Be an atheist. That is what you are. That is fine. Hold your head high. Be proud. I tell Julian that. I'll say the same to you. I also encourage him not to paint all religion and believers in any country with one broad brush. It's not fair. It's not accurate, whether it is Dawkins doing it, or one of us doing it. On the other hand, it's not fair to stereo-type atheists or agnostics either.
Hostile to atheists
by d 281 Replies latest members politics
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Chemical Emotions
Interesting thread.
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FlyingHighNow
Beautifully put by Gerry Rafferty. Get It Right Next Time. "If you get it wrong you get it right next time."
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Qcmbr
At the end of the day its magic v reality. You can dress it up anyway, water it down, put a pretty bow on it and hope it passes the smell test.
The moment we accept a magic explanation for anything we have accepted religion's great lie and from there it's all just a matter of shading and where we draw our mental line in the sands of reality. For some people they are all in and talking animals and global floods are fine, for some they don't like the mythical stuff but lap up the legalism and the blood sacrifices and then there are the eclectic mystics who are making it up as they go grabbing a scripture here, bending a phrase there and privileging their gut over their reason - all logic fails and confirmation bias wins. The fundamentalist is merely a strongly shaded believer of whatever ilk , someone who has mentally abandoned the real world for a full on invisible hope and pinned everything on their brand of Valhalla.
As a former fundamentalist I am happy to use that term as a criticism and tag also indicating 'magical loon' and I am stunned at how few skeptical rationalists exist in my circle of friends in good old skeptical Britain, I shudder to think how many in the US are intimidated into expressions of faith by the hymn singing majority.
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THE GLADIATOR
As a hippie once told me:
‘They have told you a lot of fibs about God. God is love, peace, harmony. He is whatever you want him to be. He is everywhere man, you just have to look around.’ I looked around the room and concluded that his God was a God that liked colour. The fallout from his strangely shaped cigarette had relaxed me and I was beginning to like his God more than mine.
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FlyingHighNow
Your magic, my reality.
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FlyingHighNow
Gladiator, that is fine prose.
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still thinking
OM Gosh Gladiator....I want to know what happened next.....
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THE GLADIATOR
Thank you Flyinghighnow & still thinking. As you ask, this is how the encounter ended. I was a JW pioneer at the time, many years ago. I hope this is on topic:
‘You have made some good points and given me a lot to think about. I can see why you left the religion,’ I commented.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘My friends all call me Trevor, but you can call me Trevor,’ I joked. It was the best I could do to show him that I liked him. His expression showed that he understood.
‘You can leave me a pamphlet or something if you want.’
He was being kind and wanted me to think that our encounter had not been a one-way thing. I handed him a pamphlet containing the latest thinking and quipped. ‘If it doesn’t make sense, you can always smoke it.’
He laughed loudly again and placed his hand on my shoulder. ’Call by sometime, we can talk again.’
‘I will,’ I replied - and as it happened I did.
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FlyingHighNow
Gladiator, that is the most refreshing thing I've heard on JWN in a long time. I love it. Beautiful story. You have a way with words.