Posts by Qcmbr

65

Richard Dawkins espouses Militant Atheism: "Mock them, Ridicule them." Attack Religious People with Insults!

by MagicMItchJensen in

richard dawkins has said frequently if we don't agree with religious or spiritual people we need to "insult them!

" tell their their out of their "fucking gourds!

" and make sure you really show them how stupid they are for believing in something they can't prove!".

Qcmbr

Institutions or people who wish to impose power over other people must have some form of leverage. This will either be legal (you must 'obey' the police or go to jail), physical (I have a knife), resource (they pay you), cultural (she cannot wear that or she will be shunned) or intellectual (he knows something you don't.) Since religion can cross all those boundaries - and regularly does - it can only be weakened by an equal or superior opposite force. Mockery and derision attack the cultural and intellectual forces of religion. If an idea can withstand and triumph over mockery and derision then it is a worthy cultural and intellectual force (it does not make it right, just worthy).

If an idea cannot withstand derision and mockery and can only stand if aided by legal, physical or financial support then it is intrinsically unstable and weak. The true believers of a faith should relish mockery and derision. Only those deeply insecure in their belief seek to be unchallenged and hide behind squeals for respect and politeness because that allows them to continue to impose their will over you.

Religious people attempt to control and impose their will over everyone else by dictating what can be said and what can be done from basic social interactions through to state level laws. It is very rare for a religion to stand up for freedom of thought or to celebrate difference and individuality.

449

Labeling one self "Atheist" is Unscientific

by LAWHFol in

i have not meet all atheists, and it would be foolish for me to assume that all atheists, share the same prototypical view points.

i am inclined to feel that this classifies the views of a large percentage of atheists.

"atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.

Qcmbr

"I don't understand why almost all the threads that run the longest on this site have to do with atheism/theism debates"

In our pointless world we all generate meaning from our worldview. Joy, anger, fear, all are channeled and focused by what we believe and our responses informed and mediated by it. For some it is family, others it is work but for most it is religion and god(s) - it(they) provide purpose when none exists, they cause society to build pyramids and to hand over scarce resources to men in dresses and give in return peace, hope and devotion. These discussions are so important because they are so fundamental to who we are, what we do and why we do those things in our brief, flickering existence.

I understand the love of faith based magic thinking. It is an exhilarating drug with easy highs and sumptuous lows. It is glorious, however, like all ideologies (Nazism and Stalinism are two easy examples) the cost to the individual can far exceed the collective benefit. For those of us who are outside religion it is easier to see the long term cost of a faith worldview (ultimately by providing false but comforting answers it stifles our ability to look for or generate novel meaning that may better meet our needs - a bronze age, mystic cult is not suited to a technological and scientific community.)

This debate and the millions that will follow are our collective way of un-ravelling and discarding millenia of magic based culture and replacing it with fact based humanism.

449

Labeling one self "Atheist" is Unscientific

by LAWHFol in

i have not meet all atheists, and it would be foolish for me to assume that all atheists, share the same prototypical view points.

i am inclined to feel that this classifies the views of a large percentage of atheists.

"atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.

Qcmbr

A believer in a God lies out of both sides of their mouth when they claim that atheists are unable to disprove ANY god. The moment the believer defines the ONE god they happen to believe in it is a very basic set of steps to scientifically dismantle those claims since the definition of a God delineates what God is and what God is not and ascribes qualities to such an entity, qualities that can be checked to see if they hold up to scientific investigation.

Any believers wanna try?

32

BBC radio Prog " The Report" this week on JW Child Abuse

by Phizzy in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0612hjs.

to be broadcast at 20.00 hrs british summer time this thursday, available on bbc i-player shortly after broadcast..

Qcmbr

Also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33609927

46

exJW Billboard is up.

by cappytan in

jw
friends

waiting on higher resolution photos from wifibandit.. but here is the (redacted) notification from the company.

apparently they take photos with a potato.. (the billboard directs folks to http://jwawake.com ).

Qcmbr

Admiration from :

www.reddit.com/r/exmormon

8

So I clicked on the Mormon come-on advertisement to "Come chat about Jesus Christ"

by oppostate in

so i clicked on the mormon come-on advertisement on the top, the right side and the bottom of the jwd page that invited me to "come chat about jesus christ".. i started a chat with brook and taiza and asked them why the subtitle of the book of mormon changed from "another gospel of jesus christ" to "another testament of jesus christ".. brooke told me it hadn't so i googled it and told them there's plenty of websites that refer to it that way and i had a very old copy with that subtitle on it.. so taiza says it's probably a copy by some break off group and not from them.. i told her the inside said from the "lds".

