 |
| The Atheists' "Monument" |
Let me be the first to say that a person has an absolute right to be an atheist if he wants to. That's none of my business. I don't understand how a person could think himself rational and be an atheist, but I guess it can be done. I've never heard one rational thought from an atheist, only hatred and intolerance.
Be that as it may, I find it utterly hilarious what atheists have done in Florida. They've built an atheist monument! A monument!
Well...monument seems a bit overstated for what they built. What they built was...are you ready for it?...they build a bench!
Now a bench is not the first thing that comes to the mind of a rational being when some sort of point, honor or memory is contemplated, but I did say that atheists are not particularly rational, didn't I?
In Starke, Florida the American Atheists have "erected" a monument next to the granite Ten Commandments slab that they tried unsuccessfully to have removed.
Fair enough. That's their right.
It just seems odd to call attention to one's group when the main characteristic of that group is to be intolerant of others' rights to express themselves.
Let's take a look of all of the altruism shown by the American Atheists in recent years. Here's a little quiz to help you with that look.
1. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricane Andrew?
a. Christian organizations
b. The federal government
c. Atheist organizations
d. The American Red Cross
Answer: Hours after Hurricane Andrew's winds had subsided, Southern Baptists drove mobile kitchens into the hardest-hit neighborhoods, where they dished out warm meals and poured drinks by the thousands.
It was the beginning of a massive relief effort by the Baptists, who started helping victims long before federal aid or troops arrived.
2. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne?
a. Atheist organizations
b. The American Red Cross
c. The federal government
d. Christian organizations
Answer: In the wake of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne, more than 8,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers prepared more than 2.1 million meals and completed more than 6,300 cleanup and recovery projects.
3. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricane Katrina?
Answer: As soon as they were allowed in, Southern Baptists had more than 30 mobile kitchens operating in affected areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. With bright yellow shirts and shining spirits, the Illinois Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team ran their kitchen in a hot, dusty church parking lot in Bogalusa, Louisiana. They provided 14,500 meals to that parish alone in one day.
4. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Perfect Storm Sandy?
a. The American Red Cross
b. Christian organizations
c. Atheist organizations
d. The federal government.
5. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes?
a. The federal government
b. Atheist organizations
c. Christian organizations
d. The American Red Cross
Answer: The first day after tornadoes hit Moore Oklahoma, Southern Baptists and the Red Cross served 30,000 meals. The number of meals provided after that went up.
I could go on, but I won't
The American Atheists provided absolutely nothing after these and other disasters. They're such a great group of people.
"But they paid their taxes so the government could help," I hear you saying.
Do you not remember the outcry about how long the federal government took to get on the scenes of these events? They took weeks to supply the first bottle of water. Some of the aid they promised after Sandy has yet to be seen. Please don't talk to me about how well our taxes are spent.
The Red Cross arrived very soon, and indeed, worked with Christian organizations to provide a lot of relief.
The American Atheists don't earn any respect for themselves when they provide virtually nothing of any value whatsoever to society. All they can ever do is express their intolerance for people of religious faith and go to court to try to exempt them from the rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the right to free speech, the right to practice their faith unencumbered by intrusion by the federal government.
Come to think of it, a bench is probably the very best "monument" atheists could have erected for themselves. All they ever do is sit around trying to make life miserable for citizens of faith.
17 comments:
Joe - Amen to that.
I think a better monument for them would have been a toilet.
Joe - "I don't understand how a person could think himself rational and be an atheist, but I guess it can be done."
"Definition of rational
adjective
1 based on or in accordance with reason or logic:
"I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation"
(of a person) able to think clearly, sensibly, and logically:
"Andrea’s upset—she’s not being very rational"
endowed with the capacity to reason:
"man is a rational being"
That definition alone leads anyone with a rational mind away from ANY religion and towards atheism.
There is nothing rational about belief in supernatural beings, miracles, virgin births, resurrection from the dead, eternal heavenly rewards or divine eternal torment and retribution.
None of that is rational. It is exactly the opposite of rational. It's delusional.
"It just seems odd to call attention to one's group when the main characteristic of that group is to be intolerant of others' rights to express themselves."
