Why do Atheists care? Here is one scary reason:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t say “it will never happen here”. Iran was a secular, modern country in the 70s. That was only a few years ago. Now, they kill women for allowing their hair to show. Women have no rights. The LGTBQ community lives in constant fear. Laws are based on ONE religion. It can happen. Evangelicals have written plans to make it happen. Stacking the courts is a really good start.

Or 45 but who’s counting

Iran was also under the thumb of a US-imposed dictator who imposed secularism with violence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of the people you describe are religious. They're extremists who have no virtuous qualities. They exist within every denomination. Hypocrites sit in the first pew.

People who identified as Catholic declined from 81% in 1986 to 47% in 2020, while the number of people who identified as not religious rose from 16% to 40%. The traditionalists are the older generation who are being replaced by younger generations. However, the older generation has declined, as well, and not because they died. There's a Pew research study. I'm laughing at anyone who thinks Trump is religious. Holding a bible for a photo op doesn't count. His cronies need their oxygen cut off.

81% of what?No way Catholics were 81% of the population in 1986.

73.7% in 2016. So 81% in 1986 seems accurate. Pew study isn’t opening for me. The numbers in context are somewhat ambiguous, but below specifically states population. Could it be a carved out percentage of only those who identify as religious?
“Christianity, the largest religion in the United States, was 73.7% of the total population in 2016. The 2014 Religious Landscape Study finds a large majority (87.6%) of those who were raised as Christians in the United States still identify as such, while the rest who no longer identify as Christians mostly identify as religiously unaffiliated. In 2019, 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians. In 2020, 47% of Americans said that they belonged to a church, down from 70% in 1999.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_Christianity_in_the_Western_world

That’s not “Catholic declined from 81% in 1986”. Were you just pulling that out of your butthole?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christian Democrats and lots of Republican Christians and other religious are against that too, OP. Atheists don't hold a monopoly on fighting to maintain the separation of church and state.

That's true. And Christians don't believe in any supernatural phenomena other than their own. But they do believe in their own, and that is a political problem, and a problem for the rest of us who do not believe in it.

I just think we'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs.

Lenin, Stalin and Mao agree.

Seriously, though, hyperbole like your OP just makes the people you’re concerned about harden their positions. I say this as someone who’s appalled by Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and the end of Roe v. Wade. Instead give a thought to psychology and ease up on the hyperbole.

Lenin, Stalin and Mao? Who is dealing in hyperbole and propaganda now?

Check my bolded parts in the statement "we'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs."

I believe people are capable of this type of growth, and the fact that non-belief is the fastest growing segment by a multiple supports that belief. They just need to know it is OK with society for them to follow the logic to that position.

So the part about not pushing the Trumpies further into their shells just washed over you.

Capitulation will only embolden and will have the opposite effect. I support non-aggressive, calm, factual, logical discussion on these topics, and hopefully people will come to the realization that their beliefs are illogical and de-emphasize them or release them altogether.

We'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs

Impossible. Their brains were hardwired to believe since childhood. Also, there is the theory that folks have a religious gene. The best we can hope for is what Pew studies point to and that’s a slow decline of Christianity in America based on, essentially, apathy toward organized religion.

Not impossible. Most non-religious people today were raised in a religion. Some people who attend religious services do not believe but go for social/cultural reasons.

SOME people may have a "religious gene" but certainly not all, considering the number of people who leave religion. Religion is taught credulous children. Some reject it when they get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christian Democrats and lots of Republican Christians and other religious are against that too, OP. Atheists don't hold a monopoly on fighting to maintain the separation of church and state.

That's true. And Christians don't believe in any supernatural phenomena other than their own. But they do believe in their own, and that is a political problem, and a problem for the rest of us who do not believe in it.

I just think we'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs.

Lenin, Stalin and Mao agree.

Seriously, though, hyperbole like your OP just makes the people you’re concerned about harden their positions. I say this as someone who’s appalled by Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and the end of Roe v. Wade. Instead give a thought to psychology and ease up on the hyperbole.

Lenin, Stalin and Mao? Who is dealing in hyperbole and propaganda now?
Check my bolded parts in the statement "we'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs."

I believe people are capable of this type of growth, and the fact that non-belief is the fastest growing segment by a multiple supports that belief. They just need to know it is OK with society for them to follow the logic to that position.

So the part about not pushing the Trumpies further into their shells just washed over you.

Capitulation will only embolden and will have the opposite effect. I support non-aggressive, calm, factual, logical discussion on these topics, and hopefully people will come to the realization that their beliefs are illogical and de-emphasize them or release them altogether.

We'll be a much better, stronger and smarter country once people have voluntarily, logically, and of their own accord given up reliance on supernatural beliefs

Impossible. Their brains were hardwired to believe since childhood. Also, there is the theory that folks have a religious gene. The best we can hope for is what Pew studies point to and that’s a slow decline of Christianity in America based on, essentially, apathy toward organized religion.

