Why Atheism Will Replace Religion

[Educated What]

Hidingfromyou wrote:

<quoted text>I don't care if you have a crappy job or actually own a company. It doesn't make a difference to me - it's your wording and logic I'm looking at. The thing is, almost all of you creationists claim to have your own companies. So whatever, I've heard it before.

In fact, I hope you're doing well. I hope you have lots of money and never need to worry. I hope you have a loving spouse and a wonderful family.

I really and truly hope you aren't miserable but instead have a fulfilling life and are completely satisfied in your spirituality.

Why would I ever be bothered by your success? I hope you have it! Your success doesn't affect my life. In fact, if you're successful and own several businesses, all the better! I hope they're all doing well - if so, you're helping the world be a better place. I hope you're employing as many people as possible! In that case, you're helping the economy. Great!

I just don't believe you. Sorry. I don't. Heard it all before so many times - I used to believe everyone. But the same story, over and over "I own a business and make lots of money" etc., etc. Whatever.

But if you sincerely do, great. Your success does not hurt me. It only makes me happy for you.

Actually I am not married. Travel too much. But stop with your educational barrier. It shouldn't matter, but Givethemliberty was the first to bring it up. It shouldn't matter, Ivan very happy and I hope you are happy too! I wish everyone happiness. You don't need to believe me, it's your choice. Choice is what I stand for. That's all.

[Educated What]

Hidingfromyou wrote:

<quoted text>You don't do better than me. I'm the best at being me out of all the people in the world. No one is better than being me, than me.

And in my fields of expertise, I'd say I'm doing well. If you were in my field, you couldn't do this well. How do I know? Well...you're a creationist and I work in one of the fields of evolutionary science. So in my field, you can't compete with me. You'd be laughed right out of work.

But don't feel bad. I couldn't do your job. Especially, iff by chance, your job requires that you be some sort of religious person, I super can't do it. So you don't have to worry on this account. We'd both outcompete each other in our respective fields.

That's not an issue for me.

That's your problem, you are now comparing jobs. My job is a business ( more than one). I don't preach and I don't convert but I do donate a lot. On the other hand you don't do better than me either.

[Educated What]

Thinking wrote:

<quoted text>How do you know?
How do I know that's true?
Why should either party care?

Truthfully we shouldn't care about our beliefs.

[Fa-Foxy]

downhill246 wrote:

<quoted text>
Really?
Catholic 29,267 31.432%
Protestant 26,162 28.097%
None/Atheist/Unknown 18,537 19.908%
Muslim 5,435 5.837%
American Indian 2,408 2.586%
Nation of Islam 1,734 1.862%
Rastafarian 1,485 1.595%
Jewish 1,325 1.423%
Church of Christ 1,303 1.399%
Pentecostal 1,093 1.174%
Moorish 1,066 1.145%
Buddhist 882 0.947%
Jehovah's Witnesses 665 0.714%
Adventist 621 0.667%
Eastern Orthodox 375 0.403%
Latter-day Saints 298 0.320%
Scientology 190 0.204%
Hindu 119 0.128%
Santeria 117 0.126%
Sikh 14 0.015%
Baha'i 9 0.010%
ISKCON 7 0.008%
----------
Total 93,112 100.000%
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html...

Did it ever occur to you that people in jail or prison might be, what's te word ? Oh yeah. "LIARS" ?

Oh wait. People locked up in jail or prison would never lie ! Nevermind.

[Educated What]

Thinking wrote:

<quoted text>How do you know?
How do I know that's true?
Why should either party care?

Truthfully we shouldn't care about our beliefs. We shouldn't care about people's careers, life style, etc... I agree with you 100%! But for Givethemliberty to say that theists don't have good jobs, are dumb, uneducated, etc.., is going to the extreme especially since that's an opinion and he does not know that for a fact. I don't care what anybody believes in or do I care to preach to anyone. We should just learn to get along and work together for our freedom and pursuit of happiness.

[Buck Crick]

Hidingfromyou wrote:

<quoted text>

You are incorrect. All genes arise by mutation. Mutation is absolutely required for the evolution of drug resistance.

Is that so?

