http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=wordforword/2007/09/070914_wfw_64

this is a man named sam harris. he has authored two books…and without even touching science…he sums up perfectly why religion is so bad. his ideas are the type of ideas we need to be spreading!

we pretty much have to remain silent about our beliefs around them. she doesnt even want to tell her dad for fear of how hed react. he, of course, does not approve of us living together prior to marriage. all in all he does not treat her any differently over it, but it is a known fact he definitely does not agree.

also, i have some christian neighbors. when they moved in, i went over and introduced myself to them. she invited me to church and i kindly declined. over the course of a few months, she asked me a couple more times. well one of the times, i made the naive mistake of simply telling her i was not a believer. then came, “why?” and i answered trying to be brief. that of course turned into a discussion and her husband joining in and it ended with them pissed and being rude.

nonetheless, she told me in the course of that she thought i was a christian when i came and introduced myself, as if christ has to be inside me in order to not be an asshole. people assume non-believers are evil. that is far from true. in fact, some of the kindest people ive ever met are atheists. not to mention, i have found most atheists to be very deep, well rounded, intelligent people.

so, rc, be proud of who you are….even if youre in the closet with a purple pants stain!

trust me, that is far better than living life within a delusion. you will come to find people with whom you can speak freely.

two of my close former christian friends, have dropped their faith after hearing me think out loud when i lost mine. i used to convert souls for christ, now im taking them back!

bob, i can definitely understand where youre coming from. while jm identified me as a deist in an above post, that is only partially true. i can acknowledge that a greater force made
me…but that greater force may be the cosmological system, not a definite god per se. while i peronsally see nothing wrong with believing in a definite god, i think it can get out of hand, as religion has gotten. what i am certaIn of, for me at least, is that the christian god is as made up as santa.

however, bob. you must ask yourself this. if there is an all knowing, all supreme god, then how did it come to be? who made it? i mean sure its easy to say it was always here. but you and i both know extremely intelligent things take time to evolve, and they evolve from a lower species…so even if god was a lower species…who made it? this is where the circle goes on and on and on. is space your god? the galaxy? the universe? this earth? technically all of them are…because they are all forces that are much greater than us…which created us and we are connected directly to them.

and youre right bob, in its simplest form, believing in a god shouldnt be any harm…you either win or lose. unfortunately, people dont make it that simple. every person who has a belief is “right” and everyone else is “wrong” the belief has trickled into our society, into our schools, politics, and onto our bumpers. the entire governing system of america, at its core, is related to christianity. there are churches on every corner. how many churches are there to worship greek gods? how about gods like wotan and thor? there are over 34,000 different sects of christianity. even they cant agree on what the bible says, yet im the one who is “wrong.” mark my words: the only way to ever have peace on this planet, is for everyone to drop religion. the wars would be cut by 90% or more. many, many, many things would cease to be a problem. thered be lass hate, more equality, more understanding and tolerance….but mostly thered be more peace. you will never see humanity in true, unbroken unity until this occurs.

humans long for a god, they long for an afterlife. we only know consciousness, therefore we devise a plan to make sure were going to still remain conscious, or alive, even if thats spiritual. it started way back bob, with our earliest ancestors who began to grasp death. humans have many ways of tricking themselves into thinking a certain way. we are survivors, therefore easing the pain of an inevitable death by believing we dont actually die, makes perfect sense. nonetheless, it does not take a genius to realize that a greater force made us, however, we must be careful how much credit we place around to who or what actually did it. i can promise you, this earth alone, is more advanced than any human being….by far. bare in mind also, humans are not one entity. we are comprised of millions of smaller counterparts…all with their own task..their own job. just as the red blood cells carry oxygen to me as i type this, i also have a purpose.

never forget the power of a choice. it is perhaps the greatest power of all. it is because of choice this whole system exists..and, at times, appears guided. for example, some desert dwellers 2500 years ago decided to write some shit down that they believed. 2.5 millenniums later, were typing away on a web page about it. that my friend, and fellow homo sapien, is POWER. one choice can have a ripple effect for an eternity. if that isnt power, i dont know what is…

rc, i feel that purple fence may be keeping in the purple elephant. be careful not to stain your pants.

sorry for the novel…keep the great posts coming.

as yes rc, it is unfortunate, however, the religious speak of persecution incessantly, yet anyone who does not believe in accordance with “god’s word” gets persecuted by them. and unfortunately, that does, a lot of the time, include family and friends. i have “christian friends” who will not even speak to me now, and if they do, they make remarks about my beliefs, or rather, the lack thereof.

i have been into science for a long time, even when i was a believer. however, then i respected it but still thought it was of course….wrong. then after a while i kind of tried to mix them together(which is an act of futility) and that died out. nonetheless, it was not science that swayed me away, it was christianity itself that swayed me. it was the stories in the bible about a jealous, lunatic god in the o.t, and as if he is manic, a completely separate god in the n.t

once i read the story about elisha calling on god to maul 42 CHILDREN with two bears for making fun of his bald head, i had so many forks in me, you could see i was done from a mile away.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=2%20Kings%202:23-25