Wads4

Welcome to Hell. I have also been called various things; "unregenerate atheist" seems to be a fashionable one at present. Glad to have your input any time-speaking for myself.

Wads4

"Originally Posted by Spitfire
Is this what qualifies as the wilful spread of misinforation? Stating a basic fact? That being that condoms are not effective at preventing the spread of disease 100% of the time."

I don't know the figures, but even if not 100%, the degree of protection is certainly high,-and that must be a lot better than nothing.

Spitfire

Unregenerate? That's a new word for me. Thanks.

Nobody can seem to make up their mind what the failure rate on a condom is but most seem to put it somewhere between 5% and 10% - which is much better than nothing, I agree, but if you are highly promiscuous it won't do much good in the long run.

jackrabbit

I sure wish we were godless, cultureless barbarians. Or at least godless. If europeans think this country is godless, they must not get any of the news about "wars on x-mas" or assaults on the constitution, or the antics of the religious right, or the many claims that this is a "X-ian Nation".

Yes, Texas is unfortunately part of the Bible Belt, and people who do not profess to be x-ians are far and in between. Of course, the number of people who behave like x-ians is far less than the number who claim to be, but that is probably true anywhere. In any case, I can't drive on the road without seeing a jeebus fish every five seconds.

I have also noticed a lot of Texans on this board. Maybe it is because we don't have many people locally with whom we can discuss stuff like this.

Because it allows them to continue fucking? What else can somebody in a primitive country do for entertainment?

If they don't listen to anything you say, why talk to them at all? Why not just try to help them rather than convert them? Teach them stuff unrelated to religion, i.e. something like agriculture that actually makes their lives better, and they will probably listen.

Butters

Sei Begrussed Spitfire!

Why not? Evidently according to all three Abrahamic religions, we are suffering here, paying for the sins of our first ancestors. It’s one of God’s little jokes that he makes us desire most what he forbids us to have. I would guess that heaven would be a place where we wouldn’t have to suppress our desires. Do you think we’ll just sit around on our clouds in heaven playing the harp? doesn’t sound like heaven to me.

Squabble no, but it seems that the Jesus part of this one God was not always sure he agreed with the plan of the old man part of this one God, when the first part of this one God wanted the Jesus part of this one God to be crucified!

I have never heard a Christian answer to the problem of evil that was the least bit convincing.

Of course I mean Brahma, Krishna, and Vishnu, the Godhead. You know the one that was around for over a thousand years before the Jews made up your God.
Why am I not surprised that a Catholic would lament the waste of good torture equipment?

Not necessarily. But of course, the universe could not be it’s own cause any more than God could be his own cause.

I don’t know, the need to believe in a God or Gods is a subjective thing.
The most likely influence is that you have been told that God exists, and you accept this explanation, beyond that, you’d have to answer that question.

The universe permits many absurd things. I mean, you obviously think that Islam and Hinduism are absurd beliefs, and yet billions of people hold them. Christians believed, and some still do, that illness is caused by demon infestation, it’s absurd, and yet the universe “permits�? these beliefs.

Well, I could write volumes of books here couldn’t I? In fact volumes of books HAVE been written about this. Lets see how short I can answer.

Once upon a time, on a small rock orbiting a yellow sun, life evolved. After billions of years one species evolved a pattern seeking brain that was very successful. This species learned that Cause=Effect. This worked rather well. This drove them to desire to understand more causes, in order to anticipate effects more reliably. Unfortunately, the universe is a complicated place, and many answers were not so easy. The lack of knowledge made this species uncomfortable. Knowledge equaled success, ignorance equaled possible failure. This fear led some of these animals to accept causes on the basis of little or no information. At first, they speculated that all of nature itself was conscious as they were. They speculated that they could communicate with this consciousness as they could with each other. They began asking nature to help them out, give them better weather, bring them game, and so on. Being pattern seeking animals, they began to accept that this worked. It was easier to believe that dancing to bring rain worked, than to admit that they had no idea why it rained or didn’t, and to admit they had no control over it. When the dance appeared to work, it reinforced their belief, when it didn’t they made up excuses, like perhaps we didn’t dance right, or perhaps nature was mad about something. This worked pretty well to alleviate the stress this animals felt facing the unknown.
This animal also had a short life span. This caused much more concern. They did not know what it meant to be “not alive�?. The also formed strong bonds with others in their group. This led some to speculate that they could somehow “live on�? after death. I was a very powerful idea. The animal and all those it was attached to emotionally would live forever! Nice tidy package. The details were worked out later, in fact, even today there is no large agreement on the details. But since the idea is just a coping mechanism, made up by imagination, it’s not unexpected that some would imagine some things while others imagined something altogether different.

And that’s what happened, out of nature worship, came ancestor worship, which evolved into spirit worship. Which evolved into worships of Gods, which evolved into worship of ever more powerful Gods, which evolved into the worship of one single God. That’s it in a nutshell!

That’s true. One word in English may have several translations in German, and visa-versa.
Of course, different languages is another one of God’s funny little jokes, right?

Bis bald,
-B

Chili

The point made here is that American Christianity is godless and that is why your rebellion is justified. I've heard it called "a culture of death" that atheists managed to walk away from and in retrospect see as a mind game that held them hostage. This would be the American freethinker searching for beauty in a barren land that is without culture. Africa was beautiful until condoms taught them that fucking for fun is a form of entertainment.

jackrabbit

Well, that's certainly what x-ians seem to believe, the idea that no one in africa ever fucked for fun in all the millenia before condoms were invented.

Chili

They had their own way of dealing with that. Sexual taboos are part of each and every mythology -- no matter how primitive -- and they all served them well of which their survival is evidence. It is not until the likes of Hemingway invaded their straw huts with booze, juke boxes and boxes of condoms that they lost control and could not deal with the aftermath of his visits.

jackrabbit

Besides, it's only people following the alleged commandments of some supposed sky fairy who think there's anything inherently wrong with sex for fun anyway.

Sure, sex only for fun would not provide offspring and the human race would die out.

For the benefit of society, most people should have a long term relationship at some point, for the purpose of raising children. During this relationship they can also have sex for fun. Are you claiming that every sex act between married people is intended to produce a pregnancy? If not, then they are also engaging in sex for fun.

Probably most atheists agree that someone who is in a relationship should not have sex with someone else, whether it is for fun or not.

If one is not in a relationship, what are the reasons against sex for fun, other than the real health dangers? Disregarding the fact that the nonexistent sky fairy doesn't like it. You care about that, I don't.

jackrabbit

One guy corrupted an entire continent?

Assuming you are correct, how would being prevented from having sex for fun have helped in their survival? Most of the sexually oriented diseases that are killing them now came from outside africa, so they would have not been exposed to them in earlier centuries. So perhaps they could have fucked for fun back then, before the diseases and the means to prevent them arrived more or less simultaneously.