I hate religious people

They need to keep their little rule books to themselves.

I don't know that I hate them as a class, but to know that someone is religious, I can never forget that there a part of them grounded in Stupid.

Santee-ria is among the most misunderstood of religions.

It's probably going to take some form of socialism and a few centuries of true education proliferation before most humans give up their superstitious beliefs. Humans exploiting each other for profit while the exploited try to build a life, will always result in superstitions on both sides.

We’ll have to live with it until a democrat wins a Supreme Court windfall. Sadly, it’s a sickening retread for many of us. Will we retreat to the ghettos in the meantime?

R3, I actually have less hatred for the animist religions and the worshippers of things like shrubs and tree-gods as those people hold no fucking power at all. They're not influencing global politics.

I *know* we have a few self-proclaimed, pious DL religious people. And gay nonetheless. Please explain your idiocies.

There are plenty of people around here who speak fondly of the Jesuits, etc. I think they can’t overcome their early indoctrination.

R8, I'm a [lapsed] Catholic who grew up in the cult. I escaped because I saw what hateful hypocrites they are and how everything they believe in runs counter to logic.

For all we know there are clergymen on here every day.

Religious people are narcissistic, too. You have to be in order to believe your faith is the one true faith. And sticking to your faith after childhood.

I grew up in the church and they had a phrase, the "8-year old atheist". They explained children begin questioning their beliefs at that age. But in truth, that's the age a child has enough intellectual capacity to realize it's all bullshit.

You liberals don't hate religious people, just Christianity -- and now Judaism.

But you tolerate (even support fully) Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Eastern religions, because you consider them POC.

R11, that's right around the age when I realized that I got more intellectual stimulation from Sunday morning cartoons than men in robes doing their whole fire and brimstone bullshit.

R12, do you believe in "God?"

Please tell me more about your "God." Does he ride around in a sleigh with reindeer? Is he everywhere, all-knowing?

I am so very curious.

It really is stupid that people in the 21st Century still believe in a magical invisible man who lives in the sky. I just can't understand religion.

There is a solution. Everyone the world over becomes Lutherans.

Don't be shy now, R12. Please regale us with your belief in 'gods.' I am just so very curious.

I don't believe in religion. I just can't understand it. I mean I read about how the family of a murder victim will forgive the murderer coz their god said this or that...that they feel no anger etc that their loved one was killed by whoever...

I have read that religious people who pray a lot etc recover faster after surgery or treatment etc. They have done studies...

I think bible is a book of fiction.

What about witches? Those kind of black magic or whatever you call it....real of fake?

[quote]It's probably going to take some form of socialism and a few centuries of true education proliferation before most humans give up their superstitious beliefs.

Or be brought to the brink of annhilation in a cataclysmic war, which is what finall made Europeans turn away from religion. And the shit had to happen TWICE until they finally got the message.

Not LCMS Lutherans, R16.

R16, protestants? Oh fucking please.

Just shut up and put your envelope in the offering tray.

R22 = Carmella Soprano

You're kind of an arrogant asshole, OP. You seem to want to taunt people whom you believe to be religious into some sort of intellectual sparring match. Go find a good therapist and leave your anger at the door.

I love religious people!

R24 religious people are arrogant

R24, do you believe in God? Tell us more.

Religious people are supremely arrogant.

Sometimes, human beings do unforgivable things. Sometimes, horrible things happen to genuinely good & decent people. Sometimes, the bad guys win. Sometimes, we must be held accountable to our actions, without a pat on the back from enablers. Sometimes, people who hide behind a veneer of Godliness or Christianity, are called out for their shitty & destructive behavior, as they should be. And ALWAYS, we all eventually die.

The statements aforementioned may be quite frightening to many who seek comfort in religion, & the deities worshipped within different sects, give them some sort of comfort, especially so with those who do REALLY harmful & shitty things, & refuse to make amends & rectify their wrongdoing.

None of us are perfect, & we have all done minor to major things that ended up hurting others. That’s just human nature. We all make mistakes, however, how we respond to those mistakes & how we behave after acknowledging we have done something to hurt another is what truly makes a difference.

