You guys keep talking to me as if I have indicated that I'm interested in hearing about and being swayed by your views on religion. I'm not. Get it?!?
I'm 47 years old, a nominal Catholic, you're not going to change my mind and I have no desire to change yours. Get it?
That's just life... that's why Mommy told us not to talk about politics and religion at the dinner table. If this were a real dinner table you'd be able to see the glazed over eyes!

My problem with this (IMO, worst conceived thread on OCMB in a long time) has solely been:

1. Dancing on a man's grave (who may be respected and even loved by many on this message board), and...

2. criticizing and slamming politics or religion that have little or nothing to do with the consumer fraud that is Scientology. This can only divide critics and give ammunition to opponents of the critical/activist community. The minute you start dissecting mainstream or even marginally mainstream religions you've just offended and made opponents out of about 1/2 the people on the MB. Rude and stupid, IMNHO.

And this thread perfectly illustrates my last point: it's gotten so bad that one of your ilk has been threatening violence and you just blithely ignore it while droning on with your pedantic "religious views."

TheDarksideOfScientology’s Fundamentalist Atheism, the Talibanistic, bigoted and hate-filled barrages from him have been the most insulting and inappropriate things I’ve seen on this board for quite some time.

Ignoring all the posturing and strutting, this thread served to bring out some very valid and relevant points.
Maybe one or two took it and then ran away with it in a way which offended each other's sensibilities. It's a pity that those who couldn't see beyond all that chose ultimately to get personal and sabotage it with profane direct insults and threats instead.

It's water of a ducks back to me but it won't shudder me into silence and the next time some leader of cult status makes the headlines (whether it is because he died or whatever) then they may or may not get another thread of their own.

Now calm the fuck down.

edited.

Maybe thickheaded Christians, such as yourself, should stop trying to convert Atheists. You ask why Atheists get angry? Because Christians don't get a fucking clue and live and let live. If you're an Atheist and refuse "God", most of you Christians tell us we're going to hell. We get tired of hearing your same old bullshit lines, that's why we get angry.

I have fucking Christians knocking on my door atleast twice a month, recruiting for the 30 churches in my neighborhood. I tell them I'm an Atheist any NORMAL person would say thank you and leave? But do the Christians...no. Instead they choose to try and convert me, since I'm a heathen and all.

You can't even debate with most Christians, being they aren't all there... mentally. Their only proof of anything, is the Bible, which is proof of nothing. You get offended when compared to Scientology, but come on, there's no difference. Christianity is probably worse, in most non-religious people's opinion.

Atheists wouldn't give a flying fuck if you worshipped a pink unicorn, if you didn't bother them with your nonsense. Instead, Christians are constantly saying how unethical and immoral Atheists are. I have something to tell you Christians, look in the fucking mirror, you're the ones overcrowding the U.S. prisons.

So go on believing in a "God" you can't prove exists, while you're at it, you might as well worship Santa Clause, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy while you're at it. Since their existence is a believable. And for all you Christians that put up a Christmas tree, don't you know that's a Pagan ritual and is strictly forbidden by your Bible, so stop being fucking hypocrites.

Jeremiah 10:3-6 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.



Stupid fucking twits.

That's why I believe in the maxim "moderation in all things" including how we view others.

Such as Christians. I'm an ex Christian. I, too, have had some encounters with aggressive evangelical Christians who were pretty quick to verbally consign others to hell. But the Christians I knew and still know, in some cases, who were not like that, who were filled with love, outnumber the other ones.

Some people use their religion as a way to express their own feelings and general viewpoint about others. And some sects have beliefs that are different from other sects. There's a big difference in talking to an Appalachian Snake Handling fundamentalist from talking to a Catholic, a Mormon or a Lutheran.

Why feel threatened if Christians (or anyone else, for that matter) believe in an afterlife?

Not all of them are ramming it down people's throats. Jerry Falwell's views about are not those of all Christians. Pretty much the only thing all Christians agree on is Jesus being God .

What's it going to hurt if someone who is NOT evangelical worships the Christian God?

What's it going to hurt if someone else wants to criticize fundamentalism and certain ideas certain preachers have?

Neither sort of person mentioned above has anything to feel threatened about...

So I wonder why some atheists seem to feel so threatened by others having beliefs in the spirit, a Supreme Deity, the afterlife, etc. I've seen this before. They seem to freak out over it.

Those who have theistic beliefs don't have to worry about the unbelievers and the unbelievers don't have to worry about the believers.

Now group hug, everyone.

The problem is, 25%-30% of the United States is Evangelical Christian. Which that means atleast 40% of the Christian population is one of those nutjobs.

And the demographic is changing and will continue to change toward atheists , I believe you said. And seems to me that a goodly percentage of atheists are evangelical.

Sounds like the same problem-- only from the other side of the coin.

Plus not everyone is in the same place with their spirituality.

I remember when I had all of my own atheistic arguments worked out to the smallest detail. And no matter what anyone countered with, I had my ongoing song memorized about how religions were just devices created to justify our fear of death … how ridiculous that a god could be interested in our life details … why is there so much suffering in the world and blahh blahh blahh.

