Marinus

Congrats on level 4! Great cartoon again!

But the god of the bible isn't very intelligent of course. The very book he produced/inspired exhibits a knowledge of the universe that far below that of the level of knowledge of an average educated high-school kid. the creator apparently is too stupid to understand his own creation. Unless he got severely brain-damaged before he wrote/inspired the damn thing, I hardly think the bible is a convincing proof for the existence of god. Far from it to be honest, nothing was more destructive to my faith then that bundle of nonsense.

Assuming you're not being sarcastic here, I've to admit I learned that it was less common then I thought it would be, however, you need only one culture that had an integrated practice of child sacrifice to make the point of the OP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sacrifice Yes, I'm lazy, and no I won't accept the claim that Wikipedia is unreliable.

Nah, I think I'll be fine here. This is not the first forum I wrote on, and it's certainly not the worst. You don't have to worry that my feewings get huwt any time soon. And I'm usually pretty good at ignoring people that irritate me.

You ask the wrong question since there's absolutely no proof whatsoever that the universe was created. The verb "to create" implies there is a creator, and since a creator is nowhere to be found.... But to answer the question: I've a good but basic understanding of science. I know the Universe is thought to have originated from a singularity in a process colloquially referred to as the "Big Bang". I've no clue what caused the "Big Bang, and while I've no reason to believe a creator caused it, I don't rule the possibility out. Mind you, the creator doesn't have to be a God. You really know how to throw in your own windows, don't you? If everything has to come from something, your creator had to come from something too.

Dear Coreece, I only took a couple of posts from you in another topic, to understand that the best way to "discuss" matters with you is to ignore you. So in every future topic you take the initiative to discuss something with me, I'll repost this exact message to make you remember that you don't have to expect an answer from me. I like to discuss matters in a civilized fashion even if I strongly disagree with an opponent, however, with you, and the likes of you, that's not a likely outcome. I'm only human and I can only take so much obnoxiousness from someone else.

There's plenty of examples of child sacrifice that was an integral part of the culture, of course, how about that?

The topic is really simple here: Child sacrifice. As in the religious sacrifice of cute kiddies. This can mean anything from "humanely" drugging kiddies, bash their skulls in and bury them on a holy mountain or something even more depraved then that. I don't know why people keep up bringing all kinds of other things, but that really doesn't add to the discussion. If I were a ideological cultural relativist, it's what I would do to dodge the question, btw.

I'm not sure if I'm addicted, but if I am, and I wouldn't be too surprised if that's the case, it's technically because someone else jumped from a plane.

Creation, whatever that is, probably has a creator, but that doesn't say a whole lot about the universe of course.

While I only partly agree with Pat, I second this. For me it's mostly the comedic value, that makes it worth it.

Personally I only show disrespect when someone shoves their religion in my face. Since the Netherlands are secularized to a great extend this rarely happens, btw. But when it happens I politely tell them that I don't want any part in their religion, if they don't understand that simple message.... Let's say, the usually understand things better when I'm done cleaning the toilet with their religion. I think the situation in the US is quite different then we have here in NL, but I'm in no way an expert. Often it is, sometimes it isn't. I had one lady complaining to me that she was offended by me washing my car on Sunday. She didn't take the polite response to that, and after that, well she got a bit more offended. I really don't take well to people trying to impose there nonsense upon me. Needless to say that after that, Sunday was my favourite day to wash the car. Unless you're living in a secular nation, of course. Sounds like campfire talk, I know. Kumbaya, my Dawkins, kumbaya....but none of us want THAT, eh? Fixed that for you But I agree with that. To use the cliché quote out the flick "The Mist":

Strictly spoken atheists can have beliefs, the only criterium to be an atheist is that you don't believe in god(s). An atheist can still believe in souls or an afterlife for instance. However, Pat C. seems to be one of those atheists that lack believe in anything. But he does have views, and if you respect his views that must mean your definition of "respect" is quite different from mine. Oh, I'm sure you don't, but if you really managed to miss the tons of religious manure other believers dump over the heads of non-believer on YouTube (or the rest of the Internet for that matter) I'm not shocked to see a riled up atheist making similar vids. I also keep in mind that Pat C. is in fact a comedian that uses hyperboles and such to get his message true. I'm not agreeing with him on many points, but he doesn't make it all up, and he's quite witty too. People should really stop being butt-hurt all the time when they see something offensive. In an open society everyone is offended all the time, and if one actually chooses to be offended it's the problem of the one offended, not the one who offended. If Christians or Muslims want to be respectful to others, the might consider to start with removing all the offensive material from their holy books. Why should I respect a religion that claims that I'm a fool for not believing in God, and that I'm only able to do evil?

OK, fair enough

Care to explain yourself?

Yeah, I know, I should avoid red button topics, but since this is a skydive forum, and I know next to nothing about skydiving, I got to get my post count up somewhere. Unfortunately I happen to like red button topics too. Yes, but religion really tends to get the crazy factor out in wacko nuts in my experience. However, I even saw an example of sectarian atheism in the past, so I sort of agree with you. I disagree with anti-theism, btw, while I consider religion to be nonsensical, that doesn't mean I think it's only harmful. I benefit from self-hypnosis, which means I knowingly lie to myself and choose to belief that lie. It doesn't get much more nonsensical that that, but it turns out to be beneficial to me. A small difference, me thinks.

When people demand respect for the views and beliefs of others, they usually really mean they want respect for their own views and beliefs. The people who demand respect the loudest usually tend to be rather disrespectful towards the views and beliefs of others. Apparently they also fail to understand that the very demand for respect for views and beliefs is generally disrespectful towards the views and beliefs of those the demand is made at.The whole "respect the views and beliefs of others" is getting old real quickly. Respect has to be earned, not demanded. I don't really mind if people are religious, hell my best friend is a Christian, but respect? Puh-lease, we ignore each others views and beliefs and/or joke about it, but we sure as hell understand there's no mutual respect in that department. And ironically that's the most respectful it can get, me thinks.

He should respect other views and beliefs the same way you respect his?

Why not, this is a quarantine area for all the explosive discussions, isn't it? Mostly thanks to the outrageous behaviour a lot of the "religophiles exhibit. I'm not a religophobe, but I'm happy religion seems to go extinct where I'm from. Sure it's everywhere the same, but I think more the same in Iran then most other countries that aren't in a civil war or something.

Congratulations!

I don't think it's Iranian culture to beat women to pulp for absolutely no reason at all. I think it's due to the Iranian fundaloon government that bases itself on a particularly.. uhm.. interesting brand of the religion Islam. As I understand it a lot of Iranians loath their own leaders and theocracy.

Yeah I noticed the flaw too; that idiot Ray Comfort The only thing that man ever did is giving me nightmares about bananas and I'm not even an atheist. Other then that I think comparing abortion to the Holocaust is rather tasteless. While I think abortion is a complicated ethical issue, with no easy answers, it has little to do with a systematic genocide on an industrial scale. I also love the alternative to abortion Ray Comfort offers us: Give the baby up for abortion. Yeah, that's truly a responsible way to ditch a baby. Personally I think that people who put a baby on this world should be made responsible for it by law. If they can't or won't take care of their kid just let them pay.

I wasn't scared, but I felt kind of empty when the last remnants of my faith evaporated around noon on the 26th of June 2007. By then my faith was reduced to "There must be something", so it wasn't that big a loss, but nonetheless a loss. I think it lasted for a couple of days, and then I decided that my new view on life didn't change that much for me. I mainly felt stupid for believing for decades.

Great cartoons!