I'm going to suggest that you google the definitions of "blasphemy" and "heresy".
Then I'd like you to tally up for me how many men, women, children and unborn babies have been slaughtered by religious zealots over the last 2,013 years citing blasphemy and heresy as their justification.
While you're at it, please contrast that with the number of people that atheists have killed for being irrational.
Do the math.
You're examples of Southern Baptist mercy and altruism is a red herring.
Southern Baptists bring nothing to the table in these disasters.
They have no expertise in disaster recovery efforts. What they bring are bibles, religious tracts and sermons which they serve up with every meal and bottle of water they provide.
Although they may provide some small comfort to people who share their beliefs, they are mostly a nuisance that get in the way of and interfere with REAL disaster recovery experts like the Red Cross and FEMA.
It is HUMILIATING for someone who has just lost everything to have some proselytizing, Christian, Evangelical shoving their religion into every bowl of soup they serve.
I was in Joplin, MO a week after the F5 tornado destroyed that town. I saw it with my own eyes. I talked to the people. They would MUCH rather go to a Red Cross or FEMA tent then endure the philosophical rape of the Baptists!
Every atheist I know is very quick to respond in these sorts of disasters by organizing donation efforts for the professional organizations who can actually make a difference on the ground.
What we are NOT interested in is showing up on the disaster scene en masse, clogging up the infrastructure in a self serving attempt to gain publicity and convince people to stop believing in gods.
We take the high road.
XO: "They have no expertise in disaster recovery efforts. What they bring are bibles..."
You are an ignorant fool and you do not know what you are talking about.
I served hundreds of meals at Trinity Baptist church after Hurricane Charlie in Charlotte County.
The day after the storm, two semis full of hot meals pulled up in the driveway. I and our church members unloaded them and set them out on the tables we set up in our auditorium.
We fed a couple of thousand that morning, organized a delivery crew and took thousands more meals to homes where people either could not get out or did not have the resources to get to the church building.
The meals were delivered in double thick Styrofoam containers and were hot when they arrived. They included meat, vegetables, salad and desert. There was a meal for every member of the family.
We did not proselytise, we just fed people. If they asked, we told them why. If they did not, we just provided their food.
The next day, two more tractor trailer loads arrived and another that evening...all from the disaster relief headquarters of the Florida Baptist Convention.
The trucks continued to roll in until it was determined that the majority of those in need got to the point that they could provide for themselves.
Don't you dare tell me all we brought to the party was Bibles. We never have, do not now and never will do things that way. We provided sustenance...food.
We also provided a couple of hundred volunteers to help repair homes that could be repaired and to help put on the blue tarps on roofs that became the emblem of the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie. The federal government, when they finally got around to it, just dropped the tarps off at the disaster relief center and went on their way.
You bigoted, prejudiced, intolerant ignoramus.
XO: "We take the high road."
No. You are the lowest of the low. There are no words to describe the depravity of your mind set.
XO: "That definition alone leads anyone with a rational mind away from ANY religion and towards atheism."
Actually, it leads rational minds away from atheism and toward God.
Unless, of course, the "rational mind" is actually more irrational than it is able to understand. That's you, sir. That's you.
Joe - I notice that you decided to completely skip over this part of my response:
"It just seems odd to call attention to one's group when the main characteristic of that group is to be intolerant of others' rights to express themselves."
I'm going to suggest that you google the definitions of "blasphemy" and "heresy".
Then I'd like you to tally up for me how many men, women, children and unborn babies have been slaughtered by religious zealots over the last 2,013 years citing blasphemy and heresy as their justification.
While you're at it, please contrast that with the number of people that atheists have killed for being irrational.
Do the math."
Still looking forward to your response on that.
I stick by my position that the Baptists and other religious organizations are the absolute last resort of people in need after a natural disaster.
Most natural disasters are conveniently classified by insurance companies as "Acts of God" and are not covered by standard homeowners policies.
So the very last thing that someone who has lost everything due to an "Act of God" wants to see and hear is some Baptist showing up offering to pray with them and share "God's Love" in exchange for a bowl of soup and a sandwich.
If God loved them he wouldn't have flattened their home and destroyed their lives with an F5 tornado which is commonly referred to as "The Finger of God" and then send in a van full of Baptists bearing sandwiches to make it all better.
