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I was scared to death the first time I walked into a church on my own.
Why? You've claimed you grew up in a Catholic family. IIRC you've claimed you were an altar boy. Which means you were very familiar with what happens inside a church. Did your parents drop you off as a 9-year-old and tell you "See ya later. We're going to breakfast."(?)
Why? You've claimed you grew up in a Catholic family. IIRC you've claimed you were an altar boy. Which means you were very familiar with what happens inside a church. Did your parents drop you off as a 9-year-old and tell you "See ya later. We're going to breakfast."(?)
Don't start noticing the discrepancies in Vizio's testimony, Dew. It makes him nervous and then He places you on ignore. He exhibits all the attributes of someone who believes in lying for the church.
Yes, that's why I made it fanciful. Besides, I like the word "droves" for some reason.
"Droves" is one of those homeless collective nouns, not affixed to a specific group. It would fit for cattle since they are policed by drovers, but, alackaday, cattle are already secured as herds.
It is our humane duty to aid this orphan and find it a home with suitable noun. I nominate automobiles. In that they are driven, it would seem they are on the highways in droves.
"Sorry I'm late, boss, I was stuck in a drove of traffic."
Right and you don't think atheist parents try to influence their kids away from religion?
I have seen little evidence that they do. Rather they do so indirectly with other intentions. For example my daughter is 4 and as part of her ongoing education in the home I propose questions or experiments to her that are built around the demonstration of the common fallacies.
I have many reasons for doing this. That falling for many of the common fallacies is a strong aspect of god belief, and as such she is being inoculated against god belief, is for me a bonus but not the original intention.
One of the most common mantras you will find in the atheist community is "We teach people how to think, not what to think". And this applies to parenting as much as anything else.
Since many Atheists believe that religion is the root cause of many problems, what does this news tell us?
Is there going to be less crime, more peace and more harmony among the coming generations?
Crime has been going down in the US for quite a while. Whether this is caused by the decline in religious belief is probably not an easy question to answer.
Since many Atheists believe that religion is the root cause of many problems, what does this news tell us?
Is there going to be less crime, more peace and more harmony among the coming generations?
What is your evidence that "many Atheists believe that religion is the root cause of many problems?" My experience watching these guys post here is that they have a wide diversity of opinions, with the one common denominator that they do not believe in any God(s).
No, it is because the internet has become their god, hooked on to it like a drug, education has really little or nothing to do with it..
Yeah, sure ... keep telling yourself that. Never mind all of the studies that show - again and again - that the more educated someone is, the less likely they are to be religious.
There's nothing like a good, solid education - especially higher education - that reveals ancient superstitions to be just that: superstitions. In addition, once you begin learning about other cultures and religions from within an historical context, you begin to realize that your religion and your god and your myths are just like all the other religions, gods, and myths.
It is true that people of my generation and younger are having a sensuous love affair with the internet; my generation was really the last generation to grow up without smart phones, tablets, and "anywhere/everywhere" internet access. I was 14 when my family first got internet access and I still remember how exciting it was to hear the screeches, hisses, and clicks of a modem dialing up the ISP server. Fortunately, my friends and I still did things outside - WITH each other - instead of staying home and living our lives on a smart phone and Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, did I tell you want I had for dinner last night? OMG, it was soooo good ...
At any rate, there are worse things for someone to get addicted to - Bible reading, for instance.
I understand that fundamentalists in particular wish to deny the affect education has on religious belief. After all, a fundamentalist wouldn't want people to think they are uneducated based on their perceptions of Bronze Age myths. But reality is reality and one facet of that reality is that education does, and will continue to have, a profound affect on religious belief. Why do you think there are so many religion-based parochial schools in this country? Why do you think America is the only Western nation that still entertains the debate over teaching the euphemistically named "intelligent design" in our science classrooms?
I was at the doctor on Wednesday getting a refill on my pain meds. While I sat there, I saw four young children, probably around the ages of 8-10 years old. They all filed into the waiting room, walking in a perfect line like a group of baby ducks, and plopped into chairs - one after the other, the oldest first on down to the youngest. There were three girls and all of them were wearing their "fundamentalist uniform," which consists of a shin-length skirt, white socks and sneakers, a boring and ratty-looking top, and, as always, their hair was in an "old biddy" bun on the top of their heads. In their laps, all four, they held a thin workbook of some kind and a big ol' Bible.
And I thought ... ouch. More recruits for the army of American fundamentalists. They're probably home schooled by a mother who doesn't know the first thing about algebra or Shakespearian literature, and those poor kids will be told by their "teacher" (another euphemistic word) that, while the state compels mommy-dearest (who probably dropped out of school at age 16) to teach evolution and the Big Bang, do not believe it! Evolution is just a ploy by the evil powers of secularism and atheism to lure them away from the comforting embrace of ignor ... err, I'm sure she meant to say fundamentalist religious belief.
Fundamentalism is big around here and, together with a large Amish and Mennonite presence, it means religious extremism is rampant here. I can't help but feel sorry for those kids, carrying around a Bible wherever they go, forced to wear clothes that make it look like they got dressed in the dark, and being excluded from and kept ignorant of the new, modern day Renaissance.
But hey, there is some good news for the Amish. They are now allowed to have and use cell phones! But they have to go outside to use them. God said he would get angry if they dared make a wireless call from within the house. Calls with wires - that's okay. Calls without wires and you risk eternal hellfire and damnation. Such is the arbitrary flightiness of religious extremism.
Why? You've claimed you grew up in a Catholic family. IIRC you've claimed you were an altar boy. Which means you were very familiar with what happens inside a church. Did your parents drop you off as a 9-year-old and tell you "See ya later. We're going to breakfast."(?)
I'm impressed by your knowledge of me.
I pretty much stopped attending church as a teenager. At age 20 I went back to church, going to a friend's large Evangelical Church. I had been reading the Bible, and had some theological issues with many of the RCC's teachings. Walking into the Evangelical church on my own was frightening. I was not with anyone (my friend didn't know I was coming). I guess I feared everyone would notice the "new guy" and come rushing me.
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