[ann ashtray]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

I can only speak for myself, its not my business to convince you to believe in anything other then the common decency of being polite. You are right, there is morality aside from God, but clearly sometimes you run your mouth too much and fail to express any sense of morals or even common sense.. If you were really so cool and calm about your lack of faith, then you wouldn't really such an attention whore and a prick about it, but while you may think my faith is a Humpty Dumpty story, your house of cards is far less stable. By the way, Humpty Dumpty is a good analogy, the Fathers of the Church discovered the core of the human condition, the source of all our fear and anger, stems from the fracture between the reasoning mind and the feeling heart/soul. The mind simply does not have enough strength of character to exist separated from the heart, and that is why people are so selfish, angry, jealous, and even stupid (myself included). This all the more reason why we are Humpty Dumpty, and we need something transcendental, something beyond and bigger then individual selves, something which I understand to be called God but you can call Him whatever you like, to put US back together. God is not broken, we are. Besides, Freud and Jung already mentioned that folks never grow up and mature until they forgive their parents of all the supposed mistakes we wrongfully blame them on. It is the same cosmically with God, until we all learn to forgive God, then we will all be a bunch of broken-hearted mother fuckers..

By the way, y'all again are right, people can exist just fine without religion. The Dali Lhama just put forth a great analogy philosophically speaking. He said that in life, religion is like tea, and the water that is the base is compassion. Like tea, religion and faith is spiced with healing, consoling, strengthening additives collected from across the world, and the water is compassion, empathy, morality, politeness which religion is based and built upon. Just as man can live without tea, but must drink water, so to can we live without God, but surely we can't live without compassion and empathy and politeness, something which even atheistic evolutionary theory strongly suggests. You sir, lately have expressed and espoused neither compassion nor politeness, and as them elders say, you reap what you sow and you give what you get, so don't be surprised if all this cynicism doesn't come and bite you in the ass.

As we again say in Rastafari, "and all them fireman that kindle the fire got to burn the fire according to the same fire plan, for the fire is not partial, not even to them that burn the fire."

The common decency of being polite? You called me a racist fucker before I said ANYTHING even remotely derogatory to you. Here's another example of religious hypocricism at it's finest. If ya dish out shit, expect to receive it in return. If ya take offense to it, learn to keep your mouth shut. This area is the area I will ALWAYS ATTACK you and you're kind in...simply because, as I said earlier, your "god" didn't give you any bullets.

Common sense? Are you serious? You believe in god and all sorts of invisible/spiritual beings. If the majority of the world didn't agree with you I'd call you delusional...but then again this same majority of the world considers themselves a minority. Idiots. Ever wonder why the poorer someone else, the less educated, the more likely they are to believe in god?

And I'm NOT cool or calm about my lack of faith. I live in a world that expects me to have some sort of hushed sense of respect toward people like you, while I have to hear (am in some cases forced) to hear your type of bullshit on a regular basis. Many of these same sorts think it's rude or ignorant for me to even mention a lack of faith. I think more atheistic attention whores will make this world a better place. Maybe put a bit of balance into things, finally. If ya pay attention to the news it's already happening regardless. I'm glad to see it and look forward to more of it. Want to know what it feels like to be a minority? Be vocal about the fact that you're an atheist to anyone that will listen...especially those closest to you. Kids get disowned by parents for that shit in some parts of the woods.

Religion is a fucking poison, man. When observing it, observing it's history, it's done far more harm than good. Atheists don't do things for any promise of some afterlife reward. War isn't usually started over our lack of belief. We don't usually fly planes into buildings or blow up buildings in Oklahoma. We don't kidnap native Americans to prove we've discovered someone elses land. I don't know much in the way about atheist supporting slavery or rape (two things which aren't even mentioned in the ten commandments....probably because both are more or less deemed OK through out the vast majority of the bible). We don't have stupid arguments with people of other faiths about what we know the afterlife is or isn't. We don't give our children answers to questions we don't really have answers to. We don't claim stupid shit like "we all had to come from something" all the while believing in a god that came from absolutely nothing. It's fucking dumb.

John Lennon looked forward to the day Christianity would end. I do to (and I really don't give too much of a shit about John Lennon).

I've officially said everything I feel any need (currently) to say to you. If you'd like to continue, fine...because honestly I enjoy this shit. It's good therapy and reminds me why I believe the way I believe.