ATHEIST

[GeezerSi]

Check it out... http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/20...kDU&frame=true

[GeezerSi]

Oops, please forgive my incorrect spelling of the word atheist.

[Special Ringpop]

Hah, I go to the University of Minnesota, sweet sourcing.

That was a great video.

Now just convince the rest of America that.

[Jrfish007]

interesting... I'm sure one of the churches has come out with something simliar to that but for christians or what ever religion.... Good find!

[uscgbeachbum]

I'm wondering if there has been a study on how many people with a college education were atheists? College...it makes you think for YOURself instead of someone else.

[Jrfish007]

Originally Posted by uscgbeachbum

I'm wondering if there has been a study on how many people with a college education were atheists? College...it makes you think for YOURself instead of someone else.

I have often wondered that myself, because most of my colleagues are Athiest or the other term I can't think of where you don't really believe in god but don't believe there is no god, you just don't concern yourself with it.

[uscgbeachbum]

Originally Posted by Jrfish007

I have often wondered that myself, because most of my colleagues are Athiest or the other term I can't think of where you don't really believe in god but don't believe there is no god, you just don't concern yourself with it.

You are thinking of agnostic. Kind of like...you don't deny the existence of god/gods, but you just don't choose sides. I consider agnostics half-assers. :) They can't make up their mind on what they believe.

[atruhondagrl]

Great find.

Maybe I'm biased but I view the scientists and political minds who've helped to advance civilization through medical break throughs, political ideas and the like as offering more to society as a whole. Actors, atresses, singers, and writers do have the luxury of using their position as a public figure to voice a cause. But unless they are giving a great percentage of their earnings, not claiming it as a write off, and volunteering a large portion of their non-working time to furthering that cause I don't see the point. Wearing a Red dress with a pink ribbon to the Academy awards just doesn't seem to be much of a help.

[skittleslegend]

Originally Posted by atruhondagrl

Great find.

Maybe I'm biased but I view the scientists and political minds who've helped to advance civilization through medical break throughs, political ideas and the like as offering more to society as a whole. Actors, atresses, singers, and writers do have the luxury of using their position as a public figure to voice a cause. But unless they are giving a great percentage of their earnings, not claiming it as a write off, and volunteering a large portion of their non-working time to furthering that cause I don't see the point. Wearing a Red dress with a pink ribbon to the Academy awards just doesn't seem to be much of a help.

Agreed. There are quite a few who help tremendously, but majority do not.

Good find btw, Geezer.

[Jrfish007]

Originally Posted by uscgbeachbum

You are thinking of agnostic. Kind of like...you don't deny the existence of god/gods, but you just don't choose sides. I consider agnostics half-assers. :) They can't make up their mind on what they believe.

lol, I guess you could look at that way. I think they look at it as they just simply don't care and don't want waste their time tring to figure stuff out. That's not my stance, I'm just saying what is the general thought.

[atruhondagrl]

Okay, so we have agnostics and atheists covered. So what about people who believe in God but don't agree with organized religion (catholicism, protestantism, judaism, islam, etc)? Still agnostic?

[skittleslegend]

Originally Posted by atruhondagrl

Okay, so we have agnostics and atheists covered. So what about people who believe in God but don't agree with organized religion (catholicism, protestantism, judaism, islam, etc)? Still agnostic?

No. They're considered spiritual.

[atruhondagrl]

Good thing to know there is a term for that. :)

[skittleslegend]

This is an interesting video, but I have a few issues with it. For starters, I think they confuse the word "fool" for meaning someone stupid. Tom Cruise is a very intelligent man, but that doesn't mean he's not an idiot or a fool. The word fool, as used in the biblical sense, is used to describe someone lacking in faith. I also don't really find a correlation to the Christians vs. Atheists in prisons. It seems as if he's attempting to confuse the statistics so that it makes you think there are more Christians in prison, because more Christians commit crimes than Atheists. But if 75% of Americans are Christian and only 10% are Atheist, wouldn't more Christians be in prison by default?

