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I'm Going as an Unbeliever for Halloween.

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posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:13 PM
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As one predisposed to social interaction, I enjoy a good party, and I do my best to take part in the festivities. Halloween is next on my list.

I’ve ruminated on what I should be for halloween this year and I’ve decided to go as an atheist. However, this costume seems impossible, as an atheist has no common dress or symbols I can utilize. Luckily, there are historical instances of where atheists were thrown to the lions, burnt at the stake or tried in tribunals, so I imagine some sort of charred or chewed up corpse in prisoner’s garb might suffice. These people, of course, never asserted themselves as atheists, instead they were condemned as such, like how people were condemned as witches or demons or devil worshippers.

But it’s striking; we don’t see people in everyday life walking around calling themselves witches and demons. Witches and demons, we've found, are superstitions. But the atheist is not? How is it any less superstitious to condemn someone of atheism than it is to condemn someone as a witch? It isn’t really. Then why aren’t people going around calling themselves witches and demons nowadays, while another ecclesiastical condemnation of the very same sort, the atheist, still goes around calling himself an atheist like it's in vogue? I imagine people willingly entering a court of law without being summoned and calling themselves "criminals", that they don't believe in the law, and demand respect for it in return, all while becoming upset when the law is shoved down their throat. In fact, it isn’t less superstitious at all, for to assert that someone doesn’t believe in God is to presuppose there is a God to not believe in, like to assert someone is a witch is to presuppose people are engaging in dark magic, or that one is a devil worshipper is to presuppose there is a devil to worship.

It becomes quite evident that the atheist too, like the witch or djinn, is a mythical character. But for some reason you, as a self-condemned atheist, don’t wear this costume one time out of the year, but as much as humanly possible. You are actually proud of this costume and the way the church has dressed you. For you a believe yourself to be an actual atheist, a mythical creature postulated in the very same lore, an evil fabricated within the confines of ecclesiastical minds. And how well you play your part—the fictional character, willing participants, adorning yourself in their vile rhetoric-laden costumes, sewn by the same bloodied and charred hands that put your brethren and their works to the torch for all these years.

No. You are not without a god, for there is no god to be without. Let’s drop the nonsense. You are merely a fiction of the same insidious universe. You’ve allowed yourself to use their condemnation as a badge of honor, defining yourself purely within the confines of their doctrines, having yet to step outside of it. You are the unbeliever to their believer, the infidel to their fidelity, the apostate to the pietist, the pagan to the non-Abrahamic, the heretic to the acolyte, the blasphemer to the theologian, who un-believes, who actively and proudly “lacks faith” in the most mediocre of ideas, as if such a mindless feat was worthy of pride. I find it strange you accept their slanders, and wear it as if it was fashionable to do so, as if ecclesiastical pejoratives carried with it a high-fashion credibility, instead of the millennia’s worth of genocidal and stupid baggage it once denoted. You breath life into these myths. You give their demons body. You wear their branding. You play with their toys in their sandbox. You throw their verbal excrement on yourself and roll around on their stage, with only your accusers as your audience. Irony, sweet irony.

The philosophers of old suffered greatly to avoid the accusation of atheism, usually by submitting their verse to be published posthumously, or under the pseudonym, so as to avoid the condemnation of atheism by stagnant minds hell-bent on finding a mythological scapegoat for where only the stagnant mind was guilty—stagnant minds who were too weak to wield the weapons of verse, unable to defend against the innumerable bee stings that assailed their festering foundations in the form of words. These philosophers knew the hissy-fit that would result from their mere paragraphs. What better but to silence them? What better than to discredit, defile and demean their very name in front of their peers? What better than to call them an atheist? To think that these philosophers should come out as atheists, as if such condemnations had any credibility, is unreasonable, and dare I say, a form of religious enthusiasm. The atheist, the infidel, the heretic is no different than the mythical witch, or angel, or devil, which in less than superstitious societies nowadays, is nothing but halloween costumes that children seldom wear.

