The last straw for Christianity

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 7, 2018:

Christianity will probably hang on for longer than most religions because A you don't have to believe in Christianity to be a Christian B you don't have to understand Christianity to be a Christian C Most people who call themselves Christians aren't, they've just been told they are D You don't have to practice Christianity to be a Christian E You don't have to read, understand or even own a bible to be a bible believing Christian F You can believe Jesus Christ is a swear word and still worship him G you can have the choice of about 15 hundred different denominations so long as you hate all of the others, and the football teams associated with them H You know you're not a Jew or a Muslim if you identify as some sort of Christian. I you only have to go to church a minimum of three times in your entire life and two of those you won't remember. So it is pretty simple for the Christian church to keep and claim the support of a large (if inactive) membership

I am not sure where to post this as it covers several possibilities (sorry, Meme peeps!).

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 7, 2018:

"She's television generation. She learned life from Bugs Bunny. The only reality she knows comes to her through the television set.” Paddy Chayefsky

Board Games

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

I play a little known chinese version of Chess, called Shing Shang, the main problem is I have to teach people to play first.

It's A Matter Of Perspective.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

Mmmm and of course

Did they get you?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

Jacque Deride suggests that any text can be deconstructed in any way you please, that the perceived meaning by the reader may not necessarily be the same as the intent of the author. Taking the idea that a book is necessarily about what a critic has told you it is about is a dangerous idea. For example it is possible to put forward the argument that the 4 gospels are simply allegorical texts meant to tell the story of Horus in another form and is in fact Egyptian propaganda for a pagan god. Best to read something for yourself, take from it what you please and reject what does not please you. No one tricked you, all texts have intentional and unintentional sub texts because writers are human and have conscious and subconscious minds at work when practicing their craft.

What is your favorite campy sci-fi movie? For me it's "The Fifth Element."

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

The Time Travelers (a.k.a. Time Trap) 1964 Wonderful sci-fi nonsence, that hired magicians to do the special effects to great effect and though cheesy in it self was highly influencal for movies that came after it.

Explain, that if the Earth, A.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

Acrording to the Godbotherers I have discussed this with God created the universe 6000 years ago with stars 1.93 billion light years with the light from them alreadybridging the 1.93 billion light years gap minus the last 6000 light years worth. So yeah.... obvious isn't it, really if God is a total w*nker

What I think when I hear it....

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

Yup

Makes A Change From Priests

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

Yes and no one is going to tell me no one in the church never noticed this

Freedom of religion

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 6, 2018:

It is an odd thing that freedom of religion is often used as an excuse for the freedom to break secular laws, the freedom to be a bigot, the freedom to hate and condemn to hell and the freedom to define what actually constitutes a "proper" religion as opposed to a cult, sect or a pagan. Especially by Christians, who will also be happy to tell you how no end of other Christians are not Christians at all and so should not have the freedom of religion to call themselves such. It pretty much boils down to freedom of religion is the freedom to agree with whoever is expressing it.

What is better than sex?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Genuine applause from an appreciative audience

Does it make you angry when someone gives all the credit to god for healing the ailing instead of ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Cauws GAwd don't giv them thur desises that there is the Divel workz, Gawd oni kurz 'em, lessen ov cours, them aziz srferin is a gawdamm athist, then its deevine wrath!

Does it make you angry when someone gives all the credit to god for healing the ailing instead of ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

I'm so sure it would comfort these same people after an accident to hear a voice crying "Let me through I'm a faith healer"

Where did the "GoldenRule" come from?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

There are at least three golden rules in the bible, and several more in secualr life.

I'm sure this has been talked about before, but I always find it fascinating when someone considers...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Perhaps because outside of the Jewish faith most people consider Judaism a religion and nothing else, therefore a Jewish atheist is to most people like meat eating vegetarians or insisting on referring to your cat as "dog". In all other religions, it is impossibility to refer to yourself as such, and to most non Jews, the idea of a Jewish atheist is simply a ludicrous oxymoron.

My ex has started taking my 7 year old son to a baptist church.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

If you have sole custody just tell him you don't want your sin indoctrinated and if acess is at your discretion don't give it at those times. Acess is for father and child to know each other, not for him to pass off care to someone else, if he is not going to spend quality time with his son, what is the point?

