Praying in a church is not claiming to literally have a conversation with God.
If you think "praying" is literally "talking to God" then you are silly. Plenty people pray, not just priests. It can be a form of meditation.

Even if that was true, how does it represent all religious people?
Is this generalisation still not getting through to you?

And one point. Getting rid of religion will stop people like the madman in the supermarket how exactly?

If someone is criminally insane and is going to kill someone, they'll do it regardless of if there's a church down the road or not.

They'll just find another excuse to make themselves feel better about their evil act.

"If you think "praying" is literally "talking to God" then you are silly"


I nominate this is the single most ridiculous post of 2011:joker:

After all the tosh you've come out with today? Don't make me laugh.

Read the rest of my post.

There's a BIG difference between praying to God and talking to God, where a voice talks back telling you to kill people.

Do you understand?

:joker:good response Zippy.

The problem with that logic is that religious people more often than not don't respect the none religious or indeed those virgin to religion.

Religious people in positions of power will indulge their version of society onto others. Religious parents will indoctronate their children (often refered to as being raised with a particular religion) Inspite of the fact nothing they believe in can be proven and children are vunerable to being groomed with all sorts of rubbish.

As a result of the above comments I have made I conclude that deluded people of any sort should not be respected neither should their deluded beliefs.......

Anyone who takes advantage and grooms children with beliefs that cannot be proven deserves the most utter contempt one can give them....

More generalised nonsense.

That ought to be Bananarama's custom status.

Of which you are clearly an expert by making such a lack of detailed response with no intellectual satus what so ever...I feel sorry for people like you as you contribute nothing to a debate

Another pointless response........

And you do contribute to the debate? Coming in at the last minute to make a comment on all religious people based off a couple of your own examples.

As I said before, unfair generalisation. And calling my posts a generalisation shows you don't understand anything in this thread.

Satus is not a word. And whatsoever is all one word. Just a tip.

Religion does not deserve respect. Probably my biggest gripe against it is it targets children who are the most vulnerable members of society. It deserves to be mocked.

Atheism does not deserve respect. Probably my biggest gripe against it is it targets children who are the most vulnerable members of society. It deserves to be mocked.

In the past Religion was forced onto Children in Schools,in one faith,the Children were even taught by Nuns. that has all changed in recent times, Religion is still taught obviously in faith schools but in many others it is more a topic than a main subject.

The thing is surely it is Parents who allow their Children to have this instruction, so while it's true that some schools and churches do flood Children with religion,it is supported by the Parents too.

We learn more from others in life, it's where I believe my best experiences will come from and from where I will learn most,maybe its time for all Church hierarchy and Parents to step back and not subject their Children to religious teaching of any format and as the grow and get older,let them make the decision as to if they wish to learn about it themselves.

I can't ever see that day coming though.

It does not. People who do not believe in gods dont foist this on children the same way they dont teach them they believe in dragons, invisible men, fiery winged penis's and man eating fannies.

No parent would knowingly tell a small child that there were monsters under their bed so why tell them that there is a devil under the ground?

You are really asking this question?

Parents do not believe there is a monster under the bed and that is why they don't tell children as much.

Parents do believe there is a prison for criminals and they most certainly do tell their children there are police, a prison and they ought to avoid committing crimes.

Parents do believe there is a 'prison' and bad warden for some 'criminals' in the afterlife,
but,
with rare exceptions they don't discuss this with children until they are nearing adults (or old enough to deal with it),
and,
very very few Churches discuss hell other than in in the context of how Jesus makes it unnecessary.

What I did here was mirror your thinking which would go something like this:

It is a kind of 'abuse' to children to never warn them there is consequences to bad behavior. That there is a devil. See I presume that. So since the Devil does exist then it is right and correct and proper I should act accordingly.

and given that the Devil does exist then you are immoral and 'abusive' to children not telling them.
Actually you 'foist' your fake belief on them. Which is really sick.

religion-yes

People that use religion to twist for their benefit and use to justify killing-no

religion or people that present themselves as priests/pastors?

I know there's a quote in the bible " many will come in my name but not all are pure of heart" or something like that

obviously atheists don't believe there is a devil so therefore why would they warn their children about something they don't believe in?

In a way yes, I wouldnt walk into a Church and piss on the altar and I think people's right to be religous deserves respect. But as a concept it doesnt inherently deserve respect no

No.

Nice controversial reply.:joker:




JK. Of course it deserves respect, like all other things.


Edit. Although people should respect what people believe in, I don't condone religion being thrust upon children.

Why does it deserve respect? What if you feel it's doctrines don't respect you? Why do 'all other things' deserve respect? Does this extend to homophobia and racism? What if they fit into someones 'beliefs'?

