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

From the same article:

"Atheists don't like our happiness, they don't want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable," Robertson said at the time. "They're miserable so they want you to be miserable."

Hahaha, projection much?

If atheists are miserable it's because of people treating them as less than human.

Interesting. Most atheists I know are pretty happy people. More to the point they are pretty self motivated people who believe that their circumstances are, in large part, within their control to improve and that the religious fatalism of their upbringing was, in large part, the proximal cause of much of their past unhappiness.

To the extent that atheists care what you believe, it is because they want you to abandon a vestigial belief system that requires energy, encourages bad decision making, and ultimately results in the failure to achieve true and meaningful happiness.

Paleocon wrote:

Interesting. Most atheists I know are pretty happy people. More to the point they are pretty self motivated people who believe that their circumstances are, in large part, within their control to improve and that the religious fatalism of their upbringing was, in large part, the proximal cause of much of their past unhappiness.

To the extent that atheists care what you believe, it is because they want you to abandon a vestigial belief system that requires energy, encourages bad decision making, and ultimately results in the failure to achieve true and meaningful happiness.

sh*t, I was supposed to have had a religious upbringing? Gotta get on my 2nd gen atheist dad about that lack

Tanglebones wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Interesting. Most atheists I know are pretty happy people. More to the point they are pretty self motivated people who believe that their circumstances are, in large part, within their control to improve and that the religious fatalism of their upbringing was, in large part, the proximal cause of much of their past unhappiness.

To the extent that atheists care what you believe, it is because they want you to abandon a vestigial belief system that requires energy, encourages bad decision making, and ultimately results in the failure to achieve true and meaningful happiness.

sh*t, I was supposed to have had a religious upbringing? Gotta get on my 2nd gen atheist dad about that lack

No wonder why you have such a hard time understanding magical thinking. You missed out on an important part of the American frame of reference.

KingGorilla wrote:

Most Jesuit priests are educated out the ass with PHDs in science, mathematics, linguistics, etc. I think the philosophy of the guiding hand of god in the theorems and laws of nature is a perfectly valid outlook. So maybe listen to them instead of Pat Robertson. Some of the finest Astronomy in the world comes out of the Vatican.

Yar, and they are legitimate scientists who actually understand that scientific inquiry as it exists today almost entirely came out of a time after the Bible so that the two do not have any real correlation. Great interview with a vatican astronomer in Religulous.

Jonman wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

TL;DR: No one should listen to a word Pat Robertson says. Ever.

Bazinga. The guy who hits one home run and strikes out the other 999 times is not a player you want to have on your team.

So Alex Rodriguez is baseball's Pat Robertson? Sounds about right.

Anecdotally, aren't Jesuits more likely to leave the faith than priests of other orders? I've known a few (three?) who did.

Robear wrote:

Anecdotally, aren't Jesuits more likely to leave the faith than priests of other orders? I've known a few (three?) who did.

You can't be that educated and still believe in fairy tales...

OG_slinger wrote:

No one should listen to a word Pat Robertson says. Ever.

I wasn't suggesting that anyone should. I just thought it was interesting that the poster boy for nutso evangelical extremism thinks that young earth creationism is a bit TOO nutso. It's been really entertaining watching young earthers like Ken Ham flip out over Robertson's dismissal.

Demyx wrote:

From the same article:

"Atheists don't like our happiness, they don't want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable," Robertson said at the time. "They're miserable so they want you to be miserable."

Hahaha, projection much?

If atheists are miserable it's because of people treating them as less than human.

Many right-evangelicals have a severely warped perception of what atheism is. To people like Robertson, the existence of god is so obvious that they assume it's obvious to everyone, and so an atheist isn't someone who doesn't believe in god but rather someone who knows god exists but refuses to worship him out of resentment, anger, or selfishness. From that point of view it's only natural for him to assume that we atheists are miserable, hateful people who want all of god's children to be miserable as well. I doubt Robertson has ever given himself a chance to know an atheist on any meaningful level that would prove otherwise.

OG_slinger wrote:
Robear wrote:

Anecdotally, aren't Jesuits more likely to leave the faith than priests of other orders? I've known a few (three?) who did.

You can't be that educated and still believe in fairy tales...

There are many highly intelligent, highly educated people who do.

gore wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:
Robear wrote:

Anecdotally, aren't Jesuits more likely to leave the faith than priests of other orders? I've known a few (three?) who did.

You can't be that educated and still believe in fairy tales...