Nothing about your religion stands up to close scrutiny. It is a house of cards which immediately collapses when buffeted by even the slightest breeze of rationality and reason.
XO: "...slaughtered by religious zealots..."
By religious zealots: thousands, maybe millions, if you count all religions.
By true Christians: 0
A true Christian is a follower of Christ. Those who call themselves Christian who are not following Him are not Christians, no matter what they call themselves.
I can call myself a nuclear physicist, but that doesn't make me one.
"...he wouldn't have flattened their home and destroyed their lives with an F5 tornado..."
He didn't, in spite of what the insurance companies might say. And any religious zealot who says He did is misguided and stupid. So is any atheist who says He did.
I don't follow insurance companies, do you?
Nothing about your atheism stands up to close scrutiny. It is a house of cards which immediately collapses when buffeted by even the slightest breeze of rationality and reason.
Joe - "By religious zealots: thousands, maybe millions, if you count all religions.
By true Christians: 0
A true Christian is a follower of Christ. Those who call themselves Christian who are not following Him are not Christians, no matter what they call themselves."
What a load of absolute crap.
You should read your Bible.
Nowhere does it say that Joe Scoggins gets to decide who is and isn't a Christian. The Christian criteria is very simple and repeated often:
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,"
John 1:12 "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,"
Acts 2:38 "And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 10:13 "For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
1 Peter 3:21 "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,"
All anyone needs to do to be a Christian is to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, repent of their PREVIOUS "sins", and be baptized.
From that point on they are a Christian. Even if they engage in very unChristianlike behavior. Like so many Christians do.
You, sir, don't get to add additional conditions above and beyond what the Bible demands.
You are not granted that authority.
One does not blame the faith for those who abuse it. Just because one goes through all the motions of claiming to believe, and is baptized, etc, that still doesn't make him a Christian. Assent to the belief due to knowledge is not the same as personally accepting that same belief.
But the true test is this:
"The man who says, 'I know him [Christ],' but doesn't doe what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.." 1 John 2;4
If a person claims to know Christ and to be a Christian, and yet goes about doing everything Christ preached against, then he is not a Christian but a liar.
XO: What? Where did you find those verses? In 53 years of Bible study and Bible teaching, I have never, ever seen those verses!
Did you just now make those up? How could I have missed them in all of these years?
Oh, my! What a dunce I've been and how lucky I am to have a scholar like you to set me straight!
How did I EVER miss those verses?
G.E.C. - "But the true test is this:
"The man who says, 'I know him [Christ],' but doesn't doe what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.." 1 John 2;4
If a person claims to know Christ and to be a Christian, and yet goes about doing everything Christ preached against, then he is not a Christian but a liar."
OK, lets go with that and see where it takes us, shall we?
Jesus fed the hungry, for free. Just because they were hungry. He demanded nothing of them. He just fed them.
Jesus healed the sick, for free. Just because they were sick. He demanded nothing of them. He just healed them.
Although Capitalism wasn't a defined concept in biblical times, Jesus clearly would not approve. The only account of him becoming angry and violent was when he overturned the tables of the money lenders and threw them out of the temple.
Jesus preached a gospel of tolerance and inclusion. He surrounded himself with whores, beggars, liars and thieves. Yet he didn't condemn them, He loved them.
Jesus had no problem with taxation. Indeed, he encouraged people to pay their taxes.
Matthew 22:15-22 "Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away."
Jesus preached a gospel of non-violence.
Matthew 5:38-40 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well."
Based on the above passage I have to assume that Jesus would be opposed to The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (at least as interpreted by conservatives), opposed to Concealed Carry laws, and EXTREMELY opposed to "Stand Your Ground" laws.
Jesus would not be packing heat and forming Neighborhood Watch Patrols. If someone invaded Jesus' home to rob him and do harm, he would let them take whatever they want and make them a sandwich.
So, let's summarize...Jesus preached free food, free health care, no obscene profiteering, toleration of different lifestyles, pay your taxes and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES attempt to defend yourself against people wishing to do you harm.
That's what he actually said.
Now let's look at what he DIDN'T say. Not one word about homosexuality. None, zero, zip, nada!