No it does not deserve respect :nono: But I'm not the type to tell an 84 year who goes to mass or anything they're wrong. Religion is not a big part of my life, I hardly ever think about it.

Exactly. That is what I was getting at.

Well which ever path that you yourself follow it is likely you will bring your kids up that way and there'll always be criticism from one side or the other.

Touché!

Yes. You got the idea too.

^THIS.
I do respect everyone and there beliefs as i hope they do to me
BUT i think atheism does not deserve respect.
I mean who are you to go up to people and tell them what they believe in isnt true.

Well I have never got this devil and hell thing if you are bad. According to the writings,the devil acts against God or a God, so what one earth would the devil,if it exists, want to punish people for being bad for.Why would a devil take any soul, spirit or whatever and in a place like hell punish it for all eternity for being bad and annoying to or disobeying God or a God.
I have never seen any even basic common sense to that argument.

Have more respect for spiritualism than i do mainstream religions but thats just me.

You don't see the basic common sense in that?
The Devil hates God. God loves his children. The Devil wants to take God's children and torture them. To make God suffer. To hurt God. To steal from God.

I mean it seems to me that would make sense in it's own evil horrifying way.

Not all atheists do that.

The ones that do are preaching in a similar fashion to the annoying Religiotards who do it all the time.

I see no difference. You are an absoloute hypocrite for respecting some beliefs but not others.

it's called opinion

wasn't even aware atheism was actually a religion. So I am religious after all?

damn

Well if your presumption was correct and there is no difference then YOU would be a hypocrite for having different level of respect.

Then again I don't think you practice what you preach. I suspect you have a lot of respect for someone who (going to guesstimate) someone who was raised in a strict fundamentalist Christian home but somewhere in University fell into Rastafarianism... but a kind of 'Agnosticism',
versus,
a hardcore Scientologist.
I am going to guess you have have a healthy level of respect for the former and you have little respect for the latter?

Anyways, I do have varying levels of respect for whatever belief systems and worldviews.
High on my list would be Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and then much lower would be Islam,
and,
then I have very little respect for Scientology, Mormonism,
but,
Way way at the bottom is the belief system that is nearly by 'definition' the stupidest most illogical unreasonable belief system on the planet and that is Atheism.
Naturalistic Atheism. I mean this is a belief based on what could actually be a 'childrens first lesson' on illogical statements:
From Nothing came Something.

I mean seriously, if you had to stay up all night inventing the 'stupidest thing ever said' and hired professional writers and philosophers you would eventually come up with:
Something came from Nothing.

The Dictionary could use Atheism as an example near 'Stupid'. It is such a stupid belief system it makes Scientology slightly credible. That is amazing.

So yes I do have various degrees of respect but that is speaking to the belief system. Not the person themselves.
It is true that most Atheists are shltheads, bitter apples and dicks,
but,
I'm also aware that many of them are just scared or willfully ignorant or just naive enough like we all are. In a very human way.
For them, 'naturalistic evolutionism' is a comforting 'fairie tale for adults' that they need to help them get through life. A 'crutch' if you will. or a 'blinder' helping them avoid facing the scary.. actually terrifying idea of an afterlife and more specifically a 'Maker' whom they might just need to answer to.
I can respect that person. Also they may be quite good at many other things.

I have to admit, I've never thought of it that way.That would make more sense.

Can you try and make that clearer as it does not make sense?

ah ok, I see what you were saying now, that's a fair point.

Not at all. I'm the one who has been giving the argument that no belief system is obligated respect - therefore it is up to me to choose what to respect.

rk3388 said on the other hand, and I quote, 'I do respect everyone and their beliefs' but then goes on to say Atheism he has no respect for.

So yeah. I won't even bother trying to tackle the rest Sailor Boy. You're far, far from the grasp of reality and I wouldn't ever bother trying to reason with you.

Spoken like a theologian. Have you never stopped to consider these two things? That since mass and energy can only be converted into energy and vice versa, that the beginning of the universe was completely spontaneous and that this fundamental physical property of all matter and energy mean that no causal relationship between matter and a non-corporeal deity is even possible? Also since time is finite (and not even completely linear as we've discovered in the past century), the Big Bang wasn't an event that occured somewhere along some abstract timeline of infinity, but in fact was the beginning full stop? It's emininently logical

What is this born-again protestant fixation with trying to discredit the natural sciences? Even Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians know better and have done for a long time. Not even Augustine and the earlier Church fathers took the Creation story literally and we are talking about a man who ushered in the dark ages. I'm glad you say you respect such people (after insisting over 9000 times that you didn't, but then consistency is not really your strong point), otherwise there wouldn't be many people left to respect.

Bang On Right.

Of course it does, it is plan disrespectfull to openly disrespect someones belief system or culture. Anyone who tries to justify otherwise is wrong.