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690 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -48/+188Well, is it any wonder?
Look at all the conflicts in the world today, from the Middle East, to Chechnya, to Darfur, what do they all have in common?
They were all started by athiests. No religion involved here. Damn crazy unbelievers.
{N.B. Heavy sarcasm) - Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -28/+133Religion has always made me scratch my head.
If I say "I believe in Santa Claus. Of course he's real. He talks to me every day", then I'm CRAZY.
On the other hand, if I say "I believe in this INVISIBLE all-knowing, all-seeing deity who talks to me every day", then I'm just a good, up-standing citizen.
Huh??? That's somehow better then saying "I believe in what I can see, and what I can prove"?
Morals Religion. You can be a good person without believing in some mystical "god" - UezeU, on 10/12/2007, -27/+122Christians identified as America's most judgmental majority......
- DarkEnder, on 10/12/2007, -13/+92I'm sick of this...people say, "Oh, he's an atheist, he must be a bad person." It's not true. Instead of "choosing" a religion, I decided not to. It doesn't affect how "good" of a person I am or how nice I am, it just means I don't believe in the same things other people do. And just because you're religious it doesn't suddenly make you a great person. If I'm not mistaken, it's the excessively religious strapping bombs to themselves and killing innocent people.
- diggerphelps, on 10/12/2007, -14/+93I'm black AND atheist.
So I don't even know who to thank for my welfare check.
Praise Bob. - charlie763, on 10/12/2007, -13/+78I'm with you in the not believing in a deity, but I think we should all believe in punctuation. Literary heathen!
- Nodren, on 10/12/2007, -10/+72i dont think it has to do with just the fact your an athiest, but the fact society views an athiest as unmoralistic. since most moralistic views come from a religious standpoint. they see you as an athiest, and they see you as a person with out morals, and dont like you because of it.
not to say thats right or wrong, just giving my observation. - JayWright, on 10/12/2007, -19/+74I love how atheists are expected to tolerate and accept all religious beliefs, and for the most part we do. But that same expectation is obviously not adopted by the other side. Like this article shows religious people have no tolerance or trust for atheist. Well F that.
- hourigan, on 10/12/2007, -17/+69Religious people don't like atheists because you have to reason with them. You can't just say "it is just wrong" or "they are evil", you have to justify your position and most people don't think deeply or at all about their belief and don't like to be challenged about them. It is easier for them to defer to a “higher power” than you come up with a logical and compelling argument.
And yes, I’m an atheist. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -35/+83So that's why her parents don't like me! Too bad the hypocrites don't even go to church.
- thunderbird, on 10/12/2007, -5/+48The power of the comma compels you!
- Moocat, on 10/12/2007, -16/+55My wife lived in Michigan for a short period of time (going to school). While there, she actually had her car egged because she was an atheist. She also had her life threatened by some people for being a "non-believer" and was once asked by a proffesor if she practiced witchcraft...a law school mind you. That's tolerance for you. Oh, and the school just happened to be a catholic school by the way.
- moylan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+45simple rule to live by
if you talk to god, its prayer
if god talks to you, its paranoid schizophrenia ;-) - Refrag, on 10/12/2007, -11/+43The better person has morals innately without having them forced upon themselves through fear of an all powerful being.
- Tetra, on 10/12/2007, -20/+51The reason people distrust non-religious people is kind of obvious.
If you've read the Bible, you know that it's full of contradictory statements. In some areas it promotes what we would consider immoral behavior; it outlines the intent of what appears to be a vain and selfish diety who is omnipotent, yet overly preoccupied with being worshiped, not having his name used in vain and other minutae that one would not expect a "god" to care much about.
If you look at history you find a long line of tyrants who used religion to control people. You have a lot of scared people who don't know what to believe, but if not getting beheaded or burned on a cross means believing in some specific diety, I'm sure they won't mind doing so.
Now that you have these throngs of people giving you money and following your orders, you cannot afford to have "free thinkers" running around instilling doubt. Pointing out facts like monsterous inconsistencies in the bible and other sacred texts, the ironic, chaotic idea of a loving god that will make you burn in hell for eternity if you don't ask for his forgiveness. When you open your eyes it suddenly becomes obvious none of this makes sense, and the god in the bible doesn't seem to epitomize ideals that most of us would respect, much less admire or worship.
So this fragile house of cards religious people live in dictates that they need to surround themselves with like-minded people, meet weekly and reinforce this delicate idea that yes there is a god and he really does care that you masturbated last week and you're going to suffer eternal torment if you don't give 10% of your paycheck to the church this week.
