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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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.   

Church and State

          Today I will be talking about a few of the reasons why I think there should be a separation of church and state. Why the idea of basing policies on religion is stupid and ultimately shallow. Why the government should not give churches tax exempt status and why teaching religion is schools isn't a good thing.


          Okay in a nutshell I think there should be a separation of church and state is based on how religion can be used. while in rare occasions religion can bring good morals to a person or group it can also be used in another way. it can and has been used to separate socites, for prejudice and violence. this happiness on a much bigger scale when a country is a theocracy.


          Next up is the idea of a politician having Christine values or religious values. In some countries this is viewed as positive, in some it is viewed as negative (sadly there a few of them.) This is not a good thing because the particular person in power will always do as the church says. he or she will not do something because it is moral but because the church thinks its moral. This is shallow because they are saying that the church is always right without thinking about it. they are just going with what sounds good.


          As for giving the church tax exempt status. This idea is one of the most stupid i have ever come across. the churches make more cash than any company. to the point were they have there own country. Now if the churches were taxed the money would go to the government. and one thing is true of most politicians. they all want to help there country, they would gladly spend this money to help others.


          Last of all is teaching religion in schools. religion has no place in the science class room. evolution is proven. religion is not. There is also the issue of what religion to teach, if you are going to teach students on unproven theory you have to teach them all unproven theory's since the dawn of time.


Those are just a few reasons why i think church and state should remain SEPARATE


Sorry about my grammar

Washing of the Brain.

Today I will rant on about probably the major problem atheists have with religion. Indoctrination. Particularly the religious doctrinarian of children. Indoctrination basically brain washing. I have wondered about this for a while, a few weeks ago I was in my class studying social issues and the topic of sexism came up. Anyway my teacher was pointing out all the sexist organisations and she mentioned the church, I suddenly felt the need to speak up and say religion was not a sexist institution, than I thought about it for a second. I am an atheist and I had what was basically a non voluntary reaction to insulting the church, which is something I do all the time. Another example of this was a few days ago I read something about a church being burned down on purpose. This seemed like a hateful action until I realised that I would not care so much if it was someone’s house burned down. I mean the church has money. It could easily be rebuilt. Now I don’t know why I thought these things. I know that if the victim had been someone non religious I wouldn’t have been so bothered about it. I think this may be cultural in nature. I know in Australia religion is compared to race, sexuality and gender. So there may even be a cultural aspect to respecting religion that I was until recently unaware of.

Now a small cultural consideration isn’t too bad if it is only about respecting people. What is bad is people who are completely obsessive, violent and stupid about their religion. I am talking about the people who run plains into buildings, I am talking about the people who bomb abortion clinics, I am talking about those that would stop the pursuit of knowledge simply because it did not correspond with their fairy tale!  Think about it logically, would your god be okay with the suffering of people in his (because it couldn’t possibly be a she) name. If not than rethink what you are doing. If so than rethink your commitment to this god.

One of the worst things religion can do is indoctrinate children. To fill a person’s head with lies while they are still vulnerable and not yet mature enough to think about them. To tell them they are going to burn in hell if they don’t do as they are told. To tell them they are going to be burned in hell if they ask questions about what you are teaching them. To tell them certain people don’t deserve rights because of brief sentences in a 2000 year old book!

To all the religious parents out there. I will conclude with this. If your religion is right than your child will follow it because it is correct. So teach them about all religions so than your child will follow one because they want to. Not because they feel obliged to. If you feel the need to scare your child into following your religious views, ask yourself. Does my child believe through his or her own will or because I brainwashed her or him?

here are a few links that god me thinking about this issue
.http://www.youtube.com/user/kidsinministry#p/u/54/sNIJGLeI0w0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fq4wZ_lQjc&feature
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT3d5RFNATA&feature=related

OFFENDING EVERY RELIGION

In this blog I am going to do something I thought of that sounded like heaps of fun. I am going to attempt to offend every religion possible in the limited time I currently have. I have always thought religion is stupid but I think it’s time I gave some reasons as to why I think specific religions in particular are stupid. If you like this please comment below. If you don’t like this i REALLY want you to comment, I love to argue.  In the interest of fair play i will also have a go at atheism and agnostics .

Christianity.

