Thank God I'm an Atheist

I can't even believe these comments. There is a billboard in the city by me that says "Imagine No Religion" quoting John Lennon that was put up by a local atheist/agnostic group. A local church in response to this is putting up a billboard that says "Why do Atheist Hate America". What?! I must have missed the atheist meeting where it was decided we hated America. Plus all the Christian groups who believe this country was started as a Christian nation (you know because Native American's didn't have any kind of religion and all of the founding fathers were super religious...) are against all of the freedoms in the bill of rights with the exception of the right to bear arms.

I used to post on a message board called CTZ, which was run by a bunch of Christian teens. I think they were 7th Day Adventists, so fairly fundamentalist. When I saw that list up there, 'disproving' evolution, I had this urge to reply and explain, because I think I explained those things about 3 million times on CTZ. I eventually got banned from CTZ for this. Obviously.
I couldn't even read through all those quotes, I had to stop at the 'Atheists don't cry at funerals' because I got too offended.

It has never made sense to me how Christians can proclaim to be all moral and good, if their morality comes from a fear of being punished by god, and look down on Atheists as being amoral, when the majority of them is just as 'moral' and even does it because they want to and they feel it's right, as opposed to simply being afraid of going to hell.

It is rather twisted. I've always followed the ideology that freedom OF religion means freedom FROM religion. However, Native Americans DID have their own versions of religion, including creationist folklore and religious ceremonies, but it was nowhere near as extreme as what the face of organized religion is today. Now, it's either own up or you're quite literally damned in society. For all that about the USA being founded on the basis of freedom from religious persecution, we aren't seeing much of that embodied in today's culture. I mean, I was bastardized by the Catholic church when my parents got divorced because my mom's a lesbian. So I don't exactly have a soft spot in my heart for religion, but today, seeing things like this, I've never been more proud of that decision.

This makes me feel ashamed to be Catholic (although I'm sure that wasn't the intent of this post because that would be discrimination, no?). Even though the quotes make a bad name for anyone who identifies as Christian (because that doesn't have to mean you do absolutely everything the Church tells you)this post is completely legitimate when it comes to showing how dense some people can be. Even though at times we claim to be the civilized ones, Catholics can still be just as unreasonable. Things I've heard like "Are you calling our Lord, Jesus a monkey?" and "Even if you're committing the sin of premarital sex, don't use condoms or BC because you'll just sin more" makes me want to give up.

This is the face of religion. Ideologies are sets of beliefs that cannot be disproven or proven, but that doesn't mean they have to make sense. To Catholics, Jews, Muslims, etc., everyone else is following a warped path, a path of sin. It's just the way mainstream religion is. They preach tolerance, but only of some things, and rarely practice it. It's a sad truth, but as a general rule, it can't be denied. There are the exceptions of course, such as yourself. I had no intentions of making people ashamed of their religious beliefs. I merely wanted to open up their eyes to how brutal and utterly unintelligent religion can be. But, it's all a matter of perspective when you get right down to it.

First off....the stumble button is AMAZING!!! And I have stumbled on many sites like that. It actually makes me sad. Someone asked me how I can still be an atheist after I had a baby. (saying that children are a gift from god and a miracle.) The entire time (it was a nurse who gave me a 10 minute lecture)I was thinking...well babies are made when you have sex...hmmm. But I agree with everything that you said and I'm glad you voice your opinions!

Yeah, stumbleupon is pretty much the win.

As for those quotes - by and large, I find that these sorts of thoughts are more of a subliminal thing, if hte person feels that way. I've met reasonable christians, and I've met unreasonable ones. I've met fatalist ones, i.e. "eh, I'm a christian because I am."

I met a guy in my college dorm, it was terrible. He claimed that he respects atheism less than any world religion because of the lack of a belief in a god. Then he'd get upset at me for being "disrespectful" when I called his religious text a "book."

For those still reading: Here's what you do in these sorts of situations. Propose a religion, call it, say, "Pastafarianism." Propose that this religion has thousands of followers, believes in a flying spaghetti monster, and has a religious text. Then, ask: Would you burn this text? Would you disrespect my noodly god?

