Scratch a religious person and you quickly reach hate, judgement and disapproval.

"Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech are on the blocks to be cancelled if Americans don't act now."

What about my right to not be infringed upon by religion?

"I am not upset Gay Marriage passed but there were cases currently in the news transgenders wanting to be given access to women's restrooms and the passing of Gay Marriage showed me it was very possible for women to lose their standing in the US."

Serious question.

Which has more impact on a woman's life?

The Dobbs decision or trans people using bathrooms of the gender they identify with?

This is why I always land between disgust, being flabbergasted, and hilarity when considering conservative positions.

You won't figure it out because it makes no sense.

"It because the Supreme Court allowed a gay couple to harass a Christian businessman until he went out of business."

BTW what case was this? I am only aware of SC decisions allowing bigoted -------- to discriminate against people.

Truth,
"What about my right to not be infringed upon by religion?"
What about it?
Explain how that should work?

#12 | POSTED BY BILLJOHNSON

Frankly you lack the intelligence and moral wisdom to understand.

Start your education by contemplating this question:

Which has more impact on a woman's life?
The Dobbs decision or trans people using bathrooms of the gender they identify with?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."

Also known as the separation of church and state.

When judges on the bench are quoting scripture to justify barbaric rulings, well, that is religion getting in the way of my life.

But you're under the delusion that somehow religion, actually, christianity is under attack because people don't want to live under it's auspices.

This SC is bending over backwards to tear down the wall and insert religion into my sphere.

So... a bible with the Constitution and other gov docs in it is close to being a Fist, er, First Ammend issue.

#17 | POSTED BY CORKY

It kind of epitomizes the opposite of the separation of church and state.

Of course, we are dealing with people that think christian god ordained the USofA

"People in my situation tend to be angry at God."
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
The Biggest Victim In Their Own Mind award goes to BillJohnson.
And to all the other Deplorables, better luck next year!

#19 | POSTED BY SNOOFY A

To be conservative means, first and foremost one is ALWAYS a victim

Now, I am waiting for your answer to my question.

Here it is repeated:

Which has more impact on a woman's life?
The Dobbs decision or trans people using bathrooms of the gender they identify with?

Just a reminder that Alito quoted Sir Matthew Hale a 17th century British jurist, who condemned two women to death for witchcraft. So, religion, from centuries ago impacts women's lives.

BTW for all those that consider the OT the more severe, strict and cruel testament and the NT the enlightened testament of loving thy neighbor and all that, I remind you that in the OT there was no concept of hell. Hell was introduced as a concept in the NT. A concept of condemning things YOU created to an eternity of pain and suffering is objectively an evil beyond comprehension.

Some fools believe that ----.

"Atheists are fundamentalists, if not, they would be agnostics."

--------. There is no evidence of a god, thus god doesn't exist. Show evidence of god and we can discuss. Keep what you believe to yourself and stop inflicting in on the rest of us.

"...what makes Christianity a revolutionary way of thinking."

I'd view christianity as revolutionary if it hadn't stolen so much from other religions.

Just a cobbled together story to keep the masses under control-don't eat pork, don't ---- your daughter and give us money or else you spend eternity burning in pits of flames!!!!!!

Puuuhhhllllleeeeeasssseeeee

They believed, as did the crowd of 500 who witnessed the Ascension, and the much larger crowd at Pentecost.
This thing isn't still alive 2000 years later because there weren't witnesses.
#34 | POSTED BY CORKY

millions believe the ---- ----ler spews, what humans believe is not something to rely upon, generally speaking.

faith hope and love

Faith is used to divide and control.

Hope for an afterlife that gives licenses to not gaf what happens here today.

Love is fine but religion is not a prerequisite to it

Actually.

There is no proof of god, therefore god does not exist. Therefore, a definition does not apply to me.

That is similar to saying there is no proof of pink unicorns, therefore, pink unicorns do not exist.

I could give 2 ----- as to whether a person believes in this that or the other thing.

You equating me to a delusional fundamentalist is inherently unjust and incorrect, because you are judging me by a metric of something that does not exist-the delusion.

Until that belief enters my life. Then, if that belief has negative impacts, I will react.

When people spew delusional thinking, I look at and treat them as they are-delusional. Just because MILLIONS share that delusion, does not make that delusion any less delusional (See -------- followers).

Let me give an example of someone who I admire-Dolly Parton. I would imagine that Ms. Parton is very religious, based on the way she lives her life, treats others, the demographic she comes from-rural Tennessee, etc. But you never hear her speak of her religion. I have mad respect for Dolly.

