I'm giving the best reply award to Kaethra, that was funny, but yo..... The tooth fairy is a guy, you gotta be accurate on these boards here people!
Atheists, Why the Anger?
by XJW4EVR 147 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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NotaNess
Done4good(Jason)....
Regarding separation of church and state: The original intention by the founders was "Freedom OF religion not FROM religion", and the separation was to protect the "more important" Church, from the possible wrong doings and interferring of the "less important" Government, in religion. NEVER to keep religion out of anything to do with the government. Atheists, judges and lawyers have twisted the original purpose. Do the research, it's there.
And by the way, can you all get off the creation/evolution/no God/is a God topics, and let's get back to what's really important here.....picking on the WTS! jeeze!
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cognizant dissident
JNAT You absolutely nailed the real issue on this one. There is anger and disrespect on both sides of this debate. I have seen intelligent atheists on this board rudely insult and disrespect believers and I've have seen intelligent creationists rudely insult and disrespect atheists. Having been on both sides of this fence, (as a former JW I believed in creation and now I am an atheist) I can ask myself honestly, at what point in this evolution of mine, did I gain the right to be insulting and disrespectful to my former comrades in belief. At what point did I now become deserving of their insults, rudeness and disrespect? The answer is NEVER.
There is NEVER an excuse to be rude, insulting and disrespectful to our fellow human beings. The belief that our "rightness" or some else's "wrongness" justifies anything we may say or do to them is what allows relgious fanatics to blow each other up and commit genocide. It is what allows atheistic political fanatics to commit genocide.
One poster brought the morality of homosexuality into the mix. OK, so that poster finds homosexuality immoral because the Bible says so. Fair enough. Now I ask that person, having stated your belief freely, can you now accept that you have absolutely no right to be rude, disrespectful, or hurtful in any way to any homosexual person you may meet? (This is a rhetorical question, for example, I do not expect response) This is the type of "higher" morality that all believers and atheists can aspire to. It costs us nothing (except perhaps our egos and self-righteousness). Yet we have everything to gain from it. When we have accomplished that level of respect for one another, right or wrong, then we will truly have accomplished a "miracle".
That being said, if I see an angry mob coming after me with pitchforks, with murder in their eyes and muttering "heretic" under their breath, I'm fighting back!
Cog
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5go
Done4good(Jason)....
Regarding separation of church and state: The original intention by the founders was "Freedom OF religion not FROM religion", and the separation was to protect the "more important" Church, from the possible wrong doings and interferring of the "less important" Government, in religion. NEVER to keep religion out of anything to do with the government. Atheists, judges and lawyers have twisted the original purpose. Do the research, it's there.
And by the way, can you all get off the creation/evolution/no God/is a God topics, and let's get back to what's really important here.....picking on the WTS! jeeze!
One problem most of the founding father were deist, (proto atheist and some were proto communist) and gave a flip about the church they didn't want congress telling the people they had to join a church. In fact
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson. It proclaimed:
- "[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
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stevenyc
5go, you correct in your asumption regrading the founding farthers. It's well known that the consitutuin doesn't contain words like 'God' or 'Religion', and if you spend time reading the correspondence of the founding fathers, it's striking how much contempt they had for religion.
steve
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5go
5go, you correct in your asumption regrading the founding farthers. It's well known that the consitutuin doesn't contain words like 'God' or 'Religion', and if you spend time reading the correspondence of the founding fathers, it's striking how much contempt they had for religion.
And why was that ?
Because in the south preachers were saying stay with the king why? because god said so. The king was the head of the church of england. So to rebel against him was to rebel against the holy order.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
I had an interesting experience tonight...considered making a new topic for it, but wasn't sure where to put it, then remembered this thread. For the last couple months, this guy has been coming by my place of work (which is open to the public) late at night and shouting "He's coming back, JESUS loves you! Repent now and be saved" etc etc etc. The first time was just a little weird, my coworkers and I just kinda looked around at each other and burst out laughing. Then he started coming back...and back...and back. Three times a week, on average-usually on weekends, and always late at night, midnightish or later. (I posted about it then too, on a thread about whether you ever went out in service in the wee hours of the morning.)
So, a couple weeks ago I grew annoyed, and resolved to do something about it. The next time he opened our door to shout in as was his custom, I shouted back..."Beelzebub loves you too" or something of the sort, don't actually remember, but my coworkers thought it was a riot...he stopped coming by for a while after that, though once he drove by the parking lot and shouted out his usual message from his moving car rather than coming to our door, we all joked that he'd been run off, probably thought we were all hell-bound sinners or something, lol.
This weekend he returned, with a vengeance. Started preaching in the parking lot, yelling that "God sent Hurricane Katrina because the homosexuals were having a parade". I couldn't resist shouting back "Yeah, that's what Jerry Falwell said too, and look at him-he's dead!" This was Saturday night, and our regional manager happened to show up, so I felt like I needed to "be good", else I might have had a few more choice comments to make. I took him (manager) aside, and explained what a nuisance this guy was, and asked if there was something we could do about it, legally. He said that the company didn't actually own the parking lot, the job is in a large building containing several other businesses, whoever owned the whole thing would have to originate the complaint. He did ask the guy politely to leave, though. Didn't really work, but he left eventually, clearly not because he'd been asked to, though. Meanwhile, some comments went back and forth, even the regional manager joined in trying to bait the guy on some bit of doctrine or other, he got so annoyed.
Sunday night he came back again. We must have really riled his preaching side (at some point or other, this guy has claimed to be a pastor...I can only imagine his congregation), because this time he parked his car in the parking lot, opened up all the doors, and blasted out Christian music from his car stereo, all the while preaching away in the parking lot and singing along to the music. Some of the things I recall him saying/shouting/singing were: "The love of Jesus is a pure love...it can't be beat...FORNICATION don't beat it...ADULTERY don't beat it...DRINKING don't beat it...DRUGS don't beat it..." The rational side of me was saying 'wasn't fornication and adultery said seperately redundant?' but I was about ready to boil by now-I'd had enough. I called the local police non-emergency number, and they sent a unit out in about 5 minutes and told him to move it along. As he left he shouted out "I'll respect your private property, but JESUS STILL LOVES YOU". Ugh. What a whack job.
Remains to be seen if he will take the hint, or what will come of this...I almost hope he comes back, so I can call the police again-they made it clear that they would be more than happy to, should the need arise.
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poppers
Interesting story, AATW. Is there some particular reason he has singled out your parking lot? Do you know if he does that elsewhere?