I also thought the Ecclesiastes quote wasn't really helping his cause. "A cord of three strands is not quickly broken (a relationship that includes God will be much stronger)." Every single religion on the planet requires faith. Think about it; there are people who believe in baseball teams that haven't won in decades. Those relationships between team and fan is strong because somewhere, even if it's deep down, that fan believes in the team. If believing in God is faith-based, is it not similar to believing in your favorite baseball team, even if they're terrible? Of course it is. The faith and hope is where the strength of that relationship lies.

Again, with the divorce rate, his statistics are flawed because all things are not considered equal. If you have more Christians TO marry than Atheists (again, 75% to 10%), wouldn't it make sense that there would be more Christians who'd divorce than Atheists? I'd also like to see the number of Protestants in America. He's not giving us all the facts. He's picking and choosing numbers to create facts. These "facts" are either very false or incomplete.

I'm not trying to bash this person at all, but his argument is flawed and not well-thought through.

[atruhondagrl]

Originally Posted by skittleslegend

This is an interesting video, but I have a few issues with it. For starters, I think they confuse the word "fool" for meaning someone stupid. Tom Cruise is a very intelligent man, but that doesn't mean he's not an idiot or a fool. The word fool, as used in the biblical sense, is used to describe someone lacking in faith. I also don't really find a correlation to the Christians vs. Atheists in prisons. It seems as if he's attempting to confuse the statistics so that it makes you think there are more Christians in prison, because more Christians commit crimes than Atheists. But if 75% of Americans are Christian and only 10% are Atheist, wouldn't more Christians be in prison by default?

I also thought the Ecclesiastes quote wasn't really helping his cause. "A cord of three strands is not quickly broken (a relationship that includes God will be much stronger)." Every single religion on the planet requires faith. Think about it; there are people who believe in baseball teams that haven't won in decades. Those relationships between team and fan is strong because somewhere, even if it's deep down, that fan believes in the team. If believing in God is faith-based, is it not similar to believing in your favorite baseball team, even if they're terrible? Of course it is. The faith and hope is where the strength of that relationship lies.

Again, with the divorce rate, his statistics are flawed because all things are not considered equal. If you have more Christians TO marry than Atheists (again, 75% to 10%), wouldn't it make sense that there would be more Christians who'd divorce than Atheists? I'd also like to see the number of Protestants in America. He's not giving us all the facts. He's picking and choosing numbers to create facts. These "facts" are either very false or incomplete.

I'm not trying to bash this person at all, but his argument is flawed and not well-thought through.

Since you went there I'm going to go with you. In a way. Christians vs. atheists in Prison. The person who made this video fails to distinguish how many of the people making up the % were or weren't Christian prior to being incarcerated. So many criminals "find" Jesus, God or Allah once faced with the reality of life and the choices they've made. Look at all of the born again christians on death row. Their looming death knocks some sense into them.

Also, Christians, for the most part, have more faith in the institution of marriage. More and more people see marriage as a dying and unneccessary institution and are opting to live together rather than take vows. Christianity frowns upon such behavior, hence more marriages between those with christian beliefs vs. atheist. On that note, how many people in that divorce %age are true Christians? That is practicing devout christians. Divorce isn't a joke amongst them and it's not a common practice as well.

While the video is an excellent video I feel that possibly the information contained in it is incomplete. If anything, the Christians will see it as a propoganda video for atheists everywhere. But there always needs to be two sides to the fence. Christians perform propoganda as well. As do any religious groups.

[skittleslegend]

Originally Posted by atruhondagrl

Since you went there I'm going to go with you. In a way. Christians vs. atheists in Prison. The person who made this video fails to distinguish how many of the people making up the % were or weren't Christian prior to being incarcerated. So many criminals "find" Jesus, God or Allah once faced with the reality of life and the choices they've made. Look at all of the born again christians on death row. Their looming death knocks some sense into them.

