Is Atheism Good?

Is religious faith normal, natural, or desirable? Does it serve an important function in the life of man, or is it, rather, an aggregation of pernicious superstitions, designed to soothe timid souls and blind man to truth by retarding his development?

A thousand treatises, setting sail on oceans of ink, have been penned in response to these questions. I personally have argued that religious faith is a necessary part of civilization, and an indispensable tool in the cultivation and taming of the wild individual ego. This view, however, is not shared by all.

Jean Meslier’s Testament

We will look at the life and writings of one such man, the dour Frenchman Jean Meslier (1678-1733). His Testament remains one of the most damning indictments of religion ever written, and must be given careful consideration by every fair-minded enquirer into these matters.

He was a quiet and withdrawn parish priest in the town of Etrepigny in Champagne, France. He had not wanted this profession; in his Testament, he makes it clear that he was ordained out of a desire to please his pious parents. He was never a believer, but kept this secret carefully hidden during his life.

The strain produced by such a disconnection between belief and profession must have been overwhelming. He died at the age of fifty-five, having served his local community dutifully and uneventfully for over thirty years.

But he left an incendiary tract to the world in his will. Among his papers discovered after his death was a book inscribed to his parishoners as a “bequest.” What he was unable to say during his life, apparently, he shouted out to the world from beyond the grave. For here was the most bleak and despairing endorsement of materialism and atheism that has ever been written. Let us examine this strange book.

meslier3

It was not published in full until the 1860s, as its contents were deemed too disturbing for general consumption.  Some French Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, d’Holbach, and Diderot had released summaries before this time, however.

Meslier begins by describing how he became an atheist. His doubts began from an examination of the Bible. He was unsettled by the contradictions, uncertainties, and absurdities found there; unwilling or unable to interpret such things allegorically, he began to fill with resentment.

Promises of immortality he found unconvincing. The idea of a God who would create Hell as a depository institution for bad souls was to him unforgiveable cruelty: “Is there in nature a man so cruel as to wish in cold blood to torment, I do not say his fellow beings, but any sentient being whatever?”

God

Such a God could only be a wicked, cold being, unworthy of worship. To him it was also self-evident that it was God himself who created the evils which he then sought to punish.

In response to the argument that religious belief was natural, Meslier held that just the opposite was true:

All children are atheists—they have no idea of God…Men believe in God only on the word of those who have no more idea of him than they themselves…Very few people would have a god if care had not been taken to give them one.

Meslier even attacked the idea of Christ as a positive figure. To him, the recalcitrant Jew was nothing but a “fanatic, a misanthrope, who, preaching to the wretched, advises them to be poor, to combat and extinguish nature, to hate pleasure, to seek sufferings, and to despise themselves.”

What bitterness! And yet Meslier is not finished. There is nothing after death except the void. God, he believes, is naught but a delusion, a figment of an overactive imagination. It has been created from the dawn of history by a joint conspiracy of clerics and rulers to keep the mass of people subservient and distracted.

And does religious belief contribute to the shaping of morality? No, Meslier responds:

The nations where this fiction is established, are they remarkable for the morality of their conduct?…We see haughty tyrants, courtiers, countless extortioners, unscrupulous magistrates, imposters, adulterers, libertines, prostitutes, thieves, and rogues of all kinds, who have never doubted the existence of a vindictive God, or the punishments of hell, or the joys of Paradise.

Even the ancient Greek and Roman sages, Meslier argued, were unwilling to the face the stark truth of this reality. Despite being philosophers, they always genuflected to the gods of their day and era.

And so what, then, does this Frenchman think the ideal society should look like? He cast his vote in favor of a communistic utopia. Man could be happy if he abolished the ideas of privilege and property, for these were the root of all evil. All property should be nationalized by the state; every man should have his health and welfare guaranteed; and possessions should be held in common.

meslier4

A page of Meslier’s testament

What are we to make of this testament? A man’s ideas are windows of his soul. We sense immediately the bitterness of a man resentful of a life wasted in a profession unsuited to him. This alone is a lesson to us, and a cautionary tale for the ages. Unable or unwilling to seek out his life’s passion, he resigned himself to secret rage, and finally, to despair.

We must grant him his due regarding some of the absurdities found in theology.  And yet, it escapes him that perhaps religious doctrines exist to serve subtle moral purposes, and that scientific fact is not their major concern.

His opinions about religion epitomize all the myopia common to materialism and atheism. He forgets the profoundly inspirational qualities of faith; he ignores religion’s storehouse of literature, myth, and consoling rituals; and he entirely forgets the critical importance of religion in passing on a culture’s moral values.

Had he understood the nature of man more deeply, he would have understood that only philosophers and saints can be induced to do good by appeals to reason alone; for the average man, only the fears of eternal damnation will keep his baser instincts in check. Religion is the best unsleeping sentry created by history.

His suggestions for creating a perfect society have been proven wrong by experience. He seeks to replace one god with another god, that of socialism. And here again, his inexperience with government and leadership reveal themselves starkly.

Despite its imperfections, flaws, and dead ends, Jean Meslier’s Testament is still worth reading as an examination of the atheistic mind. It is a disturbing picture; for here is a man not at peace with himself, a man who lacked the resolution to follow his own path, a man who has been corroded at last by hate and repressed rage.

It is, perhaps, the best admonition against the danger of living an unfulfilled life that has yet been produced.

Read More: The Mountain And The Valley

717 thoughts on “Is Atheism Good?”

  1. Your writing implies that you don’t actually believe in the religion you claim to be a part of. You basically admit that religion was created for the purpose of manipulating the masses.
    So why cling to it?

    1. No, I don’t say this. I say that it is an essential part of human culture and human expression, as well as the repository of a culture’s moral codes. Without religion, human life for many would become a meaningless charade ending in a cold death. You are the one who chooses to use the word “manipulate.”

      1. Life isn’t a meaningless charade ending in a cold death? Why is there the presumption that people couldn’t handle life without religion? God forbid we try something new like not lying…

        1. There is absolutely no evidence that moral values are self-evident and were not derived from religion (whether created by man or God). In fact, the preponderance of evidence suggests morals have to be enforced and are not inherent.

      2. “for the average man, only the fears of eternal damnation will keep his baser instincts in check. Religion is the best unsleeping sentry created by history.”
        Define manipulative. Maybe I have it wrong.
        That passage sounds a lot like you trying to ram your particular brand of morality down my throat, and to top it off, unless anyone on here is a philosopher, you called us all dumbasses.

    2. One answer to that would be: because if a relatively benign Christianity doesn’t manipulate the masses, something else will.

    3. The belief that the dumbasses need religion to keep them in line, while the philosophers, the men who can regulate their lives through the use of their own reason, can take religion or leave it as they see fit, goes way back in Western philosophy. You find the idea in Plato’s writings, for example.

      1. I would phrase it a little more gently than this, man.
        The natural inequality of men has fated the majority to live lives of toil and hardship. To take away from people the source of strength in their lives, to tell them that this life is a meaningless struggle ending in oblivion, is cruel and unnecessary.
        You are also overlooking the fact that religion serves an essential moral function. As religion declines, so rises indiscipline and chaos, which is what we see today. There needs to be a silent sentry out there, making sure people’s natural tendencies to antisocial behavior are kept in check.
        Only fear of eternal damnation performs this function. Man must be encouraged to do good by appeals to eternal life, and frightened into compliance by fear of hell. It cannot be otherwise.

        1. Fortunately we have social science to shed some insight on the effects of religion:
          Would the World Be Better Off Without Religion? A Skeptic’s Guide to the Debate
          http://www.csicop.org/si/show/would_the_world_be_better_off_without_religion_a_skeptics_guide_to_the_deba

          The results of a few early investigations suggested little or no relation between religiosity and crime (e.g., Hirschi and Stark 1969). In contrast, more recent studies, as well as meta-analyses (quantitative syntheses) of the literature, have converged on a consistent conclusion: belief in God bears a statistically significant, albeit relatively weak, association with lower levels of criminal and antisocial behavior, including physical aggression toward others (a statistically significant finding is one that would be extremely unlikely to be observed if the null hypothesis of a zero correlation between the variables were true). For example, in a meta-analysis of sixty studies that yielded seventy-nine correlations, Baier and Wright (2001) found a statistically significant, but weak, negative correlation (r=-.12) between religiosity and crime (correlations range from -1.0 to +1.0, and a correlation with an absolute value of .1 is typically regarded as weak in magnitude). Notably, all seventy-nine correlations were negative, although most fell in the range of -.05 to -.20. These findings run counter to Dennett’s (2006) claim, seconded by Dawkins (2006), that there is no statistical association between religiosity and criminality.
          Still, this link appears to be qualified by other variables. The results of several studies suggest that the correlation between religiosity and crime is moderated by attendance at churches or other places of worship, with more frequent attenders being at especially low risk for crime (Ellis 1985; Good and Willoughby 2006). In addition, the diminished risk for aggression and antisocial behavior appears to be more closely associated with intrinsic religiosity, in which individuals view religion as personally important for its own sake (e.g., “I try hard to live all of my life according to my religious beliefs”) than with extrinsic religiosity, in which individuals view religion as a means to a personal end (e.g., “The primary purpose of prayer is to gain relief and protection”) (Bouchard et al. 1999).
          More generally, religiosity is moderately and positively associated with self-control, a trait closely tied to impulse control; again, this association is especially pronounced for people with high levels of intrinsic religiosity (McCullough and Willoughby 2009). In work from our laboratory recently submitted for publication (Lilienfeld et al. 2014), we even found a slight but statistically significant tendency for religious nonbelievers (including professed atheists and agnostics) to report higher levels of certain traits relevant to psychopathic personality (psychopathy), especially weak impulse control and lack of empathy, relative to religious believers. Needless to say, however, the weak magnitude of these associations in no way implies that most atheists are psychopathic, let alone psychopaths.
          Other correlational data point to a consistent association between religion and prosocial behavior. For example, in a meta-analysis of forty studies of adolescents, religiosity was moderately and positively associated with prosocial behaviors, such as volunteer work, altruistic acts, and empathic concern toward others (Cheung and Yeung 2011). Broadly mirroring other findings on the intrinsic-extrinsic religiosity distinction, the relation between religiosity and prosocial behavior was most marked for participants with high levels of private (rather than public) religious participation, such as individuals who pray when alone.

          In other words, religion seems to exert some effect on making people behave, but the strength of its influence varies according to other factors.
          These findings don’t make religion “true” in some metaphysical sense, of course. They just show that religion has empirically observable effects on human behavior, much like Game.

        2. “To take away from people the source of strength in their lives, to tell them that this life is a meaningless struggle ending in oblivion, is cruel and unnecessary.”
          Jesus Christ, that is condescending as fuck. Poor little proles can’t know the truth, it would hurt their feel feels.

        3. You seem to be quite willing to divorce the social benefits of religion from its truth claims, which serves the purpose of keeping you at the top of the intellectual heap. I agree with those who call you out as condescending and smug. As I said above, no man of integrity is going to believe something just because it benefits him. And no stable society can be built on things the majority of people believe are convenient lies. Unless you want a society built on lies. Convenient or not.
          Take a stand. Is religion true or not? And if so, what is that truth and why should anyone believe it and what are the implications of those truths?
          It’s a lifetime study.

        4. No mature mind asks whether religious stories, myths, and miracles are “true.” What matters is the purpose they serve, not whether they are demonstrable fact.
          See, this is where the atheists never can get past the whole “truth” thing. Of course no rational mind literally believes all the stories of miracles.
          Because it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the people call out for them. The people want them and create them.
          If you had a deeper understanding of history, you would know that religion does not create superstition, but rather, it checks and controls it. If religion did not exist, the fears and neuroses of man would multiply into a thousand competing fragments. The stories of headless saints and asbestos saints walking through fire were created not by the Church, but by the people. Over time, the Church has had to make concessions to the mythologies wanted and desired by the people.

        5. Yes, if only I had a deeper understanding of history like you do I would see things just as you do and there would be no need for discussion and debate. Pity the poor ignorance you are forced to endure, Oh, Enlightened One!
          Are you sure you’re not really an atheist trolling the believers here? “Quick! Call the Ministry of Truth! We’ve found someone to replace Winston Smith.”
          I notice you keep speaking of the hoi polloi and how religion is necessary to keep their ignorant excesses in check. You’re worse than condescending and smug. You’re an arrogant ass. It is the mark of the tyrant and would be tyrant that he put himself above the people and talk of doing what is best for them. In this way he justifies every selfish, self serving, destructive action he takes. Name one despot who didn’t justify his murderous actions in the name of “for the good of the people”?
          But also notice I did not speak of believing the parables and stories of the Bible as true in order to believe In religion. I spoke of believing something, actually, in your case, merely claiming to believe something, because it benefits you and not because it is true. I then spoke about the “truth claims” of the Christian faith.
          “Who do men say that I am?” asked Jesus … “Who do YOU say that I am?”
          “Who do you say that I am?” is the central and essential question upon which the entire Christian faith stands or falls. An honest man cannot “believe” in Jesus because it benefits him. He can only believe in Jesus and His claims about Himself because they are true.

        6. I don’t see it as “condescending” but as reality. The average person is so harried and harassed with the daily struggle for existence, that he has little time for speculative thought.
          And this is why the common man will never listen to people like you for long.
          And do you want to know why, Gundog?
          Because at the end of the day, you have nothing to offer humanity except despair and nihilism. That’s the final conclusion of atheism. People want a life filled with the rich pageantry of stories, consolatory rituals, and rules.
          The person who is arrogant here is YOU, not me. You are the one who thinks that your limited experience on this earth–what, maybe 30 or 40 years–can sit in judgment on the traditions of humanity that have been around for 5000 years.
          History is on my side, Gundog, no matter what you think. Religion has been with man since the dawn of time.
          And it will always be here.

        7. I’m not sure it’s condescending, as much as a sad reality. I would agree with Plato on this one. Most politicians agree with this philosophy, by the way (see the section on Leo Strauss, father of Neoconservatism below)
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie
          How many people would readily choose the blue pill over the red?

        8. I must say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire comments section here today!
          “Name one despot who didn’t justify his murderous actions in the name of “for the good of the people”?”
          I can tell you that this is occurring right now right under the noses of most Americans. Our government has been arming and funding al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda in Syria to try to knock Assad out of power. Christians have typically made up about 10% of the Syrian population and before the civil war lived a much more peaceful existence (although not entirely). Due to our own government funding these “moderate Islamic rebels”, an estimated 600,000-700,000 Christians have been displaced from Syria due to Islamic extremism against them. The US government says that removing Assad is “good for the people” of Syria….
          Bullshit. They’re trying to remove Assad because he rejected the US-backed Qatar gas pipeline project that they wanted to build through Syria. That’s the REAL reason why the US, Israel, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudis want Assad out. And as a side result of international greed, peaceful people in Syria are suffering big time… and yet our government pretends to hold Christianity in high regard. I’m tired of the lies.

        9. Without hope what do we have? Religion gives hope like no other and I would say is foundational for a strong culture/society/civilization and a conquering purpose for its future.

      2. So seems to be the point of this article. So then my queston is, is the author religious? If so, then he basically admitted to being a moron. If not, why promote it amongst your audience?

  2. The only problem with Atheism is most Atheist I see are Feminist and buy into the “protect women” shit. Steve Shives is a perfect example of this. He proves that just because you’re an Atheist, doesn’t mean you can’t believe it stupid shit.

    1. I’ve only met a small handful of self proclaimed atheists who are genuinely happy and/or content people. The vast majority that I’ve met throughout my life are usually pretty bitter, and highly insecure in their own beliefs. They seem to be searching for some reason to justify their own world view, usually via condemning, sneering at, mocking and preaching at others, which seems to me rather interesting when you get down to it.

      1. Insecurity isn’t necessarily bad thing. It just means people aren’t content to accept something without proof. I think continually questioning why we’re all here or what this all means is a good thing. It leads to new discoveries and ideas. Total acceptance leads to idle minds and hands.

        1. I mean raging insecurity. I don’t mind being mindful of one’s own beliefs, but it’s quite another thing to actively search for any hint of somebody expressing a religious thought in order to attack them. And I don’t mean somebody coming up to the atheist and proselytizing, I mean just saying something to a friend that the atheist overhears. Now in fairness, most of those types are college students, but they exist as actual adults as well, they’re just a bit more subtle and smug about it.
          Personally I don’t care what somebody believes, as long as they’re peaceful. If somebody wants to discuss religion, or lack thereof, that’s fine and I’m game. But doing witch hunts against even a whiff of Christianity (or, conversely, atheism) in the air? No thanks.

        2. Those people are the minority of the “atheists” I have encountered but everybody seems to think they are the majority. There was one atheist dude in school who you describe to a tee. He thought he was smarter than the rest and tried too hard and formed the atheist student group, etc. I remember arguing him at the bar a few times (and I’m basically a don’t give a fuck agnostic – I read too many comics books to rule out the possibility of higher powers, but can’t believe in anything without proof). He fucking sucked. Anecdotal, but most of my friends are super liberal friends and atheists but you never hear them speak about it.
          It’s the plague of modern society – too much time on our hands so everybody gets up in everybody else’s business.

        3. I live a somewhat close to a lot of universities, so they’re a bit more prevalent here than they would be if I lived in, say, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
          Agree totally with your last paragraph.

      2. Christians I talk to are usually good people, until they find out I’m not a Christian. Some just look down on you, others don’t care. I guess it depends on the person.

        1. Those types exist to, but Calvinism has basically went the way of the dodo. Except for some atheists, who convert it to an atheist bent. heh.
          To be honest I’m not particularly crazy about the screeching “you’re gonna burn, sinner!” types either. For similar reasons.

      3. We are bitter because we’re trying to enjoying life without religious indoctrination. one can’t even do that with the internet: a product birthed by the scientific revolution! Please, if one is going to say they’re a Christian at least follow your own rules.

        1. Yes yes, of course. Thank you for playing the foil. Slainte

        2. And again, you make my point. I’m not pushing anything on you, but you have to go to ad hominem and snarling. Not my problem of course, I appreciate your illustrating things for me actually.
          You’re free to believe anything you wish, and I don’t have a need to mock you for that, despite the fact that we do not share a similar belief system. Something maybe you should ponder.

        3. “You’re free to believe anything you wish, and I don’t have a need to mock you for that..”
          That’s fine and dandy. But isn’t hypocritical for you to use a computer? because it something that science has engineered not simply prayed for. You remind me like the James ossuary. you claim to be the real thing, but you’re nothing but a fraud.

        4. I don’t discount science, in fact I fully endorse it as a valid system for measuring, quantifying and categorizing things, which results in technology.
          You’re going to have to pick a new bugaboo to fight and knock down, you won’t find your straw man Christian in me, sorry.
          And of course, all ad hominem from you. To the lurking readers, this is precisely what I was talking about.

        5. Notice how these internet atheists put more time and energy into religion than the average internet user.
          My theory is that most atheists are children of bible thumper parents who, having been raised by such virulent snobs, grow up hating their parents and all things religion. It’s understandable. You can believe in God without being a weak-willed bible thumper constantly thinking every thought in term of “of the Loooorrrrrd” or not. People like that irritate people who actually read the bible instead of waving it around.
          So their children hate God and become atheists. But, having been raised by weak people who needed something to bend the knee to, something to be outraged at, and something to need moral panic over in order to escape reality (that their lives suck and they are horrible people), are also weak people needing something to bend the knee too.
          And the SJWs learned from the moral outrage specialists of the 1980s. Same methods, same terminology. Only the thumpers didn’t have social media in their heyday.
          So it’s no surprise that atheists can’t let it go. And little surprise that most of them are socialists too, worshipping the state as it satisfies their weakness as would have God otherwise. This is why statism is becoming a spreading and even worse religion, especially due to these atheists thinking they are the good guys while supporting a religion that disguises itself as government and has a bigger record of mass murder than the church could ever have hoped for.

        6. They’re a rather frightening lot, the crusading atheists. Run of the mill, go along to get along atheists I have zero problem with, although they too do tend to lean hard left. But the crusaders, my oh my, their zeal, bitterness, condemnations, name calling, snarling, sneering and hatefulness is on par with the worst of what they describe from historical theists. It’s a wonder that they don’t notice this fault in their own character.

        7. Nope, both of my moms are not if fact bible-thumpers. Kind Wiccans, sure. (no one is perfect.)
          I don’t support socialism or communism, however, anarchy is the best politics by far. But as long as religion still is in the public-sphere no advancements can be made for science, history or livelihoods. of course, you couldn’t understand that too in depth in praying to T.F.S.M. can you?

        8. HAHAHAHAHA did he really say that Christians who use computers are hypocrites because computers come from “scyenz” and scyenz=authiesm? Oh boy…

        9. You think you’re better than me?! You fucking sperm-ridden carpet muncher. I bet you suck so many Dicks and Dykes that you could start a unhumorous 1960’s show.
          We both are fully aware that Jesus Christ is only a enjoyable word to slander. If you truly believe in imaginary messiah present something for all of us to see as reasonable and undeniable.
          I don’t need a horoscope to prophecy the you can’t do that much.

        10. AHAHAHAHA let me guess what’s next:
          I’m not better than you because you are a navy seal and the best sniper in the entire US armed forces, trained in guerrilla fighting too??
          So easily triggered. People here have rightfully denounced you as an ad hominem atheist crybaby yet you refuse to aknowledge it while acting more and more like a whiner.

        11. Don’t assume that I represent atheist or atheism.
          Such icons should reserved for people who began their movements in respect they deserve. E.g. Socrates for western wisdom. Lao Tzu for eastern philosophy. Antoine Lavoisier for modern chemistry. YHWH the Nazarene for religion. Charles Darwin for biology. Albert Eisenstein for relative physics.
          There may be no true Scotsmen except for those who can be defined as a Scotsmen. like Limmy.

        12. Sigh, I waited for you to place something palpable on the table for your believe in Cuckianity annnnnd you return with nothing.
          Typical, but I guess the fool is me. Thinking that an idiot would return anything so easily refutable.
          If I knew that people like religious lunatics were going to abuse their freedom so quickly…I would’ve retire from the marine corps sooner…

        13. There is no irony, retarded cunt.
          What really funny is your G-d keeps ordering His mindless slaves to commit genocide and yet you Christians people accept us to believe you’re ‘children of peace’
          You want me to stop? Then give me a reason to think that the bible has evidence for itself!

        14. No, I wouldn’t dream of telling you to stop. Your rantings and ravings are way too humorous. I must ask though….what Bible are you reading that is espousing Christians to commit genocide? I think you’re confusing the Old Testament with Christianity. If you knew anything about the Bible, you would know Christianity didn’t even exist in the OT.
          That point aside, God wasn’t telling us to wage unending wars against the “infidels” (you’re probably confusing us with the muslims…it’s ok, you’re forgiven). The OT was a lot of God telling His followers to “go there, do this, don’t do this, etc.”; a historical account, if you will. I would love to see anything in the New Testament that preaches ongoing holy wars. To my knowledge, there is none. Simply a lot of miracles, teachings of about loving your neighbor, and salvation.

        15. My mistake I thought Christian were monotheist; not polytheist.
          You guys are to summit toward the G-d of the bible both old & new testament, right. So, of course you blindly agree with command Deut 7.1-2 nad Deut 20:16-18 and the closest modern “holy war” Christians, the bible VS people who want to be themselves /liberated.
          Again, if you wish for me to leave. Then give me irrefutable proof, like any outside references of the Ark, the tower of Babel, Samson, Hephaestus, Even Jesus or Paul.
          But you won’t-CAN’T!
          All of you guys are so immature I could donate everyone in a cryobank!

        16. “My mistake I thought Christian were monotheist; not polytheist.”
          I’m sure that was intended as snark and if you knew anything about what you’re bashing, you’d know the answer to this simple question.
          Thanks for referencing those verses that completely made my previous point. Those were a one-time command that God gave to the JEWS (not Christians) in their quest to find their Promised Land. This was not a decree to forever go out an kill all. You keep telling me to give you irrefutable proof of the events in the article but do nothing to back up your own. If you are so sure us Christians are the heartless genocidal maniacs you make us out to be, where are all the killings done in the name of Jesus? For simplicity’s sake, let’s narrow it down to the last 5-6 decades. I know how you guys love to bring up the Crusades (even though it was in response to a muslim invasion), but let’s focus on more modern times. I’m sure you will have absolutely NO problem finding article after article of Christians beheading nonbelievers or strapping bombs onto their chests screaming “God is good!”
          Honestly, why do you even care what I, or others, believe? You really need to get that chip off your shoulder, buddy. I’ll be praying for you.

        17. If Nazi’s hate Religion why then they have belts stating “god with us.” in reference of Jehovah.

        18. Your source? Who/What are you quoting? Christians do not refer to God with a lower case “g” so that leads me to believe that the “god with us” was just a generic saying they had (similar to “In God We Trust” we have on US currency) or you’re trying to be a bit snarky by making it lower case. If it’s the latter, it undermines your credibility in a debate to misrepresent a quote.
          That being said, so what if they had something on their belt that said “god with us”? The USA has “In God We Trust” on every bit of currency and “One Nation, Under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance, but we do so much that goes directly against the teachings of Christianity. As the libs and atheists like to say, “we have never been a Christian nation” yet we have obvious Judeo-Christian references all throughout our culture. I’m willing to wager your example is a similar situation as there is no evidence in the link I shared previously that Hitler used Christianity in any capacity as a means to commit genocide on the Jews. Jesus Christ was Himself a Jew, so there’d be that bit of logical contradiction Hitler would have to overcome. Was Hitler a Christian? Dunno, maybe. Did he use his religion to justify genocide? The evidence says no.
          This debate is becoming a bit old and tiresome. It’s obvious you have a chip on your shoulder and are merely out to have your “AHA!” moment against Christians. Keep ranting and raving if you want. No one here is going to stop you, but I myself am going to move onto more engaging conversations where people are interested in sincere dialogue. Peace be with you.

    2. A huge number of the ones I’ve met are also adamant socialists. The exceptions are usually libertarians (of which I am one, libertarian that is, not atheist) and maybe like one or two unicorn right wing atheist non-libertarians.

        1. It rather informs me that they really haven’t rejected religion, they’ve simply rejected the kind of God they wish to worship. In this case, they bow before the altar of the State, and act in every way like a devout religious person otherwise, they just don’t realize it.

    3. I intended this reply for this post but somehow it was posted elsewhere. Fortunately it was still somewhat relevant where it first ended up. Anyway, here it is in the right spot (I hope);
      “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think atheists are perfect examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.”

  3. Atheism is not good for society as a whole, but it is inevitable among people with a certain IQ and certain personality traits.
    I am an atheist, probably because I know more about how the world works than the average person, but I certainly wouldn’t want the people who do not know as much to be anything else but Christians (and by that I mean Christians like John III Sobieski, not “Christians” like Pope Francis).

    1. but it is inevitable among people with a certain IQ and certain personality traits.I am an atheist,
      That’s a rather smug, self congratulatory viewpoint. It is also something you can’t really prove, but it feels good to say it nevertheless.

      1. Smug or not, it’s still the truth. Higher IQ lends itself to further questioning what you see and hear. I realized at a pretty young age that Bible stories were just fairy tales written to teach me something about life. I believed Noah gathered all animals 2 by 2 on an ark as much as I believed the Big Bad Wolf blew down the houses of the 3 Little Pigs.
        Why did I question Bible stories as a kid? Because I’m smarter than the average person. I was smarter than kids my age. I knew that after my first visit to a zoo, there was no way in hell (pun intended) Noah built a boat that could fit every single animal in it. I was 8 at the time, and that kernel of doubt stuck with me from then on. “If the ark story isn’t real, I bet not all the other stories I hear in church are real, either.”

        1. You mistake scientific questioning with philosophy or religion. They do not exist in the same house. To assume that one can substitute for the other is a mistake atheists and religious people both make.

        2. Yeah, seriously.
          If Christians have any physical proof on theirside they would state it when they spread their decease around.
          But they don’t…it’s all “FALLU MI SHEIIP PEEPL!!”

        3. on the same note, philosophy and religion shouldn’t be in the same category. Philosophy is pondering the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of existence, while also admitting to not fully know the means or the end. Religion, on the other hand, proclaims to know the ‘why’ and ‘how’, and has already fully realized the means and the end.
          scientific questioning is much closer to philosophy than not. I’d say scientific questioning almost directly leads to a substitution to religion.
          BUT, i understand the non-comparison.

        4. Pretty much. After I read it I was astonished that so many people believed this actually happened. I could understand believing that for its time but not today. I guess that whole Heaven/Hell thing really works.

        5. Physical proof negates the entire notion of faith, which is what Christianity is based upon. A Christian providing proof is a Christian who does not have faith, meaning that if Christianity is correct then he’s basically saying that he doubts God.
          Why would we need physical proof anyway? I cede that everything science can discover in the universe is strictly in the domain of science and I do not question their results (except insofar as their math or evidence is skewed, just like other scientists would).

        6. Yes, they are both related, whether you want them to be or not I’m afraid. Any Philosophy 101 prof will tell you this.
          In any event, both are directed towards different things. Both sides try to make their position equate to both “facts” and “morality”. That’s a mistake I think.

        7. “… providing proof is a Christian who does not have faith…” Lets me get this straight…the Jesus’s disciples didn’t see Jesus, as well Paul. Adam and eve didn’t see God. Moses didn’t see the “burning bush.” which is not a problem for me.
          However, if one is say this events happen and try to convent anyone evidence is not only wanted but it should also be required.

        8. None come to God but by faith alone. That’s the high and low of it. Jesus was human, ergo, he could be seen, however believing he was the Son of God requires faith, which is really what the whole persecution and crucifixion was about, people’s refusal to engage faith. How did he do XYZ miracle? By faith alone. He even loses faith himself (“Father, why hast Thou forsaken me..”) for a moment, and coming back to it he finds resurrection. This isn’t about not seeing human flesh and believing, it’s a larger question when dealing with faith. This is why “Christians” going out and trying to scientifically prove God are mistaken. You either accept Him on faith, or you don’t.
          I can say the events happened, but I can’t prove them, all I can offer is faith that they did. Not a biggie really, and nothing to get worked up over in my opinion. At the end of the day even the most hard assed scientist has to eventually come to a statement of faith, because there will always be one thing that cannot be proven without it, which is, the moment right before the beginning of the universe, or if one is a perpetual-universe type, then explaining how that holds water since infinity cannot be measured and as such does not stand as a standard of scientific proof.
          Hey man, I didn’t write the rules, I’m just letting you know them. And as I said, I cede all of the world of science to science without so much as a peep in protest. Science does not define religion, religion does not define science. They need not be contradictory.

        9. I don’t see how Dunning-Kruger applies here. I was a kid, so I was thinking in kid terms. I was taught by church that ‘magic’ was bad. but how could someone build a container for every single animal in the world without magic? Or how could someone part the sea without using magic? Or how could someone come back to life without magic?
          In my child brain, I knew Bible stories were teaching me to do the right thing; don’t be lazy, respect your parents, fight for what you believe in, etc. All good lessons. But when they tried to tell me that shit REALLY happened is when I called bullshit.
          So, I’ll ask again – how does Dunning-Kruger apply here?

        10. //Higher IQ lends itself to further questioning what you see and hear. //
          1. So, how much have you then questioned your own atheism? Care to name all the Christian books within systematic theology and apologetic that you have read?
          2. With the given premises (1) that an all powerful God exists, creator of the universe, and (2) that the Noah account shall be interpreted literally, in contrast to allegorically, why would it be impossible for God to put a limited number of animals on a boat?
          3. Give me the statistical hypothesis testing of life spontaneously self-create from a rock, without any divine intervention whatsoever. Give me the peer reviewed science paper(s). What was the probability.
          4. DNA contains coded information. All empirical data show that coded information has an intelligent source. In the cell there are mechanisms that read and effectuate the commands in DNA. Show me how both information and implementing the information, can be self-created without any intelligent intervention. Give me the probability.
          In addition, fanatic atheist Carl Sagan only need a some prime numbers to “know” that the source was intelligent, and no cosmic accident. Compare that to the level and amount of information contained within DNA.

        11. Okay, here goes.
          1. I haven’t questioned “my own” atheism, because I never said i was an atheist. I’m extremely agnostic, though. Neither science nor religion knows with 100% certainty what our beginnings or endings will be.
          2. given YOUR premises, sure. all animals can fit on one container because by your premises, God is all powerful. but I propose that it’s not me that has to disprove God. It’s your fight to PROVE God. Why is that? Because without taught knowledge of God/Allah/Yahweh whoever one worships, you can consider that person a blank slate that knows no deity. So your supposition that there is an all-powerful deity has to be proven, since the “base-state” is there no deity.
          3. can’t I just ask you to prove that divine intervention created life by giving me a statistical hypothesis?
          4. *shrug* I don’t know anything further than college biology about DNA. I guess you got me there, huh?

        12. So you can’t answer any of my questions and you obviously rejected God based on ignorance. I question your claim regarding superior IQ.
          // Neither science nor religion knows with 100% certainty what our beginnings or endings will be.//
          How do you KNOW that religion, in this case Christianity, does NOT know “with 100% certainty what our beginnings or endings will be”
          Please explain. Use documented facts and logic only.

        13. Regardless of theology, Gods, religion… have you ever considered that Noah was not literally gathering animals, but samples of their DNA and the Ark a large DNA storage container?
          If we were able to time travel and walk into a medieval gathering with our smartphones and laptops etc., would we be considered “Gods” in their limited perceptions?
          Who’s to say the stories in the Bible are not true to some extent given the perceptions and preferred metaphors of the one who penned the stories at the time?

        14. I have not considered that, because I highly doubt Noah had the technology to collect and store DNA. So now I am to make that huge reach that Noah was a genealogist?
          And let’s say that is what happened. Noah was a genealogist and had the technology to store DNA samples for 40 days. Why wouldn’t the bible just state that Noah collected DNA samples? Why did he need to build a big-ass boat to tote DNA samples and his family?
          You’re silly.

        15. *sigh* maybe I can address this another way. Allow me to answer your question with another question, since again, the burden of proof is on YOU to prove the existence of a deity.
          Pretend you were Muslim. Couldn’t you ask the exact same question substituting “Christianity” with “Islam”?
          I’ll ask. “How do you KNOW that religion, in this case Islam, does NOT know “with 100% certainty what our beginnings or endings will be”
          Please explain. Use documented facts and logic only.

        16. When you claim that you became a disbeliever in Christianity due high IQ, the burden of proof regarding YOUR statement is on YOU, not me.
          I sincerely doubt you have any high IQ at all. My guess is 110, at best.
          //I’ll ask. “How do you KNOW that religion,…. blah, blah//
          Again, YOU make a retarded statement, YOU substantiate your own claims.
          When will you actually start to answer my questions?

        17. That’s not what I claimed. I became agnostic because my child mind thought if one story sounds like bullshit, why shouldn’t i approach every story in this book as bullshit?
          Another of your missteps; I said due to my being smarter than average, I was and still am more inquisitive than the average person. But that’s not why I became a disbeliever. My curiosity led to me asking questions the average child my age didn’t ask, about all subjects. The fact that I doubted the bible is because the story didn’t pass the bullshit test as a child.

