[Closed] Sometimes religion doesn't just invite ridicule, it positively begs for it

Not sure about you, but if everyone else decided to abandon religion there's a lot of charities that are based around religion and doing the right thing, and whilst there are Atheist organisations they are much much smaller, so its my feeling that the world would be a much more selfish place without religion and the people who are drawn to it.

Sorry but that is nonsense, and quite insulting nonsense at that. Whilst it is undeniably true that there are some religious charities that are doing good work (although one could always question their motives) there are plenty of non religious ones doing the same. N.B. non religious in this context shouldn't be conflated with Atheist.

Another inevitable conclusion from this statement is that religious people are only generous and kind because of their religion and not because of anything "good" within themselves. Personally I'm an atheist but I'd have thought that many religious people would be offended by this.

I would agree charity wont end if religion does
you can also argue it the other way [ equally poor;y] at the last supper [ iirc] jesus says to one of his disciples [ who is not coming as he is helping the poor] Ye have the poor with ye always- Some victorian christians took this as dont help the poor it is in the bible that they will always be here.

Matthew 26:11

One of those both groups do and do not do charity work and neither can claim ownership of it
Personally i would argue some religious charity work is about getting converts and is often unhelpful - Aids/condoms being a current example though they exist from much earlier "interventions"

Not the old trope about atheists in foxholes. Easily discounted:

[img] &xsize=640&ysize=640[/img]

They are standing next to a tree not in a fox hole

Perhaps it would be a bit dark in the foxhole to get them all in and a photo?

Surely Team America "**** yeah!" has night vision

Possibly. Perhaps they don't have a camera adapter? Or do you mean they are cyborgs?

The point was that some idiot reverend said "There are no atheists in foxholes." This led to a bunch of soldiers who are atheists and actually are in foxholes to show it to be false.

It only takes one atheist in a foxhole to say so to make the statement redundant. I don't think they live there 100%. I don't think there's space for cookers, loos and the like. Perhaps they pop out to take a photo every now and then.

I apologise for the foxhole comment, it was meant in jest, can we please get back to ridiculing religions please ?

Following my earlier post about the interfaith bike ride a short writeup and couple of photos :

http://bikecroydon.com/?p=114

[i]"Whether religious or not, we always find common ground with people on a bike ride, it’s one of life’s great levellers"[/i]

I know it's ages ago, but I was just reminded of the weird hatred of white people with dreads earlier in the thread. I spent last weekend at a festival in Scotland and there was lots of white people with dreads there - all the ones I spoke to were lovely.

I bet they are having a much more enjoyable life than the angry judgemental types on here.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.906364582735946.1073741841.164885350217210&type=3

there was lots of white people with dreads there - all the ones I spoke to were lovely.

*I have for some time suspected that current levels of finger-pointing, cringingly shallow piped pop music, minority-hatred, celeb-worship, consumerism, conservatism, fake tan, hairpieces, drainpipe trousers, painted eyebrows on girls and open hatred and mistrust of men with long hair/beards suggests a strong possibility that we are living in a retro-stylee version of McCarthy era America. Except now technology allows short-haired men to gather in virtual 'forums' (like street corners combined with a love television studio and teleporters) to share and disseminate their hatred (anonymously or otherwise). Great progress, and we call things 'memes' and 'things' now instead of those dreadful old fashioned terms such as 'hip' or 'cool'.

*combined with a [s]love[/s] live TV studio. Tsk.

🙂

You're supposed to hate them like 50's man* hated those white longhairs -"Can't stand those no-good deceptive pretentious Commie beatnik good-for-nothing prevert lesbian black-lovin' girliemen *spit*!"

Yeah does seem like a bit of that going on.

molgrips - Member

Anti-science-ism is quite fashionable now but it has always been an issue.

Ironically, it's now much more easy for anti-science people to declaim their ignorance due to science- we've invented the perfect channel and created the perfect audience for it with the internet.

richc - Member

I should imagine its more than you think, as most people slowly realise the older they get and the more they learn, the less they know which makes people question the universe and their place in it.

And of course, the older you get, the greater the fear of death becomes.

And of course, the older you get, the greater the fear of death becomes.

May'be, personally I don't think that's the case though. Think about how you believed the world worked when you were 16, 20, 25, 35, 40 then 45 ...... and I am sure you would be embarrassed by what you believed as "fact" at those different stages of your life, why should your views on religion be any different.

Fear of death seems to be a handy one to trot out in an attempt to discredit people's views who have more experience of life.

Wow, how defensive? Why would you take my post as an attempt to discredit people's views? I think it's natural that as you age you become more aware of your own mortality and think more about what might come next, when you're 16 the summer's forever. Pretty much a given, this.

May'be, personally I don't think that's the case though. Think about how you believed the world worked when you were 16, 20, 25, 35, 40 then 45 ...... and I am sure you would be embarrassed by what you believed as "fact"

Nope. Thought about it when I was 13. Nothing's happened in between to change my mind (lots to reinforce it though), least of all the continuous, repetitive blatherings of religious muppets continuing to not get the point.

"Not only is the universe queerer than we suppose, it's queerer than we CAN suppose" - JBS Haldane.

That includes, of course, supposing that there's a "god"...

My point about age changing perspective and views based on experience wasn't just limited to religion I was thinking about opinions on pretty much everything.

I recently spent some time with some cousins kids who are ~19 and the shit that they came out with as 'fact' left me feeling like my brain was bleeding; unfortunately I'm sure I was exactly the same when I was 19, don't get me wrong they are nice kids, just full of shit :).

If your views on things are the same now as they were when you were a teenager, I would be very surprised! May'be you were just super clever and insightful....

You should rethink things throughout your life but it doesn't follow that you should change your position. You can even find that you arrive at the same destination by a different road. 16 year old me was an idiot but he sometimes got things right, sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes for wrong, sometimes just pretty much at random.

If your views on things are the same now as they were when you were a teenager

Not everything, just the "god" argument.

If your views on things are the same now as they were when you were a teenager, I would be very surprised! May'be you were just super clever and insightful....

mine have got worse ha ha ha ha

Not everything, just the "god" argument.

I guess my extremely poorly made point was with more experience you may even change your mind on this view, who knows... as you were more than likely just as certain about other opinions in the past but now you have a different perspective, just because you have a long held belief doesn't mean that its right (or wrong)

BTW this isn't supposed to be condescending

Wow, how defensive? Why would you take my post as an attempt to discredit people's views? I think it's natural that as you age you become more aware of your own mortality and think more about what might come next, when you're 16 the summer's forever. Pretty much a given, this.

I wasn't attempting to discredit your view, its as valid as mine. I was just pointing out that it's common lazy statement made about 'Coffin dodgers' and religion and that may not be true as if you believe in an afterlife why should you be scared of it? I have had several relatives that have been happy to 'move on' as they had done everything they wanted and wanted to see what comes next, they didn't appear to be living in fear.

Personally I'm not happy with the concept of afterlife, I think this is it but that's only my opinion.