Grownups who believe in fairytales on a level like that make me sad.

I have never once shared my opinion on religion to anyone in my family, yet the second I told my mother I didn't believe in god, I was the worst person in the world.

it's hard to be tolerant of something that's keeps trying to kick you down.

My point exactly. I refuse to tolerate a beliefsystem that offers no tolerance in return.
And what you said to Rob down there is exactly what I believe as well. Science is the best tool that we have to explain the world around us, to explain reality, through proper evidence. And without evidence you simply can't know whether something is true or not. The only "evidence" for christianity? One single ancient book and nothing else. And to top it off the whole system is doing it's best to judge as many minorities as possible.
Religion needs to disappear if we ever want to fully understand each other, achieve absolute peace and actually make progress. I mean, look at Northern Ireland. An indian woman had to die there because they denied her an abortion for her dying unborn child. out of purely religious reasons. We are denying women the right to choose what is happening to their bodies because we think random blobs of stemcells are the same as little people. We deny LGBT people their equality because of religious reasons. Heck, in Uganda they are trying to pass their "Kill the gays!" bill again!
I hate it. I truly hate religion and I am doing my best to help weeding it out. I don't have anything against people who just believe in a god/gods and don't judge others based on that and who don't ignore scientific facts because of their beliefs. But all those other religious nutcases simply need to disappear.

oh man, uganda. I think reading that article, marked the first time I truly thought "I really hate humanity right now" and this is coming from one of the few people left in this world who doesn't actually hate humanity for their flaws. I have a rather positive outlook on society, but this just made me weep for them

The sad part about it is that we, as in the west, made them that way. We brought christianity and all those other fucking evil cults to them :T Add the fact that these people are rather susceptible to superstitions to begin with and you have your recipe for a bunch of homo-haters...
I mean, can you think of any secular arguments to hate gay people? I can't! Even if you say it "isn't natural" you are a) ignoring evidence in nature and b) implying that we were "made" to be heteros, so that argument has supersticious and religious roots as well.

Religion is just an excuse for people to be prejudiced. Without it, people would just make up some other bogus excuse.

Wait, lemme rephrase that. People use religion as an excuse to be prejudiced. I don't think most of the major religions are inherently like that.

Wait, actually, let me take all of that back, I'm getting myself into an argument here, ugh!

Personally I see religion as nothing but an ancient tool used to control our most basic fear: death itself.
You can get a lot of crazy ideas into people's heads if you play with their fears.

Also, I pretty much disagree. All of the big religions are like that. Christianity calls for killing gay people, islam calls for killing non-believers.
Whether you take these holy texts literal or not or whether you actually live by them or not, the roots of these religions still lie within those texts.

But seriously, I feel sorry for you :c I hate religion to begin with but situations like this make me rage to no end.

Is everyone in your family Christian?

everyone, yes. traditional values and everything.

Sounds like mine. What made you stop believing in God?

this'll probably sound typical, but science. I went to a christian cathedral academy in 7th grade, and when I took what religious teachings I learned there, and compared it to scientific facts/theories/etc. I just eventually leaned heavier toward science. one of the biggest parts being how religion suggests that we're the only life forms in this universe, and what I've learned from sciences, I just find that hard to believe.

as we've stated, we've only searched .000000000000000001% (tons more zeroes in there) of our own galaxy, in comparison to billions of galaxies already out there, and within our own solar system is one of the biggest supporting evidence we could have imagined. Mars. we've found ice caps, erosion, and so much more that suggests there was once sustainable life there. even if it was bacteria, it contradicts with what I've been taught in my christian school.

...sorry, I go off when it comes to science, even though I don't know much about it, aha

also sorry if you believe in god. I don't want to offend you :<

I do believe in God. At this point I think it would be silly to characterize myself as a Christian, but... the thought of there being nothing is just too depressing for me to bear. It's funny to think about, but I think my own selfishness is what leads me to believe in God. In any case, you didn't offend me at all. I like that you question such things... it makes you a more interesting person.

Out of sheer curiosity, do you have anything else that makes you believe in it besides the fact that the the thought of there not being a god making you depressive? :3 I mean, if it is just a "security blanket" for you that doesn't make it true.
I personally always need evidence to be able to believe in something.
Also, I don't think it is depressing at all if there was no god. Because that means that we are truly ourselves, completely free at all times. Also, when you look at how the atoms that make up your body came to be and the resulting connection that we have the rest of the universe really does move me in a deeply spiritual way when I think about that :3

It's not something I'm really interested in discussing.

That's cool, I was just curious. I am always interested in understanding the position of other people^^

Have you taken a religion class? I had to for a requirement, and I actually learned a lot from it. I'm glad I took it, 'cause it clarified a lot for me. Plus, although this might just have been my own experience, you get to discuss stuff like this without repercussions.

I did take a couple of religious classes in school. I pretty much had to because there were no alternatives and my parents didn't take me out of them.
These classes didn't do anything for me really. It was just a load of bible humping and since I see the bible itself as nothing but a book written by man that really wasn't very convincing for me at all.
It's a shame that I wasn't as argumentative back then as I am today, I could have a had a LOT of fun in those classes^^

How much more will it take before you burn down their house?

I'm a pacifist!

that means you have to do it FOR me

I'll make it look like you did it :3

maybe I can... convince you otherwise...

convince you of a sexual nature.

The word convince suggests that there'd be some sort of opposition to that idea.

So now you're a fire-raising incubus dolphin, good god you've changed

there's just no pleasing you IS THERE. I'm bribing you with a handy J, and that's still not good enough!

Yes but once I've received one handy J I'll want another one, and then another, and so the cycle of blackmail and handy J hunting shall continue.

... I'm on to you. I know your game, Mr Milo. You dolphins are a crafty net of fish >:o

"Love thy neighbour... unless he doesn't share your beliefs, in which case be a huge ass to him."

This. ^

my testament is "love thy neighbor... and one day go over to his house for a night of wild sex you'll both pretend never happened"

Now you're talking :3c