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.
There you go again making connections where there are none.
I am from SOUTH AFRICA so Richard Dawkins or his opinions does not even feature here in our society.
So, South Africa is not a part of English speaking society...
Quote:
I had never heard of him until one day someone mentioned the god delusion book he wrote. See we do not even get his books here.
So, no Amazon in South Africa? Than again, you don't seem like the type to have gone to a bookstore any time recently...
Quote:
I had a secular education, learned real science and history, including that of the USA, Russia, Europe and Africa and in quite some detail not just some highlights.
I was xian for over 30 years and came to atheism based upon fervent bible study instead of listening to the stand up comedians behind the pulpits and authors of of equally ridiculous fictitious supportive writings aka apologetics. I always believed in evolution as where I have lived, the age of the geological evidence is just too in your face to even believe that it is 6k yo only. When you are in your teens, you are pretty much insecure about much and your mortality and thus you are a ripe fruit for the pickings of the fear mongering churches. As you grow older, you become more skeptical and in my case the questions got tougher and tougher. When I realised there were no scholars who could answer my questions, I started investigating all the theistic claims for myself and saw that all of it was a gawd created in the image of man and NOT the other way round.
Letting go of your imaginary friend is a painful process seeing as in my case I had dedicated so much time and money to the cause of this fictitious gawd - but yes - it was liberating to say the least.
Get a hint from my moniker, '58 is the year I was born and I have sampled all the various flavors of religious koolaide including gnostic.
Wow...this old and this immature?
Emo kids get older every year....btw, I, like my father, have never spent a red cent on religion. I don't go to any church and don't belong to any church...unlike many Atheists groups who make no secret that they accept donations: American Atheists | Welcome
Just because you had a rough time with religion does not mean that people like me, who grew up in liberal households and never went to church as kids but just grew spiritually naturally, actually enjoy it nicely.
Don't be jealous simply because we have something positive in our lives, while you run around being the only person over fifty at a Fall Out Boy concert.
So, South Africa is not a part of English speaking society...
Yes we are part of the real world not like woo woo America (sp. the believers)
Quote:
So, no Amazon in South Africa? Than again, you don't seem like the type to have gone to a bookstore any time recently...
Nope, no amazon except online but then of course, few use it due to the exchange rates. Our major bookstore is CNA short for Central News Agency then we have C.U.M which is Christian United Ministries.
Quote:
Wow...this old and this immature?
You are the immature one, like claiming wins, I am just jerking your chain as you amuse me as do most theists .
Quote:
Emo kids get older every year....btw, I, like my father, have never spent a red cent on religion. I don't go to any church and don't belong to any church...unlike many Atheists groups who make no secret that they accept donations: American Atheists | Welcome
WTF is an EMO kid? Again you make associations where none exist. I guess you have never been out of America? Nice still posting from your parents basement?
Quote:
Just because you had a rough time with religion does not mean that people like me, who grew up in liberal households and never went to church as kids but just grew spiritually naturally, actually enjoy it nicely.
Still an adult security blanket.
Quote:
Don't be jealous simply because we have something positive in our lives, while you run around being the only person over fifty at a Fall Out Boy concert.
An you have the balls to call me immature? Hmm, exactly what do you think is missing in my life or what I might be jealous of? I am guessing you are no older than my eldest son. Oh BTW, I have never attended a concert, not even Karmen when he toured SA and I was still then a woo woo theist.
Now I have attended theater and listened to classical singers and full orchestras renditions of Mozart, Beethoven, etc. one time I even worked as the lighting technician on multiple live shows and that was when I was in my late teens and early twenties probably the equivalent to your Broadway theaters. So my cultural roots are far deeper than yours are.
Emo kids get older every year....btw, I, like my father, have never spent a red cent on religion. I don't go to any church and don't belong to any church...unlike many Atheists groups who make no secret that they accept donations: American Atheists | Welcome
Oh, yeah, cause there's never been a gnostic group ask for donations. Right?
