The Non-Believer/Non-Theist Thread.

I lack the belief in a god, or any supernatural entity. They are all works of fiction.

 

The real question should be .....if believe and belief are not the same then does arent and are not different?

 

[YOUTUBE]6IrtdLukslY[/YOUTUBE]

 

So then...when you posted this below..it's all lies to you.
Sweet.

 

All those books were written by men. Come on, you're being immature now. And that is irrelevant to the lack of belief in a god.

 

Carl Sagan and Christopher Hitchens both died in their sin rejecting and opposing God....and subsequently they will be separated from him eternally...
You also, Morning Star, seem to take continued delight in deposing the God of Jesus Christ........But I credit you for understanding and accepting that you too, will be separated from him eternally because at your mature age of accountability you have determined you have no need for a God........

 

In what year was the Satanic Bible written?

 

Unless there is proof, then you are merely speaking of empty nothings to accommodate your false sense of supremacy.

 

Good Times, of all shows!? Wow.

[YOUTUBE]JHCJ55vWMK8[/YOUTUBE]

 

It is a relief to find other skeptics here. This is obviously an emotionally charged issue for many people, and I find it harder to talk about my disbelief to my peers than any other subject. What I think is hard for people to understand is that mine is not a position of defiance or anger. I am not always comfortable, for instance, with my disbelief in an afterlife. But we don't believe things because they are comfortable... and I can credit my fundamentalist upbringing for teaching me that.
I do try to respect the beliefs of others but it can be hard living in a culture that assumes you must be a believer, or that assumes those who don't believe are devil worshipers, immoral, or amoral at best. I think being a non-believer makes me a better person, in many ways.
http://www.npr.org/2005/11/21/5015557/there-is-no-god

 

Living in the Bible Belt and an atheist is pretty unsettling for a lot of people. However, one thing I've realized is that those who have known me for a long time, tend to not really look at me as sideways, but only those whom gotten to know me over the years. But, believe it or not....there are many more people who identify with the nonreligious identity, albeit on a secular humanist level in Louisiana. However, I have seen new students come in who have been taught Creationism and Intelligent Design from their schools (thanks to the 2006 law signed by Jindal).

But I have to ask...where do we draw the line between respecting and appeasing? Seems like we are more than willing to give way more religious privilege and be dismissive of critcal thinking and intellectual discussions in favor of overly simplified and wrongful discussions. With this, I tend to not give such individuals an inch. Only a centimeter.

 

Good question. I think because this is the bible belt, I respect that someone may ask me to pray for them or they will undoubtedly offer to pray for me (I mean, it's great because it sounds like you are doing something, yet how could you possibly do LESS for a person). A few prayers come with helpful actions, and i respect those believers for actually trying to help others. However, when science and reason are abandoned (and academics discouraged) I find myself less tolerant. A dear friend told me she was under a nightly attack by a demon. Her church fostered this idea. She said the demon would paralyze her in the night and she would wake, unable to move or breathe because she was being oppressed by a demon. I told her about sleep paralysis, and suggested she was experiencing that phenomenon. Nope. A demon. How terrifying for her, but no amount of scientific literature would convince her otherwise. That is the sort of blind belief that terrifies me enough to speak up. I haven't found the right balance yet, obviously. However, it has taken a while to become comfortable with losing my own belief. Additionally I love music and the church is often tied to the history of western music as well as the modern performance of it. Sometimes I get paid to sing for them, although I think I try to stick with churches that are comfortable with science not being driven(or destroyed) by religion. I may still be a little more lost than you, so to speak, when it comes to drawing hard lines.
I like that when you do draw boundaries, you use the metric system. I couldn't help noticing.

 

Dang, it is late and I don't think my reply had the substance I would have liked it to have. I know this isn't how forums work but I will think on it some more and perhaps try a do-over tomorrow. Perhaps.