Penicillin resistant gonnorhea becomes resistant by taking up DNA from other organisms by "transformation". Plasmids can travel between strains of bacteria and carry resistance - this caused a Shigella epidemic. Some bacteria obtain resistance by picking up "gene cassettes" from other organisms and processing them via "integrons".

You are wrong again. Sure wish I knew as much about biology as you.

[polymath257]

Buck Crick wrote:

<quoted text>
Is that so?
Penicillin resistant gonnorhea becomes resistant by taking up DNA from other organisms by "transformation". Plasmids can travel between strains of bacteria and carry resistance - this caused a Shigella epidemic. Some bacteria obtain resistance by picking up "gene cassettes" from other organisms and processing them via "integrons".
You are wrong again. Sure wish I knew as much about biology as you.

And how did plasmids carrying resistance originate?

[Thinking]

Yes we should.

Educated What wrote:

<quoted text>
Truthfully we shouldn't care about our beliefs.

[Reason Personified]

MUQ wrote:

<quoted text>
So you go to a museum and "compare" your features against an ape?
And then you come back fully "convinced" and start shouting "Humans and Apes descended from the same ancestor"
How scientific and reasonable!!

No we would have never thought of anything like that, but when they mapped the DNA, it was a for sure. No more waffling, and damn what a shock, for some. We are, we are animals, we are primates, we are of this earth, just like everything else here. We have no sky-monkey's and neither do you. You have a mind-monkey, Allah goes no further than the mind of man, so how superstitious and silly of you.

[singularly unamused]

downhill246 wrote:

<quoted text>
Really?
Catholic 29,267 31.432%
Protestant 26,162 28.097%
None/Atheist/Unknown 18,537 19.908%
Muslim 5,435 5.837%
American Indian 2,408 2.586%
Nation of Islam 1,734 1.862%
Rastafarian 1,485 1.595%
Jewish 1,325 1.423%
Church of Christ 1,303 1.399%
Pentecostal 1,093 1.174%
Moorish 1,066 1.145%
Buddhist 882 0.947%
Jehovah's Witnesses 665 0.714%
Adventist 621 0.667%
Eastern Orthodox 375 0.403%
Latter-day Saints 298 0.320%
Scientology 190 0.204%
Hindu 119 0.128%
Santeria 117 0.126%
Sikh 14 0.015%
Baha'i 9 0.010%
ISKCON 7 0.008%
----------
Total 93,112 100.000%
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html...

Sure, it seems that way when you quote the statistics that have "Atheist" lumped in with "Unknown." On the very same page, there is a list where "Atheist" has its own category and is shown to be only 0.209%.

[Educated What]

Thinking wrote:

<quoted text>Yes we should.

No you shouldn't

[Givemeliberty]

Being a tad dishonest?

From your own link....
Atheist 156 0.209%

:)

downhill246 wrote:

<quoted text>
Really?
Catholic 29,267 31.432%
Protestant 26,162 28.097%
None/Atheist/Unknown 18,537 19.908%
Muslim 5,435 5.837%
American Indian 2,408 2.586%
Nation of Islam 1,734 1.862%
Rastafarian 1,485 1.595%
Jewish 1,325 1.423%
Church of Christ 1,303 1.399%
Pentecostal 1,093 1.174%
Moorish 1,066 1.145%
Buddhist 882 0.947%
Jehovah's Witnesses 665 0.714%
Adventist 621 0.667%
Eastern Orthodox 375 0.403%
Latter-day Saints 298 0.320%
Scientology 190 0.204%
Hindu 119 0.128%
Santeria 117 0.126%
Sikh 14 0.015%
Baha'i 9 0.010%
ISKCON 7 0.008%
----------
Total 93,112 100.000%
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html...

[Thinking]

Why ever not?

My belief is that I should do the right thing and treat as I would be treated.

Educated What wrote:

<quoted text>
No you shouldn't

[Thinking]

But... you're not meant to have a memory, that's cheating in godbotland!

Givemeliberty wrote:

Being a tad dishonest?
From your own link....
Atheist 156 0.209%
:)
<quoted text>

[downhill246]

Fa-Foxy wrote:

<quoted text>
Did it ever occur to you that people in jail or prison might be, what's te word ? Oh yeah. "LIARS" ?
Oh wait. People locked up in jail or prison would never lie ! Nevermind.

