It depends on the individual. I pity the kids in Jesus Camp. I hate the fat woman. 

Sometimes, I neither hate nor pity them, even though I disagree with their beliefs. It's hard to explain.

I believe that religious people are products of their environment which is largely out of their control. Even the evilest of fundies has had their beliefs, ergo behaviors formed by the sources that they found most authoritative. In our environment the capitalist ruling class use their public opinion-molding machine to prop up religion. Some of them are wrapped up in it themselves and that's reason enough, others just do it for the psychological benefit, regardless the capitalist ruling class use their elevated status in society to purchase the beliefs of others via the public opinion-molding machine and we can't blame theists for simply being products of their environment. Everytime I get upset at actions brought about by religious beliefs it just makes me work harder at ridding the world of the environment that breeds such horror.

  In almost every Christian that I have met,I truly feel sorry for them,cause when they were young their parents shoved a lot of BullShit into their forming minds,it's sad. Like Richard Dawkins says's "its a form of child abuse"

*DAKKA DAKKA*

Gibberish insensibilities atomized

I tend to agree. The question reflects a sadly childish certitude and bigotry.

I hate the one's that make money from it. The rest is a mix, because much of it is a result of indoctrination, fear and addiction.

I agree that it is abuse. I think that religion is a mental disorder, and anyone that has it should seek professional help. My reasoning for that? It prevents a person from being a normal, fully productive member of society because they harbor illusions about the world around them.

I do so enjoy this non-theist section though. Especially with the frequent intrusions. :3

You are both generalising and wrongly categorising yourself as "once being a christian". You were no such thing. treat2 might be knee-jerking, but you need it.

I think there is no reason why human sexuality can't be presented in a healthy way. The problem with pornography is that like religion it is a fantasy. So children grow up with a false view of sexuality, just as the religious live with a false view of reality.

What does whether I believe something should be legal or not have anything to do with my bravery, cowardice? I'm a rational thinker, so I don't cave to irrational person attacts like what you are attempting to do. People that indoctrinate their children with religion give into fear the hell. They are afraid to expose children to a different point of view. So if anyone should be considered a coward.

But to me the 'brave' and 'coward' tags are guilt trips from irrational and manipulative minds. What does this mean anyways to tag someone with the 'coward' tag? Seems like if anyone is a coward, it is the people that give into the fear of being call a coward. You've obviously been manipulated this way by others. You make decisions based on the fear of being called a 'coward'.

Social preasure is what caused you to pick your religion, didn't it? You wouldn't be religious if there was a lot of social shame in being so, right? You didn't make a 'brave' decision to pick your religion. It was what was convienent.

Based on evidence. If the evidence that the religious indoctrination was extremely harmful, then the government can come in and remove the children. You agree with position with cults like Jonestown and Waco, don't you?

Whether I think an activity is harmful to society does not mean it should be illegal. We have a right to privacy and parental rights. To make Sunday school illegal would require too much invation of privacy. But if the evidence was overwhelming that a particular form of religious indoctrination or pornography was harmful, this evidence could outweigh our right to privacy.

If homeschool parents never teach the children science, but only witchcraft and superstition, would you be 'brave' enough to remove them? If a smoking parent was causing tremendous health problems for a child, are you 'brave' enough to remove them?
 

How in the world do you know that?

Exactly no social cost for choosing your religion. I'm an unabashed hedonist, the ultimate devil.

Thank God for the anonymity of the internet.

So religion brought you hope and comfort, how convienient.

You seem obsessed with avoiding being seen as a coward, insecurity?

I'm an hedonist that doesn't believe and magical invisible god is going to reward me in the next life for being brave. So I really don't care if someone thinks I'm a coward, I want to win. How would taking this position help me win in this cause? I would just be viewed as a wacko atheist, wouldn't I? Shouldn't the steps be taken slowly?

Isn't it cowardly to behave in ways so as to avoid being seen as a coward? Shouldn't a brave person do what he thinks is right even if someone like you calls him a coward?

