OTB,
Atheism is critical of mainstream Christianity because it is itself nothing but a sect of Christianity, the "arguments" are internal doctrinal disputes.
Atheists don't believe in God and Jesus but they believe everything in all the other Christian mumbo jumbo about liberty, equality and the family of man. Atheism is probably closer to a pure version of Christianity, in it's current form it's certainly the most stripped back version of Christianity, no God, no Jesus, just pure faith.

onthebeach,

“…it is a cowboy outfit probably only comprising yourself and a PC.”

And you say you have looked at the AFA website. Engage mind and look again. http://atheistfoundation.org.au/contact/

AFA Committee Members, to be on the AFA Committee, sign a long standing Privacy Charter which disallows anything about members, including numbers, from leaving the Committee room.

The AFA has been in existence for over 30 years and is the undisputed largest atheist organisation in Australia. A small amount of checking will confirm this without a doubt.

The Committee of Management take minutes and all financial and other details are available to members.

What is the “begging bowl prominently displayed”. Unlike most organisations we don’t even ask for donations.

I’m only stating the above, not for you, but for others who read these posts. You are only after something to nail the AFA with. Tough luck, you haven’t.

Your time would be better spent educating yourself about religion firstly and then, atheism.

David
PS. I gave the wrong URL in my last post. It should have been http://www.atheistcensus.com/

Lexi,

It would be wonderful if religion could be kept internal. I would then be out of a job. But, alas, it is not so.

David

StG.

“I absolutely loathe people who post threads like this. You do NOTHING of use to anyone and you only waste internet space. You are the lowest. Shame.”

Your personal opinion is noted. My advice would be not to read or post on threads on which you find the contents uncomfortable.

David

DEN71,

“It is not the detail in itself that I subscribe to but the philosophical principles which I drew from the story. Put simply "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".”

That is the cornerstone of civility instead of anarchy. It is an idea that preceded the Bible by thousands of years. The problem is not with that simple but relevant statement but with the religious baggage accompanying it.

David

onthebeach,

As I say, you need to educate yourself. Science is forever refining itself. That is what science is about.

David

Jay Of Melbourne

Hi Jay, I have no problems with atheism. Equally I have no problems with religion. As long as there is no change to our secular state and the authoritarians from either side leave us alone I am reasonably happy. Live and let live. I am willing to celebrate all festive occasions.

However it is worth observing that as a regular community volunteer I am forever meeting parishioners from the Christian churches at the sharp end. We never hear any sermons or attempts at conversion from them.

While some must get a buzz out of annoying Christians as in this thread, they do a lot of the heavy lifting in community work helping people who are down, particularly the aged and vulnerable who live alone, forgotten by relatives and probably isolated by illness and disability.

Maybe if the Grinch responsible for this thread could divert some of his own time and the donations his "Foundation" receives to helping people. It is Christmas.

SoG,

You could save us both a lot of time here if you'd only stop tap dancing around the issue of the 'burden of proof' (why a genuine fence-sitter would feel the need to be intellectually dishonest in such a way is beyond me).

<<...where can this thread go given the ethereal nature of the subject matter>>

Many places.

We could help demonstrate the improbability of a god existing or being found in the ever-shrinking gaps in our knowledge (myself and others have done this countless times on OLO). Some may learn a bit of history regarding the pre-christian roots of Christmas. We might even help a genuine fence-sitter decide where they stand; making that one less person willing to sit back and let religion ride roughshod over everything with its baseless assertions unearned respect. 

Just because we may never be able to reach absolute certainty regarding the existence of Gods, that doesn't mean we can't attain a high degree of it one way or the other.

That you are unable to see the shades of grey, and incapable of arguing without presuming absolutes at every turn, just goes to show how utterly vacuous your position is on this topic. 

<<...religions are called faiths for obvious reasons and the atheists thoughts are opinions for exactly the same reason.>>

Wrong. 

Religious beliefs are referred to as "faiths" because they are beliefs without - and sometimes in spite of - the available evidence. If a faith-based belief turned out to be true, then it would only be by pure dumb luck that this was so; it would be right, but for the wrong reasons and because of this, could still not be considered knowledge.

Opinions, on the other hand, can be right for the right reasons. Rejecting a claim as unsupported by the evidence, when there simply is no evidence, is but one example.

And no, the mysteries of the big bang are not evidence for a creator; to mistake them as such is to commit a logical fallacy known as the argument from ignorance.

Can't you people stop smearing your foul stench for one day?

And don't forget Coca-Cola invented the Santa suit of red-and-white.

I pity the children of atheists.
"No, Billy, you can't sit on Santa's lap.
That's just a commercial fabrication, based on a dedundant superstition.
And no candles on your birthday cake, either. Make a wish? Stupid nonsense! Bah!"

Maybe that's the reason for those Christmas suicide statistics we keep hearing about.

David,

No, I looked at the link you provided below your sig line. As well you know from what I said, "I notice that your web site gives precious little information on the 'Foundation', but it does have the begging bowl prominently displayed".

Once again, abuse from you. You admonish me to read what is on the AFA national site which was apparently a different site.

Then later you quietly note that you gave the wrong link previously. To your own site?

No apology from you for misleading through your own error though.

That suggests I was right all along, you are simply out to get attention through offending a soft target with your childish "Christmyth".