        18. The persistent atheist meme, “I am smarter than most of the people I know. The people I know who are not as smart as me are believers in God. I am an atheist, therefore I am an atheist because I am smarter than most people (no longer smarter than just most the people you know).
          It’s an interesting argument from authority but in the case of the atheist, HE’S THE AUTHORITY!
          Ha! I never noticed that! What fallacy would that be? The Self-Referential Fallacy? Is there such thing? Should be.
          The Dunning-Kruger Eefect applies, or could apply, here, because the less intelligent you really are the smarter you think you are and less able you are to see that you are wrong.
          You say you are an atheist because you are smart, completely leaving out all of the hi IQ people who are believers, who think their intelligence has led them to their beliefs.
          It’s sort of a twist on the argument from ignorance. I’m right because I’m smart. I’m not really as smart as I think therefore I don’t realize I could be wrong.
          Isn’t logic fun?

        19. you did quite a bit of inserting here. where exactly did I say I was an atheist?
          Yes, I’m smarter than most people I know. No, I never said most who are not smart as me are believers in God. One isn’t an atheist because he is smarter than most people, one’s an atheist due to an absence or personal disproving of religion.
          See how I did that without a caps lock, made up pseudo-intelligent terms, straw-men, or exclamation points? Yelling and using big words doesn’t make you right.

        20. If it’s a matter of blind faith then it makes no difference what you believe. Why Christianity and not Norse, Greek religions or Hinduism or Buddhism or all of them at once?
          Actually. you’re wrong. As usual. Christians claim that God created the universe, but that contradicts the first law of thermodynamics. Evolution proved that something did exist without intervention.
          If Jesus was real he would’ve left a footprint (figuratively). Well then where is it,…hm? There’s nothing to found, besides lies.
          Come on. people of ROK embrace the religious-less euphoria and it’ll set you free.

        21. Just to address one point here:
          “It’s your fight to PROVE God. Why is that? Because without taught knowledge of God/Allah/Yahweh whoever one worships, you can consider that person a blank slate that knows no deity.”
          Actually, the data coming out from child redevelopment specialist is that the human child is “pre-wired” to believe in God. Sorry, I’m in my iPad and it’s a bitch to jump around, collecting citations you can google yourself.
          Also, if I’m not mistaken, every human culture ever discovered/studied has included a belief in God. Many smaller gods, yes. But also a belief in one, supreme God.
          Oh, and in one source I read, the researcher is an atheist and was not thrilled with his conclusions.
          Just a note. Toodles!

        22. “3. can’t I just ask you to prove that divine intervention created life by giving me a statistical hypothesis?”
          Those numbers have been run as well. Atheist don’t like them. Go google!

        23. that’s great that atheists don’t like them. what’s that got to do with me, though?

        24. Absolutely nothing. Don’t get paranoid. There’s nothing but love here coming at you.

        25. I did not directly call you an atheist. I said that reasoning is a consistent atheist meme. And don’t be so touchy. You may not be in the band but you’re marching to the beat! Smile.
          An honest mistake. Not as bad as, “Oh, you’re not catholic. You quoted Aquinas. Here, let me put my pecker away.” (Totally irrelevant and inappropriate! It’s not my fault. I have A condition I learned about using Google.)
          Thank God I can delete or edit this later when I get ahold of myself.

        26. No you didn’t!! And I am suitably impressed and NOT trying to be ironic or facetious! I am appreciating our discussion and I would not want you to think I do not respect you or your intelligence or the quality of our discussion. Unlike with some others on here today! Ha!
          Damn! That STILL sounds sarcastic! But I AM being sincere. Seriously!
          See! No Sarcasm Sign.

        27. Why resort to Ad-Hominem? I merely asked if you had considered other perspectives to what is in these old books, or if you just take them literally like most people.

        28. You did not merely ask if there were other perspectives. You specifically mentioned Noah had the means of storing DNA back before people understood that the sun was not trying to kill them.

        29. Oh. You’re autistic. That explains plenty about our interactions today.
          Good luck with your condition. I hear it’s a bitch.

        30. Better feed your horse, gamma. Let me know when you learn how to make a decision. It’ll be a red letter day for gamma trolls everywhere.

        31. So God doesn’t exist because he contradicts a law in a universe he created? I guess computer game programmers don’t exist because they can program around or utterly ignore the rulesets they place in the games they develop.

        32. The implication that atheists are smart and the religious are dumb.
          You may very well be smart and don’t give two shits about religion. Cool; we all make our own choices in life. But trying to establish causality between intelligence and atheism or lack of intelligence and religion is troubling.
          Stephen Colbert, C.S. Lewis, Georges Lemaitre, Gregor Mendel, and Francis Collins: Men of intelligence and also men of science, some of whom have shed intellectual/mental sweat to bring about the Big Bang Theory and modern genetics. Not exactly stupid people.

        33. I’m still not sure where you got implication from. the two main points of my comment were:
          1) I don’t agree with the statement (made by someone else, who was trying to prove causality between intelligence and atheism) that most who are not as smart as me are religious, and
          2) one isn’t an atheist because he is smarter than average.
          In what comprehension-deficient world do you live in where either of those statements equal religious people are dumb?

        34. “Smug or not, it’s still the truth. Higher IQ lends itself to further questioning what you see and hear. I realized at a pretty young age that Bible stories were just fairy tales written to teach me something about life.
          Why did I question Bible stories as a kid? Because I’m smarter than the average person. I was smarter than kids my age. ”
          Look man, I can read between the lines. You stopped believing because you thought you were smarter than everyone else. And if you want to say, “I’m an atheist because I’m smarter than other people,” then just say it! But don’t backtrack and say you didn’t mean what you meant.
          That whole “comprehension deficient” thing is real cute. If you think I’m dumb or what I say is dumb, then say it straight. I’ll respect that more than hiding behind pretenses of higher intelligence.
          We can have a civilized, thoughtful conversation or we can trade passive-aggressive barbs until we’re dust. If you want the former, cool let’s talk and maybe we’ll learn something. But if you prefer the latter, then go fly a goddamn kite because I have better things to do.

        35. Nope. I stopped believing because the stories were bullshit. If someone just as smart or smarter than me chooses to believe whatever book they read, more power to them. For me though, tipping my bullshit meter was enough for me to stop trusting that this shit really happened.
          And I like flying kites.

      2. I’ve met a few good atheists, but in my experience most of the ones I knew were quite low-consciousness, smug, self-centered people.
        There were not that satisfied with their lives, despite living in one of the world’s finest countries, but hey God doesn’t exist so it’s all good right?

    2. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think atheists are perfect examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

      1. That’s actually a fascinating insight, I hadn’t really thought about that before. Thank you for connecting a few dots for me.

        1. Your point was cogent as well. The modern predilection to believe science contains not only truth, but is the only source of truth, is a dogma of the atheist faith as unshakeable as a belief is transubstantiation and with about as much supporting evidence.
          Science can only tell us facts. It can never tell is the Truth.

    3. My IQ is far above Mensa entry level and I am a Christian. Most hyper-intelligent people I know are believers. This in sharp contrast to semi-intelligent people (IQ 105-115), too stupid/ignorant to see their own stupidity/ignorance, i.e. Marxist college professors, – these people tend to be atheists.

  4. There is a big problem with discussing the social and personal benefits of the Christian religion separate from its truth claims. Any man of integrity will reject a lie even if it benefits him. And Jesus tells his followers to follow him even though it will mean their deaths. It is its truth claims that give Christianity its power. It is because they believe Alllah will reward them with paradise that the jihadis will wear a suicide vest.
    Which is why you should never show up for a religious war without a religion.

  5. I’ve wondered what happened to Meslier’s original manuscripts. Apparently he left 3-4 complete handwritten copies of his book when he died, and the church authorities who found them didn’t destroy them for some reason, but copied and circulated them even further. Meslier’s message must have impressed some key people early on for this to happen.

      1. The historian Alan Kors argues that French theologians and philosophers had to construct “atheism” as a coherent theoretical concept in the 17th Century to test arguments from competing schools of thought for the existence of god. Atheism became a kind of default hypothesis that these arguments had to refute. Apparently these intellectuals did their job on atheism a little too well when smart people who studied these debates found atheism more plausible than arguments against it. Meslier might have known about these debates when he wrote his Testament.

    1. The Catholic Church has always seemed to embrace their doubters and skeptics. Mother Theresa BEGGED her Confessor to destroy her diaries after her death because they contained her deepest doubts and fears about God and her feeling that she was wasting her life serving the poor. The Church refused to follow her wishes (she had taken a Vow of Obedience so they were within their rights) and I believe have published those diaries.
      Why?
      Because the Roman Church believes that doubt is essential to true faith. That faith that is absolute, or even too certain, is false faith. They do not run from the fact that Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” In fact, many point to those words as proof that the Gospel records are true history. Why would people manufacturing a new religion record their Savior expressing doubts about his mission or God’s support for it? Because it really happened.
      BTW, I’m not Catholic. Just the fact, Ma’am.

  6. Something that no one has yet commented on is how atheism seems often to be associated with communism, as in the case of Meslier. His idea of an ideal society is nothing short of repugnant.

    1. Actually I mentioned it below. heh
      EDIT: Ah shoot, didn’t do it before you mentioned it.

    2. That is because without a God or hope of Heaven this earth is all they’ve got and people need a reasons and a goal to live for, to give their life meaning. Therefore they only have this life to implement their Vision of the Best World Possible.
      Even of 100 Million people have to die to make it come true.

      1. Charles Murray cites the four main sources of human happiness as: family, vocation, community and faith. If you look at Jean Meslier’s life, you find that he never started his own family, he hated his job, he could never relate to his religious parishioners, and he despised all religion. His life was completely missing of any of the four main realms of happiness.

        1. And some would conclude, “No wonder he was an atheist!”
          Atheism is a void. A nothing. I wanted to say a void with nothing in it, but that would be redundant, right? But it is, isn’t it?

        2. I don’t use the term atheist. There are materialists unwilling to contemplate the metaphysical.

        3. An interesting distinction, but with a difference? It is what they call themselves and it’s not like they’re Bruce Jenner claiming to be a women and we can just pull down their panties and prove they have a penis.
          Or is it, prove HE has s penis?
          I’ve confused myself.

        4. Haha, yes it’s what they call themselves. They grasp at what is material but incomplete. Faith fills in the gaps. Some cling to scientism, others politics, etc. Among my family we call them non-believers. You are correct, they attempt to fill the void with material things and various ideologies.

        5. i’ve met reasonable, thoughtful atheists before. roosh seems to fall into that category, for example. nevertheless, for the most part, i have trouble fathoming atheism. it seems at least as ridiculous as most religious views of the world. if you struggle with faith, it seems more reasonable to be an agnostic, which is the way i lean.

        6. Agnostic is a comfortable thing to be. Like a moderate. A middle-of-the-roader. A fence sitter.
          I myself am agnostic about many things. In fact, those who knew me in my younger days would be surprised to learn the number of things I am now less certain of.
          But not the Big Questions. God. Jesus. The resurrection. Eternal Life. On those issues I made up my mind about a long time ago and amazingly, nothing has happened in the past 40 years to change or cause me to question those decisions.
          No new information. No new circumstances. No tragedies. No personal disasters. Not that those things haven’t happened to me. Sadly, yes. But none of them have caused me to question the Truth of the Big Answers to the Big Questions.
          A few years ago, I even experienced what the mystics call, “The Dark Night of the Soul.” It’s when all your faith leaves you and you’re left with nothing but the empty, cold, impersonal world to deal with on your own.
          Seriously, I lost the consciousness of the reality of God in my heart and mind. I’m not even sure how or when it happened. Just one day I looked. . . and it was gone! I looked out at the world and saw it as an atheist must see it! I’m not sure how much more I want to make of it, but it was rather unnerving. God was nowhere. He did not exist at all in my consciousness. My new default viewpoint was to see the world as void of God. If I wanted to imagine the world with God, I had to actively put Him into it all. The exact opposite of what I’d done for the past 37 years!
          It was very strange.
          Interestingly, it was my rational faith that brought me through it. The intellectual decisions I made about God, Jesus, the Bible, my Faith itself. Those kept me focused. But my “faith” was pure intellect. Pure reason. Pure logic. Not a drop of emotion or “feelings.”
          Humpty Dumpty had fallen and shattered into a million pieces (though it didn’t feel like a disaster or a tragedy. It just WAS. It was a FACT. God was NOT.). But it was O.K. because I had in my mind all the plans and schematics for putting Humpty back together again.
          And several years later, I have. It’s different. My faith no longer constrains my behavior as it once did. But that just might be because I’m getting to be an old bugger who doesn’t give a shit what other people think of me! LOL!!

        7. Very interesting viewpoint and I believe I have gone through my own “Dark Night of Soul” where I questioned my faith. I wouldn’t say that it was strange; more like terrifying pondering the thought of there being absolutely no life after this one…nothingness. Like you, my reasoning and faith brought me through it and I emerged changed. Enlightened? Not really. Just more firm in my faith.
          Thanks for sharing your story.

        8. No more ridiculous than rejecting thousands of other beliefs: Santa Claus, fire gods make the volcanos erupt, wind gods, sun gods, and not ridiculous when every prediction made by these religious systems are false, when prayer can be shown to be no better than random chance, and prophecies are false. I view religionists as people who havent made the leap to full human maturity yet, they still need their crutch to get along,which is fine with me. As long as they dont beat me over the head with it.

        9. i think we’re pretty similar in our views. all belief systems seem ridiculous to me. i do like jesus’s teaching though, and the last few years with my amazing catholic, non-western wife has really made me that there’s something there with christianity, but yeah, there’s also obviously plenty of silliness.

      2. it’s much the same with SJWs. most people need to believe in something, so when an SJW abandons religion, social justice takes its place. they believe that the right combination of tweaking legislation, public shaming, and threatening people’s jobs will usher in paradise on earth, no god required.

        1. As opposed to witch burning(hundreds of thousands), genital mutilation(millions), sexual repression(females), poverty as virtue, terrorizing children with tales of eternal torture(Dante), Holy War(practically all of them), sex abuse of children(uncounted), violent opposition to every single scientific advance designed to benefit mankind(including the lightning rod), condoning slavery, wife-beating, genocide, war, suffering as virtue, avarice in gods name, theft in gods name, political power in gods name, rape in gods name, etc.

      3. Yes, this is it exactly.
        Atheists always complain that we blame atheism for what are really the crimes of communism and totalitarianism.. but those two things aren’t that easily disentangled from atheism. It’s shallow thinking to pretend atheism has nothing to do with communism or totalitarianism. A deeper thinker will realize that when a society and civilization embraces atheism and loses a belief in a transcendent God, it creates a vacuum. Something has to take the place of religion.. and contrary to what the idiot atheists and rationalists seem to think, scientific rationality and humanism isn’t necessarily what takes the place of religion. None of those things can soothe the human soul adequately.. or give any comfort to what is ultimately the tragic condition of human existence.. which is to suffer.. to live in a deeply unfair and unjust universe. If human beings aren’t promised some sort of salvation and Heaven in the after life, they will seek to create Utopia in the current life.. and in many cases, through violence. In the 20th century, political ideologies like Nazism and Communism attempted to take the place of religious faith and Christianity in the West but both failed to bring salvation to earth.

        1. “and contrary to what the idiot atheists and rationalists seem to think, scientific rationality and humanism isn’t necessarily what takes the place of religion. ”
          That’s because (no offense intended) most people are too stupid to understand anything “scientific”. It’s much easier to believe an all powerful fairy tale for the vast majority of the population. Expecting people to think critically is a massive mistake, especially when dealing with the “average” citizen. Rational thought simply does not come naturally to many.

        2. Go on youtube or twitter and see exactly what kind of pseudo-intellectual shit-heads those ‘critical thinkers’ who admire Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris are.
          Most atheists are dumbfucks, they’re not different from religion, other side of the same coin, same will. Replace God with science or super-duper intelligent aliens and Heaven with ‘The Singularity’ or “the progress of mankind”, and there you go, same intentions, coupled by shitty arguments and acting as if they are smart and calling themselves rational makes their crap real.
          The only good atheists are existentialists, and they are some of the rarest ones. What everybody needs is more philosophy, we live in the most philosophically-retarded age where fucking pop-scientists are admired, the same kind of idiots who say shit like “philosophy is weak, we need science blah blah” even though that’s a philosophical statement and science is just a branch of philosophy.

        3. Agreed. Personally, it doesn’t matter whether you’re religious or not. What matters is how you support your beliefs. Like you said, we have so many people that are completely devoid of critical thinking that it astounds me how anyone can get dressed in the morning. Science is the new religion nowadays yet scientists fudge the facts all the time to suit their agenda and anyone who calls them out is labeled a blasphemer and exiled from their ranks. If you can’t see the parallels I’m making here, then you’re part of the problem (not you personally, #facepalm; general statement).

        4. And yet the more secular nations have fewer problems with: sex, drugs, sex, crime, child abuse, sex…. Nazism was based on religion, check your facts. Jesus lived and preached communist ideals. I dont speak for atheists, only for myself. Yes, we seek to better each other in this life, unlike many Christians I know who dont care because of their imaginary fallback. I’ve never met an unbeliever who needed soothing. We rationalists understand the nature of life, therefore we are better equipped to deal with it than underdeveloped man-children who need fairy tales to get through the day.

        5. What matters is this: Do you contribute to suffering or not? Everyone fudges facts, who better to know this than priests, rabbis, imams, pastors,ministers and the rest, They lie daily, yet, thanks to us evil athiests, they have their freedom to do so without being hunted down and burned. Like your buddies used to do back in the day before secularism began to take hold.

        6. Amazing how you took my post as an insult to atheists and science. I merely stated that there are many scientists out there pushing agendas and discounting the actual findings that would disprove their own beliefs. Let’s not get into a mudslinging and ad hominem war.

        7. You are a shallow thinker. Many of the problems the manosphere talks about especially when it comes to women are the result of a nihilistic, morally bankrupt, hedonistic, feminist Western culture..that is the result of secularism and a loss of religious faith. I would be very careful about smugly proclaiming the superiority of Western european and Scandenavian countries like Sweden.. Secular, liberal and feminist cultures have proven to be demographic dead ends.. and can’t even reproduce themselves. I would also argue that the Western ideals you take for granted are built on a religious and Christian moral foundation that cannot be sustained without that foundation. No, the Western elightenment project will not collapse overnight without Christianity but already you see cracks in it. Without God, anything is justifiable. Nietzche understood this well.. the whole notion that human beings have dignity.. arises from the religious and christian belief in the human soul, and that all human life is sacred. Like a buffoon, you take jabs at Christianity without understanding how deeply and profoundly its values have transformed and influenced the west. Take a look at antiquity.. what sort of values were prized pre-christianity.. they had nothing to do with dignity of the individual, of every human being, rich or poor, of self-sacrifice. Christ’s message was revolutionary and its implications are profound. Remove Christianity and its values, and you’re back to paganism.. and the worship of might over right and where human life has no value.
          “I’ve never met an unbeliever who needed soothing.”
          Again, this is shallow thinking. Maybe you move about in elite, highly educated circles.. and those who are of a high socio-economic status and you seem to think the crowd you move in are somehow representative of everyone. It’s no coincidence that drug and alcohol use are rampant in secular societies.. and depression rates are at truly an epidemic rate in Western secular societies. People are in deep spiritual crisis.. atheism offers nothing. It may be the “truth”.. or rather, what you believe is the truth.. but it offers nothing to the poor, the downtrodden, the ugly, the “shit of the earth.” The human condition is tragic as Jordan Peterson describes in this excellent lecture:

          Make no mistake about this: The human condition is tragic and human beings need soothing.. whether by spiritual means or through sex, drugs and alcohol. you take your pick which one is “better.”
          “We rationalists understand the nature of life,”
          Who’s we, Kimo-sabe ? Reason and self-restraint may be easy for a small percentage of human beings, but I would be very careful about assuming most people are capable of behaving morally, or of dealing with the true nature of reality and life and this universe, which is bleak, deeply unfair, chaotic and fickle. Most people cannot deal with the despair and existential angst and blows that life deals us. If you’re lucky enough to be spared the major blows that life can deal to human beings, consider yourself spared. Maybe you were born intelligent, attractive and everything in life went well for you. Good for you. This doesn’t apply to most people though. Don’t be so smug and look down on those who aren’t as fortunate as you, and weren’t dealt the same good hand in life as you have. They need more than “scientific rationality” and the emptiness of atheism to help them get through life.

    3. Communism professes that it is a corrupt society which makes people wicked. Religion preaches its fundamentally corrupt people which produce wicked societies (original sin). The two ideas are both diametrically opposed and the cornerstone of faith and revolutionary leftism. Believing that mankind has innate flaws negates the proposition of building a heaven on earth. Much as religion has used violence to stomp out heretical thought, communists (and all radical leftists) use(d) violence to erase ideas heretical to their cannon.

      1. Buddhism doesn’t profess original sin, only the religions of the wanna-be child murderer Abraham.
        “The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad”

        1. If only there were a death penalty for trolls! But then who would we have to mock?
          The “religion of Abraham” (good grief! What self-serving pains you take to sound smart!), does NOT believe in Original Sin. That honor goes to St Augustine and Catholicism, although most Protestant denominations also believe in it.
          Christians found the world ugly and bad and have done more to make it beautiful and good than any other single force in earth.
          What has atheism contributed to the good of the world? Nothing. Because it’s a negation

        2. Original sin is Old Testament, Judaism and Islam have it too. But yes, the Catholics take especially perverse pleasure from the talking snake story. And if you consider the Catholic Church’s continuous history of genocide as “making the world beautiful and good” then fuck you. Genocide is what you can expect from a religion that worships an instrument of death by torture.

        3. Still. . .WRONG!
          Judaism doesn’t believe in Original Sin.
          If Islam believes in Original Sin it stole it from Catholicism.
          But it just occurred to me! You’re not smart enough to know what the doctrine of Original Sin is!
          You think it’s the sin in the Garden! The eating of the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil!
          Oooooohhhh! Now I see where you’re coming from! You are MIS-using theological terms without knowing their meaning!
          ANOTHER perfect example of the Duning-Kruger Effectx!

        4. i had a very negative opinion of the catholic church until i met my devout catholic wife and started going to church with her. good people at her church, and the church gave me a great wife, so i have to love it, even though i can’t see converting and taking things like the nicean creed and de humanae vitae seriously.

        5. i had a very negative opinion of the catholic church too, until i met my
          devout catholic wife and started going to church with her. good people
          at her church, and the church gave me a great wife, so i have to love
          it, even though i can’t see converting and taking things like the nicean
          creed and de humanae vitae seriously.

        6. I can understand your position. I was raised Catholic, which means, as the comedian said, “when I grew up I quit!”
          I have a great appreciation for the incredibly rich intellectual tradition, scholasticism and all, that the Catholic Church has and has preserved. My oldest brother is a religious (a monk) and provincial of his order. They build hospitals around the world. Practical Good Works. Nice.
          Regarding the creeds, however. You could do worse than studying all the things written in support of the Gospel story, i.e. the resurrection of Jesus. The evidence has convinced many a skeptic. Many an atheist. God’s best.

        7. “Buddhism doesn’t profess original sin, only the religions of the wanna-be child murderer Abraham.”
          Orthodox Christianity + Orthodox Judaism: Man has inherited a fallen nature that makes him inclined to sin which eventually leads to committing sin. Children who die before they commit sin or are old enough to be accountable for those sins, go to Heaven, which is why the children massacred by Herod are considered saints and martyrs in Orthodox Christianity (but not Heterodoxy).
          http://images.oca.org/icons/lg/december/1229-14000innocents02.jpg
          Heterodoxy (Roman Catholicism and most of her Protestant daughters): Man inherits the very sin of Adam. Every baby is born guilty and damned even though they have committed no personal sins yet. The doctrine of “original sin” leads to errors about free will, predestination, grace (which Heterodoxy only sees as legal forgiveness, rather than being a lifelong process of interacting with the Divine Energies of God), etc.
          Islam: The sons of Ishmael have a different god entirely.

        8. Religion: set up the straw man, provide solution to same
          Rational Person: stays off the circle of psycho

        9. Right, evidence. Good laugh there. Too bad for you the evidence shows that practically ALL atheists(your word) were believers, yes, believers who studied their coincidental faith and asked questions. Funny how that works, ask uncomfortable questions and you get wiggle words, silences, or the all-purpose God-miracle-mysterious ways answer. I have a great appreciation for intellectual traditions, too. I also see how the Church behaved when it had the power. Never again!

        10. Yes, Never Again. We all agree. Theocracy Bad. Secularism Good.
          Thanks for adding to the discussion. Your contribution has enlightened us all.

        11. Yes, you have successfully explained the universal attraction of religion. We can now burn all the books that mention anything hinting at transcendence.
          So glad you were here to contribute so much.
          Wait! I feel my IQ rising one more point just from reading your comment. I tremble on the verge of sentience.

        12. Why believe in something that requires physical, intellectual, and spiritual sweat when you can just be a rebel and make fun of everything?
          What a juvenile mindset.

        13. There was always one kid who had to shit in the sandbox so no one could use it. He smiled after he did it, too!
          He grew up to be an omega who never got laid.

        14. Sorry. My bad. Poe’s Law. I should have posted my sarcasm sign!
          I mean he’s a unfunny tool. millenials are a bunch of Beavis and Buttheads laughing at themselves.

        15. Thanks for the information. I only had a glancing familiarity with the Eastern Tradition’s doctrine of Original Sin.

        16. The only thing in human history worse than christianlity is islam.
          These two are the most abusive and destructive things known to man.
          The good that atheism will contribute is that someday mankind will grow up and no longer need imaginary friends and and books of mythology to help us make decisions.

        17. You mean contribute AFTER a century of slaughter that was orders of magnitude worse than all the holy wars and inquisitions combined?
          I can’t wait!

        18. How many centuries has the church spent slaughtering any one who disagrees ?
          I cant wait for us to outgrow religion

        19. Actually, the science is saying we are pre-programmed to be Believers and the non-believers are the defective ones.
          Science Says It. What Are You? Anti-Science? You Can’t Disagree With Science!

    4. Well, Communism is pretty much Christanity without all the supernatural aspect. Marx and the revolutionary leaders are the prophets and the dictators are God. They both have universal appeal, preach about the struggle between good and evil, persecute those that oppose them, promise their followers paradise, etc.
      To answer your question, Atheists tend to be people who reject the notion of surrendering to fate or some power above and believe that humans themselves have the capacity to change the world for the better, which is what socialism and communism is intended to do. They believe that humans can become better unlike Christians who simply believe that there are just good people and bad people, hard working or lazy people, etc. It’s about the percieved locus of control.
      That said, as an atheist, I will continue to reject this proposal that God and religious belief need to exist because people would be lost without them. I cannot permit to deceive myself just for the supposed benefits.

      1. And as a believer I agree with your last sentiment. Which is why I object to the entire premise of this article. Religion (but which one are we talking about?) may or may not be good for society. But to the degree it is either it is because it is BELIEVED to be true

      2. But if it’s all just in your head than why not be a little delusional sometimes?
        One day everyone is going to realize I’m a star.

      3. No, communism is based on collective guilt and collective redemption (putting it into religious framework for discussion). Christianity is based on individual guilt and individual redemption. This is a major, major difference.

      4. The leader principle, submission to authority, blind faith in authority, double-think, these are all the hallmarks of monotheism. It sets those poor folks up for whatever tinpot dictator comes along and claims divine right. Guys like Hitler

    5. This is something I immediately thought of when reading this article.
      When man believes in God he believes in absolutes and he believes in an orderly arrangement which has been designed for the world and for us. This orderly arrangement we can see and observe with our very own eyes.
      When a man does not believe in God or an ultimate authority to which he is subject to, he attempts to create his own order out of things from his subjective thoughts, experiences and limited perspective.
      Now we can look back historically in visceral shock at this short sightedness, this callous disregard for all things outside of himself and the wake of millions upon millions of dead corpses rotting amidst the ashes of man’s foolish and brutally dangerous idealism.

      1. And yet you benefit from the efforts of thousands to improve life in the here and now in the face of massive religious persecution.
        You create your God out of your subjective thoughts, experiences and limited perspective.I create my reality the same way. The difference is I am aware of my limitations, while you believe your self imposed God makes your limitations virtuous. The world you live in now is the one made by rational people, not by irrational religion lovers. At least have the grace to acknowledge it.

        1. A lot of assumptions here. First that rational thinking and religion are mutually exclusive.
          First off religious debate, especially surrounding intellectual questions regarding Christianity has probably spawned the bulk of all recorded rational analysis in the past 2k years or so.
          Any “rational” person could easily read the comments here and see a fountain of rational discourse from religious people but I won’t expect that much from you.
          Your subjective reasoning makes my claim no less valid than yours. In fact you aren’t really making any solid claims you are just trying to sound more intelligent and end up sounding like an arrogant dunce incapable of introspection.

    6. People speak of atheism as if it is an alternative religion. It is not. You simply believe in God or you do not. If you follow a rational chain of logic then the existence of God must be rejected. This is completely aside from your political beliefs.
      It is also reasonable to suggest the association of Christianity with monarchy: God as the sole ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Pope as the Head of the Church, the King as the sole ruler of the Kingdom on Earth, and so on.

      1. thank you, englishbob. They label us “atheist” when we should be labeling them “crazy”. Asking for evidence isnt bad, acting on credible facts isnt wrong.

      2. Non-sequitur. Begging the Question. Just two of the logical fallacies you have committed. So far.

        1. OMG! You’re right! Your brilliant, insightful, cogent reply has opened my eyes to your truth! How could I have been so blind?
          And it is so simple!
          “Don’t be daft.”
          Why, you didnt even need to use an exclamation point to convey this brilliance, its so powerful.
          We need to cut and paste your brilliance everywhere! You deserve your own page on Reditt. Can you make a video of this and post it to YouTube? I swear it will go viral!
          Faith Will Fall!!
          Thank the Nothing! All Hail Blind Chance! I’m so grateful the dice came up boxcars a trillion trillion TRILLION times in a row!

        2. I’ll make a video of my middle-finger and send it personally to you via What’sApp. How about that?

        3. Absolutely not! You must share your genius with the world! It will be a valuable addition to your oeuvre!

      3. Rational chain of logic does not lead to the rejection of the existence of God (not that such an epistemology wasn’t wrecked many times.
        I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 10^50000
        Your chance of guessing that number is the same chance as life originating from non-life. That is just how extremely fine-tuned the universe is.
        Atheists do not have any monopoly on rationality or logic. The only smart atheists are existentialists and absurdists, all other atheists are mediocre or even worse thinkers.

        1. You are answering claims that were never made. And yes I am afraid that logic will lead you to reject the existence of God.

      4. Thought experiment: if you had been born with a blindfold, could you imagine what eyesight is like before taking it off?
        To say that atheism is an alternative religion is based on the observation that there are needs that God actually does fulfill. If you lack that connection, you seek to fulfill those needs otherwise.

        1. Reminds me of the girl you told me about. That has you running after her helplessly. I used to feel that way, too. Yet it does not seem quite right, does it? Something is fishy about it! Proposal: Acknowledge the wish to submit and separate it from women. Who is left? Other men. But can they satisfy the desire for a flawless guide? If not, who / what can?

        2. That was by no means an insult.
          Yeah, I figure that Catholic School must suck; I am sure I would hate it, too. I pretty much despise the church. You come in there and they tell you how pathetic and miserable you are. And that sex is bad and what not. No, thanks.
          Figures that such a fucking buerocratic institution – never think for yourself, always read the oh so holy scripture – would much more likely achieve to alienate everybody from god than to connect with him.

        3. The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate
          all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,
          and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction,
          have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will
          open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall
          either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of
          a new dark age.

          – H. P. Lovecraft
          This is why people “need” religion. It provides a comfort from the harsh cold truth of reality.

        4. Reality is harsh and cold, but not exclusively. God, for me, is nothing to distract you from that. More like the power to embrace it. Or simply one aspect of reality. But yeah, there is a difference between god and ideology / utopia.

        5. Its not that I despise the Catholic Church. Most of them were quite nice. Much nicer than American Christians. It’s just that having spent years studying Christianity and science, I simply came to the conclusion that the existence of God must be rejected.

        6. Well, fuck niceness.
          Can you elaborate on that line of thought you followed that led you to the belief that the existence of God must be rejected? I suggest that this was due to some inherent Christian mysticism and a misrepresentation of what to expect from god. For instance, I do not believe that god prescribes any kind of morals. Neither do I believe in an afterlife. Nor do I believe that god solves your problems – apart from giving you some love and confidence.
          There was some research done where brainscans of atheists and normal meditating people were compared with praying people who believed in god. The praying people had active regions that were inactive in others. That is not quite a proof, but it is at least motivation to dig deeper.

        7. So Evolution created a creature that cannot survive reality without lies? How does that happen? The human mind lies to itself about the true nature of reality, fabricating the existence of God because it cannot accept the truth of its pointless existence. Why not? Why would the mind evolve such a dyshygienic… maladaption? If you are right and man does not really “need” God,” why did nature evolve Him? And if nature evolved the concept of God because man NEEDS to believe, aren’t you and your fellow atheists an evolutionary dead end?
          Instead, show me one creature whose survival is enhanced by deceiving ITSELF (not its enemies), one lie that increases man’s survival chances. It is the psychotic and the neurotic that lie to themselves. In fact, lying to oneself is he sine qua non of mental illness.
          Yet fMRI scans have proven that belief in God is NOT a malfunction if the brain, but a higher order of thought. Check out the book, “The Spiritual Brain”.
          But you won’t. That’s not your style.

        8. I think you are begging the question here. But even if I grant you the validity of these questions, the answer is not necessarily “God”.

        9. Put simply, there is no reason to accept the existence of God. At the time I was not aware (as a child) but I was essentially following the Scientific Method.

        10. So your reply is, even if I’m right, I’m not necessarily right?
          My questions are actually rhetorical. Like Jeopardy. My answers are in the form of questions but they are answers nonetheless.
          The fact of the matter is, you are in a logical bind. You have no explanation for why the mind creates God. Why the mind needs God.if Evolution is true, that is.
          But that is only one question about the mind evolutionists can’t answer. How about this one:
          If finite matter is all there is, how is it possible for a finite mind to create infinite concepts? How is it possible for a mind limited to three dimensions to imagine multiple dimensions?
          On how about this one:
          If materialism is true and everything comes down to a law of endless concatenation, how is the mind capable of CHOOSING between different answers? If determinism is true, it can’t be true. Both materialism and determinism are self-contradictory; therefore, they cannot be true.
          Atheism is a void. A nothing. A black hole from which nothing good can emerge. It is the void of oblivion.

        11. Hang on a minute! Did you just say the human mind creates God? I thought it was the other way round…
          Your particular rhetorical method is essentially begging the question. Did you not once accuse me of making logical fallacies?

        12. Pay attention.
          Assumens propter argumentum is not begging the question. It has been your assertion that man created God. For the sake of answering your own begging of the question I assumed that baseless assertion was true and then proceeded to show that, if true, it would lead to a self-contradictory conclusion; therefore it could not be true. This was a conclusion you could not refute and so you are attempting to distract the argument with this Red Herring.
          Try to stay on topic.