When Mike Johnson spews religious rhetoric on the floor of the House and says god chose him to lead our county, I view that as a threat to myself and those I hold dear. Because a delusional person holds immense power in my life.

That part is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if Jesus copied his best ideas from Buddha. It doesn't change the message.

#41 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

But there is nothing revolutionary about it, it is a philosophy created by men, nothing more nothing less.

- Faith is used to divide and control.
Letting the way people misuse a thing define it isn't very practical.
faith
/fTH/
noun
1.
complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
You have faith that your significant other loves you.... you must have, as you have no scientific proof.
#40 | POSTED BY CORKY

I could insult you and say that you are purposely misleading here (which could be considered typical of religious types), but you DID only present half the definition.

faith
/fTH/
noun
1.
complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
"this restores one's faith in politicians"
2.
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

I do not have faith that my loved ones love me, I experience it and know it. The fact of their love is shown through expression, acts of love, connections, history, genetics. Love is what I call it, it could be called something else.
Faith has nothing to do with it

- millions believe the ---- ----ler spews,
Crucify some of them Roman-style.
See if they don't change their minds.

#43 | POSTED BY CORKY

Curing the delusions of millions is difficult, it often takes a war.

- people who can tell -------- when they see it.
You must mean fundies.
They KNOW bs when they see it, right?
Of course, they may not be familiar with the methodology scholars of ancient texts use as internal proofs... verifications of the writings they study from all sorts of sources, including biblical ones... or of how many such scholars, many of whom are non-believers, find such proofs in the Gospels.
Or what those proofs are. But you do absolutely know they are bs.
#47 | POSTED BY CORKY

Proof of what? The existence of god?

On that I comfortably call --------.

Cause, now listen clearly, IF god were to exist, he would be the cruelest thing possible, beyond redemption and hardly worthy of worship.

Spend some time in a children's cancer ward and tell me god deserves anything but to be spit upon.

No, there is no evidence of god, all your scholars are doing is circle jerking.

- Faith has nothing to do with it
That's just silly. You say you don't have it, then you describe it, lol.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." - the Hebrew Letter NT

#52 | POSTED BY CORKY

Hey Bill, still waiting for your answer to my question:

Which has more impact on a woman's life?
The Dobbs decision or trans people using bathrooms of the gender they identify with?

= The existence of god?
On that I comfortably call --------.
Of course, you do, because you are a fundie! You KNOW God can't possibly exist.
No matter that meaning indicates mind, and the fine-tuning of the universe indicates meaning.
Some of the best scientists in the world are Christians, partly at least because they see meaning in the math of the universe... the longest mathematical "word" we know of in the language of the universe is the sequence of the human genome.
The Dir of the Human Genome Project when that was found is a Christian... and a devout Darwinist.
The Emeritus Prof of Mathematics at Oxford, is also a Christian, and expert in group theory, if you know what that is.
Why, here he is now...
www.youtube.com
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

#58 | POSTED BY CORKY

You are spouting people who believe something that has no proof. Therefore, it they sincerely believe then they are sincerely delusional. Believing in something that does not exist is for the world of the schizophrenics.

If they are casual believers, as most people are, they are hypocrites-I saw plenty of those growing up and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one today.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Said by someone after seeing ghosts, so, no, not the mic drop you think it is.

heavily influenced by Catholic social teaching.

Is that original sin or collective punishment? Not sure how one can have free will yet still be a sinner when in a woman's uterus.

My favorite jesus miracle was his first, turning water to wine.

if that doesn't show a religion's priority-keeping the party going!, I don't know what does.

Does giving alcoholics wine instead of water an actual miracle though? Wouldn't that actually be a bad thing? I mean there must have been at least 1 drunk at that wedding.

Or wait, I KNOW... you didn't listen because you already KNOW everything.
#65 | POSTED BY CORKY A

Does it have evidence of god? Cause no evidence exists, so why should I bother.

Show me evidence of god, I'll consider it.

Since no evidence of god exists, god is a non-entity.

Kind of like Pink Unicorns. It is not that I don't believe it Pink Unicorns, it is that there is no evidence that pink unicorns exist, so pink unicorns aren't a thing. Show me evidence of pink unicorns, and I'll consider it.