            I think I will start with one of the most criticised religions in western culture. The good old Christians.  Okay this religion is stupid because of the core belief. A god cannot forgive anyone because he is an asshole.  But he still wants to get people into heaven (because he ‘loves’ you) so instead of just forgiving people who rape, kill, torture or steel he decides to go about it a different way. He sends his own son down to earth, than has his own son tortured to pay for the sin of everyone else.  Than has his son killed and brought back to life three days later.  Does none of the billion Christians see a problem with this? Your god is so crazy that he sees someone who is lesser than him do something that he does not approve of so he tortures his child! Imagine is a human parent did this. Let’s say you were that parent and you saw a bug steal a piece of food from the table. Now you don’t like this, but you can’t forgive the bug. So you turn to your child and stab him! No doubt we are about bugs compared to god’s power. Would you be okay with doing this just to forgive the bug? Would you allow your child to suffer for someone else’s doing. Oh and one more thing about your stupid ideas. The unforgivable sin, if I say I don’t believe in god and that god is mean I am going to hell. But if I rape a child than kill him and have sex with his dead body. I can be forgiven.  Your god is shallow and frankly I think Hell would be a much less violent place than heaven.

                        Jews

            Okay. I know shit has happened to you guys. And i know that you don’t deserve it. But STOP using that as an excuse to explain some stupid behaviour. And STOP calling anyone who criticizes your religion or Israel’s politics anti semantic when they aren’t talking about your race at all!

                        Islam

            Guys. Lighten the fuck up! You have pulled some terrible crap in recent times. Now i am not saying that all Muslims have. But Arabic states are fucking crazy with their laws. For example a pastor burned a copy of the Koran. Many UN workers were killed in mass riots over this. The UN workers would never approve of that action anyway. And stop calling yourself a race. It is not racist to attack Islam. Islam is an idea not a race. Just like it isn’t racist to attack the idea of capitalism. Oh right, draw Mohammed day is here to stay so stop freaking out over it. And one last thing STOP OPPRESING WOMEN

                        Hinduism

            Hello to the many Hindus of the world. Okay first of all. Decide on what you believe. There is so much crap out there. Some people say you are agnostic, some say atheist, some say you believe in one god and some say you believe in many. MAKE UP YOUR MIND . but i can tell you this. The idea of karma is stupid. Do good people can universally rewarded. NO, to bad people can universally punished, NO. So the next time you see someone suffering maybe you shouldn’t assume its because they are evil. Maybe you should find out!

                        Buddhism

            Now I kind of like the idea of peace that you guys seem to believe in.  But please stop claiming to be a religion. You are a life style. There is a difference.  

Jehovah’s witnesses

Okay you guys are practically a cult. Let your members have some damn freedom. And stop knocking on our doors. I already know your religion is stupid I don’t need you at my door proving my point. Oh and if someone wants to marry a non believer that’s okay!

                        Scientology

            Do you guys really think that this is real? The person who made this religion was a science fiction writer and you wonder why your core stories involve aliens and space ships! Seriously this is something i expect to find on star gate. Remember what Elrond Hubbard your maker said. “If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion.”

                        Astrology

            IT’S A SCAM. But people believe it. Somehow the stars position at your birth affects your personality.  Did you know stars move? So there positions change over time. A Scorpio a billion years from now would probably be a different star sign. Oh right and if you think that there personality tests are accurate. Think again. It uses something called the barmen effect. This is basically whenever someone hears a belief enough description about themselves they will believe it.  I myself have proved this by giving 20 people the same horoscope description.  Over 80% said that it matched them even tho I made it up and they were all born on different days.

                        Wicca

            Okay. I know it may seem nice saying you’re a witch, but you are not. There is no such thing as magic so please stop trying to make this crap into another religion that we do not need. I know it makes you feel like an individual but seriously... witchcraft?

                        Agnostics

            STOP SITTING ON THE FENCE. This issue of religion and god is an important one. It is how our society and the population of the world views the entire universe. You cant just stay nutral on an issue like that!

                        Atheists

            Stop resisting organisation people! Most of the time atheists don’t want to organise because of more than just religion. Organising wont make us like them. People organise to form political parties, people organise to go out to dinner and people organise to play video games! You wouldn’t call any of these a religion.

            Well that is the 1^st of I hope many attempts to offend every religion. I hope you enjoyed this. If you didn’t too bad. It’s my blog ill say what I want.

UPDATE****

when i said Arabic state i meant Islamic state. i apologize to any i have offended