        13. I think you need to pay attention. I have not asserted anything. I am arguing against the existence of God. If man had created God then that would mean that God exists. This I reject because the proposition that God exists is based on faith which is entirely irrational and unprovable. This makes it meaningless.
          I think we should consider this matter closed as you are clearly becoming emotional (which is to be expected when the faithful find their beliefs slammed up against the cold hard wall of logic).

        14. LOL!! Your statements just keep getting dummier and dummier!
          “I have not asserted anything.” No? Then what’s this, “I am arguing against the existence of God.” LOL!!
          “If man created God that would mean God exists.” Huh? Uh. . . no? It means the exact OPPOSITE.
          And I can’t believe you’re going to try the ole’ liberal tactic of, “Declare victory and walk away”!
          “The science on global warming is settled.” Walk away.
          “Evolution is a FACT.” Walk away.
          “Everyone knows. . .” Walk away.
          “All reputable scientists agree. . .” Walk away.
          “Science has proved God doesn’t exist.” Walk away.
          You do realize, don’t you, that everyone reading this knows you were unable to intelligently respond to the logical arguments I made? You do know that everyone reading this can see you had nothing to offer in response, don’t you? You do know that everyone reading this recognizes that you FAILED to make your case for atheism, don’t you?
          “Another one bites the dust
          Another one bites the dust
          And another one gone, and another one gone
          Another one bites the dust
          Hey, I’m gonna get you too
          Another one bites the dust”

      5. Sir you have stated: “If you follow a rational chain of logic then the existence of God must be rejected”.
        May I ask what is this rational chain of logic? Please state it so I can know whether or not I should stop believing in God.
        Thanks

        1. Are you serious? That is your response? Your glib response does not in any way produce a rational chain of logic.

        2. An irrational man would respond as you have done. But you simply cannot reject the Scientific Method, assuming you know what it is. Plug your hypothesis (Null Hypothesis = There is a God) into this simple formula and see what comes out.

  7. Interesting that atheism leads to socialism and communism even as Christianity doesn’t often lead to theocracy. Is that a good distinction? Christians prefer to convert based on reason and the heart. Atheists insist on the power of the state.

    1. I generally don’t like being told what to do so I tend to shy away against religion.
      But it’s clear that religion is good for communities as a way to provide meaning and a general uniting philosophy. Whether you believe in God or not you have to wrestle with the fact that you’re going to die… And this amongst a few others things unites us all.
      Sacrifice and virtue can by very meaningful, even without religion, but not everyone has the time or means to debate the eternal philosophical questions. For many people religion fills that gap and gives them a general format with which to live.
      Atheists don’t seem to understand/respect this. And most of the self-proclaimed atheists that I’ve met (university professors, drugs addicts, etc.) are liberals… The kind of liberals that like telling other people what to do…
      I can’t tell you that I’m a good libertarian, but of all the political viewpoints that I’ve encountered, it seems to make the most sense.

      1. In the hard physical sciences (physics, mathematics), those that believe in a personal god are few and far between. I remember some interview with physicist Steven Weinberg, who shared the 1979 Nobel prize in physics with Abdus Salam, a muslim, relating how Salam was completely torn between the things he knew and discovered (regarding the physical reality of nature) and his muslim faith. Those things appeared simply irreconcilable.

        1. Even though I can respect religious people, I could never understand this one girl from my previous research department who believed in Jesus. I’m talking like… visiting Bethlehem to give props to Jesus kind of thing… Believed the Bible’s teachings literally.
          It was completely divorced from her hard-working methodical approach she had when doing science. Didn’t seem to bother her that in one aspect of life she required evidence, and in the other not so much.
          The contradiction is too difficult for me to reconcile so I’ve basically said fuck it… Maybe she’s got the right idea though.

        2. That’s because there is no contradiction.

        3. Our entire understanding of our own existence and universe is based on arbitrary man-made conjecture, even our language can only give partial meaning to our notions.
          Our minds process, yes, and processes that can be replicated have sustainability, and that might be one way of prioritizing/valuing something as relevant or “factual,” but there is still a lot taken on faith within that process.
          I believe the stars are suns like our own, but can’t prove it. I believe gravity is force placed on an object and not some intangible field, but I can’t definitively prove it.
          I may not be saying it how I mean, but as humans our perception and comprehension are limited and nothing reliant upon something imperfect can ever be perfect, though it can easily be acceptable.

        4. Exactly. Even science requires a degree of faith.
          As we’ve talked about before, people took traditional Darwinism for granted as absolute truth. People shape their morality and existential perspective on this scientific idea. But now we’re realizing evolution is a little more complex than we thought. Lamarckism has a grain of truth.
          Scientists base their lives on imperfect models just as much as the next person.

      2. I’ve never spent time in Asia, but I think philosophy could serve the same societal needs as religion. The ancient Greeks used philosophy to provide a roadmap for living. And Confucianism in China today seems to do the same.
        Religion is but one way of addressing important moral questions; the most important thing is that they are addressed.

        1. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think all of these philosophies, despite how “reasonable” or supernatural their content, require a leap of faith.
          Confucianism for example assumes an inherent hierarchy to nature. One’s purpose is to fulfill their natural (and respected) role in the greater scheme of things. But if all there was was to fill this role and afterwards you blink out of existence, why bother??? Why not just pursue pleasure???
          I’m arguing that these notion of “natural” and “good” require a leap of faith because people need to address their mortality, which is ultimately beyond their comprehension.
          Even Buddhists, who talk about how they can transcend the suffering of this material world believe in reincarnation. If they didn’t believe in reincarnation, would they spend all that time meditating??? Why do they believe in reincarnation at all??? It should be noted that, as I understand it, the teachings of the original Buddha don’t even bother talking about the afterlife at all. This issue was intentionally ignored.
          I’m not saying that these issues can’t be answered with a secular philosophical approach. I’m saying these issues can’t be answered completely with a secular philosophical approach.

        2. that’s a nice, idea but i can’t think of an example of it ever working. marxism is a philosophy, and obviously that didn’t go well. most of us on ROK are thinking men, but i don’t think most people are to the extent that a philosophy with no supernatural elements would really grab them. just my two cents.

        3. The most widely adopted religions have artistic icons… or epic stories… People want to be grabbed emotionally, not just rationally.

        4. True. The world is a chaotic place and a belief system helps make order out of chaos.
          Everything might actually be relative and there might actually be no absolutes, but it’s not in a man’s nature to live like that.
          Our minds are pretty small and if we had no system of beliefs we would be pondering everything until we died.
          There’s a reason great men in history usually had some pretty strong beliefs.
          So yeah, I agree.

      3. Well then you havent met me; not a professor, drug addict, or an etc. Why bring politics into a social argument? It just mucks everything up. Liberal, libertarian, conservative, classical liberal, socialist, what do these have to do with anything? They’re just opinions.
        If we can’t deal with each other rationally, how can we ever deal with each other on the basis of irrational beliefs?

    2. “Christians prefer to convert based on reason…”. Explain this further, please.

      1. Christian theology has evidence that proves its claims. Many skeptics reviewed such evidence and came away with the only conclusion that Christianity is real. I’ll leave it at that.

        1. Do Muslim theologians profess their evidence is real as well? How about Jewish?

        2. Modern Jews don’t take the Bible as accurate history. However, Orthodox Jews point to the fact that all rabbis can trace their intellectual lineage all the way back to Moses as proof that their tradition is accurate history at least as far as receiving the law on Mt. Sinai is concerned.
          This is similar to the CatholicChurch’s claim to being the one true church because of the supposed unbroken chain of apostolic succession.
          As far as I know, Islam makes no such historical claims but neither does it make any new revelations about God, His nature or purpose for mankind. Islam is actually merely a derivative of Christianity and Judaism.
          Christianity takes the truth claims of the Bible and of Jesus very, very seriously. “If in this life we only have hope in Christ (and we will not be raised from the dead) we are of all men MOST MISERABLE.”

        3. so the mostly-spoken word lineage is the evidence verifying Christianity to skeptics?
          Again, as a child, even I knew that spoken communication was the absolute worst way to pass along information. I figured that was the point of the game “Telephone.” The spoken message was only as good as its receiver.

        4. “Modern Jews don’t take the Bible as accurate history.”
          Because they privilege the oral over the written torah, deferring to the former over the latter if necessary – is that correct? The Talmud etc (and potentially the Kabbalah for some) fleshes out, interprets / qualifies the meanings of the tanakh – this is the basis for christian / (anti-semitic) claims that judaism isn’t “biblical” or ‘nullifies’ the old testament somehow I think
          “However, Orthodox Jews point to the fact that all rabbis can trace their intellectual lineage all the way back to Moses as proof that their tradition is accurate history at least as far as receiving the law on Mt. Sinai is concerned.”
          again though, this is from the oral torah I think isn’t it. It depends on a particular lineage involving the pharisaic elders and the prophets? (please correct me as appropriate if you know the answer)

        5. That is because you are conflating a childish game with a serious societal pursuit and even profession. The passing down of oral tradition was a serious business in the ancient world. Check out “Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, for a fascinating description of this process in various cultures (at least I hope my reference is as I remember it!). In the past it was not unusual for people to memorize entire epics stretching thousands of-now pages. The Illiad the Odyssey. The Vedas, Upanishads. The Icelandic epics (their name escapes me at the moment). All of them were remembered word for word, verified during public recitals, for hundreds of years before they were written down. This wasn’t a game to these people. It was their identity we can’t even conceive today of such dedication.
          The saying is, “When books were few, memories were many.” Prior to writing people were not ignorant. The had other skills necessarily developed over many years. We can’t conceive of them because w’vee lost them because we don’t need them anymore. Look how the Internet is changing our brains. Will we even recognize our descendants 200 years from now?

        6. They profess that the Qur’an is the absolute true word of Allah. That’s all the evidence they need.

        7. No. Christians base their claims on the written Bible as inerrant. Don’t conflate the beliefs of Jews with Christians. They don’t believe in the same things.

        8. I wasn’t conflating the views of Jews and Christians, I was grouping all religions as a belief whose main tenet has no physical proof. Therefore, I can’t 100% believe religion is true.
          And yes, I feel the same about science. However, science does claim to NOT know the end-all be-all, but works toward the answer.

        9. I’m not saying oratory history isn’t a serious profession. But the fact that it was oral meant there were more opportunities than other forms of communication that what was passed down definitely was inflated, changed, made to fit the sociopolitical narrative that was being pushed at the time.

        10. Said without a shred of evidence nor even an anecdotal example.
          I truly wish we could get into textual criticism and all more fully here, but it’s just not possible. The fact is the Biblical texts have been subjected to more scrutiny and study and skeptical analysis than any other writing in history. If there were s smoking gun or a silver bullet truly destroying the claim that they were NOT handed down accurately (interpretations notwithstanding), it would be published on every MSM outlet every day for a year and then once a year thereafter like an anti-Christmas holiday forever. Just as they would do if the tomb of Jesus were ever found with a body in it.

        11. I was drafting a solid reply when my battery died! I’ll rewrite it in a bit. Thanks for you patience.

        12. if the tomb of Jesus was found, I’d convert to Christianity. Or would it be Judiaism? He was a rabbi, afterall.
          The reason I’d convert because a tomb with a body in it that was proven to be Jesus Christ would be proof. Tangible proof.
          I don’t think I need textual criticism for something as basic as the ark story to not make sense to me as an 8 year old. I’m educated, but for me, all it takes is common sense.
          “All those animals? On one boat? Bullshit.”

        13. If you would convert to Christianity upon the discovery of Jesus’ body, it would NOT be Christianity you would be converting to! LOL!
          Christianity claims, above all other claims, that Jesus Christ died on a cross and that he physically rose from the dead. Had the Pharisees or the Romans wanted to stop the apostles in their tracks all they had to do was produce his body. They didn’t because they couldn’t.
          Well, the apostles must have stolen it! With a Roman Guard on the tomb? Not likely.
          But if they did, then you have to deal with the fact that they died for a lie they themselves fabricated. Why? To what end?
          To control the masses, as our article author, Quentin claims? To give them a story they already want to believe? But the disciples weren’t the religious leaders. They WERE the hoi polloi. The unwashed masses. And they died for a story they didn’t believe?
          When challenged on the resurrection, the Apostle Paul gave a very unusual answer. He said, “Look, over 500 people saw him after his resurrection. If you don’t believe me, go talk to them.”
          He also said, “If Christ is not risen from the dead then your faith is worthless and your hope futile and we are of all men most to be pitied.”
          This is what I mean when I speak of believing the truth claims of religion. Not myths. Not parables or ancient stories. But the central miracle claimed by Christinity. What C.S. Lewis called, The Grand Miracle.”
          Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead and is alive forever. And that fact changes everything.

        14. But I don’t believe that. because no one has done that before or since.

        15. [Said with a Yiddish accent] “And why should it happen more than once? Or to anyone else? And why should you be so lucky, Mr. Special man, to be there when it happens? And who says it won’t happen again? Just not yet?”
          This is where the study of evidence comes in. Countless men in the past two millenia have become believers in the resurrection because they studied the question. Lew Wallace was one of the premier jurist of his day and an expert on the Rules of Evidence. He spend 20 years investigating the resurrection of Christ and wrote the book, “Ben Hur” as a result. The same with Simon Greenleaf, minus the best selling book!
          My favorite, C.S. Lewis also made a study of the question and became perhaps the best defender of the resurrection in the past hundred years. “Even though,” he said, “I was the most reluctant convert in all of England.”
          Or one of my favorite Lewis quotes: “I did not believe God existed. And I was angry at Him for not existing. I was equally angry at Him for having created a world.”
          Doesn’t make sense does it? Neither does atheism.
          I forget who said it, “The primary question of science is not “What exists”, But “Why does anything exist at all?” Or something like that. Can’t look it up right now.
          The universe is a mystery that we can “see through a glass darkly.” Why does it exist and why can we comprehend it? To propose God as an answer is not “arguments from ignorance” but instead inspires the most profound questioning and searching the human mind is capable of.
          The atheist’s answer is too simple. “No reason. No point. No big deal.” And always said with the tone of the petulant child who doesn’t want to do his homework,

        16. It happened to Superman, another story of an extra-terrestrial being sent to Earth to save man.
          I hope you see my pattern here. All of your references to other great minds (C.S. Lewis fan myself) who found it within themselves and their own studies to come to grips with religion paint an intellectually dense picture. But the difference between you and the individuals you tout is that they are content with finding their own truth, while you are more content with arguing down those that don’t share your view.
          Not once in my arguments did I say something amounting to “religion is a sham, and anyone who believes in it must be intellectually inferior.” Even if are correct, and there is just one deity and it is God/Jesus, don’t you see how the attitude you’re carrying puts people off? and you’re a very mild iteration of this attitude. Imagine the loudest of your kind and how off-putting that is to those who either don’t share your belief or, like me, are under the thought of “live and let live.”
          If you practice religion, fine. Do what you do. But if I choose not to, due to reasons of my own, then nothing is exactly what I choose to follow. Your repeated arguments about atheism stemming from ignorance are also rendered ineffective by traveling to the Bible Belt and asking the average Christian why they believe what they believe. What are the chances they’ve done as much soul-searching and research as you or I have to come to our conclusions? I’d bet they are just as, if not more, ignorant than you claim the “average” atheist to be.

        17. Last statement – false. I don’t claim to speak for any atheists/agnostics but myself. That’s like me saying The theist’s viewpoint is “don’t question, just follow.” That statement is wrong as shit.

        18. Whether you agree with the statement or not, that is the atheist position on the existence of the universe. No Reason. No Point. No Big Deal.
          We cannot help but speak in generalities here. I can only type so fast with two thumbs! Now if I was on my full sized keyboard, well, them, 80 WPM!

        19. “It happened to Superman, another story of an extra-terrestrial being sent to Earth to save man.”
          Please. Don’t do that. It makes me want to ignore everything you write after. Now if you’d given me a little smiley, like 😈 I’d be taking it differently.
          Besides, if you are a Lewis fan you should know his writing on a Myth and Reality.

        20. “Even if are correct, and there is just one deity and it is God/Jesus, don’t you see how the attitude you’re carrying puts people off? and you’re a very mild iteration of this attitude. Imagine the loudest of your kind and how off-putting that is to those who either don’t share your belief or, like me, are under the thought of “live and let live.”
          You’re kidding, right? You’re gonna go all gamma on me? I’m not buying it.
          You’re trying to sidestep the discussion by first retreating, feigning injury, and then attacking my personality? You know you can’t maintain your agnosticism honestly so you try to shame me for not being a better Christian witness? F**k you and the hypocrisy you rode in on!. This isn’t church or a retreat or a coffee shop and you aren’t a friend who’s soul I’m trying to save. This is a dialectical duel. An intellectual MMA match and you are free to TAPOUT at any time. Just don’t play the pussy.
          For too many years I fell for that kind of crap! I allowed people to SCOLD ME for being at the top of my game. Mastering all the facts. Knowing all the argument and objections. I have NEVER lost a debate with an atheist OR agnostic but whenever I had them on the ropes they’d all step back and feign an emotional injury like you’re doing now! And now you’re trying to shame me for “picking on the GIRL!” And after she slapped me first!
          Grow some balls and make a fuckng decision. You have enough evidence. You’re smart enough to decide. So decide. Stop sitting on the fence playing the wounded, wondering child.
          And I’m grateful I can come back and edit this in the future😎

        21. see, i go the other route and say that i see evidence that “something is there” in christianity by comparing my christian wife to the supposedly liberated and strong independent western women i used to date before i met her, who were actually emotionally broken, promiscuous and miserable. the fact that uncorrupted christianity produces superior wives and mothers suggests to me that it is true, not that the bitter atheists will ever concede that.
          i liked your last sentence there, describes most online atheists i’ve debated perfectly.

        22. Goku was also an alien that came to earth to protect mankind. Being an anime fan, I should like Jesus.
          You didn’t win a debate. I’m not shifted in aghast I believe, because at the end of it all, I’m still “live and let live.” keep your fairy tales, bud. If you need imaginary characters to keep you on the straight and narrow, by all means, keep at it. I’d rather know that I can keep myself in line without the help of my imaginary magical friends.

      2. The zombie carpenter was his own father and had to have Romans torture him to death so he could forgive everyone for our ancestor eating his magical fruit because of a talking snake. What part isn’t reasonable.

        1. Yes. And thank you for your contribution to the conversation. You sound like a bored teenager, depressed because the grown ups are talking about things you don’t understand. “Mom! Can I go out and play now?” “Of course. No one’s making you stay inside with the grown ups! Go outside and play! Have fun. And leave us alone so we can talk,”

        2. Children who can’t understand books written for grown ups shouldn’t waste everyone’s time pretending they’ve read them, that they understand them, and that they are capable of talking about them intelligently.
          Classic Dunning-Kruger Effect.

        3. the Bible was written for roaming nomads who were afraid of the sun.

        4. to be fair, the part about him being his own father got codified hundreds of years after christ’s death in the council of nicea, called and heavily influenced by a bloodthirsty pagan emperor. not necessary to believe that particular part to be a good christian, in my opinion.

        5. You’re taking the Troll more seriously than he deserves. He cares nothing for rational thought or argument.

        6. true. “zombie carpenter” should have been a tipoff. these people don’t even understand how zombies work. heh.

        7. Thanks. I kinda surprised myself. Yes, there are several people on here I’d love to sit down and spend a couple hours/days talking with.
          Also, a lot fewer Trolls in the real world.
          Strange how a topic like this inspires so much passion on both sides yet IRW no one ever wants to engage in, what my ex l used to call, “God Talk.”
          Probably has to do with the anonymity of the web and our innate fear of confrontation with a possibly superior opponent. Yeah. Most likely.
          Too bad though. Research shows men today have the fewest number of close friends since they started measuring it back in the 60s or 70s. From something like 3.4 to barely 1.2. And getting worse. Sad.
          Thanks again. Hope to see more if your comments.

        8. I do but I’m sitting here getting ready to drive to SoCal. SD. Moms is going in for a minor surgery to pervent a stroke (let’s hope). Got a long drive ahead but I’ll be pondering your request. We live in fantastic times for book lovers, aye?

        9. Ah! What style?
          I haven’t practiced since I studied Shin Ye Kung Fu in Japan. Not as impressive as it sounds. It hurt like a MF!
          Jui Jitsu in high school.
          But my children were with an amazing instructor for five years and attended class 4-6 days a week! Guess what it cost me? $88 a month! She was awesome! Five time world champion – all knock outs! One she put girl in the hospital.
          Was it you who said, don’t get me started on martial arts?!! LOL!!

        10. Nobody wants to talk about God anymore.
          What you said about modern day atheists’ views on religion reminds me of a recent interview with Stephen Colbert on his faith. He was making the distinction between joy and flippancy. Joy, he said, brings people closer to God because it usually happens when one is around loved ones, friends, and generally good folks.
          On the other hand, flippancy pulls one further from God and makes the heart colder since it is the attitude that a joke has been made without actually having put out the intellectual sweat to make a joke. Making jokes can come from a place of joy but flippancy comes from a place of contempt.
          I can’t even have an honest talk with many people around my age about faith because they automatically treat it as ridiculous and worthy of contempt without having asked the hard questions.
          You seem like a smart dude; hope to see more of your comments around these parts.

        11. Many thanks. And are you sure that was Colbert? If it was, I got it from Screwtape_ I believe! You know him? The senior Devil training the junior his nephew? His comment was pure Lewis!
          Thanks for the upvotes. I’m hoping to find my voice and start doing more regular postings. I consider myself sort if the UNpastor of the internet. It seems the only place people are going with their real life issues.
          But the Trolls are just everywhere! LOL! But even Trolls need love. You just have to housebreak the first. Teach them not to shit on the comments! LOL!
          Gotta drive!

        12. Haha! I originally started with TKD. Have been studying that for 16 years this month. Since about April of this year I have also taken up Jeet Kun Do, Filipino Kali, and Aikido. It’s a blast learning new styles.
          Hoping to get back into the competitive circuit soon, not so much as an athlete but more as a trainer/coach. Our school is looking into the possibility of starting a competitive team so I’ve been looking to spearhead that project. 🙂

        13. Yeah, it was indeed Colbert quoting Lewis. When I read that I found the reason for my contempt of “those” kinds of millennials and hipsters. I really need to read more of Lewis’ work; he is one sharp dude.
          Shame that the ROK community can’t create some kind of “Manclave,” like Roosh’s tour but on a bigger scale. Also props on bringing an intellectual mindset to discussing religion. Someone’s gotta do it and I’m tired of seeing “reddit atheists” who think they’re smart because they watched a few amazing atheist videos on youtube.
          Mike Cernovich of D&P took “reddit atheists” to town when he posed the question: Look at these people. Are they happy, fulfilled, and successful in their lives? Are they the kind of people who you want to aspire to be like?

        14. Lewis is very interesting. A hundred years and another world! My favorite quote is when B.Grahams magazine asked him the quintessential Ameri-Christian question: Which religion is most able to make its followers happy? Or something very like that.
          Lewis replied: I think while it lasts, the religion of worshipping onesself is best. Ha!
          He then said: But I didn’t become a Christian to be happy. I always knew a bottle of port could do that! I became a Christian because I was convinced Christianity was true.
          Good work by Mike Cernovich. Atheism is a Nothing. A Void. As a philosophy it answers nothing. Inspires nothing. Motivates nothing. Creates nothing. Think about that.
          Not that it doesn’t inspire, etc. It CAN’T. Who ever wrote an epic to atheism? A symphony? A cantada even.
          And all novels written from a nihilistic viewpoint are ALWAYS tragedies.
          They don’t know it but they’ve already lost.

        15. Sounds like a project worthy of your time. Helping kids is one if the beat things you can do. You really do help shape who they become.
          Do you have some if your own?

        16. Yes, I “just don’t understand” your jew worshipping bronze age slave morality faggotry.
          Until I get both lobotomized and castrated, I never will.

        17. There’s a free clinic downtown where you can get that done in an hour.
          Can’t wait for you to join us!
          Go Jew Carpenters!

        18. People do not like to talk about “god” anymore because christians do not want to talk, they want to argue and act like jerks when someone disagrees with their pet belief.
          Example, gay marriage.
          Recently I attempted to discuss the issue here. I used the law and the scripture to back up my points.
          My attempt at peaceful discussion and honest debate was to be verbally attacked by the christian jackals who had nothing to refute my points but an emotional response, personal attacks, name calling, sending me to hell etc.
          Instead of factually proving me wrong, all they could do is yap and whine from a safe distance.
          I have friends in the ministry who do the same, and wonder why i seldom talk to them any more.
          I am I 100% right ? probably not.
          But, I have spent the last two years reading about this and studying the issue.
          I have studied the bible, the law, the constitution, case law, legal opinions, etc. I have both sides to show me facts to pack their opinion, I have studied the ACLU’s information, and that of christian commentators as well.
          I used the information I gathered to form an opinion that I think is correct, and I am willing to peacefully discuss it.
          The problem is finding someone who is willing to be peaceful.
          Who knows ?, the other people might have some facts I missed, and I can learn something from them.

      3. Converting on the basis of reason is encouraged in the Bible. Diligent study and reasoned thought is the foundation of Christianity:
        Acts 17:11New American Standard Bible (NASB)
        11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, [a]for they received the word with [b]great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
        1 Thessalonians 5New American Standard Bible (NASB)
        21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;
        2 Peter 3New American Standard Bible (NASB)
        14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things,in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

    3. Thanks for painting with the broad brush of generality. Ahem, Christianity, and all religions, are a theocracy. Try to find one of those old time religions that didnt start out with ultimate authority over all. Judiasm, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, heck even Mormons.

    4. The only reason christianity does not lead to theocracy is that secular governments finally got it under control.
      Theists insist on the power of the church.
      The first amendment separates church and state for a very good reason.
      Religious people cannot be trusted with political power, look a what a mess the religious reich has made of the republican party, look at Kentucky, look at Iran.

  8. They get rid of God with the promise of a progressive world where cruelty and war don’t happen.
    They worship the state in place of God with cruelty and war being the result. Governments have slaughtered more non-combatants, even outside of war through persecution and genocide, than the church could ever aspire to.
    This is why aliens won’t land here. If we don’t fuck them or eat them we’ll install our tyranny over them.

    1. Even if I were devoid of faith entirely, it would give me the creeping heebie jeebies to trust a system crafted by men to give me “heaven on earth”. One need not look at more than, oh, say the first twenty billion examples of human individuals to deduce that there are some fucked up control freaks out there, in almost every single person, with the measure of control lust stopped only by how much power the person has obtained in life.
      “Hey, kid, I’ma take care of ya’, see? I’m gonna give you a rabbit in every pot, see? Just sign right here, and put on this uniform, alright? No, really….Trust Me ™”.
      No thanks.

      1. Oh there’s nothing creepier than these socialism fanatics who act like their plans never lead to starvation and totalitarianism. Their disconnect from that while acting they are all for the children is probably the one of the few things in this world that scares me. This is why I believe that these people are cultists and this is a death cult.

        1. Death Cult, yes, precisely. I rather hinted at that myself when outlining how the ideology of Progressivism/socialism is the embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins on another post.

        2. The contradiction I don’t get in all these progressive liberals is that they trust the institution of government to regulate peoples’ lives and make everything nice. We’re talking about the same government that has violated peoples’ privacy in every way imaginable, ran guns across the Mexican border and lost track of them, funded murderous guerrillas, and has waged the very wars the liberals are opposed to.

        3. If that’s what it takes to produce good women, strong men, stable families, a sense of individual purpose and culture, then yes it’s better.

        4. In sacrifice of losing logic and brains, in the end-Science?
          No, leftist has no place in the future. same to be said for Christianity. because of your play-book people are afraid of hands scanners. and the number 666. it’s pathetic.

        5. Religion and science can and do co-exist.
          Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian Catholic priest, proposed the expansion of the universe and the theory of the cosmic egg.
          Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian friar, the founder of modern genetics.
          More recently Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian, led the Human Genome Project and also head of the National Institutes of Health.
          Just because you believe doesn’t make you dumb, and just because you reject faith doesn’t make you smart.
          At the end of the day, everyone has their reasons for both and intelligence is not the defining factor in that decision.

        6. Francis Collins agrees with abortion. Not very christian-like is he?
          Most of these people started with science by abandoning Christian dogma temporally. They don’t believe inthe garden of Eden. or Joseph or Jesus because they’re scientist of reason and there no reason to think that these characters or location exist.
          The bible is overtly false, so, why do you believe this bullshit?

        7. Quite so Sir. Proof that liberals and christians are the same.
          The same menatlity, overgrown children who cannot survive without stealing power over others.
          A leftist state and a theocratic one use the same methods, do it our way or else.
          A sacred book of “history” and rules that cannot be questioned, read only what dear leader approves, or else.
          Rigid controls on what you can see, listen to, think, say, do in your own bedroom, etc., be a good sheep and conform, or else.
          Suppression of science, progress, innovation, dissent, independent thinking, exploration etc. after all, we cannot let these evils interfere with dear leaders plan for your life, he knows best, do not question.
          Fanatic hatred for the outside world, and big plans to attack it and destroy those evil people who have the unmitigated gall to not believe like we do.
          Tight control over the educational system, common core and homeschooling, after all we do not want our children’s minds polluted with outside ideas, learn what we tell you or else.
          A dress code, wear the prophet’s/dear leader’s uniform, quote his book, display his symbol, shout his slogans, or else.
          ETC.
          I realize that not all of these examples will be present every time, or in every culture, but when you compare religion with totalitarianism, you see a lot of similarities.
          You also see a lot of the mentality that “we” are better than others and above the law because of being a member of the accepted religion or a party elite.

        8. Not disagreeing per se, yet what you are describing is common in herd-mentality (group-think) and not particularly exclusionary. Atheists can easily fall into the same patterns. No one is immune really. Hell, even people who claim “superior” intellect can easily become very totalitarian in practice.

        9. Yes you are right, atheists can do this, religion just makes it easier and more destructive, because there are more christians than atheists.

      2. “there are some fucked up control freaks out there, in almost every single person”
        We need stellar independance in the future, or we’ll end up with high-tech hell on earth communism, technology will make it too easy for control freaks to eventually perfect mind-control techniques unfortunately, the countdown HAS begun
        Just take a dozen or so AI bots with you for company on your ship and you have no need to be dependant on some parasite society that sees it’s participants like a lion sees a juicy piece of meat, True freedom in my opinion

    2. The world went to hell when men stopped worshipping/chasing God and started worshipping/chasing pussy.

      1. Exactly, When God got is/was discarded in collective thought. A worship vacuum was created.

        1. I dont understand this comment- where is the scientific “enlightenment”? All I see is govt-driven, agenda- driven “science”, and that aint science.

        2. The scientific revolution inchoate around the 1500’s, but it truly kicked off after the industrial revolution.
          Thanks to religious maddens which spawn a pseudo-secular religion: feminism or leftistism by using Christianity control techniques of the masses has held back science back over a thousand years*. Luckily, people are abandon petty things for the pursuit of conceptual reality.
          *the burning of library of Alexandria for example.

        3. “pseudo-secular religion: feminism or leftistism by Christianity control of the masses has held back science back over a thousand years*. Luckily, people are abandon petty things for the pursuit of conceptual reality.
          “*the burning of library of Alexandria for example.”
          Pseudo-scholar religion eh? Pursuit of conceptual reality?
          Riddle me this, was Julius Caesar a pagan or was he somehow a Christian in the year 48 BC?
          Plutarch, Life of Caesar:
          When the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library.
          http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#49

        4. The people who attempt to erase our past by changing before Christ and Anno Domini to your common era crap are the same ones who are flooding our nations with foreigners in an attempt to erase our future. Though I understand that there will always be followers who are easily programmed.

        5. The research system all around the world is a massive joke. You can’t form your own scientific opinion without getting ridiculed and sabotaged by everybody who’s swimming with the mainstream believe.
          Same goes for university education. The motto there is: “Shut up and blindly believe what we tell you to and never ever use your own brain or logic, you rebellious prick.”
          That’s why more women finish university. They, instinctively, love being ordered around.
          It’s basically the exact same thing as it was back in the days when church suppressed everything. These days government is the big bad oppressor of science. They say what’s right and what’s wrong.

        6. “I’m surrounded by idiots…”
          …says the one who’s upvoting his own comments.

        7. Its not quite the same thing. You won’t be burned at the stake for disagreeing now.

        8. Quite right. Oppression and suppression are human traits, regardless of one’s ideology, philosophy or religion. Something that’s difficult to help some rather crusading atheists understand.

        9. I don’t know about that. If you’re against the wrong people they could easily throw you under the next bus (literally). Without any consequences for them.
          Take a look at Russia or China…or even the Kennedy clan 😉
          Most of the time they don’t really need to clip someone because they can keep you down and unimportant with their financial resources only.
          And if you’re a nosy, bothersome billionaire or politician…well, take a look at China or Russia. Fatal accident or a one way ticket to prison camp.

        10. Assassination is a different concept. There is no ruling force which decrees your death if you say the wrong thing in modern Western Civilization, as we had during the height of the Christian Church.

        11. It’s a fact that the bible was made in 397 C.E. but it diverge from a folks tale called The First epistle of Clement in 96 C.E. later the populace became rather picky and started ‘denominations’ Judaism is one of them.
          Unfortunately, too many fuckas become zealous for their delusions that they must forge inventions to make the church happy like the Sumerian King List or Jacob’s well or plagues of exodus. Christians just hate reality, period.
          Ah, yes…call something old thus: it is, right?
          Here. have an old man.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35fd8f398e4cdd209bea6bc6b0508d880aa8babcb355b785e0aaded56b2ebfbb.jpg

        12. I must rather be ‘programmed’ by people who actually have a appreciation researched facts in archaeology compared to a unprovable, religious past, you dick.

        13. Maybe, we’ll be shitting on SJWism, feminism, and socialism one day on the galactinet in the year 4,000.

        14. “Shut up and blindly believe what we tell you to and never ever use your own brain or logic, you rebellious prick.”
          Was that the sermon last Sunday?
          Leftistism is no better than Christianity, but at least Progressive have a appreciation for the past then the fanciful, unreliable, unprovable books of the bible.

        15. Come on man, progressives shit on the past all the time. Look at their seething contempt for “tradition.”

        16. The fact that traditions have survived for thousands of years speaks to many of their merits. Progressives are so quick to dump them without critically reviewing why they’ve been integral parts of their society. Such reckless abandonment is spelling the doom of western civilization as we speak.

        17. Yes but that’s due to their weakness, when they are strong the hell comes from earth. More than 100 millions of deaths by the leftoid only in the past century

        18. Right but now you see how this is a problem with humanity, not with religion or atheism per se.

        19. You’ll just get called a RINO, racist or Neocon Warmonger respectively. You may get fired as Eich had from Mozilla. In Iran and rural Turkey if you’re 12 and female, you will get honor killed for wearing western clothing.

        20. No scientific enlightenment will rid us of envy, arrogance, avarice, apathy, gluttony, attention whoring, cruelty, and all their loathsome consequences. But it can make them worse.

