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.
Reading this forum, why do I have visions of a once great shopping mall which has been overtaken by gangs and half the shops are closed.
Because you have taken up what you see as a Sweet Reasonable position - which has the effect of putting both sides (as you see it) into opposing gangs that have -as you say - closed all the shops.
The analogy here is - I suppose - closed off all meaningful discussion. The problem here is that we encourage meaningful discussion and want to engage in it. But Faith -based Theism does not want to do this because (after initial debate) they see that they lose on evidence and reason. So it becomes us and Them.
I say that one side has the best case and the other side doesn't and wants to shout down or deny any of that discussion. But the "Sweet Reasonables" see it as two gangs of extremists. They can of course touch both bases - a sorta god -belief, and a sorta cherry picked religion to suit their own preferences - which atheists will find some common cause with. But essentially it's a false position because it refuses to look at who has the best case and prefers to cling to whatever religious partiality it can salvage.
Reading this forum, why do I have visions of a once great shopping mall which has been overtaken by gangs and half the shops are closed.
Of course you do.
In reality, this mall wouldn't have existed in the past because the gang that controlled everything would have burnt at the stake - but only after torturing out of them a trumped-up 'confession' - anyone who tried to build such a mall.
Later, after annihilation slipped beyond the pale, such prospective mall builders simply would have been frozen out of society. No one would sell them the necessary land, or loan them the requisite capital, or hire to be their labor.
Now, we've finally reached a point where such a mall can simply exist. Oh, sure, no prospective American President would ever be caught dead visiting such a mall. It's occupants are regularly subjected to angry assertions that they'll be made to eternally suffer merely existing. To look askance at them is widespread and accepted without question by most of the masses.
You hate the mere presence of the mall in the world. On the same blocks as those churches for which you endlessly run interference. Your claim to oppose the behavior of the mall occupants is just cover. You resent that they can exist openly.
Attacking religious belief is the LOW discussion of this place. And I hate to admit that I've done more than my share.
I'm reminded of a workplace weekly prayer meeting from about 20 years ago where I used to work. There was a small group of believers who would meet once a week in a small conference room during lunch. We didn't talk about religion or denominational things. It was just a prayer support group, basically. Well, one day there was a new guy there. He started off the bat by trying to get into a religious debate. I could tell where it was going and I nipped it in the bud. He never came back.
I told him that I would be more than happy to have a debate meeting if he ever wanted one. But it just couldn't interfere with that. But no one else was really interested. The group wouldn't have minded his being there even with his differing beliefs. I forget what he was, maybe Jehova's Witness. The other people were mostly like charismatic/evangelical. Very open minded people, in my opinion. But he wasn't interested in the spiritual support part of the group.
It just makes me wonder why ANYONE wants to even bother with religious people. As if anything they are doing could affect them. No. I just think they are misguided to even want to attack religion. Just as I was as recently as a year ago.
Last edited by OzzyRules; 01-28-2019 at 07:56 PM..
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.
