Excellent article Qcmbr - As a devout Christian you learn to tolerate the constant tension of living in a world that doesn’t operate the way your belief system says it’s supposed to work. You expend a lot of energy trying to make the world act one way while it seems fundamentally wired to behave entirely differently. You don’t even realize how much energy this takes until you finally let go of it.
A key reason why some atheists challenge religious beliefs
by defender of truth 193 Replies latest members adult
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Qcmbr
Voltaire:
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
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defender of truth
FHN said:
"The fact is, most people will never join a cult."
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True. That is what most people think makes them safe, which is why cults still entrap new members.
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" “Everyone is influenced and persuaded daily in various ways,” writes the late Margaret Singer, “but the vulnerability to influence varies. The ability to fend off persuaders is reduced when one is rushed, stressed, uncertain, lonely, indifferent, uninformed, distracted, or fatigued…. Also affecting vulnerability are the status and power of the persuader…. No one type of person is prone to become involved with cults. About two-thirds of those studied have been normal young persons induced to join groups in periods of personal crisis, [such as] broken romance or failures to get the job or college of their choice. Vulnerable, the young person affiliates with a cult offering promises of unconditional love, new mental powers, and social utopia. Since modern cults are persistent and often deceptive in their recruiting, many prospective group members have no accurate knowledge of the cult and almost no understanding of what eventually will be expected of them as long-term members. ”
"While we are at it,
let’s shatter another myth: people who join cults are not stupid, weird, crazy, weak-willed, or neurotic. Most cult members are of above-average intelligence, well adjusted, adaptable, and perhaps a bit idealistic. In relatively few cases is there a history of a pre-existing mental disorder.
Anyone is capable of being recruited (or seduced) into a cult if his personal and situational circumstances are right. Currently there are so many cults formed around so many different types of beliefs that it is impossible for a person to truthfully claim that he would never be vulnerable to a cult’s appeal."
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/265-who-joins-cults-and-why
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Regarding that last line.. If everyone on earth were educated, skeptical and critical-minded enough to reject the Bible, Quran, and any other supposed 'holy' writings..
Further, if they then realised there was no evidence of a God that cares for any of us, or cares about what we do..
Then we could claim that nobody will ever again be vulnerable to a cults appeal.
If my parents had been atheist or even agnostic ( that is, the cynical-of-any-religious-group-or-belief-system type of agnostic, not the open minded ignorant type JW's can still prey on ) , I would not be trapped in a family of cult members now..
And you, as well as millions of other people, would never have wasted however many years you spent in 'the Truth', delaying you from the peace and contentment that you hopefully now have..
Any religious belief system; beyond a God-doesn't-care type of seemingly nonsensical religion ( in that case, why even waste time going to a meeting or church to sing or talk about Him/It?!.. Why not join a humanitarian aid group or charity that spends all of their time helping people/animals?), leaves people vulnerable to control and manipulation, either by high control groups during a time of weakness, by dangerous extremists in a few cases, or by religious leaders..
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And, returning for a moment to the OP, (acknowledging that many believers would not do these things) has any atheist ever attacked, shunned, abused or killed anyone, merely based on a persons beliefs or lack of beliefs?
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismmyths/p/AtheismKills.htm -
defender of truth
BOTR said:"If you are a zealot, forcing your atheism on other adults, you are no scientist."
..and.."Please I saw the personality type in the New Left among communists."
Oh, come on.. I'm glad I started this thread, the prejudice is really coming out here, isn't it? Here's a good article:
"..falsely depicts Communism as an atheistic system in the same mold as modern atheism. The link between atheism and Communism is tenuous at best. The purveyors of Communism didn’t arrive at disbelief through rational thought, reasoned analysis, or scientific rumination."
"The familiar structures of the Church and religious belief are all present in Communist systems. In fact, one could easily define it as a religion, wherein “thoughtcrimes” replace sin, denigration of individualism exists as a proxy for the sin of avarice, omniscience of the State as proxy for God’s presence, indoctrinating constituency with “faith” in the State instead of faith in the Church/God, revising historical events replacing the flexibility of Biblical interpretation as justifying almost any action, and the cult-like worship for dictators replacing God-worship."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2009/08/why-the-communist-argument-fails/ -
defender of truth
Amendment:
"(acknowledging that many believers would not do these things)" should probably have read 'most believers would not do these things', having re-read the post. Sorry.
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Also.."has any atheist ever attacked, shunned, abused or killed anyone, merely based on a persons beliefs or lack of beliefs?" should have been 'has any sane, mentally stable atheist ever..', as I obviously can't say that there are not dangerous insane people that happen to be atheistic.
Also, please note the words 'merely based on' before you reply, they are important to the context.
( Just saying that before we get someone saying ''x person who was atheistic killed y people who were theistic" ).. -
defender of truth
In other words:
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Steven Weinberg -
FlyingHighNow
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
I'm pretty sure good people don't evil things, religious or not. Unless your definition of evil is quite different from mine. Evil people do evil things.
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Apognophos
What about parents allowing their child to die without proper medical treatment for religious reasons?
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FlyingHighNow
Want the answers? Here are the answers: ( )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPnk8oiAe5A
(Matthew Silver/ Street performer. http://www.maninwhitedress.com/ )
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FlyingHighNow
Apog, thank goodness most religion would never ask a parent to allow his child to die. Evil isn't always aware that it's evil.