LesMis



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:19 PM
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So you are going with the Bill Mahar costume this year, why didn't you just say so.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:27 PM
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If you go as an atheist then you'll have to go naked as nature intended. On the plus side, you'd scare the children away and have all the treats to yourself.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:28 PM
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originally posted by: TinfoilTP
So you are going with the Bill Mahar costume this year, why didn't you just say so.




He didn't want anyone to steal his idea??


You know how bad it sucks when a girl shows up at prom and another girl has HER dress on?? Same thing...
edit on 10/5/2014 by Kangaruex4Ewe because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:30 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Your logic is flawed, and as a result the entire foundation of your OP is false.



In fact, it isn’t less superstitious at all, for to assert that someone doesn’t believe in God is to presuppose there is a God to not believe in, like to assert someone is a witch is to presuppose people are engaging in dark magic, or that one is a devil worshipper is to presuppose there is a devil to worship.


Do you believe in the invisible pink unicorns that live under beds? Surely to assert that someone doesn't believe in invisible pink unicorns is to presuppose there are invisible pink unicorns to not believe in.

The persecution of atheists, witches, or devil worshippers was nothing more than the church snuffing out any dissenting voice to maintain total control over the masses. Nothing more, nothing less, just control through violence.

To try and use the persecution of atheists as a way to lessen and put a spin what atheists believe is not only intellectually dishonest, its disgusting. The costume you propose is just as disgusting as if someone was to go to a halloween party dressed as a holocaust jew.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:37 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope

The problem with the religious and the athiest peeps,is that everyone wants everyone else to care about what THEY believe and believe the same thing....you included so you aren't much better.

Why do you even care about what others believe and why do you want to antagonize and wear your beliefs on your sleeve and stomp around like you are right and others are wrong??

You won't be helping one bit.
Preach tolerance...not more of this crap.




The philosophers of old

History is very prevalent of this type of thinking and all you will be doing is helping history repeat itself while still living in the past while the rest of us wish this was a non issue.
Live and let live.


My costume this year is wrapping myself in tinfoil and going as a baked potato.

edit on 5-10-2014 by DrumsRfun because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-10-2014 by DrumsRfun because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:37 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Atheist you say? Very well! We have several of these in
your size.



Be sure to order early.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:41 PM
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I too will be an atheist for halloween. As i am for every other day. A label put onto me at a young age. I reluctantly accepted it as i came to understand what it meant. A badge that set me apart from the others. Even then, i knew it would make my life more difficult in my small southern town. Soon enough i found more like myself and we are all still a tight knit group which has been supporting each other and growing exponentially for more than 25 yrs.



a reply to: LesMisanthrope



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:42 PM
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Don't listen to these miscreants eternally run by an incredibly small part of the brain that evolved to help primitive consciousness deal with the concept of death.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 04:58 PM
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God is real. One time I was late for the train and I ran and it turns out the train was also running late so I didn't miss it and I believe God was responsible for this. I will now close my mind to avoid being questioned.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:11 PM
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originally posted by: randyvs
a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Atheist you say? Very well! We have several of these in
your size.



Be sure to order early.





posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:15 PM
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a reply to: randyvs

Could always go as the Pope I guess, but those baby facehats are hard to find.




posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:22 PM
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a reply to: weirdguy

Between the two? I'd find a way to put my head up my ass.
It's only one night.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:27 PM
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So this is essentially "some people believe I don't and I'll be snarky about it"...

To be honest, who really cares about your beef with religion?

Since you're trying to fan the flames, remember to stop, drop and roll. Your backside is starting to smoke.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:31 PM
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No one says that you have to believe in halloween. You have choices.



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:53 PM
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originally posted by: DrumsRfun
a reply to: LesMisanthrope

The problem with the religious and the athiest peeps,is that everyone wants everyone else to care about what THEY believe and believe the same thing....you included so you aren't much better.