so they left the chat.. so i figured maybe there's a technical glitch and i shouldn't assume they just dropped me.. so i log on again and give my last name instead of my first name this time.. and hellen and catherine log into the channel.. i ask them again about the title change and they drop off the chat.. so i figured twice is very unlikely that they had a glitch, and i'm pretty sure they dropped me because they didn't like my question.. one more time, i'll give them one more try.. so i log on again, with my middle name this time.. brooke and jayne log on.. i type that i'd been chatting previously with brooke.. she types back that she's a different brooke.. so jayne starts asking if i read the book of mormon.. i say yes and i have a question about it.. so i ask my question about the "another gospel" to 'another testament" change.. she says that she does not recall ever hearing about that and what do i like about the book of mormon.. i then ask her about the "gospel" paul wrote about in corinthians.. she says it's the same as in the book of mormon.. i ask back that if the gospel is the "same" why call it another???

and i quote her galatians 1:8.. she says that it does not apply to the book of mormon since it is not different from the bible so therefore, it is not another good news.. but that is the subtitle of the book isn't it.. so she sends me a link to a two minute video by the lds telling of the finding of the tablets and the transcription from reformed egyptian to english by joseph smith.. i started questioning whether reformed egyptian was a real language.

Qcmbr

Ask them to describe why they believe. If they mention anything spiritual (e.g. God bore witness to me) just keep asking about that experience. The more you probe the weaker it will reveal itself to be. There is almost no point in debating theology but every point in asking sincere questions about their reason for belief. My greatest pauses for thought have always been when people asked me searching questions rather than told me things. As you flesh out the backstory of the missionary you can ask questions like , 'So you have given up 2 years of your life for this based upon x. What would you do if you knew it was wrong...? Can you go home? Would you go home? etc..

85

Mormons getting hollowed out: The tipping point has occurred.

by Qcmbr in

ever since mitt romney turned the spotlight on the lds church a growing tsunami of disaffection has been accelerated and brought to a head.. the lds core faithful members are leaving in increasing numbers such that growth has not simply stagnated in the west but it has actively reversed.

to their credit the church is responding aggressively but not only is it too late, it is an impossible task.

you can only paint sh*t so many ways.

Qcmbr

I suspect the shunning mandate is the major difference. The Mormons were smug enough to actually think they were right and wouldn't need any further shackles. Now with the latest church admissions on hot topics the core members are either hunkering down into extra committment mode or leaving.

85

Mormons getting hollowed out: The tipping point has occurred.

by Qcmbr in

ever since mitt romney turned the spotlight on the lds church a growing tsunami of disaffection has been accelerated and brought to a head.. the lds core faithful members are leaving in increasing numbers such that growth has not simply stagnated in the west but it has actively reversed.

to their credit the church is responding aggressively but not only is it too late, it is an impossible task.

you can only paint sh*t so many ways.

Qcmbr

Additional Stats from UK for mormon collapse plus reddit fugures breakdown plus my ha'penneth:

UK LDS church is leaking money and is being supported by US mother church.
Average activity rate of members, calculated by tithing and observation, is ~11 - 17%
Despite 1700 baptisms, I presume excluding baptisms of children of members, actual fugures decreased by 1000. This indicates the more considered step of name removal (most just fade); the total membership figures include convert baptisms and children of record baptisms so to actually decrease by 1000 means 1700+500 (made up - its higher) = 2200 ergo 3200 had their name removed or died - that indicates a drop in membership of 10 people per church unit in 1 year. Mainly hard core members opt for name removal (it actually means something to them and is worth the effort.) The figures reported absolutely hide a decrease in activity. The closure of operating church units and the lack of new buildings does not.
2014 effect of essays and further disaffections not yet in stats. Will be very interesting.

http://www.mormonfileleaks.com/finances.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/2pibtd/lds_accounts_for_uk_in_2013_summary_in_comments/

6

Religions helping hand in poverty.

by Gratefullyunstuck in

something i picked up and thought would sit nicely on here.

strangely, guess which organisation boast about their growth in these countries, you can imagine on the ministry, fat western pioneer 'can you imagine a life without hunger and suffering?

' joke!

Qcmbr

The real solution to poverty is:

reducing the population to the carrying capacity of the land + technology + resources.
implementing equality laws that provide eqal rights to all people whether they be make or female, rich or poor.
a free market where all have equal barriers to trade and equal opportunities to overcome those barriers (i.e. access to loans, technology and intellectual capacity.)

In all aspects Abrahamic religions have consistently worked in the completely opposite direction from fighting against family planning through to anti equality and unfair market conditions (e.g. taxation laws.)

It was never about charity - a charitable institution is only required when the system is fundamentally broken and is failing to allow people the chance to work themselves out of poverty.

22

Mormon Church Founder had 33 wives

by designs in

we know russell, rutherford franz and knorr wer kooky but joseph smith takes the cake.. the salt lake tribune of all newspapers has run an article on the lds founder's 33 wives, most of whom were teenagers.. http://www.sltrib.com/news/173364-155/plural-smith-joseph-marriage-lds-says.

would you stay an lds after knowing this, how would you rationalize staying with this knowledge.. .

.

Qcmbr

Joseph married a 14 year old when he was 37. Game, set and match. The unsinkable Lds.org is going down holed under the waterline.