Hey West,

I rather like this article about the subject, it also gives some pretty good clues as to where you're coming from too.

Atheism
by Darren Blacksmith
http://www.cooltools4men.com/2006/10/atheism.html

Of course, that's only one man's opinion. When it comes to God, no one knows anything apart from an opinion. Sorry West, but you certainly don't know anything more than an opinion either - and neither do I. Each must form their own opinion and respect the other chap's.

Next you'll probably be trying to tell us that Santa Clause doesn't exist and he's just an evil plot to control power over the peoples of the world.

But, yep, I rather like this Blacksmith's take on the subject.

Darren Blacksmith certainly makes an ignorant point and demonstrates no understanding at all. Darren is trying to sound smart but his arguments have not been thought through. Darren is claiming atheists are wrong. We have to take Darrens word for it because he has not included the only justification for his claim- that is proof of God. Unfortunetely for Darren he makes two mistakes, he claims a god without knowing if his fantasy is actually god. It is a remote possibility, almost impossible but Darrens fantasies may just be only fantasies. Don’t get upset I know Christians believe God is more probable than a person forming fantasy. The other is Darren isn’t really saying anything, hes just speaking for god. Darrens god must be hard up if it takes Darren to speak for him and to speak for god is basically saying god does not exist. For if a god existed and created a universe it could easily speak for itself.

Yes Darrens opinion is one mans opinion, an ignorant opinion at that. His views of Atheist discourse are very influenced by American evangelical paranoia and propaganda. As Christianity is a cult well in its death throws this sort of attitude is to be expected. Darren like all of his brethren of superstition avoids confronting the actual issues that atheism raises. Which is Ironic to what Darren says because to honestly confront the issues that atheism raises would take intelligence.

Darren just demonstrates ignorance and confusion. Where Christians come into conflict with atheists is when they are trying to force their Christian superstition onto others. The belief in god is at best petty and pathetic. Many Christians understand that such drivel is annoying to most people; some are even smart enough to accept that Christianity is a harmful cult which has serious effects on people and so keep their superstition to themselves. Most are no more than sheep that are hibernating in a dream world and led by brainwashing.

So you don’t think Santa Claus is a marketing tool? Interesting.

Hello West,

I can see that you've got a serious passion for this stuff. Let me tell you that I haven't. It's good to have passions, I reckon, but there's a thin line between passion and obsession. All of us have to be a bit careful sometimes.

Anyway, this business (pun) about Santa. It seems you reckon he's for real too - you've given him credibility as a marketing tool. Ergo, he must exist, even as a scumbag marketing tool. He may not be flesh and blood, he may not be a physical entity, but he IS real! He exists as a spirit. The spirit of Christmas and Christmas marketing, and the stuff that kid's dreams are made of. So there is no doubt that the SPIRIT of Santa exists.

Now in that same way, couldn't God exist too?

And if God exists in that way, then God is real. The existence of God's reality, at least in that context, is undeniable, ergo, God exists.

Leslie Cannold: "Sexism is just as eviscerating to the dignity, self-esteem, aspirations and opportunities of women as racism is to people of colour."

I am appalled by the sexism inherent in many fundamentalist doctrines but I wonder why no-one ever complains about the sexism in these doctrines against men.

Sheik Hilali's sermon also implied that men were like wild animals with no self-control who couldnt be trusted to go to the beach without raping someone but no-one NO-ONE sees the sexist, denigrating, attitude toward men.

While Hilali said that women were more culpable than men in the crime of adultery - which everyone is spewing about as radically sexist. He also said that men were more culpable than women in the crime of stealing. This is mirror-image sexism of men but not one word of protest from anyone anywhere - now that is sexual discrimination.

Maximus I have no passion about religion, in reality superstition is a bore. However humanity and civilisation face two serious threats, climate change and religion. Remember God believers flew into the World Trade Centre, branch stacked the liberal party, blew up the Government Building in Oklahoma , Bombed Bali, started Jesus Camp , started Family First , Bombed the London and Madrid transit, committed genocide in Bosnia , started the Iraq war, massacred Russian school children. Banned abortion in Nicaragua and South Dakota, spread the lies of intelligent design, banned gay marriage and much more.
God believers have declared war on humanity and civilisation. There is nobody that has not been touched in some way by the evil that the belief in God results in. I wish people could just be people and not be violently frenzied by superstition. To believe in God is to believe one self is God and that is why everything violently offends god believers so that they feel they must harm society. It is also why god believers have an intense hatred of anybody that criticises superstition. To criticise god is to criticise the god believer’s ego.

Your Santa Claus analogy is too sloppy to take seriously; delusion and fetish do not make the non-existence real. God cannot be claimed without proof of his existence first. It is the same as a con man asking for $1000 to paint your house with no intention to paint.

You say God exists but God does not say he exists. Why should you be believed? If you are right then all the violence committed in the name of your God is right. If you are right then let God speak for himself. If you are wrong and god does not exist , God will not speak up. Your war against humanity is then unjustified and all those acts in the name of your god from conversion to terrorism is wrong

> "Remember God believers flew into the World Trade Centre, branch[[-]stacked the [L]iberal [P]arty, blew up the [g]overnment [b]uilding in Oklahoma, [b]ombed Bali, started Jesus Camp, started Family First, [b]ombed the London and Madrid transit, committed genocide in Bosnia, started the Iraq war, massacred Russian school children[, b]anned abortion in Nicaragua and South Dakota, spread the lies of intelligent design, banned gay marriage and much more." <

Interesting shopping-list of grievances you've assembled there. Targeting a few thousand civilians (or a few dozen school children) for cold-blooded murder, stacking a local Liberal Party branch... it's a real toss-up, isn't it? Those scales are so evenly balanced, aren't they.

Have you tried to break down this list of atrocities further among particular religions? Is it, for example, that Buddhists or Mennonites who are bombing trains in London, while Sufis or Scientologists were founding (the pain! Oooh,, the pain! Danger, Will Robinson, danger!) the Family First Party? Getting a more detailed breakdown might give us some ideas as to <i>which</i> religions are more prone to atrocities.

While you are explaining why murdering children should be condemned in Beslan but applauded in Nicaragua and South Dakota, you might also want to ponder the results of reforming a whole society (one that wasn't even particularly "religious", in Western sense, to begin with) on truly scientific, rationalistic, atheistic basis http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-40,GGLG:en&q=north%2dkorea+triplets. I can guarantee that no one will ever dare utter the horrible blasphemy "int*ll*g*nt d*s*gn", or in any other way profane against the infallible prophet Darwin (peace be upon him), in this society's classrooms.

You're certainly helped confirm my previous observations on the question of whether atheists are more logical and open to fair persuasion than Christians are.