Atheists and White Supremacists

[East Coast Hustle]

Everybody I know believes all manner of dumb shit, including me. That the beliefs are, in this case, theologically-related carries no special import. That people don't like being told they believe dumb shit is, of course, not news. It also doesn't mean the shit's not still dumb. Nowhere is it written that just because somebody is a friend we have to validate or accept their dumb shit.

Well what exactly makes it dumb shit? Your oversimplified caricature of a specific god?

That's not very relevant, is it? If he didn't think that particular belief was dumb, there would definitely be something else that you believed that he thought was dumb. Doesn't mean he thinks you are dumb.

Everyone has some beliefs that are dumb, and obviously different people won't agree on which is which. It's not the end of the world.

This.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Everybody I know believes all manner of dumb shit, including me. That the beliefs are, in this case, theologically-related carries no special import. That people don't like being told they believe dumb shit is, of course, not news. It also doesn't mean the shit's not still dumb. Nowhere is it written that just because somebody is a friend we have to validate or accept their dumb shit.

Well what exactly makes it dumb shit? Your oversimplified caricature of a specific god?

That's not very relevant, is it? If he didn't think that particular belief was dumb, there would definitely be something else that you believed that he thought was dumb. Doesn't mean he thinks you are dumb.

Everyone has some beliefs that are dumb, and obviously different people won't agree on which is which. It's not the end of the world.

And how is that itself relevant? He someone thinks i have a particular belief that they think is exceedingly stupid should i just accept that or ask them why they think its so stupid? Just because its dumb doesnt make it so. Even if its a false belief it isnt automatically dumb.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I harbor a serious and almost violent disdain for all organized religion. This, I understand, is due to a number of personal experiences not shared by probably most of the believers who subscribe to those beliefs. I may be seeing through a filter, but every indication from every single shred of evidence I have ever encountered is that either there is no God, or there might as well not be one. I understand I am biased, but to the best of my ability to ascertain what is true and what isn't, that bias is no different from the "bias" a scientist might have to look at biological history through the filter of evolution, or the "bias" held to by an astronomer who just "assumes" that Titan is not made out of sweet cream, no matter how many lunatics insist that it is or that it could be if we were open to the possibility of it.

What makes belief in God dumb? Nothing. Only my own internal dialog that has led me to thinking it's dumb. Which is why, while I personally have a disdain for it, I'm not going to let it drive me to be an asshole to a believer or group of believers. So their trip is different than mine. They probably think half the shit I believe is wrong, too. And they might be right in the end. On the other hand, while a conclusion is where you stopped thinking, not all conclusions must be constantly called into question and reevaluated. Sometimes you've stopped thinking because there's nothing else to consider down that road, or because you've decided -- willfully -- to take a completely different road altogether.

[LMNO]

Wait-- Titan is made out of SWEET CREAM?!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Somewhere out there P3nt is running around with a cigar in his mouth and a blonde on each arm, completely unaware of the havoc he has caused.

I have no hate for the man.  I just think his thinking is fractured.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I harbor a serious and almost violent disdain for all organized religion.

As do I.  Religions are politics, and politics get people killed.

[Junkenstein]

Somewhere out there P3nt is running around with a cigar in his mouth and a blonde on each arm, completely unaware of the havoc he has caused.

I have no hate for the man.  I just think his thinking is fractured.

There's a degree of irony that he's probably the only person who's not posted ITT yet.

When that happens 200 pages.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Even if its a false belief it isnt automatically dumb.

A false belief is bad signal.  Thing is, you have to be able to falsify a belief to declare it so, and a God is by definition unfalsifiable, which puts it outside of the realm of rationalism entirely.

False beliefs are dangerous things.  They are dangerous because they prevent you from seeing things as they really are, and that will eventually get someone killed.  Or maybe not killed, but the results are never desirable.

It is a main article of my belief system that the world should be viewed entirely in a fact-based manner, whenever possible.  This means revising my world-view on a regular basis.  And you learn a little something from everything.

This thread, for example, was very instructive.  I learned that, among other things, Queen Gogira considers me a dumb beast that hate-shits compulsively, and will find a target if none present themselves.  It's not that I am offended; I lack the agency to be offended.  I am merely a snarling animal.



I also learned - relearned, actually - that there are some subjects that damn near everyone will break cover on, because their personal belief system requires that they speak up no matter what.  You see that in teabaggers, congressmen, buddhists, and here...With varying degrees of effectiveness and motivation.

