to support institutions devoted to these gods, where elected officals did their best to make sure doctors didnt practice anything that wasnt directly apart of the odyssey. due to the difference and controdiction, sounds obsurd right? well it is EXACTLY the society we live in today. this is the irrational world that they are trying to hard to create, and succeeding.
Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl and plans to torture, rape and kill her. and if such a terrible event is not occuring right now it will within hours or days. and more than likely, given that 87% of americans believe in and all-loving and all-powerful god and that, that god is watching over their daughter, and will more than likely not put fourth 110% to using all of their resources to get their daughter back (not saying they wouldnt try hard) becasue they "know" that god is watching over her and belive that he will deliver her safely from the hands of her abductors. that is simply ludacris! is it right to belives this? is it okay to belives this? no. most certianly not.
most christians believe that human beings cannot reject the morality of the bible, we cant say for instence that god was wrong to drown most of humanity in the flood of genisis. We read gods number one rule "love thy neighbor" and deem it to be a brilliant example of our ethical impulses. and then when we come across another one of god's teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her fathers doorstep. (deuteronomy 22:13-21) if we are civilized human being we would obviously ignore and reject this as absurdity. doing so requires excersizing our own primal, moral instincts and intuitons. the belief that the bible is the word of god is of no help to us what so ever.
While christians believe that bringing an end to religon is impossible, they must realize that much of the developed world has NEARLY accomplished it. Norway, Iceland, Australia, canada, sweden, switzerland, belgium, japan, the netherlands, denmark, and the UK are among the least religous societies on earth. according to the untided nations human development reports in 05, they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, homiced rate, adult literacy, income, educational attainment, and gender quality. the U.S is rare in it'slevel of religious adhearence, it is also littered with high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, STD's, and infant mortality. if you dont see the irony in that, you're just plain stupid.
And one last thing i want to touch down on...Consider, for instance HPV. HPV is now the most commonly sexually transmitted disease in the united states. it affects over half of the american population and cause nearly 5000 women to die each year from cervical cancer, and it is estimated that nearly 200,000 die each year worldwide. we now have a vaccine for HPV that appears to be both safe and effective. it produced 100 percent immunity in the 6000 women who received it as a clinical trial. yet, christian conservatives in our government have resisted the program that produced this vaccine on the grounds that HPV is a valuable lesson in premarital sex. these fucking idiots want to preserve cervical cancer as incentive towards abstinence even at the stake of thousands of female deaths each year. There is nothing wrong with encourageing teens to abstain from having sex, but we know, beyond any doubt that teaching absteince alone wont lower teen pregnancy rates or the spread of STD's.
Just something to think about.
Id like to start off with what an atheist is in itself. id like to say that Atheism is not a philosophy, its not even a veiw of the world...it's simply an admission of the obvious. In fact Atheism is a term that should'nt even exsist. nobody even needs to identify them selfs as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-theropyst". we dont have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traveled the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in response to unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply someone who that the 260 million americans claiming to "never doubt the exsistance of god" should be obligated to preseant some form of factual evidence for his exsistence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness everyday.An atheist is a person who believes that even one murder of an innocent little girl in a million years should cast doubt on a loving and caring god. And the truth is all people who are religious know exactly what it's like to be an atheist, with respect to the beliefs of all other religions that you dismiss. Isnt it obvious how all other religions are fooling themselves? isnt it obvious that anyone who thinks their holy book, is the perfect word of the creator of the universe, is wrong. they need to Understand that the way they view islam, or judism or any other religion is exactly how they veiw christianity. and it's the way we as atheists view all religions. And while im sure Atheists commit their fair share of crimes in america, just as much as the average human being would, and yet atheist are the most reviled minority in the united states. Recently the muslim world gathered in hordes around europe burning embassies, issuing threats, taking hostages and even killing people becasue some danish newspaper made a cartoon depicting the prophet muhammad. when was the last atheist riot, when was that last time you saw atheist taking hostages and killing people?
Next i want to get into what i wrote in my first rant reguarding how the greek gods, and religion is all now refered to as greek mythology. i fimrly belive that the biblical god is fiction, like zeuz and the thousands of other greek gods whom most of human beings now ignore and refer to as mythology. can you prove that zeus didnt exsist? of course not, and yet, just imagine if we lived in a society where people spent tens of billions of dollars of their personal money, each year trying to propitiating the gods of mount olympus, where the government spent billions in tax dollars to support institutions devoted to these gods, where elected officals did their best to make sure doctors didnt practice anything that wasnt directly apart of the odyssey. due to the difference and controdiction, sounds obsurd right? well it is EXACTLY the society we live in today. this is the irrational world that they are trying to hard to create, and succeeding.
Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl and plans to torture, rape and kill her. and if such a terrible event is not occuring right now it will within hours or days. and more than likely, given that 87% of americans believe in and all-loving and all-powerful god and that, that god is watching over their daughter, and will more than likely not put fourth 110% to using all of their resources to get their daughter back (not saying they wouldnt try hard) becasue they "know" that god is watching over her and belive that he will deliver her safely from the hands of her abductors. that is simply ludacris! is it right to belives this? is it okay to belives this? no. most certianly not.
most christians believe that human beings cannot reject the morality of the bible, we cant say for instence that god was wrong to drown most of humanity in the flood of genisis. We read gods number one rule "love thy neighbor" and deem it to be a brilliant example of our ethical impulses. and then when we come across another one of god's teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her fathers doorstep. (deuteronomy 22:13-21) if we are civilized human being we would obviously ignore and reject this as absurdity. doing so requires excersizing our own primal, moral instincts and intuitons. the belief that the bible is the word of god is of no help to us what so ever.
While christians believe that bringing an end to religon is impossible, they must realize that much of the developed world has NEARLY accomplished it. Norway, Iceland, Australia, canada, sweden, switzerland, belgium, japan, the netherlands, denmark, and the UK are among the least religous societies on earth. according to the untided nations human development reports in 05, they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, homiced rate, adult literacy, income, educational attainment, and gender quality. the U.S is rare in it'slevel of religious adhearence, it is also littered with high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, STD's, and infant mortality. if you dont see the irony in that, you're just plain stupid.
And one last thing i want to touch down on...Consider, for instance HPV. HPV is now the most commonly sexually transmitted disease in the united states. it affects over half of the american population and cause nearly 5000 women to die each year from cervical cancer, and it is estimated that nearly 200,000 die each year worldwide. we now have a vaccine for HPV that appears to be both safe and effective. it produced 100 percent immunity in the 6000 women who received it as a clinical trial. yet, christian conservatives in our government have resisted the program that produced this vaccine on the grounds that HPV is a valuable lesson in premarital sex. these fucking idiots want to preserve cervical cancer as incentive towards abstinence even at the stake of thousands of female deaths each year. There is nothing wrong with encourageing teens to abstain from having sex, but we know, beyond any doubt that teaching absteince alone wont lower teen pregnancy rates or the spread of STD's.
Just something to think about.