Brad Hudson wrote:LittleNipper wrote:I believe in America, that atheists deserve no additional rights, that they do not wish extend to others. And I do understand that broad is the way that leads to destruction but the way that leads to the Lord is very narrow. I also realize that what many imagine to be pure coincidences are actually additional proofs that God exists. I do not believe all beliefs are of equal validity. Some are very harmful to children, one's mental and physical health, and detrimental to learning to be a rational thinker (which is achived by considering various avenues and their ultimate effects and not just one train of thought). To that regard, the public school system of the United States has proven to be a dismal failure everywhere government has clamped down on thoughts of God. In small towns and communities outside the prying eyes of the ACLU, children are more thoughtful ( on par with general education prior to 1963). As a result, there are TODAY seemingly educated individuals who equate God with a man who saws a lady in half and sticks her back together. I never witnessed God doing such physically. God makes himself known by changing lives from the inside out. He is more subtle when He saws a person in half and makes a NEW creature.
I thought it might be interesting to try write what you said in your OP from my point of view. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Let's give it a spin.
I believe in America. I believe in the right of citizens to the free exercise of religion. I believe that the free exercise of religion is impossible if the government is given the power to indoctrinate citizens, especially children, with religious beliefs. I believe that allowing government to have the power to religiously indoctrinate makes for bad government and for bad religion.
As an atheist, I do not claim any special rights. The right to be free from religious indoctrination by the government applies to everyone. Christians have the right not to have the government indoctrinate their children in Islam. Muslims have the right not to have their children indoctrinated in Hinduism.
I also understand that the human brain is bad at understanding probability and coincidence, and that many people attribute to their god events due to random chance and coincidence.
I believe that all beliefs are not of equal validity, and that some are very harmful to children, one's mental and physical health, and detrimental to learning to be a rational thinker (which is achieved by learning to evaluate which ideas are helpful and which are harmful through the collection and evaluation of evidence.)
I believe that concluding that the quality of education in the U.S. has anything to do with preventing the government from religiously indoctrinating children commits the classic logical fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc.
I believe that any explanation that relies on the supernatural is as valid as any other. All are magic -- the belief that someone or something can violate the laws of physics by an unexplainable means. The magic of Harry Potter is the same as the magic of the shaman is the same as the magic of turning water into wine as the magic of flooding the entire earth within the last 6000 years. All such magic is equally valid as an explanation -- with a validity of zero.
If Christianity were harmful to children, the 1940's /1950's in the United States would not have been the culture that inspired "Leave It to Beaver," "I Love Lucy," and "The Andy Griffin Show." When I was ten I hopped my bike and rode to the A&P to buy a loaf of bread, and my only fear was the bully down the street. There was no nagging thoughts of attacks by perverts who never matured beyond the age of puberty and whose only drive was sick sex and the "governmental" sanction of an impossible marriage between two men. I cannot excercise my beliefs freely, if I must hide them. We were given freedom of religion. No where in the Consitution is there any mention that people are to be protected from others who practice beliefs other might disagree with. However, one then can compare and contrast beliefs and superstition would be forgotten but not eliminated by governmental intrusion into the natural learning process. But what happened is that Atheists had the Bible reading removed so that their secular beliefs would not have compitition. In the late 1950's my dad parked his car in Camden, New Jersey so that the family could take the EL/subway into Center City Philadelphia to see Santa. There were no X-rated posters along the Blvd. No, worry that thugs would steal the car or flatten the tires. No worry of being robbed or shot. But then, how should people act who live in perpetual dispare...
. The simple conclusion is that with every supposed ancestor of a fully developed complex organism supposed connection comes as simply another very complex organism that must have developed from another very complex organism. This runs into a wall that millions of years fail to provide ---------------- enough time.
I know of people who were Mormons, Catholics, JW's, Muslims, Hindu, Atheists, etc., who have become Born-again Christians. They are not perfect now, or happy all the time but they now have real peace and are not worried about tomorrow with regards to their eternity. You say you prayed, but you do not say if you felt comfort afterwards. I say the proof is in the pudding. Societies such as Roam had gods and they worshipped them by having men fight to the death in the arena. Hindi worship many gods by having a rigid caste system. Their poor are poor because they need to be, and the rich are rich because they are choosen. My father was a Roman Catholic and did everything the nuns and priests wanted him to do ------ but found that a personal relationship with God was not something he was ever introduced to while doing penitence the "Church" required. Then he found the biblical Jesus and his motivation changed. Sorry, I ramble, but I do worry that you are lost.
