huffingtonpost.com — There is a minority group in America that is a bigger percentage of the country than blacks or Hispanics. But they are often ignored or derided in public. Almost no politician would ever admit to being one. And they are given no voice in the public arena. They are the non-religious.
Mar 10, 2009 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountMar 11, 2009
"What people don't get is that by nature as a species we are not inclined to do anything that would benefit someone else which is why some people NEED something to prevent them from being total assh**es whether it be a promise of reward or punishment."How exactly, then, did we manage to survive from the beginning of our species to the formation of our religious beliefs? Shouldn't we have all been assh**es and killed each other, by your logic? There's a reason that things like altruism exist in the natural world, and in other species.Biological explanations for benevolence are just as valid as religious ones, really. One is helping yourself, your offspring, and your species survive. The other one is keeping demons from poking your ass with pitchforks for an eternity. They're both equally self-serving.Also, I'm not religious--I'm an atheist--but I'd argue that I'm not an assh**e, either. My reasons for being the way I am are just removed from any personal religious reasoning. I simply enjoy seeing myself and other people not feeling miserable.
smurfsahoyMar 11, 2009
@icenine,If it's not direct information from God, then you have no idea whether it's legitimate or not. How do you know it was God's word in the first place? Pretty much everything in the bible is not even claimed to have been written by God, but by guys who happened to be around a couple thousand years ago. Fallible humans, so who knows if they're right about anything? Plus, how do you know they didn't just make it all up for attempted fame and power? That's quite possible even if there is a God. He could just be a God that doesn't intervene.And then even if they did write it down correctly, and it did really happen, the bible has gone through 2000 years of petty human politics and fad changes, being translated all the while over and over. It's pretty much a sure thing that it's been heavily edited, and not by God.Basically, you have no better reason to trust the bible than you have to trust a book that I write today, claiming to have been told what to say by God. Or an internet posting. God just told me that all consensual sex with non-minors is okay! Why is that less trustworthy than some other guy claiming God told him something 2000 years ago?You mention one reason to trust the bible is that God said it wouldn't change. But where did he say that? Uh, in the bible. If I was forging a document like that, you'd better believe I'd include some reassurances that it would never change...
jmac9Mar 11, 2009
. Don't worrythe realities of life, the solid discoveries of the vastness of space, the billions upon billions of years of time, and the reality of the micro-cosmic world - the microbes live on without religion --- all bring down the delusions of religion and its hypocrisy. The only reality is the awareness of your own awareness -- and that is something you already have -- and understanding that is a profound realization that walks you right out of any church- guilt- fear doctrine. You already have awareness --- born with it -- that when you recognize it and rest in it -- its natural expression as behavior -is compassionate, loving, generous, and all of societies indoctrinations fall away --- naturally. Now that's threatening to religions, governments, the military....
0260Mar 12, 2009
agnostics and atheists answer different questions.
kilofoxMar 12, 2009
The Moral Majority is Neither.
Closed AccountMar 12, 2009
Substance D, you should try it.
hanexarMar 13, 2009
See, you lost all your critical perspective, zealots.(refering to the buries)
psdabfmMar 13, 2009
Actually I don't see those things on TV and in movies. Of course I'm not tuned in to the 24hr Church channel as you appear to be. I also don't appear to watch even remotely the same movies as you either.oh, and btw, I didn't claim that the lack of silence from athiests annoys me, only that I find it commical that athiests claim they're the silent minority.