Why do I keep going into R/T?

[Goblinmonger]

It's like picking a scab. I know it is going to be unpleasant and will only hurt me in the long run, but I do it anyway.

[vixengrl]

1. I read a blog-post linked from the Daily Dish--(no, no--it's a thing I do)

from one of Sully's replacement batters from an atheist who was wondering about Sam Harris:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/compelled-to-nothing.html

And whether atheists are overcome by religion--whether we think about it even more than believing folks. Which I thought was kind of "duh" from an atheist. But I guess there are people who like their unbelief to be nice and easy--

My unbelief is never nice and easy.

It gave me a little food for thought, and since I'm a little too lame-arsed this evening to do a proper blog-post about it,

Well, yeah. I think about religion all the time, myself. And it is a scab I scratch at. I see religion as an outsider, and I am fascinated by this thing I don't have--all apologies to Freud, but the thing religious people have that I don't, even fascinates me more than the thing boys have that I don't. And unlike my fascination with the boy thing, my fascination with the God-thing I totally recognize as voluntary. For me, religion is now seen like an alien invader that has taken over my basically nice population of otherwise capable of clear-thinking folks, and turned then into some kind of occasionally even malevolent zombie that needs to suck part of the reality out of life and inject supernaturalism in order to endure. (Okay--that's all an overwrought metaphor--I'm just trying to make a point....)

Anyway, I think religious people need to be engaged, need to be challenged, and sometimes need to test their faith against unbelief--to see whether it has the meaning they suppose.

I guess I'm hoping my "No" is as potentially meaningful as any "yes". And I go back to arguing faith issues because it is kind of worthwhile. I seek because I am. And argue. And post stuff.

[trotsky]

5. Ah, a "faitheist."

Gotta love 'em. Can't possibly understand an atheist would want to be vocal in order to fight against the creep of religion and theocracy.

Anyway, I think religious people need to be engaged, need to be challenged, and sometimes need to test their faith against unbelief--to see whether it has the meaning they suppose.

I completely agree. One doesn't need to hang out in R/T to see there are plenty of liberal believers who are so comfortable with their Christian privilege, they feel personally threatened and insulted when someone DARES to criticize their religion. Or, for that matter, even just brings up an atheist's opinion on a political issue.

[MrModerate]

6. Even "Freddie" spends a lot of electrons protesting that he is *not* . . .

a committed or activist atheist. And in doing so at some length, he manages to give "not there" quite a bit of density and gravity. Inadvertent, I'm sure, but still . . .

My position is much simpler: outside of legitimate concerns about the depredations that people visit on their neighbors in the name of religion, WHO CARES?

If one is a sociologist or a psychologist, I suppose professionally pondering why people embrace such delusions is appropriate.

But unless you do it professionally or as a hobby, WHO CARES?

That is all.

[SkyDaddy7]

12. I think you may have forgot one "little" problem...

Christians are actively trying to tear this country apart from the local school boards on up! I do care about that!

Otherwise I agree with what you said. :)

[lazarus]

2. I left a few weeks ago

I've been much happier since. Occasionally I see a post on the Main Page, but I don't have the stomach for long ranging debates anymore. I tend to say what I want to say and leave the thread. They're not going to change my mind, and apparently I'm never going to change theirs. I get enough religious talk in GD, and I'm playing to a larger audience there.

[Soylent Brice]

3. because you're a masochist?

:shrug:

:rofl:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. But, like picking a scab

it has a sort of pleasure to it. The pseudo-intellectualism from one specific poster over there is amusing to me.

[TZ]

7. I have to be in the mood for it.

If something particularly news worthy pisses me off, I'll go there and take out my frustrations using logic...I've gotten some interesting discussions with some believers that way, but its really fun to use logic to piss some of the less than rational off...;)

[immoderate]

8. Hardly go there any more.

Usually when I see a reference here. They never run out of delusions.

--imm

[ZombieHorde]

9. Because R/T is fun. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. It's amazing how they backtrack when you state obvious facts.

Example: Jesus was a nice guy.
My response: "I come not in peace but with a sword", etc. etc. etc. chapter and verse.

Christianity is sexist because the holy trinity is all male.
Their response: Mary is a female.
My response: Mary is not part of the Holy Trinity, last I checked.

Me: Original sin and substitutionary atonement are bad. Substitutionary atonement is a non-necessary remedy for a nonexistent problem from a fairy tale(original sin).
Their response: No, why my church doesn't preach that I have original sin because my parents had sex.
My response: Wikipedia quotes from Martin Luther, Catholicism, Methodism, etc. stating that one of the sources of original sin is your parents having sex.

They say: I'm a christian and they don't preach original sin and substitutionary atonement.
My response: That is the basic foundational doctrine of xtianity, baed on a false premise in a fairy tale about a couple of fruit munching idiots who wanted knowledge of the tree of good and evil.
Their response: I'm a christian and don't believe any of that stuff, you are wrong, etc.
My response: WTF?? Then you ain't the definition of a xtian.


Also many instances of No True Scotsman. "Oh Hitler was not a true xtian" . Bullshit.

They insist they are full of happy happy joy joy, and then think I'm nuts when I tell them they have an obsession with blood, guts, torture and so forth in the crucifixion of jeebus, furthermore they participate in symbolic cannibalism which is quite primitive. I don't follow any god whose symbol is an instrument of torture and death. Maybe we should start the Iron Maiden worship cult?? (Not the band, the torture box with spikes). Or the Catherine Wheel cult?

:shrug: :banghead:

And when they tell me I don't know anything about xtianity I tell them I took some very difficult reilgion courses at the Presbyterian college I graduated from. Your average half assed preacher could not pass the freshman religion courses. They were taught by Ph.D.s from Harvard and Princeton Seminaries.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. I am trained to argue. I have a law degree.

Therefore I know enough about logical fallacies to argue coherently.

I don't have faith in stuff I can't see.

I'm like George Carlin: He said that worshiping the sun is logical because we KNOW it will come up every single day without fail and we can calculate exactly when it moves.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Odin2005]

14. Apparently disbelief is closeminded.

:banghead:

[beam me up scottie]

15. To be asked what you believe and then told what you REALLY believe, silly.

Is this a trick question? Are we going to have a pop quiz later?

:hi:

[onager]

16. I just waded thru that thread...

Pure flame-bait aimed directly at atheists. If it's the one I read, it should have been locked/deleted after the OP.

I think this will be my only response to that troll, from now on:

[beam me up scottie]

17. STDF

They're running out of forums...