Since a lot of threads seem to be getting derailed due to Religious/Atheist discussion, i thought i would start one here to save those threads from death and to let people share their ideas here.
YouTube Video:YouTube - Nicole Smalkowski interview on The Power of Faith For those who do not want to read or view the intire links: Basically it's telling a story of how an Atheist family moved into a small Oklahoma town and their eldest daughter Nicole attended the town school. She was active on the Football and Basketball team a few years back. Trouble started when after a game both teams joined for a Lord's Prayer, Nicole being an Atheist told her coach 'I don't believe in God, i'm an Atheist' because she felt uncomfortable doing the Lord's Prayer because it was not her faith. After that day everything changed, she began to get bullied at school being called 'Satan worshiper" and lost all of her friends. Her teacher told her to leave the country if she didn't like it and she was framed for stealing and making death threats.
To start off the discussion: I find this extremely wrong as America is suppose to be the land of the free, or so they say. Christianity is suppos to be a good thing by Christian standards, instead here it has become a tool for hate and discrimination. You can tell that the students are extremely uneducated in anything outside of Christianity just by how they approached Nicole with the subject calling her 'Satan worshiper', Atheism is the belief (or lack there of) that there is no divine supernatural creator (good) and supernatural destroyer (evil). I believe lack of education (as in all cases of Religious disputes) is the cause for this Oklahoma Town controversy and nothing else.
Freedom of Choice, yeah, Freedom of Choice but you better choose with the majority.
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Put holes in happiness. We'll paint the future black, if it needs a colour.
Mike Huckabee, a potential Presidential candidate says that God is helping his poll numbers. What does this mean? It means that according to Mike Huckabee, God did NOT give man free will. He blatantly states that there is no way he could have achieved a rise in poll numbers by himself (through campaigning). So by his own admission, God is directly influencing voters in his favour.
Mike Huckabee, a potential Presidential candidate says that God is helping his poll numbers. What does this mean? It means that according to Mike Huckabee, God did NOT give man free will. He blatantly states that there is no way he could have achieved a rise in poll numbers by himself (through campaigning). So by his own admission, God is directly influencing voters in his favour.
And thereby influencing his foes negatively and therefor destroys any good attributes that 'God' is suppose to have according to Christianity.
More on Huckabee.. I was watching a Q&A after a speech of Huckabee's, he was asked about Gays and their role in the Army under his republican party. He responded with exactly this "He who does not agree with the lord's wishes shall see the burning gates of hell" followed by cheering applause. Is this the kind of people that a vast majority of Americans are willing to follow? How can someone rule with such fear?
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Put holes in happiness. We'll paint the future black, if it needs a colour.
Since a lot of threads seem to be getting derailed due to Religious/Atheist discussion, i thought i would start one here to save those threads from death and to let people share their ideas here.
YouTube Video:YouTube - Nicole Smalkowski interview on The Power of Faith For those who do not want to read or view the intire links: Basically it's telling a story of how an Atheist family moved into a small Oklahoma town and their eldest daughter Nicole attended the town school. She was active on the Football and Basketball team a few years back. Trouble started when after a game both teams joined for a Lord's Prayer, Nicole being an Atheist told her coach 'I don't believe in God, i'm an Atheist' because she felt uncomfortable doing the Lord's Prayer because it was not her faith. After that day everything changed, she began to get bullied at school being called 'Satan worshiper" and lost all of her friends. Her teacher told her to leave the country if she didn't like it and she was framed for stealing and making death threats.
To start off the discussion: I find this extremely wrong as America is suppose to be the land of the free, or so they say. Christianity is suppos to be a good thing by Christian standards, instead here it has become a tool for hate and discrimination. You can tell that the students are extremely uneducated in anything outside of Christianity just by how they approached Nicole with the subject calling her 'Satan worshiper', Atheism is the belief (or lack there of) that there is no divine supernatural creator (good) and supernatural destroyer (evil). I believe lack of education (as in all cases of Religious disputes) is the cause for this Oklahoma Town controversy and nothing else.
Freedom of Choice, yeah, Freedom of Choice but you better choose with the majority.
I agree with you completely Black. That was entirely wrong how they treated that girl. They really weren't following the true tenants of Christianity. Shameful.
I agree with you completely Black. That was entirely wrong how they treated that girl. They really weren't following the true tenants of Christianity. Shameful.
Cheers
MacGuiver
When you're taught from the moment you can communicate that if you don't praise God you will go to hell, if you lie you go to hell, if you steal you go to hell, if you commit adultry you go to hell, you etc you go to hell.... you tend to be VERY afraid of hell. It is a given that if anybody you around is 'going to hell', they will be treated badly and/or looked down upon by those of faith.
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Put holes in happiness. We'll paint the future black, if it needs a colour.
When you're taught from the moment you can communicate that if you don't praise God you will go to hell, if you lie you go to hell, if you steal you go to hell, if you commit adultry you go to hell, you etc you go to hell.... you tend to be VERY afraid of hell. It is a given that if anybody you around is 'going to hell', they will be treated badly and/or looked down upon by those of faith.
Too bad they often ignore the lessons of "Love Thy Neighbour" and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".
When you're taught from the moment you can communicate that if you don't praise God you will go to hell, if you lie you go to hell, if you steal you go to hell, if you commit adultry you go to hell, you etc you go to hell.... you tend to be VERY afraid of hell. It is a given that if anybody you around is 'going to hell', they will be treated badly and/or looked down upon by those of faith.
First off, only God can determine who's going to Hell. I know lots of Christians profess to know the eternal destination of individuals but they're gravely mistaken. In fact treating people badly or looking down on them might just land you in the Hell you fear.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.
If the individuals that abused this poor girl were sincerely fearful of God's Judgement, they'd do well to show this girl the love Christ demands of us. Even if she was a spiteful person with nothing but malice in her heart.
Examples of true Christianity in action; Mother Theresa dragging dying Hindu's off the streets of Calcuta to return them to health or let them dye with dignity. Pope John Paul 2 going to visit the man that shot him in jail to offer him forgiveness though he never asked for it. An Ottawa woman that had her daughter brutally assaulted and murdered turns and forgives her daughters killer. Thats the example Christians are to follow though it flies in the face of our natural instincts. Sadly many don't live by that creed and choose to live by their poorer instincts instead.
Cheers
MacGuiver
Last edited by MacGuiver; Feb 6th, 2008 at 12:04 AM.
Seems to me these townspeople were behaving in exactly in a Christian manner as it is demonstrated daily in news story after news story. The whole "love thy neighbour" thing is a complete load of crap. Christians have been slaughtering women and children since the crusades and George Bush, an avowed Christian, is still doing it. Christians supported Hitler by buying art stolen from Jewish families for pennies on the dollar. In the NFL they pray to god/christ to help them kick the crap out of opponents. The whole thing is a stupid, bad joke for which there is no evidence and which has outlived any usefulness it ever had.
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"not all those who wander are lost….." j.r.r. tolkien
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