Merry Christmas

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Browne
  • Start date Start date
Alan said:
I never said that Christmas was not a religious holiday.

One doesn't reserve greetings like "Merry Christmas" for believing
Christians alone. Or for that matter from believing Christians alone.
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If I could just get the believing christians to leave me alone...
 
So long as I'm happy while I'm alive, I don't care when I die.

I have this vision of arriving in Heaven and God holding out
his hand and smiling, asking "Well, tell me, how did you
enjoy it?"

Me: "I didn't, I was miserable worrying about the oil running
out and public transportation and starving Lemurs and
Mama taking my Kodachrome away and ..."

God: "And after I put all that effort into making the universe
you refused to enjoy it. What an ingrate."

God picks up the phone:

God: "Hey, Luce baby, I have another one who would really be
much happier down there with you. Got any openings?
Good ol' Luce, he always has room for one more."
 
Nicholas O. Lindan said:
God: "Hey, Luce baby, I have another one who would really be
much happier down there with you. Got any openings?
Good ol' Luce, he always has room for one more."
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And you somehow imagine that I would be happier in Hell? That's truely
bizarre.

Bruce.
 
Nicholas O. Lindan said:
I have this vision of arriving in Heaven and God holding out
his hand and smiling, asking "Well, tell me, how did you
enjoy it?"

Me: "I didn't, I was miserable worrying about the oil running
out and public transportation and starving Lemurs and
Mama taking my Kodachrome away and ..."

God: "And after I put all that effort into making the universe
you refused to enjoy it. What an ingrate."

God picks up the phone:

God: "Hey, Luce baby, I have another one who would really be
much happier down there with you. Got any openings?
Good ol' Luce, he always has room for one more."
Click to expand...

Not a problem for us atheists, we don't believe in the devil either,
which is why these scare stories written to try and make us conform,
will never work.
 
Harry said:
Not a problem for us atheists, we don't believe in the devil either,
which is why these scare stories written to try and make us conform,
will never work.
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I don't think Hell is a big fire-pit.
I think Hell will be the place where people recognize that they've utterly
missed their opportunity to know God...and are then faced with the reality
of being eternally alone. If there is "knashing of teeth..." I think it
will be due to ultimate lonliness...rather than physical pain or physical
torment.

But who cares what I think...
 
Mark² said:
I don't think Hell is a big fire-pit.
I think Hell will be the place where people recognize that they've
utterly missed their opportunity to know God...and are then faced with
the reality of being eternally alone. If there is "knashing of
teeth..." I think it will be due to ultimate lonliness...rather than
physical pain or physical torment.

But who cares what I think...
Click to expand...
I think you are in for a big disappointment.
 
Harry said:
Not a problem for us atheists, we don't believe in the devil either,
which is why these scare stories written to try and make us conform,
will never work.
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So what stops an atheist from just going around stealing and killing
people they don't like?
 
It maybe something called "common sense" and "ethics", not too widespread
between religious fundies however (crusades, witch trials, suicide
terroriste etc.)
 
So what stops an atheist from just going around stealing and killing
people they don't like?
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The same thing that keeps Muslims from going around stealing and killing
people they don't like? Oops.
 
Annika1980 said:
So what stops an atheist from just going around stealing and killing
people they don't like?
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Atheists don't believe in god, that has nothing to do with not believing
in law and order, which can be easily achieved without the threat of an
imaginary hell.
 
Harry said:
Atheists don't believe in god, that has nothing to do with not
believing in law and order, which can be easily achieved without the
threat of an imaginary hell.
Click to expand...

Belief in Gad is not dependant upon a fear of "hell."
 
Bill said:
If the atheists are right, he won't be disappointed.
He won't be anything.
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If there is any disappointment after death (or any thought at all, for that
matter), then atheists may have some reason for concern. If they're right,
then neither of us will care. If I'm right, there may indeed be
disappointment.
 
Nicholas said:
I have this vision of arriving in Heaven and God holding out
his hand and smiling, asking "Well, tell me, how did you
enjoy it?"

Me: "I didn't, I was miserable worrying about the oil running
out and public transportation and starving Lemurs and
Mama taking my Kodachrome away and ..."

God: "And after I put all that effort into making the universe
you refused to enjoy it. What an ingrate."

God picks up the phone:

God: "Hey, Luce baby, I have another one who would really be
much happier down there with you. Got any openings?
Good ol' Luce, he always has room for one more."
Click to expand...

Bill Cosby once had a routine about driving a Volkswagon in San
Francisco. He was ok until he had to stop on a hill. Didn't know how to
start again using the clutch and was stuck 'cause he didn't want to roll
backwards and end up drowning in the bay.

He said he could just envision it ...

St. Peter: "And how did *you* die?"

Bill Cosby: "I rolled a VW backwards into San Francisco bay and drowned."

St. Peter: "You go to hell!"
 
Atheists don't believe in god, that has nothing to do with not believing
in law and order, which can be easily achieved without the threat of an
imaginary hell.
Click to expand...

The thing about religion is that it allows a level of social control
between that of "enlighened self interest" and that of "do this and those
men over there will beat the crap out you and lock you in a cage".

Doesn't always work, but neither does enlightened self interest or the
threat of violence, just gives another option.

Also, since it is possible for one who believes in God to blame God for
unavoidable tragedies, and since there is no percentage at all in filing
lawsuits against God, a widespread belief in such an entity can cut down
on the lawsuits.
 
Just because we don't believe in a God, that doesn't mean that we have no
morality, and/or don't believe in the laws of society. People banded
together and organized themselves into societies long before they believed
in Heavens and Hells, or any sort of after-life punishments. I don't go
around raping and murdering because I don't want others to go around raping
and murdering me. I am a perfectly good citizen in spite of the fact that I
don't believe that the creator of the whole universe, with more galaxies in
it than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on earth, is hovering
over my bunk at night listening to my prayers and making sure I get a good
night's sleep. IOW, I don't have to be insane in order to be a good
citizen.......
 
Also, since it is possible for one who believes in God to blame God for
unavoidable tragedies, and since there is no percentage at all in filing
lawsuits against God, a widespread belief in such an entity can cut down
on the lawsuits.
Click to expand...

But it can also result in God-appeasing sacrifices. Of the two
options, filing lawsuits against God causes no harm (which any right
thinking God readily acknowledges) and indicates a much greater
degree of sanity than that exhibited by the God fearing mobs.
 
If there is any disappointment after death (or any thought at all, for that
matter), then atheists may have some reason for concern. If they're right,
then neither of us will care. If I'm right, there may indeed be
disappointment.
Click to expand...

Yes.
If the atheists are right,there's no problem.
If they are wrong...
 
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