AJ Philips,
You have the same sir name as myself so it interest me that you are so diametrically opposed to the judeau-christian influenced culture that you live in. Read again the teachings of Christ and evaluate his attitudes and tell me if this is not a life worthy of emulation. Tell me if the people whose life you object to are emulating his attitudes and actions. Atheism's basic premise is negative - find a passion that is possitive and improve the lives of others, even your opponents.

Philo,

<<You have the same sir name as myself so it interest me that you are so diametrically opposed to the judeau-christian influenced culture that you live in.>>

I’m not opposed to our culture. Our culture has a Judeo-Christian influence, but had it not also had any sort of secular influence, then we’d still be running around as primitive savages burning heretics, for it is secularism that has helped drag Christianity kicking and screaming out of the Dark Ages and into modernity.

<<Read again the teachings of Christ and evaluate his attitudes and tell me if this is not a life worthy of emulation.>>

Actually, doing that probably wouldn’t help your point much. It’s probably best I remember the stories of Jesus through the rose-coloured glasses of my Christian days. Granted, the character of Jesus is a vast improvement of the savage, megalomaniacal god of the Old Testament - who sent Jesus to save us from what he was going to do to us because of his cock-ups - but he still had his flaws.

<<Tell me if the people whose life you object to are emulating his attitudes and actions.>>

I rarely ever see a Christian who comes close to emulating, or even makes an attempt to emulate the alleged Jesus.

Many moderate Christians have nothing but pure intentions, but unfortunately - due to their vocal professing of faith and the help they provide in keeping churches alive with their attendance - they still inadvertently assist radicals in finding legitimacy.

<<Atheism's basic premise is negative...>>

Well, that depends on what exactly you mean by “negative”. If you mean “reckoned in a direction opposite to a claim in the affirmative”, then yes, it is. But if by “negative” you mean “damaging”, then no, not necessarily at all.

Some of the most moving real life stories I’ve ever heard were de-conversion stories from some very brave people and they often thank the more vocal atheists for giving them the strength to abandon a mentally stunting dogma.

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Unfortunately some of these people lose their family and friends in the process. The story of one particular Pastor comes to mind.

Former Pastor turned atheist, Dan Barker, too has a very inspiring story that mirrors my experience. Like myself, his problem was a thirst for knowledge, truth and a desire to hear both sides of a story.

<<...find a passion that is possitive and improve the lives of others, even your opponents.>>

While I can’t do much as an individual, by adding my voice to a growing number of those who are finally speaking up, I help to contribute towards stripping religion of the undeserved free ride it’s had for over a thousand years, enabling society to hold it accountable for the wrongs and this, in the grand scheme of things, contributes something very positive.

Just a mere fifteen years ago, who would have imagined a speech like the one Dawkins gave at the protest rally on the Pope’s arrival to Britain? But now we have people not afraid to speak out and say: “Hey, that’s wrong.”

One of the biggest and most positive transformations I ever went through in life was deciding that I cared about my beliefs being as close to the truth as possible, and I truly believe everyone would benefit personally, and as a society on the whole, if we all started to care about what was true instead of asserting it.

It was a growing experience that I have not yet found a downside to.

AJ Philips,
Unfortunately your life will not be remembered by your friends for your beliefs but for your positive actions.

I'm still looking for Christ's teachings on burnings at the stake that you prefer to associate with him. I rather attribute it to a pagan culture that failed to follow Christ's attitudes.

Ah, but Philo, the two are not mutually exclusive.

<<Unfortunately your life will not be remembered by your friends for your beliefs but for your positive actions.>>

Our beliefs inform our actions and our actions. This is just one of the reasons why valuing the truth of our beliefs is so important. If I believe I’ve won the lottery, that might make me feel happy for a while; it may even have a positive impact if I start throwing a lot of money at charity. But the consequences would prove negative when I don’t receive the lottery winnings.

Now of course, you could argue that one’s belief in Jesus (and the desire of some Christians to emulate his good side) has positive consequences (well statistics don’t seem to suggest that this has any noticeable impact on the behaviour of individuals, but that’s another story), but where does that leave us if we encourage or even condone belief that has no dependency on the object of that belief being true? Where do we stop?

I suspect that to say it would have a negative impact would be a gross understatement. We should probably consider ourselves lucky to live in a society where religious belief is the only belief where it’s considered unrealistic to expect a justification for.

<<I'm still looking for Christ's teachings on burnings at the stake that you prefer to associate with him.>>

Hang on. You were talking about the a more broader Judeo-Christian influence, not the alleged Christ’s attitudes. There’s no reason to believe that Christ’s attitudes influenced our society in any way.

I never associated the burning of heretics with Jesus. You just associate Jesus to Christianity more than the old church did (or focus less on his divisive side). And why do you focus on Jesus (or his good side only) more than they used to? Because secular enlightenment has helped you to know which parts of the Bible to cherry-pick.

That’s all.

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<<I rather attribute it to a pagan culture that failed to follow Christ's attitudes.>>

Paganism is a very broad term that covers many religions, so I’m not sure what exactly you’re referring to here. Although I do know that a lot of Christians still think that Paganism means devil worship.

The burning of heretics practiced by the old church (among Zeus knows what other horrors), could be quite easily justified by the Old Testament - which can’t just be brushed aside...

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)