Sure it did occur to me but probably not to the atheists that made the original "low number of atheists in prison" claim and apparently it didn't occur to you to direct your criticism to those that posted the original claim rather than the one refuting the original claim. Kind of like the hockey player who retaliates ending up in the penalty box.LOL.

[Mona Lott]

downhill246 wrote:

<quoted text>
If a pagan writer heard that Jesus was supposedly resurrected but did not believe the claim, why would he say Jesus was resurrected? Justin Martyr was a pagan who converted to Christianity because he believed Jesus was resurrected.

Honey, you made both of the statements. I'm asking you which is it?

[downhill246]

singularly unamused wrote:

<quoted text>
Sure, it seems that way when you quote the statistics that have "Atheist" lumped in with "Unknown." On the very same page, there is a list where "Atheist" has its own category and is shown to be only 0.209%.

Only problem is the original source didn't separate atheists from the unknown so how did they come up with the .209%?

"In this table Atheist/unknown/none is third from the top and represents 19% of the population! Fifth from the bottom on this version is not atheist but "Hindu." So the version sent by the Bureau of Prisons is significantly different than the version put up by Swift.

It seems Swift misrepresented the data.

So in other words, the actual number of atheists is about a quarter as high as the Christians. It's not this tiny 0.2 percent of the population represented by Swift, it's actually pretty high. Thus, it's pretty clear he fabricated the data. These mistakes are too far off to be merely mistakes in recording....

http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2010/01/li...

[downhill246]

Mona Lott wrote:

<quoted text>
Honey, you made both of the statements. I'm asking you which is it?

No, I quoted Gary Habermas' book which if you disagree with his findings should be available at your local library for your reading pleasure.

“Overall, at least seventeen non-Christian writings record more than fifty details concerning the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, plus details concerning the early church."

Gary R. Habermas,“Why I Believe the New Testament is Historically Reliable,” Why I am a Christian, eds Norman L. Geisler & Paul K. Hoffman (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001), 150.

Tacitus
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular...."

Also of interest is the historical context for Jesus’ death, as he is linked with both Pilate and Tiberius. Additionally, J. N. D. Anderson sees implications in Tacitus’ quote concerning Jesus’ resurrection.

It is scarcely fanciful to suggest that when he adds that “A most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out” he is bearing indirect and unconscious testimony to the conviction of the early church that the Christ who had been crucified had rise from the grave.(6)

Although we must be careful not to press this implication too far, the possibility remains that Tacitus may have indirectly referred to the Christians’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection, since his teachings “again broke out” after his death.

..........
In 1972 Professor Schlomo Pines of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem released the results of a study on an Arabic manuscript containing Josephus’ statement about Jesus. It includes a different and briefer rendering of the entire passage, including changes in the key words listed above:

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and (he) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders....

There are some good reasons why the Arabic version may indeed be the original words of Josephus before any Christian interpolations. As Schlomo Pines and David Flusser, of the Hebrew University, have stated, it is quite plausible that none of the arguments against Josephus writing the original words even applies to the Arabic text, especially since the latter would have had less chance of being censored by the church. In addition, Flusser notes that an earmark of authenticity comes from the fact that the Arabic version omits the accusation that the Jews were to blame for Jesus’ death, which is included in the original reading.

http://www.garyhabermas.com/books/historicalj...

Gary Robert Habermas (born 1950) is an American evangelical Christian apologist, historian, and philosopher of religion. He is a prolific author, lecturer, and debater on the topic of the Resurrection of Jesus. Habermas is considered to be one of the foremost experts on the resurrection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Habermas

[Educated What]

Thinking wrote:

<quoted text>Why ever not?

My belief is that I should do the right thing and treat as I would be treated.

No you shouldn't worry about my beliefs. If you don't agree with them that is your choice. It's my freedom to believe. In my belief I am doing the right thing. But that's my belief.

[albtraum]

Thinking wrote:

Non-believers are under represented in prison. Prisons are packed full of believers.
Maybe religious people do bad things because they think they can forgiven too easily.
PS It's "there", christard.
<quoted text>

Yep, gimme that old 'jailhouse religion' anytime!