I no longer consider myself a christian

[ctark]

so?? You want a medal or some kind of recognition??

Yes, because you probably got a metal for telling us that your whisky arrived.

http://forums.anandtech.com/search.php?searchid=2593399

Or that time you just had to tell us that you were sending your Iphone back

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2404570&highlight=

Or that time you told us about your Dell XPS

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2350632&highlight=


The point is that this is a discussion forum. Coming in here replying the way you did just shows you had nothing intelligent to say and that you just wanted to fire a shot and back out of a thread. You are the worst kind of poster.

 

[nakedfrog]

I've been told repeatedly that I'm the worst kind of poster! I'll be damned if I'm just going to sit here and let you defame me like that, you son-of-a-bitch!

 

[ctark]

I've been told repeatedly that I'm the worst kind of poster! I'll be damned if I'm just going to sit here and let you defame me like that, you son-of-a-bitch!

But aren't you just sitting there letting me do it anyways?

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm not just sitting here. I'm hurling invectives pointlessly.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I thought this was the worst kind of poster:

 

[WelshBloke]

I thought this was the worst kind of poster:

That is a pretty crappy poster it's got to be said.

 

[Ricochet]

I think its beyond doubt that atheists are atheists for purely emotional reasons.

Nope. Majority just lack belief. Everyone was at least at one point an atheist. Later they become molded, taught, trained, indoctrinated, and etc.

 

[Ricochet]

The majority are sheeple and atheist, such as yourself. This is why society is going to shit, lack of morals and thinking man is God (ego). You just moved to DC, you'll see sooner or later about this area.

I would suggest reading the Bible if you want to be different than the masses and better your life spiritually. While we're at it, it's also good to get off the keyboard and hit a gym instead of sitting behind a screen 8 hours a day straight. It stimulates the spirit (speaking personally here).

You couldn't be more wrong. The majority of people belong to some sort of religion. Atheists make up such a low percentage.

I use to be a Christian and think like you. It is an extremely limited world view. Try talking to someone who has never had Western influence. The concept of Jesus is completely foreign to them. They'll swear up and down that the only way spiritually is by way of Buddha or some other deity. They are no more right or wrong than you. It's all just faith.

As already discussed, morality existed long before Christianity came to being. In fact Christian morality had to evolve over time to "fit" modern progressive moment. Slavery and sexism are very common in the Bible. Modern Christian apologists have done a tremendous job in distancing themselves from past Christian slave owners and ignore parts in the Bible that limit women role. In fact, they are so good that they have convinced believers that Christian morality all along were instrumental in giving blacks and women the freedom they deserve. Never mind the hard fought victories afforded by those groups.

I would not be surprised if 20 years from now, Christians will take the stance that marriage equality for gays is inherent in god's will and that past Christians did not interpret the Bible correctly. The apologists are so good at taking the high road, Christians will eat it up and declare that it is part of their moral all along.

It is comforting to know that Christian morally had to follow the ideals of secular humanists to bring itself to the modern era. One day it will accept gay rights because in the end it is the right thing to do. Humanity is better for it.

As to reading the Bible, that would be a message I would give all Christians. So many Christians don't even know what's in their own Bible but continue to ask others to. This Bible illiteracy among the Christians is like a paradox. Hey, how did you get past the stories about Noah's Ark, Tower of Babel, Sodom & Gomorrah, Samson & Delilah, and Moses plight when applying any common sense (nevermind about scientific accuracy)? How did one of the most ingenious race (Jewish) get lost in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years with god by their side? FORTY YEARS! Why does god hate foreskin so much? How do you read all those stories, with a straight face, ask others to believe as you do?

 

[Retro Rob]

Nope. Majority just lack belief. Everyone was at least at one point an atheist. Later they become molded, taught, trained, indoctrinated, and etc.

LOL - most atheists lament the fact that there is "suffering" in the world, and because of that, they stop believing.

This is coupled with the FACT that people like GagHalfrunt totally and utterly lose their shit when believers espouse their faith God, simply because they see the world through a different set of eyes.

Yeah, its emotional...mostly.

 

[sandorski]

LOL - most atheists lament the fact that there is "suffering" in the world, and because of that, they stop believing.

This is coupled with the FACT that people like GagHalfrunt totally and utterly lose their shit when believers espouse their faith God, simply because they see the world through a different set of eyes.

Yeah, its emotional...mostly.

ok

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I think its beyond doubt that atheists are atheists for purely emotional reasons.

Completely bassackwards. Atheists are atheists for purely rational reasons. When you have a group of people who believe in unicorns and another group who says they refuse to believe in unicorns until someone, somewhere produces even a tiny iota of evidence to support the existence of unicorns, any reasonable person will look at one of those two groups as being completely batshit insane and the other as being properly discerning. You can go on believing in unicorns all you want, but it's sad and pathetic to chalk up disbelief in them to anything other than intelligence.

