Happy Winter Solstice
17 years ago
General
The Annual X-Mas Controversy has once more reared it's ugly head here in Washington State. The last couple of years it centered on what decorations, if any, would be put up at Sea-Tac International. This year it's moved down to Olympia to play out the "drama" in the state capitol building.
The Faithful were busy since last year, suing and working the legislators to make sure that they'd be allowed to put up a Nativity display in the capitol building this holiday. Of course, since they insisted on being able to post grand displays of their specific religion, others had to be allowed to as well. So there's a Minorah (sorry--not sure how to spell that), but there's also a plaque that was posted by an Atheist group which wished everyone a Happy Winter Solstice and went on to mention the viewpoint that Christianity is superstition and mythology. A viewpoint with which I agree.
Of course, the religious Right went berzerk! To the point where syndicated blow-hard, Bill O'Riely posted the Governor's office number on his show and called her names for half an hour.
So, the moral of this story is--when Christians are not allowed to display their religious views in state buildings, it's a violation of their 1st Amendment right to free speech, whereas, if an Atheist IS allowed to display an opposing viewpoint, he should be immediately censored--to wit, the Republicans in our local legislature are already working up a bill to force the removal of the Atheist material...but no body'd better touch Baby Jesus!
Today's lesson in religious hypocrisy is now concluded.
Happy Winter Solstice. ^0^
The Faithful were busy since last year, suing and working the legislators to make sure that they'd be allowed to put up a Nativity display in the capitol building this holiday. Of course, since they insisted on being able to post grand displays of their specific religion, others had to be allowed to as well. So there's a Minorah (sorry--not sure how to spell that), but there's also a plaque that was posted by an Atheist group which wished everyone a Happy Winter Solstice and went on to mention the viewpoint that Christianity is superstition and mythology. A viewpoint with which I agree.
Of course, the religious Right went berzerk! To the point where syndicated blow-hard, Bill O'Riely posted the Governor's office number on his show and called her names for half an hour.
So, the moral of this story is--when Christians are not allowed to display their religious views in state buildings, it's a violation of their 1st Amendment right to free speech, whereas, if an Atheist IS allowed to display an opposing viewpoint, he should be immediately censored--to wit, the Republicans in our local legislature are already working up a bill to force the removal of the Atheist material...but no body'd better touch Baby Jesus!
Today's lesson in religious hypocrisy is now concluded.
Happy Winter Solstice. ^0^
FA+

Happy Hogswatch!
Bloody Right! but don't let ol' Stone Face Vimes hear you saying that, he'd 'Bah Humbug' you and they find an excuse to lock you in the nick and get Sgt Colon to make you tea from the tar-stained urn... and if your REALLY bad... he'll have Nobby come in and "Check Your Pockets"
<shudders>
You win at life :)
This Christian, after the fashion of St. Patrick. wishes you all a joyous winter holiday/non-holiday, whatever your creed, and deplores the mingling of church and state. And to the Pagans in particular: Thanks for all the cool traditions! It would be such a bore without them.
I dunno. I'm just happy about the solstice. Religious or not, it feels like it means something you know?
Why is it I seem to be the only christian that is not mortally offended by atheists, secularism, and generally not a raving nut ball? It really makes me sad sometimes.
Personally, the sign I would have put up for the atheists would be, "Enjoy the snow!".
So what is superstition is it also an atheist that cannot be true to themselves when the chips are down?
Mostly you have to look at the idea behind Christmas. Traditionally it has been celebrated over the centuries as a semi religious representation of when an adept was born. I say adept because there were several from different religions in different cultures though-out history, and that he understood who everybody actually is.
Anyway in his time no one would stop and think about it and come to the realization that EVERYONE is a son or daughter of God, the reason being that God made us all in His image, and what is God? God is a Spirit. So his image would be a Spirit-image. Anyway no one in Jesus of Nazereth's time would believe that everybody was a son/daughter of God, so from what i can tell in how the faith is explained he chose to only say that he was the Son of God, (it was easier for the rest of his flock to believe).
Okay anyway tradition has made Christmas a secular holiday. Extra trappings have been added to it as the centuries passed. If it was supposed to allow a cheapening of the tradition into allowing a bunch of "i'm-better-than-you-snobish-daddy's-little-rich-kid types' who call themselves the fictitious title of Atheist then the tradition would be called Solstice-mass, or never celebrated at all.
(This makes me wonder about all atheists since a i know an atheist and he also never celebrates any holiday including birthdays, making him a rather dull and somewhat mean person he is also something of a snob though he is not all that rich).
Hanukkah is a separate day, so is Kwanzaa and the winter solstice of Wicca i believe may or may not occur on the 25th i'm not sure since i'm not a practitioner of that religion and i haven't practiced Witchcraft for some few years, (Wicca is the religion portion of the practice).
So in a sense atheists are like any fundamentalist, ie they are a pain in the ass. There are religious fundamentalists too as well as non religious ones. And they are all a pain in the ass. So i ask everyone to not be such a pain in ass and make a big deal out what a traditional holiday should be, As for republicans hmm, are you saying that (oh gosh couldn't see this one coming again) all people that like to keep Christmas in the tradition it is are all republicans and only democrats are atheists? Both my gay roommates want to get a Christmas tree and decorate it and hold the gift giving portion of the holiday like they always have, both of them voted for Obama too. Both will probably go to church with their family members (mom and dad, sisters and brothers) close to the nearest sunday because they traditionally have.
Myself i probably won't since though i believe in God i don't see Jesus as particularally any more unique from the other avatars in history. But i will celebrate the tree and the holiday with my gay roommates.
I searched the site, there is nothing, so how do we: the adepts of archaic powers and practitioners of esoteric formula know that this is only just more spin all made up to just have a nice convenient site on the internet?
I at least have had firsthand experience with figuring out what the Spirit actually is and how to use it in my real life. An Atheist that has not faith in anything is like only having a gun. He or she can threaten and wave it all around to threaten and say "hey look I'm right and all you others are just a bunch of superstitious idiots!" ...but without the careful faith that goes with mixing your own gunpowder it is just more worthless metal without a centerfire round!
So are all polls false, or just this one?
Do you have any proof otherwise?
Certainly not a poll, heaven forbid...
"how do we know that the Atheists in a foxhole really existed"
Because soldiers are a small part of a larger demographic which includes atheists. The are black soldiers, gay soldiers, furry soldiers, and atheist soldiers. Better yet, how do you know that they do NOT exist?