There are many highly intelligent, highly educated people who do.

Yeah, it's called compartmentalization.

Well their god is not constrained by the words of cave people from 5,000 years ago.

KingGorilla wrote:

Well their god is not constrained by the words of cave people from 5,000 years ago.

True, but it often becomes something so nebulous as to have almost no definition at all. And at that point, what's the use? If it's this invisible "thing" that guides "stuff" but can't actually be detected by any means known to man, what basis is there to even consider it's existence? It seems to be the god for people who won't or can't let go of the idea, the comfort and familiarity of such a belief.

Letting go is hard.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/76490_457403510963429_1354684003_n.jpg)

My wife got us a Chanukah Bush to decorate from Michaels.

KingGorilla wrote:

My wife got us a Chanukah Bush to decorate from Michaels.

Chanukah Bush... that's Florida's governor right?

Neither one of us belongs to a church. I am an atheist, she is just apathetic and thoughts of divinity bore her. But my mom's side is Jewish from Finland. Many modern day Jews in the US have gotten into the habit of getting a tree because often other people have them in their homes for decoration, and it looks normal. Keeps kids friends from asking "Where is your tree?"

It is normally decorated in blue, silver, and white lights. No angels, Santas, Stars are on it.

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

I saw menora-shaped Christmas tree ornaments at Macy's last Saturday.

We're getting our Yule tree this weekend

It's not a real Hannukah Bush unless Hannukah Harry leaves presents under it each day.

Robear wrote:

It's not a real Hannukah Bush unless Hannukah Harry leaves presents under it each day.

Hanukkah Harry wrote:

Stop it. You're embarrassing me!

Bill O'Reilly has a unique view point on Christianity.

Good lord. I can't even watch all of it.

So this makes Islam a philosophy too right?

Rallick wrote:

Good lord. I can't even watch all of it.

Heh, I watched it all primarily because Bill O'Reilly is so entertainingly absurd. Also, Silverman messes up on the Happy Winter Solstice bit. To wish someone a happy solstice should be no more forbidden than saying "have a good day."

Basically, and I might be granting more credit than is due, but to classify Christianity as a philosophy (like separating intelligent design as a philosophy) one may how to avoid any tricky first amendment establishment issues.

Doesn't work with ID, not sure how it will work with the Babeh Jesus.

NSMike wrote:
Rallick wrote:

Good lord. I can't even watch all of it.

Heh, I watched it all primarily because Bill O'Reilly is so entertainingly absurd. Also, Silverman messes up on the Happy Winter Solstice bit. To wish someone a happy solstice should be no more forbidden than saying "have a good day."

See, entertainingly absurd is fine. Twisting innocent facts until they scream in pain, getting hostile and generally being a dick, to me, is not entertainingly absurd. Either he is sincere in his beliefs, making him more detached from reality than a rainbow-pooping unicorn, or he knows he's full of sh*t, in which case he's a lying scumbag. In any case, the fact that so many people seem to take his word as gospel scares the bejeezus out of me.

Of course, I may just have a low tolerance for that kind of thing, and I'm not in any way judging you for thinking he's entertaining. If I wasn't so incredulous and worried I might find it funnier.

KingGorilla wrote:

Basically, and I might be granting more credit than is due, but to classify Christianity as a philosophy (like separating intelligent design as a philosophy) one may how to avoid any tricky first amendment establishment issues.

Doesn't work with ID, not sure how it will work with the Babeh Jesus.

Do philosphies even have holidays to attack?

What's funny about this is that I think this may actually lose Bill some street cred with conservatives. Yeah, he's attacking Atheism again... but he's also suggesting that Christianity isn't a religion (which kind of an elevated position as compared to a philosphy or cult). I feel like this should also put off some Christians who watch his show... actually I take that back, the people watching this show seriously were probably cheering for him for taking down Athiesm a few pegs. *rolls eyes*

Oh hey, if Christianity is a philosophy, does this mean that all churches and denominations lose their tax-exempt status?

I make note of Darwin's Birthday like any good atheist; and Int'l Talk like a Pirate Day. May Day could be seen as one, if you lump communism and socialism in as a philosophy.

As far as state recognized? No. And you cannot take time of of work for them under US law.

Rallick wrote:

Oh hey, if Christianity is a philosophy, does this mean that all churches and denominations lose their tax-exempt status?

By my understanding of the tax code, many should lose it based on their political speech. Based on the current composition of the Supreme Court, that is iffy.