abaldwin360:

Evolution is almost universally accepted among those who understand it, almost universally rejected by those who don’t.

(via meow--zedong)

mmattlaughlinn:

I find it a little odd that Ian McKellen, the actor who has played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series for so long, is such an outspoken atheist. 

Tolkien disclaimed that his stories had direct religious significance, however, he was a devout man of faith and his beliefs of course leak through into his writing.

I don’t find Ian’s views odd in the sense that “well, that’s just stupid”, more in the way that I just find it curious.

I dunno. I’m just thinking out loud.   

Wait, wtf? So actors can only play characters written by people with the same beliefs as them? It’s not curious or odd, it’s the way acting works.

Duh…

(via matthewzane-deactivated20120929)

forthebibletellsmeso:

j-marie16:

forthebibletellsmeso:

Some more family values from the Bible…

We can quote the Bible, too.

-ForTheBibleTellsMeSo

Anyone with a Bible on hand able to explain this to me in context? I… Don’t have one. But I feel like I know Luke pretty well from studying up before disowning Catholicism and I don’t remember this. I’m all for finding crappy Bible verses (to stock my arsenal for when people tell me certain things are wrong because the Bible says so), but I’m worried this may have been taken out of context.

I can help you with that.  Here is a link to the full context of the quote.  The reason why Jesus wanted his people to turn away from his family is because he wanted them to be fully dedicated to him.  

In what context is that quote anything else but abhorrent?

An Atheist’s 10 Commandments

onehumanist:

1. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.

2. In all things, strive to cause no harm.

3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.

4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.

6. Always seek to be learning something new.

7. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.

8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

10. Question everything.

From “The New Ten Commandments: A decalogue for the modern world” by Ebon Musings

I can whole-heartedly get behind these. 8 is hard for me but I understand how important it is.

I have just the smallest issue with the first one though, the whole ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’ thing. I don’t think it always goes far enough. I think it’s better to say ‘Treat others as THEY wish to be treated’ - so long as it never asks you to do something you’re not comfortable with.

Atheism: Not even once

depressingfacts:

zobian:

I was sitting in my English 1010 class one day, and my professor started speaking about a scientist that had recently made some discoveries pertaining to the theory of evolution. My professor explained that when the scientist was asked “where does God tie in to all of this”, the scientist scoffed and said that he doesn’t believe in God. When my professor said this, many people in my class cheered, and the man sitting next to me laughed and exclaimed, “GOOD!”. I looked around at everyones’ grinning, mocking faces and felt sick and alone.

Why, because they don’t agree and validate your ideas and opinions? Not everybody will agree with you, learn to deal with me.

It is saddening and frightening for me to see this society slowly and somewhat unanimously lose its faith in God. Sir Isaac Newton, (discoverer of gravity, among other things), once said, “Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors”. Sadly, he is now mistaken, as atheism now has many professors and advocators.

Isaac Newton also advocated alchemy, but I don’t see people claiming that chemistry is bullshit and we can change lead into gold because Isaac Newton advocated it. This is nothing but an appeal to authority and is sadly, not a valid argument.

Even a minuscule bit of research/reasoning can tie many worldly disasters to atheism; Dictators such as Hitler and Che Guevara, Communist-driven states/leaders, genocides, etc. Atheists argue that religion tears the world apart, but they fail to realize that if everyone follows their religion the way they are intended to be followed, (with few exceptions), the world would be a lot better off than what it is now.

Hitler’s religion is inconclusive, but the dominating religion of Germany and pretty much all of Hitler’s soldiers was Christianity. It was this same religion which taught and advocate the school of thought that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, which fueled the anti-Jew sentiment. 

As for your claim about atheism being a religion, there is only one belief in atheism, the rejection of faith until evidence is provided. It dictates no moral or ethical laws, so how does one claim that it is the root cause of the evil of these tragedies? Did it not occur to you that it was an adherence to Maoism or Stalinism which influence Che Guevara or Stalin to inflict such harm on the world, and not their secularism? 

This is ignoring the root cause and merely pointing out similarities these people had. It’s the exact same logic as Hitler had a mustache, Stalin had a mustache, and both were mass murderers. Therefore, mustaches are the root of all evil and cause people to become mustaches.

It was not their atheism, but their political ideology in which caused such tragedies, don’t get it twisted.

Even here on Tumblr, I see atheists poking fun at Christians and at other faiths. How much respect does that get you? Making fun of Jesus or God is neither funny nor clever; and whoever does so should be ashamed of themselves.

Except that your religion indirectly implies that I’m a worthless piece of shit who will burn in hell for all eternity but a mass murderer can repent and become a born again Christian and get into heaven. 

I can only pray that the world turns itself around and starts to love/follow God again.

</religious rant>

They did that before, and then the crusades happened, and the inquisition happened, and the world became royally fucked because of religion forcing it’s fucked up values onto the world. 

Perfect perfect perfect

(via madokaistrebelnews)

religiousragings:

brandonandre:

I made this in representation of today’s Christians. They neither stand or speak out for God, some don’t even know how to defend their faith. It is time the true Christians STAND UP and start fighting for God. Tumblr is an awesome platform to defend the truth and what God stands for.

Do not SAY NOTHING.

Advocate. Stand. For God!

