God should be pissed off at everybody

[MrScorpio]

Really.

We're in the process of killing off all of his or her worshipers, regardless of their own particular religion or creed.

Heck, if we keep this shit up, there won't be anyone left on this greasy mud ball around to keep the current deity or deities from fading into oblivion.

Well, if we do succeed in doing ourselves off, maybe in a few million years the next Almighty can develop some much better followers.

[polichick]

1. Hell, I'm kinda pissed at God for creating Republicans and Christian fascists. ;) nt

[rotund1]

2. Actually, our best hope is to evolve beyond irrational belief in imaginary gods.

It's our worst characteristic and we really need to get over it.

http://www.godisimaginary.com

[MrScorpio]

4. That would be a great way NOT to disappoint ANY deity at all n/t

[SidDithers]

5. Good post...nt

Sid

[MrScorpio]

7. And Jesus is Magic, of course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5B0GfVphxo

[demosincebirth]

31. Well, ninety nine percent of the world's population disagrees wit' ya

[MrScorpio]

33. That is if one thinks that religious belief should be consecrated by way of a popularity contest

God's own pollsters all have kids to feed, I'm sure

[DavidDvorkin]

35. So?

[Toasterlad]

50. Ninety-Nine Percent Of the World's Population Used to Believe That the Sun Was God.

Just because you know how to work a cell phone doesn't make you a rational being. Anyone who believes in invisible sky people is indulging in childish nonsense.

[rotund1]

56. No doubt...and 300 billion flies think shit is delicious.

...

[DavidDvorkin]

34. Indeed.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. When someone can measure out a cup of god, I'll worry about being angry at it. n/t

[The Straight Story]

6. I don't know why people bitch about god here and elsewhere

Humans rule the earth, are like Gods to most living things here, and look what we are doing to each other and the earth.

By the same measure we judge God (which is a label, not referencing any one God here) we should judge ourselves and our actions here.

I don't think we should be yelling about how awful/evil God is for the things 'he lets happen' until we look at ourselves and what we let happen.

Before anyone criticizes God they best do well to look at the power they have and how they use it.

[Fumesucker]

9. God is all knowing and all powerful..

It says so right here on the label.

With knowledge and power come responsibility.

As Roger Waters sang: What God wants, God gets..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1qmOGAaI7c

[The Straight Story]

12. No, it does not. That is a human invention over time

It says the opposite in the bible - that God is limited (he is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, cannot 'sin', etc and so on).

Jews used to ponder his power all the time and it permeates their works.

The entire bible is based, IMHO, on his limited power and how he got around issues (God could not forgive sins with sacrifice? why did Jesus have to die? It all makes sense when we ditch the western view and look at the real view of it).

I don't know any God, in any history, who was all powerful (except maybe, computer programmers who could create worlds of AI creatures).

[Fumesucker]

16. Eh, the Bible was written by humans..

A human invention, if you will.

As was God, IMO.

[The Straight Story]

18. Even so, the Bible portrays God as limited

Others just don't like to see it (especially the fundie types) - Which totally impedes their understanding of things.

[MrScorpio]

19. Don't get me started on fundies

I don't recognized that guy they call "God" at all.

I figure that "He" must be a figment of their overactive imaginations

[Fumesucker]

20. The Bible, and all religious texts actually, is but a form of Rorschach Test.

What you get out of it reveals what was in you to start with, not what was in the text.

[The Straight Story]

23. Sounds like our constitution as well as our everyday lives (and guns...)

We all have different experiences and get different things from it - and then think others should see things the same way we do.

Like guns IMHO. City folks are like 'Who needs them, they are evil, etc' - whereas country folks need them, use them, and can't get why city folk are so afraid of them.

We would be a lot better off if folks were not trying to fix things for everyone, especially when things broken in one place are not broken in another.

Yet I still find 'liberals' trying to tell others how to live, how to use their bodies, etc - usually in order to 'save them' from their own sinful ways.

[rotund1]

25. Thank you +++++++++++++++++++++++

I've re-read the rules here -again- and I can't find any requirement that Democratic members must be 'liberal'. (I mostly AM liberal but not in every possible way)

[The Straight Story]

26. I am liberal - I believe in your body , your choice, and how it applies to more than one issue (nt)

[MrScorpio]

28. I feel ya...

To me, most "liberals" are just too far to the right for my tastes.