So let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that there is a commenter on this blog who identifies himself as a Christian, but is against free food for the hungry, free health care for the sick, is opposed to any reasonable regulations on what corporations may or may not do to fatten their pockets, expresses a deep intolerance of anyone he deems to be less righteous than himself, thinks taxes are evil and prides himself on being armed to the teeth and more than ready and willing to kill dead anyone foolish enough to try to invade his home and take his stuff.
Based on the criteria that you, G.E.C., presented, I would have to reach the unassailable conclusion that that person was not a Christian at all, but a liar.
X.O.
Feeding the hungry wasn’t a command because everyone is capable of doing so, and if we do, we are also commanded to do so for those IN the church before we do for those outside. (Gal. 6:10)
Jesus didn’t command us to heal the sick because we are incapable of doing so. While there are doctors who can use modern medicine to aid in healing the sick, we do not heal the sick by our own power as Jesus did.
Your twisting of scripture about money lenders has nothing to do with capitalism. Jesus never mentioned any particular system, and it really doesn’t matter what particular system one uses because all can be abused by the individual.
Jesus did NOT teach a gospel of “tolerance and inclusion.” While he tolerated the people (as we do) he NEVER tolerated their sin. And the only “inclusion” was that if you accepted Him as your savior then you were included in the Church. Christians still don’t condemn whores, beggars, liars or thieves - we condemn their sin just as Jesus did.
Jesus didn’t address taxation except to say to obey the law about it. He never say we, the people, couldn’t determine what was or was not lawful.
We also preach a gospel of non-violence; we do not use violence to spread the teachings of Christ the way Islam uses violence to spread their religion.
No, Jesus had no problem with self-defense, and in fact told his disciples to take swords with them on their missions. The Bible is rife with evidence promoting self-defense. You certainly misrepresent Jesus when it comes to defending oneself. His only statement in that regard was in reference to personal insult, and in that case one is to turn the other cheek.
So, let’s summarize. Jesus never preached free anything. In fact, Paul said if a man will not work he shall not eat! He never mentioned health care, he was intolerant of sinful lifestyle (He told the adulteress to go and sin no more), and never denied self defense.
You have no clue what the Bible teaches.
I know of no Christian who would be against free food for the truly hungry, none who would be against free health care for those who were too poor to pay for any, nor anyone who would justify unethical business practices, nor anyone who is intolerant of any person, nor anyone who thinks taxes aren’t necessary, and NO one has a problem with being armed for self-defense because that is a very biblical position. And I don’t know of any Christian who would be willing to shoot someone over stuff.
So you, XO, haven’t a clue.
G.E.C. - You just proved every point I made.
Thank you!
By your own definition, you are not a Christian.
G.E.C. - Cite me one single New Testament passage where Jesus himself preached that it was acceptable in the eyes of God to use Deadly Force to defend your home or possessions.
Just one. Chapter and verse.
Cite me one single New Testament passage where Jesus himself condemned homosexuality.
Just one. Chapter and verse.
"In fact, Paul said if a man will not work he shall not eat!"
Paul isn't Jesus! Jesus used his Godly Super Power to feed the hungry by cloning the fish and loaves of bread. He turned water to wine! Jesus didn't require them to work or believe or do anything. He just provided it to the masses.
You have absolutely no idea what the Bible says or what it means.
If you went to a University or Seminary, I know a lawyer who can definitely get you a full tuition refund.
You were mislead and defrauded.
X.O.
By my own definition I AM a Christian.
No one said anything about deadly force to protect stuff - possessions.
You saying Jesus said nothing about deadly force for self defense is the same stupidity which claims Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. The O.T. gives permission for self-defense. The very fact that we are made in God's image is why we protect life. Luke 22:36-38 Jesus tells the apostles to buy swords for protection.
Jesus was God, and as such talked about homosexuality in the O.T. He didn't have to talk about something which everyone understood. He also didn't talk about rape, child abuse, bestiality, etc. But it was all well understood by what God said in the O.T.
YOU are the one who is totally ignorant of what Scripture actually says. In fact, you aren't just ignorant of it, you are intentionally stupid. Just another liberal troll who has no idea what he is talking about.
Post a Comment