BurnTheShips

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Posts by BurnTheShips

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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

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  BurnTheShips

  So Russian Orthodox is the way to go?
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  BurnTheShips

  And the fact is that science has eyes. Which suggests that more weight should be put in science than in the "blind" do you not agree?

  Science deals with the natural. It is "blind" when it comes to the supernatural. This dovetails with the poem posted above.

  .....if you are correct, then equal weight should be put into the existence of Santa Claus. BA tried to circumvent the logic of this position by stating that, yes, all these are "gods" of a sort, but there is only one Almighty God. An obvious logical fallacy......

  It is not a logical fallacy. Comparing the infinite God to finite Greek, Roman, or pagan gods like Zeus, Apollo, or Thor or conjured up characters like Santa Claus etc is comparing apples and oranges. They are not the same thing. You can not construct an ontological argument for a finite lower-case god like Thor as you would for God (call Him/Her/It what you will, in the end we are speaking of the same thing).

  Burn
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  BurnTheShips

  There's no 'atheist hospitals' for the same reason Stalin didn't do what he did in the name of atheism.

  I did not bring up Stalin-but since you are....

  Stalin DID do what he did in the name of atheism. Stalin claimed his policies were based on Marxism-Leninism. Marxism is an explicitly atheistic ideology. Here are some quotes.

  Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.
  Karl Marx
  
  Religion is the opium of the masses.
  Karl Marx
  
  Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
  Karl Marx

  The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.
  Karl Marx

  Works of Karl Marx, 1855, Anti-Church Movement,Demonstration in Hyde Park

  Atheism is the core of the whole Soviet system —Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Oak and the Calf

  [Religion] in its very essence is the mortal enemy of Communism. —Leon Trotskii, Pravda, June 24, 1923

  http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/miner_stalins.html

  A fundamental conceit of the Communists had been their moral certainty that their new faith in "scientific atheism" would supplant what they believed to be mystical religious "mythologies," relics inherited from a bygone era of superstitions before Darwin, Marx, and electrification. Instead, despite the Communists' best efforts, religion outlasted the Communist era. In Russia itself, public opinion polls conducted after the fall of the Soviet state revealed that the institution most trusted by the average citizen was the Russian Orthodox Church.

  So much for 80 years of "enlightened" scientific atheism!!!!!

  Burn
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  39

  Why Do Atheists Get So Angry?

  by serotonin_wraith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2007/10/atheists-and-an.html.

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  BurnTheShips

  "I'll go round as a ghost offering Luke advice."

  Watch it! I love that movie! You might offend me!
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Hi Nvrgnbk

  Burn the ships , if you're promoting some sort of spirituality, not to be confused with a belief in the supernatural, many atheists are already there.

  I am not promoting that.

  Burn
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  BurnTheShips

  The people on this site that defend Christianity are making sure that groups like the JW's are able to survive because they defend making statements based on faith and attack those who criticize religion. I encourage all you latent former JW's still hanging on to some remnant of religion to contemplate this and take the bold step to realize that it was not just a few incidental doctrines that the JW's were wrong about, but the whole concept of god itself.

  I question your premise that believers make it easier for the Tower to florish. When I was a dub, the easiest converts were the ones that did not have a strong religious formation and faith to begin with.

  Unfortunately, freedom requires that we have to accept some things we do not like. Just like freedom of speech means we have to tolerate people saying things we do not agree with and freedom of assembly means we have to tolerate and protect the right of people to meet that we do not agree with, freedom of religion means we have to tolerate groups such as the JWs. Those negatives are the price that comes with the territory. The best way to deal with them is the way we are doing on the Internet, by showing their internal contradictions and secret doings. As for the "bold step" you propose, some of us have taken a "bold step" also, we have decided that the abusiveness and falsehoods perpetrated by the leaders of the Tower were not God's fault, and that we would not lose our faith in Him.

  Contact me through a personal message and I will tell you how you can make a difference by helping to create an environment where groups like the one we escaped from cannot form again.

  Why the personal message, is it something that cannot be posted publically? I am interested too, but not in anything which deprives others of their freedoms.

  Together we can make a difference, together we can make the world a better place.

  We can certainly try,

  Burn.
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Can you dispute that BTS? If that is the case, that would punch quite a hole in your theory.

  kwintestal, I think I can dispute it.

  Please read the page I posted in above, it is a study by the University of Chicago, please notice that it is a study and not a theory.it addresses acts of altruism. The study finds:

  Americans on average give selflessly of themselves at least 109 times a year, with religiousness being the strongest determinant of how often people reach out to help, according to a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

  In the first national survey of altruism and empathy ever conducted, NORC found that while people who never attend religious services perform on average 96 acts of helping others, people who attended services weekly and take part in other religious activities report performing 128 acts of kindness.

  The study asked about 15 different acts of altruism, such as talking with someone who is depressed, helping with housework, giving up a seat to a stranger, giving money to a charity, volunteering, helping someone find a job, or helping in another way, such as lending money. The connection between religious observance and charitable behavior was consistent across religious groups in the study, “Altruism in Contemporary America: A Report from the National Altruism Study.”

  and

  Even secular charities benefit more from donors who have a religious faith than they do from secular donors. Religious people are 10 percent more likely to give to secular causes than secular people, he said.

  This despite the fact that they are giving to religious charities as well!

  
  Burn
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  2

  Eighth wonder of the world?

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  wow!.

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=495538&in_page_id=1811.

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  BurnTheShips

  WOW!

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=495538&in_page_id=1811
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  8

  The Economist Magazine's Special Report on Religion

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the current issue of the economist includes an 18 page special report on the global rise of traditional religion.. in god's nameo come all ye faithfulthe power of private prayerthe new wars of religionholy depressingbridging the divideback to the ottomansstop in the name...the lesson from americathe report is pretty extensive and balanced i think.

  even a report of this size can only give an overview of such a large topic.

  they conclude some things that religious observers have known for some time.

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  BurnTheShips

  Who told you that?

  Why, the first article from the Economist special report referenced in the original post:

  Part of that secular fury, especially in Europe, comes from exasperation.

  The best hope for the world (in terms of getting together to bridge differences) is non-theocratic, secular governments.

  No argument there! At least in the current context.

  Cheers,

  Burn
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  203

  Opinion peice on Athiests

  by SickofLies in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there seems to be a lot of hostility on the board toward atheists still and a lot of comments floating around like atheists are to preachy.

  well i want to take a quick minute and deal with some of these issues.

  to begin with, to make any statement regarding atheists in general would be false for several reasons.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  BurnTheShips

  http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-r...341383277.html
  http://www.godandscience.org/apologe...delusion1.html
  http://www.godandscience.org/apologe...delusion2.html
  http://arn.org/docs/williams/pw_dawkinsfallacies.htmhttp://www.faithandthecity.org/issue...Delusion.shtml
  http://www.skepticalchristian.com/br_goddelusion.htm
  http://www.skepticalchristian.com/r_dawkins.htm
  http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/002/1.21.html
  
  Dawkins is a genius of a biologist, but he is clearly out of his depth as a philosopher or theologian.

  Burn