Did I ever say donations were a bad thing? No. If you believe in a group, you donate to it, be it a Church or a Atheists group.
My point, which you did not understand, obviously, is the hypocrisy of anti-theists who always complain about people donating to churches, and yet they never complain about Atheistic organizations that accept donations.
I was not, as any observer would see, attacking the notion of donating to group, which I have no problem with, I am just proving, once again, that for the anti-theists fundamentalist, this is another example of the pot calling the Kettle black.
Did I ever say donations were a bad thing? No. If you believe in a group, you donate to it, be it a Church or a Atheists group.
My point, which you did not understand, obviously, is the hypocrisy of anti-theists who always complain about people donating to churches, and yet they never complain about Atheistic organizations that accept donations.
I was not, as any observer would see, attacking the notion of donating to group, which I have no problem with, I am just proving, once again, that for the anti-theists fundamentalist, this is another example of the pot calling the Kettle black.
We complain because churches get a immediate status as a charity, when clearly their are ministers with million dollar paychecks are not charitable organizations.
Where these "Atheistic Organizations" trying to get charitable status have to spend months jumping through hoops.
We complain because churches get a immediate status as a charity, when clearly their are ministers with million dollar paychecks are not charitable organizations.
Where these "Atheistic Organizations" trying to get charitable status have to spend months jumping through hoops.
Okay, then, in that case, you do have a good point. An Atheist organization should indeed be granted the same religious non-profit status as any church, I agree 100%.
The langauge should be changed to say that any religion or religious world-view organization (atheism being the world view that there is no divinity) should be granted non-profit status. I agree.
Okay, then, in that case, you do have a good point. An Atheist organization should indeed be granted the same religious non-profit status as any church, I agree 100%.
The langauge should be changed to say that any religion or religious world-view organization (atheism being the world view that there is no divinity) should be granted non-profit status. I agree.
That's not what I am annoyed about. A church should have to prove they are non profit, just as any other organization. No organizations should immediately get a charity status just because they are a representation of a religion, ideology or a worldview.
Atheism isn't my world view. My world view is base on reality, and is constantly changing with the more information I pickup. Basically you can break it down to, I believe in physical evidence and reasoned logic.
I personally would not support any organization that only represents itself as an "Atheist organization". This is because, this organization does not tell me anything about them when they describe them self as such.
Okay, then, in that case, you do have a good point. An Atheist organization should indeed be granted the same religious non-profit status as any church, I agree 100%.
The langauge should be changed to say that any religion or religious world-view organization (atheism being the world view that there is no divinity) should be granted non-profit status. I agree.
Oh teh fundies would love for atheism to be classified as a religion, that way they get to keep their tax exempt status and then have a backdoor to get their creation crap taught in schools.
Anyone who believes in god (not a god, god - so that means the christian god) is clearly ignoring all the contradictions in the bible to the facts of reality.
That's not what I am annoyed about. A church should have to prove they are non profit, just as any other organization. No organizations should immediately get a charity status just because they are a representation of a religion, ideology or a worldview.
Atheism isn't my world view. My world view is base on reality, and is constantly changing with the more information I pickup. Basically you can break it down to, I believe in physical evidence and reasoned logic.
I personally would not support any organization that only represents itself as an "Atheist organization". This is because, this organization does not tell me anything about them when they describe them self as such.
Yahh, I agree. Allot of seedy "churches" in the ghetto were I once lived looked less like Chruches and more like fronts for illegal gambling or something. It is to easy to just call yourself "a church" and get tax exempt status, I agree.
But, if an Atheist organization was legit and all, and proved as such, I, as a Theist, would have no problem with the said Atheist organization being granted the same rights and privilages of any church, and as in American, I believe that it's something that should happen.
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.
We complain because churches get a immediate status as a charity, when clearly their are ministers with million dollar paychecks are not charitable organizations.