        21. You’ve gone from bragging about not changing the past to erasing the Jews in ridiculous antisemitic conspiracy theory.

        22. Why do all discussions with Leftists now-a-days end with what used to be the area of hardened Christians a Jewish obsession. I’ve seen it 100 times. This is Soviet stuff, leftism equals a hate obsession with a tiny ancient people. You are the superstitious one.
          The arch of titus brainwashed antisemite jacka*ss the book called the ANTIQUITIES of the Jews jacka*ss, menorah carvings in southern Italy antisemite, The dead sea scrolls were carbon dated, Silver scrolls with the same prayers said today in it, 2600 years old.Prove the existence of any minor ancient people. You are so stupid it is scary.

        23. As much as you would like it to, being an obsessed antismite thief, does not make you smart, and has nothing to do with science.

        24. The fundamental purpose of JudeoChristian religion is to put a person’s natural animalistic tendencies in check for the benefit of everyone outside his perspective, through a promotion of Godly principles.
          That and saving one from damnation through Jesus, of course.
          The fundamental purpose of atheism is to promote a belief in a denial of something greater than the self for the benefit of that person’s desires and drives, no matter how perverse. iI supplants the belief in a supernatural God with the belief that the person is god, essentially.
          Which one of these two is more likely to benefit society and which one has caused more woe to society?
          Would you wager to guess?

        25. No, they just make humanistic versions such as the “universal declaration of human rights.”

        26. Rights are only created by the government.
          Not to say we shouldn’t appreciate them (unless we become abused), but acknowledge that they’re really just gifts.

        27. The Founding Fathers of the US would vehemently disagree with you, since they considered rights to originate from the will of God aka the Creator.

        28. “It’s a fact that the bible was made in 397 C.E”
          You seem to have a very creative interpretation of the word “fact.”

        29. Then why should these rights be only reserved for the American Populace? When did God said or agreed with the bill of rights?

        30. Why not just post it here?
          Believe me, it can’t be longer than the usual sort of rebuttals from other atheists I’ve come across during the years.
          Mind you I’m a former atheist myself.

        31. My point was that the secular community can list for themselves tenets which they consider sacrosanct even if they don’t include a presumed supernatural origin. I hope you realize that an atheist can be no less “religious” than a traditional person of faith during the course of their lives.
          “When did God said or agreed with the bill of rights?”
          I never said He did, however given that the Declaration of Independence includes things which do not conflict with biblical scripture and the UDHR does, one has to understand what the motivation is with regard to the people who proposed both texts.

        32. I’m not extremely religious (eg. creationism), but I do have a Catholic background and am not atheist, so I identify as an agnostic theist (I believe in god and spirituality, but I still believe in evolution).
          I’ve noticed families with some aspect of spirituality tend to be more functional than atheists, as I suppose they just don’t worry about their actions and say/ do things someone normally wouldn’t. I think a god most likely exists, and I do tend to see Jesus as having a way of communicating with him/ it.
          Oh, and as a white person, I can thank Christianity for not being conquered by Asians. See, Christianity (more specifically the Catholic church) brought all the different factions of Europe together in some way, as occasional large wars were better than many smaller tribal battles in the name of Odin or some other pagan god/ gods. If Europe were left alone by the Abrahamic religions, it would be a similar state to the many tribes of Africa and the Americas.

        33. Unprovable? All of the Biblical prophecies are coming true, right before our eyes! Accept Jesus Christ Yeshua, and be saved from His wrath that is to come!

        34. AHAHAHA, hilarious!
          Dudes are there actually any old or new testament prophecies that came true? Elven, do you honestly reason us logically-I repeat ‘LOGICALLY’ assume these pre-dick-ions are true outside of the Bible?
          That’s just circular logic, something you’re familer with chasing your own tail.

        35. But why would the Left (more often then not) use Declaration of Independence, the constitution, emancipation proclamation to justify equality for Homos, Trannies, women and melanin if it’s founded through a religion that disagrees with their cause? It should make more sense for them to be willing to use a based Übermensch/hive-mind contract…

        36. Well. looking at the history of christianity and the idiotic attitude problems of it’s followers today, I would say atheism is far better.
          Atheism at least presents you with facts and reallity instead of lies and mythology.
          Atheism teaches you to be strong and self reliant, religion teaches you to be weak and superstitious.
          I am a conservative, but I cringe at the thought of the candidates trying to be elected by promising to rely on an imaginary friend and a book of fairy tales to guide our country.
          If you want to see what our country will be like if christians are allowed to run it, look at Kentucky, or Iran.

        37. You are quite correct sir, but no religion can do this either, and almost always make them worse.
          Religion gave us the dark ages, religion flies planes into buildings, religion has ruined more lives than everything else put
          together.

        38. Even if what you said were true, its entirely irrelevant. There is no god whether you believe that or not. It is time accept the facts and move to the next stage of human evolution.
          Again if true, I must say that Judeo-Christian (in which you must include Islam) is a monumental failure given that many of the most horrific crimes in human civilization have been committed by people following these religions.
          I have to say, if you need someone to tell you a fairy tale to get you to behave you have serious problems. Its like saying people don’t casually commit murder because its against the law. In actual fact, generally people do not commit murder because we have evolved psychological barriers to wanton killing. This is why humanity has survived so far.

        39. You seem to mixing things up there. We’re talking about religion versus modern Western Civ. What you described in Iran is religion. In the UK I can talk all the shit I like about the government without being “honor killed”.

        40. It is a question of which religion. But one thing Christianity never promises is universal salvation. Not in this life. In fact, Christianity pretty much promises things will get worse before they get better

        41. Yes. Look there. Not at the founding of this country. Not at the Constitution and the declaration of Independence. Not at the Federalist papers. Not at the abolitionist movement. Not the civil rights movement. Etc , etc., etc.

        42. “..as we had during the height of the Christian Church.”
          Examples? Height of the varies socialist “temples” the deaths are in the tens of millions. More direct, take all the religious wars (christian and muslim) together and the socialist ideoglical wars surpass them.

        43. “..look at Kentucky, or Iran”
          A bit crass. Let me know when Kentucky is hanging homosexuals as currently what goes on in Iran.

        44. Sigh…No, Vladimir.
          Christ simply cannot create Christianity, He doesn’t exist.
          Nor has anyone found any trace for the existence the Jewish people in 1000, 600, 300 B.C.E. Heck, even before 65 C.E.

        45. Not in the Constitution.
          The Constitution was intended to limit the government. Not the people. That’s why it’s freedom OF religion and not freedom FROM religion.
          You want protection from religion, buy a dog and put it in your yard. Other than there, you’re fair game!

        46. I was reading over your reply to Daniel, wondering which of you inanities I was going to mock, since it would take too long to mock everything you said. I was really torn because it was all so content-rich. But then you said THIS:
          “…people do not commit murder because we have evolved psychological barriers to wanton killing. That is why humanity has survived so far.”
          ROTFLMAO!!
          First off, there is NO, NONE, ZIP, ZERO, NADA, NOT ANY scientific, sociological, anthropological, or psychological evidence to support such a ridiculous statement.
          Do you know NOTHING from history? Do you ever READ the news? CAN you read?
          No animal kills as wontonly as man. And he’s STILL doing it. Morality does NOT evolve. It is a product of man’s consciousness and not his genes and science doesn’t have the foggiest idea how to explain consciousness.
          Now if you want to talk about whether there are such things as mental instincts and whether the brain is pre-wired fto create a mind that has a mental structure which we cannot see, feel, taste, or touch but which is nevertheless real (like God), and that this mind has moral instincts, then you are talking about an area where we know less than we do about the brain, which is very little. Because it is a HELL of a lot more complicated than, “we evolved them”.
          Come back when you can prove to me, hell, when you can prove to yourself, that your mind exists.
          Classic Dunning-Kruger Effect.

        47. Didn’t say it was did I?
          It is a guiding principle of the formation of the United States with good reason. Article 6 and the First Amendment are pretty clear demonstrations of this principle.

        48. Actually there is. When you’re finished being a dumbass I’ll be happy to share it with you.

        49. I can’t WAIT to hear it!
          But why do you always keep these facts to yourselves? Why do you always refise to share them? Why all the rhetoric if you have facts on your side?
          But never mind all those imponderables. Share. Share. Share.
          Or you can go away and pout because I’m still being all assholey.

        50. So why did you throw out that Red Herring? Separation of church and state? It was in the Soviet Constitution, though.

        51. Lolwut? Go in Twitter or Youtube and check tweets/comments there from new atheists.
          Strong and self reliant? Hahhahahaha. Only existentialists are strong and reliant atheists, and they’re not very common. Other atheists just substitute God with what we can prove is an illusion, like “the progress of mankind” (towards uh… something, usually towards sitting in your ass and letting robots do everything for you, and world peace and 0 suffering utopia crap, because they are super, SUPER weak-willed)
          Also “facts and reality” is just your shitty opinion. Atheism doesn’t have a monopoly on them.

        52. You are correct sir, but only because the secular governments finally the church under control.
          Our founding fathers separated church and state for a very good reason.

        53. Read a history book, religion brings the most horrible things in people because religion makes you feel like you are superior to everyone else.
          Humans do some truly horrible things, the worst in the name of “god”, this makes it easy to dull your feelings and justify it.
          The worst crimes always seem to be committed for “god”, because he loves you.
          Classic religious hypocrisy and blindness.

        54. Your shitty attitude just proved my point.
          Needing to pray to an imaginary friend and basing your life on a book of mythology because an authority figure told you to seems pretty weak and superstitious to me.
          Since you are so smart, why not show me how religion is propelling us forward.
          Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.

        55. I think it is a bit crass to think that belonging to a certain religion not only puts you above the law, but your own scripture to.
          Again. look at Kentucky.
          The only reason gays are not being hanged by the church here is because our founding fathers had the wisdom to separate church and state. to put a limit on the churches power and the abuse of it.
          When the church was allowed to run things we got the dark ages.

        56. BS ! the lack of basic high school level civics education among christians is appalling.
          Your kind of thinking and attitude problem is a perfect reason why homeschooling should be banned.
          Your children should be forcibly taken away from you and sent to a public school, so the can learn facts and reality, and be socialized with normal people.
          Correct, the constitution is intended to limit the government, including the prohibition on a government enforced religion.
          Pull your head out of your fantasyland/church and read something besides the bible once in a while, something factual.
          Separation of church and state, Everson vs Board of Education 1947, the court ruled that church and stae are separate, and the government cannot push religion on to people, and cannot aid it in any way.
          It also ruled that Jeffersons “wall of separation” is valid, and that was the intent of the first amendment.
          This ruling is binding on the states as well, so don’t bother going to Kentucky to hide.
          That is why it is freedom of religion, and freedom FROM religion, you stupid inbred hick.
          Jerks like you just prove my point that christians and liberals have the same mentality.
          I do not need to buy a dog, I am not fair game for the church.
          I am not subject to the churches tyranny and oppression.
          I can walk outside on a public street and do whatever I please, and the church cannot say a word to me about it.
          All you and the church can do is whine in impotent rage as I exercise my rights, including the one to live free of religion.

        57. They mistrusted religion to the point to separate church and state and forbid the church to have political power.

        58. Yes, they are called liberals and fundamentalist christians.
          Changing BC and AD to common era is just a pain in the ass so I do not bother to do it, the same way I handle the metric system, I ignore it.
          Why should I discard a system that works just fine and I am already familiar with it to please someone else ?

        59. The Catholic church created the version of it we have today.
          Who really knows what jesus really said or did, all of the witnesses are long dead.
          The “books” were chosen by a religious organization with a political agenda, I do not see how they can be considered trustworthy.

        60. Jesus really did exist, the Romans recorded his death for rebellion.
          If the jews did not exsist in the years you mention, why are they here today, and where did they come from ?

        61. I’m sorry. You said you were going to reply with some facts instead of mere rhetoric? Well, I’m still waiting.
          The relentless atheist refrain of “Religion Bad; Atheism Good,” gets old after you read it 30X from 10 different atheists. Come on! Say somethings interesting. Tell me specifically how atheism has enriched your life. Specifics, man, specifics! Don’t just tell me atheism was pivotal in getting you laid. Tell me, tell all of us ignorant believers how it has helped you.
          Betcha can’t!
          At least the ancient Greeks were smart enough to know that something was missing from their pantheon when they were inspired to erect a monument “To The Unknown God”. They didn’t know what was missing from their religion but they knew something was amiss.
          Which is what I’m talking about when I say atheism is a Nothing. A Void. An Emptiness that inspires nothing. Creates Nothing. Builds Nothing.
          When was the FIRST time you saw an atheist hospital? And atheist disaster relief organization? An atheist foster youth program? An atheist BOY SCOUT TROOP?
          Like the gays, you couldn’t create something for yourselves first! For your atheist children. No! You had to invade what believers had created, inspired by their faith, and then SHIT ALL OVER IT!!
          Yay! Atheism!! We shit on stuff real good!
          The very idea of such programs or organizations are anathema to atheists! Because atheists believe in “self-sufficientcy” and the survival of the fittest. Screw the little bastard children! Fuck the sick and dying!
          “If they’re going to die then let them do it and decrease the surplus population!”
          Like I said to you, and I’m saying to all the atheists here. Put Up or Shut Up!

        62. With every reply you make the hilarity just rolla on and on! Of course to see the humor one must have enough knowledge to recognize the ironies and absurdities in your every sentence.
          For example, you talk about the fact that he constitution limits the government and then you talk about how the government needs to FORCIBLY take away my children! Hilarious hypocrisy! Ow the irony! Stop! Stop! Or I’ll piss my pants!
          You talk about how the government can’t force religion on you but then talk about how this somehow PROTECTS YOU from Christians approaching you in the street while exercising. THEIR freedom of religion! As if they somehow are FORBIDDEN from approaching you on the street!! LOL!!! But it DOESN’T!! LOL!!!
          See what I meant about all your inanities being so CONTENT RICH that I can’t decide which ones to mock first?? My side is hurting, you are making me laugh so hard!’
          Then you conflate Christians with liberals and say we have the same mentality when we are OPPOSITES! LOL!! You sound just like the Ministry of Truth in “1984”.
          Love is Hate. Peace is War.
          You are so confused you think the constitution PROTECTS YOU from evangelism. If that’s true you should be able to report me to The Authorities and see me arrested!
          But wait! I’m still here! Nyah, Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah! And you can’t stop me!
          God! Jesus! The Bible! The Resurrection! The way, the truth, the life!
          And for someone who hates God so much, you sure rely on the Bible a lot with your rhetoric. You know more Bible rhetoric than you do atheist rhetoric.
          I don’t even have TIME to talk about your reliance on Supreme Court! You mean he same Supreme Court that said two gays can “be married”? LOL!!! Only because they change the meaning of the words.
          Like the Ministy of Truth did in 1984.
          If you claim to be able to change the meaning of words whenever you want, you can make anything “mean” anything. But only morons will believe you.
          “A word means whatever I say it means when I use it,” said the Red Queen to Alice. “No more. No less.” Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
          Parody has become reality and all the Crazies are glad!
          I’ll mock you some more when I have time. It’s time for dinner. My woman has been in the kitchen all day making my food. Later I’m going to make love to her. Or maybe we’ll just have Sex!
          Don’t you wish you had someone besides your hand to make love to you?

        63. Love is hate. that sounds like christianity today.
          You are a example of what I talk about, you mock the supreme court ? They have the power to decide what ever they want and you ” god” cannot change this.
          The children of your kind are being abused, denied basic education, your stupidity on the the constitution and civics proves this.
          The government has the power to take away your children, and your ” god” cannot stop it.
          I did not say chrisitans cannot approach me on the street, you are putting words in my mouth, the bible says lying is a sin.
          Christians have the same rights everyone else has, some thing you christian taliban types want to deny others, look in you bible to see what jesus thinks of hypocrites.

        64. You are still here ? who cares, I do not recall trying to remove you.
          Peace is war, that sounds pretty christian, like going a crusade to kill non believers and free ” the holy land”, all in the name of the prince of peace right ?
          I did not say I hate ” god”, I hate the way hypocrites like you act in his name.
          I use bible rhetoric because it is something a closed minded fool like you cannot argue against, how do you like being hoisted by your own petard ?
          “A word means whatever I say it means when I use it” said the christian to his fellow hypocrites.
          Religious freedom means religious freedom, unless you are an atheist, muslim, gay etc., then it means we have the right use the government to force our beliefs on to you.
          Love means love, unless someone disagrees with your sect, then it means we will persecute you, attack your civil rights, deny the constitution, deny the bible teachings, legislate morality, legislate your sects point of view etc., because we “love” you, the ministry of love in action. I read 1984 to, and unlike you I paid attention in high school civics class.
          Humility means humility, except for your sect, where it means our chosen religion puts us above the law that others have to follow, above the scripture, and even the words of Jesus himself. The bible teaches that pride is a sin.
          Gospel means gospel, except for your kind, where it means the gospel is whatever we say it is regardless of what the bible says, the blood of jesus is not enough to save your soul, you must followed the churches list of doe’s and dont’s, eat church, drink church, vote church, never ask a question, that shows lack of faith.
          The bible teaches that people like you make the word of god of none effect by your traditions.
          Rights means rights, unless it is someones esles rights you do not agree with, then it means only christians have rights, and it is acceptable to whine about your rights being attacked while attacking the rights of others.
          How did jesus tell us to treat others ?
          Sin means sin, unless christians do it, then it means were not perfect just forgiven, but it is extra special, gnarly, heinous, SIN when gays do it.
          The bible tells us that pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and that homosexuality is not, but your priorities are more important than “gods”.
          Yes the ministry of truth is in action in you and your sect.
          Your Jesus is better than anyone elses jesus, you are his special snowflakes.
          The bible shows that jesus rebuked sectarianism among his disciples.
          Your attitude shows again that I am right, christians and liberals are the same, no facts, no clue, no evidence, no grasp of reality.
          Nothing real, just a another shrill whining emotional response.
          All you are capable of doing is mindlessly repeating what some one told you to say.
          I notice you do not use the bible to refute me, where is your faith ?
          Sorry I cannot mock you any more today, I have to leave soon to go to work for three days away from home, and no time cast pearls before swine.
          I have to work and pay extra taxes because churches pay nothing.

        65. I am STILL waiting for some dialectic. Some facts. Even some personal anecdotes! You sound like a some false prophet railing against everyone who doesn’t agree with you.
          Is that what you fancy yourself? Is that your particular brand of religious psychosis? That’s it, isn’t it?
          You actually see yourself as a true prophet-incognito! Mascarading as a… What? A secularist? Pretending to be an unbeliever but secretly a believer? In order to expose the TRUTH of everyone else’s hypocrisy?
          Cause given all those Bible verses you’ve been throwing around at everyone, that’s what you look like.
          I can’t think of a single prophet in the bible that ever did something like that. Pretended to NOT believe in God so he could declaim the sins of God’s people.
          Wow! Your delusions run DEEP. You just spew shit out if your mouth thinking someone will somehow, maybe with the help of the Holy Spirit? apply your invective to themselves and say, “My eyes have been opened! Bill Parsons (there’s the giveaway! Really? Parsons? You’re really a parson?) Has made me see the sinfulness of my ways!”
          Good luck with your preaching. I guess I should start supporting you. After all, God did use an ASS to preach to his wayward prophet, so I guess he could use you.
          Preach it, Brother! Oohhhh yeaaaaahhhh! Can I get a witness against the Lord’s people tonight! What about you, Brother Parsons? What do you have to accuse God’s people of tonight? Now normally it is the Devil who spends his time accusing God’s people. But apparently the Devil needed a night/week/year off, so God has brought in Brother Parsons to do the work of the Devil for him.
          You go, Brother Parsons! J’Accuse!

        66. Nope books were removed and translations from latin modified stories but it was NOT changed

        67. Wake up? To what? You need to wake up, you’re dumb, and likely evil, the antisemitic obsession is barking up the wrong alley. If I distrusted any ancient findings it would be from the Romans, Arabs and Greeks, not the People they teach evil babies like you to be obsessed with. Well, before I would distrust the Jews, they got nothing for it, all the power and censorship belongs to the Romans and Greeks and the facts on the ground bear that out.
          That obsession is how they control YOU “sheeple”. It’s their way of destroying the Jews and stealing everything they had at the same time. I promise YOU “sheeple” will know more about one Jewish banking family than 1000 more powerful antisemitic ones, because it is you who have been fooled by the liars.

        68. No. If you had I wouldn’t have been asking the question. But I know the answer. You are a Troll.

        69. I’m not surprised you created your own motivational poster.
          Is it your screen saver? Or did you have it printed out and professionally mounted? Is it hanging in your Troll Cave? Just above your composting toilet?
          I hope it provides you many hours of troll-spiration

        70. Genetic theory started under the Catholic monk Gregor Mendel. The Vatican even published in 1950 Humani Generis stating that evolutionary theory is not in conflict with Christianity. http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html
          I don’t understand people who think they have to renounce the Catholic faith if they believe in evolutionary theory. You do not. Evolutionary theory is compatible with Catholicism.

        71. You’re actually right. I’ve said before that my belief in
          evolution isn’t in conflict with my Catholic beliefs, I guess I just forgot to
          mention that. Thanks for reminding me.

        72. ex scientist here. absolutely agree with you.
          Most research is carefully crafted peer reviewed pat-on-the-back reinforce-the-msm-narrative bullshit that’s okayed by journals with very expensive license fees.
          The on the ground real scientific breakthroughs you’ll see are in three areas.
          1) private industry like big pharma [i’m not saying these guys are good, just that they make breakthroughs]
          2) something discovered on the way to trying to solve some other problem, or a tool developed to solve one problem becoming useful in and of itself. like it or not, space, the military industrial complex and huge international infrastructure projects like cern, NIF in livermore and so on provide funding for this.
          I personally think the talebian approach of much smaller budgets, more/near total private sector and much more variety in what’s funded will yield much greater gains then multibillion dollar projects. No bid contracts are completely evil, and provide no skin in the game.
          3) private sec offshoots of firms made off campus to continue research done on campus but with the financial motive making projects actually viable. There are a crazy amount of millionaires in companies around cambridge for this very reason. They apply their smarts to finance and commercial applications and make bank.
          But science as far as academia and what’s reported goes? its all largely bullshit for headlines.
          even something i’d like to see funded like Nasa mars missions, are pretty fucking shameless when it came to the martian movie. They’re happy to get into bed with hollywood if it means they’ll get a chance to sway people into wanting to spend billions and trillions of dollars the country doesnt have on something that would not get nearly the kind of return of investment they’d hoped. (there’s the possibility of asteroid and space mining but thats not at all what a mars mission would be about)

        73. I doubt that these principles are in any objective way godly.
          A life lived in fear of damnation is a life survived. These days, I really doubt the value of civilization to everyone but a few – and those are not necessarily the wealthiest, but those able to see through all the bullshit.
          God loves everybody as they are. From my limited perspective, religion alienates people from god by filling them with shame for their own nature.

        74. Sure there is a god. But he has nothing to do with religion. Religion is a power mechanism established by men in order to worship god. I can respect that. But it is not the way I personally worship him.
          Now, if you call it god or divine or whatever is not really a gamechanger. Maybe what we call god is just another mechanism of the mind that some people have access to, who knows. But I do not intuit that to be true. For me, he is a father.

          I have to say, if you need someone to tell you a fairy tale to get you to behave you have serious problems

          What are those problems? How to solve them?

        75. Your children should be forcibly taken away from you

          You decry the tyranny of church and yet you say such a thing to another man. Who protects you from his wrath? The tyranny of the state you worship.
          The impotent rage is always the rage of those not in power. It really has not much to do with religion or state. The impotence comes from the resistance that you face if you dare to speak up.
          I find it interesting that the church angers you that much if what you say is true. If the church cannot say a word to you about what you do, why bother debating this?
          Since church is not really trying to oppress you, is there an important person in your life that you feel a need to protest against, but had not yet had the opportunity or courage?

        76. Alright, first of all. I don’t care if you call me anti-semitic and if anyone reading this conversation you shouldn’t care as well.
          Now Cristinascar, are you aware that the menorah carvings and antiquities of the Jews was created in around 100 A.D.
          As for Flavius Josephus’s works he borrowed a lot of legend across the ancient world. The deity which was stolen from the early Mesopotamians we know this from the garden/flood tale. Joseph was based off of demi-god of the Egyptians. Moses beginnings was formed through the life of Sargon of Akkad. The plagues were copied by the Ipuwer papyrus. We could go on and on.
          Christians later used Josephus books to create the bible, we know this because they change what Flavius said about Jesus, so, obviously he had in influence for Christians.
          Again ‘Jews’ didn’t exist before 1 B.C.E.and certainly not at 1000, 800, or even 60 B.C.E. There’s just no prove for them.

        77. Well, lets be honest here. Some people would less inclined to read my comments unless I upvote them.

        78. Bill, please don’t give yourself any reason to question Atheism. we need logical people in this world.
          There no proof that He existed, it most likely propaganda to justify to exterminate people who Romans assume are rebels against Caesar.
          So, who were ‘Jews’? Probability a mix of Egyptians, Iranians and rogue Europeans. Fewer still were denomination followers of the epistle of Clement, the Didache and formed the ‘law’ after the Hammurabi’s Code.

        79. I believe in evolution as well, with specific regard to animals.
          As far as people go, i tend to go on Johann Blumenbach’s “de-evolution” related research.

        80. Because they know how much more respect Americans hold for these fundamental tomes than they would for extra-national ones.
          They have become masters at controlling the language of debate by the frequent use of euphemisms and manipulative distortion of the intent of these important documents.
          It’s how they were able to fool people into believing that the 14th amendment supports homosexual marriage, as well as illegal alien births.

        81. “Well. looking at the history of christianity and the idiotic attitude problems of it’s followers today, I would say atheism is far better.”
          It all depends on how accurate your view of Christianity is. If for example, you are confusing catholicism for Christianity, i could more easily understand your perspective even if i disagree with it no less.
          “Atheism at least presents you with facts and reallity instead of lies and mythology.”
          Not necessarily. There are atheists who use zealous hyperbole with just as much skill as those of faith do because of their own non supernaturally based religious bias. The atheist darling Richard Dawkins for his part has been publicly castigated for his secular fundamentalism by atheist scientist Peter Higgs, so there you go.
          “Atheism teaches you to be strong and self reliant, religion teaches you to be weak and superstitious.”
          This is simply a product of your atheist perspective which is no less different that the religious perspective of the person of orthodox faith. There are people of faith with just as much strength (if not more so) than those of a self professed non supernaturally based faith.
          “I am a conservative, but I cringe at the thought of the candidates trying to be elected by promising to rely on an imaginary friend and a book of fairy tales to guide our country.”
          You empathize with SE Cupp, right? The rare non christian American conservative, maybe?
          “If you want to see what our country will be like if christians are allowed to run it, look at Kentucky, or Iran.”
          I might give you Kentucky but Iran is really a low blow. True Christianity does nowhere near what islam calls its followers to do. Having read the fundamental doctrines of the first and enough of the second, i can tell you this with no embellishment whatsoever.
          A Christian run country would be completely strict and resemble the puritans on a national scale where ALL sin was illegal not just certain ones. As it stands, the US was meant to strike just the right balance but as with everything, no system is perfect and immune from exploitation whenever people seek to undermine established social order.

        82. “Even if what you said were true, its entirely irrelevant. There is no god whether you believe that or not. It is time accept the facts and move to the next stage of human evolution.”
          Unless you can actually prove there is no God your opinion is not factual and entirely debatable.
          “Again if true, I must say that Judeo-Christian (in which you must include Islam) is a monumental failure given that many of the most horrific crimes in human civilization have been committed by people following these religions.”
          Islam is a perversion of scripture, it stands in a category all by itself. There is no religion that seeks the total assimilation of all others through violent or clandestine means as islam does, save perhaps atheism with the latter. Your remark is the equivalent of saying the US Constitution should be held to blame along with the unconstitutional laws that exploit loopholes or ambiguous vernacular in the US Constitution. Your objective measuring stick is highly dubious, more so when you omit the many atrocities committed under atheist policies, people or governments.
          “In actual fact, generally people do not commit murder because we have evolved psychological barriers to wanton killing”
          If there was no belief in a higher being that punishes those who commit crimes as heinous as murder, you really think that people would be less inclined to commit them? That is sheer absurdity.
          The US is an example that contradicts your stated beliefs.
          Since Engel Vs Vitale, Roe v Wade etc the US has gotten worse in terms of overall crime and perversions, not better.
          Going by your remark, would a child fare better under the instruction of the State rather than 2 parents? What is a parent if not a god to a child who knows nothing but fear and (eventually) respect for someone far greater than him or herself?

        83. They never separated Church and State through official Constitutional charter. The ONLY time the phrase was even spoken of was in a letter written by Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association for the express purpose of voicing his support for their religious rights, when the local government was considering taxing them because of their beliefs. SOCAS is a fabrication by historical revisionists which attempts to use what happened in Engel Vs Vitale as a means of trying to rewrite history and law much the same way Roe did for abortion and Obergefell did for psychosexual disorders.
          You should also realize the US government paid for the printing and dissemination of the bible using public coffers.
          It’s called the “Aitken revolutionary bible.”

        84. So you don’t think biblical laws against murder, theft, perjury and the like are “Godly?”
          There’s a fine line between demagoguery and proselytization of course. The true message encompasses proportionate amounts of love along with the consequences for disobedience.
          Ask yourself: does a parent do any less? Is a good parent one who only shows affection to their child, or one who shows affection as well as discipline? Spare the rod and spoil the child speaks to the latter.
          God doesn’t love everyone as they are, He loves them for how much they exercise their love to Him through obedience, of the type beginning with fear and ending with respect and love. Everyone else has exercised spiritual emancipation from Him and is considered wicked, reprobate, etc. They turn their backs on Him and He does the same, essentially.
          When one has that kind of advanced relationship with the Almighty, one goes from having a religion to having a relationship with God.

        85. I do not think that, no.
          I receive god’s love no matter who or what I am. The only thing that matters is for me not to be ashamed in his face, not to try to hide my nature. Religion teaches you that you need to do something to be worthy of his love. If you believe that, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, enforced by shame and the semi-conscious rejection of his love.
          Bring up a child with conditional love and you get an emotionally stunted adult, always eager to please and kiss ass, in one way or another.
          As for parents, well, I am conflicted. I do see a parallel. In my eyes, the job of parent or god is to guide the kid to be who he / she wants to be. It does require submission, but not blind obedience. Teaching should be an aid to self-discovery, not to imitation. I respect Christianity as the practice of a relationship with god that some have established. It is the act of forcing that knowledge on youngsters that makes me strongly question it. As well as the tiresome quoting of scripture, like buerocrats who can not think for themselves. I find it despicable, or, let me say, childlike.
          Human nature and social interaction has a way of disciplining you all by its own. Learning from life, so to speak. If you let it.

        86. “Religion teaches you that you need to do something to be worthy of his love”
          I would think that organized religion teaches the opposite…that you only have to claim the title in order to be worthy of His love, as if words alone were the same as actions. This explains the rise of the prosperity gospel as best demonstrated through con preachers like Joel Losteen and TD Fakes.
          -Jas 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
          You can’t have a true faith in faith if you don’t back it up with actions to distinguish it from groupie related talk. People don’t realize that being a Christian is more than just a noun, it’s practically a verb if you get what i’m saying. We may have to agree to disagree here.
          “It does require submission, but not blind obedience.”
          Not blind obedience, but obedience nonetheless. A child who questions a parent in anything other than an extreme request is one who is rebellious and will likely grow into a brat the more that time passes. We have enough of those walking around to emphasize my point. The moment parents prioritized trying to be friends with their kids instead of their strict instructors is the moment that the family unit took another major step in its descent towards oblivion.
          A parent is a parent when he or she emphasizes instruction for the benefit of the child regardless of the stringent method of the approach. The difference between teaching and indoctrinating is of course the motivation…teaching a child how to think in the first place, what to think in the second.
          While faith related matters tend to blur the line between the two, it becomes necessary when one already understands that there are fundamentals that HAVE to be taught even if they come across didactic in nature.
          For example: Teaching a child a respect for the law regardless of the child’s viewpoints to the contrary is necessary for obvious reasons. Children tend to be lawless as a default so if a parent makes the mistake of allowing the child to learn as you described first (social interaction) it would likely mean the child will learn the “harder way” and possibly through a negative first hand encounter with the law even.
          Being the best kind of parent means you want to have the child learn the answer FIRST especially with things that you spent your life answering. If you are teaching them properly they will learn the means by which to understand the answer and aggregate it to what has been learned ex post facto through maturity and the proper social interaction.
          Again, we may have to agree to disagree here.

        87. I like that you are open to discussion. Since you are Christian, it is natural that we disagree. I do not claim the title or verb Christian for myself. To me, god is just the dad I never had.
          And yeah, friend is not the right thing. I realized some time ago that I carry this deep wish to submit, never having had a father nor any faith. Somebody to bow down to who will not abuse that power. Then it appeared to me that that is surely the original purpose of prayer. The cool thing is that it takes away the need to submit to others, like girls, shudder.
          I am quite a rebel myself, so I disagree on respect for the law. It is just man-made. I am also questioning the merits of civilization as of lately. It sometimes comes handy no have no respect for authority. Other times, I wish I could let go of the need to fight everyone. But I guess that is something I will have to solve with the asshole that left me.
          If I were to teach my children respect, it would be respect of power, not respect of morals. The ones in power always dictate those and if they rather than the rulers become the subject of respect, it makes the kid into a naive and controllable marionette with a confused mind, who ends ip debating right and wrong instead of ‘what can i do to get what i want?’
          In other words, I want my children to understand the selfish benefit they derive from any rule they decide to follow.

        88. Unless you can actually prove there is no God your opinion is not factual and entirely debatable.

          This is fallacious reasoning. Nobody can prove the non-existence of “God”. But this cannot be taken as proof that God exists.

          Your remark is the equivalent of saying the US Constitution should be held to blame along with the unconstitutional laws that exploit loopholes or ambiguous vernacular in the US Constitution.

          Held to blame for what?

          If there was no belief in a higher being that punishes those who commit crimes as heinous as murder, you really think that people would be less inclined to commit them?

          Historically, devout Christians have been some of the most atrocious killers. I don’t believe in a higher being and I’m not inclined to kill. Job done.