Not impossible. Most non-religious people today were raised in a religion. Some people who attend religious services do not believe but go for social/cultural reasons.

SOME people may have a "religious gene" but certainly not all, considering the number of people who leave religion. Religion is taught credulous children. Some reject it when they get older.

Broken record. How many times have you typed this, and on how many threads?

God forbid anything should be repeated here.

It’s just that the 1,000th repetition starts to look, I dunno, a little desperate.

[Anonymous]

Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will never happen.

In certain segments of society, it is already happening/happened.

I live in the Dallas area, but am originally from the north. It is shocking to me how many of my friends think stuff like this is far fetched. I see cars with Q-related stuff (different ones, nice cars in nice suburbs, not some kooky fringe folks) every single time I go out. We are on a scary path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will never happen.

I think we are pretty far down the list of "things that will never happen."

+1 How any voter can say this now. SMH. Wake up people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will never happen.

I think we are pretty far down the list of "things that will never happen."

+1 How any voter can say this now. SMH. Wake up people.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

This is really not true, and even if it were an intellectually lazy Hitchens is still eons above the intellect of the vast majority. People from the left turned on him because of his views on the Middle East, which I disagree with also. He was even famously heckled by the crowd on the Bill Maher show and he gave them the finger in return. Not his finest moment. But if you read his later books and watch the debates and speeches he had when he was sick from chemotherapy he was still extraordinarily brilliant .

So I reject the premise of your claim as the evidence points against it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

This is really not true, and even if it were an intellectually lazy Hitchens is still eons above the intellect of the vast majority. People from the left turned on him because of his views on the Middle East, which I disagree with also. He was even famously heckled by the crowd on the Bill Maher show and he gave them the finger in return. Not his finest moment. But if you read his later books and watch the debates and speeches he had when he was sick from chemotherapy he was still extraordinarily brilliant .

So I reject the premise of your claim as the evidence points against it.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

This is really not true, and even if it were an intellectually lazy Hitchens is still eons above the intellect of the vast majority. People from the left turned on him because of his views on the Middle East, which I disagree with also. He was even famously heckled by the crowd on the Bill Maher show and he gave them the finger in return. Not his finest moment. But if you read his later books and watch the debates and speeches he had when he was sick from chemotherapy he was still extraordinarily brilliant .

So I reject the premise of your claim as the evidence points against it.

+1

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

This is really not true, and even if it were an intellectually lazy Hitchens is still eons above the intellect of the vast majority. People from the left turned on him because of his views on the Middle East, which I disagree with also. He was even famously heckled by the crowd on the Bill Maher show and he gave them the finger in return. Not his finest moment. But if you read his later books and watch the debates and speeches he had when he was sick from chemotherapy he was still extraordinarily brilliant .

So I reject the premise of your claim as the evidence points against it.

It wasn’t my claim. It was the claim of someone who knew Hitchen’s personally and wrote on the same issues. If I have time I’ll dig the article out.

[Anonymous]

* Hitchens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether you are religious or not you should listen to Christopher Hitchens take on this subject. Fascinating and scary. He called it just like it's happening. His main goal in his later life was to prevent anyone's beliefs from intruding in ANY way on anyone else, including running of a country. He also spoke about Thomas Jefferson's reason for wanting separation of church and state which most people think is because Thomas Jefferson was religious and it was the opposite.


I think I found out about this book on DCUM, but "The United States of Hobby Lobby" also goes into the religious right's plans for this country and how many people are working behind the scenes to make this a Christian nation.

Hitchens’ main goal in life was to make money and keep himself in the public eye. He got really intellectually lazy in his last decade. There was a great take-down of him in The Atlantic, hardly a conservative rag. I’m not talking about the guy who claimed, obviously falsely, that Hitchens left atheism.

This is really not true, and even if it were an intellectually lazy Hitchens is still eons above the intellect of the vast majority. People from the left turned on him because of his views on the Middle East, which I disagree with also. He was even famously heckled by the crowd on the Bill Maher show and he gave them the finger in return. Not his finest moment. But if you read his later books and watch the debates and speeches he had when he was sick from chemotherapy he was still extraordinarily brilliant .

So I reject the premise of your claim as the evidence points against it.

It wasn’t my claim. It was the claim of someone who knew Hitchen’s personally and wrote on the same issues. If I have time I’ll dig the article out.

You go ahead and post someone else's opinion if you like. Or, you could offer yours, which would be much more valuable. The problem is you resorted to ad hominem to try and discredit Hitchens by vaguely referring to some un-named article with the blanket claim "got really intellectually lazy in his last decade" when the truth is that's when he did some of his best work.