How prevalent is atheism?

[Grahame 10]

When were you an atheist? At which point in your life did you convert to Christianity?

 

During periods of doubt in my early twenties and later when I got divorced.

[plekhanov 10]

So you don't think Christians are the cause of wars.

You claimed I singled out Christians I never did, religions including Christianity start wars.

 

And you don't think Christian doctors are inferior to atheist doctors

I never said any such thing, just the opposite infact:

 

"The headline overcooks things somewhat as 4% isn't statistically significant enough for it to be accurate to say that 'atheist doctors more likely to care for the poor than religious ones'.

 

This study is however yet more evidence that theistic claims that religion makes people behave ethically and that atheists are selfish, immoral, hedonists (claims with have unsurprisingly been made in this thread) are completely baseless."

 

and you don't think creation had a causation which may have been a string of DNA the same as all of us.

Err what?

[plekhanov 10]

During periods of doubt in my early twenties and later when I got divorced.

So you were lying earlier when you said you 'committed' your life to your god "at the age of twelve"?

 

Do you know, I have never been a Christian for what I can get out of it, I have never regarded God as a crutch, and when I committed my life to him at the age of twelve I certainly had no fear of death and I don't now. My motivation was to do God's work here on earth to the best of my ability. The trouble is the majority have turned each to his own way, and most people are only interested in having a so called good time for themselves. We have the world we have made for ourselves, it is greed that has caused man to chop down the rain forests etc. and you just want a scapegoat. If you want to do something about it, get up off your backside instead of moaning.

[Shoesme 10]

When were you an atheist? At which point in your life did you convert to Christianity?

 

when his parents told him too

 

what i really dislike about religion is the idea of original sin and all that business and the idea that Ghandi, who was a very nice man apparently, is now burning in hell for all eternity because he didn't believe in the christian god.

 

God: Believe in me or else you will be sent ot the pits of hell to be tortured for all eternity....p.s...i love you

[Grahame 10]

So you were lying earlier when you said you 'committed' your life to your god "at the age of twelve"?

 

Thank you for the compliment of keeping my posts. What I said is true but it is possible to backslide.

[Shoesme 10]

if you smoke and get cancer as a result and die, in the eye's of god does that count as suicide?

[Grahame 10]

if you smoke and get cancer as a result and die, in the eye's of god does that count as suicide?

 

I don't think so Shoesme.

[leviathan13 350]

Yes that is true Shoesme, thank you. I hope people don't think George Bush is a Christian as defined by the teaching of the Jesus Christ.

 

I hope you don't either Grahame because you live your life a million miles away from the teachings of the Bible and Jesus. Apart from you saying there is a god, you and your beloved Christ have nothing in common.

 

He wore clothes, nothing more extravagant than to cover his modesty. You get dressed up to go to church and wake God up on his day off. He ate enough food to stave off hunger. I bet you, like every other hypocritical christian on the planet, stuff yourself stupid on Christmas Day. How can you say we're going to hell for not believing in your invisible friend when, I'm sure if God did exist, he'd be more likely to punish you for your acts of contradiction and hypocrisy than us for not taking the p*ss.

[plekhanov 10]

when his parents told him too

 

what i really dislike about religion is the idea of original sin

Indeed the idea of people inheriting guilt and being punished for acts they had nothing to do with from their distant ancestors is abhorrent.

 

and all that business and the idea that Ghandi, who was a very nice man apparently, is now burning in hell for all eternity because he didn't believe in the christian god.

 

God: Believe in me or else you will be sent ot the pits of hell to be tortured for all eternity....p.s...i love you

Exactly when nutters like as Kim Jong-il demand that people worship them on pain of torture they are rightly denounced as megalomaniacal psychopaths yet for some reason we are supposed to find this exact same behaviour admirable in fictional deities.

[Crayfish 10]

Crayfish. Again. Before making any statement will you check your facts and provide your sources. Gut feelings and emotional outbursts are NOT good enough.

 

I haven't made any emotional outbursts, what I have done is to reasonably present my opinions, which are extrapolations of large scale phenomena based on my own knowledge and observations of human psychology. There are no statistical data to back these opinions up to the best of my knowledge - which I have also clearly pointed out, mislabeling nothing.

 

I'm sure there are studies around showing that religious belief can inhibit instinctive barriers to violence against those with different religions (or a very similar topic). Until I find the one I'm thinking of again, here are two books and a review article exploring interreligious violence http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LMzkvUcBBXQC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=religion+violence&ots=Cxcge0dyaW&sig=10X76C95FqKVjI6wZaMLPDynHwk#PPP1,M1, http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lpb1mbaHjGQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=religion+violence&ots=p7hdQl9eSe&sig=LMPykakb8-IedGaML8Sxu8QcNjg#PPP1,M1, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00431.x

 

What is the point of my posting a web site if you cannot be bothered to read it. In the last site I published it said this "For a state to prosecute a war it must have the support of its leadership, its military forces, and the population."

 

A quote which sounds accurate, when considering international war (as opposed to intranational insurgency). However this does not detract from my argument above that religion acts as a factor dehumanising the opposition and by providing 'tribal' ties, promoting support of wars by the leadership, military forces and population.

 

I put it to you that in this country atheism is in the majority and the simple conclusion is that the majority of those involved in the conception, planning and operation of a British war will be atheists.

 

Enjoy your dinner.

 

 

Tony Blair is strongly religious. As Plekhanov points out, the majority of the British describe themselves as Christian. Don't 'put it to me', look up the statistics (especially after ripping into me for failing to provide sources in every post!)

[plekhanov 10]

Thank you for the compliment of keeping my posts.

It's called having a memory

 

What I said is true but it is possible to backslide.

So you were never an atheist you were simply a backsliding believer having a strop because your life didn't turn out how you wanted (in part because you were foolish enough to live it by your god's arbitrary rules).

 

Contrary to what you seem to think atheists aren't people who are angry at god/s they are people who simply don't have a believe in any gods. You clearly don't understand atheism as as such according to your claims made in post 490 ' shouldn't attempt to comment on it.

[Grahame 10]

You clearly don't understand atheism as as such according to your claims made in post 490 ' shouldn't attempt to comment on it.

 

Then...how about you not commenting on Christianity?