        89. “I am quite a rebel myself, so I disagree on respect for the law. It is just man made”
          You believe this because you are an adult, and you are wise enough to realize that even if you don’t have a respect for the law you won’t break it wantonly. A child of course cannot be expected to understand that. This is why you should teach a child respect for the law and as they age teach them why some laws are just and why some aren’t and hope they come to understand the differences as they become adults themselves as new laws come to pass. Parenting is not a perfect science of course, but doing the best that you can as early as you can raises the possibility of the child not growing up to be an idiot, a sheeple, and so forth.
          As a parent myself i do the best that i can with the means that i have. Everything else is prayer.
          ” I am also questioning the merits of civilization as of lately. It
          sometimes comes handy no have no respect for authority. Other times, I wish I could let go of the need to fight everyone. But I guess that is
          something I will have to solve with the asshole that left me.”
          A civilization may as well be a single word oxymoron if one considers the uncivil American civilization as a frame of reference. We exist in a society that makes up rules on the go as a bone to be thrown to the masses that whine the loudest, regardless of the intent of those Men who established society in the first place or the God who inspired them even.
          You strike me as the caged lion that bides its time and endures the crack of the whip while it waits for an opportunity to strike and strike decisively after capitalizing on a window of weakness. You also strikes me as a lion that questions its need to be a lion. Understand that your very defiance of authority has a lot to do with the kind of weak and immoral leadership that positions itself as your superior on moral and secular matters and makes laws to arrest the potential for leadership of your own. The hypocrisy of our society is in the fact that criminals make the laws for everyone else which they exempt themselves from because of political clout. The one thing that infuriates Men more than anything else is hypocrisy, more so when that hypocrisy involves the battle of the sexes. Don’t deny that part of yourself that rattles the cage, accept it as readily as you do the testosterone that flows freely in you and master it as you have the veneer of civility that you showcase anytime you walk outside. One day the cage will be left unlocked or the lion tamer will leave an opening, and you will know when to strike for the benefit of yourself and Men everywhere. This society is on its last legs, it just doesn’t realize it yet. Patience is key.
          “In other words, I want my children to understand the selfish benefit they derive from any rule they decide to follow”
          Understandable, but remember that the greatest accomplishments are achieved through selflessness, not selfishness.
          This country was founded on just such a selflessness and the neomasculine society of tomorrow must have no less a motivation behind it in order for it to exist.
          Fighting for something greater than yourself, whether it be God or country, always produces a more passionate response and a more sustained fight than if one were to simply fight because of selfish concerns.
          The neomasculine children of today are the neomasculine society of tomorrow. The neomasculine Men of today are the gateway between both. Do your part to make yourself a doorway to something better, and you will be doing your part to fight back even if the war isn’t won until long after your demise.
          SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

        90. Damn, you seem reasonable. I find the neomasculinity thing a bit nutty, but I will let you have that.

          You strike me as the caged lion that bides its time and endures the crack of the whip while it waits for an opportunity to strike and strike decisively after capitalizing on a window of weakness.

          That strikes a nerve with me. I am not sure why, but this really is exactly how I feel at times. Baring my teeth, waiting to slash them into the neck of those who now naively look down at me. I will try and not take too much pride in your assessment.
          I do not really make a distinction between selfless and selfish, as I consider altruism an appetite of the self. I wrote an article about it, if you care to understand my view: http://manwithoutfather.com/2015/10/14/altruism-is-not-selfless/
          Will say, though, that focusing on myself has grown quite tiresome if I am to decide whom or what to direct my attention at. I find myself boring, as I am now sure everyone must find himself.

          We exist in a society that makes up rules on the go as a bone to be thrown to the masses that whine the loudest, regardless of the intent of those Men who established society in the first place or the God who inspired them even.

          I am currently reading a book called ‘Freedom for the thought that we hate’. It explores the way freedom of speech came about and really challenged my views in regard to any kind of natural state ‘as the fathers wanted it’ or anything like that. The freedom of speech, in the end, is nothing more than another bone that was thrown to those who had the appetite to nibble at it. One thesis of the book is that a law will only ever succeed if you can sell it, and it argues this convincingly with the case of freedom of speech. To the point that I truly am in a cognitive dissonance as in whether to think of freedom of speech as a ‘good’ or ‘evil’ force. It certainly has elements of both.
          I do not believe in godly law, as I said. I believe that god supports each of his children to shape the world the way they want it to be. He gives each one who accepts it the love and confidence to stand behind his convictions, but he does not intervene or push any single idea. That is also why I do not see a conflict between evolution and the existence of god. Godly law, to me, is the sum of all the laws of physical reality: Gravity, electromagnetic and nuclear forces. Everything is made up out of them and that is why it is impossible to disobey god. As I see it, my body is my soul.
          I enjoy the conversation.

        91. It’s only fallacious because you are already operating on the biased assumption that God is “non existent.” As a truly objective person of non faith, you would operate on the grounds of logic and reason which are best emphasized in a scientific approach; this means that the bar for proving God doesn’t exist is much higher with you than with me and those like me proving He does, since none of us are saying God exists because of logic, but simply because of faith. Since your position is presumably one of logic and not faith, you would have to show through the scientific method why God doesn’t exist, not simply share that you believe he doesn’t because of personal bias. That is not reason, that is religion even if it is non supernaturally based.
          “Held to blame for what?”
          I would think that was evident from the remarks you quoted.
          “Historically, devout Christians have been some of the most atrocious
          killers. I don’t believe in a higher being and I’m not inclined to
          kill. Job done.”
          I would say devout Catholics instead, since not everyone claiming to be a Christian actually is. However, history has shown that some of the worst atrocities imaginable have been (and still are) being committed under the banner of no God, through the will of Man. Since atheism tends to be a religion with tenets that are added to by those claiming to be atheists, the more that human history shows us what passes for their beliefs and motivations, the less likely humanity overall has benefited from the results.
          Mao and Stalin are just two good examples of that.

        92. Thank you. Rest assured i don’t have a shrine dedicated to Roosh or his ideals but i do empathize with his philosophy, as he has given it a definition that i as a Man have spent years trying to encapsulate within a single word.
          I appreciate your tolerance for my psychoanalysis, such as it was.
          i will say that perhaps this conversation today was one of your “non boring” ones. It certainly provided food for thought, more so because of your interesting views on freedom of speech and those who championed it many yesterdays ago as well as other interesting topics.
          “To the point that I truly am in a cognitive dissonance as in whether to think of freedom of speech as a ‘good’ or ‘evil’ force. It certainly has elements of both.”
          To question if one has CD is to not have it in the first place. You may have a particular affinity for a particular P.O.V. (with regard to freedom of speech) but that is another matter entirely and one which i have no interest in disagreeing with, since opinion passed off as opinion deserves a respect on the basis of those honest grounds. Also, disagreeing with your ambivalent opinion on freedom of speech would make me lose sight of the purpose of freedom of speech, so there you go.
          You or i may be wrong or right in anything we say here or have said elsewhere or will say sometime in the future, but to accept that we might be wrong or right is the essence of humility and the means by which to avoid becoming that which we despite the most: the powers that currently be.
          While i disagree on your interpretation of Godly law, i have no interest in getting into any theological arguments right now. It’s enough to know you believe in God, and you are trying to understand Him and you understand that you may or may not be right while doing so.
          I will say that faith and science can indeed reconcile on mutual grounds if both respect each others intent. I believe evolution fits perfectly with animals but not with people…in that instance i believe in Johann Blumenbach’s “de-evolution” related research.
          Likewise, friend.

        93. You or i may be wrong or right in anything we say here or have said elsewhere or will say sometime in the future, but to accept that we might be wrong or right is the essence of humility and the means by which to avoid becoming that which we despite the most: the powers that currently be.

          Indeed. I do not champion humility for its own sake, but simply for being the most realistic and least frustrating approach to life as I see it these days.
          The powers that currently be, yes. I could respect a psychopath who smartly manipulates a whole nation into madness. It would have finesse and method and although I would not like it having done to me, I could rest assured that there was some kind of intelligent intent behind my suffering. Have you seen the movie Gaslight? It quite reminded me of my old – now passing – madness, inflicted by my mother and possibly many people.
          But what I see today is a state of headless countries. Indeed, I wish there was a king so that I could direct at him all anger about things that I dislike about his leadership. So that I may fantasize with one day overthrowing him.
          Yet the anger that I feel can not be directed in any direction, which is part of the frustration that I feel. There is nobody responsible. It is, in my eyes, just a chemical – or social – reaction of the mingling of chemicals – people. Those who decide on a law will not be ruling tomorrow. Those who take your stuff will not be held accountable, for they follow orders. And whose orders? Nobody’s, really. The ‘people’s’. So all I am left with is to hate everybody, because I must see everybody as my oppressor. Although I prefer not to hate these days.
          Hitler made similar observations. He concluded that democracy is not the path to take if you want to change things. Although I do not share his vision, I respect his approach and boldness.
          After finding god, I had the impulse to use that confidence to stand behind some kind of doctrine or become a perfect being. But that confidence has also made me free to quickly learn the futility and impossibility of that without much shame. So that these days, I prefer to pray for being able to tolerate living with all my imperfections and uncertainties at all times.
          I am not currently interested in a theological debate, either. But I will keep the devolution thing in the back of my mind, it sounds interesting. Intuitively, I too believe that there is something special about people. Recently, I stood in front of a herd of sheep. I studied my feelings and I just had this intuition that told me that the sheep and I are not equal. I saw them and could feel mere contempt for their stupidity. I saw them and thought: They are not like me. They lack something that gives me identity. They are my food.
          They seemed like machines. And at that moment, I realized that I actually feel a slightly similar sentiment towards females. But, of course, I would rather make love to a woman than to a goat!
          Enjoy your evening – if it is that for you.

        94. Please don’t be difficult. What you meant about the Constitution is not evident to me even if its obvious to you. Politeness and thoroughness is key in making yourself understood.
          You are accusing me of bias. The Scientific Method is free from moral values and bias. I don’t have to show you using this method that God does not exist because actually this cannot be proven. If the existence of something cannot be either proven or disproved then this is an unscientific claim and as such invalid. If you tried to prove the existence of God using this method you would wind up with no answer. For example, if I said “I have faith that undetectable aliens are all around us”, you can neither prove nor disprove this claim. But this does not mean that these aliens really do exist.
          Atheism is a religion? Please tell me where I can find a church or an atheist priest. Where is the atheist Holy Book?
          You are missing the point. There is no “atheism vs religion” argument here. I am arguing against the claim that religion makes for a more moral society. I have shown that it does not. What individual atheists do in other countries is irrelevant. The relatively greater degree of crimes under regimes such as the USSR is more to do with means rather than whether or not they were Christian. Men commit heinous crimes because this the nature of man and it is unrestricted by religion.

        95. “Please don’t be difficult. What you meant about the Constitution is not evident to me even if its obvious to you. Politeness and thoroughness is key in making yourself understood.”
          I wasn’t trying to be, but the answer was in there. What i meant (in my comparison) was that the Constitution couldn’t be blamed for laws that are ostensibly poised to be Constitutional but actually aren’t. (ex: gun control laws, homo marriage laws, abortion etc) and i used that to demonstrate to you that not all religion should be condemned for the sustained unscrupulous actions of a few or a particular one.
          “You are accusing me of bias. The Scientific Method is free from moral values and bias. I don’t have to show you using this method that God does not exist because actually this cannot be proven. If the existence of something cannot be either proven or disproved then this is an unscientific claim and as such invalid. If you tried to prove the existence of God using this method you would wind up with no answer. For example, if I said “I have faith that undetectable aliens are all around us”, you can neither prove nor disprove this claim. But this does not mean that these aliens really do exist.”
          Of course you’re biased. We are all biased to one degree or another. What makes the bias good or bad is how biased we are for the truth rather than evidences which support our personal viewpoints but may not support the overall truth. You shared a truth in your remark (“i don’t have to show you…”) which indicates that you do understand that a supernatural intangible like the almighty cannot be dis/proven through the scientific method because of a variety of factors and because the scientific approach requires more than just simple belief…and yet you still went as far as you did earlier in claiming a belief that “there is no God.”
          The sensible thing to do in your position is take the agnostic approach, which essentially amounts to “maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t exist.”
          For you to go beyond that and claim He doesn’t exist when you yourself just stated that science cannot (dis)prove the existence of God is for you to demonstrate a belief that has no grounds in the scientific method.
          “Atheism is a religion? Please tell me where I can find a church or an atheist priest. Where is the atheist Holy Book?”
          I addressed this already when i said “Since atheism tends to be a religion with tenets that are added to by those claiming to be atheists…”
          How do you think the scriptures increased in number? People added to it (through divine intervention) throughout the course of human history. It didn’t start off complete, indeed during the time of Jesus only the OT was available for reference.
          It’s practically the same with atheism. Men like Dawkins have added to atheist doctrine throughout the course of his life, the manner in which the information is collected doesn’t have to be the same as it was with Christian scripture either. A simple google search for “atheist beliefs” leads one to many different beliefs about the religion including the belief that it isn’t one, despite the fact that those who identify as “atheist” tend to believe that God doesn’t exist in spite of the fact they can’t prove He doesn’t. This belief tends to be the prevailing one among most who identify as atheist, so you could say that this is the equivalent of the first judeoChristian commandment, or “thou art thy own god and should love thyself” in a sense, since the atheist holds humanistic views that allow practically no restrictions on what one chooses to do with one’s self since all personal actions are subject to the will of the person choosing to do them.
          As far as an atheist church goes, here you go:
          http://firstchurchofatheism.com/
          And as far as a priest is concerned, Dawkins positions himself as one when he offers “reason circles” that he oversees for a not so nominal fee that sounds an awful lot like a tithe 😉
          https://richarddawkins.net/join-the-dawkins-circle/
          “You are missing the point. There is no “atheism vs religion” argument here. I am arguing against the claim that religion makes for a more moral society. I have shown that it does not. What individual atheist do in other countries is irrelevant. The relatively greater degree of crimes under regimes such as the USSR is more to do with means rather than whether or not they were Christian. Men commit heinous crimes because this the nature of man and it is unrestricted by religion.”
          You haven’t shown that it doesn’t, you simply believe that you have. You consider all religions as equally barbaric when a sustained research would show that such was not the case. Islam has been barbaric from start to finish, because they still operate in OT times where the ends justified the means. The bellicose efficiency of the Hebrew OT religion however was refined by Jesus into what is most commonly understood to be Christianity today: humility by default and waging war for God through God and not through the sword. Catholicism is the fusion of church and State, as such it operated under the discretion of kings and popes rather than scripture and Jesus the more that time passed, so that explains their truculent actions in history. True Christianity as emphasized with a respect for the OT and an adherence to the NT especially the writings of Jesus, differentiates the Christian faith from islam, which is the religion you are likely using to operate on the belief that religion does not make for a more moral society.
          You believe that committing crimes is the nature of Man and i wouldn’t necessarily disagree, however i disagree that it would be unrestricted by religion. It all depends on what religion that Man is subject to and how faithfully he follows it in principle. Your remark speaks to an absolute that human history shows is far too complex to properly answer in such a manner.
          As far as morality itself goes, that requires a belief in a higher power in order for it to truly qualify as moral…without the presence of God or His principles you d-evolve morality into secular ethics, or doing “right” simply because it’s required by Man’s law, for instance.
          Morality involves a faith based right and wrong whereas secular ethics involves a lesser right and wrong that is tantamount to what is legal and not legal under law and proper and not proper as subject to a person’s reasonable discretion. Understanding of morality has existed since the beginning of human civilization whereas secular ethics began to be taught during the time of the early Greeks and their philosophical musings (Anaxagoras and Epicurus for examples) and became more popular (as well as convoluted) during the early 18th century and beyond, with figures like Kant and of course, Nietzsche.
          The fundamental difference between both belief systems is that in the first instance something that was wrong is still considered wrong and will always be considered wrong because God said as much, whereas in the latter something that may be completely wrong yesterday may not be socially or legally wrong today because of populist philosophical persuasion and a reconsideration by lawmakers. This explains why homosexuality is considered morally wrong by those of Christian faith, but no longer wrong by those of a secular ethical persuasion. (Generally speaking of course.)
          My views are defined by tenets that are inviolable and immutable even by the passage of time but yours are subject to reinterpretation by secular law and through the selfish desires of the mob. Ask yourself…which one is therefore more likely to be of true merit to the human race? While both can be abused for wrongdoing, which one is more capable of offering benefit to the human race, if one follows the teachings of a Man who taught others to “love even your enemy” as a guiding principle?

        96. Thank you for the explanation. It’s preferable to be clear rather than force people to infer what you meant. That way we can avoid confusion. Actually I do blame the Constitution but that’s another matter.
          You’re missing the point about my sarcastic questions (church, priest, Holy Book). Atheism is a word to describe people who have rejected the existence of God. Calling atheists religious is a bit like calling everyone homosexuals. Homosexuals need to believe that. As I said, dismissing the notion of God is the result of a logical process. Belief in God is an article of faith. Very, very different. Only an irrational mind would think otherwise. I dismissed the concept of a god based on inescapable conclusion of logic. Not because I was raised to believe in the non-existence of God. Frankly, to suggest atheism is a religious is ridiculous.
          Everyone is biased so no one is biased. Bias loses it’s meaning here. Lets just say I have no agenda here. I am simply following logic.
          Taking an agnostic approach is pointless and irrational. When someone takes an unscientific approach we simply reject their conclusion because it is irrational. Logically, in you point of view we have to be agnostic about everything (the existence of witches, fairies, leprechauns, etc.) which is ridiculous. It is not for me to prove the non-existence of something. Generally proving a negative is impossible (i.e. try to prove the non-existence of fairies). He who asserts must prove. You assert the existence of God and must prove it. But you cannot and so you must fall back on irrational feelings like faith. But man has evolved from faith to reason.
          You are making excuses for Christians, which is reminiscent of the excuses made for socialism (Stalin didn’t have true socialism). But socialism is everywhere a crime. It is only different in degree. So if only Catholics had true Christianity. Regardless, Christianity has been violent from start to finish as well as Islam. Not because of Christianity or Islam but because of man. Christians would even burn other Christians at the stake! This is a brutal atrocity. This happens because of a) in Man’s mind, he makes exceptions to the Commandment Thou shalt not kill” and b) he can always go to Confession afterwards.
          Men rationalise their crimes. It is their flaw. Based on “faith” it is is easy to rationalise. With logic, not so. logic is universal, faith is individual.

        97. “Actually I do blame the Constitution but that’s another matter”
          (Shrug) Ok.
          “You’re missing the point about my sarcastic questions (church, priest, Holy Book). Atheism is a word to describe people who have rejected the existence of God. Calling atheists religious is a bit like calling everyone homosexuals. Homosexuals need to believe that. As I said, dismissing the notion of God is the result of a logical process. Belief in God is an article of faith. Very, very different. Only an irrational mind would think otherwise. I dismissed the concept of a god based on inescapable conclusion of logic. Not because I was raised to believe in the non-existence of God. Frankly, to suggest atheism is a religious is ridiculous.”
          I didn’t say all of them were, only those (antitheist) ones who make the kind of declaration you did earlier. I’m not saying you’re an antitheist either, but you are making the same kind of argument. I don’t see the logic of your latter remark here by the way, since all homosexuals don’t believe in the lie of the born gay gene, even if some to most do. Some to most atheists do believe that their beliefs aren’t religious even if they can’t scientifically prove as much, so how is that any different? Your final remark here is no less ridiculous than dismissing the existence of God because of ipse dixit remarks. If you can’t prove God doesn’t exist, you can’t scientifically say with all certainly that he doesn’t. You can’t invalidate an intangible without the necessary scientific steps, and since we are in agreement that God can’t be proven through the SM, your position such as it is has more to do with faith than actual facts.
          “Everyone is biased so no one is biased. Bias loses it’s meaning here. Lets just say I have no agenda here. I am simply following logic.”
          Meh, i don’t agree with your remark here, more so because of the excuse it gives you to continue stating your beliefs as factual.
          “Taking an agnostic approach is pointless and irrational. When someone takes an unscientific approach we simply reject their conclusion because it is irrational. Logically, in you point of view we have to be agnostic about everything (the existence of witches, fairies, leprechauns, etc.) which is ridiculous. It is not for me to prove the non-existence of something. Generally proving a negative is impossible (i.e. try to prove the non-existence of fairies). He who asserts must prove. You assert the existence of God and must prove it. But you cannot and so you must fall back on irrational feelings like faith. But man has evolved from faith to reason.”
          How is it “irrational” to refrain from offering a personal opinion until all the facts become available? I would much rather people take an agnostic approach with most things than for people to take a dismissive cynical view towards anything. This is the equivalent of you saying its better to judge everyone as guilty first and prove them innocent later in order to keep from having guilty people go free. It’s a cynical approach.
          Your latter remarks again fails to take into consideration that people of faith aren’t trying to prove God to you, since faith and logic don’t operate in the same manner. If faith could be proven it wouldn’t be faith anymore, it would be logic. We BELIEVE God exists and that’s good enough for us, but you both believe AND think he doesn’t but can’t prove as much through undeniable fact. Big difference. Until you can prove God doesn’t exist this will be you believing He doesn’t rather than thinking, since the first implies feeling whereas the second implies logic arrived at through undeniable evidence.
          If Man has evolved from faith to reason…why are things even worse off than when Man operated on just faith alone? Do you really think that a selfish philosophy as atheism promotes the same kind of golden rule or selfless altruism the Christian faith does? How so?
          “You are making excuses for Christians, which is reminiscent of the
          excuses made for socialism (Stalin didn’t have true socialism). But
          socialism is everywhere a crime. It is only different in degree. So if
          only Catholics had true Christianity. Regardless, Christianity has
          been violent from start to finish as well as Islam. Not because of
          Christianity or Islam but because of man. Christians would even burn other Christians at the stake! This is a brutal atrocity. This happen because of a) in Man’s mind, he makes exceptions to the Commandment Thou shalt not kill” and b) he can always go to Confession afterwards.”
          And you aren’t making excuses for atheism, by implying that it led to reason when my earlier examples of Stalin and Mao exist to counter that? Let’s not convolute the discussion by mentioning socialism, please. Stalin was an atheist and so was Mao. This is undeniable.
          Furthermore, you are making unsubstantiated polemical remarks against Christianity, when you state that Christianity has been violent from start to finish…that is not true. In the US for example, the abolitionist movement began with Christians. Christians the world over are among the most charitable on earth. Even the CC donates billions of dollars to charities…how much does Dawkin contribute to charity, or those like him?
          Your remarks about Man only serve to emphasize what i said earlier, when i said a faith is only as good as how much a Man is willing to follow its core tenets. You are blaming the whole of faith and every faith for the actions of some Men. It’s an unfair declaration…going by that logic we should blame all Blacks for the existence of rape in the US, since by a majority standard Black males rape more than Whites.
          For the record, the hebrew verse you are referring to includes not murdering….back then the Hebrew judges would order the deaths of those who broke God’s laws, so killing was allowable under certain circumstances. Most countries operate the same way.
          Yeah, the calvinist church was responsible for those burnings (if you’re referring to the salem witch trials) as influenced by Anglican militancy. Calvinism is an offshoot of orthodox Christianity that differs in some parts, for instance it’s use of predestination. If it’s not in the bible, how can you blame all of Christian faith for the unscriptural actions of these and other so called Christians?
          “Men rationalise their crimes. It is their flaw. Based on “faith” it is is
          easy to rationalise. With logic, not so. logic is universal, faith is
          individual.”
          And how are you doing any different with regard to atheism? You just defended Stalin by saying he wasn’t really a socialist.
          Are you implying that you have faith? Or are you stating that your position is not really a logical one and you are operating only on philosophical bias here?

        98. I encourage you to look into what I said about the Constitution. It was written by the pseudo monarchist Alexander Hamilton, who desired central government.
          As for the rest, I think we are at an impasse. Thank you for talking with me about it.

        99. I live today..and today Islam is far more violent than any other religion..it should and could be destroyed if all it’s victims got together and fought it. Imagine a war where China dealt with their Islamic problem, India dealt with theirs, Israel with theirs, Christian Africa with theirs and Europe dealt with their Islamic Immigrant problem, while Serbia is let off the leish to deal with their problems. Islam could be destroyed within a few years.

        100. Not so sure. Which nation has invaded and bombed more countries than any other in the past 100 years. Was it a Muslim nation?

        101. Only because the Muslim Nations are so backward and so dont have the technology to create the most destructive wars. Once they have nuclear weapons they will destroy themselves – probably with Israel pitching in a helping hand.

        102. Yeah its their fault. How unfair that they make us slaughter them this way.
          That’s Concentration Camp thinking my friend.

        103. I will. The Founders didn’t always agree (just as we don’t) but they agreed enough and gathered their resources against a common enemy that we also fight against: those seeking to destroy established order through the promotion of unnatural philosophies.
          We can just agree to disagree where disagreement has been shared and continue the fight against those who are the true enemy.
          Take care!

        104. Atheism has jack shit to say about “denial of something greater than the self.” The only idea that ties all atheists together is that they reject the god claim. All they say is, “I haven’t seen proof of any gods.” Some might go on to claim that proof of gods cannot exist, but that’s not a prerequisite.
          No atheist I’ve ever met, and I think very few ever (if any), would agree with your statement of the purpose of atheism (hell, most would probably say there is no purpose, especially a fundamental one).

        105. “I haven’t seen proof of any gods”
          And you don’t think that’s a denial of something greater than the self, when they conveniently omit the undeniable evidence to justify the God denial remark as incontrovertible?
          My friend, i used to be an atheist, so i know whereof i speak here. While not all atheists necessarily share the same view (there are a few reasonable ones) the more militant ones tend to share many if not all of the characteristics i described.
          Time will tell which category you fall into.

        1. Wow. Never heard it placed like that before, but that is perfection.
          I will also be adding that phrase to my everyday conversations.

        2. What he meant was that pleasure has become an orienting principle and purpose that has superseded religious values. Of course, taking either too far can be bad. Pure hedonism is destructive, but a theocracy, like Saudi Arabia, is arguably what’s on the other end of the spectrum, and that’s miserable.

        3. “religious values” has done nothing but artificially selected idiots to blindly follow a book that they can’t prove outside of it.

        4. Agreed. Enough freedom such that individuals can live without oppression but not so much that they are hedonistic. Enough order such that stability is maintained but not so much that it is oppressive. And so goes the balancing act.

        5. Try telling Jesus that He isn’t real on Judgement Day, you filthy Christ rejector!

        6. Why should I sweat of your fake holiday, when you can’t realistically test for my so-called jail mates. Like Jezebel or even Caiaphus, perhaps even Cain-the first murderer? Elven king the a-prostate.

        7. Explain your attitude problem at the judgement seat of christ, you pharisee.
          Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and hate is a great chrisian value.

        8. “hate” and “bigotry” are terms that libtards throw around a lot. Basically any opinions or facts they don’t like get these labels. You’re better than that.

        9. The very fact that you are using his own doctrine against him proves you know you are lying about hate being a Christian value.

        10. And the cross has joined the swastika as a symbol of hate, bigotry, closed mindedness, pride etc.

        11. I use his own doctrine because he cannot deny it.
          Hate is not supposed to be a christian value, but it has turned out that way.
          Ask any gay, atheist, member of another religion, etc.

        12. Sinner, heretic, filthy christ rejecter, heathen, hellbound, etc. are terms christians like to throw around a lot.
          Basically any opinions, facts or people they do not like get these labels.
          Again, christians and libtards have the same mentality, and use the same tactics.
          Thanks for thinking I am better sometimes.
          I do not get much praise here because I am not religiously and politically correct.
          I have a special thing for christians because their hypocrisy.
          At least the libtards are honest about what they are.
          The christians try to pretend they are meek, humble, loving followers of Jesus Christ, though their actions say otherwise.

        13. Try the westboro baptist church, or any anti gay or anti atheist meeting.
          Christians are so mean they even hate each other, and so prideful they cannot agree on what bible to use.
          The bible teaches that causing strife is a sin, and Jesus rebuked sectarianism among his disciples.

      2. The world went to hell when men stopped worshipping/chasing God and succumbed to baser human nature. The quest to be God-like (although never actually attainable) in our actions, morals and achievements has been discarded in favour of laziness and apathy.
        Because if we are all equal then there is no point trying to elevate and improve yourself.

    3. The fedora-donning redditor omega seeks to kill religion and replace it with the false “god” of atheism and pop science, which boils down to moral relativism.

      1. Fedoras are cool, I own one made by Stetson.
        Just a few months ago a very nice looking woman told how nice it looked with my leather jacket. She said it made me look like a police inspector.
        Men make fun of my fedora, and women love it !

    4. Orwell said it best when he wrote (I’m paraphrasing here): Leftists who give up patriotism and religion still feel the need for a god to worship and a motherland.

      1. Excellent point Sir.
        It is human nature to worship a god of some kind.
        The primeval need to run to a higher power when in trouble.
        I can understand how religion can be comforting while that tyrannosaurus rex is eating you, at least you got pray first ! And if “god” left you to hang, well that is his will, too bad for you.
        This does make religion true, just useful.

    5. It’s a toss-up whether religious governments or atheistic governments have killed more people.

      1. It’s easily atheistic governments by a landslide if you look at Christian wars. The Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao alone was so horrific.

        1. Not to mention Nazism and Stalinism (the Holodomor in Ukraine, for example).
          No mainstream religion has ever practiced genocide or at least established it as an official policy. In the worst cases deluded men burned heretics but these were individual people, not entire people. The Crusades – nobody directed the knights to slaughter the population of Jerusalem in 1099, they did it themselves. It is a common aspect of war, the bloodlust men get especially after especially difficult and heavy war.

        2. Ever met and Aztec or an Incan? A druid or a Cathar or a gnostic? A middle-eastern pagan? Me neither. Catholics genocided all of them.

        3. That isn’t true at all. Most of them converted. Care to produce evidence that Catholics killed every pagan? Once the Roman Empire converted to Christianity paganism faded out. Even if what you were saying were true, Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ movement alone killed more than 45 million people. Communism is in a whole other league.

        4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_pagans_in_the_late_Roman_Empire
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
          “Kill them all and let God sort them out/ Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” – Attributed to Arnaud Amalric, a Cistercian Abbot involved in the “Crusade” against French Cathars.
          There were more people in the time of Communism, a fair comparison would really be the percentage of excess deaths attributable to government action.
          “The Great Leap Forward” coincided with huge droughts and floods in China, Western propaganda blames Mao for every person who died in that time period but the reality is more complicated. For his part, Mao adopted a vegetable diet and ordered his inner circle to to the same until the famines were resolved. A lot of the blame does fall on the CCP as local party bosses would over-report harvests in order to further their careers, resulting in starvation when harvests were taxed and allocated according to said over-estimates of the harvests. So yes, that was the Communist Party’s fault.

        5. “Kill them all and let God sort them out/ Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” – Arnaud Amalric, a Cistercian Abbot involved in the “Crusade” against French Cathars.
          Sounds like a policy of genocide to me.
          Punishing paganism with death was established at the very beginning of Catholicism by the founder of Catholicism, “Saint” Constantine’s own son, Constantine II.

        6. And in both articles you link to it says that people were given the option to convert or leave. No such option available under communist rule. Your original question was who is responsible for more deaths, religion or atheism. None of the ‘numbers’ you have provided have added up to even coming close to Mao’s Great Leap Forward movement.

    6. Religions are mostly responsible for war:
      Catholic vs Protestant. Christian vs Islam. Shamanism vs Buddhism. Norse religioners vs everything that got in their way. world war II. Scientist vs Christians. Archaeology/palaeology vs Fabrications and now it common sense vs “muh rights”ist religion.

    7. True , UFO stalker.com
      Folks, There are 3 billion cellphones with good cameras in circulation that site has all the recent ufo activity that people post, and at least 10% are simply unexplainable
      They are probably not manned, but simply “plasma probes” In my opinion, sent by these offworld intelligences
      These aliens are not stupid enough to land here, but they most likely can be bothered to send a probe once in a while to see how these humans are progressing,
      the roswell incident occured after the govt tried to capture one of these ufo’s using magnetic and microwave technologies to force land it and to reverse engineer it, perhaps they have already reverse engineered an alien craft
      word has it, that the stupid aliens that did land here fucked it all up in the atlantean age

    8. “This is why aliens won’t land here. If we don’t fuck them or eat them we’ll install our tyranny over them.”
      A lot of us earthlings would enjoy a nice and extensive anal probe.

      1. That actually makes more sense than religion does.
        Christians like to point to the law of Moses as a divine introduction to modern sanitation.
        If a superior being tried to explain bacteria and such to those people barely out of the stone age, you would get nothing but blank stares.
        But if you explain it as a religious taboo, something that “god” wants them to do, they understand just fine.
        The same with the old testament marriage laws, good luck trying to explain inbreeding to primitive superstitious people like ancient Hebrews or Kentuckians, but tell “god” says it is a sin, and they have no problem.
        Consider that the ark of the covenant made a great electrolytic capacitor, and was described as occasionally shooting sparks and killing those who touched it.
        Good luck explaining electricity to to people who bush on fire is “god “, just tell the it is the “power of god” , give them detailed instruction on how to handle it without killing themselves, and they are happy.
        Makes you wonder what piece of equipment the aliens were using that needed that much current.

    9. Yup. People worship the state instead of God. Same thing. I’m a deist, which is pretty rare these days, but I’d trust in modern day Christianity over the state any day of the week and I don’t have a lot of trust in modern day Christianity.

      1. I am a deist as well, and I see your point.
        At least the church has fear and guilt to keep people in line

        1. Religion will be corrupt but the government ultimately has the powe and will use religion in its pursuit of power when it is convenient

        2. Yes, your are right.
          Religion has been a very useful tool for tyrants.
          All of the horrors we discus here are not necessarily religion problems, but are human nature problems.
          Both religion and political power amplify the bad parts and bring them out.
          Would gays and atheists run our society any better than christians have, maybe for a while, until the love of power corrupted them as well.
          The problem is power, and the lust for it will corrupt the most noble eventually.

    10. They worship the state in place of God

      You’re describing a Marxist, not an atheist. There are lots of anarchists and libertarians who are atheists.

  9. Some of the strongest atheists are created in theology class. An indepth study forces you to confront things you otherwise would ignore. Many people like to receive over the counter pills for headaches but few want to be pharmacists. Meslier was no doubt disturbed by the unrighteous dominion he saw among church leadership in France at that time. As always, it was a combination of emotional and intellectual reasons.
    But the biggest question, one that everyone was eventually face, is the question of free choice versus universal salvation. How could a benevolent God allow suffering in the world? Why didn’t God create a human being that innately knows to choose the right path? These fundamental questions manifest time and time again in a societal conflict of meritocracy versus forced righteousness. This is why leftists want to force people to fall in line with their idealistic vision, because they refuse to believe in a God that leaves it up to the fallible individual. They don’t want a teacher who gives people the grade they deserve. They want everyone to get A’s. But if everyone gets A’s, do you really have a math teacher? Hence: atheism. Social justice is also therefore the antithesis of correct spiritual truth. Does justice derive from individual worth or from a societal imposition?

    1. Actually the bible doesn’t say God rules over the world. He creates the world but in the new testament says Satan rules over the world. The bible says God gave people choice and it is up to them to make the choices and learn from it.

      1. Yep. Which is why Satan’s offer to Jesus of “all the kingdoms of the earth” was an actual temptation, when they spoke.

  10. Well, look at today’s culture. You think these progressives cured anything? Hell, they’re the very things they say they hate. They’re the ones banning this and that, burning books, destroying lives and have, effectively, created a police state of systematic oppression. Meanwhile we have pedophilia ready to be the next cause of the day, not to mention the track record of secularist societies, particularly the ones that take their “no God” seriously. Such precision and mechanical mass murder has hitherto been unknown to humanity.

    1. They’re the ones banning this and that, burning books, destroying lives
      and have, effectively, created a police state of systematic oppression.

