Atheists... Your life is pointless

Yup...and it does a hell of a lot more than just authorize them, ci. It specifically says the god of the book says trading in slaves and owning them is just fine with him.

Spendius most of the Vatican was built hundreds of years ago some of it dates from the 6th century when man believed evil spirits caused sickness. The construction is a small fraction of what it was.

True.

But saying, as it does in Leviticus 25:44ff:

"Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you BUY them from among the neighboring nations. You may also BUY them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves YOU MAY OWN AS CHATTELS, and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, MAKING THEM PERPETUAL SLAVES. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen."

...sure as hell does!

I'm sorry Frank but I am not engaging in that kind of thing.

We could will ourselves into extinction if we strictly apply reasoning logic to the calculus of the pain and pleasures of life on behalf of the unborn. And reasoning logic is nothing if it isn't strict.

Avoiding reasoning logic is bound to be random and that gives us a chance. Strictly using reasoning logic we have no chance unless you can show that the pleasures are worth the pain which I don't think you can and I have had a very good time of it.

It matters not an iota that you are having a ball. You might soon stop doing. Life has not yet finished with you.

So never mind the self-congratulatory flim-flam and explain how an atheist can justify bringing forth new life when life, like everything else, is pointless.

Stalin relied upon patriotic duty. There was a motherhood medal and some privileges for women who had five (I think) kids. He needed regiments you see. And we know what happened to a large number of those kids. The battlefield was a relief from the training. Apart from a few who got roasted on a spit and some other things.

Let's forget it eh? You're impossible.

I suspect that is a function of the fact that we disagree on this.

Try to be more adult...and the problem will evaporate.

There you go. You don't answer the question and make with the insult. I'm at fault. I'm not adult. Sheesh!

There is, if I might say so, a touch of fatuity in your remark, and in a number of others in your previous posts. It represents a failure in good sense which stems from too warm a self-satisfaction. I have not seen you disagree with anything of substance.

That's why you are impossible. One gets sick of it after a while. And I see no chance of it evaporating.

So be a good chap eh? Forget it.

I thought you had already forgotten it. In fact, I had forgotten it as requested.

Now that you've brought it back to mind...I will have to work on forgetting it again.

I really have no idea why an educated atheist would think that life is ****. Certainly most educated atheists I know don't take that view. If you feel as though life is ****, this is probably something we should address on a more personal level. I am not a professional therapist, but I am a nurse and have some training in therapeutic communication.

Point/Counter-point
I'm so starving vs. I'm so starving
First world problems.

Which belief is more likely to bring that starving kid comfort: that his daily struggle means something or that life is absurd and nothing matters beyond today's pleasure or pain?

You don't speak for the starving; nor does the hack who put that image together.

I do agree that economic disparity is certainly not the direct result of religion.
Rather than focusing on who is or is not to blame, however. There are things we can do.
I am no sociologist, but my financial vote goes toward using a reputable charity auditing guide such as http://www.givewell.org/
Use this to decide where to send donations to bring about effective change.

On a personal level I would recommend eating less factory farmed animal products, these divert farming resources into inefficiency. They mess with the market making it harder for charities to funnel resources to starving humans. Don't feed cows and chickens, feed people.

Don't support companies that have exploitative economic practices.
Oil companies are particularly notorious. Diamonds and gold also bad.

Sorry about my earlier knee-jerk reaction, FBM.

Looking at the image again I do find the second panel to be a nice retort to the particular sentiment that "everything happens for a reason."
I may be a theist, but I too find the Bible insufferable at times -- in fact, more or less all the time.

Open letter 2002
Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Yeah, that all works I guess.

Sometimes, though, I see charity work as a mad scramble to find all of Humpty's pieces and piece him together again.

I'm more political than charitable at the end of the day, but it's all in the hope of bringing about a new order in the world that has both more heart and more common sense than the current one.

We do what we can.
Not all of those charities are direct aid.
Many of them work at exerting political pressures.
I do feel that in the current climate, finance is for most purposes the reality of politics.
I personally am in no political position of authority, particularly on the international level. I am friends with my mayor (even he can't do much in that regard).

Guys or ladies, you can debate the damn bible all you like even until you're blue in the face but it's a big fairy tale at best incorporating the loooongest drama of all time!! You can spit your so-called scripture at each other all night, or face the fact that you're all so freaking nai've that it's not even funny anymore!
ENOUGH of this phony crap already and just wise up, there is no damn god, get over yourselves!

Charming.

No not charming, I just prefer to see what's REAL and not fictitious!

People here aren't debating the bible--how about adding that to your list of what's real. You just jump into a thread that was started years and years ago, which is long past its "best before" date and start yelling at people based on an assumption you've made which is completely without foundation. I call that pretty damned fictitious.