Televangelists, Bibles in every hotel room, churches on every other corner, two Republican Presidential candidates who mention God in practically every sentence of every speech, Mormons on the door step, religious advertisements all over the place, In God We Trust on EVERY dollar we spend, entire television stations devoted to religion, entire radio stations devoted to religion, entire primary schools devoted to religion…

takes a breath…

Christian bands, Christian holidays celebrated on a national basis, Catholic Credit Unions, God mention when we sneeze, God mentioned every Friday (TGIF), entire days off during the week for religious purposes, tee-shirts, posters, religious magazine, preachers making national news by claiming that every freakin’ natural disaster is God’s punishment for our wickedness…

takes another breath…

every other person on Facebook thanking God for this or for that, chaplains available for every soldier, religious festivals, religious marches on Washington DC, religious fliers in our mailboxes, national news talking about every time the Pope cracks his knuckles, religious colleges, every possible variation and word about religion available on the Internet with just a few clicks, religious dating sites, religious pop-up ads…

takes another breath…

Streets named after saints, religious tattoos, crosses worn around every other person’s neck, crosses on practically every headstone, Christian fiction, prayers credited every time something goes right, prayers offered every time something goes wrong, Fox news run by people with religious agendas, television series about the rapture, book series about the rapture, billboards about the rapture, religious salt and pepper shakers, religious book ends…

…

Gosh!  You’re right!  God and religion and Jesus are practically never seen AT ALL these days!  By all mean, I think there was a couple of seconds last week where I wasn’t surrounded by religion.  That is CLEARLY unacceptable!

God Bless You on your quest to make sure that GOD is never ignored in this nation.  Not for a single second.  By anybody!

I’d say ‘Bless this post’, but that would only labour the point…

(Source: andreabaunza, via brashblacknonbeliever)

j—lannister:

Anything but an atheist- America’s most hated minority.A really depressing little video that highlights the American people’s blacklash against atheists. 

Here are some other facts that go along with this video.

Legally right now, there are still several states where atheists are not allowed to hold public office.

 

ARKANSAS¹, MARYLAND², NORTH CAROLINA³, PENNSYLVANIA⁴, SOUTH CAROLINA⁵, TENNESSEE⁶ and TEXAS⁷. They all have different CLAUSEs in their respective CONSTITUTIONSwhich say that people who don’t believe in GOD (or, alternatively, A Supreme BEING) can’t hold PUBLIC OFFICEs.

1.

That’s how many who actually try to ENFORCE those laws.

In 1993, Herb Silverman, professor of math at the COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON, tried to apply as NOTARY PUBLIC. In the pre-printed application there was an OATH he had to sign, which ended with “so help me God”. He crossed out the “God”. His application was thus turned down.

Herb contacted the ACLU. They filed a LAWSUIT against the state of South Carolina. It took 4 whole years, but in 1997 the state Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional as it violated both the FIRST AND THE SIXTH AMENDMENT.

In a highly popular poll, it was found that atheists were the least trusted group in America; moreso than Muslims, homosexuals, blacks, and other common persecuted minorities. 

HTTP://ABCNEWS.GO.COM/TECHNOLOGY/STORY?ID=1786422&PAGE=1

The boy scouts is allowed to refuse anyone whom they know is an Atheist into their organization

HTTP://FREETHINKER.CO.UK/2010/10/21/BOY-SCOUTS-OF-AMERICA-CHALLENGED-AGAIN-OVER-THEIR-NO-GAYS-OR-ATHEISTS-RULE/

The first president George Bush was quoted saying

“No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”

In most Islamic countries, being an Atheist is an automatic death sentence. 

In Ireland, Blasphemy laws prevent Atheists from saying anything about their lack of religion, or saying anything anti theist. 

HTTP://WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK/WORLD/2010/JAN/01/IRISH-ATHEISTS-CHALLENGE-BLASPHEMY-LAW

More than this, public opinion of Atheism is very low. Every single day on Reddit, I hear countless stories from young people who have lost their children/families/friends/loved ones due to their Atheism. I’v heard from soldiers who can’t have “Atheist” stamped on their dogtags without jumping through hoops. I hear about people losing everything for their lack of superstitious belief.

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/

“dear /atheism, as most of you dont remember, I made a post on this board about 2 weeks ago, lamenting about my parents discovering (through shameless violation of privacy) my atheism. I was lulled into a false sense of security for a few weeks, but the shit hit the fan yesterday. I had just had a pleasant lunch with my dad and his wife, my mom and her fiancee, my two sisters and my grandparents. Life was looking pretty alright. After lunch, my dad took me home and sat me at the table, and proceeded to destroy my life. He said he will take away everything that I love, that my friends are stupid and dont care about me, that he would rather I a satanist or murderer than an atheist, that if I said one word to my sister (who is 10) about not believing in God, it would be the last word I ever said, and he threatened sending me to a shrink. He has since backed off slightly about the shrink. However, this is the reason that we hide. He is going to make my life a living hell until I move out in a year and a half. He is so blinded by his religious fervor, he now thinks of me as a misguided youth, a heartless monster, and evil person, instead of his son. We cannot let this happen to other children. This, I feel, will inspire me to fight for our rights for the rest of my life. I’m not sure the point of this, but I needed to write it. Any support/encouragement etc is welcome, but I don’t think I’ll be able to browse reddit much longer. Much love to all of you, and continue to fight for freedom, and equality and the truth. Be good without God. Be better than God.

 

-A soon-to-be-persecuted comrade.

edit: have to leave for a while. thank you all so much for the advice, support, and acceptance. I will definitely push the psychiatrist idea on them, as a sort of revenge. much love.”

Some of this is heartbreaking.

(via yourfandomsucks-deactivated2011)