Posted on 08/26/2009 9:45:22 AM PDT by Cheap_Hessian
When South Florida atheists held their first meeting, they were just five friends, having a beer at a bar.
Four years later, they've moved to a bigger place -- still a bar -- to hold their weekly meet-and-greets. Membership is up to almost 500, Darwin Day is in the planning stages and bumper stickers are on sale.
"There is no God, but ice-cream is great," reads one. "What schools need is a moment of science," reads another.
Atheist groups are growing all over the United States, challenging stereotypes and confronting what they consider a big backslide in the separation of church and state.
They are chatting online, picking up trash along "adopted" highways, and advertising on buses and billboards. In South Florida, they recently picketed a prayer meeting in a public safety building paid for with tax dollars.
"We're growing by leaps and bounds," said Bob Senatore, a retired teacher and one of the early members of the Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists, or FLASH. "The attitude is, 'If we don't do something about it now, we'll be living under a theocracy.'"
Polls show non-believers are on the rise in the United States, even in places like Florida, where, as Senatore sees it, "There's a church on every corner and a fish on every car."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Marching straight to hell.
My thought exactly.
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To commemorate atheism they need to build some monuments to Treblinka and Buchenwald. The Gulag would be nice too. Or they could set aside a large area and call it The Killing Field. A model of a Cuban political prison would add a nice flair to the display.
I quite agree.
They can start by eliminating the pseudoscience of global warming.
So, where do the atheists “rights” come from if they are not endowed to him by his Creator?
The government?
Does he just “create” his own rights?
Atheism, aka Secular Humanism, is a religion, according to the decision made by a Federal court in Torcaso v. Watson, 1961. The court ruled that belief in a supreme being is not necessary to establish a religion.
If the Atheists really believed in “separation of church and state”, the way they want to force it on the rest of us, they would have their gay little meetings amongst themselves and shut up outside of that.
What a grim crowd “organized” atheists must be. Imagine if your whole life was focused on trying to prove your religious faith that there is no God and that the universe is a random, ultimately meaningless affair. Sad.
That's what I was thinking.
Most people who claim to be atheists are simply angry at God for some tragic event that happened in their lives.
Atheism is a temper tantrum.
Way to generalize. Let me turn that around:
Most of the “faithful” need a godhead to explain the tragic events that have occurred in their lives.
“the fool hath said (in his heart): ‘there is no god’”..and the bigger fool has said that they aren’t accountable to God, and therefore don’t need Christ!
Notice I said “most” not “all”. Some people are just too blind to see all the evidence of God around them.
Which one are you?
It's a form of adolescent rebellion against authority, like the girl who dates scummy guys just to irk her dad.
Your semantic loophole represents a distinction without a difference, unless you wish to provide something to back up “most”.
I believe in God but I am not a Christian. The atheists I know don’t come close to fitting your generalization, having never experienced any tragic circumstances. Some Christians I know, on the other hand, adopted their faith because of such tragic events in the lives of their loved ones, or personal physical afflictions.
You try to discredit my proposition by stating that Christians have “adopted their faith because of such tragic events”. I don’t disagree with this and I am proud to say that my Christian faith allows me to endure burdens.
My contention is that most people (including Christians and non-Christians) make their decisions about faith based upon their response to difficult times in their lives. You argue that the atheists you know have never experienced tragic circumstances, but you can’t really tell me you know this as absolute fact. Are you so certain that these people have shared with you everything about their past? What makes you so certain they would share these experiences with you? In my experience it is rare for anyone to go through life without experiencing loss of any kind.
You state that you believe in “God” but you are not a Christian…which God might that be? Are you simply a Deist?
You are attempting to discredit my proposition by stating that Christians have “adopted their faith because of such tragic events”. I don’t disagree with this and I am proud to say that my Christian faith allows me to endure burdens.
My contention is that most people (including Christians and non-Christians) make their decisions about faith based upon their response to difficult times in their lives. You argue that the atheists you know have never experienced tragic circumstances, but you can’t really tell me you know this as absolute fact. Are you so certain that these people have shared with you everything about their past? And even if you believe that how can you really be certain. My life experience, albeit limited to 40 years, has shown that it is rare that anyone escapes the trials and struggles of life. Each of us experiences loss in some way and decides to either approach or distance ourselves from God as a result of those experiences. My contention is that the evidence for the existence of God so far outweighs the evidence against the existence of God that people who deny God are either intellectually dishonest, willfully blind or are angry with God.
You state that you believe in “God” but you are not a Christian…which God might that be? Are you simply a Deist?
Sorry...I posted a version of my reply before I had finished typing. Please forgive the double post. It has been a long day.:)
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