[Fumesucker]

30. There's more than a few that don't appear to be liberal in any way..

At least as far as I can tell.

[Fumesucker]

27. True, but most other things do not carry the cachet of divine, inerrant inspiration..

That's what makes the religious texts so dangerous socially.

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion." -Steven Weinberg

[The Straight Story]

32. The deeper problem here is

How certain people interpret it all, and I have no problem calling those people out.

On the same token we have to look at whether we have a bias against faith because of the people and their views, versus whether or not we have tried to understand it ourselves.

I was an evangelical, then an agnostic, then atheist. Came back to faith because I stopped judging people of faith based on my own understanding of faith and looked for answers myself, instead of judging faith based on the answers of others.

[Fumesucker]

41. The great majority of atheists in the US anyway were once theists..

Moving from theism to atheism is so common here that there is a term for the voyage, deconversion.

The point being that, in general and in the US at least, atheists understand theists far better than theists understand atheists.

My brother's wife is a strong and dogmatic Christian and I consistently surprise and confound her because she cannot find an honest way to disagree with my interpretations of scripture when we get into discussions of such things.

My bias against faith is because none of the religious texts I have ever read made any sense to me when put into plain language.

It doesn't help that many of the most vociferous theists are such authoritarian jerks, I don't want to be associated with such people by sharing any of their POV.

[The Straight Story]

44. I can understand that, but one problem I see is:

"I don't want to be associated with such people by sharing any of their POV"

For me it is not about association but about 'truth' (subjective as that may be). I am a Christian, and cannot stand the way many of them act - and their beliefs drive me crazy at times. But that does not mean they are not 'right' on some core issues. The reasons why they are right though (and what that means across other areas) are where the issues come in.

I feel the same about politics. I can agree on some core issues, but why I agree defines how I see other issues.

One example, I use it time and again, is "Your body, your choice". I agree with that, and with the fundamental ideal of it - but how that maps out into other areas of liberalism can be problematic (evidenced here all too often).

[Fumesucker]

53. People interpret scripture the way they do because of who they are

And because of the way they think, as I said it's the ultimate Rorschach Test, there will *always* be people that interpret scripture in hateful and bigoted ways, just like there will always be around 25% of the population that will vote for neocon types.

[rotund1]

24. "Hey, you're the one showing me the dirty pictures..."

:rofl:

[Art_from_Ark]

54. Someone who can create "the heavens and the earth"

doesn't seem so limited.

To this little speck of animated dust, at least.

[rotund1]

11. Gotta love it how the god-apologists say 'he' caused the good stuff and

'we' are responsible for the bad...as if the deity was a wimp compared to us h-saps. It would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetically sad.

[The Straight Story]

15. Gotta love how people project

God is not responsible for all good or bad, but we humans sure are. And we do a shitty job of it.

How have you used your power today to save a life, help a sick person, feed a homeless one, clean up an oil spill?

before we complain about how others use their powers we should look at our own, individual, use of it.

[MrScorpio]

17. I make a point of putting the responsibility of our situation in our own hands

I found that waiting for an absentee landlord to intervene is a waste of time

[The Straight Story]

21. I find I can agree with that, especially in view of an old Jewish saying

(paraphrasing here) "When you have done all you can do, then, and only then, ask for help from God. For he has given you great abilities already to deal with issues"

Before you pray look at what you, and your fellow humans, could have done to fix things.

Often we rely on God before relying on what he already gave us to fix things - each other.

So we blame God when it goes bad, when the responsibility is on us.

Wanna know why kids are killed, die from x/y/z, why there are wars, etc? Look in the mirror.

We have the Garden of Eden, we keep screwing it up. Then we yell about God letting it all happen and letting us down, looking for an excuse and someone to blame.

I believe in God, but I also believe he gave us the power - and what did we do with it?

[KonaKane]

38. Simple solutions for simple minds, my friend....

and just more routine bashing here of people of faith. I try to look past most of it, but I catch myself reacting now and again. Not sure why, the atheist fundamentalist is almost as unreasonable as their religious auxillary.

[The Straight Story]

45. This link is for you:

http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=5398605

;)

[Fumesucker]

51. A lot of us atheists live in places where "coming out" comes with significant penalties..

You can lose your job, your friends and even your family, your property has a good chance of being vandalized.