Ok, yea, right. - nograz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+34I am from Minnesota and that is interesting.
I only have three friends that are open atheists. Two of which are morons (they are my cousins, I have a right to call them morons) that I think are just atheist because it is easier for them to be. They don't have to go to church, etc.., I really feel that it is a cop out for them. My other friend that is openly atheist on the other hand. It is funny to listen to him talk to people that try to preach to him. I can't count how many parties we have been at where him and some religion nut job on a mission to save him have gotten in a debate. I have not once, seen a time, that the religion nut has come out of the debate with anything to stand on. He has some good a valid points and is good as shutting them up, it is always a treat to watch.
I myself, I would say that I am more agnostic. I believe in something, but I will not follow one religion. I grew up Catholic, went through all motions of being one, but never felt right in church. Church just is not my thing, it may be partially because I have a short attention span. Though, I think it mainly has to do with just the mass itself, I am not one that likes to be "preached" at, to have someone stand up there and tell me right and wrong and all that jazz. I will do my own thing, the way I see fit.
My friend that is atheist brought up a good point, he says that higher education has hurt religion. I agree with him to an extent. A lot of religions explain the unknown to be the work to god or the devil (depending on which religion). As we have evolved in our knowledge, we have learned that some of these things can be explained. I also feel that learning of different religions have brought me to my stance know. It is all very interesting, but what I got out of all my religious studies. Is that at the core of all religions, one thing remains the same. The core values, basically to be the best person you can be, to be nice to others, etc... Attributes that I feel our embedded into the moral fabric of most normal human beings. Now, it can be debated whether these morals are due to religion or not, I do not think they are. I think they are apart of human nature and thuslly have been transposed into religion.
My other concern with religion is that it is a human created and as well all know, humans are not perfect. Religions are a groups interpretation on events and beliefs, there is defiantly room for error. I do think, overall, religion is good for people. It gives them a common bond, something to have faith in and to be supported by.
However, my problem with religion is the sheer amount of hypocrisy that seems to be involved. I cannot stand self righteous people that feel to force their beliefs upon me. I have nothing against them being a certain religion or having strong beliefs. I do have a problem when you tell me what to do or think.
I am less likely to trust someone who is openly religion and forceful about it. When I think of that combination, I think of brainwashed and narrow mindedness. - Rabid_Llama, on 10/12/2007, -13/+41Heh, that's funny, as an Atheist, my least trusted minority is the devoutly religious. I've seen enough backwards thinking from the extremely Christian in this country that I'm highly considering moving the hell out.
Also, as someone mentioned earlier, people tend to equate Atheism with Amorality. This isn't true. I try my very hardest to be a good person. The difference is, I do it for myself because I believe it's what's right, rather than doing it so that the Big Invisible Man In The Sky won't get mad at me. The final straw for me and Christianity was when I realized that I was only still believing to avoid going to Hell. Now that I'm looking back and consider religion to be fictional, the fire-and-brimstone scare tactics used by the church to keep its believers are a little discomforting.
Ahh, religious rants. A good vent for me at 9:00 in the morning. - angrybrian, on 10/12/2007, -9/+36Just because someone doesn't believe in God doesn't mean they don't have a belief system. Ethics and religion are not the same thing.
- cryonix, on 10/12/2007, -23/+49people treat you like ***** when you tell them you dont believe in God. or try to convert you like your on a path of self distruction and sin. is being understanding sinfull or distructive? how about being more open to other peoples ideas and choices? most religion tells you that anyone whos not with you, are wrong; Atheism is "who cares what you believe? as long as I dont have to."
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -24/+50"since most moralistic views come from a religious standpoint."
A lot of un-moralistic views come from religion too. For example, slavery is perfectly acceptable according to the Judeo-Christian Bible. Here's a little test for you:
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0401/slavery.html - zediker, on 10/12/2007, -12/+36Then there are the morals that don't come from religions, but come from philosophy like Taoism and Confucianism. I.E. only fools believe religion can be the only source of ethics, values, and morals.
- unclesweetheart, on 10/12/2007, -10/+32I believe being an atheist should make me more trusted. I have morals and ethics because I believe in them not for fear of eternal damnation.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25SyDIGG: "Worst athiests in history?
Mao - 70+ million deaths
Stalin - 30+ million deaths."
