Religion

• O-Trap

  

  sleeper;1391825 wrote:That's fine. Please feel free to substitute faith for any circular reasoning you feel I have engaged in. I have faith that I did not therefore I am correct.

  I didn't form any of my own beliefs through blind faith, but if you wish to do so, you may. I will not argue with you, as I see some credibility to the individual in existential evidence. However, do not hope to convince anyone else that you are correct.
  
  Fun fact: There is no place in the canonical Bible that suggests that one ought to develop a belief in God through faith.
  
• sleeper

  

  I actually was approached on the street by a bible thumper trying to get me to come to a bible study session. He was pretty persistent even after I told him that I'm an atheist and that he was brainwashed. He kept going on and on about the heavenly mother and finally I stopped walking and said "Prove it. Prove the Bible is correct." To which he replied, "The bible is correct, you just have read it".
  
  SMH delusional followers. Hopefully he burns in hell along with the rest of his pathetic believers.
• jmog

  sleeper;1399751 wrote:I actually was approached on the street by a bible thumper trying to get me to come to a bible study session. He was pretty persistent even after I told him that I'm an atheist and that he was brainwashed. He kept going on and on about the heavenly mother and finally I stopped walking and said "Prove it. Prove the Bible is correct." To which he replied, "The bible is correct, you just have read it".
  
  SMH delusional followers. Hopefully he burns in hell along with the rest of his pathetic believers.

  Heavenly mother? Must have been catholic, way too 'organized' for me. Organized religion can be a real turn off for a lot of Christians with all the rituals/sacraments/etc.
  
  Plus the whole deifying the pope (ok, a little stretch but I'm close) seems to contradict the Bible to me.
• sleeper

  

  jmog;1399756 wrote:Heavenly mother? Must have been catholic, way too 'organized' for me. Organized religion can be a real turn off for a lot of Christians with all the rituals/sacraments/etc.
  
  Plus the whole deifying the pope (ok, a little stretch but I'm close) seems to contradict the Bible to me.

  I have no idea what religion he was part of. He was a total douche.
• O-Trap

  

  sleeper;1399776 wrote:I have no idea what religion he was part of. He was a total douche.

  He sounds like it. Methinks an upper decker was in order.
• Dr Winston O'Boogie

  

  sleeper;1399776 wrote:I have no idea what religion he was part of. He was a total douche.

  He does sound like a douche. He reminds me of the douches from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, specifically Ann Marie Geller or whatever her name is. Like your bible thumper, it's not enough for these people to have their own set of beliefs, they have to worry about what everyone else is thinking as well. IN this respect, many ahteists are exactly the same of the wacko born again Christians.
• sleeper

  

  Dr Winston O'Boogie;1399902 wrote:He does sound like a douche. He reminds me of the douches from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, specifically Ann Marie Geller or whatever her name is. Like your bible thumper, it's not enough for these people to have their own set of beliefs, they have to worry about what everyone else is thinking as well. IN this respect, many ahteists are exactly the same of the wacko born again Christians.

  Actually, I don't care what you believe as long as you A) keep your fairy tale beliefs to yourself, B) 50% tax rate on all churches and church related institutions and C) Keep church separate from state.
• jmog

  sleeper;1399906 wrote:Actually, I don't care what you believe as long as you A) keep your fairy tale beliefs to yourself, B) 50% tax rate on all churches and church related institutions and C) Keep church separate from state.

  Methinks your B and C contradict themselves, but lets not let semantics get in the way of your well thought out argument .
• O-Trap

  

  sleeper;1399906 wrote:... 50% tax rate on all churches and church related institutions ...

  Huh ... never figured you to be big on taxes.
  
  I'd be all for more thorough bookkeeping requirements to retain non-profit status ... ensuring that "not-for-profit" indeed means "not-for-profit."
• sleeper

  

  jmog;1399912 wrote:Methinks your B and C contradict themselves, but lets not let semantics get in the way of your well thought out argument .

  They are businesses in the business of exploiting its members. The tax is merely a way to remind its customers that they are being hoodwinked into a cult like belief system.
• sleeper

  

  O-Trap;1399913 wrote:Huh ... never figured you to be big on taxes.
  
  I'd be all for more thorough bookkeeping requirements to retain non-profit status ... ensuring that "not-for-profit" indeed means "not-for-profit."

  I'm pretty big on sin taxes, alcohol, cigarettes, religion, marijuana, etc.
• jmog

  O-Trap;1399913 wrote:Huh ... never figured you to be big on taxes.
  
  I'd be all for more thorough bookkeeping requirements to retain non-profit status ... ensuring that "not-for-profit" indeed means "not-for-profit."

