https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmDjpiollkQ


Sunday creationist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb-UMwv_0kc


If god created the sun on the third day, how did 3 days pass ?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2019 04:03PM by Dave the Atheist.

Funny. And all religions seem to have that same answer—-we don’t know why god lets the world be so awful and cruel.

For me now, it would only be in the context of “History of World Religions,” and how to identify and deflect the accostings of pushy religious fanatics.

Since children can't enter binding contracts until 18, it should be illegal for children to join churches until they're adults.


All earlier religious education should independent of a church and comparative.

Being an active Mormon is worse for you than smoking cigarettes or drinking beer. Both are off limits to the under-18 crowd.

Christians sign no "binding contracts" to join churches.

What about billion-year contracts?

Should we be teaching atheism to children?
How about teaching the ability to question?

After reviewing cosmology and life-origination studies, should we at least admit we are beyond our depth?

How does one "teach Atheism" ?

That's what I was wondering.

Teaching quality of reason and evidence, and that we do not have answers to everything is the honest thing to do.

Not adding "God did it" to everything might be what some people mean by teaching atheism maybe.

The wonder and beauty of the universe, looking up at the sky with a child, can be a great experience. We are all part of the magnificent universe in some way. We can strive to learn more. Let the child's imagination answer questions about what we don't know and it will make as much sense as the religious teachings!

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How does one "teach Atheism" ?


Google it. I am sure there are many atheists that would have dealt with this with their own children.

“Dave the Athiest” why are you an athiest? Teach me.

My parents taught me non stamp collecting. I've been not stamp collecting all my life because of it.

Maybe by watching a bunch of Sam Harris , Chris Hitchens videos on You Tube would a good start

An even easier way is simply to refrain from teaching religion.

Parents have always taught their children various beliefs. We can disagree about which beliefs we like or don't like, but I really don't want the government telling me what to teach my kids. In regard to religion we have the 1st Amendment which protects religion and non religious people as well. .The government couldn't prevent child baptism if it wanted to because that is a basic tenant of Christianity.

You must watch out for those bad tenants. They will wreck the place.

Right, you can paint the walls and put new carpet in but you can never get rid of the smell.

Autocorrect strikes again.

Always shifting the blame.

No worries it's nice to have fun, but only occasionally.

True, there is the freedom of religion and conscience and the government shouldn't but it.

That doesn't make Creationism an less retarded than it is though.

https://youtu.be/aFGHerqhSC8
Baptizing babies , guess they have no say about

Hockeyrat Wrote:
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> https://youtu.be/aFGHerqhSC8
> Baptizing babies , guess they have no say about
This is a hilarious video

That's not hilarious, it's sick. The baby does not deserve that. BTW, there are multiple videos of babies being dunked in ways that make me wonder what the hell is wrong with their parents.

It's hilarious in a sort of sadistic way... It does make your eyes pop open! And when you say "Whoa!" it's not because you think the kids are being hurt.

Seeing that video did not affect me the way reading the stories posted about how some of you were raised did. Yeah, religion...

child abuse while parents watch. Religious insanity.

That is a Russian Orthodox baptism. I don't know if they always flip the child around that much, but most other denominations pore a little water on the head or sprinkle it.Often the child doesn't even wake up While I dont think I would allow my child to be flipped like that, I doesn't look like them kids were.harmed. I would insist the.priest do it slower and more carefully.A small baby could possibly be injured if flipped like that if his head isnt supported. I saw other videos of Orthodox baptism that were not like that. I suspect this priest was showing off



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 11:44AM by bona dea.

Exactly, it’s funny in the way that people actually accept this.
Can’t believe all these parents going along with this, creepy

I would say yes religion is necessary for kids. And the reason is that respect for life and your neighbor and his property is the main teaching of Christianity. Without that idea society is doomed. Consider the great societies of the 20th century that decided that they were going to get rid of god. In Russia Stalin rose to power and his Bolshevik bureaucracy killed millions of peasants because they didn't believe what the bible says-- not to kill.

This new world order dictated a new philosophy which was that the state grants the rights to the people, men live for the state, and men can be killed if it progresses the new world order. Human life is of little value. They worked on breaking up families sent people to the gulocs as slaves. Stalin killed anyone in his way. Instead of all men are equal under god with unalienable rights. All men are killed or become slaves.

There is a pattern here that seems to prevail in society. which is that without religion men (as a group) tend to worship themselves and their own ideas over others.

(there are some good atheists by themselves, but not as a society)

"respect for life and your neighbor and his property is the main teaching of Christianity" ... is that the reason 95% of prison inmates are christians ?

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "respect for life and your neighbor and his
> property is the main teaching of Christianity"
> ... is that the reason 95% of prison inmates are
> christians ?


I have to lol@Dave! However...good point.