You'll find often that there's a double standard. THEIR religion demands respect, but others don't because it isn't theirs. I find this to be both frustrating and amusing; how do you doublethink like this without your head spinning?

This friend claimed he'd put "the good book" under my door after I get back from break. I reminded him that I've been needing more burnpaper, and bible paper actually works great for starting a fire. It's really thin - you can scrunch a few up and you end up using less of it than you would newspaper. He got pretty upset; maybe I pressed a little too hard, but my point got across - why does his religious text get so much respect, when no other book does? It's insane.

I'm supposed to be meeting my mother's husbands' family for christmas dinner. They're extremely religious - after being at college, I've decided not ti hide my atheist any longer. I keep getting told to shut up about it and just say I'm a christian - I did that for awhile, but this year I won't.

Good luck out there

-Cokehead

Agreed wholeheartedly. Also, stumbled on the page.

I've seen this list before, and have been arguing against this stupidity for coming up on 6 years. It just doesn't sink in.

Fortunately, my room mate this year is a reasonable human being who isn't this mind-blowingly moronic.

I don't know what I'd do if he wasn't.

To be honest it can be quite fun baiting the christians although it sometimes leaves me feeling like a bit of cruel bully - its like kicking a puppy. We should have some compassion really - if you believe in god these days you must be a bit thick and not really have an ability to work stuff out for yourself. Thankfully in the UK christianity is disappearing slowly but surely each year and our immigrant muslim population seems to lose a little bit more religion with each generation.

I firmly believe that fundamental christianity and islam is a reaction against the steady decline amongst the youth, perhaps not so much in belief, but certainly in strict adherence to their religions.

StumbleUpon is awesome, and is the only reason I found this post. Excellent!

Also, I don't see it anywhere in your post (my apologies if you've covered it) but have you gone to FSTDT.com? It's short for Fundies Say The Darnedest Things, but they also have Conspiracy Theorists and Racists sections, filled with awful/hilarious/scary quotes. It sounds like FreeThoughtPedia stole some of their quotes, but I could be wrong. See, I admitted it, I don't know everything.

I currently live in a "fundie" Christian household, and for the most part, my mum's all "live and let live", but she hates atheism and homosexuality with a VENGEANCE. I'm a bisexual agnostic atheist, which I'm guessing means I'm all that she hates incarnate, right? :P Anyway, I've got a real life pearl straight from her mouth for ya...

"You see how these gays want to get married? It's the end times!"

I just stumbled on kym's post of Sept (22?) with all the awful quotes from Christians. I've never posted on a blog but I felt compelled to weigh in on this one. I'm a Pagan and believe firmly in a higher power to use the accepted term however I find that I have more in common with atheists than anyone of any religious bent. I too feel angry, sad and often afraid when I read things of this nature. The atheists and the pagans will all be burned in the same fire if these people have their way. I'm a bit outside your age demographics but I'm glad to know that young women care about this so passionately. No matter what force, seen or unseen that you choose to put your faith in keep on expressing your opinions and beliefs for all to hear. Atheists are probably the most tolerant because they have no agenda. Even as a supposedly tolerant pagan I often feel angry towards any religious person who tries to denounce anyone else's beliefs. I have stumbled on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and thought it was great. Check out the Goat on a pole site. Equally as ludicrous and brilliant. I like paganism because it's about real things like the earth, Gaia, the four directions, the four elements, the sun, moon and planets, cycle of the season etc. I believe that is where true spirituality comes from and not some religious dogma accepted by the masses. By and large the masses are pretty stupid. I recently found a quote I like a lot..."Study of the scriptures is fruitless as long as Deity has not been experienced. And when Deity is experienced, it is useless to read the scriptures." from The Vivekacudamani by Sri Sankaracarya. If you believe in love, beauty, truth and yourself than there is no atheism...it's not about the thing it's about the courage of your belief. Let's give up ALL the labels, shall we. How about this...My God is Love, My race is Human and my religion is Oneness. You are the next generation of intelligent, free-thinking warrior women of the new age. The planet needs you to survive. Stand together and stay strong for all of us. Go All Girl Army!!!!!!