Mormon church uses criminal record and church disciplinary record of a rape victim to smear her, ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Just shows you how despicable an organisation the LDS are. Victim blaming, lying and threats for the purpose of preserving the "good name" of the church at all costs is their sole (soul?) motivation.

Anybody else besides me who is now addicted to this site?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Agree, I've only been here a few days, there is always something interesting going on some where and it is not full of overly sensitive mormons and sjws reporting everything as offensive or a violation of "be nice, be considerate" (or some such BS) idiotic policies.

Good news.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

ask for lansoprazole instead of Ranitidine, it works better and has none of the side effects, I've been on it for years

Be nice.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Dumb and stupid is as dumb and stupid does. I will never respect dumb and stupid, but if I point out dumb stupid behaviour or comments and a reasoned arguement proves me wrong I will appologise for my mistake. That is conversation. However if I point out dumb stupid behaviour or comments and an even dumber and more stupid comment comes back, I will laugh and move on, do do otherwise is not a conversation, it is one sided blood sports. But then again if I point out dumb stupid behaviour or comments and am censored for it, I will get cross because that is not conversation that is totalitarianism.

Is it wrong for me to take pleasure in trolling fundies.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

No, it is one of the pleasures of life to allow arrogant aholes enough space to disappear up themselves.

Can anyone think of a good disclaimer or warning label for the Bible and other religious texts?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

I use this

Should athiest really be saying 'rest in peace'

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

It's a tradition nothing more, and it saves a lot of agro at funerals

What does it take to quiet your mind?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Camomile and honey tea, a fun movie and the company of my family (including my two dogs) Works every time

Douglas Adams: “Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy states: "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that presents the difficulties."

So.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Unless she is a supermodel millionaire who owns a chain of breweries..... why are you dating this thicko?

Do you believe Atheism is a religion?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Please bear in mind that these same people asserting that atheism is a religion seriously believe that they have a friend in the sky who loves everybody but will burn them forever if they don't love him back and that they have an enemy under the ground who does the burning for the man in sky and comes to you at night and whispers in your ear to fiddle with your naughty bits, so that he can burn you for ever. I am afraid giving serious credence to alternate the definitions of words given by people who believe this stuff is a tad difficult and more than a tad unwise.

To many folks on here faith is a dirty word.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

To many folks on here faith is a dirty word. *Only in it's theological context, as a simile for fidelity or trust I have no problems with it* It has no place for rational folks who make choices based on evidence. *Again only when speaking in a theological sense* We don’t want to admit that we don’t know something which acknowledging faith implies. *I'm sorry but that sentence makes no sense at all, I will gladly admit when I don't know something, but how can I not know something that acknowledging a belief that not knowing something but believing it anyway implies, other than my being a gullible idiot?* The truth is that no one really knows. *No one really knows what?* My journey to atheism has helped me realize that atheism requires faith. ***WTF??????** This is a joke right?* After all, the evidence has to be interpreted and is subject to human bias. *What evidence for what? And how can facts and evidence be subject to interpretation, they are either facts or they are not, that is the definition of fact.* If we’re honest, we simply can’t say that we know god doesn’t exist. *Obviously, only an idiot would say that, what we do know id that there is no evidence for the existence of God whatsoever, there the most local default position is to assume god does not exist until proven otherwise. * I agree with many, if not most of you on here, that the evidence suggests that there is no god. *NO IT DOES NOT, the LACK of evidence suggests there are**** no god(s)* But, again, that’s subject to our human frailties no matter how smart we are. *Oh for F*** sake!!!! I have faith in science, ***NO YOU DON'T YOU HAVE EVIDENCE ** faith is belief without facts, why are you saying these things please? that it will continue to be proven wrong and expand human knowledge, but as a skeptic I will not only question the claims of religion et. al, ***et. al???? I give up*** but the claims of science and my own understanding of everything. *Okay seriously, I surrender *

I can't help but wonder: if Jesus was God, then why did he preach the usual vague stuff about being ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

IF.... being the operative word IF Jesus was God IF Jesus had divine knowledge IF Jesus ever actually existed at all "If ifs and buts were fruit and nuts," as my granny used to say, "We would all have chronic diarrhoea "

I'm always kind of in shock when there is a fire, a school shooting, a plane crash, and there are a ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 5, 2018:

Oh yeah, something good happens it is because he is good, all merciful, all powerful all wise and above all the protector of mankind. Something bad happens and it is because God has a plan, we just don't understand it, we must not presume to know the will of God, his ways are not our ways, have faith God knows what he is doing. I call BS.

