Why are there so many churchy people here.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'm not an expert on every website, but on FB I have just shy of 100 friends, and only 3 put bible verses up......

I disagree with my good friend memphis' thread title....I just don't think it's true.  JMO.

[Joe Republic]

Great, another pious lecture from Gustaf.  Just what I always wanted for Christmas!

[memphis]

Great, another pious lecture from Gustaf.  Just what I always wanted for Christmas!

Questioning the validity of religion is not allowed here. You should know that by now. Religion has a get out of critical thinking free card. Those who dare to violate are terrible, terrible people.

[Torie]

Those who find this forum suffocatingly suffused with too much religion, and smug religion at that, I think have an allergy of some sort that makes them unusually susceptible to breaking out with hives or something even when exposed to religion in small doses. They need to take a vaccine or something.

I consider it a personal plus to have been raised an atheist. I had no need to rebel against it all - to break the surly bonds of faith that chain one's soul as it were. Religion is neither good nor bad to me - just irrelevant to my life.

[opebo]

I consider it a personal plus to have been raised an atheist. I had no need to rebel against it all - to break the surly bonds of faith that chain one's soul as it were. Religion is neither good nor bad to me - just irrelevant to my life.

Yes, you were very fortunate in that respect, as in all things, Torie.

But fear of religion is not the same thing as a 'need to rebel against it'.  It is also irrelevant to me in a personal sense, but I find it terrifying politically.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

I consider it a personal plus to have been raised an atheist. I had no need to rebel against it all - to break the surly bonds of faith that chain one's soul as it were. Religion is neither good nor bad to me - just irrelevant to my life.

Yes, you were very fortunate in that respect, as in all things, Torie.

But fear of religion is not the same thing as a 'need to rebel against it'.  It is also irrelevant to me in a personal sense, but I find it terrifying politically.

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?  I find the sect of America that walks around shouting about freedom with their mouth while holding a Bible with their hand particularly oxymoronic. 

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'd say it's still good to distinguish between religion as an institution and religious people as individuals. One can dislike the former while admitting there are many good guys among the latter.

[memphis]

I find it very hard to believe that Torie doesn't resent the massive tax exemption that churches enjoy. He's mentions that he owns quite a few homes.  He could pay a great deal less in taxes iif the churches would carry their own weight. But, alas, party loyalty uber alles. I suppose the cover the churches provide for the GOP provide ample returns on his investment. Torie's no fool.

[Keystone Phil]

It's disappoiting that people go to church on Christmas? That's a good one.

Be fair to Joe! His assholish comment was more of a blanket statement: he thinks it's disappointing that there are some people that think there is a being out there more important than himself and go to church frequently.

Of course, he'll blast someone like Gustaf for being "pious" yet ironically sits atop his own high horse, dismissing belief in God as silliness.

[Supersonic]

It's not a case that I don't like others going to Church, I just think it's pretty hypocritical of me to go when I think it's all BS. Then again, that didn't stop me going to scavenge some free mince pies they were handing out, but hey, no one's perfect are they?

[Simfan34]

Because so many people are churchy in real life.

[afleitch]

A lot of people like to feel a little bit religious at Christmas, even if they themselves are not. I mean, it's 'Jesus stuff' at it's best we are told. It wears off once normal services resume. A church near me did a wonderful street carol service, even though weeks earlier they had an anti-gay street sermon.

[memphis]

What is a street sermon? The clergy don't stand on a soapbox on tbe corner and bellow at passersby?

[afleitch]

What is a street sermon? The clergy don't stand on a soapbox on tbe corner and bellow at passersby?

Well this church does just that. Glaswegians usually tell them to shut up. I've had interesting conversations with them in the past.

[Torie]

I find it very hard to believe that Torie doesn't resent the massive tax exemption that churches enjoy. He's mentions that he owns quite a few homes.  He could pay a great deal less in taxes iif the churches would carry their own weight. But, alas, party loyalty uber alles. I suppose the cover the churches provide for the GOP provide ample returns on his investment. Torie's no fool.

You way over analyze me Memphis, and I don't think read my texts very closely at all. So many ulterior motives, so little time. Anyway, it is not all about me. I just don't think that way. Why should I? Beyond having some care about the community at large, and its welfare - no man is an island, hard as that may be for your to believe, the marginal utility of more money to me is getting  asymptotically close to zero. I am not really very much interested in either things, or power. So having boatloads of money is pointless - to me.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?

Strident anticlericalism has historically come close from time to time.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?

Strident anticlericalism has historically come close from time to time.

Close?  Maybe.  But religion is the attempted enslavement of the body and the mind.  Anticlericalism is a response to the original wrong being done, albeit at times in the name of something almost as bad. (totalitarian communism, for example)

[memphis]

I find it very hard to believe that Torie doesn't resent the massive tax exemption that churches enjoy. He's mentions that he owns quite a few homes.  He could pay a great deal less in taxes iif the churches would carry their own weight. But, alas, party loyalty uber alles. I suppose the cover the churches provide for the GOP provide ample returns on his investment. Torie's no fool.

You way over analyze me Memphis, and I don't think read my texts very closely at all. So many ulterior motives, so little time. Anyway, it is not all about me. I just don't think that way. Why should I? Beyond having some care about the community at large, and its welfare - no man is an island, hard as that may be for your to believe, the marginal utility of more money to me is getting  asymptotically close to zero. I am not really very much interested in either things, or power. So having boatloads of money is pointless - to me.

And yet the Democrats will take away your tax cuts from your cold dead hands...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?

Strident anticlericalism has historically come close from time to time.

Close?  Maybe.  But religion is the attempted enslavement of the body and the mind.

That's why my church preaches against religion. We even had a sermon series called "Exchanging the Bad News of the Church for the Good News of Jesus". It's been pointed out that Jesus came to destroy religion, and that's why the religious leaders had to get rid of him.

[Simfan34]

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?

Strident anticlericalism has historically come close from time to time.

Close?  Maybe.  But religion is the attempted enslavement of the body and the mind.

That's why my church preaches against religion. We even had a sermon series called "Exchanging the Bad News of the Church for the Good News of Jesus". It's been pointed out that Jesus came to destroy religion, and that's why the religious leaders had to get rid of him.

Your church is obviously, and most unsurprisingly, very insane.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

When both conservative Christians and atheists are saying that, we're probably doing something right! I suppose most snake handling churches get thought of that by both those sides those, and we technically are one ever since that guy gave a sermon with a snake.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Indeed, is there anything in the world more in opposition to freedom?

Strident anticlericalism has historically come close from time to time.

Actually, yes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha

[Filuwaúrdjan]

But religion is the attempted enslavement of the body and the mind.

That's as mindlessly offensive and as spectacularly idiotic as asserting that those who are not religious do not have morals.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

But religion is the attempted enslavement of the body and the mind.

That's as mindlessly offensive and as spectacularly idiotic as asserting that those who are not religious do not have morals.

Excuse me... I said ATTEMPTED.  How many religious leaders/strict fundamentalists who are following their scriptures to a T can you think of that would not relish the idea of controlling their adherents like puppets?  We can only be grateful that the vast majority of people who claim to be religious take the particularly nasty bits as metaphor/push them aside (stoning your neighbor for working on the Sabbath, for example).   I understand religion is supposed to be one's way of connecting with God, but what is the end result of it all?  Control... and it's not control coming from another person... it's control coming from God itself, here AND in the afterlife, it's eternal.

Once again proving the point of this thread... around the Atlas it's OFFENSIVE to have a negative opinion of religion.  Sorry, but I'm not going to moderate myself on an institution I consider to be inherently the worst kind of evil.