John A. Broussard

Congratulations to you and your Christian friends and curses upon all those atheists who don't show up to work.

Spanky

Shame on me for what? For not adopting? For not volunteering?
And hey, I worked today (it's a Sunday and a holiday). So you can't say atheists don't show up for work!
Now matter how hard you guys try to insist that you are morally superior christianity's dark history overshadows and snuffs out that light. You don't have to be part of one group to do good. That is souch outright ignorance. Theists do good, atheists do good, mormons, JW, budda bellies, hindus, the whole lot do good. But never, never in the history of humankind has there been such an evil as that we find in religion, especially that of christianity!:huh: Shame on christianity. Shame on christianity. (not christians)

Diogenes the Cynic

Mata: two things.

1. I gave you the warning because your argument was so indirect and tenuous that I simply didn't even recognize that you were trying to make a logical argument. I thought it was a non-sequitur. I thought you were just witnessing. After you explained it, I got it but at the time I posted the warning, I didn't realize you were trying to make a syllogistic connection to your premise of HJ. Nw that I understand what you were trying to do (lame as it may be) I will withdraw the warning with the caveat that you need to make yourself more clear about how you are connecting the dots.

2. I have been a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity myself. I've also rung bells for the Salvation Army and volunteered in after-school and summer day camp programs for inner city children. I'm an atheist. Does that prove anything about atheism?

mata leao

well Diogenes, when and if atheists start showing up in larger numbers, then it might start to say something about atheism! not all numbers arguments are fallacious ad populum ones.....numbers can, emphasis on can, mean something, sometimes!

John A. Broussard

Sure. But they never prove anything except for the numbers themselves.

If you say all the ones who showed up for work on those houses were Christians--and I'm assuming you are telling the truth, since Christians don't lie or are ever in error--then that means that all the ones who showed up for work on those houses were Christians.

JaredM

There are plenty of atheists who donate money to charity, just as there are Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. who donate to charity. This proves nothing about the alleged veracity of any of those religions.

There are also people of every religion who do bad things and hurt people. Is this in any way disproof of those religions?

Mata leao, your reasoning is specious, to say the least. You keep referring to "evidence" which would be "admissible in court"--do you even know what you are talking about? Are you an attorney or a law student? If not, stop talking about things you don't know and stop using terminology you don't understand.

--Jared

Djugashvillain

He probably read a blurd about Simon Greenleaf.

Kosh

How does Habitat get the word out that they need help on a project? Do they stand on the corner and hand out flyers? I've never been cold called by them asking for help (although I did contact them once to look into it, but my schedule was too busy).

Or do they make an announcement at Church? And why would you be surprised at the demographics that show up then?

MerryAtheist

The numbers:

U.S. Census figures, 1990-2001

1990:

• total adult Christian population: 151,496,000 (86.4% of total population)
• total adult non-religious population: 14,331,000 (8.2% of total)

2001:

• total adult Christian population: 159,506,000 (76.7% of total)
• total adult non-religious population: 29,481,000 (14.2% of total)

During the period in question, the number of adult Christians in the U.S. (expressed as a percentage of the total population) shrunk by 9.7% while the number of adult non-religious increased by 6% (and doubled in actual numbers).

The sheer number of Christians make it easier for them to outnumber the non-religious in charitable works. For instance, let's say that 25 people show up to work on a Habitat for Humanity house on Saturday morning: mata leao, 23 of his friends, and Diogenes the Cynic. This means that, of the total number of Christians in the U.S. only .00000015% of them have shown up for this project. But, even worse, a mere .00000003% of the non-religious have shown up. Among the conclusions we can draw from this data are:

• the non-religious would prefer to nurse their hangovers on Saturday and avoid the sound of banging hammers (I fit in this category)
• Christians outnumber non-religious by over 5 to 1 and have a lot more leisure time as a result
• The non-religious are not having enough un-protected sex
• Only 1 in 4 non-religious are willing to ignore history and hang out with a bunch of Christians with hammers

mata leao

kosh, doesnt matter, meals on wheels, soup kitchen volunteers, candystripers, over many many years I have consistently seen the heavy lifting in all the charities being done by Christian volunteers. I guess the "intellectuals" are busy drinking at the pub or the coffeehouse and holding forth on the great issues of the day! go see for yourself........ really, in any city, anywhere, any country,...coservative or liberal, doesnt matter. Outside the apologetical box "acta non verba".