Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 15:21     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Xmas trees are pagan. Google it. And there are LOTS of atheists/agnostics out here! Why do you think church membership is dropping off so much? Only 30% of Millennials claim to be believers. Times have changed-- we no longer have to feign faith in order to celebrate holidays.


Pretty sure your numbers are off but I don't have any interest in engaging you.


According to the latest Pew survey, I think your numbers are high. 16.1% of the general population says they aren't affiliated with a particular faith, and among Millenials that goes up to about one in four.

See http://religions.pewforum.org/reports


I think the 30% are college students -- a subset of Millenials.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 14:00     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Xmas trees are pagan. Google it. And there are LOTS of atheists/agnostics out here! Why do you think church membership is dropping off so much? Only 30% of Millennials claim to be believers. Times have changed-- we no longer have to feign faith in order to celebrate holidays.


Pretty sure your numbers are off but I don't have any interest in engaging you.


According to the latest Pew survey, I think your numbers are high. 16.1% of the general population says they aren't affiliated with a particular faith, and among Millenials that goes up to about one in four.

See http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 13:17     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
It's just absurd for atheists to say because a topic of science is being discussed in relation to heaven, they have something relevant to add to this discourse. This topic is not about dark matter. It's about the possibility of heaven existing there. If one does not believe in heaven, why would you even post? It's the premise of the thread for goodness sake. If dark matter interests you, by all means click on new topic and start a purely scientific discussion on dark matter. The agenda of mostly atheists here is to feign interest in science to sabotage the threads. That much is clear to me and now to others. In fact, I'm seeing a pattern in other religious threads too where atheists come to mock and derail topics even when it has nothing to do with science. I can only imagine they are bored in their lives and hate the feeling of being left out. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Easter, Eid, whatever your religious holidays are, must be lonely times for these atheists. So rather than create their own group, they work to try to break down our religious groups. It doesn't work to minimize our faith. All it does is make atheists a pain in the tush. We just have to learn to ignore them and continue to have conversations about religion.


FYI - thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Also, many atheists (like many religious people) celebrate the cultural aspects of religious holidays, without any religious observance. There are practicing Christians who don't go to church on Christmas because they prefer spending time opening presents with their families under the Christmas tree.


Dunno how you convinced yourself that Christmas is purely a cultural holiday when the tree, exchanging of presents, everything about it except maybe the eggnog is based on christianity. But okay.


Xmas trees are pagan. Google it. And there are LOTS of atheists/agnostics out here! Why do you think church membership is dropping off so much? Only 30% of Millennials claim to be believers. Times have changed-- we no longer have to feign faith in order to celebrate holidays.


Pretty sure your numbers are off but I don't have any interest in engaging you.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 13:16     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


Nope, I'm a complaining believer and I'm not OP.

I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.


If so, it still suggests that OP wants continued engagement with atheists


So, complaining believer -- do you want to continue complaining about how atheists take over religion threads on a religion thread after another believer has proposed ignoring atheists?


I would never rely on this forum to discuss religious matters, thanks anyway. You're the reason why, viz .,pages of derailments about you and your atheism (why do so many atheists have to talk about themselves constantly?) But yes, yes, I will continue to complain that you guys have derailed, thanks for suggesting it.

And here's some thanks to the one atheist above who did take the question seriously. Before beyond drowned out by the others.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 13:01     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
It's just absurd for atheists to say because a topic of science is being discussed in relation to heaven, they have something relevant to add to this discourse. This topic is not about dark matter. It's about the possibility of heaven existing there. If one does not believe in heaven, why would you even post? It's the premise of the thread for goodness sake. If dark matter interests you, by all means click on new topic and start a purely scientific discussion on dark matter. The agenda of mostly atheists here is to feign interest in science to sabotage the threads. That much is clear to me and now to others. In fact, I'm seeing a pattern in other religious threads too where atheists come to mock and derail topics even when it has nothing to do with science. I can only imagine they are bored in their lives and hate the feeling of being left out. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Easter, Eid, whatever your religious holidays are, must be lonely times for these atheists. So rather than create their own group, they work to try to break down our religious groups. It doesn't work to minimize our faith. All it does is make atheists a pain in the tush. We just have to learn to ignore them and continue to have conversations about religion.


FYI - thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Also, many atheists (like many religious people) celebrate the cultural aspects of religious holidays, without any religious observance. There are practicing Christians who don't go to church on Christmas because they prefer spending time opening presents with their families under the Christmas tree.


Dunno how you convinced yourself that Christmas is purely a cultural holiday when the tree, exchanging of presents, everything about it except maybe the eggnog is based on christianity. But okay.