Ex Mormons?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

My advice, stay away from them, my story is too long to write in one go here, but sufice to say, it is a cult that suckers you in, feeds you little lies, makes you not only accept them by commit to accepting them, so that as the lies get bigger and bigger, you feel more and more trapped by commitment, financial investment, time invested and social obligation. Very easy to get in, very difficult to get out, mentally scaring and distructive, emotionally devastating and socially regressive. Message me if you want to discuss it further.

Calling ex Mormons...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

You need to know this, a Mormon on a mission is not in a rational frame of mind, and they are living a cult existence. They have been primed for this for years, by family, church and friends, they actually believe they are doing gods work and have paid A LOT of money to be there. They are living in a regime were they are never allowed to be alone, compulsory prayer and study of the Book of Mormon for up to six hours a day. Enforced sleeping times, waking times and constant observation and observing for signs of "sin" in yourself and others. Food is limited and the best way to get a good meal is to find "investigators" and have them invite you to eat. You are cut off from home and family, you may call home on Christmas day and on mothers day and that is it, you may not even go home for family funerals. In may cases your passport will be taken away for "safe keeping" and will not be returned to you even if you ask for it as you "will not need it" until your mission is over. Being sent home from a mission is a life long disgrace and stigma, comparable to a dishonourable discharge, and asking to go home early is like going AWOL. You are subject to regular meetings and interrogations as to progress, made to feel a failure even if you are doing better than anyone else in the mission. Questioned about your personal habits, including masturbation and those of your companion, they will go so far as to examine your bed sheets for signs of playing with your "little factory" a term coined by new deceased perverts in chief Elder Boyd K Packer and Mark E. Peterson (who actually recommended tying your own hand to the bedpost to avoid temptation), or worse for signs of "Same Sex Attraction" Mormons do not believe there is any such thing as homosexuality just the life style choice of SSA see the words of bigot in chief Elder David A. Bednar. So no you are not going to get through to these kids while they are doing this, but as you say sow a seed or two that none LDS are not all drunken, debauched damned souls, because the two highest male demographics for leaving the church are returned missionaries who once recovered realise who awful their mission actually was and surprisingly former Mormon Bishops.

I’m astounded.

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

What ever it is you found out, that won't be all of it. The depth to which Mormon lunacy stoops is never ending. Just when you think, this cannot get any dafter, you hear about or learn of another doctrine of the LDS church that leaves you open mouthed, stammering in disbelief and awe at the level of cognitive dissonance that is needed to stay faithful to this crap.

Any ex Mormons on here? I feel like venting about GC...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

Go ahead, I loath the LDS, regret every moment I spent as one of them and am still haunted by the guilt for those I converted in the the cult of Joseph's myth.

Paranormal Experiences?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

Since the word supernatural means literally "Above nature" or with a little leeway "outside of nature" I do not use it. If something happens it is within nature and its boundaries, that is simple logic, whether or not it can be explained yet, is another matter. The many worlds hypothesis is a legitimate part of the study of quantum physics, that as yet beyond proof or testing but is an interesting idea. The human brain and its psychological capabilities are forever being investigated and the effects it can under various circumstance produce in the body of the possessor or sometimes even in others are beginning to explain much of what has been thought of as magic for centuries. However none of this means obviously imaginary things like gods, souls etc (at least in the Judeo Christian sense) exist nor frankly offer any hope of them being real, it does however demonstrate that there is a lot of knowledge and intrigue left in the universe and in the human condition especially. I find that much more interesting and exciting than getting on my knees and asking an invisible man with a beard in the sky to keep my knackered old car running for another week.

Anyone here read the DUNE series of books by Frank Herbert?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

It was really annoying that George Lucas managed to get away with stealing so much of these books for Star wars that the film version had to practically invent a new subplot, to fill in the blanks and still got accused of "ripping off" Star wars.

