Angels Real - Yeah right!
Offline ABC World News ran a piece on Angels and Americans belief in them.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5833399&page=1
A similar piece is on Time:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1842179,00.html?cnn=yes
It shows a greater than 55% of Americans think they have been saved from harm by these unseen unproved entities. Is it any wonder we have problems in our country? With such a high percentage of people believing in such fantasy it shows the susceptibility of people's desire to have life mean more than life itself. It's one thing to consider UFO's as a real possibility which many do, but quite another to think invisible spiritual entities are all about.
My sister is one that claims angels not only exist but she claims to see them. She is a evangelical fundie who has made fantastic claims over the years. My mother also somewhat of a fundie thought she was mentally deficient or possibly schizophrenic. I'm not sure that is the case but she certainly has her fantasy center on wide open.
These people who believe and accept such fantasy are in all walks of life with less percentages as income and education levels rise. As we have seen in the last 8 years with Bush these fantasy believers are also running our country. Palin another of this persuasion it seems is garnering a lot of support too. It seems to me that such belief is far from harmless and is part of the overall problem. People want to think they are so important that an invisible Angel is assigned to keep them from harm. Clearly this doesn't appear to always work out as seen on the news everyday. Yeah I know, God has a plan that we cannot know and that is why babies are murdered and other despicable acts occur. Maybe the assigned angel is on a coffee break when the tragedies occur.
Thoughts.
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"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
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The late, great George Carlin said it best:
"Here's another question I've been pondering - what is all this shit about angels? Have you heard this? Three out of four people belive in angels. Are you fucking stupid? Has everybody lost their mind? You know what I think it is? I think it's a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and obsorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990. Thirty years of street drugs will get you some fucking angels, my friend!"
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
... and jesus wept, and budhha laughed, and my head won't quit shaking. I'll never get use to this embarrassment of being one of the human race. Heck, would someone please invent a reasonable 21st century g-o-d. Lord knows I try ....
umm, George Carlin Christ is God! { warning, I just opened a bottle of Rum! }
Atheism Books.
This is a good thread to put this.
As I was reading through a few threads I saw a common claim from Xians: "Oh, those are fundies, most people don't believe in "x"."
x=angels, Satan, Hell, etc. You know, any of those embarassingly stupid things in the religion.
And yet, it seems, most people DO believe those things. In fact, if 55% of the population believes in angels, then it means an even larger majority of Xians believe in angels.
I am not going to take that "only Fundi's believe that, most people don't" crap any more. I got news for you, Christians, most people DO believe that stupid asinine crap. Hell, talk to ONE Xian and ask them about it. They'll probably profess a belief in at least one crazy Xian idea.
Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.
Isaac Asimov
It's a telling phenomenon, actually. When you get them out of church, a lot of Christians will tell you they don't really believe in angels or demons, and maybe even hell, but when they go to church on Sunday, they don't stand up and say "Um... Pastor... do you really believe in that? Cause I don't." They sit there and nod politely and sing songs.
That's just it. Religion promotes silence and conformity. I think probably that's the reason for the odd disparities in polls like this.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
No matter their level of committment to stupidity, they are still card carrying members.
For xians, it is in their fucking book! If they don't believe in the book then why do they still pray to the sky daddy who it is dedicated too?!?! I'm sorry, if I say that I am a Galleanist (Luigi Galleani), I become associated with what Galleani wrote. If I don't want to associate myself with what he wrote or what he stood for then I damned well should not put a sticker that says "My mentor was an Italian anarchist" on my car. I should certainly not frequent a website hosted by Christian Conservatives announcing myself as their better. And if I DO, I would be off my nut if I was offended by the fact that they think I'm off my nut!
If there are major, central disagreements I have with the writings and history of the movement I am a part of... maybe... just maybe I should consider taking those disagreements into consideration. If the philosophy of the movement I am a part of differs from my own then I really should take some time to reflect on what exactly I'm doing with that organization.
All of this, of course, assumes that I am ALLOWED to question the organization and won't be expelled because of it
I find it fascinating that half of Americans believe in angels, yet only 20% of Americans approve of George Bush.
Can someone from that remaining 30% loan George an angel to straighten his ass out?
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
I find it fascinating GW has even 20% approval given his 8 years of fuckups. Even his own party won't support him.
____________________________________________________________
"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.