Public Atheist Monument Across from 10 Commandments

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by Annee

 

Now that they have allowed these 2 monuments on government property --- I hope others petition to include their own representation.

I'd like to see a Buddha statue and meditation garden for doing yoga!

Republican candidate believes yoga opens you to satanic possession

he should get his own monument too - I would love to see it. Then, he could come to mine and we can discuss whether the glass is half full or half empty.

Originally posted by GeisterFahrer

Just because the majority believes one way, does not automatically equate to oppression of a minority that feels differently.

Are atheists required to sit at the back of the bus? drink from atheist only water fountains? eat in the "atheist" side of a restaurant? Are atheists allowed to vote? Are they treated like property? Sold into slavery?

The majority if my life was as a Christian.

I can speak from both experiences. Can you?

reply to post by GeisterFahrer


Who? Buddha or the Republican candidate that's saying practicing yoga is satanic?

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by GeisterFahrer

 

Who? Buddha or the Republican candidate that's saying practicing yoga is satanic?

If all three could do it that would be awesome!!!

Originally posted by Annee

Originally posted by GeisterFahrer

Just because the majority believes one way, does not automatically equate to oppression of a minority that feels differently.

Are atheists required to sit at the back of the bus? drink from atheist only water fountains? eat in the "atheist" side of a restaurant? Are atheists allowed to vote? Are they treated like property? Sold into slavery?

The majority if my life was as a Christian.

I can speak from both experiences. Can you?

Yes, I used to be an atheist. In fact, I used to be the kind of atheist that felt I just had to prove Christians "wrong" about everything (those silly young earth creationists :lol . It didn't dawn on me then, that I was attempting to prove people wrong to elevate my own worldview and my own opinion of how we came into existence.

I can't remember when I began to actually give this serious thought - maybe I haven't really started to yet ...

But I had actually accomplished quite a bit of reading on the subject. I read just about every story there was from every culture concerning their view of how we came into existence. Surprisingly, there is a common theme. I studied the Lakota Tribe, Cherokee, Sioux, Navajo, Iroquois, Mayan, Aztec, Aborigine, Celtic, Pushtu, and .. I know I am forgetting some ... Samaria ... well .. ok, I wasn't ready to go off the deep end just yet.

So yeah, there was a common theme in the collective stories of creation. They all blamed women for the fall of man. All ... of ... them ... They also (more or less) explained how we came into existence through some form of a god, or gods (even the Greeks had their version). And, they all had the exact same nominal order of creation. We (humankind) were formed from gods, who lived in the "heavens" "stars" 'sky" etc. etc. and believe it or not, animals and creatures were formed out of "clay" "dirt" "dust" "ashes" etc. etc. (some variations there - the Cherokee believe the gods accidentally let animals into our world from a cave - they forgot to close the door or something). So anyway, "life" sprung forth from higher forms of 'life" - then we get to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

God created the heavens and the earth - first, there was water, yadda yadda you know the rest ... the nominal order of "creation" doesn't change much - but here is where it gets interesting - he creates the animals from clay, or dirt, or something like that - even claims Adam was formed the same way. You could even say God scooped up molecular or atomic particles from the "primordial soup" to form everything ... if you wanted to. When you start getting to the story of the flood, we see that animals have "changed" (evolved???) and the lion can no longer sleep with the lamb in peace. Am I remembering this right?

Nominal order of creation and evolution .... same. So, when that hit me, it was like the most profound epiphany I ever had. I was standing on top of the Chicen Itza pyramid in Mexico when those thoughts entered this noggin of mine. And, tried as I might, I couldn't get those thoughts OUT of my noggin.

So, I did some more reading and came across Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Man, was that dude ever a fruitcake moonbat

Anyways ... I came to my own personal "truths" in life - I dug a little here, I dug a little there and realized there is way more to life than we will ever understand. nothing is simple, nothing is "black and white" and every human being has value - including their opinions, whether I agree with them or not.

reply to post by GeisterFahrer


And what are you now?

reply to post by GeisterFahrer


Interesting.

I began life (or at least first memories) with OBEs. "Flying" in astral planes, meeting some tall guy in a long white robe etc etc.

Kind of tough at 5 years old in the early 50s trying to figure it all out --- with no Internet and no one to talk to. So, like you I researched a lot.

--------------------

I fully 100% support separation of church and state. I lived with Christian dominance in my younger years, then following the progression of evolvement in breaking that dominance, allowing other beliefs to emerge out of the shadows.

Public recognition and acceptance of atheism is progression.

reply to post by Annee


Even speaking as an atheist, I don't support the loss of spirituality. This I will adamantly state.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by GeisterFahrer

 

And what are you now?

Good question .... I started out not knowing if there was a God or not. I mean, my parents tried to teach me in the ways of their faith. Agnostic? Anyways, I then started to doubt God's existence very much. Usually, when I was going through a very difficult time, and no one was "there for me" (which was very often). Maybe, I thought, "if there is a God, I am really really angry at him ...I so don't deserve this"

Sound familiar? So then my doubting then turned to "non-belief", I mean, after all, I am an adult, I don't need an "invisible friend in the sky" (my anger turned into mocking). I felt "abandoned".

But how can you feel that way if God doesn't even exist? What's the point?

