I was being sarcastic, Jahchild. I'm atheist, so any of that biblical morality is irrelevant to me. Adultery is bad to me because it betrays trust. Effeminate behavior is hardly sinful, since we're a mixture of male and female to begin with, right? Males acting effeminate and females acting masculine is hardly unexpected, even if it's a minority behavior. Idolatry is bad because it's wasting time, not because there's actually a God who gets jealous. Thieves and extortioners are bad because they abuse trust as well; drunkards, revilers and covetors are all good in moderation and abusers of oneself with mankind is fairly vague as to what it means, since the Greek isn't clear to me.
Not everyone wants to pledge allegiance to a flag that has ceased to represent what it originally stood for. Gay people and Muslims are discriminated against, Christians insist on special treatment and social conservatives want to enforce their morality through the government while decrying the government's intervention in things inconvenient to their fiscal policies. Bigotry, Christofascism and hypocrisy continue to spawn with those raised in willful ignorance and insulate themselves to the uncomfortable reality that changes and threatens their feeling of superiority.
You want responsibility? Teach kids sex education and don't simply advocate abstinence without a basic failsafe that still instills the value of self control.
Too much patriotism leads to nationalism, too much self pride leads to arrogance. All good things in moderation, good sir, as spoken by a pre-Christian thinker appropriated by many today without even realizing it.
Not even the bible says everyone would convert. It's purely a hope that such a thing would ever happen. Heck, the bible seems to suggest that regardless of what happens, a good number of people will reject your Jesus, all while your God has already realized it. So what does it do? It throws us along with an alleged rebellious angel into a lake of fire for all eternity.
And even if everyone believed in Jesus, there's plenty of evidence that there'd still be issues. Unitarians, Binitarians and Trinitarians would all be clashing about the exact nature of God in relation to Jesus, Calvinists and Arminianists, among others, would be up in arms about who's right and who's wrong. and let's not even get started on the Protestant/Catholic fight that's been waged for nearly half a millennium. Jesus would only bring peace if everyone was perfect and no belief system promises such a ridiculous prophecy except at the cost of billions more lives to perfect them.
Oh no, it's so horrible that Christians don't get more privileged treatment, when they already get virtually all their major celebrations considered as national holidays and have an ode to their God as the motto of the nation, unconstitutional as that is.
Heaven forbid they call the Xmas tree a holiday tree when it's not Christian in nature, but Germanic pagan based. Heck the Bible speaks of something that sounds like a "Yule" tree anyway in Jeremiah 10: 1-5. Not even a Christian, just bringing it up.
It's so terrible that you have to let go of one symbol that isn't even yours originally. Hang onto your cross and dove and I think you'll be fine.
Yeah, because God is where virtues come from instead of the human conscience and will. This is why we can't face reality in all its harshness without a deity; we think the world would become less virtuous if people didn't believe their virtues originated from a capricious and sadistic deity who will apparently equalize everything in the afterlife.
If we worked for justice in the limited sense humans can without thinking that it will be perfected in the hereafter, perhaps we'd continue to work for justice as a society instead of leaving it to groups that are passionate about it.
Perhaps discrimination isn't the best word, since I would agree it can simply mean choosing between various options and discerning your convictions, etc. Bigoted is too harsh, since these are based in generally peaceful, if a bit sanctimonious at times, behavior. Sanctimonious might work, but insular works the best. There is definitely a sense that you communicate a uniqueness to your beliefs as compared to general humanities schools that incorporate other religions much more than merely as things to be learned about in order to write polemic and other tracts about their worldly nature.
No one, myself especially as a religious studies major, opposes individual religions and denominations creating their own schools, especially those to promote their religion above all others (yes, Christianity is a religion, even if it is also a "relationship"). I was raised Christian, but apostatized for my own reasons, but I graduated from a school with a strong Episcopal/Anglican tradition and I would be a hypocrite in part if I opposed the existence of schools funded by religious groups.
But being dismissive and patronizing of peaceful protesters through a news publication instead of engaging them face to face is hardly behavior befitting adults of your intelligence and wisdom.
It's not un-American to want your rights, but like the religious right and evangelicals, there is indeed a problem when you only focus on your rights as opposed to others'. The Constitution, particularly the 14th Amendment, is very valuable to protecting both the majority and minority in their acting on their rights within reason.
Living4Life, I seriously doubt that it's that easy to get anything that actually represents a well thought out atheist position in the secular world you're referring to. Religion is a prominent thing in the South and that's undeniable in terms of just the culture and exposure to churches all across the region.
I'm quite interested in reaching for something beyond myself: friends, family, existential questions, philosophy, music, arts, and many other things.
Just because I happen to believe I don't live beyond my death doesn't mean I'm automatically an egotist and for you to think that suggests to me you don't really know much about atheism or secularism beyond talking points in a political or evangelical context of what they are supposed to be like from stereotypes.