Anyone here read the DUNE series of books by Frank Herbert?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 4, 2018:

Yes a long time fan of Herbert and as you say the Bene Gesserit (Latin for "Sucess to come" it's also a latin anagram pun for great Tigress) and their long game statergy is genius writing.

are you afraid of death?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

No, knowing that life will eventually end is a comfort and a motivator not to waste the time I have.

Active Mormon To Agnostic

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

The great favour that the LDS did me was in getting out I learned how to view religion objectively, learned how to argue on their own terms and discovered just how deep the brain washing goes. Consequently once on the road to recovery from Mormonism I began viewing and investigating religion as a whole in the same way, and in the same way I found it wanting. What Joseph's myth did was nothing new. Nor was how he did it was not new and why he did it was the least original of all, he wanted money and power. Every cult leader has done the same thing for the same reasons since the day when Ugg the first woke up one day and realised all the other Ugs and Ugweenas were dumber than he was and would believe any rubbish he cared to tell them. Ugg 1.0 then changed his name to Father Ugg stuck his head in his hat and said the sun had spoken to him through a holy stone, and told him that unless the tribe started giving him 10% of the Sabre Tooth tiger meat and first crack at all the virgins, it would stop shining on them and make the winter come early. Some like Arg laughed at him. Of course when winter did come Father Ugg was being buried in more virgins and dino meat than he could cope with, and Arg was being burned alive for angering the sun. Eventually Ugg told them they were forgiven and the sun might come back in a week or so, if they continued to be "good". We maybe today's versions of Arg, but thanks to secular law and the internet the Uggs cannot burn us or shame us or lie to us anymore, much as they might want to, which is why the days of formal religion are numbered and people are leaving the LDS in a tidal wave of disgust and awakening reason. Good luck and welcome to the real world.

I'm so tired of getting trolled on this site, that I'm going to post stuff that is sure to upset the...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

I fully appreciate where you are coming from. I like you believe there are things, as yet, inexplicable by he standards of the modern world. This does not however connote a belief in the supernatural, magical or religious phenomena to which these things are often subject as an "explanation". A prime example is the so called "Aura" given off by living things, something dismissed as nonsense for many years, but now under spectrographic photography proven to exist as an electromagnetic field generated by the functioning of the body. We now know some people do have an ability to "see" this field in the same way a spectrograph does, proving perhaps a genetic mutational ability in some or the conversely proving that an ability we all had at some time is being evolved away as unnecessary. Remember that schizophrenia was seen as metaphysical phenomena, or possession by demons until it was explained psychologically, the fact it was explained did not alter the fact that it existed; it merely had a different and more rational cause than was previously thought. I personally have no belief in an after life, but I do believe in ghosts, my theory being they are a form of mental imprint stored in media such as bricks or glass, either as an image, sound, smell or an emotional "feeling" and able to be played back to receptive individuals in the same way as a radio broadcast can be received by a correctly tuned radio receiver. (This idea is not original to me, it was first expounded by Victorian Metaphysician Elliot O'Donnell and then later expanded on by writer Nigel Neil). I hope I have reassured you that we are not all trolls, but that some who may not agree with your terminology still understand and share in your investigationary processes as regarding the wonders nature still has to reveal to us.

Is there a synthesis between science and religion/spirituality that conserves intellectual honesty?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

No, it is an impossibility. Science is the uninhibited search for verifiable facts by means of investigation, observation and testing. It makes no claim as truth, is open to evidential persuasion and falsification, it is an ever expanding body of knowledge, finding and embracing answers where they lay until such time as they may be superseded. Religion/spirituality begins with assumptions and presuppositions and seeks proof for them, disregarding and even suppressing evidence and facts that contradict them on the grounds that contradiction is a sign of falsity since truth is already known and cannot be falsified but must be accepted on faith. There is no middle ground, there is no commonality of interest, the first is progressive the latter regressive.

Forest for the trees

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

Not really, it is my experience that gestalt phenomena do not last, they quickly devolve in to an -cracy of one kind or another at best, or in to a cult of popularity at worst, in either case ceasing to be a true gestalt where the whole is greater than the sum of participating parts and instead becomes a collective conformity under the insistent or forceful guidance of a small cabal for the furtherance of their own objectives and a lie of the collective good. I value my individuality too much for that.

