Atheists and Death

pobblebonk · Post by **pobblebonk** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:10 pm

[quote=""Ozymandias""]

Isn't that true of every book you have ever read? Or do none of your books contain any allegory at all?[/quote]

None of my books purport to be a manual for living one's life.

[quote=""sohy""]I would agree with you Ozy that some Christians of the liberal variety don't take anything in the Bible literally. Those of us who were raised in conservative Christian home were taught that just about everything in the Bible is meant to be taken literally, including the story of Job, the endless god praising in the afterlife as well as such ridiculous stories as Jonah and the big fish, Jesus feeding the thousands with 2 fishes and a loaf of bread etc.

Most liberal Christians I've known aren't too sure that there is an afterlife and they certainly don't try to define it. [/quote]

I'll be honest that I've known few if any liberal Christians. My exposure to Protestantism is mostly of the conservative and fundamentalist type. Most of the Christians I currently associate with are Catholic and definitely believe in Heaven/Hell.

Jackrabbit · Post by **Jackrabbit** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:05 pm

Same here. Once I finally escaped from religion, I stayed far, far away from all forms of it. So I have no idea what the milder versions believe, and don't really give a shit. If they still believe that the universe was created by anyone, whether "he" wants us to do silly things or not, they can blow it out their bunghole.

sohy · Post by **sohy** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:35 am

I've had quite a few liberal Christian friends over the years, and I've always felt they were just a small step away from atheism. They just liked the community and cultural aspects of religion. I don't have a problem with that type of thinking even though it doesn't attract me. You will find lots of liberal Christians in the UU congregations. For that matter, I've even known a few atheist Christians. I have no problem with any of that. We all need to find ways to cope with the harsh side of life.

ruby sparks · Post by **ruby sparks** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 2:00 pm

[quote=""sohy""]I've had quite a few liberal Christian friends over the years, and I've always felt they were just a small step away from atheism. They just liked the community and cultural aspects of religion. I don't have a problem with that type of thinking even though it doesn't attract me. You will find lots of liberal Christians in the UU congregations. For that matter, I've even known a few atheist Christians. I have no problem with any of that. We all need to find ways to cope with the harsh side of life.[/quote]

I would go along with that, by and large. Those sorts of Christians (although I don't know any atheist ones) are usually dead on (that's NI for spot on). And here, there's a lot of them.

Jackrabbit · Post by **Jackrabbit** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 2:19 pm

That ties in with the "atheists are always miserable" mantra that the biblebangers are always spouting. It's the social structure, not the jeebus shit. As long as you associate with a group of people, it doesn't matter what the common bond is.

Tharmas · Post by **Tharmas** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 2:38 pm

I was raised in a liberal version of Christianity Quakerism. In fact it was the secretary of our meeting, which is the Quaker rough equivalent to a minister or elder, who first got me started on biblical criticism, when I was 17.

Id told him I couldnt believe all the hocus pocus (my words) in the bible concerning the virgin birth and the resurrection, and he told me that the Gospel of Mark, which was the first written and closest in time to the actual events, mentioned neither, and that they were added in the later gospels.

From there it was an easy slide into atheism, although it took me a few years.

ruby sparks · Post by **ruby sparks** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:13 pm

[quote=""Tharmas""]I was raised in a liberal version of Christianity – Quakerism. In fact it was the secretary of our meeting, which is the Quaker rough equivalent to a minister or elder, who first got me started on biblical criticism, when I was 17.

I’d told him I couldn’t believe all the hocus pocus (my words) in the bible concerning the virgin birth and the resurrection, and he told me that the Gospel of Mark, which was the first written and closest in time to the actual events, mentioned neither, and that they were added in the later gospels.

From there it was an easy slide into atheism, although it took me a few years.[/quote]

My wife teaches in a Quaker school* and both our girls attended it since the age of 5 (eldest is 20 and at uni, youngest is 17 and in her last year at the school).

My wife, who is arguably even more of an anti-religion atheist than I am, has a soft spot for Quakerism. She even alleges that she was told that there is a branch/denomination of Quakerism in which you don't even have to believe in god, but I have not verified this.

*Originally by and for Quakers, but in recent times has become open to all (staff and pupils) though still has a 'Quaker Ethos'.

Tubby · Post by **Tubby** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:18 pm

[quote=""Ozymandias""]Take Job for example. It is utterly and obviously allegorical[/quote]

I grew up among adults who very much thought that story was historical.

But yeah, some Christians go a different way with things in the Bible. I remember having a "huh?" moment when I heard (in my post-belief days) a Christian on the radio very matter-of-factly taking "Ask and ye shall receive" to mean that you directly ask your fellow humans for things you want, and they will give them to you. In church that scripture was never presented to me as anything other than asking God in silent prayer to provide, and He will supernaturally pull strings to make things happen, albeit through seemingly natural means such as a human bringing something to you.

DMB · Post by **DMB** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 8:42 am

[quote=""Jackrabbit""]Not to mention that it's incomprehensible that the deity wouldn't get bored with it. After the first hundred years, I'd tell the annoying little shits to shut the fuck up.

Why he would have ever gotten off on it in the first place? Why would it mean anything? Why would he give a fuck about praise when they were alive?

It's like having an ant farm and wanting each individual ant to pay homage. Multiplied by an immense order of magnitude.

Thinking and religion are mutually exclusive.[/quote]

Think of early kings at the time when these religious ideas got going. The king would no doubt be a vain twerp who insisted on lots of worship. The concept of God was of the king of kings, i.e. a very big and important king. He would naturally have all the usual kingly qualities only more so.

Jackrabbit · Post by **Jackrabbit** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 12:18 pm

Primitive men can be forgiven for having primitive ideas. The indictment against religion is in still clinging to primitive ideas in the modern age, while ideas in many other arenas have advanced.