63.
Neither, and respectfully, you're wildly off base. I think you'd find a lot of Catholic social teaching of interest. And this is by no means an attempt to force religion or God on anyone.
Catholic social teaching is what transformed me from a youthful libertarian into an aged socialist, at least.
en.wikipedia.org

#66 | POSTED BY DBT2

My favorite memory of catholic social action is how the priest at my local suburban middle-class parish treated an unhomed man who tried to attend my church. He was made to feel unwelcome and ceased to come-I often saw him at a more enlightened church across town in a working-class parish.

This was after listening to my priest talk about jesus feeding the lepers and healing the hungry and all that.

Lots of folks think religion, when done right, is about grace. I once read a theologian who said, to grasp this concept, imagine heaven ... where Hitler is reading stories to children.

#74 | POSTED BY DBT2

How about trying this.

Imagine there is no heaven, hell, god or the devil.

All that we have is each other.

Maybe we should try living for today and not an afterlife.

May be that is more productive.

Of course there must be... you and Twoofy both KNOW what's bs and what's not. Fundies are like that.

There is nothing fundamentalist about not believing in something that doesn't exist.

Show me evidence, I will reconsider.

I've never heard even a remotely religious person ever state anything like that.

Until evidence is provided, god is not a thing that exists in my life.

Why should I bother since a Fundie already KNOWS the answer?
But I'll tell you anyway, it does offer such evidence; evidence that he used to beat up Hitchens and Dawkins on several occasions.
#81 | POSTED BY CORKY

What is this evidence you say exists?

Morality? peesshaw.

Existence is true neutral.

As it should be and could only be.

Like, what kind of comfort for the soul is found in not actually knowing a damn thing?

#83 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

All the answers will be given in the NEXT life.

That allows them to be ------ in this life.

That's what Judaism is all about, Charlie Brown.

#90 | POSTED BY DBT2

not precisely, all that about the chosen and waiting for a savior and all.

take the supernatural out and maybe we can start talking.

I do appreciate the jewish preference for debate though

- What is this evidence you say exists?
Mathematics, per the video in 58.
But a Fundie who already KNOWS WHAT THEY KNOW BECAUSE THEY KNOW IT won't watch.
#89 | POSTED BY CORKY

Math? the structure of the universe? that does not equate to an almighty being, sorry.

From my experience the essential cause of religion is a fear of the unknown. So religion was created by man to allay that fear.

the problem is the answer is so simple, we are nothing but complex chemicals mixed to create something called consciousness. From that we need to create meaning.

But meaning doesn't exist, that is a construct.

Meaning would require something outside of existence, like a god.

But being outside of existence is literally impossible.

So, the only meaning that exists is the way things are-the true neutrality of the universe.

There is no god that cares about you.

Your existence, once over, is over. You will quickly be forgotten.

Nothing anyone does will matter 10,000 years from now or a 100,000 years from now, or a 1,000,000 years from now.

There is only this moment and like that this moment is gone.

- There's literally nothing in here that requires to you believe they rolled the rock away and the body was gone therefore He Is Risen.
There literally are many aspects that point to believing that the people involved believed that's exactly what happened, according to scholars of all sorts of ancient texts.
Where fundie atheists, but I repeat myself, get hung up is their circular logic, ie; "Resurrections can't happen and anyone who says they did is a false reporter because resurrections can't happen and anyone who says they did is a false reporter because..." ad infinitum.
As has been mentioned, there are multiple reports that it did happen, textual proofs that the reporters believed that it happened, extra-biblical reports that it happened and that multiple disciples died because they believed it happened, and 100's of people seeing the Christ after the resurrection.
But, of course, that couldn't have happened because resurrections can't happen... even if the whole point was a long predicted resurrection.
Again, there's a reason people are still talking about it 2000 years later, and it isn't because some guys decided to make some ---- up.
#97 | POSTED BY CORKY

Leaving all of the nonsense aside, is there any reason to believe the observations of people who universally could not read? Could not understand what they were experiencing? Is there any objective reasoning to believe that what they passed on as their experience had anything to do with reality?

----, why does dying and coming back even important?

Oh and that reminds me-what about poor Lazarus? What existential dread did that poor creature experience after being brought back to life? That is some Frankenstein's monster ---- there. that boy jesus was cruel as ----.

We are talking about it 2,000 years later cause christianity came about at the right time, the roman empire was on it's way down and catholicism filled the void. Having controlled the people for a few hundred years (remember these are people that cannot read or write) until the printing press came around then it was game over man, game over, that type of propaganda machine is powerful.

that all had little to nothing to do with the veracity of hte initial claims.

As long as it's not the mind of God, then it's OK.
#99 | POSTED BY CORKY

What is ALL comes down to corky, is your just not that special.

No one is.

