Most Of The Religious Right Are Not Stupid, Just Willfully Ignorant

Yeah, you know OR we just recognize the symbol after the Christians pointed it out. It's hard not to see religious significance in something that's been GIVEN RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE. And so we're trying to stop it from being the one and only religious symbol there. If they're going to do it, let other religions and non-religions take their stance there as well so that this is not seen as a solely Christian thing. All of America was attacked. Not just the Christians. Fair is fair.

I like your joke.

ANd when I said you don't know what you are talking about, I was speaking about your Systematic Theological perspective (Statement about God making the Universe out of Clay), not you personally.

"Dumb-down" is the perfect expression for the effect of religion on the individual and collective minds of our species.

"Religious indoctrination of our educators, legislators and political leaders only serve to dilute our collective evolution as a species, stymie our collective intellectual growth and come at a great cost to our mental and physical of existence, especially in the realm of education and politics."

Is AA coming out in favor of anarchy? Since politics determines who is in charge of the state, and the state is nothing but systemitized force and coercion, and the education industry is almost completely controlled by the state, it only seems a logical conclusion that you should be against the state (i.e., anarchy, unless you're actually interested in changing politics). Either that, or you're really only interested in substituting your own doctrine for the present one.

Since your article appears to mainly focus on only one political party, even though the religious slant of the other party is hardly difficult to see, I have to suspect that it's more likely the later.

One of the biggest problems is anti-intellectualism in general. The nerds are beaten up and beaten down. Kids are taught to almost value stupidity. I think this is partially caused by the focus on faith as a virtue. When you hold blind faith in such high regard and mark doubt and critical thought as a sin, you really just cripple people intellectually. There's also the spirit of competition to blame. Sure, it can be useful in some regards, but humanity really shines when we work together, not against each other. When we see someone better than us in any regard, it is implied that we are the losers. This just breeds resentment. The jocks resent the nerds for being smarter than they are, and the nerds resent the jocks for being more physical adept.

It's a problem that is fundamental to our society and unfortunately, there's no way to change it overnight. Even if religion disappeared overnight, we would still have these problems for generations.

I find it very frightening that this kind of ignorance and stupidity is a campaign platform that helps candidates get elected. What kind of country is this that eats this stuff up? See Charles Pierce's book Idiot America.

Ok Free-thinkers, I just want to know something, because it's been really bugging me.

Why is it that "so called" *free-thinkers* seem to lack *common sense*?

We need the beloved atheists of the world to get these next few statements of common sense "drilled into their head"

1. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PART OF A RELIGION TO BELIEVE IN GOD. Ex: Deism, Pan-Theism, Pan-Deism, Straight up Theism

2. You can still be an atheist and be part of a religion. Ex: Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism

3. When you speak of religion in general you need to clarify WHICH RELIGION otherwise there is a chance you could be badmouthing some of your own atheist free-thinking camp, you know the "Brights".

Do you follow? Or are you going to use some Argumentum ad populum fallacy rebuttal that you claim some Christians use at times? I guess this is a good time to contradict yourselves though, because now you actually have people like me RETALIATING against your claims. I believe the American Atheists have it SO easily in regards to many matters, and I'm going to see how you fare when someone actually challenges you, and calls you out on your fallacious reasoning.

Now this obvious Christian bashing article stated:

"Likewise, even though there are hundreds of religions in the world, many of which both mimic and pre-date Christianity"

Really? So how about at least making an attempt to provide a few examples with this, that way I can beat down your arguments and show you why that is not the case. What are you afraid of? Being rebutted? Richard Dawkins seems to be that way after he talks the talk, but fails to walk the walk when a serious contender of Christianity gets in his face for a debate, but I guess Dawkins only feels tough when he challenges fundamentalists such as Kirk Cameron. I'm actually glad Stephen Law stepped in for polly-o toynbee after she chickened. Dr. Craig FINALLY has a formidable opponent.

Perhaps you fundamentalist atheists who use Da Vinci Code arguments can learn a thing or two. It might actually....ya know, make you appear less ignorant and it possibly will help stop your consistent arguments from emotion.

Such as:

"believers remain convinced that Christianity is unique among world religions because their savior was born of a virgin, was crucified, arose in three days and that Christianity is the only true “religion” in world, extant since the beginning of time by virtue of another preposterous fairy tale known as “the Trinity"

Ok how about instead of using arguments from emotion, show us WHY this is not the case? First off Islam states their religion is true also, so....why didn't you bring them up? Is this the American Atheist Association or the American Anti-Christian Association?