There is nothing to prove that no soldiers are atheist. Take your assumption a step further and a funny thing happens: if no soldier is atheist, then all soldiers are theists. Why align theism with war? It does that enough on it's own.
"An Atheist that has not faith in anything is like only having a gun. He or she can threaten and wave it all around to threaten and say "hey look I'm right and all you others are just a bunch of superstitious idiots!" ...but without the careful faith that goes with mixing your own gunpowder it is just more worthless metal without a centerfire round!"
Your correlation between believing something without evidence and hobby firearms needs work. When is faith a valid argument, ever?
And did you really mean to compare faith to a loaded gun? Why align faith with... meh. it's too easy
I know also that you won't reply at all to the entire point only whichever excerpt you want to, obviously to show us all how witty you are (shades of one up man ship?), ...If a deaf man falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear him, does he make a noise?... this alternate saying like your argument is pure mental masturbation.
That's why I went to agnostic :} An atheist is just as close-minded as a theist (aka, picky atheist). I can't disprove god as much as I can't disprove flying spaghetti monsters, cosmic teapots or etc. So I'm open to the idea of Him proving himself to me, until that day comes I just do what I do and try to be a decent person.
"No atheists in a foxhole"
So... agnostics can be driven to religion in the rigors of war. Otherwise level-headed soldiers can also be driven to strip down prisoners and make them perform parlor tricks. War's pretty tough.
"...but without the careful faith that goes with mixing your own gunpowder it is just more worthless metal without a centerfire round!"
Wow, are you a loader? (never met a furry loader before). I primed, sized and expanded 300 rounds of 9mm last night. However... faith has no place on my loading bench. Everything I do is represented by a weight on a scale, a measured case length, published loading procedures, and my own notes born from thousands of rounds fired on the range. Granted, as a member of the current millennia I do not mix my own gunpowder (propellant, rather). But when I walk up to the line there is no room for faith. Faith is what is required to believe in something that, sans faith, you would have nothing to do with. Instead, I bring the knowing that I took my time, was careful, double measured things, conducted tests, took notes, read, etc. To this day I've not had so much as a squib from any faithless heathen round I made.
And for the record... I thought the plaque thing was kind of kiddish. Non-believers accidentally got one more chance to post something, somewhere, this decade, and they blew it by having to call everyone else dumdum-heads. Yeah, I groan every time I see a tax-free full-size "JESUS" billboard, but that's not an insult to me, rather affirmation of another's shortcoming. However, kiddish too, was the fact that the plaque was stolen (going out on a limb here, but I'd guess a theist did it). Thou shalt not steal.... tsk tsk.
I haven't loading in some time myself, most of all of tools were stolen back in Michigan at the shop i didn't quit soon enough from "Modern Engineering" but i was only a Maintenance Mechanic there and maintained all the 600,000 lb presses, nothing important. It was probably the same plaque stealer that did it too, albeit obviously another agnostic that wanted to prove once and for all that God cannot effect anyone directly on the Atziluth level, but instead has to go through the offices of using intermediates via the Briah level of existence.
Shot anyone lately?
...mostly my point is this, when you are in war most people 'get religion' rather quickly, other times you get religion rather fast are like when a potential gang-banger looking for his skull to join the East Detroit Crips comes into the place where you work to rob the cash register of the measly 118 dollars and change with a stolen Glock 17.
...and being Detroit you can rest assured that after they do get the cash, he will (All high and mighty with a gun) take you into the back room and laugh after he makes you beg for your life and in a blubbering heap, shoot you to death anyway - no witnesses that way!
So to beat the guy to that eventual end instead i used my Agnostic, err Religious , err spiritual head (I think i iterated that i'm not a 'real' Christian i never go to church and study Esoteric magic and Witchcraft) and instead decided i was not going to die that night.
I, to make a long story short got close to him with a series of rapid feints and took his gun away from him and then grabbed his collar before he could get his 14 year old ass away. I locked both of us inside and then called the cops. Three hours later Detroit's finest showed up, (they always wait that long in a gun hold-up to wait until all the shooting has stopped), anyway they took him off to first reform school then in four years he'll get to Jackson for the "Use-A-Gun_Go-To-Jail" 30 years minimum law in Michigan.
That was back in 2004, so i guess he is getting used to looking the other way by now and is probably praying right now to God that this will end. Try telling him that God is not going to manifest himself before him too! I'll bet he'll be ever so happy you told him that- and that his nightmare is not going to end, and he is going to have to become a murderer or die in jail.
The vast majority of killers in Detroit don't pray to God either, they don't give a rat's ass about you or Jesus or any furry - nothing but relying upon what you know about the spirit; life - death - reincarnation cycle. He doesn't believe in God either, and the Jihadist that shot my friend in the shin he didn't give a crap about Jesus either, ...he follows the true God of Islam. He doesn't care about YOU either and your refusal of any religion is okay with him, more targets that will go to hell as far as he is concerned!
But i guess i missed the point again, i instead only flamed back, ...*hmmph* take a breath, relax, ...you may be an okay guy, who knows.
No, i was baptized Presbyterian, i have found that love does more to people, it makes them feel love, and a smile makes everyone happy, unless you are in bad neighborhoods where you find yourself living.
Praying to God off your sleeve is pretty much worthless: praying to God's that no longer have much of a following anymore is also pretty worthless, I myself don't follow ANY religion, i follow the spirit of all of them though, in my daily life i follow the spirit of the best side of Christian/Hindu/Shinto/Confucian/Taoist/Buddist/Wiccan religions. i let those people rejoice and celebrate the way they want to and allow them to be zealous as they want to on certain days of the year.
It is traditional in the USA to have mangers and Jesus surrounded by parents and animals and three rich magicians that followed a star (in supernova) to that place.
Regardless of the real facts and how they've been blown way out of proportion, ...so what!
This is Christmas, let the religious people have their holiday.
Let them alone this one day of the year. Next year we can always say again that it was Christians that followed Jesus and Jesus would never turn away anyone, even Homosexuals.
Sodom and Gomorrah were several tens of thousands of years before even the Ten Commandments, and each generation blows history and what things that really happened all out of proportion as well as meaning.
It is pretty stupid to start a new form of prejudice now that you can't be racist anymore.
