Spreading God's love... Except to atheists.

     The post just previous to this one touched on the fact that atheists are at least among the most hated people groups in the U.S...

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/09/19/research-finds-that-atheists-are-most-hated-and-distrusted-minority/

I won't embed this one for the sake of keeping the post tidy.  That's about a girl being kicked off of a basketball team and out of school.  It shows how the religious community demonstrated God's love to her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTRDRP2n4Sk

That's terrible.  In general, atheists are seen as people who worship the devil, eat babies...  The funny thing is that it's the Christians who ritually drink wine to symbolize the blood of a man who has been dead for 2,000 years.  It's them who eat bread to symbolize Jesus' body.  It's them who have the weird death/blood thing.  The entire bible is centered on killing/resurrection/death.  Who really wants to do that, and moreover to force it on others?  There's no justification for that.

The hate of atheism is ridiculous.  Atheism is a balanced worldview boasting some of the greatest thinkers throughout history.  Atheist states tend to be less violent than religious states.  Atheists are more tolerant of other people and groups than are religious people.  Never has there been genocide in the name of atheism, there have been many in the names of various religions.  No atheist has felt compelled to fly airplanes into towers.  Atheism doesn't dictate the subordination of women, it doesn't teach abuse to children.  Atheism does not validate mindless massacre.  Atheism isn't behind slavery.  Over all of that though, atheism doesn't make people talk to an invisible man in the sky who doesn't demonstrate his presence.  For that disbelief we're hated.  Thank you America.

Why Christianity isn't a cult... Or is it?

Five characteristics of cults are as follows;

1. People are put in physical or emotionally distressing situations;
2. Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized;
3. They receive what seems to be unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader or group;
4. They get a new identity based on the group;
5. They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled.

     The way these match up in my experience with respect to Christianity.  Not so much are people intentionally put in tough situations, more they are made to see their entire life as a tough situation.  There's always something trying to pull them off the path.  I've seen it take many forms, certain types of foods, music, most everything one could think of.  The point being, there's always something "wrong" which needs fixing, that makes one's entire life stressful.

     Everyone's problems in Christianity are reduced to the explanations "It's just another trick of the Devil to get you." or "You just need to repent and ask God for help.".  There's not really anywhere more to go with this.  It fits the bill perfectly.

     My mother is very religious and she sees the church in exactly this way.  She goes to several groups and deals with most of her problems through the church.  She often expresses how people love unconditionally and are accepting.

     The new identity here is more in a figurative sense, no really, keep reading...  When one is at church they are looked at as at least caring.  They're given respect for just being there.  I know several people who are intolerable as people, but they are defended by and because of the church.  

     This takes an interesting form, no one in the church is regularly prohibited from gaining any information they want to.  They're told to disregard things which contradict the Bible though.  One can present a strong case for an atheist view on a topic and it will be rejected at first glance because it does not coincide with the Bible. Most of the religious people I know around at least attempt to limit their children's music choices and despise the better part of the area's selection of secular stations literally claiming that they're of the devil.  So the information members of the Christian church can receive is very mentally guarded.  As has been said so many times, the best way to keep a person trapped is to make them believe they're free.

     One of the main ways the church recruits is brainwashing people, all too literally.  From the time children are born they're bombarded with the one-sided argument that acceptance of Christ is mandatory for a good life.  I underwent that same process.  My first hints of skepticism appeared when I was about 14.  I began to realize that I'd only paid attention to the narrative of one side of the argument.  Eventually, through research and my own musing I came to my current atheistic opinion.  People in the church will wax poetic about how they may lose friends for being Christians, but I'll attest that the reverse works as well.  Atheists are among the most hated groups on the planet.

