Posted on 01/26/2005 9:46:21 AM PST by 7thson
When I pulled into the parking lot this morning, I saw a car covered with sacrilegious bumper stickers. It seemed obvious to me that the owner was craving attention. I’m sure he was also seeking to elicit anger from people of faith. The anger helps the atheist to justify his atheism. And, all too often, the atheist gets exactly what he is looking for.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Someone comparing God to the mythical creatures like the Tooth Fairy is what is scary.
Secondly, NOBODY is "required to swear allegienace" to anything. It's quite simple. If you don't want to say the Pledge, don't; however, that's not good enough for the likes of Newdow.
Or rather --Sounds like a kind of missionary to me.
Nope. Saw several of 'em when I lived in CA.
A curious way of putting it. I do wonder whether it has occured to you (and the other professed atheists on the thread) that monotheism as confessed by traditional Christians and Jews is not one god paganism, but the settled conviction that the ground of all being, the reason there is something instead of nothing, is more like a person than like anything else we have ordinary experience of, together with the desire to be in right relationship with that reality.
Certainly Jews and Christians differ on the nature and extent of the self-revelation of that which is beyond being. As an Orthodox Christian, I am convinced that the decisive self-revelation of that which is beyond being (and there is a reason--not sexism as feminists would have us think--that "He" is always used of God) is the person of Jesus, as well as many other things about God and our relationship to Him (some of which are admittedly abstruse seeming to those not trying to live as Orthodox Christians) which follow from the Church's experience of Him.
Why do atheists need to build a monument? They are not celebrating anything. They are merely stating that they do not believe in God. You assume something has to take God place, it does not. You probably don't believe in lots of things, do you build monuments to everything you don't believe in? C'mon, move off a 6th grade argument.
Because some people are confrontational and thrust their beliefs or disbeliefs into the public arena for whatever reason. I don't believe in God, but I have no problem with churches, not even a problem with churches not paying taxes. That's fine. In the end, churches will use the money to help others, either through low cost housing (Habitat for Humanity,) feeding and clothing the homeless, or doing other Good things for humanity.
People think they have the right to not be offended. They are wrong. Having the Ten Commandments hanging in a courtroom is perfectly ok with me. It's the basis for our morality, and by some extension the legal system. Wish me a Merry Christmas, and I'm fine with that. I'll even join in on Christmas carols, just because I enjoy singing. ;)
Excellent. I wish I could be there.
I've been mulling a new ministry called "The eye of the needle". In the very earliest stages of conception. There are huge numbers of people who aren't targeted for ministry who fall in that catagory. I am one of them.
Both monuments and bumper stickers are public expressions of some ideas. The thread is about bumper stickers. Asking oneselves about monuments is a natural extension of the discussion.
Who would that be?
silly
I don't know it it is silly. I posted on the thread to find out what others think. So far, no one convinced me that atheism is an absence of something rather than another false religion.
"Secondly, NOBODY is "required to swear allegienace" to anything. It's quite simple. If you don't want to say the Pledge, don't; however, that's not good enough for the likes of Newdow."
But why should an atheist NOT say the Pledge of Allegiance? I say it, whenever the opportunity comes up. I say it the way I learned it in 1950, omitting the "under God" part because that part would make my pledge a lie.
I say it, and I'm proud to do so. I support my country. I've served my country.
Newdow is an idiot. He's also an individual. What he does has nothing to do with what I do. He's an atheist, and so am I. We couldn't be more different, though.
There are people claiming to be Christians who do some of the worst things I can imagine. I don't extend my feelings towards those people to others who claim to be Christians. I look at individuals and their actions and act accordingly.
I don't support the idiot Newdow. The fact that he says he's an atheist is meaningless to me. He's an idiot.
You think the cops should be policing bumper stickers?
Because the woman who did not have the abortion because she listened and obeyed God's commandments, did so explicitly, which is right. She obeyed the two greatest commandments which is always and absolutely right. The other did so for some other worldly reason which was not defined in your hypothetical. Anyway, just because the outcome is good (The child survived) does not mean the decision was was based on correct moral logic. Anyway, where do morals proceed from anyway, but God, the absolute good?
I wholly agree with you. Atheists can't have a monument or a bumper sticker. They simply lack something others don't lack. It does not deserve a celebration.
Oh, yeah, okay. [rolls eyes]
How to talk to an atheist? Ask them, Where did the tree come from? Then, Where did the seed come from? No matter what they answer, you say, And you believe that?
That's fine. If you have reasons for your belief that satisfy you, then more power to you. I don't mind if you believe...not at all.
Everyone believes what they can. Some of us do not believe, and cannot. Your experience and education lead you in one direction. Mine leads me in another. And there it is. I won't interfere with your belief in any way. Please leave me to my unbelief.
It's a good question.
What I think you are leaving out of your equation is seeing one's attitude towards God as a moral issue. It's like saying, "So, a child molestor drives the speed limit, and a non-child-molestor drives the speed limit -- but you're telling me the first guy's a bad guy anyway?"
Jesus was asked what the greatest moral imperative in the universe is. He said that it is to love God with all one's being. That trumps everything else. Everything either flows from that stance, or is tainted by its absence.
Dan
Dan
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