Isn’t that a cute euphemism? “Allowing kids to Share their faith” sounds a lot nicer than “using children to recruit other people’s children to their religion”. Yes, the kids should be allowed to speak their minds, but let’s not confuse the issue here. These trinket toys are designed to recruit other kids — YOUR kids. They are not benign, and they are not harmless.
Lesson of the day: make sure your kids are armed with knowledge. Don’t let them be nonreligious just by default — make sure they understand WHY it makes sence that gods don’t exist, because there are children who will attempt to convince them otherwise in school.
They actually used the wording “Allowing kids to share their faith,”??
The only thing they need in order to share their faith is a good working voice. No one’s preventing anyone from “sharing their faith.” They make it sound like Christians are oppressed into not being able to share their faith. Nothing could be more blatantly inaccurate in reality. If anything, Christians share their faith too much.
I see that one of these bracelets is in the shape of the Star of David. In my experience, that won’t sell very well because at least here in the US of A, Jews don’t feel an urge to push their religion on people like an evangelist does. Anyway it seems odd that any religious minorities would go out of their way to play this cutesy religious game of thinly veiled evangelism and religious profit-making.
It’s sad to see that they convince so many young people to take sides – without getting to meet their god, like…ever.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02rStatistcs.html
Yeah…nothing like recruiting kids.
At least we agree on one point. Knowledge is the key to debunking all myths…
Oh sure…1 small group speaks for everyone. Just like Phelps speaks for all xtians.
Puh-lease.
Way to provide really unbiased stats, phreedm. The list was so full of weasel words that any meaning was, well, meaningless. Their “sources” are consumer magazines, studies and surveys from the 20-30 years ago, and The Family Research Institute (who’s stated goal is to “research…issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality…”–real objective). The few sources that are respectable aren’t cited anywhere except the reference list. Why is that?
And as KA said, one small group does not speak for all. Phelps is a prime example of that.
To phreedm
when you refer to someone recruiting children into homosexuality. which group are you talking about the Catholic Priest Hood who speak with the voice of God, or are you referring to another Christian denomination?
“These trinket toys are designed to recruit other kids — YOUR kids.”
As opposed to the agents of the state that use all the laws and guns and taxes of the state to recruit kids – my kids – into their statist collectivist cult?
100% agree
I am laughing at this. I can almost guarantee that children will start fighting over this stupid and senseless idea of wearing these religious connotation bracelets. Religious organizations and even Hitler tried them. During the WWII some groups were forced-stamp yellow stars on their clothing and swastika symbols for the so called superior race. Eventually children will be forced to wear that garbage by their unsecured parents, or they, the children, will learn to feel insecure by not wearing them.
Friends, don’t buy this crap; it is no more than a cheap way to recruit, convert, and manipulate people at an early age taking away free thinking.
This reminds me very much of the unitarian idea. And it also reminds me of something said by Reshma Shetty on one of USA channel’s “characters welcome” ads where she states that she believes in all paths lead to god. If that were true, why do all those paths lead through hatred and war before they finally get to god? While it’s true enough that any god in control of human affairs must be a heartless genocidal sociopath, does it mean that we must become like him in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment?
I guess tolerence is a good thing. But, it’s just a side bar of free thought. I agree that diffent religions should not hate each other, but the real point is that if religion didn’t exist, we would have no religious reasons to hate each other. The point is lost on the blinded masses. Yet is so simple. Just common sense.
NeoWolfe
Suppose there really is a God but because I try so desperately to prove that he doesn’t exist,my dismissing and closed mind puts a barrier between him and I and I fail to come to the knowledge of him or experience his presence, or hear his voice or receive his miracles as most christians profess to have experienced. I wonder,what do I have to lose if I try to first find out if he actually exists before totally dismissing what is believed to be just a myth?
If there is a God, and he is real then he would also have to be powerful enough to hear my words and my thoughts. I could ask of him to reveal himself to me in some way. According to christians, if you seek to find him he will reveal himself to you in some way and you will definitely know it’s him after the impact that he leaves with you. If this proves fruitless then one would have gained nothing and would have lost nothing and if one discovers that he is real then this should be a great and beneficial revelation.
Finding god is a lot like finding Toyota Priuses (insert your most recent car purchase).
When most people buy a new car they begin to see the same model at a much higher rate than before they made the purchase. We find what we look for. One “guru” advises people to pray for guidance and then watch passing buses to find answers in the advertising. It always works. Tarot cards too. And then there’s always tea leaves.
Our brains are such adaptive sense-making tools that we can make sense out of pretty much anything – that is, we are remarkably self-dupable. The key discovery in the scientific method was requiring the reproduction of results by independent testers.
