Freedom OF religion means freedom FROM religion

[funjumper101 15]

Freedom of religion means that you can pursue any belief system that you want, without fear of persecution. It also means that no one religion is greater than, or lesser than, another.

I don't see Jewish believers, Hindu believers, Muslim believers, or pretty much any other religion other than the so called "christian" religions trying to force their belief systems on the rest of the US population.

The horseshit about the USA being a "christian" nation is just that, horseshit. The founders were VERY careful to ensure that this country was a secular country, not a religious one.

I don't really care if you choose to follow a path that is based upon ancient superstions and a book that has been written and rewriiten many times. Keep that to yourselves and we'll all get along just fine.

You may belive that abortion is a mortal sin. I don't. You may believe that all stores should be closed on Sundays. I don't. You may belive that homosexuality is a terrible sin and those that are homosexual should be pushed to the far margins of society. I don't.

Please keep your religion to yourselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Freedom OF religion very much means freedom FROM religion.

The last thing that this country needs is the American Taliban, aka, the "christian" right, gaining any power over this secular country. They got pretty close between 2001 and 2009 and the shambles left in their wake is quite obvious.

[airdvr 197]

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I don't see ... Muslim believers... trying to force their belief systems on the rest of the US population.

I am in agreement with you...but you might have missed a little incident a few years back...in September.

Just curious, what is it you are not allowed to do because of the "christian right wing"?

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[futuredivot 0]

You are terribly intolerant for someone asking for tolerance don't ya think?

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[quade 3]

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Just curious, what is it you are not allowed to do because of the "christian right wing"?

Well, let's see, not that it affects me personally, but I know plenty of folks that can't marry.

I'd love to be able to see something on television that reflected the real world and not the one envisioned and manipulated by "Focus on the Family".

I'd love to see an actual atheist be able to hold a real office of power.

I'd love for students to be able to learn about the actual universe and how life came to be on this planet.

I'd love it if the US was less hung up sex and didn't think it was "dirty." Where the entire country didn't go into a flippin' panic at the fleeting glimpse of some singer's nipple.

The Christian right wing fights against all of these and more.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[riddler 0]

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The horseshit about the USA being a "christian" nation is just that, horseshit. The founders were VERY careful to ensure that this country was a secular country, not a religious one.

I think some people consider the US as being a "Christian" nation because the people that came here, running away from other Christians that wanted to kill them, then took away the land of the Native Americans and killed most of them, then decided they didn't like their tea to be taxed, so killed a lot of other Christians from their former empire, then started their own country so they could steal the land, and made it a representative Republic, while lying to the populace about how it was just like a "democracy" ...

those people where mostly Christians (but not all of them).








No one ever said they were good Christians

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[grimmie 173]

Lots of atheists hold office. They just don't freely admit it! Posers...

[ryoder 1,384]

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I'd love to see an actual atheist be able to hold a real office of power.

I do think it is easier to be elected if you are openly gay, than if you are openly atheist.
e.g. one year ago, CO elected a gay man to the U.S. House of Representatives.
I doubt that would have happened if he had been a straight atheist.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[SpeedRacer 1]

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I'd love for students to be able to learn about the actual universe and how live came to be on this planet.

They don't??

Speed Racer
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[quade 3]

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I'd love for students to be able to learn about the actual universe and how live came to be on this planet.

They don't??

In a surprisingly large number, no.

If you doubt me. Find some kids in a mall and ask them. Then ask them how many of them believe in angels.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[f1racer696 0]

i dont really have anything to add since it has pretty much been said. but ill just throw it out there that i completely agree

oh dude DUde DUDE BRO DUDE. omg DUDE! ummmmm. i forgot....

Dudeist Skydiver #61

[skinnay 0]

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I don't see Jewish believers, Hindu believers, Muslim believers, or pretty much any other religion other than the so called "christian" religions trying to force their belief systems on the rest of the US population.

We print "in god we trust" on all our currency. Churches send missions to the poorest parts of the world guised as aid groups. Christians are always bothering me in the street trying to give me pamphlets. Mormons fucking bang on my door at 8am on sundays. I wanna live where you live

[skinnay 0]

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I am in agreement with you...but you might have missed a little incident a few years back...in September.

Oh right, christians flocked by the thousands to new york to exploit a tragedy and push their religion on everyone. Disasters like that are a fuckin' gold mine for christians! You couldn't turn a corner in the finacial district for 6 months without some bible thumper from kansas trying to earn brownie points from jesus. I'm glad they're gone, but I feel bad for all those haitians who have to deal with them now

[quade 3]

I think you may have missed the point of his post. You may want to go back and reread it and the post he was responding to.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[skinnay 0]

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I think you may have missed the point of his post. You may want to go back and reread it and the post he was responding to.

i got it actually. he was trying to single out muslims as the only group of people trying for force their shit religion on everyone.

[Meso 38]

Quite frankly put:

A religious state is an oppressive state.

There is no freedom when there is religion involved in politics. What they feel is right, is what you are forced to live with and abide by.

I am a firm believer that the only logical governing society is that where the leaders and law-makers are not forcing their archaic ideals on everyone around them.

It's only a matter of time, we HAVE to evolve past the backwards thinking of religious views. Question is when...

[airdvr 197]

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I think you may have missed the point of his post. You may want to go back and reread it and the post he was responding to.

i got it actually. he was trying to single out muslims as the only group of people trying for force their shit religion on everyone.