You know its interesting, I "stumbled" upon this blog through the same application (this same blog post!) I have been looking for a new blog that suits me as a young feminist! Now I feel like I have a place for feminist opinions and support, and all because I "stumbled" upon it.

Absolutely loved it. Can't think of much to say. But yeah. It was amazing. I couldn't believe all the moronic quotes I saw. I was shocked at some of them. That my friends, is why I am an atheist.

The fact that there are people with some sort of presumed intelligence (they can turn on a computer and find their way around the internet, for starters) that actually BELIEVE this kind of garbage, or that it's so incredibly easy to disseminate these ideas using something as seemingly innocent as Stumbleupon.

Pink Raygun
genre entertainment for fangirls...and boys

that "christian quotes" page is 100 percent satire. It's not supposed to be taken literally, but rather is mocking Christians. I think it's hilarious.
just look at some of these gems:

"so you think if no one believed in any religion there would be no wars or fighting? i think it would be worse. i know if i didn't fear god's judgement i would have killed many many times."

"To say the Bible was written by men and may contain inaccuracies completely contradicts the word of the Bible."

"There are a lot of things I have concluded to be wrong, without studying them in-depth. Evolution is one of them. The fact that I don't know that much about it does not bother me in the least."

Hi Kym. Though I, being male, clearly don't hold rank in the "All Girl Army," I'll comment anyhow.

"Funny Theist Quotes" are funny because we can see the logical absurdities, contradictions, and hypocrisies without even having to look very hard. They speak nonsense with absolute conviction and zero understanding.

Fact is, the Internet is a wonderful, terrible, grand, paltry, majestic, irrelevant, fascinating, horrifying place. Though it gives the power of spreading "the message" to these sorts of lowbrow, shit-slinging types of people, only those who are prone to having, or already have, that mindset will readily accept that nonsense. I can only say that it's fortunate that, though they are an extremely outspoken, emotionally unstable, and generally obnoxious group, they are a minority which is both small and concentrated.

-ln

A couple of points to be made:
1. StumbleUpon is amazing. I stumbled on your blog, and while I usually just skip over most, I read yours.
2. I went to the website to read some more of the "christian" quotes, and was astounded by the arrogance and ignorance of some.
3. I know plenty of Christians, and each of them stick by the fact that the only way to be a true Christian is to keep and objective view of other people's way of believing in their own spirituality or religion. To be truly Christian, you must ACCEPT everyone.
4. Just the fact that people have actually said these things and feel that they are the only ones who know how to live virtuously disgusts me.
5. This may sound completely hypocritical, but the intolerance of many angers my very life force. There is no excuse for objectifying others for lifestyle choices, no matter what you believe or how you live.
6. I agree with your blog completely.

Religion propagates by indoctrination of the young. Religion grows by providing meaning to those unable to find it for themselves. And religion is strengthened by creating enemies from the mist. Faith has never relied on reason to form its foundation. Thus it is not surprising that many of its adherents are mostly devoid of the faculties of logic and reason. Immutable feelings and emotion coupled with a deep seated need not to be wrong guide their daily lives. Add in a sprinkling belief of devils and demons and it is surprising that race is still around.

(Perhaps a better term with which to describe your views, as opposed to agnostic atheist, would be "tea pot atheist". I am not sure who coined the term, but it was brought to my attention by Sir Richard Dawkins. The explanation was something along the lines of "I do not believe that there is a tea pot in the rings of Saturn, but I cannot rule out the possibility that it is there." Hope this is useful (or at least interesting).)

"Too many times, religion mothers crimes and wickedness." -Lucretius

Truer words were never spoken.

There are open-minded religious people out there, and there are closed-minded religious people.

I can only hope that as time goes on, those with closed minds will shrink in numbers, for lack of a better way to put it.

A bit low, I think, (tomaz) to insinuate that ALL who believe in God/gods/Flying Spaghetti Monsters are a bit thick and can't think for themselves. I find that it is not faith that is the problem, it is how man interprets faith into religion.