Always resisting being put into the racist mold myself i stop people from acting that way in my presence. i cannot disallow anyone to not have their dignity.
I know i will never have a Boyfriend or a Girlfriend that loves ME, so though i know i will never find love and happiness beyond my artwork i still cannot deny anyone else theirs.
But my nature will not allow others to keep it away from someone else that wants their mate, their holiday, or their God. And i will fight all you dastards that want to take away their happiness!
"He doesn't care about YOU either and your refusal of any religion is okay with him, more targets that will go to hell as far as he is concerned!"
Well, huh. Does he know I'm agnostic by my eyes or something? :} Seems like a lot of personal info to exchange in the few seconds that is the typical gunfight. Maybe the five years of Sunday school will count for something.
".you may be an okay guy, who knows."
Well, I am agnostic. But I earn honest money, I spend honest money, I do wind up in the occasional internet debate but I'm generally a decent person and just want to do my thing. Despite recent crap-alanches in life, I'm in a rather good for some reason and am not carrying this thing nearly as far as I could/should. I dunno, tis the season I guess, whatever >_> I (generally......) don't have problems with people having a belief in something, it's just that these beliefs tend to lead to bad things. I'm not even talking about Phelps, Joyce Meyer, even tipton and their ilk.... they can have a ride on me, the government's already doing the same. It's something else... it's an attitude... it's, like,,,
"And i will fight all you dastards that want to take away their happiness!"
It's this sentiment (magnified hundreds of times, of course) that kills people, and overall holds back society.
Yeah it's tough being a buzzkill especially when people like you seem to have an interesting program going on, but it's the byproducts of this happiness that flies planes into towers and kills doctors in abortion clinics. Degrades women and treats people like animals. Would you really rather have all the world's stem cell research be done in North Korea? If it weren't for the dark ages we'd probably have cured cancer by now, or colonized Mars. Just imagine what's possible, what could be, and what could've been! As a race, we have so much to gain. So much. And we need everything we can get; now more then any time in our history.
ANYFREAKIN'WAY believe it or not I am really in a more or less good mood and just want to browse art on FA. I am dropping this. These debates are useless anyhow, I'm pretty sure both our minds are made up :} I just hope that you don't think I'm out to wreck people's buzz without some semblance of rationale. I'm a dastard just as much are the people that used my money to fund Prop 8, and beliefs have put humanity in a hurt locker that I would not wish onto a bitter enemy. There is and should be some right for people to believe what they want, I'm just upset that we all have to loose everything for that right.
Oh really? kind of taking me out a context just a little aren't you? make it a million times maybe a billion times keep going i still won't be there.
Yeah it's tough being a buzzkill especially when people like you seem to have an interesting program going on, but it's the byproducts of this happiness that flies planes into towers and kills doctors in abortion clinics.
Try to listen to me carefully this time, If i were on a plane with only a few zealots with razor knives to defend themselves with i would rip they're arms off and beat them to death with them, but i have forth degree black belt training so i doubt it would have to be my only weapon, then if i had to fly the plane myself if need be.
Degrades women - I have stopped my car and with traffic honking behind my car, gone across the road to tell this guy to get the Fuck out of here! he slapped a woman and called her a bitch, I can't stand ANYONE treating a woman that way,
and treats people like animals,
you shot your dog when he barked too long didn't you?!
I don't have a problem with peaceful religious people its the I'm-better-than-you-cause-i-know-everything people just like you that have keep the mars colonies from happening there was another person a common thug that figured out he take over a group and become the great leader, he thought the same way you do: Joesph Stalin. There was another one that decided that God did not exist and subjugated slightly less but an entire ethenic group to oblivion: Adolf Hitler, Another one killed more people in the name of 'Cultural Revolution' where he killed off a Billion people, his name was Chairman Mao Tse Tung, All these men thought the same way YOU do. I suppose it would have been better to join him and you in their great crusades to dominate everyone right?! RIGHT!?
None of them had any shred of decency or had the capacity of compassion and mercy to stand up for someone that cannot defend themselves as well. People like you are the real reason we could not get out of the 'Dark Ages' until after the 'Black Plague' wiped out all of the men that controlled everyone else.
Only then could the children that survived who had inherited what was left, and a couple centuries later, finally came to realize that there was more to life than rigid compliance, feudalism died with that plague too. "Ring around the Rosie, pockets full of posies, ashes-ashes, we all fall down!": Nursery rhyme of the Black Plague time.
Some things took a little while to be completely let die, one of them is prejudice, yours i'm afraid will continue, you want to blame someone that found a guide in their life for everything bad and nothing good was ever created from that fervor that religion made a spark into?!.
I hope you get exactly what you want in your life, I hope when you die and find out that the spirit is immortal that you just lived a worthless amount of time in yet another life where the point was shown to you but you decided "NO, I Know I'm Right and Everyone else is Wrong" and have to live on Earth again finding out that you did not find the key, the reason, once again.
Some people will go on to the next level of the spirit through their religion's application, others will go onto the next level of the spirit because they figured out what this life is Really for, still others will not have to come back because they have lived their life as best they could and loved others including those not their closest mates or friends. Oh yes, by the way; Heaven/Hell doesn't really exist like it is described in books or legends, its more like a waiting room for those that needed it in their material existence, but don't believe me, you'll find out!
PS Merry Christmas, don't forget to not reply remember you wanted to drop internet debates...
I guess we've never met. I'm not a communist dictator, I've never shot an animal. I've not meddled in the ways of the space program, I'm not Hitler, and I'm not jump-starting the crusades.
"...another life where the point was shown to you but you decided "NO, I Know I'm Right and Everyone else is Wrong" and have to live on Earth again finding out that you did not find the key, the reason, once again."
(And calling me genocidal instills that reason)
I don't claim to know everything, I'm just running off what I see. And I see a lot of people doing really bad things for invisible reasons. Apparently I should not say everyone is wrong (because that's your job). I seen as much of the afterlife as you have. Yes I might be wrong. Prove it.
"called her a bitch" "treats people like animals"
I know. It's kind like a big sexist racist kindergarten class, and since no deity will show up to play teacher, the students have to. Muslims have to hide their women in burqas because they figure the men have no ability to avoid raping them in an uncontrollable lustfest. Or that they need a bunch of commandments spelling out how to be a decent person. Religion treats people like animals in the sense that we mortals have not worked this out on our own and still have to refer to the bronze ages for help. What are we, cro-magnons, still dragging women by their hair to rape in a cave? Whats the majority sex in clergy these days? Thou shalt not steal (without atoning afterward)?