A few years ago, I made amends to someone I had ridiculed, & sincerely apologized to her, & I promised her that I would NEVER do so, again. I’m an atheist who as of today, has kept that promise, & I’m pretty certain that I won’t have to ask her for forgiveness repeatedly, nor will I have to repeatedly ask some deity to forgive me, because I promised her I’d never verbally attack her again, & as of today, I haven’t broken my commitment to my promise to this person.

Sure, I can be a real cunt and go off on this lady, because I don’t believe I’ll end up in hell for treating another person poorly, however, I stick to our pact, because I know I was wrong, & she in no way, deserves my ire.

OP, atheists are usually very moral & ethical people, because atheists don’t have to adhere to religious rules and regulations, yet in all self awareness, choose to do the right thing, because it’s overwhelmingly easier to do the right thing, & we know it, and feel it in our gut.

Highly religious people, in my experience, are constantly at battle with themselves, because their religious values induce shame, every single time they fuck someone else over, instead of just logically accepting they did something wrong, then righting that wrong, & committing to never doing it again.

I lived that way for several years, while adhering to born again Christian culture, & it absolutely destroyed me, because there’s just no way to realistically strive for perfection. I was fortunate to walk my way out of that ‘lifestyle’, & because I did, I understand my weaknesses more than ever before, while also understanding that becoming a better person is ALWAYS up to JUST ME, which makes things a LOT easier, yet sometimes, I fail at approaching it from this specific angle, too, and I am OK with it, because I also understand I’m not inherently evil, & I ALWAYS welcome opportunities to learn from my own mistakes. I accept responsibility for my mistakes. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. That stated, I ALWAYS ask myself what I can do to change for the better, IF I genuinely want to.

Not one of us should have some sort of dogma driven gun held to our heads. All extremism drives us to reactionary positions, & that’s not the best way to approach things, yet here we are, in an age of extremism, as watch, & will continue to watch the pendulum swing from one extreme to another. Religion justifies this, and it’s horrific that we have gone down this far.

Be well, DL. Please forgive yourselves for whatever is ailing you, & just recognize your defects of character, & genuinely seek deep down in yourselves, why these defects bother you.

Also, please remember that if something you do is bothering you? You’re soooo truly fortunate to feel that & grapple with it. Sociopaths know what they do is wrong, yet don’t feel it in their gut, nor do they grapple with their shortcomings.

Everyone can become better, if they genuinely understand that there’s opportunity for them to do so. No religion or deity necessary!

Just read the threads about the new pope - holy shit - their panties were so wet, somebody had to go get a mop.

And then they come back with a condescending "so sorry that some of us have a more enlightened view of spirituality and the world than you do". Riiiight.

It's like gay Republicans - they were brought up in it and they can't give it up even though the party platform has always been anti-LGBT.

As one of DL’s Catholics, I’d ask r30 to point out where he found the strawman in his second paragraph. Certainly, there are self-righteous and dogmatic people of all stripes in the world, but on this particular message board it’s the atheists who go on and about their superior understanding of the universe.

absolute bullshit r31. you types never own up to the trouble you cause.

this thread was crossed out and now it is not!

yay

R30, so what’s your point?

Explain, please!

Are you an atheist, a religious sort, or an agnostic, & most importantly, why?

TIA for your answer, & know that you SHOULD answer, because your post makes nothing clear.

the lord works in mysterious ways r34

I’m not going for mystery here, R35.

I go for facts and VERY credible sources, always.

God is dead.

In New York, people keep their religion to themselves like genitalia warts.

At a former phase in my life, I was too poor to afford anything other than basic cable TV. I watched, therefore, a lot of PBS "Nova".

I will readily admit I'd have ignored Nova if I had the means to, but it turned out to be a valuable experience. It actually nourished and enriched my personal spiritual journey.

I learned that billions of years ago, heat, gases, motion, a violent transference of one form of energy to another creating solid matter and gravity, all under that Big Mommy better known as Time is why we're all here. And, that after we're not here in our current form we transition into a different form of matter sustaining it all billions of years into the future.

Contemplating that blows my mind, right here, right now.

That takes up all of my mental bandwidth. I don't have any more that would function to entertain notions of an all-powerful monotheistic God.

Time, Matter, Gravity, well, She's imperfect. She's a bitch. She gets tired from toting the weary load of Eternity because she's the OG Sisyphus.