“is that the reason 95% of prison inmates are christians”

There has to be over 5% Muslims.

macaRomney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Consider the great societies of the 20th century
> that decided that they were going to get rid of
> god.

Sweden? Denmark? And what about the societies that never had a God--the Buddhist or Confucian countries? Are those the ones you mean?


--------------------
> In Russia Stalin rose to power and his
> Bolshevik bureaucracy killed millions of peasants
> because they didn't believe what the bible says--
> not to kill.

So people who believe in the Bible don't kill others? Then what was that little Thirty Years War about? And what of the Inquisition? And what about the Christian pogroms?

Historically, faith in the Bible doesn't seem very helpful in stopping murders and other atrocities.


---------------
> This new world order dictated a new philosophy
> which was that the state grants the rights to the
> people, men live for the state, and men can be
> killed if it progresses the new world order.

That's funny, because the "new world order" dated to about 1990 and not earlier. And with regard to Communism, can you show me where communist doctrine says "the state grants the rights to the people?"

As for the notion that "men can be killed" if necessary to promote social progress, which is what I think that sentence was intended to convey, how does that differ from Christian Italy or Germany during the 1930s or what Christian Russia did to the Jews? Aren't these all examples of non-communist states putting the interests of society ahead of the individual and even his right to exist?


-----------------
> [In communist societies] Human
> life is of little value. They worked on breaking
> up families sent people to the gulocs as slaves.
> Stalin killed anyone in his way. Instead of all
> men are equal under god with unalienable rights.
> All men are killed or become slaves.

Yup. A state that breaks up families and transforms people into slaves is horrible. And how about a country that invades new regions and dispossesses and kills the inhabitants? Is that what you mean? 'Cause Stalin definitely did that too.


--------------------
> There is a pattern here that seems to prevail in
> society. which is that without religion men (as a
> group) tend to worship themselves and their own
> ideas over others.

African Americans and Native Americans may differ with you over the question of whether Christianity prevents a country from enslaving others and slaughtering less powerful groups. So too, of course, would the Jews who suffered under Christian rule for centuries in Europe. Perhaps Communist countries aren't as different as you claim.


--------------
> (there are some good atheists by themselves, but
> not as a society)

About a third of Europe is atheist, so too Japan and South Korea and most of India and Southeast Asia. None of those societies are good?

I agree that teaching morality has merit. Teaching about God does too in the right place, setting, and context.

Society cannot legislate morality, but it can teach it. It isn't taught in the schools or public arenas. If it isn't taught in the home or houses of worship, where else is it taught?

My friend the nun who lived through the Holocaust survived that to be subject to Communist rule following WWII living in Budapest, Hungary. Because she was a nun she wasn't allowed to teach children. The communists wouldn't allow any religious person to teach children for fear of them having divided loyalties. The Communist government was the only god it wanted its subjects to be worshiping.

Until she could claim political asylum and immigrate to America she had no religious liberty whatsoever.

Without spiritual teachers nations lose their moral compass.

Atheists make a conscious choice not to believe in God, after being presented with the choice to believe. If God were taken out of all educational materials I suspect there would still be those who find their spiritual centers and life source connecting them to their Creator.

Because life finds a way and stirs the soul and its longings for home ie, God. This world is transcending, ever changing. The more it changes, the more it leaves those spiritually seeking looking for meaning we aren't going to find in the temporal.

Or put more succinctly, as one of my favorite scripture passages says in Psalms 121 (love love love King David's prose:)

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."

I am glad for my faith and that I was taught as a child to believe in God and the bible. It has been a mainstay for me throughout my life. It remains so to this day. I taught my children from early childhood on as well. Because I knew they weren't going to get any religious teachings at school. So as a parent it was my responsibility to teach them and educate them as best I could. No I am not perfect but as a mother I felt duty bound to guide them.

Add that because of the religious liberty we are endowed with as a nation, whether or not children should be taught religion should be left to their parents as to their upbringing. That is a personal decision by the parents until the children are old enough to decide for themselves. The government should not be interfering with that, nor should the schools.

As for what can be legislated, neither morality can anymore than religion. Values, like morality, need to be taught at a parent's knee. Schools still mold and shape our children to a large degree irrespective of our values and beliefs as parents. That's why so many evangelical parents home school their children today. They don't trust the system to educate their children about God according to their values and beliefs.

My children were taught about God at home, and educated in the secular public school system. Yes the two were at odds with the other. Yet some of their school teachers were really good Christians at the local public school level. Not so much at the college level.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 01:38AM by Amyjo.

In my experience, morality is assuredly taught in the schools. The importance of kindness, the costs of bullying, the need for honesty and obedience to rules: that stuff is taught from Day One in the pre-schools and elementary and secondary schools with which I am familiar.

