I never thought about it that concisely O_O

Sometimes you just have to let things speak for themselves.

From this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA-PWlT-4BI

(Source: bubbsnugg)

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO IGNORANT

friendlyatheist:

Sounds about right….

@anon1 I’ve answered this question before, but I’ll summarize just in case anyone else missed it too. The thing is, we don’t HAVE to know. Just because science isn’t 100% certain (yet) how exactly the universe came into existence, doesn’t mean that God had to create it. The big bang is not just as plausible as aliens creating it, and assuming that just means you haven’t read up on the subject. The universe is always expanding which means if we rewound the tape, you’d see it “sucking back in.” That would suggest that it would have to have a meeting point. That would have been the big bang. To suggest that God created the universe is to suggest that he is outside of space and time which becomes an infinite regress. “What created God? What created the thing that created God?” Etc., etc. If you want to watch an awesome couple of videos with Stephen Hawking, click here and watch all 4 parts of Curiosity: The Questions of Our Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CvZD9TIb-M

@anon2 I do not believe religion is rooted in truth and I’ve encountered too much information opposing its legitimacy to ignore. This is all religion and mythology. I believe in testable, demonstrable things supported with evidence and explained with reason. That said, if you DO still believe in any religion and in that religion you are told to deny basic rights to gay people, particularly Christianity, you should watch the film For The Bible Tells Me So: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v191044278BAQY7F3?h1=For+the+Bible+Tells+Me+So+

@myworldisopen That is terrible. For anyone to think that is in any way good or right, they need to reevaluate their belief system and learn what it is to be humanistic.

crookedceremonies:

soundlyawake:

@anon Aside from childhood indoctrination, no evidence for any supernatural claims of any faith and lots of evidence that support science, I’ll strictly tackle the “offense” issue.

Why would it hurt feelings? For the sake of argument, we’ll say that Bob’s a Christian and believes Christianity to be the one true religion. Then we have Pooja who believes Hinduism is the one true religion. Same for Mohammad with Islam, Siobhan with Judaism, etc. Bob feels sorry for Pooja, Mohammad and Siobhan because they don’t know his God and would hate to see the day that they burn in Hell. But the others think that everyone else is wrong as well. Is Bob offended that Mohammad thinks he’s wrong? Or does he just keep on believing his religion is 100% correct? If you believe something to be 100% true, without any doubt, why would you get offended if someone presents opposing information? As for believing or not believing, you either take someone’s word for it, or you research evidence (or lack thereof) for these claims yourself.

“Religious abuse?” It’s interesting you should use that term because religion has been a main player in misogyny, racism, homophobia, wars, enslavement, emotional and physical ABUSE and much more immorality all on the basis of faith for thousands of years.

Some people think they’re not the bad guys because they only take the lessons of love from their holy books. But when someone says “Homosexuality is wrong, but I still love you as a person!” it suggests not only that you are evil but that they believe they are 100% correct, with absolutely no evidence or reasoning in their judgment other than “it says it in the Bible.”

I also find it ironic that I get these kinds of messages (besides telling me what I should and shouldn’t post on my own blog) asking me questions and in turn forcing me to create more posts about the very subject you want me to post less often about.

I actually was thinking about this earlier. I guess I’m mostly addressing this to relatedworlds, because I’ve noticed that you reblog a lot of anti-Christian things. (I am Episcopalian, just as a note.)

As the daughter of parents with PhDs, I value education, scientific advancement, and logic very highly. I take things slow. I like to think about things, and I like to hear what other people have to say. I like to know the facts.

It bothered me when I realized I was in ignorance recently. After reading a post about Christian privilege in the southern US, I felt like there was some information in it that was off, so I looked up the statistics on what percentage of the United States is Christian, atheist, etc.

I was really genuinely shocked. I thought, “This can’t be right.” I found that most sites reported near 85% of the US is Christian.

So how was it that, out of my many close friends, only one of them was a devout Christian?

How was it that I never heard a good word about Christianity, didn’t hear it spoken about in public places, and never saw religious symbols except in very specific circumstances?

How was it that the only time I felt secure and safe in religious matters was with my family?

