Atheists

[SpottedFur]

Just poking in to say thank you for giving me the proper forum to post on. By the way I'm not an Atheist, but worked with an elderly woman who was an Atheist after being brought up a Baptist, apparently the story goes the Pastor of the Oklahoma Baptist church she attended as a child wished ill will or death upon her because her father was a Mason. She was really troubled by that. She was a very sweet lady and I cared for her until her death at age 91, she died an Atheist too. Well enjoy your conversation. Thanks again.

[Something Diabolical]

Well thats depressing....

[Chianya]

Who's critisizing anyone?

I mean people in general

Okay lol In that case I agree with you

Well thats depressing....

What is?

-Chianya

[Something Diabolical]

The lady died.

[Chianya]

Everyone dies eventually XD

-Chi

[Atwood]

I wouldn't consider dying at the age of 91 something to be too depressed about...

I know of a fair number of people who left their church because of things like that, either going to new religions or abandoning the idea entirely. My aunt was told by her church that it was her fault her teenaged daughter died in a car accident because she hadn't raised her children to be religious and was being punished for it. On the flip side, when my best friend died in a car accident, her parents' church said it was to prove how genuinely faithful her parents were that they wouldn't abandon their faith even when terrible things happened, so they could be an 'inspiration' to others. So if you're unfaithful, your kid is killed. If you're faithful, your kid is killed. I'm seeing a problem with the churches' interpretations here.

Side-rant, feel free to skip over it. I really hate it when people say other people's problems were created so that people like them could see it and 'be inspired' or 'learn compassion', and 'they were brought into this world for a purpose', and all that sort of guff. This isn't a rant about religion so much, though it's kind of applicable to how some theists treat atheists, but lots of people seem to think that 'different' people exist solely for the interest and edification of 'normal' folk like them, and that it's amazing how the 'different' ones somehow miraculously manage to survive being so terribly odd that most people would have just died of mortification at being so incredibly un-normal, but that they must be so miserable that it's imperative that normal people find some way to cure them of this horrible affliction of being different (and they're so annoying for normals to have to deal with, too). Newsflash: it's our life! We live with what we're given, and most of us are actually pretty happy with it, thanks, and some of us really don't need 'curing' so we can be just as wonderfully 'normal' as everyone else supposedly is - maybe those 'normal' people should realize that most of our so-called misery comes from them trying to force us to be just like them and then getting angry because we can't be. Grah! Sorry that this is only tangentially related to the discussion of atheism; as you can probably tell, someone managed to really tick me off today on this.

[Something Diabolical]

Some churches' interpretations can be very questionable.

[Nyhne]

Some churches' interpretations can be very questionable.

As can all religions interpretations be.

[Something Diabolical]

Indeed.

[MoonfallTheFox]

I am athist, I don't believe in anything out there in terms of religion. I follow the principles of some politicl ideals, but I wouldn't call them religion. My mom lugs me to church, makes me crazy.

and people do try to change my mind, they're shocked, but my reply always is "prove it" or

"if god existed then I would have a heckuva lot better life."

definitly true deathangel