Thanks to Ron Coleman for donating this original cartoon to the NoGodBlog.
Thanks to Ron Coleman for donating this original cartoon to the NoGodBlog.
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Debbie,
I am ashamed that I allowed you to raise my ire so completely. I promise to do my best to ignore you completely until such a time as you can answer honest questions instead of insulting you.
Jordan, the interesting thing is that it’s NOT on the atheist dating site.
Danger, I’m a paradox to myself as well! I’m a mixed up crazy kid who thinks a lot things that don’t always align. Also, read Spong’s “Jesus for the Non Religious”. I’m eager to check out Bart Ehrman’s latest book. Anything by him is great. Elaine Pagels too. Richard Rubenstein analysis of the Nicene Creed in “When Jesus Became God” is also very, very good.
Karen, I just responded to your email. I hope it helps!
seeker & spanders, it’s good to see the two of you back again.
Where has spanders been?
MX, thanks! And thanks for the help with the CAD stuff. I’m really, really fortunate to have good people helping me out.
Seeker, I’m in a hole that I dug myself. I have my own small business and have been growing it, but it’s been very difficult. I’m figuring it out… slowly. It leaves little time to do much else. I enjoy the little free time that I give myself, so my commenting here has been reduced.
How about you? Where have you been?
Debbie,
I just wanted to chime in and say that I agree with Godfrey and alatham.
Spanders is widely admired because he is thoughtful and thought provoking, without being preachy. Although I haven’t been doing a very good job of it, I actually aspire to be more like him.
As alatham said, I too am disappointed in myself that I let you provoke my wrath. I usually reserve that for phreedm, but I have sworn off him like a bad haircut. I am sure you mean well, but I too would advise you to lurk for a while and see what we are about, before you decide to post again.
IMO, nobody on this site will ever try to convert you to Atheism. Something like what you believe in is far too important to be drilled into you. Only YOU can decide what you believe. We only ask that you give us the same respect.
I realize it is a few days late and a couple dollars short, but welcome to our little corner of the net. I hope when all is said and done, you will consider yourself better off for having interacted with us. Peace!
Spander…
Similar situation.
I own a small business that demands my attention. I’ve thought of selling and retiring. (Dave’s career note caught my attention.)
About 18 months ago I decided to give religion one last look before walking away. I took a trip to China with a small team of Christians (complete strangers.)
My conclusion was they were just people like everyone else. You’d think after 50+ years in fundamentalism that would have been obvious from the get-go; but the mind is an incredible instrument.
I came home, had a chat with my wife, pastor and a few close friends and explained my views: There’s no monster in the closet, no Santa Claus, no God.
Church folk have been considerate. There ain’t no good guys…bad guys…we just disagree.
Aside from dropping out of religious activities I’ve kept my views quiet.
Spanders
Thanks for the info!
Seeker, what did your wife say? What kind of business? I like to find out what other small business owners are doing. People talk about selling out like it’s a bad thing
.
Ren, while I appreciate the vote of confidence, like I’ve said, spanders is different than the guy behind the comments. Spanders is what I’d like to be: thinking about what I say before I say it. The real me can be more sardonic than I’d like to be.
Spanders It’s nice to hear from a Bishop Spong Christian. I am an Atheist who reads Spong. I like his notion that the theistic God is either dead or never existed but I can’t quite accomodate Spong’s affinity for Jesus. The man who spoke the Sermon on the Mount also said and did some very bad things (read the Gospels again). I only wish more Christians were of the Bishop Spong variety. Looks like there’s hope.
Another great cartoon, given to me by a Canadian atheist friend:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m181/slinky250/helpoppressed.gif
Oppressed my a$$!
Yeah, good one. It’s kind of like Nearing Zero.
http://www.nearingzero.net/screen_res/nz134.jpg
Sort of a cartoon, very juvenile, but i’m finally reading the bibull. This one gives me teh funnay!
oh hai!
http://www.lolcatbible.com
quantum and Bones,
Ha! Thanks for the laugh.