      Requoted for emphasis.
      The only “religion” I hear from the left, outside of atheism, is some kind of “pagan wicca spirituality” idiocy, which when you get down to it is the same Satan worship that was going on in the dark ages. It’s funny how the “atheists” tolerate the living hell out of that though, isn’t it? Because…Leftism

        1. That too, yes. Basically they’re “atheist” to Christianity only. To all others they are “tolerant and accepting of diversity”.

        2. yes, they can get into any religion that doesn’t involve jesus or hard work (the latter is why you don’t see a lot of them getting into islam). i said pseudo-buddhism because i think actual devout buddhists from asia are different from your average kids from austin or boulder who becomes “buddhist” to be trendy or disappoint his christian parents. i had a buryatian friends once (the buryats are a mongol people from siberia) who was buddhist and she believed all kinds of things that wouldn’t fly with SJWs, including being very down on homosexuality.

        3. See, this is where I get confused. To me, when someone says they’re atheist they supposedly mean no belief in a god or gods. But what I hear the most often is an argument aimed primarily at the practitioners of religion (and almost universally aimed at Christians over any other). As if because the believer is imperfect it invalidates the entirety. Is that really atheism, or is it just anti-Christian?
          Also, what is it called if you believe in God or even Christ, but you despise the trap and tendency of deifying the mundane human as divine? (i.e.: following a Pastor or whatever as if he is as infallible as God instead of recognizing the frailties his own humanity demand). Or in practicing the ritualistic or bowing to the icon/idol instead of seeking true penitence?
          Of course, it isn’t as though many of the religious haven’t suffered self-inflicted wounds (how can one be condescending to a sinner if we all have sinned, etc?), but to me, one of the best places to be is in thought contemplating my faults and seeking guidance on how to improve, the other just seems like a veneer to justify not doing so, and rather womanly at that.

        4. On your point of deifying religious authorities as divine, yeah it’s definitely a balancing act. They can lead people astray. But, at least in my experience at a Presbyterian church, they’ve dedicated a portion of their lives studying the religion they’re teaching and it’d be foolish to assume you know more than they do. It’s the same as a college professor; they know way more than I do and I’m not arrogant enough to assume I know better.
          Still, that position of authority can be abused and just because you realize they know more than you doesn’t mean you can’t respectfully question or suspect there might be bias behind the teachings.
          Jesus definitely cautions against false prophets and those who would say they’re of the faith but are leading you astray. I don’t have a Bible verse that comes to mind but a lot of the Bible calls out Christians.

        5. I agree with that, but what I am trying to ask is:
          Why does holding up the mistakes/fallacies of other humans get to be used as an argument against the practice/faith?
          Certainly, there are people who have misused religion to meet their own ends and in horrible ways, but is it correct to condemn the entire concept/practice for these actions which are clearly not meant to be condoned in the context of the religion?
          Also, it always seems ridiculous to me to hear the argument:
          Well, religion isn’t based on science and fact but a book of fantasy written by men long ago. Okay, taking that at its face, seriously? And what is science or fact but a series of accepted arbitrary definitions invented by men long ago and nearly identical to self-fulfilling prophesy. Not to mention, broken down, it’s really only true because you believe it is. There is still nothing that is “proof” beyond what is accepted as being such for anything and based completely on limited comprehension solely reliant on tangibility, because mankind does not and cannot know everything at once. It is simply beyond our capability/capacity.
          Most people can’t even contemplate the consequences of a chosen action ten degrees separated from the origin or the events leading up to that action becoming a potential choice (or even tabulate how many people, along with something of their individual histories/personalities, just died in this moment).
          I love science (e.g.: Chaos Theory) and philosophy (e.g.: Existentialism), but neither is my religion and much of what I hear/see as argument against it seems, too often, intellectually dishonest.

    2. Good points. Plus there was the make believe rape crisis shortly followed by the ‘Pro-Muslim’ leftist irony tingles, effectively inviting in millions of rape culture thugs. Hey! I thought progs were against rape! Now they want to shelter Muslim males. But, but, they said they were against rape. I’m confused…

    1. This was a great dialogue from a great series (only season 1 that is). The thing is, I agree with both of them. Yeah, most people are pieces of shit. Maybe they need religion to constrain and control their behavior. I knew a janitor in my last job.. he was a hard core born again Christian, wore Jesus t shirts to work every day, wanted to pray with me, etc. Turns out he used to be a heroin addict, and stole $75 a day to support his habit. People like that make me thankful for religion. On the other hand, there is unquestionably a lot of bad that religion does. It’s an enormous question to answer whether religion is good or bad on balance. Perhaps only God knows.

      1. I don’t know, I used to think also that most people were shits too, but, the majority of people I discovered over time are disappointed with life, despite what they say. This doesn’t mean they’re shits, it just means their lives have never been fulfilled in the ways they hoped for. You look at peoples faces in the street or supermarket the next time you’re out, most people, especially women, over the age of 40, have that look of disappointment about them. (Blake’s marks of weakness, marks of woe). It was George Orwell who said that by the age 50 we all have the faces we deserve.
        However impressions can still confound the best of us. I’ve met people in my travels around the world, who despite outward appearances have turned out to provide me, a stranger, with help and kindness, and I’ll say that in a way changed, just ever so moderately, the way I view people now.

      2. Yup. I have a saying. Show me a born again on their soapbox and ill show you a deviant hipocrite sociopath. Most of these assholes that aren’t in jail have burnt every bridge with friends and family and found their last resort in religion. I have a big problem with religion and the weak people that embrace it. I admit it has a place with some people as far as a sense of community and that has a lot of value but for the most part its pretty much what Rust said. faith in whatever has been proven to be powerful ally. I just think its misdirected and pretty much a placebo especially when not giving credit for oneself by adding an unnecesary middleman such as “god”,” Allah”, “jah” or whatever idol they choose.
        I’m really suprised with the neomasculinity/ red pill christians on this site. Ive been pretty vocal about it. It blows my mind that people think religion is a good supplement to red pill/ neomasculinity but I think its a contradiction since religion dogma is the foundation for blue pill, sheep/ lemming mentality that laid the groundwork for blind obedience and acceptance for the institutions that have failed us all. Any fundamentalist is dangerous whether its Christian or Muslim. Other than Islam,More and more people are ditching the placebo of god. Its unfortunate because Muslims have an upper hand as far as being fanatical and breeding like rabbits and the sane rational people are holding off on religion and having multple offspring like they used to. All we can do is hope those primitive cretins keep having mass fatality stampedes and cranes falling on mosques and war to keep their numbers down.
        I think by now we all know all the reasons what a blight organised religion has been on society. Its time to face the facts that theres no Santa Claue, tooth fairy or the hippy in the sky that only saves you if you believe in him otherwise your shit out of luck and going to hell. Gimme a fucking break. Talk about conditional love.

      3. “On the other hand, there is unquestionably a lot of bad that religion does.”
        Looking at some of the events that transpire in the Middle East between Sunnis and Shiites, I would say this statement can be applicable in certain cases.
        I think we have to be careful though when it comes to Christianity in the modern world. Under the *guise* of Christianity, the pope has been becoming more and more politicized, and trying to push an agenda by using terms such as “climate change”, even when he most likely has no idea of how the scientific method is applied, let alone the best course of action to take if indeed we do have a problem.
        The US media and many Catholics worshiped the pope (as if he was Christ Himself) when he came to the states. The government provided him with more armed security than the President. This leads most citizens to *think* that the US holds Christianity in a high regard. But behind the curtain, the US Government has funded al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda in Syria and the result has been that these “moderate rebels” have displaced an estimated 600,000-700,000 Christians from their Syrian homes. All this destruction and persecution in the name of a US-Saudi-Qatar-Israel-Turkey backed gas pipeline THROUGH SYRIA and into Europe.

      4. I started to give religion it’s due credit when I read the story of Adam Brown, a former crack addict who turned his life around with religion to become a Navy SEAL and even make it into SEAL Team 6 with the loss of fingers on his dominant shooting hand and the loss of his dominant eye.

  11. Ironically a god doesn’t necessarily solve the problems that theists want it to solve. A logically possible god could have created human life without any meaning, purpose, moral standards, an afterlife or a guarantee of ultimate justice. Traditional theists just project these wishes onto their idea of god for selfish reasons, when a god has absolutely no obligation to arrange its creation for our convenience. .

    1. “A logically possible god could have created human life without any meaning, purpose, moral standards, an afterlife or a guarantee of ultimate justice. Traditional theists just project these wishes onto their idea of god for selfish reasons”
      Well couldn’t it be the case that you also project your own wishes upon this god? I mean, such god that abandons Earth to its sad fate would not be worthy of any adoration.. but that’s like an easy way out, isn’t it? It’s easier to assume that if there’s a god he doesn’t need to care about us so you don’t need to feel obliged to be loyal to him… but once we consider that he can be a judge and bring our actions to justice, things get a little more uncomfortable, don’t they??

      1. Good point. But if our creator doesn’t care about us, why should he care about the often awful things we do? What’s his point, our we just some form of entertainment for him, a type of cosmic big brother?
        If he’s a judge, then surely we can ask why he created such an imperfect creation, God knows it could have been better, yes?

        1. Yep, if the creator doesn’t care about us, and won’t work to solve all things, then there’s really no point in caring about him and whatever he might be doing and we are left to work things out by ourselves, (which is a lost cause, given how wicked human nature is).
          However, as I believe, God is a judge and will bring justice to all. Of course He allows us to ask on why things are messed up.
          God created a perfect Edenic world but Adam and Eve gave their loyalty to Satan instead of God. God now will rescue mankind (Jesus’s sacrifice) and show the universe that whenever someone abandon His law, things gets messed up, debunking the accusations that Satan made against Him before the angels that He is an unfair and unmerciful God. When He’s sure that the angels and the whole Universe knows that Satan’s ways are wicked and that His ways are just, the judgment starts and everyone will receive in accordance with their actions. Sin and wrong will never rise again because now everyone knows what happens.
          Of course I really really resumed it all or else the comment would be too long, but that’s how I see the subject and the answer I can give you.

  12. Meslier would have enjoyed Father Ted.
    Interesting how atheism led him to communism.
    On earth as it is in heaven mirrors the hermetic “as above, so below.” But once you start doubting the world above, then the focus shifts the world below. One of the strange things about the english revolution, and all millenarian movements is that they often become obsessed with the world below – this world – and creating the kingdom of heaven here on earth, regardless of whether they believe in an after-life or not. Zionism reflects this within judaism, and christian zionism too – not forgetting that the english puritans were some of the most zealous millenarians of them all – they produced after all amongst their ranks, groups such as the Levellers – a title which should explain itself. The problem is that if the ‘consolation’ of the next world turns out to be just that then trying to create heaven on earth which effectively has always meant some variation on communism, always seems to lead to a organised mass slaughter. Its on these grounds, secular, humanist, if not materialist grounds that the battle should be fought. Religionists will never persuade all, nor should they – people have to decide what is true for themselves – but they can demonstrate what the fruits of an idea or belief are. Right now religion has a bad score, but communism and atheism SHOULD have a worse one. Its just that nobody in the mainstream focuses on just how evil communism’s rap sheet really is

  13. A few years ago some network ran a series titled The Masked Magician, where a stage conjurer in a mask shows how the standard magic tricks work.
    I like to call atheists who have studied religion, especially ones coming from the inside like Meslier, the Masked Theologians: They show how the common illusions of religion work.

  14. Cultural Marxists knew that the only way they could destroy families, national/tribal/racial identities, heterosexuals and any remnants of normalcy was to destroy the image of God or precisely-Christendom. Think of every issue raised in the last couple of years on ROK, could it be ever implemented in a society dominated by Christianity?
    Don’t you think its strange how Christianity has been the only religion that has been mocked and vehemently criticized in the last couple of decades? To the point were identifying yourself as Christian almost means automatic excommunication.
    Read your history books, the more a society becomes Godless the more degenerate it becomes, moral decay/hedonism/nihilism and sexual perversions increase exponentially. I have never seen one atheistic state(past and present) that could hold a candle to a Christian state.
    Human nature is fundamentally flawed. There’s a reason why Christians say that Man cannot live by bread alone. This is because a human is made up of the body; the mind; and the spirit/soul. When one does not feed and stimulate each element of this triangle, than it creates neurosis/anxiety within the individual. So far our bodies are well fed and stimulated. Our minds constantly entertained by unlimited stimuli(internet, social media, acquisition of knowledge, research. TV) but its our soul that is non-existence. The modern man(woman) has no soul or to put it better, nothing to nourish the soul.
    Here is a verse that will apply in every epoch of time
    “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good”
    2 Timothy 3:2

    1. How can Christianity be the one and only true authority on divine matters. I was brought up a Christian (Roman Catholic) but I drifted away from it as I became totally disenchanted with their behavior, the hypocrisy, and the cover-ups. I miss many aspects of my earlier faith, but, I couldn’t truthfully remain a practicing Catholic after the lame excuses from the Vatican following so many scandals. Nevertheless, I believe that there’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
      rough-hew them how we will to quote Shakespeare. I cannot accept that Christianity, considering all the evil that we can readily see in the world on a daily basis, can explain this chaos in terms of a benevolent God who simply watches this side-show in perfect serene detachment. He’s either not an all powerful God or he’s not a God of all goodness, either way, he’s not what he seems.
      Besides, who really believes that such a God is present in our world? Despite my reservations, I believe there is a divinity behind things, but, I’d see more credence in the ancient Manichean heresy, in which the forces of good and evil are locked in an eternal struggle for the soul of man. It makes more sense, it resonates more with the world we all experience on a daily basis, doesn’t it.

      1. Ach! If only we could sit down over bier und brats and spend a couple evenings discussing these things! What a time we would have together! Prosit!!

        1. Bier und brats! The elixir of many long fruitful conversations. What’s life without good conversation and arguments. We don’t even need to agree. I used to try this on occasion with my girlfriends but it never worked. Women, being serious, cannot handle their drink, nuances in discussions, or the idea that a man the next morning wants to head off by himself and think about things up the mountains.

        2. Truly, we both know what the finest things in life are! Forget girlfriends. I can count on one? Two? Fingers the number of men who could appreciate a good debate. Not the pansy kind they have at colleges for show! But one-on-one, knock down, drag out verbal pugilism! A hardcore, MMA-style smackdown. The winner to be decided (or undecided) by popular acclaim!
          And the stakes? For me? The other man’s eternal soul!
          Oh, and let’s not forget – bragging rights!

    2. Man indeed does and can live by bread alone just fine without the need of superstition and a game of rewards for the afterlife. Religion of punishment and reward was invented in archaic times to control the brutal dominant men from doing normal things of the time that today we call crimes. Yes, a small but not insignificant male population in almost any region of the world prior to the modern age were chiefly interested in stealing, raping and even murdering rather than achieving any higher spiritual planes in personal development. Anyone who has read between some of the lines of the history books from the dawn of the civilization up to our current days knows this. Paganism unified tribes under chiefs and clans but it wasn’t enough to check man’s natural propensity for violence and conquest. Christianity came along as a superior alternative that recognized and rewarded altruistic behavior hence it won the battle for hearts and minds.

      1. A superior alternative? conversion by force. All the church did was replace one set of criminals with another.

    3. The more religious a state becomes the worse, look at the dark ages, Kentucky, and Iran.

  15. The problem is when a given religion becomes the one and only official State Religion. I actually think it was very wise and long headed of the founding fathers who drew up the American Constitution to separate both. If you don’t do this you can create false gods and idols. This is how Communism became the State Religion of Russia in 1921. Once any religion renders unto Caesar’s estate its founding principles then it losses a great deal of its original integrity and spirit. Religion is a private matter, morality is a public matter, that separation should always exist for the public good of both citizen and State .

    1. I was hoping someone would mention the Constitution, as it is under tremendous assault from both the “left” and “right”…
      I think the “separation of church and state” is under a somewhat more subtle attack than some of our other freedoms, but here’s a few examples:
      1.) The pope visits the US and is given more security than the president himself. This to me is scary, considering the current pope is supporting damaging views such as *forced* multiculturalism and is also making assertions about “climate change” when he knows little of the scientific method. I think that the upper ranks of Catholicism have become completely corrupt and very far from the original Christian ideals (my personal opinion).
      2.) The fact that private businesses are being forced to accommodate for the LGBTXYZ (ad nauseam) community when the business owners hold religious views against this.
      On a related note, since the start of the Syrian Civil War, an estimated 600,000-700,000 Christians have been displaced from Syria. This is not due to Assad as the media would want us to believe (he didn’t just wake up one day in 2013 and “snap” on Christians, as Christians have historically made up about 10% of the population). But rather, their displacement is due to Islamic extremists such as al-Nusra (the so called “moderate” rebels) that are being FUNDED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. The US is one of the root causes of Christian persecution in Syria, yet when the pope shows up the media worships him and touts how much we “love Christians!!!”. Quite scary!

      1. You do not seem to have problem when others are required to accommodate christian beliefs.
        Like the idiotic hobby lobby decision, now christian employers are allowed to be above the law that others have to follow, and allowed to force their religious beliefs onto employees.

  16. All children are atheists—they have no idea of God…Men believe in God only on the word of those who have no more idea of him than they themselves

    Not to get into a shtfigt about athiesim, but every single society and culture on the face of the earth has religion.
    That and nothing good has ever come out of the French philosophical tradition which has given us the likes the Robespierre and Pol Pot just to name a few.

  17. If anything he is angry at the possibility of eternal consequences to earthly choices. Because he wasn’t man enough to carve out his own path in life and attain assets he instead writes a bitter manuscript, but is too much of a coward to publish it while he is alive. I cannot in any way whatsoever respect a person who blatantly exhibits the traits of a cowardly hypocrite who wishes upon the world enslavement to one another through government force without choice, rather than the choice to serve God or not as a free man. We have since the time of his writing this manuscript all seen the horror of communism. How anybody is able to read Marx with a straight face and actually believe any his writings in this day and age is beyond me. The real tragedy of Marxism is the fact that it is voluntary enslavement. People actually choose to belittle themselves and throw away their dignity in the pursuit of something they did not earn. Marxism/communism/socialism lowers all men to the state of the lowest in society. Sad that so many today would gladly throw their rights and freedoms away for such petty promises.

    1. I agree. The most blaring thing that I noticed was that he wasn’t a believer but went into seminary to please his family. I have a buddy who just graduated seminary and says that majority of the students are atheists or agnostics. Only a few who entered were actually believers to begin with.
      He never could fathom why they joined and opted to waste a lot of time and money on something they did not believe in. Their goal in the end was to make religion especially Christianity more inclusive. Meaning they would bend and wreck whatever Bible verses they could to make homosexuality, transgenderism, (and of course) rabid feminazism acceptable in the church. Of course, if you didn’t accept their stance you were automatically a bigot. In fact, they went so far as to try and remove all labels:Male, Female, lady, gentlemen, he, she, etc.
      Many of the rabid feminists were even seeking to remove the term good and evil, because Good and Evil are subjective terms open to interpretation.

      1. you’re in the US, aren’t you? the more i hear this kind of thing, the more i think that my wife and i really need to get our plan to emigrate permanently to central america in gear. yeah, it’s a region with a lot of problems, but i wager the vast majority of the clergy down here actually, you know, believes in god.

        1. Yes, I am in the US. I would agree that if you are trying to have a real family with values intact, then Central America will be a better place than the US no doubt.

    2. yes, my takeaway from the article was that the only saving grace for meslier is that communism hadn’t actually been tried in his time.

        1. i suppose there had been attempts at communal living before his time, but the ones i can think of were faith based (fra dolcino and his followers, for example). had there been any atheist attempts at communal living before the 19th century?

    3. Your post shows extreme lack of historical context. The man lived in a theocracy.
      Everything you said about communism and Marx, whom I find ridiculous too, is true of Bible based religion. Sad that so many throw their lives away for pretty promises of heaven, after death, of course.

      1. Your post ignores the fact that he had other options in life rather than going to seminary. He could have picked up a trade or become a merchant. He could have minimizes religion’s impact on his life in any number of ways, instead he was to weak to make a decision about his own future and did what his parents wanted, despite the fact that it would mean living the life of a hypocrite. There is a difference between living in a theocracy and actively choosing to be part of the theocracy. That is what makes him a hypocrite and a fraud.

  18. I have yet to see an atheist satisfactorily address St. Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs which appeal to reason rather than revelation for the existence of God.
    In particular (and highly condensed here), the appeal to necessity which proposes that if there was ever a time when nothing existed, then nothing would always exist. There would not be anything to bring anything into existence. Thus, something had to always exist for anything to exist. This is God.
    Search the “Aquinas’ five proofs” and read them if you never have before…they are highly interesting and quite challenging especially for the atheist.

      1. And it only took me a few seconds at that link to find this: “The irritating (to believers) question of a naturally skeptical child sums up the main problem with the first way: If God made the world, who made God?”
        We are trying to arrive at the First Cause, the Necessary Being, etc. If something made “God” then “God” is not the First Cause, the Necessary Being, etc. Thus, “God” is not God. Something else is God. The question is logically absurd but, according to the link, sums up the basis for the rejection of Aquinas’s first way. Weak.

        1. Yes, when they claim to disprove Aquinas they have usually committed one or more logical errors or fallacies.
          I’m not a big believer in the argument from authority, but come on! Show some respect. These proofs have been around since the 13th century and people smarter then you, even with Google, have wrestled with them. We may no longer consider them “proofs” for various reasons, but hey are still powerful evidences.
          My favorite is that a cause must be greater than its effect. Therefore, whatever created the universe must be greater, more complex, than the entire universe combined. Which includes the human consciousness of every person who has ever, or will, ever exist!!
          But, No, says the atheist. The effect is greater than the cause cause everything came out of an infinitely small point of space-time. But from nowhere and nothing.

    1. I did. The first argument “from motion” is easily disproved by quantum mechanics. “Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect” Atoms can be in two places at the same time. Science is rad.

  19. Oh stop. One historical atheist in no way represents all of us, just as kiddie diddling priests are nothing at all like jesus. Your bias and that of the general staff here is well known, and this is disgraceful.

  20. Anyone ever see “Oh God” starring George Burns and John Denver? Deism in popular media.
    Some of the insanity in quantum physics could justify spirituality, too.

  21. OT- but has anyone else heard about cc sabathia, Yankee pitcher? He decides to go into alcohol rehab right before the playoffs, when his teammates need him most? This couldnt wait a week(they wont win the first round series anyway)?
    Everyone is praising his decision, a guy who earns 20-25 mil a year- who is paying for this rehab stint?
    Im a big fan of baseball, and Ive read alot of books about the golden era, cant imagine Mantle, Williams, Mays, and so on letting their team down when they need em most…

  22. “fanatic, a misanthrope, who, preaching to the wretched, advises them to
    be poor, to combat and extinguish nature, to hate pleasure, to seek
    sufferings, and to despise themselves.”
    This mirrors some things I’ve been thinking about regarding Christianity as an answer to the problems currently facing us. Perhaps I should write them down. It’s a debate worth having.

    1. Christianity couldn’t prevent liberals religious acts because both religious dogma. same ideology different name.
      Only reason and evidence can allow a fellow man to think logically, but we know Christianity cannot even shad light on their demi-dog zombie as tangible proof. So, science is the only true way for this buffoons.

  23. I do not argue with the self proclaimed internet atheist precisely because, as these comments illustrate, it ends up an exercise in futility. I liken it to dogs chasing their own tails and getting nowhere. If one expresses a genuine interest in understanding I’ll try to help, but ridicule is simply brushed aside; I’ve heard it a thousand times before. It’s usually when we’re young that we’re hyper vigilant to the hypocrisy of others and lack introspection to our own. Meslier experienced arrested development in this regard. I feel sorry for him. Being forced into something is not a vocation. It’s no wonder he projected wrath upon God and saw Him as vindictive instead of a loving Father who desires to be in relationship with us all, now and forever. I often tell the inquisitive ‘God does not send us to Hell, neither does He force us into Heaven.’ Free will and agency folks. As for his missing allegorical meaning, the first words we hear in Scripture after the fall are God calling to us “where are you?” and to the end He beckons us “come”. Theological works are not simply history or science, and faith cannot be divorced from reason. A good explanation for those interested can be found in the encyclical Fides et Ratio.
    Pax tibi

    1. Athiest = A “theist”
      Theist = Theory. Or, Someone which holds a “theory” as a “theist”
      If someone deems themselves an “theist” yet does not have a solid “theory”, they are simply saying they don’t have faith, without being able to even argue why they have some kind of “faith” their belief that they themselves are theists, is based on faith and they don’t know it, without sound logic you are just faithful, hope faith, dreams, wishes, wants, all these are just based on “faith”
      simply challenge a theists belief and prove to him that his own belief in his belief is based on faith and that he has fooled himself

  24. I believe in pantheism
    basically, its a form of taoism that involves physics and quantum psychology, it’s an ongoing belief as we learn more and more, basically neurons communicate using light particles which have no time and space and they find insects and birds brains are tied into the quantum field that we know very little about since judging by their brain size, they shouldn’t be able to accomplish what they do.
    the universe is a super-intelligence, a small amount of that super intelligence is in your consciousness, and hopefully, with technology, larger and larger amounts of that super-intelligence will become conscious
    I say, If there is a “creator”, Us and our little 90-120 iq’s wouldn’t be able to prove that we are in some matrix simulation, until we get our iq’s closer to the 300 range
    i see a future where the average idiot of today is smarter than both einstein and divinci combined, where an idea is though of, and being plugged into an AI system, the solution and conceptual instructions are immediately provided sort of like “the intelligence calculator” instead of solving math equations it solves creative and technological concepts etc.. probably open source aswell, The age in which the division between intelligence and time itself is no longer scarce. Where chinese can be learned instantly, and an instrument or instructions to do something are immediately learned using neural augmentations
    That age is upon us, and we will use that intellect to live forever as knowledge of the aging process is proving more malleable than ever
    I say, in order to prove the existence of god, let us become gods, than we will know it is real. As many “gods” will exist. probably 9-10 billion of them

    1. I had a friend in high school who, years later, was paralyzed by a fear of Hell that was obsessive. The only way I could get him to break free of his obsession was by doing away with Hell. It wasn’t easy because he was a fundamentalist it took about six hours of very intricate reasoning, but I succeeded. He liked the idea of annihilation so that’s what we substituted for a literal Hell of fire and brimstone. He was finally able to see something other than Hell.
      Interestingly enough, the next day he no longer had a problem with a literal Hell. He had merely gotten caught in a feedback loop. What he needed was cranial recalibration but I could have hurt him if I hit him too hard!
      Of course, I don’t believe in annihilation. It short circuits justice.

      1. Nice. But with all the respect, I think we will have to disagree (about eternal damnation, that is). Eternal life is only to those who accepted Jesus as their savior, sinners don’t get to live forever, for the wage of sin is death. If they suffer forerver, that means sin and sinners will still be alive through all the ages and God cannot tolerate that for sin is really offensive to Him and that would mean that He failed to erase sin from the face of the Universe. But justice will be done. Before being finally consumed, they will burn… oh they will..

        1. I wasn’t aware that I had shared my belief on the doctrine of eternal damnation.
          If you would like to consider another interpretation, I would recommend Charles Finney’s article, “Eternal Life”. He makes a distinction regarding the term ” life” most people don’t see.

  25. I determined long ago that anything having to do with infinity or eternity were just way above my pay grade. But from a philosophical position I do believe in separation from God as an appropriate consequence of rejecting God. and that it could well be eternal. And that the conditions selfish, self-absorbed people might create for themselves could indeed become terrifying.
    But for forever? Eternity? It’s beyond my ability to comprehend.
    But so is eternal life.
    Like the comedian Rita Rudner said, “I had a friend in labor for 36 hours. 36 hours! I can’t imagine doing something that feels good for 36 hours!”
    I find refuge in the thought, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?”
    For some questions, God’s answer to Job can be sufficient.

  26. It can be argued that the concept of justice requires some form or punishment after life. This is not just a doctrine taught us by religion. It is an innate concept of rational consciousness. In many ways, Jesus was just confirming what we already know. In fact, many doctrines He taught were validation of concepts only hinted at in the Tanakh.
    That said and as weak as our fear of eternal punishment is, can you imagine what the world would be like if NO ONE had ANY fear of future retribution? Not just some dictator, but your next door neighbor. How many bad behaviors do we not engage in because we fear the consequences and not because we know it is wrong?
    There are ways to consider and look at these “hard sayings” that makes them more palatable. Just read any modern Christian apologist and you’ll see a boatload. Given my limited, finite perspective, and the bigness of God and eternity, and I’ll settle for those easier to grasp ideas.

    1. Ah the fear of retribution. That reminds me of Bill Burr explaining why women act poorly in the way that they do: because you can’t hit em.

  27. Atheistism is fine. Atheists are just usually jerk wad a-holes that just call you stupid for believing in God. Does God exist? I think the answer is most likely yes. This world would not make any sense if it were not created by some sort of intelligent design. If this “just happened” in the course of usual existence we would be able to find examples of it everywhere in the universe. So far, we have found none, and not even a close candidate.
    Believe what you want. I won’t hate on you because you believe or don’t believe. But, if you are gambling man I would err on the side of belief. If there is a time where the quick and the damned stand to be judged I can tell you no atheist is going to be proud to be in the damned line.

    1. Your point is the classic teleological argument for design, and its amazing that modern science has actually bolstered it by showing insane levels of pinpoint accuracy needed for there to be any life in the universe at all. Atheists have since, in almost every instance, been forced to infer the multiverse to explain this phenomena.

      1. An atheist wants you to believe in evolution, but that also means that you believe that a progression of literally hundreds of thousands of events happened in perfect succession and there were no mistakes (at least not in the historical or fossil records) in the process. The chances of that “just happening” are astoundingly small. The same with the fact that the Earth just seems to be the perfect distance from the sun. If we were a few hundred miles closer or further away the climate would be vastly different and not as hospitable to life.
        That is what makes me a believer in God and intelligent design. The chances of everything being so ordered by only happenstance and the state of nature are simply just not realistic.
        The one concession I will make to atheists is that the God we believe in (by that I mean the Christian/Jewish/Muslim God) might very well in fact has been or still is some type of alien race that once visited earth and resided here for some time. Even though if that is true it still means that we are the product of some sort of intelligent design.

    2. And christians are jerk wad a-holes who call you stupid for not believing like them.
      Is this any better ?
      I have to agree with you, that the world is too complex to not have some kind of intelligence behind it.
      That is why I chose deism over atheism.
      I understand intelligent design, but the only difference between religion and superstition is the spelling.
      If christianity is true, many christians will not be proud to stand in line to see their works burned.

  28. Ironically a lot of male atheists wind up as incels, despite all the atheist propaganda about how religion causes sexual frustration while atheism leads to sexual liberation and fulfillment.
    This might work for Christian girls who grow up in sex-negative churches with abstinence indoctrination, virginity pledges, purity rings and such. The average-looking Christian girls burdened with those doctrines can easily become freethinking sluts because they held the gatekeeping power all along.
    Unfortunately this doesn’t necessarily work for Christian men who want to break free and enjoy sexual hedonism. The sexually unattractive Christian guy doesn’t increase his sexual market value by becoming an atheist. He just becomes a sexually unattractive atheist guy.
    I think we’ve lost something when we secularized sexual relationships. In the religious Before-Times, girls could reject the advances of sexually yucky guys by saying that god forbids fornication. This had the effect of sparing the rejects’ feelings, because they wanted to obey god as well, and they could maintain the delusion that a god loves them even if women don’t.
    Now women can give more or less the real reason for rejection: You don’t make me wet, so go away and leave me alone. The secular guy who receives scores of such rejections, with not one success to his credit, must feel really bad about himself eventually. When you remove imaginary religious reasons for living, that leaves material reasons grounded in biology. If you take sex away from a healthy young secular man, what does he have left? No wonder we’ve seen so many incels going on rampage killings lately.

  29. I’m an Atheist. I fucking hate other atheists. Left-wing, progressive cunts.
    I’d prefer to marry a good Christian or Muslim girl.

  30. Matthew 5:28 – But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
    You know, if I have to go to hell for “adultery” from all the times I’ve looked at women to lust after them, without getting any action from them, I will feel really cheated.

    1. The word hell or Gehenna in the bible is not what you imagine. Gehenna was simply a place people burned with no hope of resurrection.
      The bible never actually refer the soul be separate from the body nor immortality of the soul. Immortality of the soul was borrowed from the Greek philosophy. In the Old Testament, when you die you become dust. In Ecclesiastes, it explains when you die, you know of nothing. The New Testament doesn’t talk about afterlife except for resurrection. Also there is a difference between Sheol / a common grave and Gehenna

  31. It is really a consequence that we live in a more comfortable lifestyle, longer lifespans, Aero transportation, Higher IQ, long/new peace with the advancements technology and science? These achievements were only brought to light when we decided to evolve away from church to the public.
    If you observe broadly. The issues we discernibly face are religious one: Islam-Murders and rape of thousands, Christianity-Fraud, Tell people to hate themselves and to hate science. Which leaves us the the most rampant one Feminism. Although, not religious in definition but they certainly use and act like their contemporaries.
    We must alleviate our suffering by destroying all ‘sacred’ text/Marx ideas while temporally hinder the internet to delete and prevent any damages relating to this shit.
    Agreed, brethren?!

  32. I think Christianity works like this: the more evangelical you are, the more pussy you can get. Notice how the prophets were swimming in wives and concubines? Even modern day evangelists have their pick of pussy. Like with rock stars, pussy lines up for them. Jimmy Swaggart, under persecution by double standard, cried when he should have openly declared his concubines to the leftist auditors. Then he should have kicked the hooded manginas in the nuts for being hypocrites.
    Even small time evangelists have their eye on the pussy. The door to door missionaries meet many of their wives during their travels and a little ‘thumping game’ comes in handy when a church hottie comes around. Roll like Joel Osteen and her eyes roll like putty. Bible words are like butter for the hungry pussy. That doesn’t mean trash the house, but keep the patriarchal backbone AND the DICK BONE in command. Most contemp churches haven’t seen the presence of dominant dickpower in ages with all the vocal cackling females leading on the circus for the betas in the congregation.
    In a church setting it is noticed how the vocal males who go to bat with one another on the issues of major doctrine get noticed by the females and a fan club develops. The passion for the doctrine comes first and the fan club of pussy is only a dividend. In other closed clubs as well, the major batting ‘alphas’ in a courtroom for example will generate tingles in the hot court reporters or aids even though they hardly grasp the gist or meaning of what they’re witnessing. The hamster only knows they’re in the presence of a club alpha. One cannot simply pursue a theocratic course with pussy on the brain and as a means to the end. In other words the pussy isn’t the primary goal. The pussy comes but the hammering away at the haughtier issues is the true passion.

  33. …for the average man, only the fears of eternal damnation will keep his baser instincts in check…

    Really? And how’s that working out?

