Article belittles atheists....

[WillParkinson]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/jan06/388158.asp

My reply:

I am an atheist. And I very much find your January 30th article to be...well...rude and arrogant.

I've seen cars broken down on the side of the road. I've stopped to help many times. I can't offer much in the way of practical know-how, but I can offer my cellphone to call for help. I see so many cars zip by, ignoring the plight of the stranded. By your way of thinking all those people must obviously be atheists. Any good Christian would obviously stop and help, right? Tell that to the minister from the article in the Sunday paper, "Who's sheltered". How many members of his own congregation passed him by when they believed him homeless?

Where do I get my belief system? I've learned it as I've grown. From friends and family and others whom I consider to be close. Some of their teachings I take to heart. Others I smile at and go on with my life. That's how I feel about your religion. If it comforts you then, by all means, embrace it. Don't seek to disparage me because I haven't chosen the same path you have.

I live by the phrase, "Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer." Your God is not going to change the world. Only by changing ourselves and looking at others can we hope to bring about peace.

Before you put on your belief and wear it like a set of clothes please remember...one size does not fit all.

[Kolesar]

1. Thanks for writing that

Do you suppose what we are reading is a political initiative hatched in the mordor of the Bradley family and/or the neocon Bradley Foundation?

[MindPilot]

2. There is a thread on this here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=263x15047

That was a very well-crafted response; I would not have been as kind.

[WillParkinson]

4. Oh sure...

Beat me to it! :-)

[rogerashton]

3. My Dad was an atheist.

And I have lived with other atheists in my family over the years. (My own opinions are a little more complex but within the scope of free thought.) I have three comments to add on this column.

1) According to an old country song "There's a whole lot of Sunday Christians," that is, people who profess Christianity for the sake of the social advantages of being known as Christians. However, being known as an atheist has only social disadvantages in this country. The only reason for being an open atheist is moral commitment. I conclude that professing atheists are, on the whole, far more moral people than professing Christians, and my observations confirm this deduction.

2) The author says that some atheists derive their beliefs "from reason" and goes on to describe this as "irrational." Like many Christians, the author seems to have an inconsistent and confused concept of what is rational.

3) My dad also disliked the prospect of it all ending at death, and in his last years said that he was tempted to believe -- but he had the guts to stick to what his reason persuaded him of. In this he was right, since the desire to believe is not evidence of the truth of the things one wants to believe. On this, too, the author seems confused.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Good answer (nt)

nt

[Hello_Kitty]

6. Astonishing

He sets up this false dichotomy where you can only be moral and altruistic as a believer. As a non-believer you MUST be a selfish hedonist. And this jerk teaches? What? Please tell me he doesn't teach Logic...:eyes:

[Eric J in MN]

7. Did you send that as a Letter to the Editor? nt

nt

[WillParkinson]

15. This was in the paper on January 30...

I just saw the LTTE this morning and had to go back and find it.

The letter I wrote was directly to him.

[greekspeak]

8. Try not to let them push your buttons too much

People like the writer of this are moral relativists, despite their vehement rhetoric to the opposite. This modern mix of fundamentalism, evangelical-ism, strict Calvinism, and politics is a dangerous cocktail for American society, no the world. There is nothing particularly Chritian about it. There is a set of hateful, ignorant, extremist feelings and a cloak of cobbled together Christian dogma wrapped around them to justify them.

[William769]

9. Both sides gets attacked

& neither side is right for doing it.

[Atman]

10. Yeah, us atheists cause such problems with our crusades and preaching

I don't recall any lesson in my history book about atheists marching across the countryside burning the homes of non-non-believers. I don't recall any atheists putting scarlet letters on Christians as objects of scorn and ridicule. I can't recall the last bloody war with atheists. Hmm. Damned atheists.

[MindPilot]

11. Perhaps it's time we did some atheist looting and pillaging

Then we'd earn the same respect and tolerance that believers demand. Maybe we could get some government money too!


I'm offended because this newspaper has printed an insult to my not-a-religion. Let's start a riot and burn down a building.

[SidDithers]

12. And once again, the Christian attempts to define...

the athiest, instead of allowing him or her to define themself.

Good letter in response :toast:

Sid

[dysfunctional press]

13. Athiests have a more honest moral code-

doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing- live and let live...rather than being scared into doing the right thing for fear of god's wrath and eternal damnation...ultimately, christians for example, expect to be eternally rewarded after death for all their good deeds in life..athiests just expect doing right to help create a better place for everyone to be while they're still alive.

[obreaslan]

14. I'm having a problem.

(From the other Thread)
I am thinking of hating a person based on their personal sexual orientation. I may even resort to violence against them. Is that wrong or right? I can't decide because I hover in this void since I am an atheist. I don't know the touch of god so I can't discern what the correct thing to do is. If only I had a belief system in place that would tell me the right thing to do. My instinct says to not judge them and to live and let live, but those around me that are lucky enough to have been wrapped in an archaic belief system tell me that at great, true and compassionate god would instruct me to hate and shun this person. What to do, what to do?

Signed,
Disconnected in the Void


:sarcasm:


*edit to add: I so not believe that all christians are like this, just the ones who would write an article like this. Peace. :hippie:

[poverlay]

16. There it is in a nutshell. Well said and thank you... n/t

[WillParkinson]

17. Excellent post....

Please, if you don't mind, send it to the writer. Let him know your thoughts. (His e-mail is at the bottom of his diatribe.)

[SmokingJacket]

18. Boy, what an idiot that guy is.

He can't imagine why anyone who doesn't believe in God would want to be kind.

It's called EMPATHY, asshole. Learn about it.

[genie_weenie]

19. Oh no!

This has crushed my staunch belief in secular humanism... wait...

[nemo137]

20. What an asshole (him, not you). For a supposed Christian, he seems to have

missed the bit about first taking the log out of his own eye before dealing with the speck in his brother's.