'Crossdressers are not always gay' and more letters to the editor
I was being sarcastic, Jahchild. I'm atheist, so any of that biblical morality is irrelevant to me. Adultery is bad to me because it betrays trust. Effeminate behavior is hardly sinful, since we're a mixture of male and female to begin with, right? Males acting effeminate and females acting masculine is hardly unexpected, even if it's a minority behavior. Idolatry is bad because it's wasting time, not because there's actually a God who gets jealous. Thieves and extortioners are bad because they abuse trust as well; drunkards, revilers and covetors are all good in moderation and abusers of oneself with mankind is fairly vague as to what it means, since the Greek isn't clear to me.
'Crossdressers are not always gay' and more letters to the editor
Sounds to me like no females could go into heaven unless they're butch, lol
'Education failure hurts kids, country' and more Letters to the Editors
Not everyone wants to pledge allegiance to a flag that has ceased to represent what it originally stood for. Gay people and Muslims are discriminated against, Christians insist on special treatment and social conservatives want to enforce their morality through the government while decrying the government's intervention in things inconvenient to their fiscal policies. Bigotry, Christofascism and hypocrisy continue to spawn with those raised in willful ignorance and insulate themselves to the uncomfortable reality that changes and threatens their feeling of superiority.
You want responsibility? Teach kids sex education and don't simply advocate abstinence without a basic failsafe that still instills the value of self control.
Too much patriotism leads to nationalism, too much self pride leads to arrogance. All good things in moderation, good sir, as spoken by a pre-Christian thinker appropriated by many today without even realizing it.
Letters to the Editor
Not even the bible says everyone would convert. It's purely a hope that such a thing would ever happen. Heck, the bible seems to suggest that regardless of what happens, a good number of people will reject your Jesus, all while your God has already realized it. So what does it do? It throws us along with an alleged rebellious angel into a lake of fire for all eternity.
And even if everyone believed in Jesus, there's plenty of evidence that there'd still be issues. Unitarians, Binitarians and Trinitarians would all be clashing about the exact nature of God in relation to Jesus, Calvinists and Arminianists, among others, would be up in arms about who's right and who's wrong. and let's not even get started on the Protestant/Catholic fight that's been waged for nearly half a millennium. Jesus would only bring peace if everyone was perfect and no belief system promises such a ridiculous prophecy except at the cost of billions more lives to perfect them.
Letters to the Editors
Oh no, it's so horrible that Christians don't get more privileged treatment, when they already get virtually all their major celebrations considered as national holidays and have an ode to their God as the motto of the nation, unconstitutional as that is.
Heaven forbid they call the Xmas tree a holiday tree when it's not Christian in nature, but Germanic pagan based. Heck the Bible speaks of something that sounds like a "Yule" tree anyway in Jeremiah 10: 1-5. Not even a Christian, just bringing it up.
It's so terrible that you have to let go of one symbol that isn't even yours originally. Hang onto your cross and dove and I think you'll be fine.
Cook: Kids who thank God on way to chemotherapy
Yeah, because God is where virtues come from instead of the human conscience and will. This is why we can't face reality in all its harshness without a deity; we think the world would become less virtuous if people didn't believe their virtues originated from a capricious and sadistic deity who will apparently equalize everything in the afterlife.
If we worked for justice in the limited sense humans can without thinking that it will be perfected in the hereafter, perhaps we'd continue to work for justice as a society instead of leaving it to groups that are passionate about it.
Christianity about discrimination
Perhaps discrimination isn't the best word, since I would agree it can simply mean choosing between various options and discerning your convictions, etc. Bigoted is too harsh, since these are based in generally peaceful, if a bit sanctimonious at times, behavior. Sanctimonious might work, but insular works the best. There is definitely a sense that you communicate a uniqueness to your beliefs as compared to general humanities schools that incorporate other religions much more than merely as things to be learned about in order to write polemic and other tracts about their worldly nature.
No one, myself especially as a religious studies major, opposes individual religions and denominations creating their own schools, especially those to promote their religion above all others (yes, Christianity is a religion, even if it is also a "relationship"). I was raised Christian, but apostatized for my own reasons, but I graduated from a school with a strong Episcopal/Anglican tradition and I would be a hypocrite in part if I opposed the existence of schools funded by religious groups.
But being dismissive and patronizing of peaceful protesters through a news publication instead of engaging them face to face is hardly behavior befitting adults of your intelligence and wisdom.
Letters to the Editor
It's not un-American to want your rights, but like the religious right and evangelicals, there is indeed a problem when you only focus on your rights as opposed to others'. The Constitution, particularly the 14th Amendment, is very valuable to protecting both the majority and minority in their acting on their rights within reason.
'Let children open hearts to idea of God' and more letters to the editors
Living4Life, I seriously doubt that it's that easy to get anything that actually represents a well thought out atheist position in the secular world you're referring to. Religion is a prominent thing in the South and that's undeniable in terms of just the culture and exposure to churches all across the region.
I'm quite interested in reaching for something beyond myself: friends, family, existential questions, philosophy, music, arts, and many other things.
Just because I happen to believe I don't live beyond my death doesn't mean I'm automatically an egotist and for you to think that suggests to me you don't really know much about atheism or secularism beyond talking points in a political or evangelical context of what they are supposed to be like from stereotypes.
'Let children open hearts to idea of God' and more letters to the editors
I hope you're fine with letting your children be open to the idea of no God just as much.