Maybe create a religion thread (in this SSNL sub-forum)? It's an interesting topic to a lot of people (more so when it is amongst your friends / peers rather than random zealots, of either extreme), but it can also get out of hand.

Although I've always been an atheist, it's only recently that I embraced it, and I would now go so far as to call myself anti-theist. What jump-started it was watching the Republican primary's and seeing the disregard towards the first amendment, in fact I would say the disdain for it when it comes to someone like Santorum, and my mind boggled at the amount of support he received.

Europeans might be shocked to know that something like 80% of the US population call themselves Christians, an overwhelming majority of the population. In fact, atheism is a dirty word in many parts of the US; atheists are considered the most distrusted minority in American culture, rated worse than say, muslims or homosexuals by the average American.

One story that was significant for me was about Jessica Ahlquist, the high-school student in, not some Bible-Belt state, but in Rhode Island, that petitioned for a prayer hanging in a public school that was unconstitutional be taken down. She won, but there was so much hate and spite directed towards her and her family, including a hand-written death threat. Even the RI state representative called her an "evil little thing" (which her supporters quickly turned into T-shirts to raise funds!).

My excursion into theology also led me to looking into philosophy more than I had expected, and when you start thinking about some of the fundamentals of epistemology, ontology, morality etc it can get both really interesting and frustrating (e.g. the mentioned Munchausen Trilemma). There are even some logical proofs of God that can appear convincing, at first. Despite all the so-called proofs for the existence of God that modern apologists have come up with to counter the recent surge in atheism, the most common reason you get from someone is some kind of personal experience. I think it's really interesting how people can compartmentalise something like their faith in God from other intellectual thoughts, but it is both unfair and often quite wrong to assume that someone of faith is less intelligent.

Recently moved from Vermont (least religious place in the world?) to Utah (home of Mormons). Moral of story, don't say **** if religion is brought up or people get butt hurt.

I agree with Mr. Neil Tyson: A huge issue in the discussion of Monotheism is the stereotypes assigned to people who are Monotheistic/Non-Monotheistic.

I much prefer to ignore religion until I know the person well and then possibly discuss their beliefs.

In my experience, intelligent people who claim to be Christian are using "God" as a synonym for "Unknown".

Anyone catch the recent story involving the higher rate of crime in places where people believe everyone goes to heaven vs. the lower crime rate in places where people believe you answer for your wrong doings in hell? Seems obvious but still interesting to see statistics.

I'm curious what percentage of sociopaths are monotheistic (believers not fakers).

@ShipItYo Does what happened to you involve an out of body experience? (not necessarily drug related)

I find with the younger side of the population, a HUGE portion of people who claim to be Christian do so because their parents or grandparents are religious but they themselves are not.

Normally they are Agnostics if an Agnostic asks or Christian if a Christian asks.

I've only met one person in my life under 40 that actively participates in their local Church/Temple. He was Jewish college student and very intelligent. His involvement was absolutely focused on the community aspect and as an act of respect towards his religious mother.

It's very hard to generalize a country where every state or sometimes city may have a completely different culture.

IMO churches in the USA will never die out until their contribution to the community is replaced.

I'm curious if growing up in Vermont/New England extremely skewed my perception of the country.

@beaucup or other USA: Have you had the same experience living here?

Ok let me end this conversation. There is no god. I have undeniable proof, too.

An abnormally high amount of people say they are Christians when in reality, they probably don't know what it really means. They just like to be nice and think that there is someone above looking over them. (Which is why I would disregard any statistics involving %'s of "Christians".)

But as this discussion is dwindling down, even if you don't believe in anything, why not freeroll on eternity?

I believe in the power of pussy.

Because the likelihood of a "God" that requires worship is effectively 0%. Because there are thousands of religions out there and no reason to believe any of them are more likely than any other. Because I don't lay Sasquatch traps outside my tent despite the infinitely higher (yet still very small) likelihood of Sasquatch existing. Because it's a principle thing, if a god existed that was so petty it required worship to get into whatever fancy afterlife it had, **** that god.

Quit putting the pussy on a pedestal

^ this.

why does everyone get annoyed when people talk about stuff that is sorta serious? is it like a "don't talk about the possibility of the existence of god, that makes me think about serious stuff and i'd rather think about rainbows" thing? or is it just annoying to people in the same way that a politics discussion is annoying?

oh I don't. I have said numerous times no to girls when they wanted my parsnip and sat on top of me.

Lol this. I'm gonna prob be scared ****less on my death bed prob puss out and hedge my bets. If you guys haven't seen religuless (sp) with bill Maher watch it, pretty funny .

He's quoting 40 yr old virgin

hahahahahaha a+

Oh boy.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...nment-1217487/

Cliffs: Bitar returns to US to surrender, says its part of the deal. References poker stars deal in email as hopefully the end of this debacle and the repayment of players.

Cool. Wonder if it will actually mean something this time. Until then I'll continue pretending the whole ordeal never happened

Ok so, lets say hypothetically speaking Bitar and Lederer went to prison on the exact same day and exact same time...

who would lose their ass virginity first?

Are you saying they haven't yet?

White collar crime doesn't get you raped, especially if you're rich. Better is which one has to drink bottom shelf wine.

It is definitely true that the number of self-reported Christians is going to be drastically different to the number of 'real' Christians, ones that the fundamentalists would agree held the correct beliefs to be called a Christian. In fact, the number of fundie Christians might be lower than the number of non-believers. In any case, it is still a problem that it is much more comfortable for someone to call themselves Christian when they are not.

The current activism of "new atheism" should be focusing in on these Christians-in-name-only, because my main point was that it is difficult for many individuals to declare their lack of belief, and even the term "atheist" has negative connotations associated with it, and let's me honest, it is not the most easily defined word to begin with! Even a lot of non-believers think atheism has a more drastic definition than it really does (or should have). As long as you answer in the negative to the question "Do you believe in god?" then you are an atheist. It does not (necessarily) mean that you know that there is no god, and if you are a namby-pamby-agnostic (which I unknowingly called myself for most of my life), you might be surprised to find out that you are also an atheist - an agnostic-atheist.

Ship It Yo is the best kind of theist (imo), one who admits they believe something based only on faith and not claiming to have The Truth. He would be an agnostic-theist, which isn't as common as you would hope, more common is the gnostic-theist, the one who doesn't just believe, but knows! At the same time, calling atheists arrogant...


I almost forgot how this discussion got started: the crazy step-mother should really not have unsupervised visits with the child, at this early age it is nothing but indoctrination. When they get older, I'd go so far as to deliberately expose the child to different religions (it's been said that the best way to create an atheist is to have them read the Bible!).

ALL THESE BITCHES, AND ****** STILL HATIN

Just finished the best poker book I've ever read. It's called "How to win the World Series of Poker (or not)" by Pat Walsh. The book is a terrible description of how to play poker, and a wonderful insight into how the mind of a fish works. Read.

Yes.

I was indoctrinated since I was a child, going to church every Sunday, praying, going to a catholic school, all the works. I started doubting and asking questions since I was 7 but it was not after I took 3 years of Bible studies that I completely stopped believing.

From personal experience discussing this subject with a lot of believers I can tell you that most people that call themselves Christians, apologetics or believers have never read the Bible, only bits here and there.

Little known fact about me: I once won first prize in speed-Bibleing (finding stuff in it quickly)

Little known fact: Speed-Bibleing is an activity where young men compete to find the dirtiest parts of the Bible the fastest.

THEY FOUND A HIGGS PARTICLE @ CERN! F YEAH FOR SCIENCE!