You will be dead soon enough, we all will

We will be remembered, fondly hopefully enough during the lives of our children and if lucky our grandchildren, but when they pass we will be nothing more than old photographs or videos or 0s and 1s on some computers somewhere, but soon enough those will be gone and forgotten. A few lucky ones will be remembered a couple of hundred years from now. A thousand years from now, only the most exceptional will be remembered and that will only be in myth. 10,000 years from now, likely little or nothing will be remembered, probably a few million years from now our entire existence, everything we know past present and future will be fossils to be dug up by some future entity ---- superious or something.

No, you don't matter, you're just not that important. So stop trying to add weight to your existence like you are tied to some universal entity that will judge your actions (which again mean less then nothing) to deem you worthy of what, living an eternity? Living an eternity is more like hell than anything else.

Live for the now, hug your loved ones and enjoy a sunset or two. Cause that is all we have and really is pretty awesome when you think about it.

- the observations of people who universally could not read?
You don't know what you are talking about. Of course they could read; most of them, in fact could recite the Torah.
- Could not understand what they were experiencing?
You are making stuff up.
Most of the disciples, according to extra-biblical sources, died horrible deaths alone in distant countries telling what they thought to be the truth, when not telling the story would have saved their lives.
No one dies alone in such away as they did for some lie they made up with their buddies who weren't around to peer pressure them.
#102 | POSTED BY CORKY A

LOL, less than 10% of the people in 0 AD could read and write.

Yes, they couldn't understand what they were experiencing, things like cold viruses, bacterial infections, were concepts that they had no way of understanding.

These are people who had to be told that god did not want them eating pork (keep in mind they lived in a desert and didn't have refrigeration or preservatives). People were so ignorant they had to be told it was a sin to eat food that would make them sick.

So, no they did not understand what they were experiencing.

People die for all sorts of stupid reasons.

Kamikazes flew perfectly good airplanes into ships cause of religion, so I am not impressed by fanatics.

Which is a step in the direction, along with many others, that something very unusual happen.
You, as a fundie atheist KNOW it didn't happen. I think it might have, but then, I've actually studied the incident in detail, read the scholarship, studied the languages and the authors, and have some hope and faith.
But hey, what's that compared to a fundie who knows what they know.

#106 | POSTED BY CORKY

A fundie comes across a tomb where the lid has been moved and a missing body and assumes the supernatural.

An intelligent person comes across a tomb where the lid has been moved and a missing body and assumes grave robbers.

hey take their opinions for facts... which is always rather embarrassing to witness.
#111 | POSTED BY CORKY A

Still waiting for evidence of god.

Math is not evidence of god.

Math is an explanation of the workings of the universe-decidedly NOT god.

Is this your non sequitur night?
The point you are so poorly trying to avoid is the age old argument that the disciples made the whole story up.... because, what else could it be, an actual resurrection? Everyone knows that's impossible.
Yet the evidence is that they didn't make the story up. If they had, for one minor textual example of which there are literally dozens; they would never have had the two women be the ones in their story to find the empty tomb, as women were not to be trusted as witnesses; they couldn't even testify in court.
Perhaps if you knew a little more about the texts themselves....

#109 | POSTED BY CORKY

1000 years from now there will be religions around the collapse of the twin towers. People will reference the writings of Saint Alex Jones about how steel doesn't melt and people will believe.

People will believe because Saint Alex Jones was persecuted in a court of law for his strongly held beliefs.

There's no way he could make up a story that 9/11 was an inside job! I mean he had to pay a billion dollars for these strongly held beliefs (yes I know that was for sandy hook, but the point is the point).

Not everyone could read and write. And some who could read were not necessarily able to write. But archaeological discoveries and other lines of evidence now show that writing and reading were widely practiced in the Palestine of Jesus' day."
library.biblicalarchaeology.org'%20day.
#114 | POSTED BY CORKY

Did they have indoor plumbing? Did they use communal ass wiping brushes?

- assumes grave robbers.
Again, you have know idea what you are talking about.
Roman Guards don't do grave robbers.

#118 | POSTED BY CORKY

Yet, like the 9/11 theories, one must ask the very basic point.

What would be the point of putting explosives in the building to begin with?

What is the point of coming back from the dead? How does that change anything? A son of god need not have suffered to do what? Allow people into heaven? What about the people who lived for 100,000 years prior? No, the story fails on the most basic of levels. Jesus' actions were pointless. And objectively cruel-whether it is giving alcohol to alcoholics or raising the dead.