"I hope you die you'll burn and whatever blah blah there are spirits, plus you suck etc"
Since you seem to think I'm a homicidal maniac I think this attack bears a little explanation.
There are too many gods! Every group who learned that humans die has made one up to make sure they don't get butthurt in the afterlife. You stated to believe in several. Many religions claim that if you believe in other religions, you will go to hell. It's a loose/loose propsition. Again, I do not and haven't outright said "there is no spirits no nothing etc". Hey, I'd love to meet one. Until then. I do good things, I'm a decent guy. And if there winds up being a turnstile in the sky I have to walk through, and they blindly turn away decent people, then I will likely burn, which is actually ok on several fronts:
1) In present mind, I could not handle living in eternal bliss with the knowledge that probably most of the people I know and love (yes, even the theists) AND everyone who picked the wrong gods are in hell. To me, heaven would kind of be it's own hell.
2) If whatever ticket taker up there shuns my efforts and burns me for not praying to he/she/it/them/they, then fine. That is a dick move, and I don't want hang out with dicks forever. I thought heaven was to get away from the dicks.
3) It's a egotistical construct. Lets say myself and Joe Believer are now in afterlife's queue. I spent my life trying to get by, be happy and do good stuff. Joe done similar. And, he prays! By your logic, I'll burn and Joe will be fine. Which basically means, no matter how good a person you are, it's a members only club. A club that is so great no deity bothers to promote it, yet you only get in if you read the book. THEY ONLY LIKE BOOKS. I'm more then a book. Today: I rode two-up on a dirtbike for the first time, shot my first laser-sighted pistol and learned how to make an omelet. Every day in every way I'm trying to become more then I was the day before. "Yeah, but Joe prayed and you didn't". They will turn me away because I was too busy expanding to slow down and grovel on my knees, to one of many boy's clubs, only which one is any guess. There's some serious moral qualms with this.
"don't forget to not reply remember you wanted to drop internet debates... </3"
That was before reading a heap of baseless personal attacks, it says little of you that you prefer mute opponents. So you really think I shoot dogs, eh? If that logic and attitude is the best that the loving peaceful teachings of religion has to offer, then I think I'm already doing ok over here. You've ignored my points instead of presenting me with any reason to change what I'm doing. My reply, in brevity, said agnostics aren't assholes, that desperate times call for desperate measures, and that faith won't put propellant in a cartridge. Saying that Stalin is the reason we aren't on Mars and that you can rip arms off ("loving, peaceful teachings") does not challenge my points. I do not aim to dominate anyone. What, anyone who doesn't agree with you is bent on world domination?
You've decided i am in particular not to be taken seriously and 'must be a religious (patriarch-)sympathetic since you've typified my statements as such, in so many words reiterating what i have said in the best possible reordering to support your platform.
You'd make a superior political incumbent to anyone wanting to actually represent the truth. In other words your ability to turn around what was stated into exactly the opposite as well as in direct support of what your platform is and used to confuse your way into being actually accepted is in effect plausible genius, makes your thesis upon which i have no doubt your area of expertise should be in working for the New York Times political column or at least aspiring to the position of spin doctor for the extreme left of George Soros' Moveon.org.
Outside of that you are in fact a liar, you stated you were done, but instead i was able by my expertise to coax you into showing who you really are in your reply, and in the manner in which i could show that you cannot let enough be enough. I have in fact shown that you are incapable of stopping and must reply to maintain 'one-up-manship' over anything i propose, ie you must have the last word because you are a megalomaniac incarnate.
One more time, I study witchcraft (really American Indian Shamanism of the Lagota tribe) and higher magic (Franz Bardon) in application to my basic belief that we are all put on this earth by our own desire (the Soul) to make only ourselves not have to keep returning to this physical plane of existence. No one else can aide us individually in this endeavor certainly not God either, however other people think God has actual influence upon this level, (which i know he doesn't) but you won't believe me until you are dead and your dead husk cold in the grave. It doesn't really matter to me what you believe.
But to return once again to the topic, not you or anyone else has the singular right to deprive anyone else of their beliefs, nor how they want to celebrate the holiday that they believe in. Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Kiss the Goddess or celebrate the Winter Solstice - to you and yours.
"you are incapable of stopping and must reply to maintain 'one-up-manship' over anything i propose, ie you must have the last word because you are a megalomaniac incarnate."
I dropped it once already, you had to call me Stalin and invoke Godwin's law in a whirlwind of carte blanche 'see? I'm right' noise. Which never made sense, I meant to say that. A dictator is a rare, powerful thing. An agnostic is a comparatively tangible, mediocre thing. Where's the common ground? "Inop is a killer because he's agnostic" does not make as much sense as "Sueng Cho had no problem becoming an active killer because he had multiple psychiatric disorders". Plus Cho had "motive" (if you can call it that). I don't want to kill anyone, not even if I have to.
As for not replying, you replied with half a post saying I lie instead of countering whatever lies there were :C
"not you or anyone else has the singular right to deprive anyone else of their beliefs"
But you still don't get what I'm saying. Let's forget religion, gods, etc. Say I believe in (random thing). And the act of doing that will make a lot of things suck a little bit for everyone, whether they believe in (random thing) or not. But, by law, and many other unapproachable forces, you are required to support, out of your time, integrity and pocketbook, my belief in (random thing). You would be really be ok with that?
A minor bruise to one's morals, with arguable effect on anything at all? Perhaps! A thought crime? Fascism potential? Well gee, who can tell?
Or: How would you feel if support of atheism were mandatory? Don't say it can't happen, it already has, just the vice verse.
"No one else can aide us individually in this endeavor certainly not God either"
Ok, no gods of power. I'd leave that off the table during Teatime with Bush, since he seems to be on speaking terms with Him. Plus Kentucky is betting it's Homeland Security on God being able to do a lot more then "aide us". For the love of Lexington, can it get any crazier?
Fine if you don't like agnosticism, I saw Colbert Report, you aren't alone. I don't like what it does to all of us, but I can 'tolerate' religion, I have to. But don't you see how weird it is when Very Tall People turn beliefs into expensive, dangerous, mandatory nonsense? When once group-harmless activities become a problem for everyone?
