
Atheists do not claim to know for sure what happens when we die, whether or not there is a god etc. We merely claim that absent evidence to the contrary we will go with the most likely hypothesis, our bodies rot away and that is that. There is no certainty about anything in this world, the question is which hypotheses are worth retaining. And as an atheist, I do not see value in retaining the god hypothesis. In fact, studies have shown that agnostics tend to be less intelligent than the atheists. They think they have found some middle ground between believing a series of ridiculous fairy tales and not believing them. If I were to tell you that there was an invisible leprechan dancing around you just out of reach, would you say, "well, I can't know, I can't prove you wrong, so maybe you are right", or would you think that this is something I have made up that lacks any evidentiary basis and is therefore not worth worrying about? |
You'd think the opium consumers would know more about the opium they are making.
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All Mormon young adults have to spend two years as missionaries. |
That is disgusting. So, instead of learning religious tolerance, they're being taught to strong-arm people into believing what they believe. Nice. |
I love the Jews! They allowed my Christian son to become part of their fabulous preschool. And he's as happy as can be!
A big shout out to my reformed and conservative friends as well! Signed, non-practicing Catholic
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That's only in the part of India that was forcibly converted by the Portugese. Pretty horrifying how they went about it, if you read the history. (Mainly in the south around Goa, Kerala, etc). |
It's Reform, not reformed |
Tolerance is a two-way street. I find it ironic that some of my most liberal friends, who find themselves so tolerant of "diversity," are so intolerant of religious believers. I myself am not terribly happy when a couple of fresh-scrubbed Mormon boys start stalking to me about their religion, but I would hardly call it strong-arming and I certainly wouldn't all it disgusting. This is just part of living in a country that supports religious diversity. |
NP. I recall reading something recently about how fundamentalist Christians and atheists have a similar psychological profile, different from agnostics. It's about their certainty about faith issues. Don't remember any details or how this conclusion was reached. Makes sense, though. |
PP, can we be friends? I'm tired of being cautious about displaying my actual opinions. |
I think the numbers of Buddhists surveyed were too low to be significant-same goes for Muslims. Buddhists are very open to other religions, unlike most other major religions. Not saying they are necessarily knowledgeable about other religions, but they are, in general accepting of other people's beliefs. My mom's entire family is Buddhist and when she converted to Christianity as a young adult, none of them had a problem with it. In fact, they were encouraging-saying essentially, if it makes you happy, go for it! |
Yes, exactly. Have you ever seen "Jesus Camp"? It's frightening. |
OT, but which preschool is this?? We've got a bunch of Jewish preschools here in Mont County, but we're not Jewish. Can we attend any of them? I always assumed they were only for Jewish kids. |
I'm the one you quoted. I am tolerant of diversity. I don't care if you want to believe in Jesus/Buddha/Allah/Fruit Flies. But, I HATE missionaries. They have done some horrible things in other parts of the world. I'm tolerant of people believing what they want. I'm tolerant of religious believers. But, I am not tolerant of people trying to change my mind by force. Or of missionaries who take advantage of poor/less fortunate people. |
Yes, exactly. Have you ever seen "Jesus Camp"? It's frightening. That is a good movie! We have some religious nuts in our family (the in-laws, not mine, thankfully). My DH grew up very deeply involved in the church, and some of the stories he tells are frightening. |