I pray for your death

 

 

The decline of religion in this country as a pillar of strength and moral righteousness in daily societal activities correlates inversely to the debauchery and societal predicaments we find ourselves in today. Think long and hard about that. Know that this country and our Founding Fathers were some of the most religious people to walk in our borders.

Our decline in the belief of God and the Judeo-Christian ethic that made us great, has been off the charts since 1969.

May I ask a question to the godless among us....who will you pray to when the nukes fly? I feel real sad for you. There is still time for you to turn back to God and your religion before its too late.

 

i'm a firm believer that if there is a diety, he/she/it will forgive me not being 100% sure of its existence prior to my demise.

i try to live a good life because i have a conscience. i'll die eventually with the knowledge that i lived a pretty good life. if the supposed diety in question throws me to a fiery pit.. even though i lived a good life well.. that's pretty f'ed up and i wouldn't really want to hang out with that kind of diety anyway.

does that answer your question?

 

The Pew study from last year is a helluva lot more interesting:

http://religions.pewforum.org/

We never like the church we're in.

 

The rise in evangelical Christianity is contributing to the rejection of religion altogether by some Americans, said Mark Silk of Trinity College




I think that sums up alot of it. There are some people out there with what I call "the fervor" which is this sense that everything must be measured through THEIR own personal view of the bible and anything else is rejected. To be pious you must believe as they do. Its a totalitarian belief that is akin to the Taliban, just without suicide bombers and beheadings.

I for one hold Christian beliefs that can't be shaken. But I go to a church that has a bunch of people gather together, shake hands, wish each other peace, sing a few tunes, drop some money in the collection plate to help others, and try to understand a figure sent to us who asks us to be better people. Many in my church volunteer to visit shuts ins, swing hammers in New Orleans or Mississippi, are sent to work at an orphanage in Jamaica or whatever. Geez. What awful people.

The fact is, the overwhelming majority of people who consider themselves Christians (and Jews, Muslims, Bhuddist, Mormons, Bahai, Siek and others) are this way. Its only media images of some of the more intollerant and out there folk have biased too many people into thinking religion is by definition a bad thing. Or at one point in your life you knew someone who was pushy about their religion and it turned you off. And thats a shame.

 

[QUOTE=vader1,Mar 9 2009, 04:46 PM] The rise in evangelical Christianity is contributing to the rejection of religion altogether by some Americans, said Mark Silk of Trinity College




I think that sums up alot of it.

 

Yea, let's hear it for the Reformation!

Crazy bunch of Unitarians the founding fathers were...

http://www.amazon.com/Founding-Faith-Provi...s/dp/1400064376

 

I was rather relieved to see the decline in faith. I was given my faith without a choice when I was a child, and since I've come to read and understand more, the more I think why bother? There's zero evidence for any specific god; why go through the trouble? And then countries get involved and it becomes history's on-going pissing match.

And I don't buy the "religion made our country great" thing at all. Pretty much every country that ever existed - even ones that contributed a lot - has had religion, whether they were pagan (Greece) or not. Religion didn't stop any of them from failing eventually. I don't see how we're going to be any different, especially with the spike in evangelicalism, which I think is not a good sign *at all*. The more stringent the religion gets, the more apt we are to fall into the hands of theocratic rule, which is just a form of totalitarianism, even worse since it's based on belief in things unseen.

This is patent bullcrap, and don't mistake "religious" for "well-read". Most of the Founding Fathers were deists (non-specific), and nearly all of them came from a western Europe that had been embroiled in religious conflict for centuries. Jefferson even tore up the Bible and kept the pamphlet-sized version of it that he agreed with. People are trying to rewrite history as if the ForeFathers were these god-bothering pew dwellers; they weren't.

Good. Once we stopped listening to priests telling us blacks and whites couldn't marry - or gays and lesbians today - we can all get on with our lives and worry about actual pressing issues, rather than playing to traditionalism for the mere sake of it. The Judeo-Christian thing is way overblown, and doesn't explain how things like slavery ended here after it did in other western countries that we are to believe now were less "Christian" back in the 19th century. There is plenty to discredit the idea that Judeo-Chrisitan values did anything for us that it did/did not do for other nations. Judeo-Christian values didn't save Russia or England.

Question: Why do I need to pray to anything? Go ahead and feel sad. I feel quite fine. I don't need a god or gods, and I don't need people feeling sorry for me because I'm an atheist (who was raised in a total Roman Catholic extended family and educated in RC schools). And just for perspective, nukes - or normal bombs - fly many times because one nation thinks its religion is the way and that another's is to blame.

My apologies to everyone else here, but I think this must be said in light of the subject: GPMike, I might add that it's quite rich for someone like you to be talking to anyone about prayer when the nukes fly. Just this morning you posted in a Car Talk thread about how the New York Times building should be bombed by "Saudi jihadis" to kill "worthless Americans" working for a "traitorous rag". Now you come in here playing all nice and concerned for our well-being. Why should I or anyone here think you give a damn when you post plenty to show otherwise?

 

Actually only a handful of the founding fathers were religious. It is VERY well documented. Here is one site out of many: http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

Despite the fact that christians say American is founded upon christianity, in fact it was founded upon freedom of belief (any religion, spaceman, invisible friend) and the separation of church and state.

Christianity is trying to weave itself into the dealings of the state, anti-abortion lobbyists, anti-drugs, anti-$$$$$$, anti-homosexual for YEARS. It is a force which moves AGAINST individual freedom and liberty. Church does not want you to be free, it wants you to follow their crazy commandments.

The more atheist and religion tolerant we are the better in my opinion. I don't care that you have invisible friends, as long as it doesn't interfere with the government (which you keep trying to do).