  34. If you think of God, it is only for your security that you do.
    Faith in God is a means to achieve material goals. It is just a delusion… The greatest ideal that man has invented is the most imposing, perfect, and powerful: God — an invention of a frightened mind.
    The history of human thinking has produced saints, teachers, and so on, but the idea of God is the most corrupt of all.
    Man’s already messed up life has been made worse by religion.
    It is better to worship the money God. Even the holy men talk about money and want money. It is easy for the religious people to get money because others deny money to themselves to enrich the holy.
    The whole culture of our civilization is built in external violence, killing, and getting killed, first in the name of God as symbolized by the church, then by religious institutions, and finally, in the name of political ideologies as symbolized by the state. Killing is basic to our culture. Our culture is not based on harmony with nature.
    When a void is created, when all systems fail, religious concerns creep in. But our experience is that religion has created schemes causing tremendous destruction of life and property. It is most unfortunate. Religion has failed in its purpose. We live and die in the hope that somehow the very same thing that has failed us will one day rescue us.
    The human brain is interested in the maintenance of the organism. It is not interested in what culture has superimposed. It is interested in safeguarding the body in its smooth functioning. The brain, the wonderful computer, translates the input sensory signals. It is not interested in religiosity or spirituality.
    It is the ones who believe in God, who preach peace and talk of love, who have created the human jungle. Compared to man’s jungle, nature’s jungle is simple and sensible! In nature animals don’t kill their own kind. That is part of the beauty of nature. In this regard man is worse than the other animals. The so-called “civilized” man kills for ideals and beliefs, while the animals kill only for survival.
    Religions and their representatives are a bunch of exploiters, thriving on the gullibility of the people. There is no power outside of man.
    God is irrelevant, there is no use in wasting our energy thinking about God, because Man has created God out of fear. So the problem is fear and NOT God.

    1. >The brain is not interested in religiosity or spirituality
      Yet apparently it has created those religions and spiritualities and hasn’t cared about anything more in its whole history (and forget that Nietzsche disproved the bullshit ‘survival is the most important thing’ crap long ago)
      Here, folks, is a good example of an idiot who tries to be smart. Muhh input signals

    2. Top comment. I recommend you reading some U.G. Krishnamurti, if you haven’t already.

    3. I think the monotheistic God has clearly, human all to human, characteristics about him. The hysterical middle eastern tribal mind, with it’s love of tribal wars and self righteous absolutism is behind this God created in man’s image.
      However, we should never dismiss the sacred and the divine as they were experienced before or outside the middle eastern triad. Some, like those in mesoamerica were based on fear and rigid control of their societies, Aztecs and Mayan, while others were much more benign. I’m not sure that we can consider these always to be religions, sometimes there’s no mention of God or Gods, often there’s no formalized belief system, as often they talk more about cross-over between worlds that are analogous and parallel to our own.
      The point of the above digression is that you don’t necessarily need to have any type of religion…you don’t need to believe in a particular type God and everything that goes with it… for in our own past and indeed to this day; small societies exist and function well and cohesively, without religion in the sense we usually mean. However such societies have a knowledge of the divine that transcends their mortal lives. Our religious concepts in the west are fixated on “belief” or the notion that you “must believe” in a certain type of divine presence. The minute you’re made to believe in a God (Allah,Jehovah) for purely social reasons, the minute that God appears to become, human all too human…and becomes the thing of nightmares. (i.e an invention)

    4. For someone who doesn’t believe God exists you sure have a lot to say about nothing.
      Interestingly, your statements are mere rhetoric with no reasoning in them at all. You offer no evidences, no proofs, no logic at all. You make blanket statements proclaiming your ABSOLUTE Truths as though everyone else who’ve ever thought about these things wasn’t as smart as you.
      Classic Dunning-Kruger Effect.

  35. Christianity is just as stupid as Islam and Judaism. The religion was created to control the people and to create a homogeneous empire. There is no such thing as Hell, where you will burn forever if you live ‘bad’. Which sick God would torture his creatures forever, because they didn’t live according to His rules? Why do you give them free will if you only want slaves that admire you?
    For me it doesn’t make any sense. I would be an atheist too if I grew up with such a bullshit religion.

    1. “I Have Spoken! My Truth May Not Be Questioned!”
      You should try to pass yourself off as a guru. You’re very good at making blanket proclamations that have no basis in fact, logic, philosophy, or theology. Your emotions do not determine truth. Your feelings do not determine facts. Your self-righteous moralism does not determine the moral validity of an idea.
      “My argument against God was because the world was so unjust. But where had I gotten this idea of justice from? One only calls a line crooked if one already has the idea of Straight. Where did this idea come from?”

      1. “my truth cannot be questioned”, typical christian taliban mentality.
        You feelings/mythology do not determine facts.
        The bible teaches that your self righteousness is as filthy rags to your “god”, and that pride is a sin.
        You are great example of what I mean when I say religion makes people think they are above the law and even the scripture.
        Have fun watching your works burn at the judgement seat of christ.

        1. If I’m going to the trouble of replying to you, please do me the courtesy of actually reading what I wrote with comprehension.
          Those statements were in quotes. That meansi was applying them to YOU and attributing them to YOUR religious delusion.
          Please, Bill. Try, try , try to keep up. I know it’s hard when your intelligence ranks in the bottom quintile, but I have faith in you!

  36. I am opposed to living your life under the auspices of a religious doctrine that has been proven to be categorically false just so you can live in a more comfortable society. I understand that ignorance is bliss but isn’t the point of this website to improve your body and mind. That means challenging yourself and not turning off suspicion and reason and lying to yourself everyday for some ill conceived social benefit.
    Also one man does not represent an entire concept. The concept of not believing in Islam, Judaism, or Christianity doesn’t lead to communism. This article is absurd and the connection you are forcing proves that you have suspended your rational thought for religion for far too long.

    1. I understand that ignorance is bliss but isn’t the point of this website to improve your body and mind.

      It’s also about making yourself as “alpha” as possible, which makes the recent Bible thumping pieces all the more puzzling. To me, there’s nothing more beta than bowing down to an imaginary authority figure.

      1. I doubt the knights of the Crusades would agree with you on that. Alpha is a perception others have about you. How many gammas think they are alpha? How many natural alphas even know the word?
        Mastering yourself means having a coherent philosophy of the world. For most people that includes some concept of transcendence.

    2. Your use of the term “categorically false” is an example of a categorical assertion. Oh! And also an example of a categorical assertion that is false.
      Please take the time to check you definitions. If the religious doctrine (but you never identify which religious doctrine) you are asserting has been proven to be “categorically false” , that would mean there could be no more doubts or questions about Its falseness Which is obviously NOT the case.
      Communism can be conceived of and studied as a Christian heresy. Which means one can trace its intellectual pathway from a corruption of Christian doctrine TO communism. But the destination is NOT necessary.
      Same with atheism. One does not HAVE to become a communist because one is atheist (which is not what the article said), but one can trace a logical train of thought from atheism TO communism.
      “The more I learn the more I realize just how ignorant I am.”
      You have a long way to go, Kingswing, before you realize how much you don’t know.

  37. The Enlightenment in some ways was a gigantic pile of shit and started the whole trend of God being a loving God, your personal pal and helper. Whereas for eons, the gods weren’t very nice entities. And any guy with balls enough to challenge the gods would get their shit slapped.
    Several places in the Bible it mentions that God is not just the Creator, but a God of War and a God of Storms. If you look at these archetypes in any mythology, these are the ones you simply did not fuck with.
    Whether you believe in God or not, you should hold certain things as sacred and unquestionable.
    God will fix your cunt.

    1. But until He does, He leaves us to build the world as we choose. Schadenfreude is not a useful emotion for creating anything.

      1. He slaps people’s shit every day, like that girl that was texting while driving.

        1. I resist blaming God for my own stupidity. Far too many people blame Him for not protecting them from themselves. Most pleas of, “Why me, God!” Are about things we did to ourselves.

  38. The question really comes down to would you rather a Judeo-Christian culture or the one we have today? In today’s culture, you have people being called courageous for removing perfectly good and functioning body parts and playing dress up. Shit, they’re getting awards over other people who actually lost perfectly good body parts in war and would do anything to get them back. And, without these body parts, such as legs and feet et al, they went on to accomplish incredible feats of athleticism. But the award goes to the man in a dress who, yes, several decades ago did something impressive athletically but with all his parts in full working order. Elsewhere you have similar heroics being acknowledged with people deliberately pouring Drano into their eyes so that they can be blind and white people saying their black because, after all, they’re trans-racial. I’m just scratching the surface here. Oh, and the most powerful group, at present, in the united states are homosexuals. And all of these people are actively looking to compromise all of your rights in order to ensure their privileges are never threatened. And these privileges to be exact, are to keep you from ever hurting their precious little feelings, because big strong tough guys of 2015 can cry easily if someone says something “triggering” and/or interrupts their delusions. This includes the steady erosion of the most important and influential documents ever devised by the human hand – the US Constitutional and, as follows, all the inalienable rights endowed by God (which means that no human government can take it away). You say, hey the sex is better? Is it? Back then missionary was enough to get you off. Today, if you’re not already limp from too much simulation its fire hose enema up the ass, while a donkey shits on your head with clown music playing in the background. You don’t have to believe in anything, although, you’ll, gasp, have to endure “Merry Christmas” being uttered once a year. In fact, you were freer in every way under the Judeo-Christian culture. Don’t like “In God we Trust” or inalienable rights endowed by God…well, consider this, even if you don’t believe then this is still very important and useful. All it really says is that your rights and mine are untouchable by government and if government has a problem take it up with God. Oh, can’t seem to reach God for a meeting…ha, too bad so sad, that’s just the way we and he wants it.

    1. The question really comes down to would you rather a Judeo-Christian culture or the one we have today?

      That begs the question: Why didn’t religion stop today’s society from coming about? Religion at best is a bandaid. It can only keep people behaving temporarily.

      All it really says is that your rights and mine are untouchable by government and if government has a problem take it up with God. Oh, can’t seem to reach God for a meeting…ha, too bad so sad, that’s just the way we and he wants it.

      That’s a double-edged sword. Yes, the freedom fighter can claim God is on his side, but so too can the tyrant; and if history is any guide, the ladder is more likely to happen than the former.

  39. I know a decent amount of atheists are good folks, but a decent amount are also shithead internet atheists. My beef is with the latter.
    I get the impression that the latter kind of atheists don’t want/like to believe in God because He doesn’t do what they want Him to do.
    There are also plenty of shithead Christians who get it all wrong too, don’t get me wrong.

    1. There’s no such thing as shithead internet atheists.
      At least we don’t follow a F.S.M. that endorses genocide to Canaanites or anyone who disbelieve.

      1. Have you been on Reddit or watched any of the amazing atheist’s videos? They’re real dude. It’s not their atheism that makes them shit, it’s their negative attitude and complete lack of respect. They’re the kind of people no one wants to be around.

        1. There’s nothing wrong with Reddit or TAA video. So, back off!
          You agree the your God likes genocide and call yourself His child?
          More reason for society to dump religion to the streets

        2. I know how this conversation ends: we’re not convincing each other. You do you and I’ll do me. Cheers.

        3. I saw ONE video of his I liked. I looked at a couple others and realized I didn’t want to add to his views count! What a f”king gamma! And so annoying. I’d consider taking him down but he’s just an internet Troll and I’m not interested in any kind of WWE-style fake grudge matches.
          But he’s surely found a profitable niche!

        4. Can you really be a Troll when everyone knows you’re a Troll and so no one ever takes you serious enough to actually, sincerely engage with you?
          I mean, isn’t the whole idea behind being a Troll to trick people into talking to you like you’re a homo sapien and not a neadertrollus?

        5. Didn’t a video he made with a ballgag in his mouth and a banana in his ass get leaked on the web or something? Like Roosh would say, degenerate behavior.
          He had a few good videos on feminism but that’s about it. I’m taking Mike’s advice and following the work of people I admire, people who are at where I want to be, or people who’ve actually done something for themselves.

        6. You misunderstood.
          I asked, What’s in it for me. Not YOU!
          I have not been able to read/finish 90% of your posts. The irrationality of them, the banality in them, hurts my head. The only reason I respond to them is because I imagine some Innocent but unaware person has read them snd might now be suffering from their illl effects. I consider my comments vital triage.
          If we were carrying on these conversations in private we will have removed 99% of my incentive to talk to you.

        7. I just wish to for us to have an intelligent conversation with zero chance of interruptions. Sometimes I can get personal and I don’t want to embarrass myself to the entire website!

        8. Here’s the problem with that. A Troll is like the boy who cried wolf. His raison d’etre is to publically humiliate someone for Caring.
          Man! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that clearly before.
          I have a long response I wrote once and saved and I throw it up whenever I spot someone Trolling or see someone falling for Trollbait. It’s my, “Do Not Feed The Troll” post. It’s a bitch slap for Trolls and I say every snarky thing I can to humiliate any Troll who reads it. I hurl every insult I can think of with the exception of dick size and sleeping with your mother slaps.
          But nothing I wrote then was as real as that right there.
          And you see, even now, while writing this, I wondered if you might be planning on mocking me in your very next reply!
          I have no way of knowing you won’t. None. Even if our communication becomes private. I have no reason to believe you are capable of honesty on any level.
          And part of me wants to pull back and start giving you the benefit of the doubt, express some sympathy for you getting into this situation.
          But I won’t.
          “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
          I’ll read your comments. You can follow me on Disqus. I’ll respond to anything honest or real you post – if I have something relevant to say. Let’s go from there.

        9. “Fool me once, shame on…” Here problem with this quote: it should only apply to certain individuals.
          Has anyone ever lied to you, apologize later and give each other benefit of valuable companionship?
          We should a give our hands to opportunity for something greater.
          Plus, if what I say is a little out of kilter for your liking. Then block me from your e-mail. And I’ll respect you for that.

        10. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. I’m at the hospital all day today. My mother was getting a stent put in and I’m fielding calls from around the country (we have a big family and she has quite a few friends). Talk to you later.

        11. Sorry. I didn’t see this first. It came before your last reply but I’m only seeing it now. Disqus can be VERY confusing because it doesn’t connect threads.
          “I just wish to for us to have an intelligent conversation . . .”
          The challenge there – and here is my NOT BEING FACETIOUS Sign – I haven’t seen any evidence that you can have an intelligent conversation. Not yet at least.
          I’ve looked back over your comments. Inflammatory, blasphemous (which I have NO problem with in an open environment like RoK), ridiculous, irrational. And those are just the ones I could stomach!
          Like I said, I’ll get back to you.

        12. Tom, I may not be able to maintain this account* much longer. You are deemed worthy of spoken truth which can only be said in private. I trust you, but you’ll also have step onto the invisible bridge without your faithful bullwhip.
          I’m at your mercy.
          *we’re given 24 hours until possible deletion.

        13. Anyone who disagress with him or his religion is a troll.
          Typical christian taliban mentality.

      2. No, you support opening our borders and inviting the savage hordes in so they can destroy and shit on everything our forefathers created and left to us to preserve!
        Let’s hear it for Diversity!

        1. You’re making the false assumption that I am engaging in dialectic.
          You support the Muslim hordes because you hate the Christian West and want to destriy it. You are a terror apologist!

        2. “Yo, Messiah, We’re trying to watch the RooshV sex scene with Honey hoe boo. So, would you please, sit down? Your crown doesn’t mute the audio, You know.”

        1. They would sacrifice children by burning them alive (perhaps you are a fan?), typically to reverse some adversity that had affected to tribe, or to achieve oracle knowledge and divination. The practice of child sacrifice was in fact an early export to the Israelites from the Canaanite tribes. It is why Abraham, though conflicted, was not puzzled by the command to sacrifice his own son. It was a common practice in the region.
          Besides, we know the Canaanite genocide, though commanded, did not occur. After it, Canaanites later appear again, so genocide could not have been committed. It is likely the infirm, women and children fled their cities before the Israelites defeated the Canaanite armies, and justly wiped out their early culture.

        2. Idiot, of course I’m not a fan. No child should be killed!
          Unless it’s case of abortion because the fetus isn’t even a person.
          It seem it me that your religion contradicting each other when it comes to loving one’s neighbor and not murdering anyone. If I were you, I would’ve hidden this in the sidelines wishing for everyone to respect what you believe.

        3. Well, I could justify your death by simply saying you are “not even a person” couldn’t I. That would be rather easy. You’re clearly degenerate, and so would have fitted in well among the Canaanites.

        4. “Well, I could justify your death by simply saying you are “not even a person” couldn’t I.”
          Wow, questionable morality much? And unlike a fetus I was born. But that couldn’t be said for you.

        5. I’d rather have a morality that was questionable than a morality that was illusory. And no, being born is not an achievement. I know you’d like to think it is, but it means nothing.

        6. Heh, predicable that you can’t even see your own “illusory”.
          Go to Debate.org you’ll love it & I’ll seeing you lose daily.

        7. I’d gladly debate you despite English being your second language, but I realized about three years ago the only way to deal with leftists is via the Pinochet method. Debating doesn’t actually achieve anything.

    1. And what would a comment section for an article on atheism be without a Clip from Carlin! Ends all arguments cause. . .religion dumb or something.
      Go Nihilism! For no reason and no purpose!

  40. I always point out, in the cultures where atheism has had its way and won out in the political and social arena, men have become completely subservient to women. This is a strange coincidence. Why not just in Sweden? Why in the UK, in the Netherlands, in France, and increasingly in the US?
    Since the ‘Enlightenment’ religion has receded from public life in many countries with many different kinds of cultures. Self-professed religions have been separated from the state apparatus. Only two kinds of countries have emerged from this. Communist societies whose economic and mass death record speaks for itself. And our liberal societies of today.
    And to those who point out the scientific and technological advancements that Western nations have achieved with their secular paradise, my response is this. Your space shuttles and your smart phones mean nothing at all if you go extinct, and currently many European cities see their natives as minority populations. In Britain, MOST of the population believes that to be ‘British’ is simply to hold a British passport! It seems Darwin’s survival of the fittest has found in atheism, without exception, a maladaptive trait for a population to adopt. Their birth rates plummet. The social cohesion dissolves along with trust. Eventually they convince themselves that everyone is equal, including hostile invaders.
    It would seem the most intelligent atheist, knowing what he knows about the world in hindsight of the last 300 years, would prefer simply going along and pretending rather than having to live in the social climate atheism has developed, one in which the entire hierarchy of the world is upside down.

    1. I was reading Evola’s Riding the Tiger recently on someone’s recommendation. And he makes the point that most western people (and he writing in the 1950s) value their ontological existence in our world as essentially meaningless. That for example there’s no metaphysical substratum to our world anymore, because of scientific and economical modes that classify our experiences of the world into highly circumscribed ways that cut out other ways of experiencing the world and our place in it.
      I think this relates to your point about why atheism has become an almost unconscious way to be posited in ones relationship with the world by many people. This form of (unthinking) atheism, which is very prevalent, is never consciously worked out by people, it’s just accepted like the moon rising every night.
      The point I make is that atheism in many cases is a failure by people to explore, experiment, and experience the world differently. It’s a closed box system that refers to the nebulous notion that “the world is just so” as described by a certain theory, evolution in science for example or in economies that success as human being is akin to being wealthy. The solution to overcoming this form of lazy, unthinking atheism lies in being able to step outside the box system, the conventional wisdom, the status quo, of being an authentic man who enjoys assaying the richness and intricate ways of the world. If we have a posthumous existence then I want only my best to go forth, and, you can only know this from the rough and tumble of a life lived authentically ?

      1. An interesting-sounding book. Does he propose a better (or any) metaphor in its place?
        Metaphors are a fascinaitng invention/tool of the mind. The Matrix is composed of nothing but metaphors.
        “Whst is real?” Asked Morpheus. And then proceeded to use the metaphors if science to describe reality as “nothing more than. . . electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
        Really? Is THAT what reality IS? And ALL it is?
        It’s metaphors all the way down!

        1. Well what he means by the metaphor of the Tiger is the chaotic, meaningless energy that’s released into the social world when all the old classical forms of civilization dissolve away. Evola suggests that we, rather than running away from the Tiger or offering ourselves up for food- that we should ride it hard, and, ride it good- meaning that you’ll master its energy and direct its movements as the Tiger will eventually tire itself out and give in to your supreme dominance- that’s what the good rider does and that’s how he wins.
          Evola was an unusual character whose ancestry would go back to the old landed Italian catholic nobility. However, he’s often describing a type of inner sanctum or impregnable sanctuary (that doesn’t have any relation to a man’s social nobility or standing) that a man can (must) establish that makes him immune to the chaotic, counter-clock-wise world of post modernity.

        2. Is he like Carlos Castaneda or should I take him seriously? It sounds as though he’s merely created his own mythology for interpreting the world, claiming its actual Truth. Or am I jumping to conclusions?

        3. You’d be best to read himself yourself. I don’t (personally) think he’s created his own mythology, besides there’s very few people who can this?

        4. I’ll check him out. Sounds interesting.
          It could be argued that we each create our own mythology. We are each alone inside our heads, looking out at the world, trying to make sense of it.
          What makes us human is the sharing of it all, and ourselves, with each other. Friendship could be thought of as a deeper sharing of a common Sense of Life, a la Ayn Rand. And love is see another person seeing me as I want to see myself. A la Nathaniel Branden (a disciple and lover of Rand. Her husband was a cuckhold).

        5. “We each create our own mythology” Perhaps in some remote key or register this is true. It depends on who and what we are, and upon those mundane, contingent factors that can set you going in a certain way. We of course all dream singularly alone each night, so our own mythology I would say belongs to our occluded self, but we’ve no direct conscious knowledge (not awareness) of it. We’re excluded and debarred because of this from the mythological realm, and perhaps for very good reason.
          Story-telling and the sharing of experiences are an ancient and integral part of who we are. Somewhere it was said that the day we loss this ability, will be the day God will put an end to the world (maybe we’re his nightly entertainment..guess he doesn’t like repeats). Even internet blogs and facebook are continuation of this ancient process.

  41. I have a Catholic background, and up until roughly 3rd grade (first time going to public school), I had no knowledge that a father contributed to birth and simply thought that god just randomly chose my image and placed me inside my mother. Eventually, I lost interest in god and sort of became atheist while getting into science. However, I began thinking about how we only see what our brains can accept (eg. a housefly could never understand the concept of how electricity works), thus I became and to this day remain a sort of agnostic. I’m still big into science, but I don’t dismiss spirituality, although I’m a believer of evolution; I’ve never followed creationism.
    Actually, my older brother found out how birth works much earlier; my dad let him sit down and watch Maury with him when he was only in second grade. 🙂

    1. Your father should have been arrested for contributing to the ignorance of a minor!
      Tucson is a very spiritual place.
      Spiritually is good and it is only the beginning. The smallest first steps on a trail of discovery. It’s easy. The first few steps. How well you manage 100,000 steps later when you’re hot and tired and your feet are blistered. . .that’s the point where the testing of your dedication starts.
      Good luck on your continuing journey.

  42. The irony(?) is that men only cared about science and scientifical knowledge about (human) nature, as long as they worshipped God. Now, men don’t worship God anymore and also believe that evolution has not shaped the different races and the two sexes.
    Instead, the atheist man believes that humans are “blank slates”, that there are no hardwired differences between different races, men and women and that a penis can have a “female identity” because of “feelings”.

    1. And there is SO much data disputing the Blank Slate hypothesis. Even Noam Chomsky talks about a “language instinct”! An instinct to invent verbal sounds that become metaphors to express meta-metaphors which are metaphors for the physical things and thoughts about the physical things so that our brains actually create a perception of the world that is metaphors all the way down!
      But hey! It all got put together by accident! All Hail Evolution!

  43. This is such a pathetic tongue-in-cheeck attempt to debase modern atheism and compare it to one man’s outdated and communistic views. Your attempt to link atheism as a whole to communism, in an attempt to play off the emotions that communism illicits, is not only asinine, it’s insultingly obvious.
    Maybe we should also have a post about how during the Crusades, a random man thoroughly enjoyed raping and pillaging, and say that this is the face of Christianity. Or maybe we should point to all the gangs that go to church on Sunday to absolve their sins, and come to the conclusion that Christianity actually promotes sinful acts, since men may believe they can be forgiven with a few Hail Mary’s.
    What the fuck has Return of Kings turned into?

    1. On behalf of Christian everywhere who have been blamed for everything from the Crusades to getting woken up by Jehovah’s witnesses (see Rockorbe’s, great comment above), let me warmly say:
      Welcome to the Club!

      1. I completely understand your sentiment, and I hope you can tell that I don’t blame Christianity for the misfits that use it as an excuse to do horrible things. Honestly as an agnostic, there’s many morals of Christianity that I wish were still commonplace (abstinence not so much, but honesty, work ethic, and avoiding extreme hedonism I completely agree with).
        My problem is that a website that says it’s for hard truths over pretty lies, one that I’ve found infinitely useful in the past, seems to be becoming the an aspect of pretty truths – just for a different group of people. I’ve seen so many ridiculous conclusions on this website in the past year that I’m starting to wonder why I come here at all anymore.

        1. I can see your point. I think we need to distinguish between RoK, Roosh and Château Heartiste!
          Roosh is all about the Bang. Heartiste is all about understanding the feminine so you can get the Bang. RoK is about not making pussy the be all, end all of your identity. If we lived in an ordered world and you didn’t have to hunt the wooly pussy every day and slay it anew each and every time, what else would you be doing with your life? What kind of a man would you work to become? What would you think and feel and believe about the bigger questions of existence?
          Personally, I’m pretty happy with the mix of opinion around here. We’ve had quite a few articles advocating Nihilism and some embracing stoicism and some pondering Buddhism and I think even one on the Bhagivad Gitas!
          The challenge the atheist writers are going to have is finding self-improvement subjects they can extrapolate from atheism. Goal directed action does not appear to have a strong philosophical connection with atheism. Except maybe Nietzsche and the Will to Power.

  44. My take on the subject is this. After growing up Catholic, I decided to leave and I became a pissed off atheist. I’m still nonreligious, but I do have a more tolerant view of spirituality after visits to both an old Tucson mission San Xavier del Bac and later to a small Buddhist temple also in Tucson. Or maybe it wasn’t me getting connected with my inner spirit as much as I went during non rush hours and mostly I was just able to relax and close my eyes and reflect on life itself. Yes I am more or less an atheist, yet I don’t share communist or socialist ideas for the same reason I have a disdain for both Christianity and Islam: The feeling that all of this exists based on mob mentality. Just like ISIS makes me cringe by its way of treating others, I am dismayed by liberal attempts to force niceties on others, as if the Gestapo got taken over by the Care Bears.

    1. Interesting that two commenters should both mention Tucson so close together!
      I lived in Tucson. I cut my spiritual teeth there. It has an amazingly deep spiritual vibe. At least it did. Some of the best Christians I have ever known I met in Tucson.
      It’s gotten so big now. The trails where I used to Walk with God are all paved over now.

      1. Yes it does. It big, but not gargantuan, it doesn’t have much crime, and it does have multicultural diversity (suck on that ROK LOL!). Definitely not hectic like it’s neighbor to the north Phoenix, which probably helps it as an impromptu spirituality Mecca.

        1. Back when I lived there in the mid 70s, we had a home prayer meeting at a friend’s house on Saturday nights. We had a van full of people who’d heard about our meeting and would drive down nearly every Saturday from Phoenix! And after the meeting, which would run from 7:30 until 1:00 O’Clock sometimes (!), they would drive back to be in church by 9!! LOL!!
          Amazing times. I still ponder things that happened then.

  45. Another comment, this time, towards Quintius. You seem to put all atheists as haters. Apparently, where you live, there are no raging mad evangelical Christians who don’t hesitate to tell you to repent or go to hell. Their tone of voice doesn’t indicate happiness or joy, but bitterness towards those not in league with their ideas. Also, apparently, where you live, no Christian has ever commuted acts of immorality. Like ripping off their parishioners. Or selling missiles to infidels. Or molesting children. Or hanging out at cheating websites. Or claiming to not support abortion, yet investing in companies that produce birth control. But ok, the rest of us are always raging assholes. Lol, you freaking Facebook Christian.

    1. “Where you live there are no raging mad evangelical Christians who won’t hesitate tobtell youbto repent or go to hell.”
      No, there are no such evangelicals where I live and I’m willing to bet there are no such evangelicals where YOU LIVE either.
      To put it plainly, sir, you are lying. The only place “evangelicals” tell people they are going to hell is some fanatics on the internet. I do not believe no one has ever in your life told you to repent or go to hell. How do I know? Because evangelicals are TERRIFIED of the word repent. And they never willingly talk about hell with non-Christians unless it’s to explain how it’s been misused by all the OTHER fundamentalists. But WE aren’t like THEM!
      Unless you have video of someone “where you live” telling you Repent! I stand by my charge.
      Why don’t I believe you? Because I have been in discussions with individuals, never even mentioning hell, and they will nonchalantly mention how I have told them they are going to hell! I point out I have never even mentioned hell and they will backpedal and say, Well, not in a BAD way! And I say, NO. Not in any way. I NEVER said that. Then they will admit I never said it.
      Same with gays! My wife has had gay relatives accuse her of telling them they are going to hell. But my wife would NEVER tell anyone that.
      So take your false, lying, bigoted stereotypes and until you have video of you with such an evangelical, shove it.


      1. And yes, I lived in Vegas for a year back in 05. In our weekend stroll down the Strip we ran across these guys a lot. Of course they were not the only nuisance. Drunk frats and coeds, fat people hogging the sidewalks in their scooters, and Japanese tourists too happy and eager to stop in front of you to take pictures of every column in the facade of Caesars Palace. And they were not the only ones. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses who wake you up out of your drink induced sleep at 7 am to give you the good news. At least the Mormons seem to be friendly, if at least at bit cultish and creepy. But yeah, if that’s not a good example, then I don’t know what else is. Also, wash that potty mouth of yours bro. The Lord is watching, for he is the Lord Thy God.

        1. Well, I’ve lived in Vegas for nearly 20 years and I drove a cab for ten. My office at one time was on Highland behind Trump Tower. I’ve never seen anything like this. But you said this was in ’95 and that was before my time.
          Still, I dont hear anyone raging at you.
          There is a group that ministers to hookers, porn stars and strippers. But I KNOW they don’t talk about hookers going to hell. They publish their own New Testement with the title: Jesus Loves Porn Stars.
          Of course, people don’t live on the strip either. Which was my point.
          And thank you for introducing a note of fairness by mentioning all the other interesting people you can meet on the Strip! I have stories! LOL!

        2. Clarification, while I didn’t film that video, I can attest to actually seeing them. Also, it was 05, not 95. Of course if you didn’t see them, another good explanation was, the crowds get pretty tight, especially at Las Vegas Blvd and Flamingo Rd. Of course this was also 10 years ago, so they might still be there or not, but seeing this IS Sin City, why wouldn’t they be there? And it wasn’t that they were raging at me, they were raging at everyone. They reminded me of the fine folks at the Westboro Baptist Church. Never met them myself, but being in the USAF for 6 years, we got to hear about them picketing funerals for fallen Soldiers and Marines, which needless to say, we took it personal. And I do have anecdotes of street preachers in my hometowns of El Paso and Juarez Mexico screaming at the top of their lungs to repent or go to hell. Heck, I even got to see an evangelical Christian lady and a Catholic lady debating in a public bus over the Virgin Mary, which ended up with both of them telling each other to go to hell. Do I have video? NO, but I wish I did. Also, this was the late 90s/ early 2000s, no smartphones back then. Also, it was in a public bus where I first encountered the fine work of Jack Chick.

        3. I never take personal offense (but i am mildly embarrassed) when people mention Westboro because I have as much in common with them as a Hindu does with the Tamil Tigers. I’m more sensitive when it comes to street preachers and one on one contact because I have experience with that and, as I said, people tend to exaggerate the rudeness of the offending Christian. I have NEVER been quoted fairly when it comes to hell.
          And two Christians arguing about Mary? I consider that more like intramural skirmishers. LOL!

        4. Of course, not all Christians focus on hell. Some focus more on good works, some on following Jesus’s example, some lean towards a prosperity gospel or a holy capitalism, others on the so called socialist aspects of Jesus. Thankfully the fire and brimstone preachers are rare.

  46. @Quintus and all deluded ones, have the courage to watch this without dismissing it before having seen it in its entirety. It might help you open your eyes if you still care about seeing what exists outside of the religious version of reality…
    https://youtu.be/9FiHRVb_uE0

    1. YOU’RE RIGHT! My eyes have been opened! Where has this man been? Why these thoughts and ideas he’s explicating! Who has ever thought of them before? Surely there is no one smarter than Dawkins! Everyone before him was wrong and after him no one can be right!
      Sarcasm Sign Posted.

      1. Please.
        Wait until you have something useful to say. Don’t just vomit up the first thing you feel, mistaking it for the Holy Spirit.
        I cannot imagine in my most fevered dreams, Jesus telling anyone, “God is real! You will answer to Him!”
        The only people he EVER condemned were the religious people who claimed to already know God.

  47. Some of us don’t fall into the statist error when we get clear of religion but most do. It’s a subject for study.

  48. I will join this disscusion by saying that the main premise of the main article, that religion has a major role in every society, is true, but the article title is still not answered – is atheism good?
    Meslier seems like a very bitter man I will agree with that. And who could blame him? He was forced to live a life of a lie. But let’s say he DID live the life he wanted? Would this affect his atheism? No. He would still be an atheist. Just a happy atheist. You see, your last conclusion, is true – unfulfilled life is the real danger here. Not atheism.
    I myself am an atheist. I was born a catolic in the south-eastern Europe (Balkans) in a traditional catolic family, so I understand the importance of a religion in a societly. I will be first to admit that among atheists there is high percentige of bitter people. These people think that being a religious person is “stupid” and that religion is “the greatest evil ever invented” and that “if there was no religion there would be peace on Earth”. There are also people who are atheists and if you would ask them why they wouldnt give you any good reason. They are athists because saying that you are an atheist is “cool” these days. This is why i usually use word “agnostic” when describing myself. I dont wont all those negative conotations of an atheist comunity pulled on me. Bitternes, resentment, anger. Because that has apsolutely nothing to do with atheism.
    To be an atheist is to be a natural born skeptic (hence my nick). I do not BELIVE in anything. When I first came across this comunity, because my heart was broken over ended relationship (typical reason, wouldnt you say?), i didnt belive it. I didnt took it as true on my faith. I was, what I am – skeptic about it. But as time passed, as I have read all the Roosh articles, I saw that there is some truth in it. I still dont agree with everything, but the overall impression is good. I am actually a better man that I was before. I am happier. Happy atheist.
    You talk about morality, and non-materialism on a web site that was built up on the idea that all men can receave more pleasure from women. That they can make more money. More muscle. Is there anything more materialistic then that?
    The notion that all men, besided philosophers and saints, would do evil if they didnt belive in eternal damnation is nonsense. You pulled that one out of you ass. I dont belive damnation, and I would never do anything to my fellow human being. Not because I am scared of the devil, but because I consider true the notion that human life is the most important thing in the world. Something my Catholic family tought me. To be good to others, respect them, forgive them, and deffinetly NOT to be afraid of evil.
    I never did understant the wester concept of christianity. All they do is try to scare people into faith. It doesnt work like that. I was born in communist regime, and thankfully I didnt live in it for long, just my few years of life. But they has something in common with the western christian concept. Fear me and obey me. But you see when people live like that a certain amount of time they rebel. That is why communism ended and that is why in western europe churches are empty.
    Your article should have been named “Is living a lie good”? Atheism has nothing to do with it.
    Cheers!