Also, Christians, for the most part, have more faith in the institution of marriage. More and more people see marriage as a dying and unneccessary institution and are opting to live together rather than take vows. Christianity frowns upon such behavior, hence more marriages between those with christian beliefs vs. atheist. On that note, how many people in that divorce %age are true Christians? That is practicing devout christians. Divorce isn't a joke amongst them and it's not a common practice as well.

While the video is an excellent video I feel that possibly the information contained in it is incomplete. If anything, the Christians will see it as a propoganda video for atheists everywhere. But there always needs to be two sides to the fence. Christians perform propoganda as well. As do any religious groups.

Wow...this post just made my day. Excellent Dawn. Simply excellent. Remind me to give you a massive high five whenever I see you. I wish I could give rep. Somebody do it for me, please.

[si_civic]

Dear Lord!

So wtf is this video implying ? Atheists are better people? They're smarter, better actors, better charity-givers? Better athletes? Less chance to commit crimes?

Are they super humans? I understand that all of those people didn't/don't belieft in a greater being. They were also PhDs, doctors, founders, scientists, blah blah. Did you see anyone of visible minority? asian? african? nope. 90% of those people were Americans.

There are many other people in this world too that DO belief in God or their greater being that do just as well or better than these people.


BTW 75% of the prison population is Christian? GOOD FOR THEM!! Most of them are born-again!

Nothing but God-hating propaganda in my eyes.

my .02

Amen.

[Civicaddict79]

Interesting thread. I would say I was spiritual (after being raised Catholic and learning to despise the church and its hypocracy) until the past couple of months. With everything going on in my life, I've found myself on my knees lately. I prayed for hours for my dad to live, but it didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to and I wondered if it had something to do with me not talking to God until I needed something. I know God is out there and he's watching over us, but I haven't found an organized religion that feels comfortable to me. I prefer to talk to the man himself, directly and I don't feel the need for a third party to absolve me or do my talking for me. I've sent the link for the video to a couple of friends because we've been having this discussion lately.

[06CivEXJon]

I believe in God and Jesus,but i dont go to church. Adam and Eve not quite so though. I think God created the first lifeforms and us, then we evolved from that. I mean look at chimps and gorillas, look at how similar they look to humans. (This is not a darwin theory) I believe God created the universe,galaxies,planets everything and us. I think that there has to also be other lifeforms out in the universe somewhere out there that God also created. The universe is huge and there a billions, upon trillions of galaxies with planetary systems inside them. What is the possibility of finding a similar, or exact replica, or duplicate or our very own milky way? same or similar planetary systems and a similar earth? hell even other humans?!? the answers remain unknown but life could exist out there somewhere.

[firmhonda]

Originally Posted by skittleslegend

Wow...this post just made my day. Excellent Dawn. Simply excellent. Remind me to give you a massive high five whenever I see you. I wish I could give rep. Somebody do it for me, please.

I agree with skittles and +rep for hondagirl.


Now, I've got to say that I was raised in a household that was extremely religious to say the least. The thing that amazed me was that when my mother and father got divorced, my mother and I both were told not to return to the church we had attended for years. That really shed a lot of light on the way that religion is handled these days. It seems that Church isn't really about God or Jesus these days, it's just a popularity contest that says, "I love Jesus more than you."**
I honestly had lost all faith in God until Christmas Eve a few years ago when God woke me up to the way I was living life and gave me the strength to quit all the drugs I was doing and straighten my life out. I still have a very hard time believing the red print in the bible has come from anything but a hallucinating man that called the figure in his trip "God" and wrote about the experience. I believe that Jesus is inside of every single on of us and it's not about going to church that makes you more likely to go to heaven (IF there is one), but more about getting in touch with Jesus yourself and applying that to the way you make your own decisions.
I also should admit that I have read Tao Te Ching quite a few more times than I have ever even considered reading the bible. I think that living your life around the idea of Karma is a better way to live life anyways. I guess if I was asked I would have to say I'm more of a Taoist than a Christian, but believe in Jesus more than anything.



***Thinks about the part of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood when granny goes to church and gets in the dance off with the other granny.. priceless