What do you think we should do? Attack a church, get thrown in jail and never be heard from again? Great stategy for winning against an enemy with overwhelming numbers and weapons.

So if you were a general in a war, you'd rather have brave soldiers get killed in the first minutes of battle rather than coward soldiers that live to fight another day?

And what if we are cowards? Is God going to torture me in hell for it? Oh I'm scared now, I better be 'brave' cause I'm so scared of hell. Bravery and Cowardice are more BS concepts invented by moralists to manipulate irrational minds.

You are demonstrating why Theist based morality is so wrong. You think we should follow an strategy that would fail because we don't want to get the 'coward' tag. A bull shit concept often used to send young men to their deaths to fight other people's war.  How irrational.

Are you blaming lack of religion on the problem? Secularism is the only way out of this mess.

Dude, you're WAY off.

      EXC is quite right and you Jayhawker Soule (what ever that means) are devinly wrong................again....................but you are use to that.

There is no short answer to this, but I will try to make the long answer as plain as day. To really be Christian you have to do two things: understand what it means to be Christian and decide to be Christian. It is perfectly obvious that, unless you understand, you can't decide to become Christian. To understand what it means to be Christian is simple: belief in absurd things. To believe something as utterly ridiculous as an invisible all-powerful man in the sky and all the shenanigans that follow, you have to understand that this is absurd and then make a decision and become Christian. At this point you are rolling your eyes, since it's an impossible task, unless... well, if I knew, I would be Christian, wouldn't I?

Why and how one would do such a thing is a deeply personal matter. No one can "make" you do it any more than they can make you fall in love with some particular person. Sure you can make someone become religious, but you can do nothing about someone else's faith. You can make someone tell you that they love you, but you can't make them actually love you. You might be asking: "but how can you make yourself do it then?" If you are asking this, then you are adressing the very core of my argument. Choosing to be Christian is not like choosing to love someone. You choose to be Christian BECAUSE you .... exactly - I don't know what the equivalent to "love someone" here would be. But let's be patient for a moment.

Now, as soon as you understand what it means to be Christian, you immediately understand that the core of your belief is not some pie in the sky, but the very thing that was your reason for choosing faith - that deeply personal matter that anchors your being to the sandy bottom of life. It was there before you were Christian. No matter what you think about other people, a true Christian understands that it is the choice and action and not the manifestation that matter.

It should be clear now that any other way of "being Christian" is not that at all, it's a choice to be nothing in particular, birth right and duty, something you were told to do and you did it because people approved, a religious routine - not faith, sort of like staying with that girlfriend you sort of like and can fuck once in a while, because you don't like being alone and you don't think you can get that one you were in love with for so long. Perfectly reasonable, but being Christian is NOT perfectly reasonable. Becoming Christian is just the opposite - it is choosing to go after that one thing and enduring being alone. This is exactly what I talked about earlier, the to me unknown 'thing' that would make someone actually become Christian. It can never have anything to do with how you feel about non-Christians, which is what in your post you explicitly say your "being Christian" included. A Christian knows that non-Christians have the same choices and that they inevitably make them. Regardless of the manifestation, it is the choice that matters.

For you "being Christian" was about other people, since it made you feel in some fashion about them. Kind of makes you wonder what your atheism is about, when you do the same today. Is it a dream-like state you some day might awaken from, just like you did once before? Or is it your anchor telling you that you can decide to become something more than a label, a manifestation?

Did you just ignore my post or do you just not care?

DO NOT POST IN FREETHINKERS ANONYMOUS IF YOU ARE A THEIST. The rules of the forum are clear. Do it again and your post gets deleted. Do it a second time and you'll be banned.

Dude, chill out. I am a freethinker anonymous and I like the freedom to read theist posts in a no-theist zone.

Your cleverness is more than a little underwhelming.

If this means that his posts won't be deleted, I am happy.

Damn, you pulled the unbeatable anal argument on me.. I can never beat the anal argument.

Stopit.

I will be anyone you want me to, baby.

...I didn't see it? o.o