Atheism

@rosborne979,

Operational words: "may have"

@neologist,

neologist wrote:

Operational words: "may have"

You have no information about the pre-big-bang universe, so you cannot make assumptions about it.

Do you have any examples of time/space/distance problems which do not extend beyond the known universe?

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@neologist,

The so-called "big bang" (a term coined, i might add, by a Catholic priest) caused time to exist. There was no space/time before that event, or none which can reasonably be postulated, nor detected. It is completely reasonable that time, existing after the "big bang" can be linear. You have no argument.

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@edgarblythe,

Well...at least you had the courage to state what you truly believe. There are many out there who KNOW and are to afraid to confront polite society.

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@Germlat,

I still don't have any sympathy from people I know. None are atheists. Razz

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Me neither...sigh! But many more than you think are thinking the way you are. Fear is powerful my friend. I usually don't advertise my belief. People who really know me... Know what I truly believe.

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I've only ever had EB's experience once. A man whom i considered my friend asked me about some books i had bought at a used book store. One of them was about the Gilgamesh Epic. He asked me about that, and as i explained it, he said that those sounded like some of the bible stories. I said that the earliest versions were from almost 4000 years ago, well before the bible was written. He kind of froze up and then got this really twisted, nasty look on his face. Then he said you like that Martha, Mary . . . whatever her names is, O'Sullivan. So i asked him if he meant Madelyn Murray O'Hair, and he really went off. He was infuriated to think that i am an atheist and that i hadn't "warned" him. Otherwise, it has never really mattered. I can't say that i was ever discriminated against on that basis. I've never had an employer who brought it up. People who know me know it, or figure it out. I don't live where EB does, though, so that makes a difference.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Yep...people will assume you can't possibly be a good person. Fear is powerful. I usually try to keep things to myself. I was once ostracized due to my inability to keep my eyes closed during corporate prayer.

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I had some of these experiences in the Navy and as a civilian, in California. Once, in Long Beach, I became acquainted with a fellow worker and it slipped out that I was atheist. He was indignant enough that he brought his best friend to confront me a few days later. The friend said, "I don't want to argue, either. Let's just discuss it." I reluctantly listened and offered my words. The instant I began, however, the man began screaming me down. Most of the guys in my division, in the Navy, harassed me daily. I think I told on here before how one fellow in particular couldn't tone it down, Every day he left a small Bible on my bunk. I threatened to rip it in half if he did it again. I could see him hiding, tittering, when I found another Bible on the bed. His face registered horror when I picked up that thick book and tore it down the spine.

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Quote:

Edgar said: when I found another Bible on the bed...I picked up that thick book and tore it down the spine.

Which bit of this don't you like mate?-

"Love one another, feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the destitute, tend the sick, visit the prisoners, look after the poor"- Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 12:30, John 13:34, Matt 25: 37-40)

----------------------------------------------------------
Romeo Fabulini: he shoots, he scores!

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/shoots1_zpsa38dec6c.jpg~original

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@Germlat,

Quote:

afraid to confront polite society.

I'm not afraid to talk about it.
For me, atheism is a conclusion, not a belief.
So I don't find occasions to talk about it.
Nor has anyone ever given me grief about it.

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@Romeo Fabulini,

Romeo Fabulini wrote:

Quote:
Edgar said: when I found another Bible on the bed...I picked up that thick book and tore it down the spine.

Which bit of this don't you like mate?-

"Love one another, feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the destitute, tend the sick, visit the prisoners, look after the poor"- Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 12:30, John 13:34, Matt

Once again. You're a liar and a hypocrite, not to mention a legend in your own lunch time. **** off.

1 Reply

@Romeo Fabulini,

Can't you not draw the appropriate conclusion, Romeo, from my last couple of posts being ignored?

Instead some personal experiences in the navy or in a bookstore are offered as if they prove anything. They might easily never have happened. They might not even be authentic.

There is nothing more authentic than the last two thousand years and they don't wish to comment. They dare not comment. They are in a petulant and on-going hissy fit concerning their sexual activities.

They have no answer to the question of alternatives to Christianity.

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@Wilso,

The religious think that being cult members insulates them from life's realities and they fear to be contaminated by other's thoughts. They don't see how this group-think leads more than likely to us-against-them bigotry. There are, of course, religious adherents who do not fit in the mold, but it is in spite of and not because of the dogma they espouse.

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@edgarblythe,

I would probably have more tolerance if these groups actually adhered to the values to which they aspire, but it doesn't happen. If I hadn't just dropped a sleeping pill, I would find my evidence etc etc, but zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1 Reply

@Wilso,

I have never taken a sleeping pill in my life.

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@edgarblythe,

Quote:

The religious think that being cult members insulates them from life's realities

Only the ones you have asserted that think that ed.

Quote:

they fear to be contaminated by other's thoughts.

Ditto. The thoughts of "others" are fully exposed when they fear to respond to my post on the last page regarding the last 2,000 years. Yours is the fear. Objectively demonstrated rather than asserted. You are here to debate and you have all run away from a reality and substituted some microcosmic happening in its place.

A confrontation, which was a chance event, in a bookshop, is a nothing thing. Are you okay with a drastic revision of our culture on the basis of a thing like that?

You are making up your own premisses I'm afraid. They mean nothing.

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@panzade,

There are places that are more religious than others. Reluctance to participate or fully engage I n certain rituals is viewed as offensive by some people ( kneeling, circular praying, invoking saints , etc). I've never tried to convince anyone of my belief system. I was once told by my own mother that she would not tolerate me disrespecting her God. She viewed me not raising my arms during prayer as disrespectful ( I was in my late twenties when this happened).

1 Reply

@Germlat,

I can't imagine how difficult it would be to go against one's parent's religion and become an atheist. I imagine it would take a lot of courage.

In my case it was a natural progression, as they were members of the Washington DC Ethical Society, a non-theistic congregation founded in 1876 in New York by Felix Adler.

Quote:

The Washington Ethical Society was founded in 1944 by people active in the religious and civil rights movements. The Constitutional rights of "ethics as a religion" were established in 1957 by a landmark opinion written by Judge Warren Burger in favor of WES and all Ethical Societies. Subsequent legal efforts made it lawful to use ethical rather than just theological grounds for conscientious objections to war.

In the early years, because WES was racially integrated and actively campaigned against segregation, it was difficult to find meeting space in Washington DC. At the time even government buildings separated bathrooms and restaurants by race. Our first permanent home was in Dupont Circle.

When a new meetinghouse was constructed in 1966, it was at 7750 16th Street NW - a neighborhood chosen because it was dedicated to integration. The move was made possible by the generosity of Nancy Blanche Jenison MD (1876 - 1960), a long-term member of the society who established a building fund and left most of her estate to WES.

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@panzade,

Same here.
I wasn't in the Navy or Texas though, or ever in the corporate world. Ok, a small one man and his wife incorporated business, but not what is usually meant as corporate - five designers at most. Religion only came up once in a while, say when a colleague was describing preparing her kitchen for passover, or the boss explaining that his wife used to be a Moonie. That was in the landscape/planning firm. People knew I wasn't religious, no problemo. In the medical/research world I hung out in before, for fifteen years, it wasn't a concern or even a conversation starter. In both places, we were all different in lots of ways and that was just understood.
My last work place, where my business partner and I were our only 'employees' - she was also an atheist and we had many similar opinions on this and that, so that was an especially comfortable bunch of years.

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