brownsmith89 wrote: go spread your atheist beliefs with others like con artists, robbers, murderers who don't care, are selfish, and believe that they have no free will.
Hey Brownsmith89, I don't know you, I don't know why on earth you pissed off Kam, I don't know him that well either but I sure as hell don't appreciate how you inadvertently trolled a chunk of the rockets board.
Please don't bring up religion again on the Rockets board. That rarely has any place here.
Kam, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here, but if you wanna rant about religion, you have to be better prepared:
1) There is no seperation of church and state for many many people. This is most certainly the case in the majority of African American communities. You can't win elections without an endorsement from the church crowd. That is just America for you. So when you see famous people go about praising god, you gotta understand, it's good PR, and they probably grew up with a church their whole lives. Their families would find it odd, if not downright disrespectful if they didn't praise god. It's not a good idea to alienate half the community that saw you grow up, you know?
2) The dudes that protest in the funerals number less than 50 folks. It's by and large 3 families, one of which, The Phelps, run the actual Church. These people are not just crazy church goers, the ex-head of the church, Fred Phelps, was a pretty famous civil rights lawyer in his day before he got disbarred for many infractions, but his family has spawned a handful of lawyers (and a computer scientist who went to grad school where I went to school, and of course, put up
http://www.godhatesfags.com.) They have the local township government scared because they can pretty much hold up proceeding after proceeding with 1st Amendment law suits until the end of time, so local government has not stopped them protesting funerals, concerts, universities, public events, etc etc. As decades have gone by, this has slowly but surely gotten out of hand. There are over 100 million Christians in the US so it's really not a representative sample anyway.
3) Who created Big Bang, who created God is called a 'Turtles all the way down' argument that points to an infinite regress of origin. It is not a bad logical play, however, the theist simply counters by 'I don't know, I don't claim to postulate about a reality that is beyond my own, which is this turtle I am sitting on now. When I get to the next one, I'm sure we'll have a better idea where we're going."
4) My room mate is my first friend in middle TN. He is gay as water is wet. My wife got into a really good school to study the bible so I moved here first to start a job before she did. They've met. (I'm moving her to here this weekend). Within 30 minutes of meeting one another, they found that what they enjoy the most is making fun of me, especially together. It's like they get more brazen now that they have company. You see, plenty of Christians in more than a few main line denominations of protestantism don't practice homophobia, but they will turn on their spouses with cruel barbs about the dishes, the toilet seat that they have claimed as their own, the state of if their gay friend cheers them on.
5) Plenty of atheists have done bad things. Napolean, Kim Jong Il, Jeffrey Dahmer, Mussolini, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, to name a few. We've gotten better at killing people as rationalism has trumped spirituality as civilizations guiding principle (why of course, science improved quicker), but yeah, **** are everywhere. So beware of the counter argument, better yet, don't use the line of Religion caused examples of senseless death, because you can say the same thing about politics, money, family, aussie rules, football/soccer, american football, sports, basketball in europe etc etc...
6) It is okay to judge if you think you are ready to be judged. Of course, you can't be judged until you die. That's pretty much what Matthew means when he wrote that famous line. The problem is, some people are willing to die for what they believe in. I for one find that admirable but I think we evolved to be able to have ideas in the first place because it was a trait for surviving, and this whole dying for something that was suppose to help me live longer just seems counter productive. But some people do have that kind of conviction, or at least they think they do. Best not stir the nest.
I have a couple of friends at work that hate each other because of how they percieve each others family background and their politics. It is absurd how crazy that stuff is to some people. But I do think honestly that there is a complete unwillingness to learn someone elses vocabulary and where they are coming from before expousing your own views that just adds gas to a tenuous situation already. I'm saying this to you Kam, since you are several thousand miles away and clearly your understanding of American culture shows you haven't lived here. Just keep that in mind when some people post things and it will keep the temperature of the room comfortable. Much obliged.
(are you a Utah fan?) that I will impart some more, what I think are truisms. 1st off. Okay, I can't explain the big bang theory, I will concede that, however if god created the universe, who created god? Now we have the timeless childrens classic chicken or egg debate. (MMMM Chicken, reminds me that my better half made Mexican for dinner tonight.)
