Atheist Church Opens in 35 more Towns!

[JEDIYoda]

They should have the churches. There are benefits to the social aspects of church.

Please provide links to all the good things that Atheists are doing through their involvement with the atheist Church......
There are none you say?? hmmmm..I thought the atheists were going to show these Christians a thing ortwo about feeding the poor and needy......no links huh???

 

[Moonbeam]

+1




They should really follow precedent and have some kind of very public Schism first. Its what a proper religion would do.

I myself don't see why the word "church" needs to be used, almost seems mean given the effect it seems to have on some of the actual church people. Isn't there enough out there preying on the dignity and minds of those poor christians? They called dibs on 'church', like they did with 'faith.' Atheists shouldn't even bother, they should be devoting that time to committing crimes and offenses on par with drug dealing rabbis, pederast priests, and pastors who give their congregation AIDS.

Chop chop atheists, get cracking! Kindly emulate organized religion if you would, the adherents of religions who see atheism as a threat desperately need it to feel safe and better about themselves.

They already do have a schism. There are the 'Meh, I don't believe in a God(s)for which no scientific proof exists' atheist and the 'You're fucking nuts if you believe in such Gods' type of atheist.

 

[Moonbeam]

What delusions do you think non believers have? LOL

The delusion that you don't know you have, of course, the belief that the only gods that are thought by folk to exist are imaginary beings. In short, there is the god that believers believe in and atheists don't and then there is a God who is knowable via a state of consciousness about which there can be neither belief or doubt but the experience of which leaves only absolute certainty. There is a state of being which believers and doubters do not know exists, but those who do know, know, and know they know.

There are things we know and things we know we don't know, but there are also things we don't know we don't know.

A lion took up residence in a farmer's barn for the night, and it disturbed the chickens, bringing the farmer out to investigate, and who proceeded thereby to nose around the barn. Having found nothing he returned to the house leaving the well hidden lion to chuckle to himself that the farmer wouldn't have been so nonchalant in his poking about had he known that I was here.

You are like that farmer. What delusions indeed.

 

[bradley]

Religion does not require belief in a God.

Proof? In the US, and other parts of the world, Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion. Buddhism is also a non-theist religion. So it's not a stretch to call the practicing and *proselytizing* of a non-theist or zealous anti-theist belief system a religion.

You can also have a religion without a church. However it's actually atheists calling these establishments "churches," which easily invites the comparison to an established religion.

Interesting to note, atheists become equally perturbed at being called part of a religion as they are against pro-theists. Only agnostics can fairly state they have no skin in the religious game.

Anyhow, I have yet to see anyone either prove or disprove the existence of a God. Therefore I'll remain somewhere in the middle, while watching both pro and anti-theists haughtily call each other names.

 

[WelshBloke]

What's wrong with the traditional Atheist meeting place?
Do you not have pubs to go to on a Sunday?

 

[fridgers]

I hope you realize that the entire beginning of the Bible was pretty much copy pasted from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was a fiction story written long before the Bible.

 

[BirdDad]

How odd. What would they be singing about then?

Chocolate salty balls

 

[TheSlamma]

I hope you realize that the entire beginning of the Bible was pretty much copy pasted from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was a fiction story written long before the Bible.

Careful man, now they have to bring on the denial

 

[Greenman]

I hope you realize that the entire beginning of the Bible was pretty much copy pasted from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was a fiction story written long before the Bible.

I had never heard that, I'll look into it a bit more.

Who's alt are you and why didn't you use you're regular account to post this?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Just to note, a writing based on an alleged event that was "predated" by a writing before it is hardly evidence of direct borrowing, as you're suggesting.

For instance, there are tons of works written about MLK, some ranging from 1960 to 2010. Using your flawed and obviously prejudice logic, any work written after the 1960 work clearly borrowed from the work written in the 60's, so those can be discounted as plagiarized. Of course, without even looking into any evidence, you'd assume that any book written after 1960 on MLK is original...not because you've examined them all, but because they aren't religious in nature.

There are so many "flood myths" and so many works like there are on MLK, that the similarities are really coincidental, since they cover the same event(s) in question

Just sayin', the "predated" argument alone as evidence has long been dismissed by any serious historian of antiquities.

Just a bunch of coincidences I guess. Right?

http://www.religioustolerance.org/noah_com.htm

 

[Retro Rob]

Just a bunch of coincidences I guess. Right?

http://www.religioustolerance.org/noah_com.htm

Interesting, but the commentary in the first 3 bullet points admits to not knowing how the stories are linked, but assumes they were copied somehow anyway.

Let me put a different spin on this to see how open you are to being possibly wrong, your response will be very telling:

I told 100 people about how I escaped a hungry pack of lions while hunting one day in Africa. I escaped by killing one of them with a shot gun blast, stabbed one in the eye as it was chasing me up a tree, killing it, and then the others decided to leave. These 100 people then moved to different parts of the US, and told this to their friends.

Upon returning to the US myself, I'm hearing stories ranging from me fighting lions with my bare hands, to dropping a grenade down a lions den to escape -- none of which are true. When people retell this, by the time it gets back to me, it's completely different than the original.

Does this mean a flood of any proportion happened? No. Does this mean any myth has even a little veracity? No.

All this means is that the similarities can, and are likely, a product of people retelling the same thing, but adding or exaggerating details.