Perhaps thinking by this logic:

The universe created itself, and kept itself intact from an un-guided, purposeless blind process for 13.7 billion years, while creating life-from non-life and consciousness from a nonconscious process is a better explanation for you. There are billions of stars in the universe, but yet human beings still haven't progressed to the point of visiting our closest star when it comes to space travel. But the atheist "Brights" have all the answers!!!!

Now...for whatever reason the universe was created, Oh Wait! there is no reason this universe was created. Furthermore, the moral agents from this blind process thinks there is a reason, or at least lie to themselves about it. After that, the purposeful beings from a purposeless Universe then proceed to hypocrisy by telling others (Christians) what NOT to do, when they are indeed telling others NOT to do something themselves. These atheists then commit the law of non-contradiction.

I notice that atheist agenda of the *American Atheist Association* (Yes I can call you out on that as a group from your organization, so your "atheism isn't a stance" cop-out won't work here") also relies from the code of "True for you, but not for me" also. So I don't see where you are going with this, and this article is so effortlessly rebutted.

Hopefully those kind hearted American Atheists will actually post my comment this time. If they don't then so much for letting other people VOICE their opinion eh? Or is it, Atheists are only allowed to voice their opinions and receive special treatment?

Hello all, I am new here, and I came to this site just because of this idiotic effort to keep two pieces of steel from being placed in a memorial that should not be there. I am an "Atheist", I do not believe in the existence of any deities, gods, or any other entity, that claims to have control over my being. And it is my belief that is what Atheism is about. I don't question the existence, I absolutely do not accept it at all. But what I can't figure out, is why, people who don't believe in such things, Gods, Religion, Religious Symbols, and the like, are so damned "AFRAID" of them. I mean, if they mean nothing to you, why do you fear them, are you afraid of being converted to believe in a God, if so, then you are not an Atheist, but an Agnostic, and you are afraid of what you might find, so you attach it at every opportunity so that you can proclaim your disbelief.

This reminds me of a joke I heard many years ago, from an Irishman.

Seems that the Pope agreed to meet with the worlds leading Atheist, and they were discussing religion of course when:

The Pope says to the Atheist: You are like a man in a room with no windows and only one door. The room is painted black and there is no light, and you are in the room looking for a black cat, that isn't there.

The Atheist Responds: And you are like a man in a room with no windows and only one door. The room is painted black and there is no light, and you are in the room looking for a black cat, that isn't there, the only difference being, that you found it.

If you are truly an Atheist, how can you see religion in these two pieces of iron, only someone who believes that there is a God, and that religion is a reality, can see religious significance in two pieces of iron, that happened by chance,to take the shape of a Cross, unless of course you believe in an Omnipotent Being who can manipulate so much, but yet actually do so little to make life better.

I suggest that anybody here who claims to be an "Atheist" check their beliefs, because if these symbols cause you consternation, then you are probably not an Atheist, but as in the joke above, you have not yet found your Black Cat and you need to figure out what you truly are. These symbols do not affect me in any way, they are two pieces of iron, that were riveted together and because of the stress placed upon them in the collapse of the Towers, they separated at their weakest points and by virtue of the rivets and plates, holding the two pieces together, they happened to form a cross, which is a result in almost every collapse, you can find to pieces of something connected together, and if you hold it in the right manner, you can form a Cross.

So, in conclusion, if you see a religious significance in these two pieces of Iron, then you probably are not an Atheist, but you are more likely trying to escape your religious beliefs because they do not fulfill your expectations.

Love it. I come to blogs and essays like this every once in a while to see if you have come up with anything new and if I need to sharpen my apologetic.
Can see that there is nothing new here.
Get to work fellas, I am getting kind of bored.
I mean, after it is shown that atheism is a religious belief and only a religious belief just like the ones they decry
and that it leads to simple relativism because it's only lynchpin, science, has nothing to say about moral absolutes
and that relativism logically leads to nihilism, whose only meaningful question is "why am I still alive?"
and that atheism proposes no system of necessity for providing for the sick, the elderly, the poor, or the infirm, or can even justify at it's base for allowing them to exist
and that science has limits and cannot be used, other than through "willful ignorance" to answer questions that are not in its purview
then you really are left with nothing but name calling and factual "inaccuracies"
which is pretty much what I see here...

I will check back though