I'm an Atheist.
Not sure I'm intelligent, but who knows

ShaneG.

jasonw1239 wrote:Atheism is not a matter of belief or faith.
It is the absence of a belief in the supernatural. Period.  

It is an absolutest viewpoint which makes as much or as little sense as any other absolutest viewpoint.

Deadlord39 wrote:I'm definitely not atheist, nor agnostic. I refuse to waste time with any sort of dogma, since none of it can be proven. Whatever comes afterwards, comes afterwards. For all anyone knows, we are an experiment in a universe-sized petrie dish.
I guess I'm a don't-give-a-shitist.

The first step to true wisdom

benjoshua wrote:I admire people who give a shit, especially if that means they care about life, the world, and the rest of humanity.  It's not that I'm against or look down on those who don't give a shit, but it takes work, and thought, and courage.  Of course, some people who give a shit are creepy or evil or annoying or crazy, but that can come with the territory.  Plus, caring can get you killed.  I try to care but it's difficult.

I apologize for digressing from the original topic.

There's a difference between not giving a shit about big things you can't do anything about like what happens when you die or can a big rock be refuted by a good kick, and not giving a shit about life and people.

There are too many people who care about humanity and not the person living next door.

Some things aren't worth giving a shit about, and those things are creepy evil, annoying and crazy.

Pennfarms wrote:Luckily my school was more concerned with the evils of Heavy Metal.  D&D never even got its own assembly....

We heard about the evils of D&D but the area I grew up in was pretty groovy funky for New Jersey. The local library even hosted a D&D club we started, lets us run a micro-convention and printed up the module we ran and kept it on the lending shelf along with the 1st edition hardcover rulebook. We gave out module A1 as prizes.

Deadlord39 wrote:It's been my experience that the more deeply religious a person is, the more likely he/she is to attempt to cram their beliefs down others' throats, in whatever way possible.

I am an atheist, but lets say that God does exist. If he appeared before me and gave me a message of some sort, and I go to to those same religous throat crammers and tell them that I spoke to God, they would lock me up in a nut house. Or at the very least I would be the town weirdo.

jasonw1239 wrote:
I was always surprised that D&D was the target during the 1980's and games like Call of Cthulhu was ignored.

You know what?  I've never thought of that.  Good point!

xraygord wrote:
I am an atheist, but lets say that God does exist. If he appeared before me and gave me a message of some sort, and I go to to those same religous throat crammers and tell them that I spoke to God, they would lock me up in a nut house. Or at the very least I would be the town weirdo.

I like that.  Sad but true.  

Myself, I think religion should be a personal relationship between you and whatever deity/manifestation you are most comfortable with.  If someone asks you about it, tell them.  Otherwise keep your mouth shut and don't bother anyone else living their life, unless that person is in such dire need of some sort of spiritual salvation (i.e. a drunken shambling wreck who welcomes death rather than living their life) that you can only make their lives better. Other than that, don't bother anyone with your PERSONAL relationship with a deity.  Why does everything in our culture nowadays have to be so damn "in your face"?

Unfortunately in our society we have the "outting" of everyone.  Things are discussed on the Dr. Phil show that frankly don't need to be discussed. I always laugh my ass off when they have some married couple on there with "problems", like the woman admits she's been gobbling some other guy's wang for the last year while stealing supplies from work, and the guy admits he's addicted to vicodin and internet porn, and may have made a pass at a neighbor's poodle last week. It's all done up so seriously and dramatic, and all I can think about is these two dumbasses coming back home and trying to have a normal conversation with neighbors or family afterwards: "So, Marjorie and Tim, uh, read any good books lately? Um, how are things going? And, oh yeh, YOU BEEN TAKING ANYONE ELSES SHLONG LATELY?  BWAH HA HA HA HAHA HA!!!!"  And then slipping naked pictures of 300 lb ladies into the guy's inbox at work. At least, that's the way Mr. Sensitive (myself) would approach it, I mean they've gone on TV like performing clowns, why not treat them like one..

Mike B.

Mike,
Personally I don't give a rat's ass what somebody chooses to believe in.
For all I care they can get naked and dance under the full moon as long as the are not hurting anybody or keeping their neighbors awake by screaming at yog-sothoth.
The only thing that bothers me is the way that religion has a tendency to try to extend its tendrils into politics and education to promote an agenda.
There is a reason why most democratic countries have a separation of church and state.
What bothers me are the in-your-face street preachers, and the televangelists that prey on the old and the sick with their "send-us-money-and-we'll-pray-for-you" pitch.
Or the "buy our magic water/handkerchief/amulet/blah-blah-blah."
If hucksters selling "snake-oil" is not legal or ethical, this stuff is no better.

[End Rant]