If you had even the slightest ability to use doubt properly you'd direct it at the invisible man in the sky.

 

[IronWing]

LOL - most atheists lament the fact that there is "suffering" in the world, and because of that, they stop believing.

This is coupled with the FACT that people like GagHalfrunt totally and utterly lose their shit when believers espouse their faith God, simply because they see the world through a different set of eyes.

Yeah, its emotional...mostly.

To stop believing one had to have believed in the first place.

Also, the atheists ain't the ones getting butt hurt because others fail to acknowledge the wonderfulness of their sock puppets.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

To stop believing one had to have believed in the first place.

Also, the atheists ain't the ones getting butt hurt because others fail to acknowledge the wonderfulness of their sock puppets.

Obey your noodly sock puppet!

 

[GagHalfrunt]

As to reading the Bible, that would be a message I would give all Christians. So many Christians don't even know what's in their own Bible but continue to ask others to. This Bible illiteracy among the Christians is like a paradox. Hey, how did you get past the stories about Noah's Ark, Tower of Babel, Sodom & Gomorrah, Samson & Delilah, and Moses plight when applying any common sense (nevermind about scientific accuracy)? How did one of the most ingenious race (Jewish) get lost in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years with god by their side? FORTY YEARS! Why does god hate foreskin so much? How do you read all those stories, with a straight face, ask others to believe as you do?

Christians almost have to be ignorant of the bible that's the only way to remain a Christian. If you actually read that nonsense and saw what a giant douche the Christian god is purported to be you'd go running in the other direction. I personally think a person should not be allowed to be a Christian unless they're willing to live by what the bible says. Nobody actually lives by the bible, nobody could. It's immoral, repugnant and a whole lot of it is illegal.

And that's what makes the wannabelievers so angry. The atheists are better educated on Christianity than the Christians themselves are. That's how so many of us became atheists, we became educated on Christianity and we got the hell out of Dodge.

 

[Charmonium]

Christians almost have to be ignorant of the bible that's the only way to remain a Christian. If you actually read that nonsense and saw what a giant douche the Christian god is purported to be you'd go running in the other direction. I personally think a person should not be allowed to be a Christian unless they're willing to live by what the bible says. Nobody actually lives by the bible, nobody could. It's immoral, repugnant and a whole lot of it is illegal.

And that's what makes the wannabelievers so angry. The atheists are better educated on Christianity than the Christians themselves are. That's how so many of us became atheists, we became educated on Christianity and we got the hell out of Dodge.

I definitely agree but I would add that the only people who are really a problem are the fundamentalists. To spell that out, meaning people who think the bible is divinely inspired and unerring from Genesis to Revelation AND has to be taken literally.

Most people who would self-identify as Christian don't believe that, especially the second point. The 'taken literally' camp is a very small minority of Christian sects. They just tend to get the most attention because they believe that they have the duty to proselytize. Well that and they're usually just so fucking stupid.

But I want to highlight the comment about studying the religion. I started out in a fundamentalist church and it only took a couple of months before I realized that any questions about the validity of the texts wouldn't be tolerated. So I blew those assholes off but still considered myself Christian and wanted to learn more about it so I took as many religion courses as I could in college which included other world religions. I finally came to realize that there was no reason for me to favor Christianity over say Taoism or Islam. But in the process I learned much more about the history and even archeology of the bible than the vast majority of fundies will never know or understand.

 

[IronWing]

Obey your noodly sock puppet!

That's some serious trolling, that is. I like it. :biggrin:

 

[disappoint]

We have a Mormon-run thrift store in town. It is a really good thrift store, clean and orderly. Anyway the CD section is all Contemporary Christian music, nothing else. Now, w/o out any evidence to back it up, I choose to believe that Mormons listen a lot more types of music than that, yet I see no death metal, no rap, no blues, etc. Which makes me wonder: do the folks donating stuff to the store not donate their Slayer CDs or does the store dispose of the donated CDs in a fashion other than selling them in their store? I suppose the music that doesn't suck as bad as Contemporary Christian might simply sell out, and the Contemporary Christian just gets Left Behind, get it?. But there is a lot of music that sucks that isn't Contemporary Christian so I'm guessing it gets screened before being put on the shelves.

They burn those CDs in effigy to their God of magical underpants.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Yes, because you probably got a metal for telling us that your whisky arrived.

http://forums.anandtech.com/search.php?searchid=2593399

Or that time you just had to tell us that you were sending your Iphone back

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthre...570&highlight=

Or that time you told us about your Dell XPS

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthre...632&highlight=

sorry to inform you there are no medals! But hey maybe Cerpin can give you a medal.....stranger things have happened!!