"Math is an explanation of the workings of the universe-decidedly NOT god."
Huh?
What's beyond the edges of, well, everything?
And if something came from nothing ... Who provided the nothing?
The more I math, the more I believe in God.

#121 | POSTED BY DANFORTH AT

For god to exist, for morality to exist, for objective good and evil to exist, they must exist outside of existence. God cannot be both the creator and the creation, can he?

If god created everything he created evil, thus making him unworthy of being worshiped. if he created us, we have no free will, we are puppets to his will. I'd much rather fool myself into thinking my choices matter than know I am the puppet of a cruel god.

therefore, that which exists is reality and science, math if you will is simply the explanation of reality. We are still learning about it, so what we don't know appears to be magic. But it decidedly is not magic, it is something yet to be understood.

Tower of Babel, more of ancient god being a dick

What I can't understand is, ok accept for a minute there is a god, how any person who has ever lived, can possibly worship him.

Life is misery, any god that created such beings must be a cruel cruel god. So, you worship him out of faith?

Having been in pediatric oncologist office and seeing innocent children, not even 10 years old dying a painful death... any god that would create such pain and expect to be worshiped?

I just don't get it.

The good in the world that I see comes from people helping people, not from some exterior force.

Corky, do you believe in good and evil? If so, what are they?

Bill how come you refuse to answer my simple question? I answered yours

As an empiricist, I believe in these things, well, good anyway, and one reason is because I observe it in animals.
Evil feels more manmade. Evil you kind of have to train people for. Most people. But once trained it's easy.
(This is what Voltaire warned us about.)

#144 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

What a load of malarky. No offense

A lion killing a baby elephant is good to the lion yet evil to the elephant's momma.

Not to dictate motive but seeing "good" is based on your own need for meaning, not an objective truth.

"There is no good or evil, only the consequences of our actions. You taught me that father"

---Becca Moody

"What a load of malarky. No offense"
None taken.
"A lion killing a baby elephant is good to the lion yet evil to the elephant's momma."
Replace all the animals with humans. Is killing the baby good so long it the killer eats it, like it was when it was a lion and a baby elephant? Or is the mere act of killing a baby enough to make it good if that's what the killer does for entertainment.
Sounds like you're asking about good and evil as absolutes. Things that are evil no matter the circumstances. That narrows it considerably.

#151 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

Nope, I reject the notion of good and evil whatsoever. They do not exist.

There are consequences to action and inaction, truly. But good and evil are concepts created by man to give meaning to life.

Consider if you will, if evil is a thing unto itself, separate from anything else, what is it? A concept? A truth? Well then it would have to apply universally, would it not? As a truth. So, something could not be both good and evil, right? Good cannot be evil, right? Evil cannot be good, right? So is mercy killing a very sick child good or evil? Would killing a baby Hitler be a good or evil?

If evil is NOT a thing unto itself, what is it? Is it an inherent trait of an act or thing? Can a person BE evil? If a person IS evil then how can they do good?

Let me try this. Good and evil absolutely exist since you just used the words good and evil, and everybody knew what you were talking about.
I think that answers the question.

#152 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

Puuhllleeeassseee you can do better than that.

I am more than sure that good to me is evil to people right here on the DR.

Just because there is a socially accepted definition of these terms does not mean good and evil actually exist.

Let's consider some of the accepted definitions of "good"

good
/o"od/
Noun
1.
that which is morally right; righteousness.

2.
benefit or advantage to someone or something.
"he convinces his father to use his genius for the good of mankind"

What is morally right to one person is morally wrong to another, would you not agree?

The benefit to someone or something could be a detriment to another, would you not agree?

If there is no objective good, one that applies universally, then my point is made. there is self interest, there are benefits, beneficial acts, but not good as a truth.

And that does not even consider how something can be both beneficial and detrimental at the same time-say having an abortion.

"You think there's 72 virgins "... i always like the hitchens line: you also get 72 mothers-in-law

#155 | POSTED BY BRENNNN A

Why is virginity even preferred?

Are these virgins IDK, say 2 years old?

Are these virgins men AND women?

1 man 72 women? Sounds like heaven AND hell combined.

Think of when their cycles get synced!!

Still waiting for Bill to answer my question.

I dont care what people call themselves or do as long as they do not affect or bother others, but they must never expect special priviledge or special protection or special politics months or weeks or days.

#209 | POSTED BY ROBSON

What are your thoughts on mandatory vaccinations for everyone?

If there are infinite universes there is a universe where I am Abraham Lincoln and another where I am jesus christ!