  I agree with that, there are quite a few "TV evangelists" I highly doubt are "not-for-profit".
• jmog

  sleeper;1399916 wrote:They are businesses in the business of exploiting its members. The tax is merely a way to remind its customers that they are being hoodwinked into a cult like belief system.

  In other words you do not believe in separation of church and state?
• Dr Winston O'Boogie

  

  sleeper;1399916 wrote:They are businesses in the business of exploiting its members. The tax is merely a way to remind its customers that they are being hoodwinked into a cult like belief system.

  We all get it. You're an atheist and you have little regard for religion. I don't begrudge anyone their beliefs. And many different types of beliefs seem silly to me. But by using every opportunity to repeat yourself, you sound eerily like the "douche" you encountered on the street recently.
• sleeper

  

  jmog;1399921 wrote:In other words you do not believe in separation of church and state?

  I believe laws should be created with no respect towards religious belief. I believe churches are for profit corrupt businesses that exploit innocent vicitims and molest innocent children. Those that condone this activity tithe towards these churches and fund the corrupt behavior allowed by these institutions. They should be taxes as businesses with the funds going to help the innocent children that they abuse and cover up.
• sleeper

  

  Dr Winston O'Boogie;1399922 wrote:We all get it. You're an atheist and you have little regard for religion. I don't begrudge anyone their beliefs. And many different types of beliefs seem silly to me. But by using every opportunity to repeat yourself, you sound eerily like the "douche" you encountered on the street recently.

  There's not much else to say. I speak from an irrefutable logical position and don't need to constantly rationalize an erroneous belief system. Therefore I will continue my efforts to protect innocent children from the corrupt nature of religion and its institutions.
• Dr Winston O'Boogie

  

  sleeper;1399928 wrote:There's not much else to say. I speak from an irrefutable logical position and don't need to constantly rationalize an erroneous belief system. Therefore I will continue my efforts to protect innocent children from the corrupt nature of religion and its institutions.

  That's fine. And I'm not altogether in disagreemetn with you. Ultimately there is still a leap of faith required however.
  
  I don't know what you do on the side, but I would bet that you have not "protected" one child with your repeated lines here.
• sleeper

  

  Dr Winston O'Boogie;1399934 wrote:That's fine. And I'm not altogether in disagreemetn with you. Ultimately there is still a leap of faith required however.
  
  I don't know what you do on the side, but I would bet that you have not "protected" one child with your repeated lines here.

  I can make a greater impact on the internet than I can with my current sum of cash. This text is inputted into Google so when people are curious and Google child abuse this will be another hit of billions from child abuse related to religion. People that donate money to the church are directly supporting the molestation and rape of children; I guess it's all part of God's plan so they are still able to sleep at night.
• FatHobbit

  

  Dr Winston O'Boogie;1399902 wrote:Like your bible thumper, it's not enough for these people to have their own set of beliefs, they have to worry about what everyone else is thinking as well. IN this respect, many ahteists are exactly the same of the wacko born again Christians.

  There are douches everywhere. Don't paint an entire group (Christian or Atheist) with one giant brush just because some of their followers are loud and obnoxious. (I'm not addressing sleeper because I know this is just part of his schtick.)
• Dr Winston O'Boogie

  

  FatHobbit;1399949 wrote:There are douches everywhere. Don't paint an entire group (Christian or Atheist) with one giant brush just because some of their followers are loud and obnoxious. (I'm not addressing sleeper because I know this is just part of his schtick.)

  Not at all. There are good and bad in every group. I was trying to make the point there there are plenty of obnoxious atheists as well as religious types. I believe these all are people who are desperate to belong to something.
• O-Trap

  

  sleeper;1399917 wrote:I'm pretty big on sin taxes, alcohol, cigarettes, religion, marijuana, etc.

  You sound a lot like the establishment Republicans I know, then.
• believer

  

  O-Trap;1399995 wrote:You sound a lot like the establishment Republicans I know, then.

  I don't know of too many Repubs who think taxing religion is a good idea.
• O-Trap

  

  believer;1400000 wrote:I don't know of too many Repubs who think taxing religion is a good idea.

  The overarching notion of "sin tax" though ...
• jmog

  sleeper;1399925 wrote:I believe laws should be created with no respect towards religious belief. I believe churches are for profit corrupt businesses that exploit innocent vicitims and molest innocent children. Those that condone this activity tithe towards these churches and fund the corrupt behavior allowed by these institutions. They should be taxes as businesses with the funds going to help the innocent children that they abuse and cover up.

  Blah blah blah, aka you think they should be taxed like a corporation. Well, since corporations are only taxed on profits, if a church shows zero profit are you ok with them paying no taxes?
• sleeper

  

  jmog;1400045 wrote:Blah blah blah, aka you think they should be taxed like a corporation. Well, since corporations are only taxed on profits, if a church shows zero profit are you ok with them paying no taxes?

  But of course.