Dude, that's retarded. Their atheism was not a the basis of such actions. - ,,|,_, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23Moocat - That's not surprising. According to a survey, Catholics are most likely to approve of torture as a means of fighting evil:
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006a/032406/032406h.htm - MonkeyLord, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22I have many friends who are Atheist and they are good people. I am a Christian and I never have to apologize to my friends for believing in what I do, nor they to me. Yes... I believe in a higher power that I cannot see. Yes... I believe that a savior came to connect me back with my God. No... I do not believe in hate, violence, repression or intolerance. Yes... I do believe that we were all created and created equally. I believe that we all share the same bloodline and that we are all one race... human. I believe that we should respect one another, but not at the cost of suppressing the rights of others. I vote Republican... I vote Democrat... I vote Green... I simply vote for those who would uphold my liberties. I believe that we are all wrongly accused and labeled (Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc) for the acts of the Extremists. I for one try always to treat others the way I want to be treated... I don't lie... I don't steal... I respect the opinions of those around me... and somehow I am considered weak and an idiot because I believe something you don't... wth!
Jesus Christ - 2000 years and still pissing people off. - caffiend, on 10/12/2007, -11/+31The poll is biased. Atheists don't list their phone numbers!
- shaggtastic, on 10/12/2007, -12/+32The word "good" is not related to "god", actually (link - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=God&searchmode=none). And it's ridiculous to say you have to have a supernatural belief system to define what is good and what is bad. Observation of society is enough.
- jmholloway, on 10/12/2007, -9/+29I grew up a hard core christian. Really hardcore. I believed it too. I thought everyday of my life that athiests were bad and going to go to hell. I cried over that for years because it pained me that my athiest friends and my nonreligious friends in japan were all going to go to hell.
then I went away to an ivy league university. I looked at the world for what it was and realized religion wasn't worth the pain it was causing me. I prayed to God and asked that he would bring me back to the "right" way of thinking. Nothing happened. It was an emotionally and spiritually awful time.
now I am an agnostic (the less religious variety). I am happier and more emotionally comfortable then I have ever been in my life. The only thing i regret is that I cant tell my family because they would be heartbroken beyond belief. They would spend the rest of their lives thinking I was going to hell.
I dont object going to religious ceremonies or participating in prayer if asked. I want to be respectful to the people who believe in God and/or any Gods that might be out there.
I was once told by my evolution teacher that The tumble down from religion is awful but once you get to the bottom everything is fine from there. Its the truth. - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Yep:
Exact quote:
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."
Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) - Tetra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17We need to clarify something here.
1. Atheism is a non-belief in religion. It is commonly characterized as a ardent belief in the non-existence of some supreme being, but this is not entirely accurate. Atheism is first and foremost a rejection of "theism", and theism is defined as a belief in god. There is a distinction here.
Christians are atheists towards 9,999 other gods.
Atheists just add one more.
2. Agnosticism is a type of atheism. If you're agnostic, then you don't believe in religious dogma either, and you don't believe in specific "gods", so you are atheist.
3. There are "strong" and "weak" types of atheism and agnosticism. A strong atheist says there is no god; a weak atheist says he doesn't believe in the current brands of god being promoted. A strong agnostic [atheist] believes that nobody can ever know god, and a weak agnostic [atheist] recognizes that he just does not know if god exists or the nature of such an entity.
4. One substantive difference between theists and atheists is, ironically, atheists almost universally admit that they are open minded to believing that god exists - they just demand incontrovertable proof. Theists on the other hand, tend to believe that their specific brand X(tm) god is the only true god and even if another, different god proved himself to exist, they'd likely refuse to recognize this. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+31"slaves were treated with respect"
dude, have you ever looked at a bible.. In the bible they treated slaves more poorly than early americans treated black slaves. - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23I read above that "if you don't have a belief system, how do you identify 'good' with 'bad'" My first inclination is to answer with, "Only retards need a written rule system for how to behave," but I realize how judgmental that is.
Frankly, atheists rely on a religion called "common sense." I am agnostic, not atheists, but for all intents and purposes, they are they same as far as a belief in God or the Bible goes. I find my morals in this simple quote:
"The world is my country, its people, my brethren, and doing good, my religion."
Since when do you need the fear of God or Hell to lead you down the path of morality. Why can't you just want to leave the world in a better place than you found it? - JoshuaWood, on 10/12/2007, -9/+24Well at least thanks to the Internets I don't feel alone as an Atheist. I try to explain to my parents that I cannot "Choose" to believe in God. Either you do or you don't. Saying I believe, without believing it is just hollow, but I somehow think my parents/relatives would be happier.
Parents, "I don't understand you're an Athiest but you celebrate Christmas."
Because I do believe in Santa Claus. - redeemed, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18for the record Christian doctrine teaches against self-righteousness.