"but you won't believe me until you are dead and your dead husk cold in the grave"
I don't believe!!!! ....
.... that I'll be in a grave! :} Because Tibetan sky burial is the only way way to go ;} Cash your chips, complete the big circle, and by methods that anyone of any faith can see and believe... spend centuries in the sky, as parts of birds. That's my idea of the afterlife, plus society and religion suffers nothing for it. Isn't that cool? Maybe this thread is a bad example. But godlessness really isn't as rotten as people have it pegged up to be.
"(partial list of religious salutations)"
Night-night ^^
When bible Evangelist prosecution agents come to my door hand delivering the recent publication of the "Watchtower" or some other accusative pamphlet and quote scripture out of the context that the entire letter or treatise was written in, is an example of what you have done, both are exactly the same.
So this is a waste of my time to bother replying to you, go back and crawl under a rock if you don't mind.
Just like bible literalism is. Not taking the bible literally is like getting pulled over for speeding and telling LEO "Oh it's ok, I don't take the law literally, the law is just guidelines/teachings, it's just some old stories". Hobby theists operate like agnostics, except that they believe in Him "just in case", to the point that belief becomes too hard, archaic, or inconvenient. You say me and my bible literalism ways are bad, meanwhile bible il-literalism and the ability to play faves is what keeps the "god hates fags" people in business.
"So this is a waste of my time to bother replying to you, go back and crawl under a rock if you don't mind."
I reply when I see a logic problem, like bible il/literalism. There's a difference between being a "megalomaniac incarnate" and calling shenanigans.
You replied to not challenge my points, to hint that I'm low and rude, and (again) say I should be a columnist. If you don't want me to argue your points, don't give me any.
You are in the same camp as ANY "God-hates-Fags" zealot with the method of your presentation then ridicule of anyone that shows that "yes, you are a low rude person", because of the method of using part of what statement that you want me to say, along with re-ordering of the same words i used before, to create a completely different statement; that in fact, i never said. This is why you are the same as any other low rude person that hates fags and because God creates in his image the hater, God has to hate Fags too. There is no difference. You haven't made any statements that i cannot use the same words in re-ordering, to present what i want you to say, instead of what you did say. I can do exactly the same thing as you have each time i made a clear heartfelt statement. Each time i made a statement that differs from what you want me to say, this is oneupmanship, not debate, this is argument not discussion.
You never heard anything i stated in rebuttal due to the fact that you have to have the last word at any cost. It blinds you to see: that because i don't jump on your same bandwagon and support anything you say as the holey sacrament of fate is simply a plate of shit that life deals out at random, because you want me to be something i'm not; it would make it convenient. Your meglomantic need drives you instead of reason to offer anything of value. I'm not on trial here, you are. And so because you are actually the reason of this debate from my end - argument from yours, actually you are an anti-theist otherwise known as an Atheist, not an Agnostic.
I study magic and view all religions as unnecessary sectarianisms. Each one that exposes "mine is better because my God says (what i want him to say) and you worship demons (because i say so)" is the language of low rude people - that is why you can only fight someone that tried to answer your question, you are in fact the same type of low rude person. You don't actually want an answer, all you want to do is blindly lash out at anyone that does not believe what you believe. You have a faith, it is abundantly evident, you have a religion, you stated it several times. You are a "God hates Fags" person, in other words a low rude person. I should not actually reply to you but well you are such a foll and you don't know what you are messing with. You are in fact a "God hates Fags" person in sheep's clothing, because of the methods you use in taking things stated out of context and reordering them to meet your agenda instead. I don't need to take your word order to show what you have said, i can see the method because i know how to create spin from the words used but in how to twist them around into something that was not stated and make it into an accusation instead that demands an excuse/answer from the person that originally wrote them - yet what they didn't really say.
People want to hold onto their acquired beliefs via tradition, and have the right to remember what they believe in on a day of the year that they have always chosen to worship that idea/God/energy on. You do not have the right to deprive them of this right, and i will fight you if you continue to assert that they have no rights only because you say so. Only because you say so is in the rhyme of Hitler or Stalin or Mao, these people went to ultimate extremes to create their empires so that they could never be overthrown in their lifetimes, this method that you use in the way of saying "im an Atheist (you say Agnostic) and i don't believe in God except my personal viewpoint of what God must be based upon my own evaluations of myself", tenacity is the same as their need to have ultimate control. It is true that Hitler failed in his attempt, but Stalin and Mao did not. You are using the same methods of spin and propaganda that they used to validate your defamation, (they just killed people that did not see things the way they wanted them to).
God does not hate fags, no where in the Bible is there anything that condemns homosexuality . Sodom and Gomorrah is a morality play that has been rehashed so many times from the original words that it seems to mean God hates Fags, in the ambiguity of not saying so directly, yet taken out of context then whoa you can have God say exactly what you want him to say! In fact, Sodom and Gomorrah was the site of where a volcano came up, the morality play of Sodom and Gomorrah was created to explain why the place was destroyed, "God killed them" was the cry. Also in the cuneiform tablets deciphered of the charter of the city of Sodom, Every new person that comes into the city must be "known" by the entire population. This meant that when Lot told the men of Sodom he would give them his daughters, (an omission in the King James version also had Lot offering his sons as well), but the townspeople did not want them, they already 'had' them, they wanted to have the strangers in Lot's house - not because they were Sodomites or Homosexuals but instead because it was the LAW. But ancient peoples needed to have a story that makes things look better now (then) that they are doing still so that they feel better versus the ruling conquerors namely the Romans. The Romans had no sexual mores or restrictions. So in the early church the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was very popular, because it made the conquered feel a oneupmanship, over the Romans - in essense.
There is neat movie coming out that is a history of Jesus, i think it will be on 'Sundance' channel. It will be presenting a historical version of Jesus that in many ways though documented via ancient texts, to fly into the face of accepted belief of who Jesus actually was - (son of the richest man in the known world so he can just up and leave before Jewish law stated he had to marry ie Joesph of Amarthea)
"You are in the same camp as ANY "God-hates-Fags" zealot"
"you are the same as any other low rude person that hates fags"
"You are a "God hates Fags" person, in other words a low rude person."