TO the original post, it is a pity how narrowminded the religious can be. However, the same goes for the nonreligious, some who are firmly against ANY religion... they can be pretty intolerant. I suppose we are conditioned to believe what we are taught; it is only the questioning minds who are free to escape the cycle. As for me, I am still a Catholic, which is surprising, considering I learned how to curse at a Catholic elementary school. But I believe in a loving God who gave humans brains so we can use them, and not just sit around and drink the Kool-Aid.

A few of those brought tears to my eyes. It seriously scares me and hurts me that there are people like that. I really don't think the world is going to survive for much longer like this. I dislike people like that. I don't mind the Christians that are okay with stuff like this, but not like those. How can they think that because I, and you, as Athiests aren't human?

Very nice blog. It made me join the site when I stumbled upon it.

Nice blog. I am atheist myself. I can't stand when people start mouthing off about things they don't understand and are not informed about.

By the way this is my first post here. I am a guy that was brought up with the moral of equal rights for all period.

funny how i Stumbled upon this blog....

its sick how ignorant some are....

funny how i Stumbled upon this blog....

its sick how ignorant some are....

Man, most of these posters sound like they have the IQ of a rock...

The one that talked about evolution and speaking monkey was ridiculous.

I know that, in this world, there are many close-minded, ignorant individuals, but this is a startling testament to that reality.

At one time in my life, for many years, I was a Christian. I am now an atheist, thank god. Yes there are some very disturbed christians in this country.

As a Wiccan, and a lesbian, I'm utterly disgusted by what the Christian religion has done over the years. I realize that not all Christians are ignorant, bigoted people... yet it's clear that a good amount are. In all reality... all of the good points of Christianity was stolen from the Pagan religion. Which is why Christmas was banned in the Puritan society. I'm ex-catholic myself and had to sit through mass with the monsignor ranting about the evils of homosexuality as I sat there with my fists clenched and jaw tight. This hatred, this IGNORANCE, is what led to both the Salem Witch Trials, AND the Holocaust. It's amazing what little amount of love, and acceptance they truly know. Heck, I've had my fair share of run ins with people who have told me that I'm vile and should go back to the "Lord". In all reality, the ones who say these things and claim to be Christians are not so. In fact, the God Squad runs in the complete opposite direction as what the bible says. What of "Love thy neighbor"? "Though shall not kill"? "Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you"? Yet, while they preach these things, how many of them wear clothing of multiple material? Or eat shellfish? Both of which are a sin. Yet, they say I shall go to hell for I am hateful, deserve to die, make them sick and should be punished for my sins? I have yet to have some one reply back to my questions when I ask them "who shall the Lord punish more? I who loved? Or you who hated because I love?" or, "how have I wronged you?", or even "how would you feel if you couldn't marry the one you loved?" Never, have I had an answer. I wonder why.

(Yes, and I thank the Stumble button for finding this)

It's almost a comedy,,, The bible is just a compiled bit of verbiage voted on by an all male council with an agenda to control the masses so long ago that almost nobody bothers to remember it!

Who cares what spin is now put on what is written in it?

I can't put any sharper point on it.

To read most of the posts here, one would think that religious people (especially Christians) had a monopoly on intolerance and hatred and closed mindedness.

Just for the record, Does anyone on this forum know how many people have been murdered or executed during times of "peace" by "atheistic" governments during the past 100-150 years?

You might want to take some time check this out; Because if you add up all the dead of every "religious" conflict since the beginning of recorded history, 2 world wars, the Korean & Vietnam wars, and any other recent wars, the number would not even come close to those who have been murdered in peace time by Atheistic governments.

How many educational institutions or hospitals have been founded by compassionate or benevolent atheists? Or how about rescue missions to assist the homeless, disaster relief, or assistance to widows & orphans?

My point here is, it is always easy to point a finger at another, but when we chose to be critical... be sure to watch out for the three fingers that point back at ourselves.

I will be first to admit that there certainly has been a lot of "wrong" done in the name of "Christianity", but a lot of good has been done as well.

If you could snap your fingers and every influence made by Christianity through out history (good & bad) would suddenly disappear... what do you think the world would be like today? Do you honestly think the world would be better or a worse place to live?