I never had a car vandalized until I put a Darwin legged fish on it, three times in about six months my car was keyed all the way down the side, I got the message and took the symbol off, lo and behold my car has never again been vandalized.

Many of us are disgusted with the behavior of the theists we see all around us in real life, they constantly talk of how good and godly they are and they act like rabid hyenas.

Then we see people of faith come on to a message board and get a tiny fraction of the flak many of us get in real life and they complain bitterly about it. You have your faith on the money, you have it in the Pledge of Allegiance and with one single exception every politician in Washington DC vocally proclaims they share your faith.

So what you are seeing here is people reacting to the way they are treated in real life, go to a country that's not so overtly theist, like say the UK, and atheists are far less likely to be confrontational online because we do not feel under attack the way we do here in the land of the free.

You even admit that you react yourself and yet all you face is a few less than kind words on a message board, try walking in the atheists shoes for a while.

[Obamanaut]

8. Surely the all-knowing god saw this coming. nt

[Xipe Totec]

10. The Fifth Sun

In Aztec mythology, the universe is not permanent or everlasting, but subject to death like any living creature. However, even as it dies, the universe is reborn again into a new age, or "Sun." Nanauatl is best known from the "Legend of the Fifth Sun" as related by Sahagun.

In this legend, which is the basis for most Nanahuatl myths, there had been four creations. In each one, one god has taken on the task of serving as the sun: Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Chalchiuhtlicue. Each age inevitably ended because the gods were not satisfied with the human beings that they had created. Finally, Quetzalcoatl retrieves the sacred bones of their ancestors, mixes them with corn and his own blood, and manages to make acceptable human beings. However, no other god wants the task of being the sun.

The gods decide that the fifth, and possibly last, sun must offer up his life as a sacrifice in fire. Two gods are chosen: Tecciztecatl and Nanauatl. The former is chosen to serve as the sun because he is wealthy and strong, while the latter will serve as the moon because he is poor and ill. Tecciztecatl, who is proud, sees his impending sacrifice and transformation as an opportunity to gain immortality. The humble Nanauatl accepts because he sees it as his duty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanahuatzin

[MrScorpio]

13. So, our current plight is not without precedent...

I find that strangely comforting.

[Xipe Totec]

14. This is, possibly, our last chance...

[rotund1]

22. That's not mythology, Aztec or otherwise...it's simple irrefutable logic

There are only 2 options for the universe: it either expands and cools to a maximum of entropy where no energy can be produced or used, or it reverses and contracts to a 'big crunch' where all matter condenses into the ultimate singularity. All that central American religious stuff is fun to read about but it's just a bunch of crap.

[Xipe Totec]

29. Try to lighten up, you'll live longer

:eyes:

[rotund1]

55. LOL! Hell, I've already outlived my own expectations by 20 years

I'm pretty light, I just prefer realism. :D

[laylah]

36. S/he is...no doubt in my mind nt

[KonaKane]

37. Right on!

[libtodeath]

39. Any and all

religion whether it be christian,eastern,islam that tries to force unnatural "morals" on anyone needs to be mocked and ridiculed away.

[earth mom]

40. Not gawd-it's actually mother earth and the universe that is pissed off. nt

[MrScorpio]

42. Yep, we're fucking with Mother Nature

And we all know that it's not nice to fuck with Mother Nature.

[polichick]

48. And they have every right to be pissed off - such a beautiful planet...

...such foolish people.

[earth mom]

52. I hear ya.....

:cry:

[FSogol]

43. "If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up"

Woody Allen from "Hannah and Her Sisters."

[polichick]

47. Ain't that the truth?! nt

[Cal33]

46. While Einstein did not follow any particular religion, he did say

that he could not imagine there could be such order throughout the Universe
without there also being some Supreme Intelligence to sustain it.

[DavidDvorkin]

57. Einstein was misunderstood on the subject

He made it clear himself that he did not believe in God.

[Toasterlad]

49. Fuck God.

If I had the power to step in and prevent the damage to the Gulf of Mexico, and to punish those responsible (not to mention correcting all the millions of other injustices - man-made or otherwise - that occur daily on this planet), and I instead chose to continue fucking with mankind as part of my 32 dimensional chess game with satan, I'd be the hugest dick in the universe. Like god is.

Oh, wait. I forgot. God can't be a huge dick because he's just a childish fairly tale for people afraid of dying. I guess we humans will have to deal with our own problems.