Religion is Different

I am sure many atheists that like to debate theology (like me) have been called intolerant because they openly criticise religion. People are as defensive about religion as they are about race, gender or place of birth. I contest this. You cannot choose any of those things so questioning them would be stupid. But you can chose religion so it makes seance to question it.

If I said I was a communist. People would question my reasons, and rightly so, communism has never been applied correctly so being a communist is stupid. If I said I was a monist people would question it, and rightly so. The idea that I am the only person in existence calls into question how important I consider other people. But if I say I'm Jewish, no one will question it. Even if they are an atheist, a Christian, a Muslim or a Hindu, even if their who outlook on religion and the life was different from Judaism they would think questioning it would be intolerant.

Another place were religion gets a special place as opposed to other world views is with children. Most children are automatically viewed as being part of the same religion as there parents. Even children who are too young to understand how the world works are automatically branded as being Muslim, Jewish or some other religion. If I were a communist my child wouldn’t be considered a commonest.

Now I'm not saying go around and start questioning peoples religion on the street. But, if you are debating theology or in some other argument don't be afraid of pointing out flaws in there argument just because you will be declared intolerant.


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NEW YORK!

         So recently new York has legalised gay marriage. This has been met with heavy opposition as you would expect from religious types, people that define marriage as between a man and a woman and of course people who are just uncomfortable with the idea of two dudes kissing.

          First of all I would like to congratulate new York. The people in that state have greatly helped the cause for freedom of choice. They are one of the first states in America that realised that homosexuals have the right to get married and be just as miserable as everyone else who got married.

          Secondly I would like to address the community that thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. Why do you think this? Who does it hurt? If a man and another man hook up does that harm you, does it harm your friends, your family. If so how does it hurt them. Really think about your position and really think if its because you actually believe that same sex marriage harms people or if you just don’t like the idea because it makes you feel uncomfortable.

          Thirdly I must ask the religious types why they oppose it. If it is because of what’s in the bible than your argument isn’t compelling. The bible also says kill your neighbours if he works on Sunday (Exodus 31:15 - "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death..") Just do what you always do when you find something in your holy book that you don’t like, ignore it.

          Last of all I would like to talk to any Americans out there. The rest of the world doesn’t exactly hold your nation in the same esteem it used to. America used to be known as the a nation that fought for freedom of slaves, for racial rights and for democracy. It was the place you would go to be free. So please America, grant one more freedom to your people!

Being Moral

          A few days ago I was talking to an atheist. He was probably what you would call a moderate atheist. He said he didn’t believe in god but he did believe that organised religion can make you a better person, I just smiled and nodded. But I disagree strongly to my fellow atheists statement that organised religion can teach us morals.

          My first argument is that ALL organised religion requires people to reject there logical senses. It tells them not to ask questions and just accept there answer about how the world works, about how the universe was created and about how we should behave. It asks that you believe in unconditionally and that you never question it.

          Organised religion also rejects all progress. When I say all I mean ALL. Every great freedom that we hold dear today has been directly opposed by organised religion. When the Americans gave freedom of speech and religion to all it was opposed by millions with biblical and church support. When Lincoln freed the slaves millions opposed him with biblical and church support. When woman were getting the right to vote millions opposed it with biblical and church support. Even today millions oppose gay marriage and find biblical and church support.

          When a state attempts to be guided by religion it always ends badly. When states are ran by sharia law they oppress woman, homosexuals, atheists, people of different religion and in some cases people of a different race. When the western world was under religious control there was murder war and intolerance on a scale that we have not seen since.

          Most of the time I get the argument that it makes individual people more moral even though it can effect masses negativity. I disagree with this. When people think only of religious they hurt other people. Jerusalem is the centre of the Abrahamic religions, it is regarded as the holy land by most the world, however there are large amounts of hate, intolerance and violence present every day. This place should be about peace, love and forgiveness.

          Every day people hurt, attack and kill for religion. And they think that they are doing the right thing. Tell me, is it really a force for good?  

Being open minded

          This will be short but it will still have a good point

          I am tired of having arguments with religious people who start to lose than call the line “be more open minded.” I say that atheists are actually more open minded and religious people are actually more closed minded.

          I will start with religious people. How many religious people will admit that they could be wrong, that there might not be a god. How often do you see a religious person admit that the bible or Koran could be wrong. The fact of the matter is that religion requires someone to close there mind to believe in.

          Now as for atheists. I say that we are more open minded than religious people! The atheist position is that there is not enough evidence for us to believe in god. If you can give me evidence that proves gods existence I will gladly change my views to believe in it.

          So are you open minded?

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Come on Christianity, you can do better!

