Thread: The Church Strikes Again

Actually, by the definition of religion, Atheism can be qualified as one. A religion can be defined as Details of belief as taught or discussed. You don't actually need a God to have a religion. To me, I think the biggest problem that I've noted with atheism today, is that so many of the ateists that I have spoken to have essentially become what they've decried to hate. They stand in smug superior judgement to anyone who doesn't subscribe to their belief that empirical evidence is the answer to all things, and that anyone who follows a religion must be willfully ignorant, or inherently stupid. They claim that they don't want to have to listen to any religious drivel shoved in their face against their will, but it's perfectly acceptable to force feed their own belief into others. Now, not all atheists are bad people, in fact I would claim that most of them are good folk, but then the same can be said of the religious population. Most of the religious people I know just wantto go their own way, and live with their own beliefs, and not have to be mocked or harrassed for it. I think you place too much emphasis and blame on the fact that these zealots use their religion as a tool to facilitate their poor behaviour. If you take away the religion from their actions, what's left? An asshole. And those come from everywhere. If they weren't hiding behind religion, then they'd probably shift to hiding behind freedom of expression. That being said, I would love to see a moment when if someone uses their religion to justify their own hatred and tried to use it against other people, they should be excommunicated from their church, cut off from their excuse, and shown to simply be an asshole trying to foist their opinions on others. I've often heard that God can be proven false, usually by a group that wants him to be proven false, which at the very least violates the tenet of science that science should be impartial, and without bias. While science does explain natural phenomenon that once might have been regarded as the purview of God, I don't find this as proof on non-existence. I believe in science as a means of explaining more of the universe, and appreciate the fine work that people do in the pursuit of that very goal. The most frequent clash I've seen is the Evolution vs. Creation argument, where each side declares that they must be the exclusive answer. Could it not be possible that if God created life, he gave it the chance to adapt and grow? The ball had to start rolling somewhere back down the line, and while yes, many of the scientific community see it as a simple coincidence that life started out, while others might see the hand of the divine at work, is that such a terible thing? The beginnings of life, an almost incalculably slim chance of happening, and a person who believes that an outside force gave things a nudge along is now willfully ignorant? An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. They cannot prove God exists, just as you can't directly prove that He does not. Scientifically it's an impasse really. Now, I admit my post has moved farther afield of the original topic, and that being said, I do agree with Hahvoc's statement, the event in discussion was a case of bullshit, and a case of a gross misuse of power and resources. Though according to the law, they still had the ability to do so. A church is prvately owned, it is not public property, so they can ban individuals as thye see fot. Doesn't make it right. Just legal. On a personal note, I am not actually a subscriber to the christian church in way. I was born Catholic, but left that particular fold due to a lot of atheism based reasons. I didn't like what the church did as a whole, actions they took or the way they excluded people. Time was I'd have gleefully mocked them, until I realized that I was bascially just behaving the same way that so many of the religious population that bothered me did. So I found a new way that suited me. And never looked back. Okay, this conlcudes my large, and rather more worded than expected post.