As the years and decades passed my mind on these matters started to change. I began to see that it wasn’t Christians that were closed-minded, it was me. I began to understand that I had been un-studied, un-learned, angry, and caught up in my sniveling little 3rd grade questions about God that I thought were so clever.

In any case, this is not the website to work these things out. There are militant atheist forums, I’m sure. I wish the Talibatheists would go explore them.

God speed.

Nice post, Morsicle. (not being sarcastic.)

So you converted TO Christianity?

Very interesting- and cool.

Thanks Fluff.

Yes, I converted.

I do like how Roan completely ignored the fact that I talked not about Christianity, but about Reverend Falwell as a human being - and his failures as such.

Nice use of Scientology tech, there, Roan; you're trying to divert the topic to Christianity when it's about one particularly deceitful and vicious man who bore more than a passing resemblance to Hubbard.

Well, for what it's worth, I liked what you wrote earlier, Fanboy, and I get the distinction between Falwell as a person and the religion he represented.

Maybe this thread isn't right for this board but I've found it interesting nonetheless. I do think there are comparisons to be made between someone like Falwell and someone like Hubbard. Maybe it's a stretch overall...I don't know...but it's been interesting to me so what the hell.

[BEGIN TAPE]
"We have this fellow here who just arrived, ahh, just came into the shop here in the between lives area for processing you see. Upon investigation it was discovered that he had been running an R6 racket for many years on Teegeeack. He is factually a merchant of chaos who made tremendous sums of money putting thetans into restimulation on the deadly R6 implant. He gave us his name in session as Jerry Falwell. Know him. He was just getting started in the religion game around 1980 as I was going offlines to do research at Rifle and then why, ahh, at that other big place we bought there in Hemet. It was near the date shack where you could purchase organic figs and such and why these figs would run out constipation on the wholetrack
[laughter].

"Factually, Falwell used Dianetics and Scientology in his operation. He stole what he knew worked and used black Dianetics on people. Oh yes, Falwell was a squirrel. He used Dianetics and Scientology and called it something else as do all squirrels. Purcell, you see, Purcell was one of the squirrels who started this business of squirreling the tech way back when. And then there was that guy in Kansas who was paid, ahh, who was paid $500,000 in cash to ruin Dianetics. Almost succeeded. What saved us was a prompt ethics investigation and handling. Same action that was just used so remarkably well on my old friends at the BBC. Same group of chaos merchants that tried to give me all sorts of fits and starts when I was running St. Hill. I had them investigated and found a galaxy of crimes. That is why England deported me you know. They were afraid of what I knew about the fellows at the BBC, an unwholesome lot trafficking in sodomy and what not. Very low on the tone scale, buggery. The same ethics investigation techniques were standardly applied to Jerry Falwell when he arrived in the shop here. He has confessed to being a psych R6 implanter and a squirrel. This confession was obtained by a Class XII auditor.

"You'll find, by the way, another man at this stage, and his preclears will shift the identities and borrow facsimiles. Like men, there's what they call 'The Christ game' and that game has been played and played and played and play..., honest to Pete, these cards are just so thin, they've been laid down amongst the coffee cups, and so forth, of the whole universe. You'll find out thousands of years before the year 1 AD, Earth, you will have facsimiles and dolls made up like Christ. Fact one: a million years ago is occasionally rigged with Christ and the devil and an angel. It's a fascinating thing, it's an old game. Here on Earth, there was undoubtedly a Christ. One of the reasons he was ... he swept in so suddenly ah, and he, he would go forward so hard, is he had a good assist back of him in terms of an implant."

"So we see that, ahh, Falwell, also had a good assist back of him in terms of an implant. And that ladies and gentlemen is why he was able to take in all of those hundreds of millions of dollars, probably, well, over two billion dollars when we add what the Rockefeller's funneled into Falwell's secret ice cream factory down there in Bolivia where they made ice creams laced with LSD. This ice cream was sold by Sandinista operatives in Nicaragua and the Honduras. That is how Falwell helped Reagan to start that war down there in the 80's and later helped bring AIDS into the United States. But you see, they won't tell you these things. This is why Scientology is needed to show their crimes. This is why Scientology always gathers intelligence with a whisper and investigates with a shout.

"How do we process all of this? Well, it is caused by the valences of body thetans who were implanted with the R6 implant, the Christ game. You run this, ahh, start to run these things on OT III. And I suppose the guy who has trouble running another thetan at that proximity probably not very horse-powered or something of the sort. Well all I ever did with a body thetan was just think "go to the .. uh .. uh .. think Incident One zoooom! Go through it, get your stop off you know", "Rmmm", he says "Rmmmm. Zooooom! Hrrm. Hey that's mine!" he'd say. "I'm leaving!" I'd say "Good bye!" [laughter]

Well...there's one thing for sure that Falwell and Hubbard have in common....they're both DEAD!