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Pray tell, what other institution teaches morality in our modern society? Answer: Nothing. Open your eyes, e.g. turn on the radio. Outside of Christian, where is there uplifting music? Rap, no way. Rock, no way. Pop? No way, it is advocating excessive sin. Country? Sometimes, but that is because the majority of its listeners are Christian.

Pop TV: What shows are uplifting? Nothing (outside of cartoons/children's programming), because a "good" story has to comprise of sin nowadays (e.g. murder, addiction, lying, greed, cheating, stealing). Conflict is what society deems a "critically acclaimed" show like Breaking Bad or The Wire. And in order to have conflict nowadays you have to have sin.

Open your eyes. Your kids (if you have any) are going to be brainwashed by sin which is pumped through every public channel available. It is inescapable. In order to balance it, Church is necessary and I'm not talking about exclusively Christian. Future generations of kids are becoming more and more negative and it's because their parents never balanced out negativity with wholesome spirituality in their own lives. When we are constantly bombarded with negativity, it will have a cumulative effect to self destruction. We as a society are becoming more addicted to [insert sin here] with no plan to mitigate it until self destruction and rock bottom are hit. For example, porn destroying a marriage until irreparable damage is done. Eating like shit and never exercising until your doctor tells you that you're lucky to survive a heart attack. Drug overdoses. Assaulting someone because it's ok to always "express how you feel".

Once you hit rock bottom, only then are you willing to change. For some of us, that is how God planned their lives. However, being vigilant of sin and avoiding it by balancing it with the pureness of Church is necessary. Notice how much better you feel after going to Church. That feeling isn't going to be found in other institutions in our society, it is the last bastion of morals in our crumbling nothing-is-immoral and everything-is-ok-if-you-feel-that-way society. We cannot even fully blame our kids for their destruction because we partly did it to them via apathy.

I don't care how much you squat, you're a fucking pussy.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I don't care how much you squat, you're a fucking pussy.

Can`t you just feel the Love??? Eww something is permeating and it is not Love.......

 

[WelshBloke]

Pray tell, what other institution teaches morality in our modern society? Answer: Nothing. Open your eyes, e.g. turn on the radio. Outside of Christian, where is there uplifting music? Rap, no way. Rock, no way. Pop? No way, it is advocating excessive sin. Country? Sometimes, but that is because the majority of its listeners are Christian.

Pop TV: What shows are uplifting? Nothing (outside of cartoons/children's programming), because a "good" story has to comprise of sin nowadays (e.g. murder, addiction, lying, greed, cheating, stealing). Conflict is what society deems a "critically acclaimed" show like Breaking Bad or The Wire. And in order to have conflict nowadays you have to have sin.

Open your eyes. Your kids (if you have any) are going to be brainwashed by sin which is pumped through every public channel available. It is inescapable. In order to balance it, Church is necessary and I'm not talking about exclusively Christian. Future generations of kids are becoming more and more negative and it's because their parents never balanced out negativity with wholesome spirituality in their own lives. When we are constantly bombarded with negativity, it will have a cumulative effect to self destruction. We as a society are becoming more addicted to [insert sin here] with no plan to mitigate it until self destruction and rock bottom are hit. For example, porn destroying a marriage until irreparable damage is done. Eating like shit and never exercising until your doctor tells you that you're lucky to survive a heart attack. Drug overdoses. Assaulting someone because it's ok to always "express how you feel".

Once you hit rock bottom, only then are you willing to change. For some of us, that is how God planned their lives. However, being vigilant of sin and avoiding it by balancing it with the pureness of Church is necessary. Notice how much better you feel after going to Church. That feeling isn't going to be found in other institutions in our society, it is the last bastion of morals in our crumbling nothing-is-immoral and everything-is-ok-if-you-feel-that-way society. We cannot even fully blame our kids for their destruction because we partly did it to them via apathy.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Belief is so often the death of reason.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Belief is so often the death of reason.

I thought faith was the death of all reason....

 

[ctark]

sorry to inform you there are no medals! But hey maybe Cerpin can give you a medal.....stranger things have happened!!

I dont need one. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Christians almost have to be ignorant of the bible that's the only way to remain a Christian.

If your argument is "you have to be dumb/ignorant to believe in Jesus" then consider this:

I'm not the smartest or most well educated person, but i'm not dumb or ignorant of the bible. It's just that after every period of reflection I come back to this conclusion:

Loving God helps me love my fellow man; Believing in Jesus helps me love God.

I make no other claims: For me, that my mind works this way is enough.

GH: Can we agree that we should intelligently consider the 'opportunity costs' associated with whatever we believe; and choose that which helps us be the best possible person?