What is ethics? Doing the honest thing inspite of the consequences?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

Your personal ethics are the system of rules you apply to your life in order to gaurentee the maximum amount of well being for yourself and others about you and the minimum of harm. Professional ethics are the rules governing a particular form of work that protects the practioners, clients and overall regard for that form of work. Social ethics are the rules of a society, usually enacted as laws, that are supposed to govern and provide for the well being an reputation of a social system or ideology and those participating in it. Unfortuately political and economic ideologies have replaced ethics as the governing factors in many western society, most professions and for more and more indiviuals as wealth has largely become the accepted measure of well being.

I'm poor. I don't want to die ever. Please advise?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

Poverty can be overcome Death is an inevitablity Consider one a sporting challenge and accept the other as the finish line.

Should religion be taught in schools?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

We do not politically indoctrinate children and rightly despise regimes that do so, this does not mean that we do not teach about the existence of political philosophies and ideologies in school nor do we discourage the voluntary study of them in personal time when of an age to fully comprehend it. By the same token... The existence of religions in the world and their effect upon it historically and socially should be taught in school, since it is factual and pertinent, however the practice, doctrines observance and proselyting of religions has no place in educational establishments. Churches are the place for such study if it is desired, by adults or those of a mature enough disposition to comprehend it.

Proof of no god?

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

*I consider atheism to be a religion* That is your right, but is obviously and demonstrably based on a different definition to any theological, etymological or lexicographical definition in current common parlence. * just as Christianity* No, atheism is nothing like Christianity, it has no founder, doctrines, dogmas holy books or promises dependent upon adherence. *because it states unequivocally that there is no god,* Incorrect, the definition of the word atheism is the lack of a theological concept of a deity, nothing else. * just as Christianity insists there is a god. * Christianity acknowledges one a particular god to the exclusion of all others. As far as all other deities Christianity is as atheist as the most ardent of none believers in all gods. Christianity is the title for a form of atheism with a solitary exception. *I would like to know the scientific proof that there is no god; * The scientific method is used to establish, the true nature of an object, method or phenomena, their form of existence effect and purpose or use. You can't establish the non-existence of anything; you can only construe non-existence by a lack of evidence, effect and/or perception until such time as one or more of these assumptions is proven incorrect. *otherwise, I remain a skeptic and an agnostic waiting for proof one way or the other.* Your choice of scepticism is admirable, however your reason for simply not accepting the default position non-belief indicates an underlying tendency toward theism rather than agnosticism. Your initial post is therefore flawed and unanswerable

The Case Against Free Will - YouTube

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

I am a big fan of Alex, his is clearly brilliant mind but this time he is way off and frankly is showing his immaturity. He first chooses an over simplified definition of freewill and then defines that definition as being to subject only to want or force. However "want" is not the same as a desire, which is contrary to the use implied here as it can mean both a need and a/or a desire and both of those can be broken down further to a needed desire, a desired need, a hedonistic desire and a necessary need. A need can be define by physiological evidence. In some cases a need is necessary for daily survival, but still can be chosen to be ignored, as in the case of a hunger striker or a person fasting. A desire can be traced back to either a subconscious need or desire for pleasure or for the avoidance of suffering, and so too are traceable back to an evolved psychological survival traits, that can when required be over come for religious, political or survival reasons, often in direct defiance of nature, logic and reason for motivations only of import to the individual carrying them out. So since it is fundamental to Alex' contention that "wants" cannot be defined as to their origin claiming wants are untraceable is clearly fallacious' this is clearly a presupposition on his part. If I can identify the removal of something, that thing must exist in order for me to be aware of its absence. If free will is the ability to have acted differently And I recognise force as a denial of the ability to have acted differently I must have a recognition of the ability to have acted differently and of its removal from me. and as no one and no thing forced me to write this or post it ...Free will

For those who have not heard about this site, check out Atheist Republic for some interesting and ...

LenHazell53 comments on Apr 2, 2018:

Love atheist republic, great site, also on facebook