    1. Great comment. Congratulations on choosing to think with your own head. The point is, a man does not need crutches to stand on his own two legs. A real man throws away all crutches, stands alone, and rejoices. Cheers!

    2. Great points. There are certain people here who can’t tell the difference between a Marxist and an atheist. They think all atheists are Marxists, which is quite stupid. There are lots of atheists who support Roosh and ROK.

  49. I believe in a God. My God is a fluid abstraction full of paradoxes and power. Everything in reality makes up his being, and everything is evolving into something we probably can’t predict, although it might involve complexity and order overwhelming entropy and simplicity (I’m guesstimating). Time is an illusion, and the past and future are just as fleeting as the present. Time to smoke a bowel.

  50. Most reject the true and living God, because they would rather become their own gods. Remember what Satan said to Eve in the garden of Eden?
    Genesis 3:5 (KJV)
    “5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
    Satan keeps using the same lie, and people keep falling for it, because they do not want to submit to God’s all powerful authority.

    1. Most people reject the ” true and living god” because his followers are hypocrites and jackasses.
      The bible says ye shall know them by their fruits.
      Look at the fruit of christianity, hate, bigotry, pride, strife, lust.
      These christian taliban types need to read what the bible says about being a stumbling block.
      Just yesterday I was talking to a friend in the ministry, and I told I had a free sermon for him. ” the church as seen through the eyes of the world”.
      Does the world you are trying to reach see the church as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and the guides to salvation, or do they see the church as religious assholes and pharisees ?
      The actions of the church determine how people receive the gospel.
      Do you want be praised for them accepting it, or be punished for them rejecting it ?

  51. ROK is getting way too Bible thumpy lately. I don’t believe in a god or gods, and am not interested in “worshipping” the state. I’m politically libertarian, the exact opposite of someone who wants to see the state grow. Please don’t confuse a Marxist for an atheist, and vise versa. The two are not the same thing. ROK should be careful not to alienate and further divide the manosphere. We have enough enemies, we don’t need to be fighting amongst ourselves.

    1. Slander goes both ways.
      No one, especially not atheists, get upset when Christianity is slandered, when Jesus is blasphemed, when Christians are denigrated and belittled and ridiculed. Even you, in this very comment, seem to be mplying Christian men have no place writing articles for RoK simply because their thoughts and ideas are shaped by their faith.
      If a Christian writes a crappy article filled with religious jargon and going against the male advancement theme of this site I hope it’s never published. But if someone writes an intelligent, insightful article about a powerful man overcoming great odds aided by his faith, why should it be excluded on the basis of its faith content alone?

        1. If a Muslim man has a point of view or an insight that the editors think adds to the reservoir of information here. Great. But Islam has some inherent beliefs that make it not only incompatible with a Red Pill perspective, but also an American consciousness.
          Lying for the prophet is the Big One. Denial if freedom of speech, religion, etc. It’s a pretty encompassing list.

      1. Actually, I’m an agnostic. Luckily, there’s that whole first amendment which promotes a free marketplace of ideas. As Holmes said, “if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”

      2. However, I’m not overly fond of the people who wait outside the grocery to give you literature about their religion and tell you that you are going to hell.

        1. Why? Are you aftaid they’re right and you are going to Hell? (Always capitalize the names of actual places. Sarcasm Sign.)
          But why should anyone care what you aren’t fond of? Are you a special snowflake whose special heart is hurt when free people use their freedom to say something you don’t want to hear? Isn’t that one of the costs of freedom of speech?
          Saw a memecard here the other day that expresses that attitude. Can’t cooy or link to it now, but it said:
          Your rights end where my feelings begin! ”
          Is that what you want?

        2. Wow… so many assumptions.
          1. You ARE a special, little snowflake… Just like EVERYBODY else.
          2. I am not so narcissistic as to believe that my opinion is so indisputable that others should go to Hell for it. Plus, some people only get through the day because of their faith. Who am I to take that from them?
          3. I think you’ll find that I was exercising my own Freedom of Speech. I also accept their literature and thank them anyway. It’s polite, and it costs me nothing.
          4. Freedom of religion also guarantees my own freedom from it. It’s not a competition. It creates balance.

        3. I did form my comment in the form of a question, so they weren’t actually assumptions.
          Your further reply tells me you are a reasonable and civilized American who understands how rights and freedoms work. Together we can save the wor…
          Screw the world. Let’s save what we can of America.

        4. I get it. A majority of this country has begun to communicate in a language of how they were offended. I quote the definition of that word regularly, and it doesn’t mean you simply didn’t get your way.The general public seems to think that judges alone are responsible for their rights. Either express your view responsibly or leave. I don’t hang out at KKK rallies and complain that I found them offensive.
          I don’t know if we can save America. I am amazed at the complacency and willful ignorance I see around me. I used to give a presentation on Rights for 6, 7, and 8th graders and encourage them to disagree with me… as long as they could support their argument. We need to question things.

    2. Nicely said Haven.
      You guys get $25? $100? to submit an article and then the big perk is that you get to pitch your alpha-pussy-snatching PDF journal you sell on Amazon on the bottom?
      If you’re looking to make an extra few bucks, you might want to think twice before continually pissing all over liberals and atheists….. who in the shadows, represent a large chunk of your target market.

      1. To whom specifically are you referring? Did I miss an ad for a PDF of Quintus’ at the end of his article? And I would hardly agree atheists are hiding in the shadows here! Nor are they being relegated to the shadows.
        I encourage all of you atheists to write a series of intelligent, logical, well-reasoned articles explaining the superior viewpoint atheism offers the Red Pill Man.
        As a thinking believer I would appreciate reading your perspectives.
        But can you handle the critique that would follow?

        1. As an Atheist, I don’t feel the need to explain myself or write well-reasoned logical articles. I simply don’t believe because there is no compelling evidence your fairy tales are true. The burden of proof is on you.
          My moral compass was established being brought up by loving parents and common sense and I don’t need to live in fear of breaking man-made commandments. I live by my own rules, like every alpha red pill man should!
          You would think an average intelligent person would see there are thousands of gods worshiped around the world and each religion thinks theirs is THE one. You all can’t be right. Logic 101.
          And besides, how many beheadings, wars, planes flying into buildings, molestations and fraud does it take before a red flag in the brain is raised? With that many bad apples, one should realize there’s something wrong with the orchard.

        2. Amazing self-disclosure.
          And imagine. . .I didn’t even ask!
          And your philippic? Classic Dunning-Kruger Effect.

  52. Fantastic post. This is why I hang at ROK. I never heard of Jean Meslier until now, but will delve into his writings.
    “All property should be nationalized by the state; every man should have his health and welfare guaranteed; and possessions should be held in common”
    And has been tried after his death in several varations and failed (with a huge body count) due to the innate nature of man. Why sweat and work, when the bread is provided by the labor of others. Ayn Rand pegged it, but who in the west wanted to hear the truth from a Russian emigre from St. Petersburg.

  53. religion and atheism are both brain imbalances which lead to chaos. everyone should check out mark passio’s work on this.

  54. It’s not a case of whether atheism is good.
    A more intelligent question would be ‘Is it healthy to live your life based on objective and empirical evidence or delusional fantasy?’
    Surely a healthier position to take as a 21st century global community would be to create foundations for our societies that are based on what we can actually demonstrate with evidence, to the best of our ability, to be true.
    This would allow for adjustments to be made if and when new evidence emerges.
    The alternative is scores of opposing belief systems, all of which cannot even support their own particular beliefs with any actual evidence.
    As most ROK readers are clearly Christian, opposition to atheists is always presented from a Christian perspective. However, before I, as an atheist, can even begin to address any particular religious or spiritual belief, you would first have to demonstrate why I should take that particular set of beliefs any more seriously than those of a Pagan, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Scientologist or any number of other supernatural beliefs.

    1. Deist here.
      There’s no such thing as objective and empirical evidence, only belief that some evidence is such.
      Most atheists are stupid and only the other side of the coin as religious people.
      The reasons why atheists are atheists and religious people are religious are exactly the same, except that atheists have one extra: mediocre people trying to make themselves seem smart. (which is why they repeat “rationality, logic, education” as if they have a monopoly on those)
      I find atheism a billion times worse because those pseudo-intellectuals who are promoting atheism adhere to scientism and scientific rationalism, which takes every joy out of life, every romance, art, greatness.
      There is a reason why modern art, philosophy, movies (after like the 80s they started becoming shit), music (this is the least damaged one, but it shows how awful the taste of young generations is compared with their parents and grandparents, and I’m 18 so it’s not a matter of personal feeling here) has gotten worse as technoscience has risen.
      Modern scientists (if I dare call them that, every big issue tackled by modern science is pseudo-science, unfalsifiable, biased, illogical, of bad philosophy) are a bunch of idiots who wouldn’t pass an introductory philosophical course and yet we have many people looking up to them.
      Their whole agenda limits worldviews in their attempt to have everything known and ordered because they cannot stand any mystery or chaos in their heart, EVEN IF that results in lame, boring, or illogical views.
      Compare the worldview/philosophy famous older scientists, from early 20th century and backwards, like Heisenberg, Einstein, Schrodinger to famous idiots now like Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
      Count me one modern philosopher with a better, no, 10% as good a critique of religion than Nietzsche (who would call the vast majority of atheists today pale atheists)
      In fact, if you tell those new Atheists their arguments are shit and they should read Nietzsche to learn how to think, they say crap like “philosophy is weak/useless, muh hard science is best” even though that’s
      1) A philosophical statement
      2) Fucking stupid as fuck, and that they repeat only because morons like Hawking who is given credit for having ALS (he contributed nothing but pseudo-science hypotheses to science) put their nose where it doesn’t belong.
      3) Science is a branch of philosophy
      Brilliant geniuses like DaVinci, Michelangelo etc..?
      None of them.
      Great conquerors like The Great Alexander, Genghis Khan, countless of others throughout history? Nope, we live in a democratic egalitarian society, which secular humanists, where many atheist belong to, greatly endorse.
      I forgot Vikings, by losing to the Christian God who is a god of equality, they lost their own religion and now let muslims come and rape their daughters. Good evidence that the more badass your gods are, maybe the more gods you have too, the greater you’ll be.
      Simply put, modern atheism and the whole Enlightenment philosophy and science is the worst thing to happen to life yet. The road to the Last Man. And you dare say that their bullshit is objective and empirical evidence.
      No! They want to believe that, but such a thing is easily disproven.
      You don’t have to be a Christian to not be a reductionist materialist, all you have to do is be at least decent in philosophy to notice the absurdness of such an ontology.

      1. So, what I can gather from your little rant is as follows –
        – Atheists are stupid.
        – Scientists are stupid and illogical idiots.
        – You could easily disprove all of science. (You should. It would make you very wealthy and famous)
        – The worse thing to happen in the world is that we, as a species, try to understand the nature of the universe we inhabit.
        I can tell you’re only 18.

        1. And I can tell you’re dumb with a piss poor comprehension.
          “- Atheists are stupid.” Except existentialists, they sure are.
          “- Scientists are stupid and illogical idiots.” If you can even call them scientists, that is. I just call them thus because everybody else does, logically they’re not.
          “- You could easily disprove all of science. (You should. It would make you very wealthy and famous)”
          No I can disprove scientism and the assumed power of science, as have many people with brains, true intellectuals, -not pseudo-intellectuals like you and your kin,- have done in the past.
          – The worse thing to happen in the world is that we, as a species, try to understand the nature of the universe we inhabit.
          The worst thing to happen is destroy many fields that make life great, narrowing the whole worldview a billionfold, so you can delude yourself into thinking you actually have figured it out because you gave one lame interpretation.
          “I can tell you’re only 18.”
          Nah, you should be surprised that I’m only 18 and am already this brilliant.
          What I can tell about you is how you’re going to a video of Richard Dawkins in youtube and brag how “enlightened and educated” you are and how unscientific religious people are for believing in a god.

        2. “I can disprove scientism and the assumed power of science”
          Lol. No you can’t. You may be capable of presenting a reasonable argument, but you can’t disprove it.
          Anyway, I never even actually mentioned science or the scientific method. You made that assumption.
          I specifically didn’t mention which tools we should use to gain evidence about our world, only that they be objective and empirical.
          “You should be surprised that I’m only 18 and am already this brilliant”
          You may very well be an exceptionally smart young man and I genuinely wish you well if you are actually that brilliant.
          However, you have failed to demonstrate this to me, but you have demonstrated your arrogance and immaturity.

        3. “Lol. No you can’t. You may be capable of presenting a reasonable argument, but you can’t disprove it.”
          I don’t have to, it doesn’t prove itself in the first place, it’s an interpretation in the first place. I only hate those who give it absolute power, and they happen to be pale atheists mostly, that’s why I brought it up.
          I’m not against science in general. I’m even in a STEM field. I’m just against scientism, which is more common and more easily achieved than one might think.
          “However, you have failed to demonstrate this to me, but you have demonstrated your arrogance and immaturity.”
          Choleric temper man, you know the drill. I’ve just had it going into internet in random places that have nothing to do with God or religion and suddenly some fedora-tipper starts and argument and then keeps mentioning rationality and science as if he owns them, when any good philosopher will see they’re below mediocre. I don’t hate atheism in itself, I have some atheist friends and they’re smart and don’t make atheism something that is not, e.g mix it with scientism and what else. I also admire Nietzsche too who was an atheist himself. But they’re rare existentialists so it’s irritating when someone holds like Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris as the knights of atheism, their arguments are laughable.

        4. Just out of interest, what particular tools do you value for establishing a ‘best explanation’ of the physical world around us if you have such a negative view of the scientific method?
          Also, do you have any particular religious/spiritual beliefs?

        5. It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Surely if you want to build tools go with science. If you want to know if someone is the biological father of a child, go with science.
          However, trying to explain reality and its nature with science and claiming that once science has an explanation that’s it, I find pretty dumb, mostly insecure, it’s by people who want a name for everything. The whole materialist worldview is wrong, not only Nietzsche has a much better model of reality (The Will to Power), I’ve experienced things that make me know the whole ‘everything that is boring is true and can be scientifically explained and vice-versa is supernatural bullshit’ is wrong, among with thinking arguments against, and having read arguments written by others, and evidence given by them (like Nietzsche’s explanation I mentioned above)
          This model was given in the 19th Century, science doesn’t care.
          Another thing disproved by Nietzsche was the whole ‘survival is the strongest instinct’ idea, it’s still claimed as common sense.
          For example I often have precognitive dreams of things that couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.
          There’s many things like that, this not being one of them, that “science can explain”, but I ask, why do I have to agree with the scientific explanation?
          Science says all mind is the activity of neurons and all feelings chemical reactions, but when the evidence is so thin that it creates all mind-body problems and those things they’re trying to explain are the thing they are trying to explain WITH, how can they be so arrogant with their smuggy statements? This is just one example.
          Although science is good for many things, the big questions will always be mysterious and up to subjective views mixed with both rationality and irrationality.
          When modern (pseudo)scientists try to give a “theory of everything” they’re limiting all worldviews, while their ‘theory’ is boring as hell, creating one terrible worldview everybody must adhere to or they’re idiots because only science is worthy.
          This happens just because some edgy morons pissed at their parents, usually manginas too (have you noticed how all those Secular Humanists hate religion because it “oppressuz wymin”), following the lead of scientists/philosophers who must have everything ordered, explained, because they’re too weak-willed to stand any chaos or interesting things in their world (and apparently they’re the opposite of religious people who need a God), use atheism as a scapegoat to feed their insecurities, because they know they are mediocre, they know they are not special (if they were they’d make their own arguments instead of repeating the same crap a billion times, crap that’s not even good to begin with!)
          and they just use science because it’s associated with the Enlightenment philosophy, who, make no mistake, is another side of the same coin compared to religion, it substitutes God with super-smart aliens or the progress of mankind or Truth (be wary of anyone who capitalizes truth) to make themselves comfortable, so basically they’re wearing the same shoes, different color.
          In the case of science vs religion, it’s actually just people bad at philosophy who make them enemies.
          The Bible for example is clearly not meant to be taken literally as a scientific explanation, though its moral teachings (especially the ones in the Old Testament, New Testament is socialist crap) have kept civilization on check and people hardworking and decent, not the degenerate crap we have nowadays.
          And as far as science is concerned- I have the best scientists who were actually well read in philosophy agreeing with me- there’s a very good chance there’s some sort of God.
          The universe is for example so fine-tuned that the chance of LIFE existing, I don’t even mean humans, was calculated to be one in 10^50000. You need 11 A4 pages to write such a number.
          A reason why I absolutely detest modern scientists is that they need to promote the Many worlds interpretation to explain such things, how is that scientific in any way?
          It’s absolutely ridiculous, illogical, and most of all, unfalsifiable.
          It seems that it’s not science itself I have negative feelings towards, but pseudo-science acting as science.
          I read an article from some New Age nutjobs that because science says there are an infinite number of worlds, its getting closer to the truth and now all it misses is ‘spirit’.
          When you have freaking New Agers saying science is getting closer to truth, you know that whatever science that is, is absolutely lulzworthy.
          Maybe science is the best way to explain what is referred to as ‘the physical reality’, but when it tries to explain abstract things like emotions, mind etc… with things like chemical reactions, whatever else reduces them, making ‘physical’ of what is not, it just sucks. It doesn’t belong there. It does terrible by the definitions of the scientific method itself. The human/life element is beyond science, beyond physical reductionism, having created science itself, which is only a branch of philosophy.
          Even in Nature, it’s an interpretation and not necessarily the absolute truth, it can only give credit to itself for being useful in creating things.
          “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” – Werner Heisenberg
          As for my religious/spiritual convictions, I find life beautiful and unable to be explained by materialism, I do believe in a God but I can’t quite make out what he is, I’m not sure if Aristotle or Carl Jung is more correct on the subject.
          I don’t adhere to any religion in particular, but find them to be absolutely necessary to keep the masses from not self-indulging, not in a way that makes them all equal though, more like through a Jewish way of “We’re God’s chosen people, we must do this and not be lazy”, so they don’t fall in asceticism or self-indulgence, bit different things both generating from having a weak will.

        6. Just so that we are all clear: science isn’t religion. It doesn’t need you to believe in it, ask it for forgiveness, or even recognize its existence. Gravity doesn’t care whether you acknowledge it anymore than a magnesium fire cares if you recognize that water won’t extinguish it. These things simply are.

      2. Not to jump in the middle of your debate, but just wanted to make the comment that Peter Kreft of Boston College actually calls Nietzsche a “soft” atheist, as compared to Camus or Satrye, whom he calls “hard” atheists.
        His distinction is made based on how “wonderful” they think atheism is. Nietzsche was only able to make atheism bad ass by juxtaposing it against the anemic Christianity of 19th Century Europe.
        Camus and Sartye, having live through WWI and WWII, saw first hand the unrestrained evil of the nihilist’s heart and recognized there was no refuge or comfort or beauty or creation in atheism. Yet they still insisted on believing in this “hard” atheism because they were convinced it was true.

    2. 1) You’re asking for a lesson in several hundreds of years of apologetics which nobody would be willing to spend time on in a comment section. If you actually want to research this, the resources are not hidden. There are many many books on the subject.
      2)
      “Surely a healthier position to take as a 21st century global community
      would be to create foundations for our societies that are based on what
      we can actually demonstrate with evidence, to the best of our ability,
      to be true.”
      Well, lucky you! You have this. It’s called secular Europe. And no, it isn’t healthy. It is withering and dying on the vine. Many ethnic groups in Europe will go extinct with the virtues of ‘science’ and ‘reason’ on their lips.

      1. “You’re asking for a lesson in several hundreds of years of apologetics”
        – Could you clarify your point? Just a brief outline of what you mean would be fine.
        “Well, lucky you! You have this. It’s called secular Europe. And no, it isn’t healthy. It is withering and dying on the vine.”
        – By saying this, you appear to be agreeing that it’s better to make up fantasies and then build our social structures around them, than base them on fact and evidence? If that’s the case, which particular set of supernatural beliefs do you think would best counter the problems faced by a withering EU? And can you provide me with an example where that belief system works so effectively?
        It may surprise you to know that I can recognise the many excellent social benefits that come from religion and that much of the social degeneracy we are experiencing could have a direct correlation with the decline of those beliefs.
        However, we live in a globalised world now, and it’s time we let go of our superstitious beliefs, because, for the first time in human history, we need world views that we can all, globally, agree on. This will never happen with supernatural beliefs; there are too many of them, they are often wildly contradictory and none of them can support their positions with empirical evidence.
        How can there be any social cohesion when one group of people holds fundamental beliefs and values for which no one else in the world can establish as actually true and that contradicts the fundamental values and beliefs of another group?

        1. We don’t need globalization and agreement, we need competition. It’s what inspires greatness
          You’re saying we should disregard supernatural beliefs because there are many of them and it doesn’t work in favor of globalization, but why should we care about the second?

        2. Apologetics is the defense of religion using argumentation. There are piles of books on apologetics for all major religions which present the arguments in their favor. If you want to look at the claims of religions and how they compare, you can do this reading.
          “By saying this, you appear to be agreeing that it’s better to make up fantasies and then build our social structures around them, than base them on fact and evidence?”
          By assuming religion is fantasy, you are doing what is called ‘begging the question’.
          “However, we live in a globalised world now”
          A large majority of people using this website would like to see that reversed.
          “we need world views that we can all, globally, agree on.”
          There are many ways to achieve this. If ISIS conquers the world and establishes a worldwide Caliphate, then your problem is solved, isn’t it. See, I actually prefer a world where cultures are different, rather than having everyone around the world be the same, which is a goal that the Marxists pursued.
          “How can there be any social cohesion when one group of people holds fundamental beliefs and values for which no one else in the world can establish as actually true and that contradicts the fundamental values and beliefs of another group?”
          Easily. They exist in separate nations. Why do I care if a Japanese man in Japan believes different things to me? If I have no interaction with him, then we don’t need to ‘cohere’. You really need to reconsider your desire for everyone around the world to join hands and be one. It’s the kind of fantasy which has led to millions of deaths around the world.

        3. “Apologetics is the defense of religion using argumentation. ”
          Thanks for clarifying what you mean.
          “By assuming religion is fantasy, you are doing what is called ‘begging the question’.”
          I’m actually referring to the beliefs around which the religions have formed. Religions themselves are clearly not a fantasy.
          Just to clear that up.
          Anyway, I make no assumptions about any superstitious belief. As an atheist I only say that I would not accept those beliefs until I am supplied with sufficient evidence in support of those beliefs.
          If I say to you, I believe in the magic rainbow unicorn, would it be unreasonable for you to call this a fantasy?
          “A large majority of people using this website would like to see that reversed.”
          I would include myself in that sentiment, but its just not the reality.
          “See, I actually prefer a world where cultures are different”
          Me too and I realise much of culture is rooted in the suppressions of their past, but unfortunately this alone is not a reason to accept what we learn about the world if it contradicts those beliefs.
          And, I can assure you I am no Marxist.
          “Easily. They exist in separate nations. ”
          Again would be nice, but thats just not going to happen. For example, Muslims are fairly well entrenched in most Christian countries.
          “You really need to reconsider your desire for everyone around the world to join hands and be one.”
          Thats a fair point, and I can understand why you would say that.
          However, this is not what I am trying to say. I have no desire for some flaky hippie hand holding circle.
          I want to live in a world that deals with empirically obtained knowledge and where social and political structures are based on that, not on ancient beliefs, the basis for which, frankly just don’t stand up to modern scrutiny.

        4. Those ancient beliefs sure worked a lot, with their loss suddenly everything’s going to shit. With their loss there is a need to have a website like this one. Modernity is crap. Back to a classical antiquity/renneisance-like age.

        5. Again, you are venturing into a discussion of apologetics. If you want to look at lengthy argumentation concerning things like ‘metaphysically necessary lions’ and other such attempts to refute God, then the literature is a Google search away.
          “ancient beliefs, the basis for which, frankly just don’t stand up to modern scrutiny.”
          Ah, yes. ‘Modern scrutiny’. Let me give you a list of other things that don’t stand up to ‘Modern scrutiny’
          – White privilege
          – The discrimination against ‘homosexuals’
          – The need for masculinity
          – Border fences
          – Islamophobia
          – etc.
          The list goes on. Forgive me for not really believing in
          ‘Modern scrutiny’. You’re a Modernist, and so you put stock in such things. This is an irreconcilable difference. The kind of society your ideology has produced is evident, it’s here, we can observe it. I find it to be abominable, and dedicate myself to undoing it by any means necessary.
          As Evola said, our mission is to ‘Revolt against the Modern world’ in all its iterations and forms. Muslims are entrenched in Christian countries?! What?! Which Christian countries? I see none. Muslims are entrenched in YOUR countries, Modern countries. If you think a Christian Reactionary State arising anywhere in Europe would be completely stumped as to how to solve this problem, you grossly underestimate us. We have heard the inevitability of progress rhetoric for almost 300 years, how globalism is unstoppable, how nothing can or ever will be undone, but our enemy’s arrogance is most welcome. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
          “Go ahead! Achieve all your goals! Break all the dams! Faster! You are unbound. Go ahead and fly with faster wings, with an ever greater pride for your achievements, with your conquests, with your empires, with your democracies! The pit must be filled; there is a need for fertilizer for the new tree that will grow out of your collapse.”
          – Guido De Giorgio

        6. “Again, you are venturing into a discussion of apologetics. If you want to look at lengthy argumentation concerning things like ‘metaphysically necessary lions’ and other such attempts to refute God, then the literature is a Google search away.”
          Im not.
          1. As I said in my OP, can you state which particular god/s you are referring to, so I know where to direct my comments.
          2. I do not need to refute whichever god/s it is you are referring to, and my OP was in no way an attempt to do so. You appear to be making the claim, and therefore the burden of proof lies with you. And which part of empirical did you not understand?
          I’m fully aware of all the convoluted philosophical arguments supporting God, but they prove nothing and in most cases can be applied equally to the magic rainbow unicorn, or any other god, gods, deities or supernatural entity you care to devise.
          The best of these arguments can be summarised as ‘Nothing can come from nothing, therefore the universe came from something, therefore God’, and variations of that based on prime mover, etc.
          “You’re a Modernist, and so you put stock in such things. ”
          I put stock in fact and evidence.
          I come to this website for many of the same reasons you do, but I find the Christian undertones quite pathetic.
          I wouldn’t mind so much if these beliefs were worthy of real masculinity like the Nordic gods, not the grovelling, boot licking religion that is Christianity.
          “our mission is to ‘Revolt against the Modern world’ ”
          If by that you mean ignore all the evidence that contradicts your particular set of beliefs, then fine, go ahead.
          Its that kind of blinkering I am against.
          “Muslims are entrenched in YOUR countries, Modern countries.”
          Are you serious? So there are no Muslim communities in your country? Which country is that?
          Let me ask you a question. Lets just say I wanted to accept a religious belief. Which one would you recommend I choose, and why?

        7. I’d recommend you continue just as you are. There is a certain exclusivity to our political doctrine, and from that last post, it’s clear you wouldn’t cut it. Very typical internet atheist neckbeard type stuff, and it can be entertaining/engaging for some audiences even Christian ones, but not those this far to the right. It’s a little like calling people “racist”. Most extremists don’t care anymore, we’ve moved past it.

        8. Well, I respect the fact that neither of us is likely to score any points regarding the issue of faith, and we have both perhaps used some very ‘typical internet arguments’.
          However, you have made a number of assumptions about my political views that are simply incorrect, and whilst I may not make the cut for your particular doctrine (whatever that may be), as I said you might be supprised at my thoughts on much of the non religious things you mention.
          I’ve been an atheist for my entire life, and simply cannot accept the claims of religion, but that does not mean I do not support the bulk of what this website represents.
          Thanks for the exchange.

        9. Actually, arguing the existence or nonexistence of God or a god is a fallacy unto itself. Neither argument can be established or proven so, regardless of what stance you take, the argument fails.

  55. The fact we have to question is why we don’t want to be free as MEN. We will find out that what is responsible for our problems is the fear of losing what we learned, what have and what we know, and that if we don’t have a problem we don’t feel that we are living… So we keep on perpetuating problems with the very solutions that we are trying to find to solve them. If we are honest and look at the evidence of the world as it is we easily realize that the mess we are in comes from constructing useless fantasies about reality, and that includes the fantasies of religions. We do it systematically as if we had an illness that keeps us hypnotized into believing that we are handicapped. But being handicapped is part of the fantasy, part of the trance. We are made to feel that we are handicapped to keep buying those shoddy goods. Until at some point eventually we snap out of it and wake up. And we realize we can walk without crutches because we were never handicapped, and we throw them away and we can walk as Men, not as afraid, pusillanimous beings that have to resort to some imaginary god that holds our hand and thinks for us. You can let go of the imaginary hand, and put the crutches away: you are not going to fall. You are a grown up MAN now. As such, if you choose to, you can have the courage to be on your own, to stand on your two solid feet. No one can give that courage to you, because you already have it, it’s part of you, because you are MAN. Walk proud and fearlessly with your own solid legs, your own solid feet. You can do it, so do it.

  56. I missed this article, Quintus, in the midst of my business related to the monastic property over the past two weeks. I appreciate the article, and the thoughts about the benefits of religion on the natural level.
    On the more philosophical and theological side, the recurring problem that many have with theodicy has never touched me, for some reason of the divine providence. Back when I was an atheist, my atheism was simply rooted in the adolescent belief that it was “stupid” to believe in something “imaginary.” I understood even then, that to bristle at injustice made no sense if there was no God; to be incensed at injustice was to admit that there was a God, and that He was Good; the trick, then, would be to understand why His Goodness was not contradictory to the “existence” of evil.
    For me, Christianity was the only religion that treated of this problem seriously; and, even before asking us to understand it, it set forth the Cross: God Himself endured human suffering, so at the very least He has shown that it is not “our problem,” but His, as well.
    But a few moments’ reflection revealed why there is no injustice in the idea of damnation, and why damnation is in fact a great good. When one considers what God is – the ground of all Being, the Fountain of all Existence, Existence Itself, even – one realizes that, merely by existing, we in a kind of constant contact with the Holy. Every moment, we are in the presence of the Holy One, we are joined to His gift of existence. To use the gift of existence to chose something contrary to It, contrary to the Good, is worse than a mere act of suicide. It is suicide, regicide, deicide, homicide, despair, revilement, hatred, all in one. It is ravening madness against all that is good, true and holy. And, because we allow ourselves to become passive, to be carried along by the numbing flow of indifference and habit and frivolity, we often fail to note the enormity of our crime, and so we can add to these sins ingratitude and neglect and insult. This realization is hard to have through casual reading; one must pause a moment and contemplate the true enormity of what every act of deliberate sin is. There was a good article on the Throne and Altar blog recently, at the end of which, after considering the question of whether we are more merciful than God for finding Hell too cruel, the author concluded:
    “Do I feel this way because I am more merciful than God?
    “No, I feel that way because I lack His justice, His understanding of the severity of sin. My inclination for an empty hell is a defect of my imagination, not something to be proud of. Certainly not something to boast of before the Almighty.”
    The man who understands the enormity of this crime, of weaponizing existence against itself, of creating the horrific vacuum and irreconcilable tension between using existence to prefer and propagate non-existence, will understand something of the truth of this.
    We can only speak of God in terms that are intelligible to us. To say that “God has uplifted His right arm” is not literal, we understand, but a figure that denotes some “action” of God. But God is the same, without shadow of turning. He is actus purus, “pure act;” He does not begin to act; He does not suffer; He is not moved. Likewise, in a certain sense God “saves” and “damns” man; certainly in the Incarnation, Christ as God undertook many acts and saved man; and we speak of the divine operations ad extra as distinct actions. But in His Essence, in what He really Is, these terms fall hopelessly short of expressing an inexpressible reality. Likewise, God does not choose to “damn,” or engage in a specific and separate act of “torment” of the damned. Rather, it should be clear that the man who uses the gift of existence – i.e., the man who uses the gift of being from Being itself against that Being and in spite of being, has ipso facto damned himself, has ipso facto made himself an enemy of himself and of everything. And when this temporal world is stripped away and the expanse of eternity opens up, what hope can there be for the man who loathes Existence, yet cannot cease to exist? What rest is there for the man who has chosen to be an enemy of everything, and now has to share a room with it?
    God is neither the author nor executor of evil; on the contrary, He has done everything to help us escape it… but not at the price of sheltering us. To Him, it is worth the risk to allow man to choose, to take responsibility for himself, to face the only choice that is worth making. Any masculine soul should understand this.

    1. Excellent comment. I, too, have never had a problem with the existence of evil. As the court jester would whisper to the king, “This, too, shall pass.”
      “For I reckon the the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glories that shall be revealed in us.”
      Also, I decided long ago that if any tragedy should befall me it must never be allowed to shake my faith in God. Why? Because any evil that might befall me has already befallen someone else! And if the reality of their suffering does not cause me to lose my faith today I would be a hypocrite if my suffering later should nullify my faith.

  57. I like your stuff about this article dude, but I think it’s more for the average man(everyone that has faith) to know that there is more meaning to life than just the mundane grind, and that there’s something meaningful to good, whether it be from the simple concept of good deeds helps those around you and your soul, and bad deeds hurt you and the world, to the more meaningful concept of love and the deep connections we share with friends and family mean more than just petty chemicals in our brain making us feel good, and that it’s something that lasts beyond death and physicality. It’s not so much about bad deeds and eternal damnation in Hell for the Average Joe.
    I read a study years back( http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/04/us/religious-faith-and-social-activity-help-to-heal-new-research-finds.html ) that people with faith in a religion(didn’t matter) and belief in spirituality and an afterlife tended to be more likely to survive surgeries with less complication than those who find no comfort and have little to no faith in their religion or just downright have no belief in anything whatsoever.

  58. > for the average man, only the fears of eternal damnation will keep his baser instincts in check
    very true. is it any wonder that the only people even remotely successful in the barrio’s of rio when dealing with drug dealers are christian priests?
    or in prisons?
    Religion acts as a supernatural stick to keep people (who would otherwise fall to their basest urges) in check.
    It must be profoundly depressing to be an atheist, no hope of anything except hedonism and death. And hedonism is fun for about 48 hours, then you have to have something to drive you forward as a person, as a man.

  59. You seem to be operating under the misconception that morality and ethics are the same thing and the both equate to religion. In fact, none of those things are true. Morality is societal, and we are all capable of horrendous criminal acts. It doesn’t matter who you happen to pray to. The only thing that makes us different than criminals is what our breaking point is.
    In fact, as an agnostic, when I do make moral and just decisions, it’s not because I was promised the kingdom of heaven or harems of virgins. I simply make those decisions because I want to.
    Also, your religion as a supernatural stick theory either has serious flaws, or Catholic priests have a plus 50 immunity to religion.

  60. What a surprise that a vicious “atheist” turns out to be a fierce communist. Religion, in one form or another, cannot be escaped. And religion is the best vaccination against socialism.

  61. We Know what’s afflicting the Atheist as the Qur’an says and I quote: Don’t be like those who forgot God, so God made them forget there own soul.

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