Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yeah that is where I get irked. YOUR need to share with ME is... just not ok. You don't get to choose what I get shared. *I* do. That is part of MY religious freedom. When it is unwelcome, by the way, it isn't sharing. It is intruding.
This is what they seem incapable of understanding. If I were to intrude on them in the same manner, talking about atheism, or gay rights, or whatever, they would throw a hissy fit. When they do it, it is religious freedom and we should let them get away with it.
Yeah that is where I get irked. YOUR need to share with ME is... just not ok. You don't get to choose what I get shared. *I* do. That is part of MY religious freedom. When it is unwelcome, by the way, it isn't sharing. It is intruding.
Is it religious intrusion to have Bibles and other sacred texts available on the shelves of a government founded and funded library … ??
This is what they seem incapable of understanding. If I were to intrude on them in the same manner, talking about atheism, or gay rights, or whatever, they would throw a hissy fit. When they do it, it is religious freedom and we should let them get away with it.
If the "New A-Theists" want to form a "Gideon" style organization and distribute at their expense free copies of the sacred writings of Pope Dawkins and St. Hitchens, they are FREE to do so …
No one is disputing the right of the Gideons to distribute Bibles. They can set up a shop across the street from the state-run lodgings and distribute the Bibles from there. So your comment indicates either that you're trying to move the goal posts, realizing that you couldn't defend your original statement, or a complete lack of understanding what other people have been posting about in this thread.
No one is disputing the right of the Gideons to distribute Bibles. They can set up a shop across the street from the state-run lodgings and distribute the Bibles from there. So your comment indicates either that you're trying to move the goal posts, realizing that you couldn't defend your original statement, or a complete lack of understanding what other people have been posting about in this thread.
I see no "establishment of religion" taking place by the "Gideons'" free distribution of Bibles ANYWHERE … including in "state-run lodgings" (at say, State and National Parks …???) …
"The State" administrators are FREE to decline those donations as they wish … There is "no LAW respecting an establishment of religion" being passed or enforced in that case (nor, e.g., in guv'mint paid military chaplains or in congress and legislatures beginning a session with a non-sectarian prayer …)
Does not having the Bible in the room keep you from sharing your faith?
Your side has done quite a good job of raising a generation who can effectively be completely shut out of any exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are leary and uncomfortable about the notion of attending a church because your side paints us as raving lunatics who just want to enforce a set of rules on everyone.
So the Gideon Bible could very well be the only way a lost person can stumble upon the World of God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southernbored
I seriously doubt that there are all these suicidal people checking into hotels and reading Bibles like you seem to think. However, you could say this about anything. You could say, "The Atheist Pamphlet may be the only time a suicidal person randomly encounters the Atheist Pamphlets and makes a decision to read it." Hell, you could say, "The Cat in the Hat may be the only time a suicidal person randomly encounters Dr. Seuss and makes a decision to read it", or the Quran, or Satanist Bible, or any book in the world. How does that change anything?
The testimonies are there. It's not my fault that you refuse to accept them. People have been saved by the Gideon Bible. That is a fact. The gospel of secularism doesn't give people hope. Quite the opposite.
Your side has done quite a good job of raising a generation who can effectively be completely shut out of any exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lol. Religious propaganda is everywhere. It's on the Internet. It's on the radio. When I drive through parts of central Pennsylvania, there are 2 fundamentalist Christian radio stations for every secular one. Children can be indoctrinated at Christian camps and at "Vacation Bible School." Children can be protected from reality... *cough*... Satan well into adulthood by attending an evangelical Christian college.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
They are leary and uncomfortable about the notion of attending a church because your side paints us as raving lunatics who just want to enforce a set of rules on everyone.
Jeff my man, you are doing a fabulous job painting your side as a bunch of raving lunatics who just want to force rules on everyone. You don't really need the help of atheists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
So the Gideon Bible could very well be the only way a lost person can stumble upon the World of God.
The whole premise that every non-evangelical Christian is "lost" is extremely arrogant. If anyone is "lost" (i.e. clueless) it's the evangelical Christians.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
The testimonies are there. It's not my fault that you refuse to accept them. People have been saved by the Gideon Bible. That is a fact. The gospel of secularism doesn't give people hope. Quite the opposite.
Religion is a powerful placebo. It gives people (false) hope. But here's the problem with all placebos: they are based on deception. As soon as the patient discovers that the Powerful New Medicine is nothing more than a sugar pill, all hell breaks loose. If your "reason for living" is based on a falsehood, you must do everything in your power to maintain the illusion via deliberate self-deception.
If the "New A-Theists" want to form a "Gideon" style organization and distribute at their expense free copies of the sacred writings of Pope Dawkins and St. Hitchens, they are FREE to do so …
Go For It …
*shrug*
Putting a copy of The God Delusion in a government owned/ran would also be counter to what the posters are saying is a violation of your constitution. If one thinks it violated the constitition why would they want to do it as well?
Putting a book like Dawkin's The Greatest Show on Earth would not be wrong as it is a book about science and not religion and people of many religions as well as athesists accept evolution. Putting the God Delusion would be inappropiate even in privately owned hotels and motels, inapproipiate but not illegal.
As far as preventing suicides would not a suicide prevention brochure with local help line and contacts be more useful? How far would a person have to read in the Bible to feel good about themselves and decide not to commite suicide? I would guess the Princess Bride would be a more cheery uplifting book for someone in that frame of mind.
I also fail to see how not allowing religious texts in a government ran hotel would be a slippery slope to banning religion outside of churches and homes. There appears to be many religious programs on TV and radio, billboards that have more chance of staying not being vandalized than athesists billboards, loads of commercial products at Christmas and Easter plus people coming to your own home to save you from whatever they think you need saving from. Does not appear that religion is being banned other than in government institutuions.
If the "New A-Theists" want to form a "Gideon" style organization and distribute at their expense free copies of the sacred writings of Pope Dawkins and St. Hitchens, they are FREE to do so …
Go For It …
*shrug*
Try replying to what posts actually say, instead of just saying something unrelated to the quoted post. I was not talking about that in the post you quoted. Go back and re-read what was written, and the post I replied to if you want to comment.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