(How sorry is that that I can understand LOLCat-ese? I really need to get off this computer….)
Possible Influence of Aqua Teen Hungerforce?
http://www.nearingzero.net/screen_res/nz336.jpg
Possible Influence for Futuramma?
http://www.nearingzero.net/tsanta.html
Santa Jokes!
http://www.nearingzero.net/jobs_santa.html
Ah, hell, they’re all very funny!
http://www.nearingzero.net/random.html
Critical Mass
http://www.nearingzero.net/nz392.html
spanders,
To qualify my statement; I did say I aspire to be more like spanders, not the man behind the comments. Perhaps we have the same goal?
I had to look up sardonic to make sure I knew what it meant. Sardonic would be a step in the right direction for me. I can be straight up nasty when I get on my high horse.
I would like to believe that my last post to Debbie was inspired by you, or I mean spanders. If you will notice, it is of a very different tone than all my previous postings to her.
Seeing spanders appear on the thread made me ask myself, WWSD? I guess no translation is needed? Anyhow, I decided to put forth an olive branch, and put away the quiver of arrows. I was only trying to give credit where credit was due. If the shoe fits…
I am not trying to inflate your ego, but I would hope you would take comfort in knowing that spanders has a calming effect on me, as I am sure he does on others, as well.
Does that mean He gets backaches, hernias and haemorrhoids from switching to an upright posture?
Is He, like all our fellow simians, in possession of a damaged gene for synthesizing Vitamin C? (Evolution didn’t eliminate this otherwise lethal error because our early ancestors had previously adopted a diet rich in Vitamin C.)
Evolution is predicted to produce these kinds of flaws. As long as the organism can still reproduce with adequate success, an optimal design solution (from an observer’s point of view) is not going to be selected for.
As intelligent designers go, He is one of the most incompetent examples ever imagined.
The religious believe in god for the same reason 9 year olds believe in Santa. They want the promised gifts and can make themselves believe as necessary in the hope of getting what they want.
dd – I suspect the human brain is hard wired to be religious. Add social and cultural pressures and over-riding the faith factor is a challenge.
Hey, I know for a FACT, that gawd isn’t a woman.
If gawd was a woman we’d all get prettier as we get older. Obviously gawd is a man because what’s happening is ass-backwards!
Alatham,
There are some great books of late about our being predisposed to religious belief.
Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion By Todd Tremlin, is one.
Also, checkout this paper from Pascal Boyer.
http://www.dustinvanwechel.com/9.pdf
This paper specifically address the point you made above.
Very interesting stuff.
wow….and all this time I thought I was born an atheist….now I find out that believing in silly superstitious rituals is genetic….great….these monotheism bullshit dumb ideas will never go away
DD Dropout,
“Does that mean He gets backaches, hernias and haemorrhoids from switching to an upright posture?”
No. It just means we are made in his image. All the other stuff are because of things we do in our own life.
I dont think it is genetic more like something that has been done for so long hard to stop. Just look at asia no gods in there way of life so that pokes a hole in the genetic thing.
“It just means we are made in his image.”
You can prove this? Got a recent photograph of the cowardly bugger?
so god is a (HE)?
Why would god need to be a he does god make little gods running around heaven?
Debbie,
Are you suggesting that genetic diseases, including children born horribly deformed, are the result of some perceived sin on the part of the individual? Perhaps you are saying that the sins of the father are to be paid for by three generations of his descendants? That’s quite the loving god, you worship there.
Ren,
“Perhaps you are saying that the sins of the father are to be paid for by three generations of his descendants?”
I’m not saying that but there are generational curses that need to be broken.
seeker,
I disagree. I think many of us are predisposed to want to belong to a community, and to temper the fear of the unknown.
Religion can supply both of these things. We atheists exist, not despite our genes, but because these two things can be gotten from other sources.