Letters to the Editor
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Ms. Silverman is right,
"jesus is magic". Anyone mook who believes in a god(s), absent empirical proof and scientific evidence of their existence, is delusional. Atheists, though right, are treated as pariahs. God is a myth designed of the Mellenia to control peoeple, whether through Greek Gods, Mithrasian faiths, Druids, etc. Please read the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/
People like Rick Warren are ONLY in this game to make money. If they truly were to live (WWJD) as instructed by the bible, they would not have multi-million dollar homes, would not drive $90K automobiles, would not wear $2K suits, would not have accounts at Neiman-Marcus, etc. They are liars and manipulators. Every single one of them. It is amusing how their interpretation of a document rewritten thousands of times, the old and new testaments, is so flexible and malleable to allow them justify any position they take. I love the fools who send them money.
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Alex O'Neal
Someone rightly pointed out the prejudice many atheists receive from theists about their beliefs; but theists receive the same treatment from atheists. I've been on the receiving end of both sides of this. As a theist, I've been asked numerous versions of "You're intelligent - how can you believe that stuff?" Atheist friends seem to regard my faith as a strange aberration in someone they otherwise treat as smart and practical, whose advice in other areas they say they value. The concept that one can have an intelligent view of God seems beyond them.
Do you fear for losing your employment if you "come out" as a theist? Do you fear having your property vandalized if you put a fish symbol on the back of your car? Do you face the possibility of having your family disown you if you reveal to them your atheism?
If your answer to these questions is no, and I feel fairly confident in predicting that is so, then you have not experienced the sort of prejudice that many atheists face if they "come out".
I will furthermore point out that Christians make up 80% of the population of the USA and that atheists make up 5% of the population. The opportunities for prejudiced treatment are far greater for atheists than they are for theists.
Much of it comes from mistakenly conflating my faith with that of a fundamentalist, in the same way that many Christians conflate all Muslims with radical fundamentalist Muslims. But I realized (studying physics as a strong atheist) that there were no answers possible on this question. The goal to me is to understand the universe as best I may, and to represent my understanding as honestly and clearly as I may to myself and others.
Do you believe that Jesus the Christ is your Lord and Savior and that He died to expiate your sins if you but believe in Him?
If so then your essential beliefs are the same as the fundamentalists.
I don't believe in an old man in a heaven, I don't believe in intelligent design. My husband (PhD philosophy of religion, UVA) has actually presented on why intelligence design is both bad faith and bad science. I think those who question evolution and current cosmological theory are in deep denial about reality. Most of the religious people I know personally are not fundamentalists. They have a strong understanding of science, and don't want to impose their views on the rest of humanity. But we are tarred with the same brush as the vocal fundamentalist minority in the eyes of most atheists.
I think you are making a leap of logic here, I think that most atheists will acknowledge a difference between fundamentalist theists and moderate or liberal theists.
Even given that, it cannot be denied that Christianity is a proselytizing religion, that is part of its innate characteristics. I recognize that moderate and liberal Christians do not wish to use the power of the state to force others to assume their beliefs but the urge to persuade others is still there.
When atheists point to the prejudice of theists as a motivating factor in radicalizing atheism, they undermine their argument because they show the psychological roots of their own prejudice; when they don't acknowledge that the question itself is unanswerable, they show denial.
You appear to wish for atheists to exhibit an inhuman level of control over their emotions. Being constantly attacked, it is a natural human urge to counterattack. Even Dawkins is an agnostic atheist as are I suspect a majority of atheists.
(As my husband wrote, "The god sought by intelligent design is not a god worshipped by any member of any living religion - he is the bloodless god of the gaps, the god of the philosophers. The God of worship is a living being.") My point is that there are first- and second-level thinkers on both sides.
The God of Intelligent Design can also be the God worshiped by theists, intelligent design by a God does not preclude that God also being a personal God.
I'm not meaning to attack you here, just trying to clear up what I feel to be some misconceptions.
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WOW
12 pages of letters and not one instance of the word 'zeitgeist.' What is happening to my beloved Salon? Is evil afoot? Is there no God???
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Elvis Sighted
"If you speak about the Resurrection of Christ, all we know historically is that after Jesus died, his followers became convinced that he was alive again. Now, what does that mean? They told many stories. Some of them said, I saw him with my own eyes, I touched him, he actually ate food, he was not a ghost. That's in Luke's gospel. And others said, I saw him for a moment and then he faded -- the way many people say they've seen people they knew who died."
This reminds me of the Elvis Presley sightings after Presley passed away.
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To "A Parent"
So let me see if I get this right: you believe that the GOP is evil, but you will vote for them if they pay lip service to your faith?
You will abandon any chance of fixing the environment, reigning in the most predatory practices of capitalism, restoring our stature in the world, supporting the troops who have been so badly used in the service of an empire we didn't vote for, and restoring legitimacy to our government at all levels?
You will drop all that because you are amazed how many people don't believe in your version of God and are willing on the Internet to say so? People who most of the time are NOT politicians and have NO influence on the DNC? And the fact that the DNC spends a LOT of effort to cater to people of faith like you doesn't matter to you? You just want your fellow citizens to shut up?
Even if the DNC does more than pay lip service but actually tries to reaffirm the boundary between state and religion (whose erosion has led to the takeover of the once semi-peaceful born again movement by the worst power-hungry extreme right-winger Southern Baptists)? Even if the DNC works to restore funding to programs that actually have as their mission the proper stewardship of the earth? Even if they provide shelter for the poor and food for the hungry as Jesus instructed us to do?
In other words, the Dems ACTING on the priorities of the Beautitudes matter less to you than the GOP pretending to?
Did I get that right? Please let us know.