The problem with revelation is just that.
I have had my revelation and it wasn’t imagined.I had a real encounter with God and I will never forget it. I can assure you that no tarot card or guru experience can compare with the overwhelming impact of the presence of God. I can also assure you that if you sincerely put your scientific understandings aside and allow God to reveal Himself to you, you would cease to rely on scientists to enlighten you. You would come to know God and experience his awesome Glory.
When I finally became a christian at age 40 and started to experience his Glory I felt such regret that I wasted all my 40 years in ignorance not knowing he was such an awesome God. I would encourage you to allow God in your life and I promise you, you would never regret it. I couldn’t believe I was so blind and foolish for so long.
Allowing Him in your life is very simple. Just sincerely say “God, if you are real, come into my life and reveal yourself to me”. If you want to know the truth, He will reveal it to you and guess what? You can have a personal relationship with HIM. It’s the best decision you could ever make in your life.
Are you on any medication?
Well, it’s good to see that we Christians are winning the race to develop propaganda bracelets. Won’t be long before the world is ours.
But seriously, what’s the issue here? Are you afraid that your “free-thinking” children might be exposed to ideas that aren’t the same as they learned at home? Better send ‘em to private atheist school. That way they’ll be sure not to bump into those scary religious kids – the ones that actually care about their classmates to the degree that they’ll brave the very real social consequences to talk about the God that loves them.
“god” has no place in school – faith-based religion is the very opposite of the spirit of education.
Those scary religious kids sometimes come out as Mormons – they believed that all Black people were Satan’s representatives on Earth until 1978!!!
If you were Black, you might be scared!
“Thriller” came out less than 6 years later.
How would all those Mormons ever explain to their kids that Satan has the best selling album of ALL TIME!!!?
r.
The topic here is Christian bracelets, not Mormon racists. You don’t need to tell me that Mormons have bad ideas; I am well aware of that. I do have to say that your rebuttal of their idea seems rather weak, though. By all accounts, Satan is supposed to be an exceptional musician (see “Devil Went Down to Georgia”), so it would make sense for his minions to be successful in the music industry.
I’m intrigued by your phrase “faith-based religion”. If this phrase means, as it seems to, a religion whose cornerstone is blind faith, then it is not a good description of Christianity. Christianity is based on the historical fact of Jesus, his death and resurrection. The rest of the religion follows logically from that. The point on which Christianity rests is not mystical or irrational – it’s the concrete assertion that a man claimed to be God and then proved it by coming back from the dead. If that assertion is true, then Christianity is indisputable; if it is false, then Christianity is rubbish. The reason I claim it to be true, is that it is the best explanation of the evidence. It is not faith opposed to reason, but faith flowing from reason.
I don’t know exactly what you mean by the “spirit of education” (there are, of course, many theories about education), but I cannot imagine that my religion, the fruit of knowledge and critical thinking, could be its opposite.
I’m sorry, those are all lies.
Critical thinking? C’mon! I hope you are joking about Charlie Daniels – I suspect you aren’t though seeing as christians aren’t exactly known for their senses of humor – otherwise they might be more willing to see the ridiculousness of their faith. Are you actually putting Charlie Daniels in the same category as your bible as a point of christian reference? Was he in exodus?!
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. As far as I know, there is no compelling scientific evidence that the miracles ascribed to jesus actually happened, or that any similar miracles ever happened in all of history. Such miracle stories are extraordinary claims without extraordinary proof. Therefore, we should not believe them. Your “proof” is rubbish. There is no difference between these “historical facts” and old wives’ tales.
We would still be discouraging people from sailing off the edge of the world, if we stuck to “christian-based Critical Thinking” – the Greatest oxymoron of ALL TIME! Your story is as ridiculous as the Mormon story…you just have more years behind you. “Don’t covet thy neighbor’s donkey?” – Nice nugget of wisdom. It’s just not “timeless” thinking…like your god is supposed to be capable of.
There are million fables that could be true, yet common sense allows me to realize that they are all just fables…like Papa Smurf and Smurfs. While I have no proof that Papa Smurf isn’t real, I don’t waste time proving this “negative”…just like I don’t waste time proving any negatives…I would rather try to prove a positive…
YOU must prove your positives as well…like that jesus’ miracles actually occurred…a book written on paper does not prove anything…just like a comic book doesn’t prove anything about its contents.
Your people need to collectively comprehend what “proof” is.
Why don’t you break down what parts of the bible are facts and which parts are parables…so that I can determine what kind of christian that you are.
r.