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Letters, queries, myth-busting, etc...
This page contains e-mails, posts, and questions directed to The Church, and atheists in general, as well as the response from Reverend Justin.
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Anonymous Atheist:"Critical thinking, objectivity, scientific methodology, and peer review are all hallmarks of Atheism. Submission, fear, credulity, and insupportable claims are the hallmarks of religious belief. "
Baffled Christian:"When I read statements like this I can't help but wonder which religion they are referring to. It can't be Christianity because the Bible teaches us to love God and love our fellow man. It teaches that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, that truthfulness is a way of life, and that eyewitness accounts of the miraculous is one of the evidences for its validity. Of course, the atheist would argue with all of this because he must. But still, if an atheist wants to attack religion in general and Christianity specifically, it should, at least, do so objectively. But this doesn't seem to be the hallmark of the atheistic movement; at least not from what I've seen so far."
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It is Christianity, through and through.
Submission: Christianity requires a total submission to a dogmatic belief and systematized "morality" under the pretense of divine being. If you happen to be Catholic, then it is further submission under the Church mandates and “tradition” as well.
Fear: You said it yourself. Fear in the Lord... except this person sees it as positive thing, quite reminiscent of a slogan I read, nagging me in the back of my mind.... "War is peace... Freedom is slavery... Ignorance is strength."
Credulity: You must have "faith" in Christianity, despite the utter lack of empirical evidence. You believe the Bible (despite historical fallacy), and just have a "feeling" that it is right. This is credulity.
Insupportable claims: Christianity's only basis is the Bible. The Bible has been subject to a millennia and a half of human influence, which I am sure you are fully aware of with only the smallest effort of research, and which I doubt I need to get into. You cannot use the Bible to prove Christianity correct. You cannot say "The Bible is right because the Bible says that the Bible is right"... you are simply using a Paper Pope, and it is no more logical for Protestantism than when the Catholics try and do it. There are no eyewitness accounts. For a religion that claims "truth" as a way of life, it is remarkably baseless.
We "must" fight religion, because (as Reverend Jay has said) “religion is constantly assaulting our views and us”. It is a matter of sheer intellectual (and even physical, and economic/vocational) survival. Christianity constantly claims to be persecuted, but it is the one doing the most persecution, intentionally or no. When you have been physically harmed for being Christian in America, when you have lost thousands of dollars in property damage for being a Christian in America, and when you are unable to get a job in your respective field of study because you are a Christian in America, or are in constant worry about maintaining the one you have for being a Christian in America, then you may say that you are persecuted. I am a political science major in Texas. The fact that I would have to leave my state to find a job if I chose to work in public office is abhorrent enough. The fact that people are actually fighting for the cause of this is simply sickening.
--Reverend Justin; High Priest of the Holy Church of Happy Goodtimes
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Why protest God? Why not just believe what you believe, and let us believe what we believe? What has God done to you?
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Obviously "God" has done nothing to me, as he does not exist. We “protest God”, however, because many of the people who happen to hold dogmatic belief in a God make life a living hell for those of us who do not. We are not just protesting the idea of a god... I personally couldn't care less if you want to have this imaginary friend or not. My younger brother has one, and I think it's adorable... and if you want to use belief in a deity to fill in that intellectual gap of knowledge man has with an emotional certainty, then that is your choice.
We are protesting the effects of that belief in God on society, and us personally. Not as prevalent in liberal religiosity, but nearly everywhere in fundamentalism, include opposition to reproductive choice, sexual orientation, equal rights for women, etc... All of which were (and are) argued from a biblical base, as "demanded" from your imagined God, with scriptural support. I can't even legally get a job in public office in my state of Texas, in my own field of study (Political Science), seeing as the belief in a God has determined that atheists are not allowed to follow such pursuits.
Personally, I oppose the effects of theism in my daily life, as I have had thousands of dollars in damage done to my car and property for simply having a “Darwin” sign on the window... as well as losing countless Darwin fish. I've had my personal health threatened for my lack of belief in someone's deity, and my family life is often in near constant strain because the belief in a god has caused them to see me as an often morally bankrupt, Hell-bound, erudite heretic. I've had friends who have been disowned for admitting their atheism/agnosticism to their parents, or who have admitted being gay to their parents, who held god-based bigotry against them. You may say, "Well, those aren't what REAL Christians would do"... I hate to tell you, but that IS what "real" Christians often do, and there IS biblical discrimination against those who differ from the Christian dogma. I couldn't care less what a "real" Christian in your mind would do. The discrimination and bigotry of these imbecilic fundamentalists is justified through belief in a bigoted, sectarian deity, and they call themselves Christian.
Aside from these real world effects of religious stupidity, there is no evidence of any specific god. None. It is not as if there has been any scientific proof of a god, and we are simply covering our ears, shouting, "It's not true!”… There are no reliable accounts of any religious deity, and nearly every theistic religion makes wild, unbelievable claims to "prove" their god's existence, every one exercises faith as proof, every one offers a "holy book" with "witnesses" of said miraculous events, and none of them are any closer to agreeing on any of their claims. Belief in a god is unscientific, and completely unnecessary for the progression and growth of mankind. I would risk it to say that, with a fun study of the effects of religion on politics, countries, and the arts of prejudice, genocide, and forced ignorance, religion and belief in a god have caused more harm to man than it could ever do in good.
--Reverend Justin; High Priest of the Holy Church of Happy Goodtimes
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