How was it that every time I heard Christianity mentioned in the media, it was treated with scorn, and occasionally outright hatred?

How was it that I’d been given the impression for my entire young life that Christianity was a minority, when it is, in fact, the majority by far?

I’m still kind of amazed at how wrong I was—and how alone I’ve been made to feel. When I came to college in my freshman year, I was in a seminar course on literature throughout history, much of which was philosophical or religious in nature. It would have been strange for me to leave out the fact that I was Christian in class discussions—but I was absolutely terrified to tell my classmates. I’m not ashamed of what I am; I know that being Christian is a part of me, just like loving to read, disliking conflict—these are things that, over time, have become such a part of me that there’s just no way they’re going to change. But I was afraid of being mocked, looked down on, thought of as stupid or foolish for my beliefs. When I expressed my fears to the professor after class, she offered me no advice, but seemed merely very surprised. What right had I, a member of a majority religious group, to feel marginalized?

I guess my intention in all of this is to say: No, I’m not offended by my Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist friends. I recognize that they simply believe something different than I do. The vast majority of my friends are atheist; I’m not offended by their lack of belief, or when they talk about their lack of belief. It doesn’t hurt me.

But I am hurt by the same things that everyone else is: scorn, digs and jibes, disgust, hatred. My atheist friends putting down Christianity in front of me, who they know is Christian (why do they do this when they would never think of putting down socially awkward people, or something else that I am, in front of me?). People thinking I’m stupid or uneducated because of what I believe. Christianity, to me, has never had anything to do with my education, with science, with my logical mindset. It’s separate. It’s private. It’s me. And when people tell me things like that I’ve been brainwashed, that I’m intolerant and hateful, that I just believe what I’m told without considering it, they’re making assumptions about me based on one tiny word. They’re making assumptions about me based on people who share that word with me, but whose beliefs I may not share—people like the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members make me feel just as frustrated and sad and angry as anyone else. I’m not that type of person. And that hurts—it hurts to think that strangers hate me without ever knowing me. No, it is not me personally who is hated, and I recognize that.

“Christians are like stupid children.”

“Christians are hypocrites, preaching love but only knowing how to hate.”

Those things aren’t me. And yes, I feel that statements such as these are religiously intolerant. If you made a statement like that about Jews or Muslims, you would be rebuked by your peers. I’m just a person trying to live without hurting, live with self-fulfillment. And yes, I recognize that Christians can be dumb, that Christians can hurt; I’d be a fool not to admit that. 

Today I had my first Symbolic Logic class. An example of an invalid argument was

“All dogs have fleas”

“Rusty has fleas”

“Therefore, Rusty is a dog”

We can clearly see the logical fallacy here. Rusty isn’t necessarily a dog, because there may be other sets, like cats, who might also have fleas. Just because you have fleas, it doesn’t mean you’re a dog. Just because you’re a Christian, it doesn’t mean you’re a homophobic hate-monger.

It’s true that there are some things that I don’t adhere to in Christianity. But the fact is that religion is never what it looks like on the surface; it’s a thing that you have to experience, or at least ask Christians about and get information from them. There’s just an insane amount of misinformation about what Christians believe out there; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to correct people who make these enormous assumptions. (Or rather, wanted to correct them. I’m actually being rather brave right now by talking about this; in real life, I’d just sit there meekly and feel bad for the rest of the day and guilty for not standing up for myself.) Do you really think there are any Christians who adhere to the entire Bible? Of course not—no matter who you are, if you have a bank account you commit usury every day, which is banned in Leviticus. I’m sure many Christians eat shellfish and pork and have tattoos. As Saint Augustine theorized in Confessions, times and cultures change, and what is culturally appropriate changes as well. (Of course, he thought that didn’t include homosexuals, but I disagree with him there.) If that’s the case, why not just pick and choose what rules you want to follow—why not drop the Bible altogether? Well, because Christianity is also a philosophical discipline. If I didn’t have Christianity, I wouldn’t be as happy and mentally healthy as I am now, I can say that for sure. I need Christianity to remind me to want to be a better person than I am, even if I know I’ll ultimately fail; to be selfless and give freely; to love others; to be humble. I never am these things, but I’m certainly closer than if I weren’t thinking about it as often as I do. It’s the ideal of Christianity that no one can possibly meet, and to which few truly aspire. That’s the sad bit about Christianity: people try to ignore the hard parts.

