50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

[polymerase]

Of course Pat Robertson is bat shit crazy. It is so easy to make fun of him. He has all these followers that send him money and it is easy to make fun of them too. It is easy to make fun of the FLDS. Nice story on the fundamentalist Mormons in the National Geographic this week. But they do not label the FLDS total bat shit crazy. Why is that? Why do we allow Pat Robertson to totally rip off old nutty people who follow him? Why is that? Why do both groups not pay any taxes? They both have huge piles of cash and property and not one penny is taxed.

Why? Because we have a complete tolerance to religious craziness because they can hide under the freedom of religion. We especially give a pass to the Christian crazies because we are basically a Christian nation and the Christian churches have gotten very used to not paying taxes. Every Christian in the United States is an enabler for Pat, the FLDS, Tom Cruise and Christian Scientists etc..

Every single Christian church should voice disdain against these bat shit crazy people who cause so much harm by stating they want all churches to be taxed. That one act would put an end to a ton of harmful craziness done in the name of Jesus.

But no Christian church will do that. Every single one of them are as bad as politicians being corrupted by the money. I am sure once upon of time even Pat was a nice person. Lots of people are nice people who take the pulpit. But every single one of them is an enabler of Pat Robertson and all of these bottom feeders because they enjoy the tax break too much to speak up.

If you are in a church which sends in their fair share of taxes please ignore this rant since I am not speaking of your church. But I know of no religion or church that does that.

I think you are all bat shit crazy for thinking their is a dude in the sky who listens to you but I will leave that for another day. All I want to do is tax churches so we can put an end to the extremely harmful wacky like Pay.

[polymerase]

erratum: last word is Pat, not pay.

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(01-25-2010 12:05 PM)Alias Wrote:  FB: Telling Pat Robertson to STFU

OK, I clicked the FB link. A bunch of people who want to tell Pat to STFU. The third fan site is the one I joined:

Telling People Who Tell Pat Robertson to STFU to please give it a rest.

Who are all these people who tell Pat to STFU? People who believe there is a man in the sky! It's like going to an insane asylum and they are all pointing at each other, "You're Crazy!"

[semiferger]

I agree that most people will tend to give an emotional response when asked why they believe in God. Frankly it is not surprising since for most that is all that their religion has to offer. Exposed to the light of logic there would be few doctrines left. There were a time for these churches but it is plain that their days are numbered.

[polymerase]

Churches days are numbered? I beg to differ. We are living in an era of irrational behavior which I thought was just a swinging pendulum, we would gain our sanity soon, but it seems to be getting worse.

We are a first world nation that does not take care of our sick. Irrational responses to national health care abound. We will not have it for decades. Our system will have to make us bankrupt and sick before the irrational can fade if ever.

We are a nation of deniers of global climate change even though the scientists who are experts have stopped arguing about it a decade ago. Again, an irrational behavior led by the Lumbaugh and Becks of the world stifles real scientific dialogue, at least in the lay community.

And religion is yet another irrational view held by a majority which isn't going to become rational anytime soon. I was half listening to the NPR market report as I drove home tonight. To explain the level of stupidity of oversight of mortgages and Toyota gas pedals the commentator evoked Stevie Wonder when describing the underfunded government watchdogs.

"When you believe in things that you don't understand you will suffer. Superstition." The problem is, all of us suffer. The superstitious who believe in mystical mumbo jumbo about the man in the sky and what comes out of the mouth of Glenn Beck. We all suffer. We suffer when we underfund government watchdogs and we suffer when we think a man in the sky will fix shit.

[Clark]

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This is like trying to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

There is no proof, no scientific evidence of the existence of god.
You are preaching to people who do not use logic; i.e., are not logical. Oh no, I can’t believe I said that!
I especially like people who wear faith as if it were a badge of honor.
Faith by definition is the belief in something for which there is no proof.

I’ve read many, many books including the Bible on the pros and cons of the existence of god. Guess where I stand?!

I love the true believer’s concept of heaven and hell.
If we are good and we believe, we will go to heaven and we’ll see mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa and all our loved ones.

I don’t think organized religion would exist if it wasn’t for women.
How many men really want to waste their time by going to church?
Okay, Clark, time to go to church so you can be saved.

It doesn’t matter to me. 
I am not wasting my time by believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I did not read your post on "The Invention of Lying" because I've just started to watch it.

For the true believers who don’t like what I say, just remember you are going to heaven and I am going to hell. That should make you feel better.