          Ok after I compiled a list on why Islam is doing a bad job at converting people I was requested to do one on why Christianity is currently failing at converting people. There are a few reasons. 1 is because they go after less than fit people, 2 because they have a parent child view towards you, 3 because most Christians haven’t even read there bible so they simply cant keep up with an atheist in a theological debate, 4 the sheer number of Christian variations And probably the biggest one of all is the inconsistencies between the message you preach and the one in your holy book and the one you practice. So lets get started shall we

          Okay, this may be personal but most the time when Christian missionaries attempt to recruit people into there religion they don't go after people that can question or people that are of sound mind. They go after children, to young to make up there own minds, they go into prisons and give people hope that they may one day be a “good” person but only through god, they go to AA meetings, they go to third world countries were people are to hungry to think straight. To any atheist this is completely immoral and it drops the credibility of those missionaries so much in our eyes.

          When the every day Christians attempts to convert you, they don’t offer things like the missionaries do, they instead come from a view were they think they are right and they have to 'teach' us. As such they talk down to atheists and get angry when atheists talk back to them. They take the role of a spiritual parent and that really gets under peoples skin.

          Next up is the sheer lack of information the average Christian has about there holy book. Only something like 10% of Christians actually read the bible. A resent study in the US said that atheists and agnostics actually knew more about the bible than the average Christian. This is because when most people are seriously considering becoming an atheist. They read the bible, they read it than decide its crap. So don't assume we are just ignorant of what's in that book.

         There are something like 200 different variations of Christianity. 200 ways of interpreting the same damn book, 200 viewpoints who all believe there right. If you guys are so divided amongst yourselves how on earth do you expect us to believe you know what your talking about.

          The biggest reason most agnostics or fence sitters don’t listen to you in my opinion is simply because there is a major difference between what you say you are for, what you do and what’s in the bible. Your stance is you are for peace, an all loving god, mercy and forgiveness. But the very idea of your prophet contradicts this. Think about it. Your god will not forgive anyone unless they realise that Jesus got tortured for us. That basicly says that god cannot just forgive, he has to harm someone. That is the kind of thing a child would do. Now god is supposed to be all loving and forgiving. But when a person goes to hell. God will never forgive them. Imagen if our society did that. Someone stole something and didn’t confess. So we have him or her tortured forever. He or she doesn’t get any chance to redeem themselves, they just get to be tortured forever. That is not merciful and it is not forgiveness. The Christians themselves support the death penitently above all other groups. That is not forgiveness.

          In short if you want to convert us. You have to work out the kinks in your own organisation first. Common Christianity, pick up your game!


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PS: this article was about 5 times as long at first, I had to compress it for readability purposes, that’s how much I have to say about the faults with Christianity.   

Common Islam, you can do better!

Okay. I am sick of Islam. Over the last few weeks I have been in contact with an Islamic girl over facebook. She has attempted to convert me many times. I have generally stayed silent and just let her do her little cyber missionary thing. But the other day I got board and finally asked her why she believed in god.

                Her first argument was, she was born a Muslim. I said this was a worthless argument because technically everyone is born an atheist. We are not born believing in a particular religion. You just happen to be born into a family that expects you to follow a certain religion after they teach it to you.

                Her next argument was about how Islam was the religion of peace and all that stuff. To this I quickly pointed out that Islam generates more religious violence than any other religion and that Islam being the religion of peace isn’t proof god exists.

                She than gave me cases where atheists turned to Islam. I in turn gave her many more cases where Muslims turned to atheism and were hung, stoned or beheaded for that, then gave her a few examples of were Muslims turned to atheism and were lucky enough to be in a tolerant country.  After which I pulled the famous Dawkings line “what is the price of apostasy” (I love that one) I than explained to her that simply because someone turns to a particular belief system doesn’t mean it’s correct. 

                After which she gave me a video pointing out the sheer impossibility of this being the outcome of the earth we live in. I than gave her a random number generator and asked her to put in the numbers one and one hundred billion. Then asked her if the result was a mirical simply because the odds were against it happening.

                Now this is not an isolated incident, I have had many debates with Muslim missionaries. And I have some tips for them

1. When attempting to convert an atheist please don’t mock Christianity, we already know it doesn’t make sense.

2. Stop calling Islam logical simply because its more logical that Christianity. It’s still illogical. If I say 1+1= 5 that’s wrong, if I say 1+1=3 that’s still wrong it’s just makes more sense because it’s closer to the answer!

3. Don’t get into an evolutionary debate saying its wrong than ask “were did the single cell organism come from?” that just makes the atheist think he or she convinced you that evolution is correct 

4 This last one is more personal than anything else. DO NOT manipulate the words of famous philosophers to suit your means. And expectably to not do it about Christian philosophers.

5. Stop posting links about how great Allah and Muhammad are. That gets boring and doesn’t prove that Islam is correct.

           So please, islamic missionaries, if you want to convert us, step up your game!

How to get what we want

What do we need and want?

That's what people seem to ask

They think of what they can improve by adding to what they already have

They don't think that adding will solve problems

But maybe we need to do something else

maybe we need to start taking away

taking away the negative aspects of our world.

not through force

but through a much more effective means

education!

If this world is ever to change we need to be enlightened

enlightened by science

enlightened by  philosophy

enlightened by art

enlightened by logic

with enlightenment we can change things instead of just throughout resorses at a problem

with enlightenment we can actually make a difference rather than attempt to make a difference