Open your mind to other possibilities, then you'd have a more coherent and complete conclusion without a big of gap that I just exploited.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I hope you realize that the entire beginning of the Bible was pretty much copy pasted from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was a fiction story written long before the Bible.

proof....that's all we are asking....

 

[JEDIYoda]

Interesting, but the commentary in the first 3 bullet points admits to not knowing how the stories are linked, but assumes they were copied somehow anyway.

Let me put a different spin on this to see how open you are to being possibly wrong, your response will be very telling:

I told 100 people about how I escaped a hungry pack of lions while hunting one day in Africa. I escaped by killing one of them with a shot gun blast, stabbed one in the eye as it was chasing me up a tree, killing it, and then the others decided to leave. These 100 people then moved to different parts of the US, and told this to their friends.

Upon returning to the US myself, I'm hearing stories ranging from me fighting lions with my bare hands, to dropping a grenade down a lions den to escape -- none of which are true. When people retell this, by the time it gets back to me, it's completely different than the original.

Does this mean a flood of any proportion happened? No. Does this mean any myth has even a little veracity? No.

All this means is that the similarities can, and are likely, a product of people retelling the same thing, but adding or exaggerating details.

Open your mind to other possibilities, then you'd have a more coherent and complete conclusion without a big of gap that I just exploited.

nicely stated!!

 

[zinfamous]

Just to note, a writing based on an alleged event that was "predated" by a writing before it is hardly evidence of direct borrowing, as you're suggesting.

For instance, there are tons of works written about MLK, some ranging from 1960 to 2010. Using your flawed and obviously prejudice logic, any work written after the 1960 work clearly borrowed from the work written in the 60's, so those can be discounted as plagiarized. Of course, without even looking into any evidence, you'd assume that any book written after 1960 on MLK is original...not because you've examined them all, but because they aren't religious in nature.

There are so many "flood myths" and so many works like there are on MLK, that the similarities are really coincidental, since they cover the same event(s) in question

Just sayin', the "predated" argument alone as evidence has long been dismissed by any serious historian of antiquities.

the mental gymnastics on display here is truly dizzying.

 

[zinfamous]

proof....that's all we are asking....

surely you're not serious?

 

[WelshBloke]

proof....that's all we are asking....

The irony... It burns!

 

[MongGrel]

The Good Lion



http://pdbooks.ca/books/english/authors/hemingway-ernest/short-stories/part-two/the-good-lion.html

 

[Retro Rob]

nicely stated!!

Thanks. I'm just forcing him to think a bit. If he wants to think, he will acknowledge this as a possibility, if he doesn't want to think, he will hand-wave it.

 

[MongGrel]

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber



http://pdbooks.ca/books/english/aut...stories/part-one/the-short-happy-life-of.html

 

[Darwin333]

Just to preface this thread, I don't have a problem with "Atheist Churches", especially being a religious guy myself, I can see the benefits, no doubt

But what I have taken issue with is the ignorant hypocrisy as atheists generally seem to hate everything about religion, but they are stealing the "best bits" (oh, the irony) except for God with these new Churches:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/atheist-church-sunday-assembly-opens-in-35-more-towns-127190/

On their official site, them seem to be targeting the socially isolated, lonely, and likely ex-religious cast-offs.

http://sundayassembly.com/blog/2014...oubles-in-size-in-one-day-assembleeverywhere/

Now religion is generally castigated for playing on the emotionally weak and exploiting people, and now some atheists seem to smell the money and are doing the same thing.

:sneaky:

Fuck yeah! Its about damn time, I want me some fucking tax exempt too! Can I turn my house into a church???

 

[fridgers]

I have one question. To you, why is Catholicism the "correct" religion and Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are not?

 

[IronWing]

I have one question. To you, why is Catholicism the "correct" religion and Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are not?

Because, in this case, Catholics defined "correct". If you wish for something different then make up your own definitions.

 

[Darwin333]

hahahaa yeah, nice try..just admit it -- Atheism is a now officially a religion by any stretched definition....too funny!!

You got it.

Since you agree that Atheism is a religion you also agree that we should enjoy the same tax exempt status as other religions, unless of course you think no religion should be tax exempt, right?

I sure appreciate your vote!

 

[Darwin333]

Because, in this case, Catholics defined "correct". If you wish for something different then make up your own definitions.

No.

It's a fundamental necessity of "faith" and "belief" to believe that your version of shit is correct and if your version of shit is correct than someone else's different version of shit can't possibly be correct and as such those heathen bastards are going to hell while you enjoy the eternal bliss of heaven with your "merciful" creator.

 

[Darwin333]

There is no such thing as an Atheist "church." In order to for it to be a "church" you have to have an imaginary person you worship. This is an Atheist "club" at the most. If they use "church" to describe their organization, it is most likely to thumb their nose at religion basically saying, "see, I can be tax exempt too just by using a stupid word." Atheists tend to do thing like this to troll religious morons. They're probably laughing thinking people are taking them seriously.

And LOL at the "christianpost." It's like a nutjob honeypot attracting other nutjobs.

Dude, hush up. I want me some fucking tax exempt too! You can even come over on Sunday for some tax payer funded (via me, as the preacher, no longer paying much in taxes) BBQ and we can, ummm, worship the holy TV with the sacramental football game on. All forms of alcohol are considered sacred and at least one form must be consumed during the entire procession.

Any other rules you guys can think of?