Ricky Gervais and the Bible
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[polymerase]

Ricky Gervais is a very funny guy. He was on the Daily Show two nights ago and he has to be the most innately funny person out there. Or it's just the accent. He thinks God made a mistake with the snake. And not a mumbly snake but one that spoke English with perfect diction. And then to punish him God made him slither on his belly. Uh, OK, I am a friggin' snake!

From the flipping on the let there be light through the vengeful God in the Old Testament and the Gospels which are of course gospel through all the wacky stuff Jesus said. Do religious people ever read the bible? Obviously not since most of them getting rich don't worry about getting their asses stuffed through the eye of a needle.

But I don't think I am trying to teach a pig to sing. That is a bit intolerant. I'm certainly not in the business of convincing anyone that they are wrong for believing in God. If that was my job I would be a lot more pleasant about it. I don't train pigs but it can be done. There are nations out there that have much lower religiosity than the United States. Same nations which have national health care and actually have admitted gays in their military. They figured it out. They learned. You can teach pigs how to sing. I just don't have that kind of talent. You certainly cannot be a sarcastic jackass if your job is to work up a melody for a pork chop. I would rather pan fry it and serve with a nice anchovy and caper sauce.

[Clark]

(02-24-2010 10:47 PM)polymerase Wrote:  'But I don't think I am trying to teach a pig to sing. That is a bit intolerant.

Yeah, after looking at the post I was debating whether or not to keep it in.

(02-24-2010 10:47 PM)polymerase Wrote:  I'm certainly not in the business of convincing anyone that they are wrong for believing in God.

Which is damn near impossible anyway.
Sometimes Bill Maher on his tv series will confront his guests about their religion.
They are not going to change so why bother.
Which I suppose could be said about my post.

Organized religion is dying. Catholics are having a hard time finding enough Priests.
Maybe it would help their cause if they took away that chastity obligation but I sure don't care one way or another.
25 percent of today's kids do not belong to organized religion.
Compare that to 13 percent of the baby boomers.

If I read the poll correctly, 53 percent of young adults believe in god, yet 75 percent believe there is an afterlife.
As those young adults become older, the percentage of those who believe in god will grow.

Although organized religion is declining, African American and evangelical Protestant groups still have a strong youth base.
In other words, right-wing Fundamentalists are gaining new, young members.
All I've got to say is long live the GOP!

A poll was taken by Pew Research Center about the importance of religion state by state.
The top eleven most religious states are all from the South.

Ten Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion.

[polymerase]

Palvina's ten reasons you should never have a religion is pretty good. Keeping that one. The comments are even better. They call his well reasoned article a "rant". Shoot, I know what ranting is, I rant, and his article is not ranting.

7 Idiocy or hypocrisy - pick one. If I had to subscribe to a religion I would pick to be an idiot because the hypocrite route is just too daunting. You're smart enough to know the earth is not 10,000 years old and the BS meter goes off for most of it but the dead bodies rising from the earth and a few other things and you just go along because you think it is worth the chance of getting into the groovy afterlife described if you submit. But then the old dude in the sky has got to be a complete idiot. He is frigging omnipotent. He is going to know you truly do not believe. Get in that handbasket and go to hell. Quickly.

As the church lady says, isn't it special the description of God that comes out of the mouths of semibelievers. God is not vengeful. He is all lovey dovey and will be perfectly OK with your miniscule belief in him. Always a match. The level of belief and the level of fear God can display.

10. Faith is Fear. Gee, I wonder why religion sells so well in the Republican party right now. Their entire message is fear. Fear government, fear taxes, fear that Obama's army will take your guns, fear of immigrants, fear of everyone who is different (a very religious thing, fearing the unconverted), fear death, fear everything. What a miserable way to go through life.

Really all of this describing of religious people is like reading the descriptions on the monkey house wall. They throw shit at you if they like you. How nice. Is there any money in this? Describing nuts in the nuthouse? The nuts sure won't pay for it. I guess if it is funny I will read it. I'll buy this round. Gervaise is making a killing although his satire, while wicked, is only touches on religion in small bits and pieces. "You're going to make me slither on my belly the rest of my life? Uh, OK."

[Clark]

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Men who are liberal, atheistic, and gay have a better chance at having a high IQ.

Poly, what aren't you telling us?
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[polymerase]

Two out of three isn't bad.

So the take on this paper is that heterosexual, conservative religious males are stupid paranoid sheep?

Duh.