[Faust]

As a Discordian I would like you all to know that I am a bigot and I do not recognise your belief system.  Under the tenants of my religion you are all by definition Discordians.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

As a Discordian I would like you all to know that I am a bigot and I do not recognise your belief system.  Under the tenants of my religion you are all by definition Discordians.

As a Discordian I would like you to know that I am also a bigot and I do not recogize your slop as beer, especially that piss & ashes combination you call "Guiness".  You are a squat and ugly people, and that puffy green tophat looks DUMB.

[Salty]

I don't agree with OP.

SO WHY DON'T YOU ALL GET FU-

Nah, uh, oh right:

I don't care so much about atheist, or similar shit, one way or another. It's like daily horoscopes, imo. They're...out there...somewhere, and they're a part of The Machine, somehow. But that's about it.

The town I live in is very religious, there's about as many churches as starbucks here, in strip malls and all. I've been to so damned different many. When you live around religious people and experience their community, you can come to miss it. Plus, I think many of the people who cling to religion is to feel superior, perhaps because our social demands are not being met because of the parasitic nature of our government, the effects of which trickle so far down...

If we can not attain status in the physically, we can maybe attain it spiritually.

When you leave, if you leave, there's a gap. Do people who've never experienced religion have that? Isn't that why we're all here arguing? Do you feel a gap when you've been away from the PD for some time (yeah, right).

Atheists have probably found some kind of community on the internet they didn't have before, and nothing binds people together like conflict. And who makes things hard on Atheists?

Of course, everyone make everything hard on everyone. Humans are rough with one another.

But when you're brain is in that place, possibly surrounded by people who constantly preach that YOU and what you THINK is causing all kinds of horrible shit in the world. That their devil is working through you.

Which, of course, is totally hilarious! And, of course, not all Christians are like that. Many are not like that. But there are many, many more who are like that. Vindictive, snide, cruel. To anyone who isn't like them, and also to those just like them.

But primate politics as they are, doesn't it make sense for them to band together about that hostility?

You get people who need some kind of way to identify that, not only are you reasonable, but you feel isolation and anger toward a larger, more powerful enemy. Maybe people miss that from religion as well?

Anyway, people get excited. As long as they're not setting people on fire...

It may be borne of insecurity, but I don't think it's unnatural.

All in all it still seems like make believe to me.

Or, indulging those who engage in make believe.

I think it's funny that The King James Bible has the word unicorn in it, mostly because people just accepted this. Why wouldn't they? And I'll use that sort of shit to talk with an obvious Atheist at a party, because it's funny! But I wouldn't argue with a Christian about it and rub it in their face. That's just petty.

Humans who take in reality with their brains and process it as reasonably as possible, given facts available, don't really need a descriptor, and religious thought neither prevents nor enables the ability to do so. Very, very reasonable people can still be very wrong, as I'm sure we've all seen. I do believe that's a meme-bomb, actually.

Which I've butchered. You've welcome.

[Faust]

As a Discordian I would like you all to know that I am a bigot and I do not recognise your belief system.  Under the tenants of my religion you are all by definition Discordians.

As a Discordian I would like you to know that I am also a bigot and I do not recogize your slop as beer, especially that piss & ashes combination you call "Guiness".  You are a squat and ugly people, and that puffy green tophat looks DUMB.

Ok, I'll let you in on a secret. Guiness has been a joke we've been playing on the world for the last century. We export the biproduct run off of Poitín and sell it as a folksy irish product, that for whatever reason people out there actually ingest.

Being Irish isn't about drinking something that's 7% alcohol, 53% Iron, and 40 % effluent. Irish hertiage drinks are pretty much anything at about 55% alcohol and up.

[Demolition Squid]

Guiness is the Big Mac of beers. If you can force yourself to like it, you are guaranteed to have a beer you can drink anywhere in the world, and that's kind of impressive.

The trick is forcing yourself to like it. (I have not learned this trick).

[East Coast Hustle]

Upon further reflection, I feel I should apologize for calling anyone who believes in deities dumb when I meant to speak strictly of the belief itself. I didn't mean it to be inflammatorily dismissive but I can see how easily it would be taken that way.

[Junkenstein]

If alty isn't right here, I really don't know what the fuck is going on.