Fellow Atheists/Agnostic Atheists - Let's Chat: Do you feel it is risky being "out" these days?

Welcome to the site, Docjoe, hope you can make it to our next local board game gathering on the 24th, where we play a fine collection of faith-based board games, and everybody says, "Well, if I lost, it was all part of God's plan".

A buddy of mine is a west Tennessee dairy farmer and there are a bunch of coal mines in the area. When he was growing up one of them had a mine collapse and the whole town came out to help dig out the trapped miners. When they got out, the town preacher told them that he prayed for them. And the foreman replied "okay, but were ya digging? "

Paleocon wrote:

A buddy of mine is a west Tennessee dairy farmer and there are a bunch of coal mines in the area. When he was growing up one of them had a mine collapse and the whole town came out to help dig out the trapped miners. When they got out, the town preacher told them that he prayed for them. And the foreman replied "okay, but were ya digging? "

+1

Welcome, DocJoe and what a heartrending story. No words. If that were me, I'd be climbing into bottles for breakfast.

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

"Well, I just mean that when you're finished practicing being Jewish, you'll be good enough to be Christian!"

Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

Don't worry, he obviously imagined that, because atheists are the pushy ones, not Christians.

Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

I feel it was his duty, as a doctor, to then say "are you ready to accept that I'll be your personal savior?"

Nevin73 wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

I feel it was his duty, as a doctor, to then say "are you ready to accept that I'll be your personal savior?"

Say what you like about doctors, but I'm just saying that Jesus never puts his finger up my butt.

Jonman wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

I feel it was his duty, as a doctor, to then say "are you ready to accept that I'll be your personal savior?"

Say what you like about doctors, but I'm just saying that Jesus never puts his finger up my butt. :)

Sounds like somebody isn't tipping their Latino gigolo nearly enough.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Jonman wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

You'll love this. One of my partners is Jewish. He was seeing a patient today and her mom looks at him and finally let's it out.

"So are you a practicing Jew?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior?"

You just can't make stuff like that up.....

I feel it was his duty, as a doctor, to then say "are you ready to accept that I'll be your personal savior?"

Say what you like about doctors, but I'm just saying that Jesus never puts his finger up my butt. :)

Sounds like somebody isn't tipping their Latino gigolo nearly enough.

All he gets is the tip.

*badumtish*

A middle-aged Jewish man runs into a friend of his, another Jew.

"You'll never believe it!" he says. "My son became a Christian!"

"Funny you should mention," the other says. "Mine too."

Concerned, the pair decides to appeal to God. "God," they say. "our sons have both become Christians!"

"Funny you should mention," God says. "Mine too."

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

A middle-aged Jewish man runs into a friend of his, another Jew.

"You'll never believe it!" he says. "My son became a Christian!"

"Funny you should mention," the other says. "Mine too."

Concerned, the pair decides to appeal to God. "God," they say. "our sons have both become Christians!"

"Funny you should mention," God says. "Mine too."

That gave me a good laugh. Thanks.

I watched The Book of Eli on Monday and really, really liked it. Just like the real world it is something that both Christians and Atheists can point to and say
"See! This is exactly what I'm talking about."

I had heard that it was a strongly Christian movie, and after watching I thought that it was actually a parody of Christian beliefs, and had to double check on the internets whether it was actually viewed by most Christians as being a positive movie, and as far as I could tell it really, really was!

Several positive reviews of Book of Eli by Christian Youtubers, articles praising its portrayal of Christian values, discussion points to go over with your bible group after watching it, etc. So yeah, apparently a really legit movie about actual Christian values.

Good ol' Poe's law.

Well, as legitimately Christian as anything written by Gary Whitta. I'm pretty sure that guy just worships at the Church of Apple.

I've never really identified as an atheist, but I do find myself enjoying the label of anti-theist. The interesting thing is that religion alone sounds all sorts of fascinating to me. The often mythological underpinnings of religions have me curious about the origins of scripture, the anthropological and sociological makeup of the people for whom the religious texts were devised and just the general why and how of it all.

Then you throw in a religious devotee into the mix and all of a sudden, that luster that religion has sans practicer fades. I find myself seeking something to blame and I can think of none other than the religion itself. I rationalize that if they weren't an adherent of whatever religious philosophy they are trying to force upon me, I wouldn't be in an uncomfortable exchange with a person whose biggest fault is mistaking a fable for reality.

I've pondered a bit about this and I believe that the fact of the matter is that I just don't like certain people. It's a personality trait that I am not fond of and that trait is fanaticism. Not just any fanaticism, but the infectious type, where the individual wants their fanaticism to spread to others. That, without a doubt, is what my anti-theistic tendencies really are, an intense dislike for belligerent virus-like personalities that seek to either multiply or destroy.

Hmm, I guess what I'm getting at is that thankfully many atheists aren't proselytizers. I have yet to have an atheist back me into a corner in an attempt to beat my higher power of choice out of me. Hehe.

Noticeable lack of other religions in the book of Eli.

1Dgaf wrote:

Noticeable lack of other religions in the book of Eli.

