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Only someone who held deeply buried resentment or hate for God would refer to the Bible as garbage.
I don't hate or resent the idea of god that people have. But I have no reason to see it as anything other than a work of fiction and thus as historical "garbage".
Only someone who held deeply buried resentment or hate for God would refer to the Bible as garbage.
If the deity was real instead of the work of fiction I believe it to be, ALL decent people should treat it with disgust if the deeds attributed to it were factual!
Really, so I guess you consider the following to NOT be persecution:
1. American Christians being told to confirm their faith before being slaughtered in a mass shooting.
2. A woman going to jail because she didn't want to violate her Christian morals regarding gay marriage.
3. Christian business owner given enormous overblown fines for refusing to engage in an immoral celebration.
4. Local government meddling in the affairs of Christian churches even to the point of demanding that pastors turn over their sermons for approval.
5. Christian ministries being forced to pay for abortion pills.
6. The essential stripping away of religion and faith from ALL avenues of public life like recent demand to give school chaplains the boot off of universities.
7. People losing their jobs directly as a result of sharing their faith.
Gee, what's it going to take before you acknowledge persecution? Christians being whipped in the streets? By that time, we will have our voices silenced so you won't have to apologize for that day you claimed we were just "pretending".
1. A witness that was in the room at the time of the shooting disagrees with you.
2. A government official went to jail for defying a court order to do her job.
3. Businesses are fined for refusing to follow state and city laws regarding operating a business.
4. And she was told by a judge to stop.
5. no, they are forced to sign a paper that would exempt them, but refuse to do so.
6. Link?
7. a guy losing his job because he refused to follow a direct order to stop harassing his co-workers by management.
OH NO! Christians have to follow the same laws as the rest of society.
This is "mocking" and "hateful" speech towards scientists and biology teachers.
And also the Catholic Church and many mainstream Protestant denominations. I think that to the fundamentalists the mainstream Christians are only counted as Christians when they need numbers to "prove" that they are in the majority otherwise these people do not count as people either.
I was thinking on my drive today that if one thinks that calling atheists traitors and anti American how hard would it take a charismatic leader to take them even further in their hatred and into actions. We saw in the last decade of the this past century how quickly people can turn on their neighbours who are different such as the genocides in Rwanda and the massacre of Muslims by Christians in the former Yugoslavia. That same mindset is in the signage and in people who think that demonizing others who think or believe differently is just telling the truth. Traitors are punished and if you already think that your neigbour is a traitor and out to harm you, will you be able to defend yourself? That is the mindset that hateful leaders are looking for. In the 30s that was the mindset of Christians againsts Jews in more than NAZI Germany but throughout much of Europe and in Canada and the US. I find that anyone would accept the labelling of atheists as traitors and preach that they are anti America as disgusting and potentially dangerous.
And yet simply telling fellow atheists that they can stay home from church is considered as an attack and labelling atheists as traitors and enemies of your country is just telling the truth in some people's minds. Some ideas do not deserve respect nor do those spouting them deserve to be respected. The attacks on Muslims and Muslim appearing people that has been occuring in North America shows that rhetoric can be harmful. Apparently if you are on the side spreading this rhetoric then it is justified by something or other in your holy book.
Sorry but I take this more seriously than perhaps I should. If my family had remained in Eastern Europe they no doubt would have fallen to people who followed the rheteric of those who are different are traitors, from the Christians under the Czar or later Hitler or from the Communists under mostly Stalin. I am not sure about Lenin.
Sorry for the serious and pessimistic rant but I needed to get this out of me.
"We're trying to reach out to non-believers specifically and let them know that it's OK to celebrate Christmas without treating it like a religious holiday," said Gotovich.
It's directed at atheists. Many atheists go to church at Christmas and at Easters for the extra festivities. Many church members are atheists. They may follow the philosophical teachings of a prophet, but don't believe in deities and other supernatural beings.
I would refer to most of the bible as garbage. I don't have a resentment or hate for the Christian God since he doesn't actually exist.
Like you would actually admit that God is real. Of course, you are going to say this. I have to read behind the words, and the tone and choice of terms like "garbage" reveals the truth.
It's directed at atheists. Many atheists go to church at Christmas and at Easters for the extra festivities. Many church members are atheists. They may follow the philosophical teachings of a prophet, but don't believe in deities and other supernatural beings.
I wonder how large the numbers are that have lost their belief but have too much invested (family, friendships, etc.) to come out with their disbelief.
How is it NOT mocking Christians or Christmas? Seriously?
I really don't care if it IS mocking Christians or Christmas.
Whether atheists play nice or not; whether we sit down and shut up or not, the fundamentalists and evangelicals will STILL insult, bash, demonize, and vilify atheists whenever the mood strikes them. And we'll be blamed for every instance whereby militant Christians don't get their way.
Yeah, I think I'm going to start calling them "militant" Christians since one good turn deserves another. If atheists can be non-violently militant, so too can Christians.
The bottom line is that SOME Christians are still operating under the assumption that their belief system deserves automatic and unearned respect. They think that their religion should be above and immune to criticism, analysis, satire, parody, mocking, and comedy. Whenever anyone, believer or not, Christian or not, is in the presence of Christianity, everyone is supposed to become of the most serious and somber mind. No matter how often we atheists are verbally butchered by Sunday morning TV preachers, Fox News pundits, and who knows how many pulpit-pounders in churches all across the country, atheists are STILL supposed to treat Christianity with the utmost respect, deference, and reverence.
Why should we do that?
What reason would an atheist have -- or ANY non-Christian or liberal Christian, for that matter -- for treating your fundamentalist nonsense with anything other than outright contempt? After that truckload of fascism you sprayed on the board a few days ago, you're still here complaining about one singular billboard.
Of course, Christians are allowed to put up billboards calling atheists "lunatics" and claiming we are anti-American and traitors, but if an atheist erects a billboard telling people they don't have to attend church, holy effing crap! The excrement doesn't just "hit the fan," it hits one of those NASA wind tunnels.
You just keep making my point for me in that fundamentalism is hellbent for leather to remove the freedoms of everyone else so that YOUR voice is the only one heard. How typical for a fascist state. But since you don't have the actual political power to censor us, you pitch horrific fits instead, with your buddy Jeffbase claiming persecution (again) and you complaining that we (*gasp*) disrespected Christianity!
And all of that is just a few inches removed from those militant Muslims some years ago outside of the Danish embassy in London holding signs that read: "Behead those who insult Islam!"
These unsubstantiated demands for respect and reverence for fundamentalism, or even for religion as a whole, is unrealistic.
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