[BartSimpson]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

"I'm not really religious, I just have a relationship with God" - my mother

Good for your mom.

[Thanos]

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Thanos Thanos:

By today's standards most of it, and that's from all the various sects too, barely makes it as bad fiction.

It's a lot of wasted time, resources, focus, and life.

What upsets me deeply about religious people is the insistence that atheism or a lack of religion is inherently "immoral" and that a healthy understanding of right and wrong can only come from these stories. I'm proud my immorality at least leaves gay people the hell alone and doesn't make women my property. I'm okay with not worshiping a dictator that intimidates their subjects into a dated sense of morality by threat of eternal damnation. I'm proud I can be a nice person without fearing god, and I'm terrified for all the religious who don't feel they could keep their morality if they lost faith (Bart has said this a number of times IIRC, that without faith he believes he'd be a murderer)

I learned more real morality from the good guys in movies and on TV shows than I ever learned from some mean-spirited self-righteous bible puncher.

[Public_Domain]

[Thanos]

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BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Fortunately a growing number of people are learning the errors of secular humanism.

Hmm...

I'd say that the obnoxious busybodying behaviour of American Christian conservatives over the last forty years has done more to damage the image and reputation of Christianity in the eyes of younger people than any other social phenomenon. I know that my view of them was forever changed just from a single encounter with some raving self-righteous asshole outside of the Saddledome about thirty years ago who screamed at us that we were all going to hell when all we were doing was going to a Judas Priest concert. I figured at that moment that if this kind of behaviour from them was what they were all about, and I've seen precious little from the majority of them to make me believe otherwise, then it was something I wanted to have no personal association with at all.

[Public_Domain]

[Thanos]

The nut at the Priest concert was the final straw for me. I'd been majorly turned off by a few other incidents that happened previous to that one outside the 'Dome. My one grandma was terrific in practically all other respects but one. She kept bothering me because I was never baptized and she wanted me to get it done so I would "get into heaven". She was fairly fearless in almost all other things like surviving an abusive husband that eventually killed himself as well as pretty much raising her two kids on her own through the worst of the Depression. Yet she came across as being terrified for me just because some reverend had never sprinkled some "holy" water on my head and said some magic words.

I also had a good friend who had been brought up in the Salvation Army church. Yeah, they did all the charity stuff but that didn't eliminate all the other bullshit evangelical ideas they had. He really pissed me off one day when he said my dog wasn't going to Heaven. When I asked why, considering that the dog was more decent a person than practically every human being I'd yet met (or met afterwards too), he went on with the crap about animals not having souls and being there strictly for the use of man, no matter how abusive or rotten said "use" could be. A pretty heated philosophical (as much as two 12 year olds can actually engage in philosophy) argument erupted afterwards that left no one happy. The weird thing is that my buddy was kind of a Ben Carson type. Incredibly intelligent, with a measured IQ above 140, and he's turned into the most successful person I know. Yet he still believes in a lot of nasty things that are as ridiculous as any fairy tale that's ever been written.

[Public_Domain]

[ShepherdsDog]

$1:

Science class was starting to get really interesting, and that was at odds with believing the Earth is 4000 years old.

That's a belief usually held by a minority of fundy evangelicals. Hell Catholic schools teach about the Big Bang and evolution, and Vatican's official stance is that it's fact.

[andyt]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

telling me that when you're on your knees and a gun is pointed at your head, you'll beg God for your life. Warped.

I think there's something to that, because at that point you're helpless and basically reverting to a childlike state, ie your adult brain has turned off. So you're hoping there really is a big daddy up in the sky and you could bargain with him (I'll be good if you let me live.) I've seen it in my self during scary times, even tho my rational brain knows there's no point, you're still hoping for some power greater than yourself at that moment.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

I also had a good friend who had been brought up in the Salvation Army church. Yeah, they did all the charity stuff but that didn't eliminate all the other bullshit evangelical ideas they had. He really pissed me off one day when he said my dog wasn't going to Heaven. When I asked why, considering that the dog was more decent a person than practically every human being I'd yet met (or met afterwards too), he went on with the crap about animals not having souls and being there strictly for the use of man, no matter how abusive or rotten said "use" could be. A pretty heated philosophical (as much as two 12 year olds can actually engage in philosophy) argument erupted afterwards that left no one happy. The weird thing is that my buddy was kind of a Ben Carson type. Incredibly intelligent, with a measured IQ above 140, and he's turned into the most successful person I know. Yet he still believes in a lot of nasty things that are as ridiculous as any fairy tale that's ever been written.

