I deny the Holy Spirit the same way I deny leprechans and Santa. Just because someone like believing it means nothing. But it is meaningfull when people seek to threaten me with their fiction. 

According ALL the Abrahamic deity claim the unbeliever is anyone outside that particular Abrahamic god. The holy books of all three have been used to justify opression of others. The deity character is not literal as real, but is writen as a being you dont mess with. It is the believers of such fiction we are showing that we are unafraid of them or their fiction.

This is our way of showing how rediculous the concept of being threatened is. Free people who think for themselves dont threaten and dont seek to live under threat. 

Atheists are not out to create blood drinking kitten barbaquers. We arnt out to create a dictatorship or a society of satan worshipers. We merely dont buy magical claims as fact and we'd like people to think about what it is they claim. 

 

What a freakish thing to say!

Have you really thought about what you're arguing? If we started making jokes about fairies and people who believe in fairies, would you say we were "reinforcing the sanctity and therefore the deity of the Holy Spirit... ERRR...fairies"?

If you met a person who believed that there were fairies at the bottom of her well, and that the reason the well produced clean water was that the fairies had installed an invisible magic water filter just far enough down so that you couldn't see it, or touch it... what would you think? Most likely, you'd think, "Too much LSD back in the day..." If you were with several friends, odds are you'd joke about her and the fairies as soon as you were out of earshot.

But, what if she started going down to the city council and telling them not to bother with water purification measures, because the clean water fairies had told her that they would make sure all the city water was clean?

You'd still probably make fun of her, but you'd start doing it in public, because it would be dangerous for people to believe her.

Now... suppose you started an internet blog to warn people about this woman and her fairies. Would you be making the fairies more real?

 

Hello Jaimie,

The "Blasphemy Challenge" is little more than a puerile publicity stunt to get media attention--does anyone think that Nightline, or any other news agency would give a rats fuzzy nutsack about "Rational Responders.com" if they hadn't devised this little gem? Doubtful. Although I admit it is a rather brilliant way to get attention, it is only because of the "Challenge" that RRS is getting their 15 minutes of fame; lacking any real substantive argument against God and religion (see the Nightline interview), they're nothing more than the latest curiosity in the perpetual freakshow that the internet breeds on a weekly basis, and they'll be out of the public eye as quickly as they came in. Confusing rhetoric for fact, their members offer no new insights, but only parrot what has already been said by many more interesting and intelligent minds.

Does the "Blasphemy Challenge" inadvertently support the existence of Hell? Well, I'm convinced of the screwball sincerity portrayed by the RRS and its groupies, and I'm certain that their intention is not to lend credence to a concept they claim they don't believe in; however despite their claims, the last thing they want is for religion to go away--their very reason for being is to attack God and religion, and without the easy metaphysical punching bag of "god-belief", they would have to move on to more meaningful endeavors, and Sapient would have to move out of what appears to be his mother's basement.

This raises an interesting question: If God doesn't exist, and rational atheism is the best approach to living, is expending all your energy childishly ridiculing what you don't even believe in really the best approach to forwarding that philosophy? The folks at RRS seem to be moderately intelligent, and obviously possess some public relations and marketing skills in order to get the attention that they have, yet if their goal is honestly to educate people and "free minds" from religion, their efforts would be better served by discussing and promoting atheist philosophy, rather than simply ridiculing religion, which only attracts the lowest common denominator, and serves to give energy and purpose to that which they wish to eliminate. Notable atheist philosophers like Ayn Rand put their intellect to work in developing complex philosophies and institutions in which to study them; an intelligent passing observer who is on the fence regarding religion would almost certainly be turned off by the vitriol and intellectual dishonesty passed off as truth on RRS, and conclude that atheism is no better than religion.

It has been said that a true atheist is apathetic regarding God and religion, regarding it a waste of thought and effort; the person who lives only for attacking God and religion and those who believe in it are rightly called 'God-Haters', and they offer nothing of value beyond that which they wish to dismantle.

Michael

 

Yes, and now the entire nation has already moved on to more interesting things, like the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith.  You were the flavor-of-the-minute, and you'll be lucky if the "Challenge" makes the "Year-In-Review" tape.



:Yawn:  Rhetorical nonsense that has no basis in fact.



Yes, I've seen these "thinking" people here on the forum and in the RRS chat--so full of original thought and witty banter like "Fuck the Xtians" and "belief in God = belief in the Tooth Fairy".  That's so deep and meaningful, man--where do I sign up?

 

Saw the link on another forum, and couldn't believe how inane the whole thing was, so I came here to check it out.  As far as atheist sites go, it's pretty weak.  Why did I register?  Because it's weak, and I relish in every opportunity to point that out.



But the only people whining about the "Challenge" are hard-core Fundie Christians who wouldn't abandon their beliefs at gunpoint--so exactly how have you "made a difference"?  By attracting more angst-ridden, semi-literate, upper-middle class white teenagers who parrot the same ridiculous diatribes against religion to your "cause"?  Somehow, I don't think that Christianity and religion are in any danger from the Emo Atheist Army.

Michael

Exactly.

 

Jamie, Lauri: Are you sure you've given this proper thought.

Would you honestly suggest, that regarding a claim false prevents you from understanding what is being claimed, and furthermore that regarding a claim false prevents you FROM SAYING SO??? Would considering Superman fictional prevent me from declaring that I deny that Superman exists for real?

Would you honestly suggest you can't deny something exists, unless you do indeed believe it exists?

Or, simply put, would you honestly suggest one can only state the opposite of one's convictions? That you can't deny unless you acknowledge, and you can't accept unless you refuse?