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/09/19/research-finds-that-atheists-are-most-hated-and-distrusted-minority/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-matousek/why-we-hate-atheists-fear_b_1157939.html

If you're too lazy or disinterested to read those articles, they state that atheists are disliked over any minority and that atheists are similar or equal to rapists in the public opinion, respectively.  Does that seem at all like a cult mentality?  Now, I'm not going to be so ignorant as to assume that in either poll, only religious, and more to the point, Christian people were interviewed, but the traits are similar among most Abrahamic religions.  I was going to title this post in more of an Abrahamic religion setting, but I realized that for the most part, I can make a stronger case against that group's individual members one at a time then charging haphazardly at the whole lot.

I'll write another post more directly tuned to why atheism is so hated.

Thanks for reading!

Little white lies

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It's all in the faith

Mark Twain once said something to the effect of "The best cure for Christianity is to read the Bible.".  I could not find that quote to be more true.  I was a baptist for the first part of my life, brought up in church.  No one in a religious setting teaches critical thinking, no one teaches any alternatives.  Unconditional believe in God is the contention, no defense.  Indoctrination of children is such a low move.  I know a great many people who have not yet thought about their faith through the lens of reason, all of their refutations to my arguments boil down to the basic Christian contention in which you must accept what's said on faith.  I posed once the question "Why is proof of the Bible's legitimacy dependent on the Bible's legitimacy?", I posed it in written format, but it was a few months ago and I have yet to receive a response.  The people I submitted it to are the youth leaders at our local church.   I asked a few more questions in person and the responses I got were based on believing on faith.  I'm incredibly skeptical, I normally defend evolution in debates, but I'm yet to be entirely convinced of it's validity.  For the majority of the time I'm happy living the life I have and I don't need to know why I have it.  I have life, emotions, needs, interests, many better things to do than to try to find out if life has some grandiose meaning.  If there is a God, he should understand and respect that, but at least the Christian God doesn't.  It seems unfair and even cruel to me to create people who have the ability to reason and question, require they believe in the creator, and provide no proof that a creator exists but a book which is very unfounded.  The idea here is either you believe in God, or he'll torment you eternally.  Seeing as there's no proof of life after death or God, I'd not be too concerned.  There are people who believe that they've been in heaven while they were dead on an operating table or the like.  Scientists have frequently postulated that these are hallucinations, I personally subscribe to that explanation.  I won't go into the scientific process here, but I'll post an article at the end.  As the article reads, DMT is released into the body along with sedatives/pain relievers/what have you.  That seems enough to cause a hallucinogenic response when the consciousness is subdued.  Physiology is something Christians don't need though, as proven by the Bible.  The  Bible often talked about believing, thinking, loving, so one...  In the heart, which of course, is absurd.

Exodus 7:3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart...
Exodus 9:12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh...
Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart "There is no God."...
Psalm 37:31 The law of God is in his heart...
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he...
Daniel 1:8 But Daniel purposed in his heart...
Matthew 5:28 ...committed adultery with her in his heart.
Mark 8:17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them...   ...are your hearts hardened?
Mark 11:23 ...does not doubt in his heart...
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the treasure of his heart...
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each on must do just as he has purposed in his heart...
Ephesians 4:18 ...due to their hardness of heart.
Hebrews 3:8 Do not harden your hearts...

I personally see that coming from the blood pressure and heart rate changes when certain emotions or other stimuli are experienced.  An all-intelligent designer should know this though.  Unless maybe daddy didn't remember to tell Jesus about biology.  Why would you need that when you're capable of spitting into someone's eye and restoring their sight.  Miracles raise some problems too.  Religion has set science back incredibly because it was considered blasphemous and sacrilegious to consider anything which might contradict God.  The punishment for being thought of as blasphemous could range from social exclusion to exile to death throughout history.   Of course, if it's God who is angry, your entire city may be in danger.  God's track record of killing entire populations is nearly, if not completely, unmatched.  Cities with infants, destroyed.  Several times in the Bible, God directly tells Israel's armies to flatten cities, killing infants. Now about about abortion, Christians.  Cities full of people are just a mark on God's genocidal list.  What's more disturbing yet is how people defend God's brutal acts.  Is something "moral" because God does it?  Is it right to wipe out people who have never wronged you if God tells you to?  Think about it.  If God told you to kill your friend, right now.  Would you, and would it be right?  Why hasn't God told anyone to do things like that, well...  Anyone but the Muslims.  God doesn't perform any miracles which can be proven at this point in time. I submit that if there is a God, he no longer pays attention or cares.  Think about it, creation was supposed to be about 8,000 years ago.  Roughly 6,000 years before Jesus was born.  Throughout that time God was very active.  He was burning bushes, parting seas, sending plagues, destroying towns, feeding people...  Then Jesus leaves.  He promises to come back of course, but it's been 2,000 years and no so much as a clue as to where he is.  Again, I submit that he no longer cares if he ever existed at all.

