Is Atheism a threat to Freedom

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Atheism is a threat to freedom like a Jar Jar Binks shirt is a threat to virginity.


And example of such a shirt:

Women LOVE Jar Jar Binks! OH MY GOODNESS! ATHEISM WILL DESTROY US ALL!!

They only love his tongue.

'Xmas' is from Greek Christians actually. "Χριστός" is Greek for Christ.

Uh though Gambling is illegal, you owe me at least 20 bucks.

I don't have one. To an extent, I respect the law, but if a law is put in place that is unjust, I speak out against it.


It's not. It's the absence of the belief that there is a god. One can be both an atheist and believe that there is no god, but they are two separate questions. "Do you believe in any god?" and "Is there a god?" are not the same question. One can say "no" to the first and "I have no idea" to the second, and still be an atheist. Atheism isn't a belief, and it's certainly not a belief system. It is simply the state of not having accepted the claim "there is a god" as true, regardless of whether or not one has accepted the claim "there is no god" (or any other claim) to be true.


What lawsuits are these? I've never heard of any lawsuits quite like what you described. Sources, please!
I certainly never sued anyone over being offended by their religious symbols. I've got no stake in taking away anyone's religious symbols. But if a private person can put up a religious display in a public place, all I ask is that I can put up a non-religious or even spoof-religious (for example pastafarian) display in the same spot. Would I exercise this right? Probably not, displays (whatever they are) aren't really my hobby. But on principle, I should be allowed to. As a matter of fairness.
That said, if a court house had a monument of the ten commandments outside, I'd certainly question their respect for modern secular law, which is what they are supposed to deal with in such a building. Not bronze-age superstitious law.


Absolutely not. And I'm fairly certain the vast majority of atheists will agree with me on this point. It should be each individual's personal choice whether they want to pray or not. The only thing I ask is that schools don't tell students to pray or have special "prayer time". Each individual student who feels like praying (to anything they want to pray to) can pick out their own prayer time, as long as they don't disrupt other students and cause a scene.


Nope. I've got no problem with people celebrating Christmas. I celebrate non-religious yule with my family every December 24th. As does most of Sweden, and I've got no problem with other people choosing to throw some Jesus in the mix, so long as they don't stuff any of it down my throat. You have a very skewed view of what an atheist is, sir. I've got no interest in taking your Christmas away.


This is where you lost me completely. The state should not be in charge of Christmas. The state should not have the right to shove Jesus down anyone's throat. The state should not have any religious bias, what so ever. Period.

My guess is that Facts are your Authority.

They are mine.

Facts rule -- always, theories serve -- sometimes.

ruveyn

I suppose you could put it that way. I wouldn't call facts a "figure", though. I perceive reality to the best of my abilities, and I do my best to consider new observations and compare them to old ones, to do my best to get as clear and honest a view of the facts as I can. Ultimately, I'm the figure who has to figure it all out in my own head.

he watches a lot of fox news. he obviously subscribes to the idea that there is a "war on christmas." (we can't do anything without a war, here.) these guys get upset that retail workers greet customers by saying nonspecific things like "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas." seriously.

though i can't help but enjoy the idea of christians being upset about us damn secularists stealing their holiday. how dare we point out that the nativity scene (leaving aside the fact that it's fiction) doesn't even fit into the holiday. i hope inuyasha is visited by a lot of jehova's witnesses (they like to point out how christmas has nothing to do with jesus) this year.



....and i love how this changed from "atheism is a threat to freedom" to "atheism is a religion" to "atheists hate christmas."


next topic: atheists actually do believe in god but choose to work for the devil instead because they're big meanies! (2 john 1:7)

I actually couldn't care less about the Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays debate. Sure I watch Fox News a lot, that doesn't mean I don't do my own research.



For starters Jesus did exist, there is enough evidence to verify that outside of the Bible. Second of all, I know how to get Jehova witnesses to leave me alone. All one has to do is say they are Mormon and they leave and never come back.



I was giving an example, which is part of a larger narrative. Seriously, your attempts to take things out of context and derail the topic isn't fooling me.



I would say it depends on the Atheist, for example I don't think one is a bad person just because they are an Atheist. If someone doesn't realize they are incorrect about something, I think it is inappropriate to be calling for their heads. Also I am well aware that the behavior of some Christians has turned people off to the message of Christianity. I'm not going to blame the people that were turned away by the bad behavior of another individual or individuals.

Last I checked, there wasn't. Please supply this evidence of which you speak. Sources, please.


Yet when someone else gives an example as a part of a larger narrative, you accuse them of changing the subject and attacking Christianity.

yes. how terrible of me to try so hard to "take things out of context" (like pointing out that you're casting stones) and also how terrible of me to try so hard to "derail the topic" by pointing out what a terrible job you've done to address the topic that you chose to start this thread on.

and the bible (specifically 2 john 1:7) agrees with my "big meanies" position.

that there's evidence supporting jesus being real is news to me. you should link some of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus

Also you can look for Case for Christ.

[qupte="Vince"]

Yet when someone else gives an example as a part of a larger narrative, you accuse them of changing the subject and attacking Christianity.[/quote]

There is a difference between a larger narrative and trying to make another group look bad in order to distract from the issue.

you should read that wikipedia entry a bit closer. the only documents it says you're referring to are christian gospels. fail.

as to the bolded remark, i accuse you of trying to portray atheism as a religion in order to claim it has an underlying belief system that motivates "Atheists" to act against "Freedom" in order to distract from the issue of we keep pointing out that magic isn't real.

First of all, Wikipedia isn't a credible source of evidence. Anyone can edit it. Secondly, it doesn't even say anywhere on that wikipedia page that there is enough evidence to verify that Jesus with any certainty did exist. In fact, it does say that the historical claims being made about Jesus are derived from the gospels, which are all known to have been written long after the events supposedly transpired. That's hearsay, not conclusive evidence. Not even contemporary documentation, which would strengthen (but not close) the case. Try again.


This would be Lee Strobel's Case for Christ? I've heard a bunch of arguments from it, and they were less than impressive (and certainly not any kind of evidence), but please do point me toward its very strongest piece of "evidence" and we'll see how conclusive it is.

Mind you, I'm not arguing that Jesus didn't exist. The character of Jesus may very well have been loosely based on a real person, or even several different people. I am simply saying that your claim that there is extrabiblical evidence which verifies that Jesus did exist, is false until you can demonstrate otherwise.


Yes, there is a difference. You just don't know where the line is, and choose to put it wherever you feel like putting it.

If you want to get in a serious debate over whether or not Jesus existed start another topic. You are again trying to derail the topic.