The Crack that Lets the Light In

I’d love to know something you especially liked about it.

I seen the Big L. Liked it.

What about misanthropes?

Abalones I'm not too sure about.

I knew a man with Alzheimer's who was good of heart and would do small deeds such as give cokes to the yard crew. I never saw or heard negativity from him. He liked to cut up blocks, paint them black, and glue on small sticks. The sticks seemed random or perhaps depicting Chinese characters at first glance. But if you stood back and looked the spaces in between the sticks spelled "JESUS." He handed them out freely wherever he went. I proudly accepted mine and I keep it on my desk to be reminded of him. I knew this man for several years before they moved him to a nursing home. His wife had Alzheimer's too. I once had to lead her from the back parking lot to her apartment. She held to my arm and gave me such a grateful look the whole time.

Well, off the top of my head, I thought John Turturro was hilarious in his electric blue pantsuit in the bowling alley. I always chuckle when I think of that scene. And, of course, who doesn't love Steve Buscemi?

And it was the wrong car

It cracked me up how bent outta shape Walter got every time Donnie opened his mouth. “You’re outta your element, Donnie!” Little anger issue.

I loved the Julianne Moore character. Her painting method, her giggly gay friend, David Thewlis.

“Btw, Dude. ‘Asian American’ is the accepted nomenclature…”. Goodman killed in that movie.

"Shut up, Donnie!" Goodman was great

Four of us went bowling not long after seeing that movie and we used some of the names from it - one was Dude and I forget the others, but no one could remember the name of the dead guy so we just put "dead guy" on the score sheet.

I'm considering moving my main posts from my other atheism thread to this one. Still debating.

I think it would be a great move. We can discuss all that stuff here.

Can I just say that I have no time at all for the Sunday Assembly.

It's a non religious group that meets up on a Sunday for a similar sense of community to church.

It's for people who miss 'the best parts of church.'

The best thing about not being religious is not having to go to church.

The best, and only good, part of church was going home.

I cannot see why anyone would want to spend their Sundays doing that, listening to a load of middle class white people singing "cool" songs like "We are the Champions" is my idea of hell.

At least bloody churches hold out the idea of eternal life to get people going, not a load of old sanctimonious bollocks.

OK, I realise that most of what's said in church could be classed as a load of sanctimonious old bollocks, but it tries to pretend it's not, there is that.

I spend my Sundays at car boot sales buying things and talking to the other regulars.

Now that, I don't mind getting up early for.

I'm considering importing those posts because that thread has been killed. This atheist thread is not complete without some of that material.

I tried to be as courteous to you as possible. You started calling me all sorts of names...and I guess that "killed" the thread. Let's work together to see that does not happen here.

How does one import posts?

Cut and paste.

If you already read this before, not a word of it has changed.

One
When you get up every morning you know what's going to happen all day long. That is, you don't expect people to walk on water, the sun to stand still in the sky, or to suddenly be able to move faster than a speeding bullet. No magic will happen and you don't expect it to. And yet if somebody asked, you are possibly conditioned to answer, "Yes, the magic could happen." Nevertheless, you don't expect to wrestle with an angel on the way to the bus stop. You know the sun will cross the sky, the result of two heavenly bodies in their respective positions relative to one another.

Reasonable people know that evolution is a fact. I refuse to grant credence to anyone who opposes the truth of the evolutionary theory. Some would posit that a creator is necessary to the process, but the same rule that You know when you wake up what will happen all day long is much more reasonable and there is no evidence contrariwise. From the Big Bang until now there is no measurable evidence of divine intervention.

Death seems a necessary component of evolution, allowing for adaptation to occur. Also, the fact that almost every single organism is food to other organisms. The human notoriously will eat almost anything that doesn't eat it first. What's intelligent about a system that depends on death for survival?

Early humans had no libraries or Einstein from which to draw information. By the time their minds developed so that they could question their circumstances they had to already believe much that entered into legends and myths. Emotionally they could not bear to let go of departed loved ones. They saw enough death they had to know of the inevitable in their own case and like Woody Allen would prefer not to be there when it happened. So all the mysteries became the myths and notions that became codified into religions. Whatever could toss that dislodged boulder onto your house has the power to alter other circumstances. The whatever being invisible like your dearly departed, therefore they all likely live together in invisibility. Anthropomorphism. If you don't know the word look it up.

Science has debunked the myths and fantasies of the religious doctrines, leaving raw faith to sustain the gods.

The evolution that gave the world humans delivers a blurred demarcation between animal and human intelligence the more we know. The same force that causes a human to love a dog can cause a cat to love a chicken. Animals can solve problems and manipulate the environment. The problem is, the human is an insatiable problem solver and a greedy manipulator. He is making the other species go extinct. He is currently like two species intermingled, in that a sizeable portion has essentially adopted the golden rule, while a great many others follow the eye for an eye principle. The greedy eye for an eye crowd appears to be in command because the golden rulers are too polite or too few in number to successfully resist. It is becoming more recognized by the minute that humanity will likely soon make itself extinct.

Those who hold onto notions of divine benevolence can make all the excuses they wish, but when on a daily basis toddler children and other humans get blown to smithereens simply because they are there when the totally unnecessary wars gravitate in that direction, I have to scoff.

Christians holding onto Jesus have virtually no evidence the physical man existed. Even if they could place him in history there is no evidence of his miracles. Another situation for You know what's going to happen all day long.

In conclusion, I don't have to prove there is no god to be right. All you need do is provide one scintilla of evidence to make me alter one word of what I have ever written on the topic. God is not dead, because he/she/it never existed.

TWO
Most discussions of atheism center on evolution. It is a fertile territory to explore. But we don't even need evolution. Atheists actually don't have to have a reason to be atheists. Most discussions and arguments are thrust on them by believers who feel an atheist's existence is a threat to their own, striking at the core of their very existence if religion can so easily be nullified. The human, being a territorial animal, will defend a territory with any means at its disposal in extreme cases. Hence, racism (territorial ethnicity hatred), wars (territorial aggression), gods (territory inside the imagination, the greatest territory of all to deists). It is a fear of personal annihilation driving the faithful to attack atheism with so much energy.

THREE
Some would seek to transcend the argument, saying the universe itself is god. Pure anthropomorphism. The instant you inject "god" into it you are seeking to inject human ego into the fundamental clockwork of all existence. Humans and Earth are not that important. We once had a potential for riding out the remaining lifespan of the universe until we willfully destroyed our habitat. There is no future in self destruction.

Congratulations on being an agnostic atheist Frank.

People who quote Apisa get their post collapsed by me. No offence intended.