Near-death experience (linked to the biological section, but the page is more complex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience#Biological_analysis_and_theories

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This too.

I wasn't going to use profanity here, but I needed the intentional extra 'h' over his mouth.

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We want this guy in office!

Vote Santorum.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/rick-santorum-defends-cur_n_1379416.html? 

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Grade A prime bullshit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DApjHZq9o7M Obamaville (unlisted, spread the link)

Stop plagiarizing 'The Walking Dead'...  This advertisement is funny at best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg6grCd98HM Rick's message for America

The fact that anyone even considers Rick for president baffles and frightens me.

Fundamentally altered...  Really?  Pres. Obama has been very conservative for a democratic politician.  Most of the things I've been looking for I hope to see in the four years to come if Pres. Obama gets a second term.

Don't pass this off like all of these issues are new, they're merely peaking.  Bush left a wreck, this administration gets to clean it up.  Bush had a lot to work with too, considering his intellectual disadvantage.

We haven't varied from the constitution, and the declaration of independence...  What?  All that the Obama administration has done is make the dirty choices that no one else would.  There's no way to magically fix problems.

The debt hasn't just skyrocketed, but gone into orbit... Laughing...so...hard.  ONE generation?  You imbecilic twat!  The debt has been around for a very long time.  It's "immoral", need more be said?

If we didn't have to deal with Rick for four years afterward, I'd like to see him try to balance everything out as he promises.  Unless he is indeed using magic, he'll find it a bit more complex than flipping a switch from debt to gain.

You really can promise that we'll never have this problem again?  Are you really egotistical enough to assume that your ideas will be perfect throughout time?

"Burdensome regulations", we've got to watch out for that sort of thing.  Obama job killing regulation, is that killing Obama's job, or Obama killing other people's jobs?  Regulations aren't put in place to impede jobs, they're put there to make jobs safe.  You want to get rid of regulation, read 'The Jungle'.

Lower manufacturing taxes to 0, Obama is/was trying to reduce the manufacturing tax rate.  But without some tax, the government cannot operate.

Pres. Obama's energy plan is designed to help us reduce a need for oil in favor of green energy.  We then have jobs in renewable energy, without having to destroy the environment with pipelines.  As an "American people" myself, I object to that.

I'm trying to argue this in a point-by-point format that doesn't require the video as much as a knowledge of our buddy Rick.  This part in the video however, complaining about gas prices, shows a pump reading 90-91 dollars.  At roughly $91, the meter also reads just shy of 38 gallons, putting the price of that fuel at $2.39/gallon.  Just putting that out there.

There's no safe drilling, oil companies always try to get by as cheap, not safe as possible when drilling to get the most money.  That's where things like the gulf oil disaster come from.  It won't, as Rick argues help us in the long run.  It just prolongs the time we have to arrogantly burn oil.

Now you start talking about how we need to make America an energy supplier, not just a consumer.  When will it get through that thick skull that we have solar, wind, hydroelectric etc...  at our FINGERTIPS!  Yet we neglect those for oil.

Well if your wife says it's true then we all accept it without a doubt, thanks for clearing that up.



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