Why do you even care about what others believe and why do you want to antagonize and wear your beliefs on your sleeve and stomp around like you are right and others are wrong??

You won't be helping one bit.
Preach tolerance...not more of this crap.




The philosophers of old

History is very prevalent of this type of thinking and all you will be doing is helping history repeat itself while still living in the past while the rest of us wish this was a non issue.
Live and let live.


My costume this year is wrapping myself in tinfoil and going as a baked potato.


I could not agree more.

Why do people wish to push what they believe?

If it's not some moron politician on the television attempting to convince us he isn't a criminal walking the streets it's some sped banging on the front door who wants to share his religious thoughts with me as though I give a rats ass.

Just saying when I log in at ATS I wouldn't expect a ranting nut......



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 05:59 PM
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a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme




So this is essentially "some people believe I don't and I'll be snarky about it"...


That's what I surmised as well. I get a kick out of the reactions of those
who don't understand, the absence of the meek persona they're acustom
to in Christians. As I believe the blood is strong enough to accomadate
even them after all of this. See the truth as I see it is, the truth is the
blood. So the blood is what really sets a person free. "The life is in the
blood".



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 06:02 PM
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originally posted by: Woodcarver
I too will be an atheist for halloween. As i am for every other day. A label put onto me at a young age. I reluctantly accepted it as i came to understand what it meant. A badge that set me apart from the others. Even then, i knew it would make my life more difficult in my small southern town. Soon enough i found more like myself and we are all still a tight knit group which has been supporting each other and growing exponentially for more than 25 yrs.



a reply to: LesMisanthrope



Well said!

I may be close to 180 degrees from your position, yet I can relate with your position on a very personal level. At this late age I've come to be quite comfortable in where I've settled spiritually. Unlike my fellow church goers (several different churches over the years), I paid attention.

Eventually we must all walk our path alone. The day came when I came to the realization that to continue to attend organized religion would require me to deny many of the principles I'd been taught. The man who prides himself with prayers made in public is not to be admired. If you truly walk your faith then a prayer under an oak tree in an Autumn sunset is much more honest. Why would an omnipresent Creator require a middle-man to hear your prayer?

That leaves me in the middle ground and open to the disapproval of both the unbelievers (because I believe) and the prideful Christians who make such a point of how one of the reasons for belonging to the congregation is that we are to "edify" each other as we strive to become better Christians. A guest we had for a revival said it much better than I ever could, "That edifying stuff would be wonderful if you could just separate out the 99 percent of gossip that is mixed in with it!"

In an attempt to stay on-topic:
Regardless of how you decide to look for any celebrations you attend, please stay safe. The last time I went through the kind of deep unrest I've struggled with the last couple of weeks was just before Fukushima. On the board I used to frequent they had a good laugh when I said that I couldn't help but feel we were on the cusp of something that could well be of Biblical proportions. As our children grew, I always went all out for Halloween and the holiday was always something we enjoyed as a family. This year I just feel dread...
edit on C2014Sun, 05 Oct 2014 18:03:33 -050010th06u2014-10-05T18:03:33-05:00kAmerica/Chicago by CornShucker because: spelling



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 06:22 PM
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I pressed.the quote button on accident and had to delete that overly long post, imagine if I had to read that drivel.

What do athiests actualy wear for halloween??

a SMUG look ? LoL

Ive had athiests preach to me harder than devout christians!!



posted on Oct, 5 2014 @ 06:26 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Dear Msr. LesMisanthrope,

" The atheist, the infidel, the heretic is no different than the mythical witch, or angel, or devil, which in less than superstitious societies nowadays, is nothing but halloween costumes that children seldom wear."

The Halloweens that I remember were the most bewitching, enchanting, and yes, pleasurable holidays (sorry Christmas)
of my life. Of course I had no knowledge of the annihilation that was wrought upon the worshippers of Mother Earth.

Today, 2000 years hence, we are still locked in a death struggle.

When will we realize that the God we worship, and the sun that rises resplendent each morning

are one in the same.




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