It was the epiphany I had (mentioned in prior post). How could it be possible to have a common theme in the ancient world when there was the continental divide? No "word of mouth" was possible. Each culture had their own "version" of who God was - or gods .... and went to war over it, and asking for their god's 'blessing".

Same cycle, over and over again ... 9/11 was no exception.

So I became somewhat confused. I became very "anti organized religion" like you wouldn't believe .... but that was just me trying to elevate my own worldview by putting other people down. Kind of like the strategy of a racist redneck trying to feel all "superior" to those "imbeciles" .... except, at the time, I didn't see it that way. I was RIGHT and they were WRONG. They were so OBVIOUSLY WRONG about EVERYTHING. i was no different from a fanatical religious zealot screaming that they were right about everything.

Yeah, then I started reading scripture to prove them wrong. Well, i got my ass handed to me ...

currently, I cannot doubt the existence of a creator. So i guess that means i am a deist of some sort.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by Annee

 

I don't support the loss of spirituality, however. This I will adamantly state.

I don't understand.

I consider myself atheist because I don't believe in a religious type god. Don't believe in any type mystical omnipotent creator.

But, I do have beliefs.

This is getting off topic. So I'm not going to elaborate further in this thread.

Originally posted by Annee
reply to post by GeisterFahrer

 

Interesting.

I began life (or at least first memories) with OBEs. "Flying" in astral planes, meeting some tall guy in a long white robe etc etc.

Kind of tough at 5 years old in the early 50s trying to figure it all out --- with no Internet and no one to talk to. So, like you I researched a lot.

--------------------

I fully 100% support separation of church and state. I lived with Christian dominance in my younger years, then following the progression of evolvement in breaking that dominance, allowing other beliefs to emerge out of the shadows.

Public recognition and acceptance of atheism is progression.

I have had OBE's and shared dreams. In one of the shared dreams, my wife and I recalled the same exact conversation we were having with a group of people in that dream. They had attacked us and we both woke up at the same time. It was a totally random event.

I have had these "random" events my whole life. I have never been able to explain them. I pretty much kept it to myself. I have had prophetic dreams as well.

I researched it and came across The Monroe Institute and was assured by folks there that I had an 'unusual" gift, but that it was quite common.

www.monroeinstitute.org...

Dueling monuments will soon be a sight to see in a small courtyard in front of a courthouse in Bradford County in Starke, Florida. Across from a six ton, ten year old display of the 10 Commandments, an atheist group will be erecting a smaller, but significant, 1,500 pound granite monument of their own.

The underlined bold text is where I find an issue. Atheist aren't a group, or in any other way a club, institute, or boy band that resembles a religious movement. They can form a soccer team, a circus, a New York gangster, but being atheist will never have more meaning then a personal conclusion that they do not consider the idea of a deity a possibility.

American Atheists sued Bradford County last July, saying the Christian monument in front of the county courthouse was a public endorsement of religion.

What is a civil right. Right ?

The county and American Atheists went to a court-ordered mediation in March and settled upon the atheists getting their own monument.

Weird for people to form an opinion with pretty good arguments, that they have to enforce by forming packs of anti religious sentiment. Which is a personal opinion.



The bench like monument will feature quotes from secularists the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and it will include a quote from the Treaty of Tripoli, a 1796 peace agreement between the U.S. and North African Muslims:

"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion" – 1796 Treaty of Tripoli

Cool it really helps people be punished without religious reasons. What ultimately will happen anyway, when you introduce a jury of citizens, mostly religious. Thus sense of religious ideas are introduced.

The United States of America was not founded on the Christian religion!

Cool land of immigrants, it would have been honorable if you guys still lived by the ways of the native people.

"An sane[/] believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. A great man believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An normal living being strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty banished, war eliminated."

– American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Founder of people that have use their own mind and reasoning ?

"When religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." – Benjamin Franklin

When enough people believe the same ideas and think that they belong with each other, all for a greater goal the they can be alone. You get the power to invade Europe, kill countless and drag the world right down with you, and your aggressive behavior.

"It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [writing the Constitution] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven." – John Adams

Why Not... He wasn't bright enough to keep these situations separated without influencing any other ?

American Atheists and ACLU are stirring up controversies over the display of the 10 Commandments in courthouses elsewhere, and in public schools in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania too.

I agree, try to end education where because of religious views, children are not learned what we can prove as fact, but imaginary interpretations from whomever is the most devoted person. This will destroy the intelligence of the US citizens, and that should be kept high form and guarded to guarantee this.

The display will also feature Biblical quotes that supporters say correspond to the Ten Commandments, such as Deuteronomy 13:10, which says to "stone him with stones" so "that he die" in reference to people who worship other gods. (The first commandment reads, "You shall have no other gods before me.")

No other God means for me no God at all or a rule of an envious God, Jealous one.

creating even more conflict between the religious community and the secularists.
Religions should not be able to attack what is proven fact, and replace it by any other thought should be illegal

I don't support, however, the 10 Commandments or any other piece of religious indoctrination in public schools or inside public courthouses.I do support legal action to have those displays removed altogether, as they represent a governmental endorsement of religion. There is no room for a government endorsed religion in our schools, our courthouses or our legislative halls.

Never knew about these American rules before.

Still an athiest isn't bound by race, school, size, color, or nation. They stand alone with only common sense that they share, with many outside America I hope.