I don't ask for her forgiveness. She asks for mine. There are times I have to remember she's imperfect, so why wouldn't we be, too?

But damn, she makes amends. When she shows off for me with tracing every limb and branch of a tall tree with snow against a slate grey sky, I melt and make-up with her.

R37, satanism actually has some of the most practical tenets and I love how good they are at trolling Christians.

I only hate religious people who use their religion to hate others or cause offense to other they don't approve of. I know somereligious people who are fine and decent people who have no interest in forcing their beliefs on others or look down on people whose lifestyles are not the same as their own.

R41, I wish there were more of the second type! As far as I'm concerned, all churches and places of worship should have their tax-exempt status revoked. Tax the fuckers!

I am a Christian and I view it this way:

All life is created in God's image, therefore all life has value and we should treat it with such. There is no dispute that Jesus Christ was a real historical figure who walked the Earth. I believe Jesus was the only perfect person to live and taught us how to treat others with value, dignity, and respect.

I try to live my life as close to Jesus Christ, but of course I fail because I am not perfect. I try to give others that same grace that God gives me.

R43, oh brother. What are your thoughts on Sasquatch?

At the same time, I know some "religious" people who are the most vile and nasty people I have ever met.

They cheat, are drunks, hit their wives, and have never opened their Bible or have gone to church.

I am a Catholic and I love my faith. It's sad that so many, in fact, probably the majority of the gay "community" as it were and is, is a vacuous, vapid, collection of unhappy, self-loathing people who define themselves almost entirely by their sexual preferences. The are so devoid of any substantial foundation, other than the short pleasure of sexual activity that ceases after about one minute post climax. So much misery and hatred! You are a sad lot. It's OK to be religious and gay.

[quote]There is no dispute that Jesus Christ was a real historical figure who walked the Earth.

There is TONS of dispute. In fact there's no proof at all that he existed. Many religious historians feel Jesus is a combination of a number of people who claimed to be the Messiah during that time.

R46, what a bootlicking dumbass you are.

Religion has become a manifestation of the typical human "I am right and you are wrong."

Your religion tends to view the world as you do. Crazy right wingers twist religion to fit their view of the world--mainly a way to reinforce their personal prejudices.

R47, Jesus fit the classic profile of a schizophrenic -- unkempt; delusions of grandeur and special 'powers' and 'visions'. If he were alive today, you'd likely find him in your city's local skid row.

And had a whore of a mother.

Jesus was a homo

Gee R46, for being such a pious Catholic, how odd to find you in this devil's pit of sin. A place crawling with gay sex, porn, and other unsavory elements. You must be a very good fucking Catholic, now are you!

I've been an aethist since 1953 when god would not return my mother who had just died of breast cancer.

Whether Jesus was real or not, he is described in a benevolent way. His supposed teachings are valid.

so weird that beleiving in the magical man in the sky somehow makes you a good person.

Just Love thy neighbor and judge not. None of the rest matters

Just to point out the absence of a monolith here, I am Catholic and think r46 needs to unclench.

It's all so fake....

R57, and the worst part is that American politicians have to pretend to be religious in order to be considered electable.

Like I seriously doubt Pete Buttigieg is actually religious. But they gotta play the game.

R46 Everything you believe in is a human construct.

It's a power structure whose sole function is to preserve its money and power.

Women are subjugated and children are raped.

You are denied what others are given freely because what you are is an abomination.

And you use this twisted broken system to attack your brothers and sisters here.

You wallow in misery and hatred. Good luck with everything.

Years of Catholic school made me an avowed atheist

There's two kinds of religious people: 1) infantile, deluded fools who believe in fairy tales and ; 2) manipulative, sociopathic fraudsters who prey on the weak-minded for profit and/or political gain.

R50, that's true for most mystics and prophets. In theory, all religions are a form of psychosis, with magical thinking, objects and places with miraculous powers, communication with an all power deity who answers individual prays and sacrifices.

I agree with R41. People need meaning, purpose, direction, orders, a pathway into life which, religious or not one must admit, is a pretty damn miraculous mystery. Than there is the one topic few of us talk about or deal with: death. I hate only those religious people, I mean hate to the point of being homicidal, who preach murdering, oppressing those not of their faith and are motivated to impose their beliefs on everyone, eventually globally. There is only one religion that is doing this today.