Your Bic has forsaken you.

FTFA: Alexander M. Huppert, a freshman university studies major

What's a university studies major..... do they study universities?

Always a bummer when the schizo fires up in the kiddies.

Arthur Jumbles: FTFA: Alexander M. Huppert, a freshman university studies major

What's a university studies major..... do they study universities?

Someone needs to check his computer for a Richard McBeef sequel.

Theaetetus: A for effort, E for execution. So we'll give it a C.

And what does Jesus's last name start with?

Bam, there's your proof.

The "use" of "quotes" throughout the "article" was "commendable."
Thank "GOD" for those "brave" and "courageous" people that "saved" everyone from that "pen-wielding" *hic* "drunk" *hic* freshman

Atheist groups are weird.

Religion is a community. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Daoists, Wiccans; they all have provisions in their religions that create an organization of other members. In the monotheistic religions, their clergy are the voice of god on Earth. In the non-theistic religions like Buddhism, the community is seen as nessecary to provide the ideal environment for study of the religious principles so you can get deeper quicker and without wasting years and decades like the Buddha did.

But atheism merely requires you do nothing. And not all atheists are atheists for the same reason. Some approach it from a position of educated wisdom, but many more approach it out of reactionary ignorance. The whole "Prove god exists and I'll believe." doesn't work when you don't actually go take a look at the proof which is found in certain religious practices. Oh, but wait, that takes physical and mental discipline to actually accomplish the proper depth of meditation so I'll just ignore 10,000s of years of indirect evidence of something important being here and just call it a life.

If you've actually taken the time, put in the sweat, touched the divine and still decided you do not believe that there's anything worthwhile to religion that's a commendable choice on your part, but STILL the group confuses me. You deny something for various reasons, so you don't care about it at all. It shouldn't even be a part of your life. Why waste time with declaring how much you don't believe in something with a bunch of people who feel the same way? Go play a sport or have another beer or something.

It would be like a group of people who were blind from birth getting together to discuss how they don't like the color of rooms in houses they've never been in or heard anyone describe to them.

imfreakinoutman.jpg

kitryne: How in the hell does a stab wound in the hand prove or disprove anything except what a dicknut you are?

It can prove that you're a total badass, but I don't think the god you would be proving would be the Christian one.

More like Tyr or Thor or Odin. I think berserks were said to have Odin's battle rage. If you are frothing at the mouth and fire cannot harm you and then you stab yourself in the hand, you might just be one of the faithful.

doglover: If you've actually taken the time, put in the sweat, touched the divine

How do you touch the divine if you don't believe in the divine? Unless you meant "divan," in which case, I've done that. I was unimpressed. It was comfy and all, but that's about it.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: If you spend your time in an atheist group talking about how much you love being an atheist and setting up tables to convert other people to atheism then for that person, atheism is a religion.

And a boring one at that! Seriously, would you rather party with the dudes who say "Our god is the god of wine. For him, AN ORGY!" or the guys who say "There's nothing but what physics already knows to life. Nothing. Yep. Still nothing."

Did he use a Bic Biro, Waterman 400 or a Montblanc 149? To really show proof of God he should have gone for a Namiki Emperor, it leaves a bigger hole.

Remember that time when Ashton Kutcher was in prison and he told his cellmate that he was Jesus? Then he went back in time and stabbed his hands in elementary school and when he came back to prison the religious guy believed him?

This is like that.

RodneyToady: How do you touch the divine if you don't believe in the divine?

A fair point. You put aside your childish beliefs in a magic sky jew and your adult beliefs in electromagnetic waves and atomic structure and practice a religion with an open mind for a change, expecting nothing. Then you may truly judge its worth. Chances are you will be surprised but likely not converted. (Unless it's Buddhism. Very tricksy, Buddhism is. But it's so full of amicable things almost anyone will find SOMETHING appealing. Especially if they don't believe in gods.)

That's all it takes. Find ONE religion and give it an honest chance and you will invariably find you were wrong about it. But be careful. It takes more than just sitting in a bench like a sheep. You have to pray or meditate or fast or climb the mountain or eat the cactus. You can't just sit there and expect something many, many, MANY wise men and women spent their whole lives seeking to understand to be presented up to you on a silver platter.

The whole point of religion is this effort on YOUR PART. It's something you do, not something you read. Going to Church on Sundays and saying grace isn't nearly the same thing as actually being a Christian. Nor is squating down five times a day and growing a beard gonna make you an actual Muslim. You have to change your mind from closed to open and then try honestly without expectations in order to observe something property.


kitryne: Atheists aren't weird. We're the same as everyone, we just prove to believe what's written in the science books instead of religious text.

That's not weird. What's weird is a community based around what is not even a lack, just a nothingness. You deny religion as though religion denied science. It doesn't, usually. You only experience red neck senators who wouldn't know about prayer if it bit them in the ass trying to endumben the public with retarded laws because "Science is hard." or "Babies are good!"

Look at a man like Mr Rogers. THAT is a practicing Christian. That is not only the ideal, but the inevitable result of the practices set forth in the Bible performed properly diligently.

Never confuse laypeople with the actual members of a religion. Even Scientologists can do a lot of good in the community via entertainment. I've also heard they're all smiles and work ethic on set, too. Just remember never to confuse authority in the cult with honest practice of the religion. Not always the same thing.

doglover: Why waste time with declaring how much you don't believe in something with a bunch of people who feel the same way?

Keep your religion out of my government, entirely, and I won't give a rat's ass about your religion. But when you use religion for justification from everything to anti gay marriage, anti choice, anti planned parenthood funding, creationism in schools, and even, somehow, farking economic policy ("Jesus didn't believe in the minimum wage"), then you're forcing me to get involved with your religion. Keep it to your own damn self and you won't have any problems.

/May not refer to you, but refers to many many religious people in America

doglover: Going to Church on Sundays and saying grace isn't nearly the same thing as actually being a Christian. Nor is squating down five times a day and growing a beard gonna make you an actual Muslim. You have to change your mind from closed to open and then try honestly without expectations in order to observe something property.

I'm an agnostic, not an atheist. I was raised Catholic, but it didn't take. By your standards, I know legitimate Catholics, other Christians, Jews, etc. I don't take issue with them. They embody the spiritual as well as nominal aspects of their faiths. But the vast majority of followers lack the spiritual aspect. They're born into their religion, or choose it out of desperation after illness or addiction. And they vote, and have political positions, and make laws. And they help drive whatever positive feelings I have about religion into the ground.

Many truly seek the divine, and some find it, and that's great. I'm fine with the concept of a deity, or many deities, in an abstract way. I'm fine with some people who believe in an interpersonal God who cares about them as an individual. I stop being fine when people tell me I should live my life, and we should base our laws, on some old book that claims to be the "Word of God."

Sorry. No.

A god or gods may or may not have created the universe. I don't know, and in a pretty fundamental way, I don't think it matters. But there's no way anyone is going to convince me that this god (or these gods) have any interest at all on the gender of the person I'm screwing, or whether or not I have a beard, or what I'm eating on any particular day of the week or year.

doglover: What's weird is a community based around what is not even a lack, just a nothingness.

It helps understanding if you can grasp the notion that most of the "atheist communities" are not so much atheist as secularist.

TheOnion: Keep your religion out of my government, entirely, and I won't give a rat's ass about your religion.

...for example.

Fuller: To be religious requires at least some kind of supernatural belief.

"Supernatural" isn't the best dividing line, from what I can see; my impression is that a couple strains of Buddhism avoid it. The element of ritual seems a more precise demarcation - although the precise definition of "ritual" is anthropologically fuzzy.