Xmas trees are pagan. Google it. And there are LOTS of atheists/agnostics out here! Why do you think church membership is dropping off so much? Only 30% of Millennials claim to be believers. Times have changed-- we no longer have to feign faith in order to celebrate holidays.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 12:42     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


Nope, I'm a complaining believer and I'm not OP.

I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.


If so, it still suggests that OP wants continued engagement with atheists


So, complaining believer -- do you want to continue complaining about how atheists take over religion threads on a religion thread after another believer has proposed ignoring atheists?
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 12:33     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


Nope, I'm a complaining believer and I'm not OP.

I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.


If so, it still suggests that OP wants continued engagement with atheists
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 12:31     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.


If so, it still suggests that OP wants continued engagement with atheists
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 12:29     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.


If so, it still suggests that OP wants continued engagement with atheists
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 12:22     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.


I think the majority of the "complaining believer" posts are the OP sock puppeting.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 11:58     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?


Atheists, many of whom were once believers, are quite accustomed to living in a world that is majority believers. Many of their cherished family and friends are believers.

I don't understand why, after a believer made a statement on behalf of other believers about ignoring atheists, that you're still talking to atheists about atheism. Perhaps you enjoy engaging atheists after all.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 11:45     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Yesterday at 10:27, I gave what I thought was a serious response to the original question, namely that it makes more sense to me to say that the dark matter is God. I.e., it is just the present scientific name for the fact that God keeps the stars and planets on their appointed paths, even though we cannot find enough matter to account for the gravity necessary to do so.

I wrote as an atheist, but made no attempt to deny God, just to reconcile two concepts without concerning myself about how they fit my own beliefs. But I have seen no response to this, just argument about who should be allowed to post. To complain about people hijacking the thread and ignore someone who makes an effort to actually discuss the thread's topic strikes me as strange.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 11:02     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:"So go ahead and discuss - just ignore posts you don't like"

You and the other atheists inundate the threads with your mocking posts or posts that take thread off track. It makes it harder to have a discussion. This is your intent, isn't it?


This. It's like you poor atheists can't stand the fact that there are believers out here. So you inundate religion threads and you do make it difficult for us believers to engage among ourselves. Is this deliberate like PP suggests, or just a manifestation of your extreme frustration that we believers exist?
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 10:41     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
It's just absurd for atheists to say because a topic of science is being discussed in relation to heaven, they have something relevant to add to this discourse. This topic is not about dark matter. It's about the possibility of heaven existing there. If one does not believe in heaven, why would you even post? It's the premise of the thread for goodness sake. If dark matter interests you, by all means click on new topic and start a purely scientific discussion on dark matter. The agenda of mostly atheists here is to feign interest in science to sabotage the threads. That much is clear to me and now to others. In fact, I'm seeing a pattern in other religious threads too where atheists come to mock and derail topics even when it has nothing to do with science. I can only imagine they are bored in their lives and hate the feeling of being left out. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Easter, Eid, whatever your religious holidays are, must be lonely times for these atheists. So rather than create their own group, they work to try to break down our religious groups. It doesn't work to minimize our faith. All it does is make atheists a pain in the tush. We just have to learn to ignore them and continue to have conversations about religion.


FYI - thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Also, many atheists (like many religious people) celebrate the cultural aspects of religious holidays, without any religious observance. There are practicing Christians who don't go to church on Christmas because they prefer spending time opening presents with their families under the Christmas tree.


Dunno how you convinced yourself that Christmas is purely a cultural holiday when the tree, exchanging of presents, everything about it except maybe the eggnog is based on christianity. But okay.


I didn't say it was "purely" cultural -- I said some people celebrate Christmas without religion. See the difference? Also, the tree is not of christian origin -- it's from a pagan custom of bringing greenery indoors in the middle of the winter to brighten things up.

Also the date of Christmas is taken from the pagan celebration of Saturnalia - three days after the winter solstice when the days were obviously starting to get longer instead of shorter. An ancient persian god, Mithras, also has a birthday on 12/25 for the same reason -- new hope.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2014 10:35     Subject: Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Message to atheists:

We know you don't believe in God or heaven or the afterlife. No need to restate the obvious. We aren't interested in engaging with you. We do not need science or any proof to believe. If we discuss science and its relation to religion, we do not need or want your input. Thus, your messages will be ignored from now on.


Good idea -- just ignore. I do wonder who "we" is, though -- if there a group of believers undersigning this or it just one person. Also, could be that there are a lot of believers already ignoring atheist posts (or other posts they disagree with) without making a blanket statement.


I am the OP and writing on behalf of the few brave who asked you atheists to stop mocking and derailing religious threads. There are some who don't speak up but I think I represent many religious people. Nobody comes on a religion forum to be mocked for their beliefs.