"You are in fact a "God hates Fags" person in sheep's clothing,"
About that.... I'm bi. Sounds like I'm not the only one who doesn't know what he's messing with. I was raised to be straight as an arrow, which might have led to my being squicked by the world of gay for some while, as I was. But that homophobia, just like some other certain baggage I was raised to believe in, was outgrown in time.
"I'm not on trial here, you are."
Trial? Me? wtf for? I claim nothing! Literally :} I'm not claiming theres a god(s). If I were, I would prove it. Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary proof. (and in case it comes up: faith is not proof)
"no where in the Bible is there anything that condemns homosexuality"
Lev. 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."
Lev. 20:13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"
1 Cor. 6:9-10, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
Rom. 1:26-28, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."
Granted, these ancient quotes can be taken out of context. Problem is they can (and are) worked to support either side of the argument.
I don't believe in you're new assertions that I'm atheist. At one time I was, but realized that atheism was as close minded as theism. As already mentioned several posts back, I'm willing to accept tangible proof of some higher power(s). But until the rapture/second coming/apocalypse, etc, it's going to take more to sway me then a bunch of texts from a book that says earth is flat and the sky is held up by sticks and how the same god who was powerful enough to make the universe in a fortnight isn't powerful enough to keep sin out of a garden etc etc ad naus.
"Only because you say so is in the rhyme of Hitler or Stalin or Mao, these people went to ultimate extremes to create their empires so that they could never be overthrown in their lifetimes"
Inop the Dictator again... really? ::sad:: I've heard of circular arguments but this is a whole new ballgame. Come back when I've caused .00000001% the damage religion has. Actually, speaking of damage:
"People want to hold onto their acquired beliefs via tradition, and have the right to remember what they believe in on a day of the year that they have always chosen to worship that idea/God/energy on. You do not have the right to deprive them of this right"
But, they and you can similarly deprive me of my right. And take my money. And pass laws condemning gays and requiring a recognition of God. And put up big signs reminding me that I'm doing it "wrong". And keep research in the hands of sketchy dictatorships. And fund mass mailings. And set up tv stations. And bankrupt gullible suckers so I can pay their welfare. And knock on my door at 8am on a Saturday. And make buildings every half block to proclaim their presence. And go into war because 'it's God's work'.
I HAVE DONE-NONE OF THIS. I SUPPORT-NONE OF THIS.
You've lost the right to call me a dictator anymore, it's tired and boring. Why don't you acknowledge the ones that are already here, because they don't have YOU or I in mind. Didn't you read this when I wrote it several posts ago? When the hell did I say someone can't pray. Do whatever, I'm just tired of society taking the rap for it.
Look I'm getting sick of taking baseless insults and being accused of some contextual hocus-pocus. Every point I make, even stuff not quoting off you goes unread and/or unchallenged. You say I'm using your words against you; but meanwhile I put my words out there TO BE CHALLENGED. And I am not being challenged. That means I'm talking to myself; wasting time. So I'm done, go ahead, keep ignoring whatever I write, get creative and call me Hitler/Mao/Stalin again, and/or an atheist. Damn me, call me homophobic, whatever. I've been reasonably cool about keeping out of the mud and on a points format, lotta good that did. Let whatever you toss on the way out of the ring represent how maturely you handle debates. I'm miffed about being called lots of stuff I'm not but I'm riding away clean. As a godless fag, I've been treated to worse. I'm not out to impress anyone or fit in, if I was I'd be a Catholic (one of the straight ones).
Anyway. Toodles, do well, have fun, and shall we cross paths again hopefully it won't be about religion.
But anyway I have this book that is a dictionary for theologians. It states that there is nothing in the bible that specifically is against homosexuality. I'll direct you to the page of the book i put up to prove my case, that this "god hates fags" idea is a lie perpetrated first by a man names A.S. Beale in the 1840's. Ohio or Connecticut i forget which.
There is also NO tangible proof i can find anywhere that God exists, but instead i can only (developed) feel the energy created by a mass of people chanting/singing etc. at a church. They all 'believe God exists in the image they accept of him, in that particular sect/denomination/faith. It is more powerful in a Black or 'holey-rollers' church, try it yourself just stand in the foyer during the part that everyone is singing getting into their 'faith'.
But is it tangible? Can you hold it in your hand? nope, it is energy of the spirit. you can't hold thoughts or Atheism or Agnosticism or the spirit for that matter in your hand either, they are concepts of who you think you are. There is this long philosophical statement to prove existence but it has been so long ago i forget the ordering, it simply ends with "i think therefore i am". But this is not tangible ether. you cannot hold your belief that you are agnostic (basically the word means 'i don't know' not 'i don't believe there is a God' the latter is atheism) in your hand either it is no more tangible than faith. To an extent religion is a last vestige of tribalism in the form of bigotry in essence. It is the people that believe only their way is the correct way to live, anything else is wrong - so in so much that that whatever is against their beliefs allows portions of their 'faith' to commit horrible acts upon those that don't believe the way they do. I have done experimentation to prove to myself of what i believe to true, no sect/denomination/faith could prove it to me either. But i've come to know how to resist the overbearing influence of "god hates fags" people by making them prove it, i use the book written by 154 MA, and Phd's in seminary that is my bible dictionary as my only back-up. Then to prove to the xenophobic faith enthusiasts that they don't know what they are talking about when they try the same one up manship on me that they don't know what the fuck they are talking about, i ask them the two most common unanswerable questions. they cannot answer the questions is the point, so at 8am they avoid my house the next time and tell their bible thumper friends too. The answer lies in the original wording in the ancient Hebrew by using the Kabbala to decipher the meaning of each passage. Transliteration into English along with different political inspired 'changes' have resulted in the latest versions of the bible. oh yes that reference this page: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1687299/ and one of the ten or so pages of contributers: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1687407/
as for those people that DEMAND you worship God in they're way, tell em to go F themselves and remember to to Joke em if they can't take a Fuck!
but don't deprive someone of they're day - you can't justify taking something from someone else just because they do it to you. Unless you are thinking that eye for an eye is viable. But let me give you some tangible wisdom, they are too big, to well connected, and too many of them to fight them all at once pick on them individually instead. - ie you can't fight the world!
As for stopping the only way to do so is never reply, then it is ended but only for you, the debate still goes on.
- stupid zealots both A-theist and Deist will quote excerpts out of context. There is a perfect truth in the following statement "If you tell only half a lie you are still lying, even if you add some truth to the excerpt."