You also find highly ethical countries from which God has been purged. Among these are the Scandinavian countries and Japan; one might even put Canada and Australia in that category although they are marginally more religious than the foregoing countries.

You are right that some people will gravitate towards a sense of God no matter what is taught in the public square, but don't underestimate the ability of people to do what is right because it is right. One of the major implications of God is doctrine that can be used to put aside normal ethical constraints and perform acts of great evil. One day it's "though shalt not kill," the next it's "go ye and slaughter the Canaanites."

You could include China. They may be “godless commies”, but Confucianism is highly moral.

In China people are put to death for petty theft.

People are sent to death for disavowing Communism.

Confucianism may be highly moral. Communism is not. Its human rights abuses are legendary, factual, highly unethical, and immoral.

People aren't punished for denouncing Communism, which is as moribund as Confucianism. The truth is that China has no ideology right now, just the pursuit of wealth under the eye of a fragile dictatorship.

But the point remains, China is a country with no resilient moral system run by anxious tyrants. It is atheist/agnostic because too many gods--the old Chinese ones, the newer Marxist ones--have failed and there is nothing left to believe in.

Maybe they are put to death for denouncing despotism then.

There are reports of billionaires and CEO's recently in the news and from recent past (& not so recent past,) who suddenly go missing because they went against the 'order' of despotism, or fell out of favor there. Whether that has more to do with falling out of despot's favor, or Communism, is really hard to say because they are ruled by despotic Commies with iron fists.

Those are the stories of the oligarchs and wealthy ones that make the evening news. The lesser known ones are the ones that will never be heard about, because no one knows who "they" are. They just quietly disappear. In the middle of the night. Walking down the street. Who do you file a missing person's report to when the government is the reason for them missing?

Sick bastards. That's Communist despotism for you.

"Sick bastards. That's Communist despotism for you."

Again, there's nothing communist about it. It's simple despotism, the sort that one sees in other dime-a-dozen tyrannies.

Thank you. From a complicated despot. :)

D&D, you are at least a $0.25 despot, far more complex and valuable than the run-of-the-mill tyrant!

Nicest compliment I've ever been paid!

With an attitude like that, $.035 for sure!

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> With an attitude like that, $.035 for sure!


Oh you guys!!! <ha>

I assume most religions raise their kids like I was in mormonism, but maybe not. Thankfully, my parents weren't over the top mormon. My dad was far from your typical mormon and he gave us critical thinking skills. I can just imagine all you thinking, "But she married someone gay." That is what my dad used to think!!! He kept asking me over the years if I knew he was gay before I married him. He'd say, "You're too intelligent to do that." Then I told him that the leaders told me it was up to me to save him. If my dad had been younger and still in decent health, I think he would have bolted right out of his chair. He raised us with brains. My dad was more of an "ancestral" mormon. His parents were mormon and not that active, and he adored them.

But, I didn't learn morality from mormonism. I believe that most people are born GOOD. I know so very many people who are not any religion who are wonderful people, much better people than a lot of the religious I know, but I have to admit that some of the most wonderful people I've ever known in my life were my mormon coworkers who were men who were older than I was. They were nothing like the mormon men I've known most of my life. They would be good no matter what religion or no religion they chose to be.

All I have to do is watch old Rusty and know that he is not the example I would ever want to hold up for my children or grandchildren to follow as an example. I do take note that my daughter never quotes him on fb like she did Monson and Hinckley. It is so very obvious that she doesn't like him.

You can torture your child, starve them, chain them up, beat them mercilessly, deny them medical care, and you will go to jail or worse.

But the children's minds? Indoctrinate their young minds with religion which is all hearsay. Teach them to feel guilt and tell them they are not worthy unless they do what your particular religion says. Give them nightmares about Satan attacking them. Teach them to see others as less than and damage their ability to form bonds, to love. Do it! Do it even as you claim you are teaching Morals. Falsely claiming they will get these morals no where else. Make sure they know if they are gay they are disgusting. But hey, it's okay religious parents. It's religion and religion gets a pass. Always. The parents will not be held responsible for any harm they do to the child's mental well being, to their fragile egos. No Jail for you!

Bless the Beasts and the Children--and I don't mean religious type blessings, I mean real ones.

Agree with Done here, what parents put on kids is the stuff of nightmares, oftentimes, and sad that old generation predudices are taught to kids.

I read an opinion from somewhere that the Bible should be taught in schools: as fiction, as a historical work.

My parents didn’t teach me the Bible, there wasn’t one in the house that I ever saw. But there is so much else to be scared of as a kid!

My oldest stepsister came home from school when I was around 12 and told me that because of overpopulation we would soon only each have one square foot of space to live in. Terrified me! And at that age you just believe what adults tell you.

All those years later though it still bothered me to join a church with such an emphasis on uncontrolled breeding.