This is a story you'll enjoy...

$1:

"No Dogs In Heaven"

An old man and his dog were walking down a hot, dusty road lined with a beautiful white fence on both sides. As they walked along, the old man and his dog became very thirsty and tired.

Soon, they came to a gate in the fence where, on the other side, they saw a nice grassy, wooded area surrounding a cool clear pool of fresh water. "Just where a thirsty 'huntin' dog and a man would like to rest!" thought the old man. But there was a sign over the gate that read "No Dogs" so they walked on.

Further on, they came upon a man in flowing white robes standing just inside a strong iron gate across a path that led to a beautiful, sunny meadow with a cool clear stream running through it.

"'Scuse me Sir," said the old man, "My dog and I have been on this road all day. Mind if we come in and sit in the shade for awhile?" "Of course!" The man said. "Come on in and rest. You look thirsty and tired." The old man said, "We sure are!" and started through the gate with his dog.

The gatekeeper stopped him. "Sorry, you can come in but your dog can't come with you. "You see, this is Heaven, and dogs aren't allowed here. He has to stay out here on the road." "What kind of Heaven won't allow dogs?" said the old man. "Well, if he can't come in, then I'll stay out here on the road with him. He's been my faithful companion all his life and I won't desert him now."

"Suit yourself," said the gatekeeper, "but I have to warn you, the Devil's on this road and he'll try to sweet talk you into his place. He'll promise you anything, but dogs can't go there either. If you won't leave that dog on the road, you'll spend all Eternity on the road with him. Better if you stay here."

"Well, I'm stayin' with my dog," replied the man and he and the dog walked on. Gradually, the fence became more and more faded and rundown until they finally reached a spot where the boards fell away completely leaving a gap. Another man dressed in old, ragged clothes sat just inside the broken fence under a shady tree.

"'Scuse me Sir," said the old man, "My dog and I have been on this road all day. Mind if we come in and sit in the shade for awhile?" "Of course!" The man said. "Come on in and rest. There's some cold water here under the tree. Make yourself comfortable."

The old man paused, "but what about my dog? Can he can come in, too? The man up the road said dogs weren't allowed here, and they had to stay on the road." The other man answered, "Well, you look pretty tired and thirsty. Would you come in here and rest if you had to leave that dog?"

"No sir!" the old man replied, "A glass of cold water and some shade would be mighty fine right about now but I won't come in if my buddy here can't come too. I didn't go to Heaven because my dog couldn't come with me, so I sure as how ain't about to go to Hell without him neither."

The man smiled and said, "Welcome to Heaven, and bring your dog!" The old man exclaimed, "You mean this is Heaven? And my dog can come with me? Then why did that fellow down the road say they weren't allowed in Heaven?" The man replied, "That was the Devil and he gets all the souls who are willing to give up a life-long companion for small comfort because they think it will make their lives a little easier."

The man continued, "They soon find out their mistake, but, then it's too late. The dogs come here, the fickle people stay there. God wouldn't allow dogs to be banned from Heaven. After all, He created them to be man's companions in life, why would he separate them in death?"

[Thanos]

All dogs go to Heaven. Period.

[PluggyRug]

There is no hell for animals, except for here on earth.

[Thanos]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

There is no hell for animals, except for here on earth.

$1:

"In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is a holocaust, an eternal Treblinka."

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.”

- Issac Bashevis Singer

[Public_Domain]

[Thanos]

The internet is lovable because it's real, in that special face-hugger-from-Aliens way it carries itself.