To understand what the entirety of Leviticus states the entire quotation must be digested as a whole no part taken out of context, doing so only shows Jihadist temperament. I make that statement from the use by certain scheming Imans in centering upon only portions of the Koran and verses there-in to promote violent terrorist Jihad. They think they are correct too!
“But my nature will not allow others to keep it away from someone else that wants their mate, their holiday, or their God. And i will fight all you dastards that want to take away their happiness!"
I'm not taking anything away, I'm criticizing you. Freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism.
I'm not talking to “them”, I'm talking to you. To some people the ability to think and do without the hindrances of religious oligarchy is happiness. But you are hypocritically content to deride happiness.
"I don't have a problem with peaceful religious people its the I'm-better-than-you-cause-i-know-everything people just like you that have keep the mars colonies from happening"
I don't know everything. If I said I did, rest assured, I didn't know everything back then either.
As for my proposed involvement with Mars, check out The Galileo Affair. One of the greatest minds in science, trapped by dogma in his prime, only to die under house arrest.
"There was another one that decided that God did not exist and subjugated slightly less but an entire ethenic group to oblivion: Adolf Hitler, Another one killed more people in the name of 'Cultural Revolution' where he killed off a Billion people, his name was Chairman Mao Tse Tung, All these men thought the same way YOU do. I suppose it would have
been better to join him and you in their great crusades to dominate everyone right?! RIGHT!?"
Historically inaccurate presumptuous slander.
Before we debunk the reducito ad Hitlerum fallacy, note that Hitler was not an atheist: he had his own church, religious flair on the uniforms, any number of quotes regarding the defense of Christianity, God or His work, he also penned his own version of Christianity. And drew his own interpretation of Jesus.
Check out the Association Fallacy. Your idea that one atheist committing genocide means all atheists are genocidal is flawed.
Atheism is not an ideology one can go out and kill over: atheism is an answer to a single question that has nothing to do with killing. Theists do not kill in the name of theism, theism has as much to do with killing as atheism does. However theism is sometimes associated with doctrines or tenets that can and have led to killing. Atheism has no tenets. But if atheism alone can't incline the people you mention to kill, and if Hitler wasn't an atheist anyway, then what the hell happened?
They wanted power, authority, control over ideals of the masses. Churches have these things, and that power can be taken when you make atheism the state religion. The Marxists did that so they could have the church's control of people's moral authority for themselves. It was a power struggle; politics. It still is today. Don't forget about basic human behavior: fear/hatred of those different us, racism, look out for #1, etc. And the fact that humans are subject to any myriad of diagnosable mental conditions.
“I hope when you die and find out that the spirit is immortal that you just lived a worthless amount of time in yet another life where the point was shown to you but you decided "NO, I Know I'm Right and Everyone else is Wrong" and have to live on Earth again finding out that you did not find the key, the reason, once again.”
Pascal's Wager only counts as far as the Atheist's Wager does. Which one is right?
You claim I know I'm right, when I really don't. I've been on both sides of the fence, neither sated my curiosity. You errantly chastise me for claiming infallibility, and you claim infallibility. This is the pot calling the kettle black.
“Oh yes, by the way; Heaven/Hell doesn't really exist like it is described in books or legends, its more like a waiting room for those that needed it in their material existence, but don't believe me, you'll find out!”
So let me get this straight: inop=wrong, theists=less wrong, mericus=correct.
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. -Anne Lamott
Don't you think it's a bit too convenient that in an infinite number of belief and disbelief systems, none of which are more verifiable then the next, that you just happened to pick the right one? How everyone that believes in hell is wrong, how people who don't believe in anything are also wrong, but your answer is just right? This is one of the problems with being infallible. Perhaps if you avoid setting yourself as the arbitrary standard of spirituality you could begin to understand where other people are coming from.
Besides, by saying with certainty there is no heaven/hell, you are depriving that belief from those who think there is, an act you earlier said is wrong, and it contradicts you again here:
“But to return once again to the topic, not you or anyone else has the singular right to deprive anyone else of their beliefs, nor how they want to celebrate the holiday that they believe in.”
Why does 'anyone else' not include you? Non-belief is still a belief.
“When bible Evangelist prosecution agents come to my door hand delivering the recent publication of the "Watchtower" or some other accusative pamphlet and quote scripture out of the context that the entire letter or treatise was written in, is an example of what you have done, both are exactly the same.”
And until I recruit street groups to pass propaganda door to door, you are wrong.
I'm posting on a message board, like you, and if that's wrong, our guilt is shared.
“I'm not on trial here, you are. And so because you are actually the reason of this debate from my end - argument from yours, actually you are an anti-theist otherwise known as an Atheist, not an Agnostic.”
You've made a conclusion from nothing. Debate against you does not equal atheism.
There's no reason for me to be on trial. I brag about not knowing the answers these days, because it's the only honest conclusion. You claim to have the answers to everything but nothing to show for it.
“There is also NO tangible proof i can find anywhere that God exists, but instead i can only (developed) feel the energy created by a mass of people chanting/singing etc. at a church.”
Subjective.
“I delved into esoterics (magic) to find my own version of faith, through experiments to see if certain things worked. I found extraordinary results that are not tangible but via my experiment i was able to 'prove' to myself that they were not fantasy. From my experiments is how i know God exists, but it is not tangible.”
but then,
“There is this long philosophical statement to prove existence but it has been so long ago i forget the ordering, it simply ends with "i think therefore i am". But this is not tangible ether. you cannot hold your belief that you are agnostic (basically the word means 'i don't know' not 'i don't believe there is a God' the latter is atheism) in your hand either it is no more tangible than faith.”
(that was Descarte, by the way...)
So what makes your school of intangible more laudable then an atheist's? Faith? A feeling of energy in a church? Magical experiments, the outcomes of which are known only to you? These are all completely subjective. Theism requires evidence of God/s to make sense (I'm talking about more then subjective ramblings, esoteric experiments, burnt toast and cloud shapes). But humankind has seen no proof of God. While atheism does not require the presence of God/s to make sense. I am just taking the most logical, simplest path, of course I am open to any good reasons to think otherwise...
(lengthy noise about homophobia and Bible interpretations)
There are a half dozen recognized interpretations of the Bible. Until one of them is proven correct, I can choose how I read it, as can you. Plus Christianity isn't the only religion that decries homosexuality.