At the end there was already a

Spoiler:

Quran and Torah

in stock. And people have claimed that the

Spoiler:

cleansing ritual at the end as he is dying is meant to imply that Eli is Muslim.

Yeah, those touches Yonder mentions really sold me on Book of Eli--it felt like it was much more about the power and strength of idea, history, and cultural preservation than a specific faith. Just one reading, of course.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Yeah, those touches Yonder mentions really sold me on Book of Eli--it felt like it was much more about the power and strength of idea, history, and cultural preservation than a specific faith. Just one reading, of course.

I read it as a story about a Christian God giving a person a divinely mandated task, and then blessing him with the protection that he needed to accomplish such a herculean effort.

Right underneath that story I detected a second story: where God sat back and watched His word being used to destroy the world with fire (he only ever promised not to let it be destroyed again by water) and did nothing to stop people using him to murder billions and billions of innocent people. As well as, if what we saw in the movie was enough to go by, much of the innocent plant and animal life on the planet.

God was cool with all of this happening, but once humankind decided to rebel against their overlord and destroy the Bibles which so strongly contributed to this devastation, God said "wait wait wait, don't destroy anything important to me" and tasks a poor sap with recovering the Bible. We then come in for the end of Eli's journey, and even with our short time in the world we see that innocent people are still being murdered in the lawlessness of the world. God protects none of the people being attacked, save for the guy that happens to be protecting the Bible that God needs to enslave the next generation.

Spoiler:

To really twist the knife in, God fulfills the letter of his bargain, and not the spirit. God promised to protect Eli as he completed the task, which God decided meant prolonging his death from a gut wound while he dictated the Bible, and then letting him die after he finished, with a little time left over so he could heartfully thank God for being so good to him. Ah Stockholm syndrome.

Alternatively, though Eli thought that protecting Solara was the right thing to do, it was because he wasn't reading his Bible carefully enough. God cares about protecting innocents and saving lives as more of a hobby, if at all. God's full-time job is making sure that people do exactly what he god damn tells them to do to the letter. He told you to protect and deliver the Bible, not protect pretty young girls. The instant you chose Solara over the Bible your protection was withdrawn, enjoy that bullet lovingly nestled within your intestines.

Um... bitter, much?

Farscry wrote:

Um... bitter, much? :D

Not really, God didn't do that in my Universe. Other people's fictional Gods can do what they want to their fictional universes and inhabitants. That was just my reading of what that portrayal of God did with his people. The fact that it seems like most people that watched the film thought that was a positive portrayal of God and his values perplexed me. I was expecting my research to find a bunch of Christians lambasting Hollywood for another negative and false view of Christianity. Instead I found Catholic priests talking about how great it was on youtube.

Ah, ok, I gotcha.

I never watched it because it honestly just looked rather uninteresting to me. I've enjoyed reading about the discussions around the film far more than I think I would enjoy watching the film itself!

Farscry wrote:

Ah, ok, I gotcha.

I never watched it because it honestly just looked rather uninteresting to me. I've enjoyed reading about the discussions around the film far more than I think I would enjoy watching the film itself!

Having seen it, I'd say your instincts are correct.

[quote=Yonder]

1Dgaf wrote:

Noticeable lack of other religions in the book of Eli.

At the end there was already a

Spoiler:

Quran and Torah

in stock.

Yes, a peculiarly limited view that shows just how small-minded the film is.

Spoiler:

Hinduism, Sikkhism, Jainism, (technically not but), Buddhism, Shintoism...

Farscry wrote:

Ah, ok, I gotcha.

I never watched it because it honestly just looked rather uninteresting to me. I've enjoyed reading about the discussions around the film far more than I think I would enjoy watching the film itself!

I did not find it ambiguous at all, but perhaps that is because I knew that it was a Christian film going in.

I can easily forgive that, if it's a good movie, because hey - I've suspended belief for crazier things than Christianity in films. Unfortunately, Book of Eli was not quite a good movie, and so it's really best to just give it a pass.

So I just discovered the music from 'The Book of Mormon'. It's the first Parker+Stone project I've enjoyed, but these tunes are catchy, hilarious, and on Youtube.

Well, that hyperlink works pretty well.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

Well, that hyperlink works pretty well.

The Book of Mormon

I think BBCode hates parenthesis, but the HTML version works fine.

I also didn't even know that existed, but then I'm not cultured enough to seriously enjoy the finer points of the Broadway theatre scene.

Keldar wrote:

I also didn't even know that existed, but then I'm not cultured enough to seriously enjoy the finer points of the Broadway theatre scene.

They were talking about it on The Daily Show. It actually seems to be well regarded on Broadway, which is shocking to me considering who created it.

gore wrote:
Keldar wrote:

I also didn't even know that existed, but then I'm not cultured enough to seriously enjoy the finer points of the Broadway theatre scene.

They were talking about it on The Daily Show. It actually seems to be well regarded on Broadway, which is shocking to me considering who created it.

Yeh, I don't know much at all about musicals (very few make it to New Zealand, even fewer decent ones), but it won the major Tony Awards, which I think are the Oscar-equivalent of the field.

The Book of Mormon is great. Saw it on Broadway in December while on a mileage run.