Not singling them out. You said you didn't see them. I agree for the most part with your original post.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[lawrocket 3]

If either the secular left of the religious right had any respect for the individual in society then perhaps I would be able to side with one or the other.

I happen to know plenty of Christians who talk a lot about it. They are as annoying as I was when I first started skydiving and just had to tell everybody.

I happen to know plenty of Christians who like to pray al lot. I also happen to know plenty of atheists who don't like to pray. There are those rare few atheists who blow it for the rest that seek to prevent all mention of religion in their presence.

Freedom from religion? I hope you don't mean that you have the right to hear no mention of it. Would you like to see a world where the 700 Club is banned from television because there is a right not to be exposed to it? That "Jesus" would become a dirty word like "shit?"

I see other religions trying to put their views forward. It's what they do. Religious people like it and try to get others to join them.

Of course, atheists and religious also share something in common - they are human. Humans are selfish. Humans want to see more people like them and fewer whom they view as different.

I'm atheist. Religious people CAN bother me. Most atheists don't bother me. But those atheists who are haters DO bother me more than a hater who is religious.

Maybe because I expect more from an atheist than I do from the religious. I expect the atheist to be more tolerant. They are not.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[RonD1120 58]

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We print "in god we trust" on all our currency. Churches send missions to the poorest parts of the world guised as aid groups. Christians are always bothering me in the street trying to give me pamphlets. Mormons fucking bang on my door at 8am on sundays. I wanna live where you live

Here is some flame fodder.

Missionaries do provide aid to poor countries.

I have seen street preachers hand out tracts or invitations to their church services and the like. I've never seen anyone accosted by avoiding them.

And the bomb: Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. They are cults.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[Andy9o8 0]

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Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. They are cults.

This is not directed at you, Ron. It's directed at the word "cult".

I disdain the use of words like "cult" and "superstition" when used to contrast those terms with the concept of "religion". I think it's ethno/cultural-centric at the very least, and at times, arrogant. I was going to type a longer foundation for this, but to save time and space, I'll sum it up this way: "One man's cult (and/or superstitions) is another man's religion, and vice-versa." I think most people will understand the broad point I'm trying to make.

[RonD1120 58]

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Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. They are cults.

This is not directed at you, Ron. It's directed at the word "cult".

I disdain the use of words like "cult" and "superstition" when used to contrast those terms with the concept of "religion". I think it's ethno/cultural-centric at the very least, and at times, arrogant. I was going to type a longer foundation for this, but to save time and space, I'll sum it up this way: "One man's cult (and/or superstitions) is another man's religion, and vice-versa." I think most people will understand the broad point I'm trying to make.

No problem. From the Evangelical side of Christianity, they are considered cults due to the manner in which they deal with Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the Holy Bible.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[Andy9o8 0]

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I don't see Jewish believers, Hindu believers, Muslim believers, or pretty much any other religion other than the so called "christian" religions trying to force their belief systems on the rest of the US population.

That's simply because Christianity enjoys a vast numerical majority in the US. In, respectively, Muslim countries, India and Israel, it most definitely occurs.

[Andy9o8 0]

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Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. They are cults.

This is not directed at you, Ron. It's directed at the word "cult".

I disdain the use of words like "cult" and "superstition" when used to contrast those terms with the concept of "religion". I think it's ethno/cultural-centric at the very least, and at times, arrogant. I was going to type a longer foundation for this, but to save time and space, I'll sum it up this way: "One man's cult (and/or superstitions) is another man's religion, and vice-versa." I think most people will understand the broad point I'm trying to make.

No problem. From the Evangelical side of Christianity, they are considered cults due to the manner in which they deal with Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the Holy Bible.

The key word there being "considered", because, as I argue, it's really all a matter of perspective. 2,000 years ago, the Judeans viewed Jesus and his followers essentially the same way. In the 16th Century, the Catholics viewed the Protestants essentially the same way. Rinse, repeat.

[RonD1120 58]

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No problem. From the Evangelical side of Christianity, they are considered cults due to the manner in which they deal with Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the Holy Bible.

The key word there being "considered", because, as I argue, it's really all a matter of perspective. 2,000 years ago, the Judeans viewed Jesus and his followers essentially the same way. In the 16th Century, the Catholics viewed the Protestants essentially the same way. Rinse, repeat.

[rehmwa 2]

I get it, you have a prejudice against christians. I'm not a fan of fanatics of any kind, and the christians do have a fare share, but I won't belittle an entire demographic. That's reserved for puppeteers - they are all the same.

However, I like the content of the post - but the tone is terrible.

exceptions:

the country was a christian country when founded, because the people were christian - today we have a mix of a lot of belief systems - I like that

the founders were very evident in that they wanted the "Government" to be a secular government, not the country, they wanted to country to be whatever it wanted to be - that was a wise move both in secular gov, and in letting the people choose for themselves.

If you think the other religions are not trying to recruit, then you just haven't been exposed to them as much as the rest of us. Buddism seems to avoid creating fanatics and and missionaries pretty well, though - IMO

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Royd 0]

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It's only a matter of time, we HAVE to evolve past the backwards thinking of religious views. Question is when...

Seems, our current legislators have embraced your attitude....Bribes and extortion, are just business as usual, not criminal behavior.