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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I feel like atheist/agnostic is the default and the burden of proof rightly rests on the person or people who are asserting the existence and impact of supernatural/divine forces.

I think faith in the supernatural is a quirk of human evolution that we've used to bind ourselves into larger tribal identity groups ... and it's been pretty successful at that ... but the claims of religions that assert the supernatural don't hold up to close examination.

I was raised Catholic, tried evangelical etc ... and for many years really tried to give faith a good try, willing it to happen etc .. but in the end when I stopped 'pressing,' it just wasn't there ... which actually works just fine.

In the end (at least for me), admitting the presence of big existential questions actually brings more inner peace than all the cognitive dissonance of lying to yourself ... but I understand that doesn't work for everyone and don't begrudge people of faith pursuing what works for them. [/quote]

Lovely, Thanks.  I've heard about people like you who "try" to believe and it just doesn't work.  I look forward to the day when people are not expected to believe, or forced to believe, and when "people of faith" are not considered superior because they are able to believe in the supernatural.

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Christians do not think they are superior to anyone else. We are all the same. Sinners in need of the redemptive blood of Christ. Every person is created in God’s image and has the same sinful nature, and no one is better than the next person.

No one is forced to believe any religion in America.

WHAT IS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EXACTLY?

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that everyone in the United States has the right to practice his or her own religion, or no religion at all.

The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment gives you the right to worship or not as you choose. The government can't penalize you because of your religious beliefs.

IS IT EVER OK TO PRAY IN SCHOOL?

Sure. Individual students have the right to pray whenever they want to, as long as they don't disrupt classroom instruction or other educational activities -- or try to force others to pray along with them. If a school official has told you that you can't pray at all during the school day, your right to exercise your religion is being violated. Contact your local ACLU for help.

Student-organized Bible clubs are OK as long as three conditions are met:

(1) the activity must take place during non-school hours; (2) school officials can't be involved in organizing or running the club, and (3) the school must make its facilities available to all student groups on an equal basis. So your Bible club couldn't be the only group allowed access to the school grounds. Neither could your school let other student groups use the building for meetings and events and deny your Bible club the same opportunity.

https://www.aclu.org/other/your-right-religious-freedom

Again, anti- theism is different from atheism. Atheism is a personal choice to not believe in a God, gods, or practice any religious beliefs or worship any deity.

Anti- theism is an opposition to theism.

Dystheism is a belief in a deity that is not benevolent, and an opposition to gods or God.

Misotheism is a hatred of God.

Christopher Hitchens offers an example of this approach in Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001), in which he writes: "I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful.

Other definitions of antitheism include that of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1953), for whom it is "an active struggle against everything that reminds us of God.”

Anti-theism is incompatible with our freedom of religion and our values as Americans.

Some See Extreme 'Anti-Theism' As Motive In N.C. Killings

Outrage over the murder of three young Muslim Americans in North Carolina last week has gone international. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said Saturday that the killings reflected "Islamophobia" and "bear the symptoms of a hate crime," but local authorities say they don't yet know what motivated the murders.

The man held responsible for the killings is an avowed atheist. Whether that's relevant in this case is not clear, but some experts see a new extremism developing among some atheists.

On his Facebook page, Craig Hicks, the alleged gunman, criticized all religions. His wife said he had nothing against Muslims in particular, but Hicks described himself as a gun-toting atheist.

Religion scholar Reza Aslan says ordinary atheists just don't believe in God. Hicks, Aslan says, was an anti-theist.

Antitheism is primarily an attitude of aggressive hostility toward religion and, by extension, religious people and ideas. Unfortunately, antitheism tends to express itself in negative ways, with arrogance, derision, or outright bigotry.

[/quote]

https://www.npr.org/2015/02/15/386406810/some-see-extreme-anti-theism-as-motive-in-n-c-killings

(Link to news article quoted)[/quote]

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