- signal15, on 10/12/2007, -12/+27Minnesota apparently has the highest per capita atheist population of any state, something like 10%. Anyway, I can tell you that I certainly trust a lot more atheists I know than I do people of other religions. Non-atheists have an agenda, and to be honest, it kinda freaks me out.
- danpsmith, on 10/12/2007, -11/+25Actually atheism is not believing in God. I'd rather follow agnosticism, which makes the distinction that anything *could* be true, even if most agnostics are atheist inclined.
- vjmurphy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19Good quote from Stephen Roberts:
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” - cpark, on 10/12/2007, -9/+21LOL, wow. So Digg is clearly populated by athiests - perhaps they should have taken their sampling from members here.
- Misanthrope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12You don't really need to read a lot of literature to now belive in something. I mean, I've honestly never heard anyone "parrot" ANY atheist literature. Really, isn't most scientific writing "atheist literature"??
- onishenko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13yeah, what you described there was actually pluralism. Atheism is the stronger stance that says there is no form of deity, and people who believe it are wrong. Pluralism is the ever accommodating view point that every opinion is valid for the people who hold them, but it doesn't have to be valid for me.
- Apreche, on 10/12/2007, -12/+23The funniest thing is that atheists are actually more moral than religious folk.
http://www.creationtheory.org/Morality/CrimeAndDivorce.shtml
I guess when you're so illogical as to believe in some invisible sky-man you're also so illogical as to distrust the most moral demographic of the population. - jefferygomer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12These comments are some of the most judgmental ones I've ever seen on digg. Why should anyone respect another when everyone is being inconsiderate?
Religion is for the weak minded is one of the most bs terms if you consider the history of science and scientists. Just because people don’t think on the same guideline as you, doesn’t mean they are stupid, illogical, or even wrong.
Atheists/Agnostics need to stop acting like Christians.
Christians need to stop acting like Christians and act more like Christ
Another thing is that all religious beings are human. They aren’t any better than anyone else. They especially need to know that and remember that. They try and adhere to moral code/lifestyle, but they mess up and call it sin. They aren’t perfect.
I greatly respect my Christian friends and my agnostic friends. I don’t agree with either of them. We do it because we respect each other, and don’t break down to name calling and finger pointing. We respect each other’s opinion and peacefully discuss them.
This is just a single study. If we were to impulsively go off of what every “single study” results were, we’d probably all be dead. - JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -13/+24"slavery in the Bible is very different from slavery as we view it today."
No, it was pretty much the same. Take the test I presented above and see for yourself. - VaKo, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17from TFA: "Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry."
Allow? WTF? What type of backwards society is this where you can tell your grown up children they can't marry someone? - RevnCliffie, on 10/12/2007, -10/+21For the record not every Christian is a right wing self righteous one.
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -9/+19"If we step back I think it is clear that religion is a tool to organize and control people."
Religion is Santa Claus for grown-ups. Think about it, it's the same concept. A mythological figure that will give you a big reward if you play nice and do as you're told. - mrgreen4242, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Most athiests are pretty good about not caring what someone believes, as long as they aren't forced to have to hear about it all damn time. Unfortunately, the last 5 or 10 years has been pretty bad with the crazy christian types trying to shove Jesus down everyone's through, so the athiests should be forgiven for bitching about having to put up with the subtle but growing sponsered religious oppresion in the US.
- schlurp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12atheists in general populaton: >3%,
atheists in prison population: 0.2%
draw your conclusions
http://holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm - rodbibeau, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Being a U0f M student, this is awesome. I grew up christian and i was even confirmed. Blah.....then education happened. Education is the death of religion.
Once you learn to think for yourself, you dont need religion.
If the words of our former governor and "superstar" - Jesse Ventura - "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. " - charlie763, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11One person got modded down for asking, "Where do those morals and ethics come from?", which is a very legitimate question. I would argue that the ethics of atheists come from the same basic human desires that created contemporary deities in the first place. For example, there were laws regarding murder and theft long before any commandments were alleged to have been written. This is because people tend to not want these things; very simple.
Notice that four of the ten commandments concern actually worshiping a deity while two (murder, theft) deal with crimes. I know it was probably difficult for a universe-creating deity to carve a block of stone, but I don't see why that deity didn't take the time to mention rape, human rights, racketeering, extortion, intolerance, slavery, reproductive rights, public schools or anything we humans have seem to have though are important enough to think about. And no, we did not necessarily make such laws because of any written work. In fact, much of what we consider right and just is exactly contrary to such written works. -
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