[video=youtube;91DSNL1BEeY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91DSNL1BEeY[/video] Old, but still funny. Please state your religious affiliation (if any) and tell me what you think after watching that.
"Americans, are you here? I'm sorry about this, apparently God had some fracas with your founding fathers and damned the entire race into perpetuity. He sends particular condolences to the Mormans who He realises put in a lot of work. " "Christians, ah yes, I'm afraid the Jews were right."
"The French, are you here?" You asked for our religious affiliation: let's just put my religion down as "not gullible enough to be religious." Like a growing number of entertainers, in real life Atkinson is a hard-core atheist, I believe.
But according to the South Park movie it was "the Mormons....the Mormons". In reality, it's more likely "the scientifically-minded". Religions are just maybe just a test for the afterlife, to see if people discard consistent, logical, science that "god" gave us, and are foolish enough to actually believe in say a talking donkey. God: "you were so fearful that you actually BELIEVED that I - the all-knowing - would say it was good to kill gays, and take slaves, and rape, and pillage, and that a talking donkey was real!? You failed the test, obviously."
EVERYBODY claims it's "their group" who gets into Heaven. Be a real shock to most Believers, not most atheists, if they ende dup in Hell. Atleast the atheists could say "I guess I made an honest mistake". The Believers would realize that their entire faith...and thus most of their lives... was false.
"Ok, WHO'S magic invisible friend in the sky do I fear the most, THAT'S the one I'll pick to believe in?" That must be a degrading decision to actually make. "So long, science, reason, critical thinking, and common sense, FEAR rules my life now!" It's like they've sold their soul to the devil, or something.....hmmmmm, maybe that's why god doesn't actually just GET RID of the devil, because the devil has actually tricked them into believing that HE is "god".
.....thanks to their god who is also an omniscient real estate broker who gives land to his chosen people. But he always seems to give them the driest, or rockiest, dustiest land possible, so he must really hate them. "Here, I've picked the 120 degree sand-covered Saudi Arabia for my chosen people!" (Mecca) Or "Here, I've picked the dry rocky wasteland that is the Middle East for my chosen people! Oh sure, I could have picked the most fertile valley in the world, but nah." (Christianity)
The idea was using Atkinson's scenario like "imagine if that's what really happened". The reaction of coming to hell and hearing: Sorry buddy, you were a good person, but unfortunately you grew up with the wrong religion. I especially was curious to hear the comments of theists rather than atheists. And I was looking forward to talks about religion, rather than South Park vs Atkinson
I've often wondered if it isn't some sort of test. If it was, it's fairly easy to see who fails and who passes.
They'll say it's yet another of god's little 'guidances'. Every time Yaz is made to look a complete arsehat via something like that which you've pointed out, he gets a pass because he's just challenging us
Yes, god, I give my kids a book that says to KILL them (I don't know the real reason behind that, since I have a hard time "thinking for myself", like crank does), and say that YOU, god, inspired that book, and that it's the best book of all time...... .....YEAH, THAT'LL GET YOU AN AFTER-LIFE REWARD....IF GOD IS INSANE, THAT IS. Christians are betting that "god" is actually immoral. Think about that. Really think about that.
If you actively avoid collecting butterflies then yes. Atheism is an organized thought process, if you believe it, it is a religion.
If I actively avoid collecting butterflies......I'm engaging in a "hobby"?!?!? So do you or do you not collect butterflies as your "hobby"?
If you actively avoid collecting butterflies, that is a hobby. If you are indifferent to collecting butterflies, that is not a hobby. I am indifferent, it has no bearing on my thought process, not a hobby.
Christian here, and I love Rowan Atkinson. In a hetero way. Wrong forum for that. This is more of a circle-jerk forum for angry atheists. Heh... you must not be familiar with the most active members in this forum. South Park is the mindset you'll get.
Maybe so, but you could have ignored the South Park references and rather focused on my initial question, which I thought posed itself by watching the video: What would your personal reaction be, if you came to hell and the devil said: "sorry you chose the wrong religion" P.S.: In case you were wondering: I didn't pose the question in my first post, in order not to spoil the punchline.
I don't understand the argument here. I am an Atheist because I happen to not believe in a God. How would you describe then a person who doesn't engage in religions of any kind? As undoubtably mentioned before "A-Theism" means "without belief". How is that then a religion? Or rather what can I do to not be affiliated with any religion in any way shape or form?
The whole point of being an Atheist is to not have to be actively involved with anything religious. I'm very much indifferent about religion and only avoid it actively if for some reason on Sunday Jehova's Witnesses show up on my door. I don't really care for/about religion, but I do care how this culture influences people and what effects it has.
I admit I don't fully understand the argument for all the different classifications of non-Theism. But I would guess if you had someone that had never been introduced to religion, or hasn't ever made a decision either way, would be Undecided. It just seems to reason if you have a belief system, you believe it, therefore it's your religion.
I did ignore them, I ignore pretty much all of what these people ramble on about. I have seen enough to know how they are, and I don't bother. They sit here trying to convince each other there is no God, yet seem quite unsuccessful. Non believers don't spend 24/7 online telling people they don't believe. As for your initial question, you asked "tell me what you think"... so I did. As for the question you asked me now... I would say that I would be pretty upset. I just don't believe that to be the case though, based on all the evidence I have seen in my life, and the lives of those around me. I'll stop there, because I'd hate for any of them to start having seizures while frantically typing replies with their drool-covered (or other bodily fluids), fingers... especially since I won't be reading it. Take care.
Well, I was born - just like everybody else - as an atheist. I'm pretty certain because of reports of my family that the first word out of my mouth was "dad" to get his attention, and not "father, bless me for I have sinned". Later in life I got introduced to the roman catholic religion. But if you are a child, usually you don't even listen to all that. You're sitting and acting poorly like you listening, while your mind is making plans with what toy you'll play when you get out of here. Religion was at that point in my life an inconvenience I dealt with to make my parents happy. I was thrilled when at 15 I finally managed to persuade my mom to stop sending me to Sunday school. I was no longer going to church or Sunday school, but not for political reasons. I wanted to watch the cartoons on Sundays and going to church was just a waste of time. By skipping Sunday school, which in Austria we had actually in public schools, I had the hour off and could go to lunch. And sometimes it would be the first period and I could sleep one hour longer. I was so happy about that. For me the moment where I clearly distanced myself from religion because of disproval reasons, rather than childish reasons like watching TV, was when I became an adult and actually started listening (for the first time) to what was preached, and when I started to think about the content. I just couldn't relate to any of the stories and I saw them as insightful as looking at my socks. As a historian however, I am fascinated about cultures and with religion as a system and what an impact it had on somebody's decisions. And usually as a historian you also adore human development. If you look for example at the middle ages you certainly see the benefit of stability religion provided in a time where swearing was equal to proof. I do read about religions and I do try to understand why people believe what they believe, because it is my profession. History is a science where you try to understand, not just explain like in the natural sciences. Our mindset today doesn't apply on the one 30 years ago really, never mind 150 years ago. You have to try to understand the thinking process of somebody who lived 150 years ago, so you can reason and understand their decisions, and within their thinking process you might then be able to see whether there was an alternative path which was possible. So even though I am not religious, I do my very best to understand in order to apply it when I am doing historic research.