“as for those people that DEMAND you worship God in they're way, tell em to go F themselves and remember to to Joke em if they can't take a Fuck!”
So far you've told me with no uncertainty that myself and most organized religions are wrong about heaven/hell, what will happen when I die, what will happen when I'm reincarnated, and how I'm supposed to read the Bible. It's an awful lot to “DEMAND” I see things your way with what you admit to be unverifiable: arguing from personal incredulity.
“But let me give you some tangible wisdom, they are too big, to well connected, and too many of them to fight them all at once pick on them individually instead. - ie you can't fight the world!”
Appeal to the people; Conventional wisdom. If you think the right of might is dissuasion for debate, that's your own problem. Thinking in a group does not inherit validity: just because many people think something is right doesn't make it right. Imagine the tables were turned and theists were the minority, would you still be justified by logical fallacies? You tell me to pick on them individually, no thanks, I just want some good answers. You have not given me good answers.
Until you find yourself in a point of epiphany there is no way to explain the obvious. To get there you'd have to first search out like I did on a path of enlightenment, (which I already know you won't ever do) to find what is true and what is propaganda, then to experience for yourself what cannot be readily explained.
There is a subject that I know right now, having experienced it first hand that would stupefy you and you would state; like earlier in your diatribe, that it is impossible and cannot be proven in fact based books upon the subject.
What I refer to is a karate style that cannot in fact be explained in any book, (although the original discoverer tried in 16th century Japan). Still I have learned this ability. It is not a technique that can learned in any other way except by experiencing it and trying to figure out what is really happening. It is an ability I can do as can eight other people in the entire world!
I was able to lean this across a three year period because I was open to new things and because of my study in enlightenment!
Likewise there is no way in hell I can communicate to you what else I know since you have chosen to completely close your mind to any new point of view and are in fact doomed to staying 'agnostic' and there fore want to remain stupid and unknowing.
I have tried my best to explain to laymen what I have experienced and what I have discovered to be in fact true and 'real'. This is the major truth, There is a God. beyond that there is only bullshit diatribe in semi facts from all religions. All religions being inventions of men to control other men for political reasons as well as open greed as well as absolutist one-up-man-ship.
No religion on Earth throughout the entire history of man is the one true religion!
However some facts are buried in the dogmatism of each diatribe, similar to the spew on the news programs and opinion shows. but it is not apparent unless you have walked the path for at least a few miles.
Now whatever point you are rebutting is not even registering as a valid argument to me, it is only ranting and raving.
I can and will be more than happy to demonstrate what I have learned in karate to you. I already know you won't understand it, nor will you be able to explain it. But understand this "I have no formal training in any form of Karate other than the ability I have learned that Miatomo Musashi tried his darnedest to tell the world in his tome "The Book of the Five Rings". I know a few fourth degree black belt techniques of Muk Duk Quan, but little else. I am the equivalent of a White belt in any style or form based on technique, yet there is no way a tenth Dan, (belt) Master can avoid any blow I give them! this is a real fact. It should be impossible, but it is real and I can prove this first hand to you, just stand within about arm's distance and whatever I hit on you will break that bone.
I learned this 'because' I seek what cannot be understood in any other way except having an open mind as well as a determination to find out truth!
Any other communication to you would be pointless since you are engaging in one-up-man-ship, and are never going to search out what is hidden. have a nice day.
oh by the way since I am an artist I have found out an interesting truth I can fire and hit a target consecutively with either hand with any pistol or handgun not a two hander at 100 paces, simply because I am an artist! An interesting point don't you think, explain that one, I have NEVER trained to do this, I don't own a pistol other than a Paintball gun!
Since his mother converted to Judaism before he was born, he was a Jew though his mother originally was of Gentile descent. Joesph's brother was also names Joseph, except that he was first born and carried on the family business from his father as a caravan merchant. And, had knowledge of the only route to the southern pampas region of India were the plant Indigo grows.
He brought that dye back along the spice routes to the markets and eventually to Rome where added to Cyanide (red) mixes into a better dye than Lapis Lazuli. Hence he was the richest man in the world since red and indigo blue make a rich purple violet color that all the royalty of Rome was garbed in.
Also the note of a rich person is the clothes they wear, Mary: Jesus' mother wore Blue - meaning she had to be rich. And since Joesph was a carpenter not a merchant he would never have that kind of shekels to spend on blue dye. Anyway Jesus' real father died when he was 16, and via Jewish law Mary automatically became his brother's wife. Thus making Jesus the son of the richest man in the world.
So that meant Jesus' being given up to the Roman's Crucifixion penalty by the Pharisees was more of a political killing by rivals of his rich father!
Additionally; early church people figured out they wanted to make something out of all the stuff thus far(otherwise they would all have to get real jobs) and rearranged Jesus' birth into a virgin one as the true son of God and later when the Mithras (some guy killing a Bull with a gladius: the Roman Legionnaire short sword - like that is hard or something) cult became popular, to stay more popular of a religion, decided to say that Jesus was born on the 25th of December.
Decorating trees with stuff originally was with the entrails of Romans to keep them out of German held lands, then it became symbolic then the real meaning was lost (again the Church redefining actual history to better fit the model) in time to be part of Christmas.
I'm not sure where the gift giving part originated from but that might be from England in later centuries.
If I lived up there, I'd put Santa holding a sign simply saying, "Peace on Earth, Good will toward men, no matter their religion", and maybe a Festivus pole.
I was also reading the entire thing as negative, but I think that's my Christian upbringing affecting that, and the amount of "no" statements in it. To an atheist, the idea of no gods, angels or devils is actually freeing.
I still think Santa Claus wishing good tidings would have been a better choice for them
that just HAD to happen...
"the viewpoint that Christianity is superstition and mythology" <-- agreed! *nods*
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1701939
Without the profane reference to God, the caption would not be as funny!
I can hit your arm with the protection of a telephone book (greater Detroit area) a feather pillow from the sixties, and a karate pad and you will feel the tap (...if I pull my punch), directly on your bone! as it you didn't even have any muscle in the way either.
Atheists as well as agnostics will find God in any way imaginable from a situation they are are not in any way in control of. This is a fact incontrovertible from the manifold instances in the history of man. Beyond that, religion is a farce; a total unnecessary equation added by greedy (yet good intentioned), men.
I only state that you will see God eventually, hopefully before you die and it is too late to learn from the experience!