However you feel about my religion, my experiences, and my life, if you do not accept that Christianity is a part of me, a person who feels hurt just like anyone else, then you do not accept me at all. If you do not accept my Christianity, then you do not accept me.

I guess all I’m really asking for is personal respect.

relatedworlds, I started following you on tumblr for a reason. I think you have a great blog, I love your Diana posts. I don’t want to unfollow you, so I’m not going to. I recognize that most likely in real life you wouldn’t display most of the anti-religious sentiment you show; your blog is a personal space, undistilled “you”. I’m not asking you not to post whatever you want to, because it’s your blog. I guess I just wanted to put this on the table: that I’m a human being just like you, and it makes me feel very, very sad and alone when I see writings that attack the most secret and private part of me.

I personally think that your religion is no one else’s business if you don’t want it to be; it’s also no one’s business to tell you that your religion is wrong. Freedom of religion, not freedom from—because that interpretation actually limits religious freedom, which is pretty much the entire reason the United States was founded in the first place.

And as a final note, it’s true that in many parts of the United States (but I’d judge not so much where I’m from, basically the only Christians I know outside of my family and my 1 friend are old people who don’t like me) Christians enjoy privilege: the privilege of being accepted in a community where they are the majority and thus sheltered from vitriol and disdain. But in many parts of the world, Christianity is not just a minority, but a crime. My parents receive a newsletter on Christianity in 3rd-world countries. Every month, there are countless deaths, imprisonments, public beatings, and group attacks on Christians reported in this magazine. None of these make it to major news. Whenever I post a tiny article I find of some violent event against Christians in another country to Facebook, I get comments how amazed people are by it, that they didn’t think things like that happen. How they think this must be a one-time occurrence, because you never hear about that sort of thing in mainstream media.

It’s foolish not to consider that every minority, majority, race, religion, sexual orientation, age group, disabled group, or what have you, has faced violence at some point in history. And the world’s a big place. Chances are it’s happening now.

Does this make Christianity, somehow, better, merely based on suffering? Does martyrdom make your unsuffering compatriots somehow holier? Of course not. The suffering of Christians in other countries doesn’t affect me, and it doesn’t affect the bigotry of some Christian groups in the US (who probably don’t even know or care about Christianity in other countries). But it makes me wonder why these stories don’t make it to the front-page news more often. Maybe they don’t affirm the media’s beliefs and opinions enough.

Sorry for the novel, I just had a lot to say. I don’t want to be pathetic or beggy here, and I don’t want to start a fight. I’m just putting my feelings on the table. That’s what blogs are for, right?

I know you were speaking directly to the person who you follow who reblogged this, but indirectly you were speaking to me since I wrote it. I just wanted to clarify a few things. I’m not sure where exactly you live, but around me, in New Jersey, nearly everyone I know, or at least their family, is Christian. I grew up Roman Catholic so I know exactly what Christians are supposed to believe because I believed them for 26 years. Earlier this year I started questioning things relating to “faith” (and not just Christianity, but all things not based on evidence) and I began looking for answers to these questions.

I, for one, don’t present information to make people feel stupid. I post it here because they are things that disprove or expose the inconsistencies of my prior beliefs.

As for the founding fathers of the United States, most of them despised religion and came here escaping it.

“In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” and “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” -Benjamin Franklin

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” - James Madison

“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession.” - Abraham Lincoln

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there  were no religion in it.” -John Adams

“The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion.” -Thomas Paine

“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.  Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by the difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be depreciated.  I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.” -George Washington

Talk about repeating history.

I never knew these things until I looked.

And as for Christians being ostracized, and even murdered, in some places—it’s in the name of religion. That’s the point. That’s something the founding fathers were trying to avoid.

If you think that people can only be good with religion, you’re mistaken. Before, I might have done good things in fear of going to Hell, or so that God saw me as a good person. Now, I do good things for the sake of doing good things. And that’s how it ought to be. Being good without incentive.