Comments on: Number of people with no religion grows

By: shawn

shawn — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:32:32 +0000

Oh Morgan dear, I’m not here to “change” your idiotic PRO hetero views. Hey if you feel comfy existing in the 2nd class citizen range than hey, that’s certainly your perogative! LOL! When you go spouting off your dribble about science and religion being compatible then YES, I DO feel compelled to speak my mind! Not all of us are self hating, guilt riddled homos Morgan! I certainly am not. Ya know, the impression I’m gettin’ from you is that I bet if there was suddenly a magic “cure” for homosexuality you’d be the first in line to take it huh? Geeeeez, with friends like that…! Try to keep the foolishness to a minimum, ‘kay hon. Not all of us hate ourselves Morgan, and not all of us need to support ANY religious whack nut shack to comfort our guilty natures. This mutant is quite happy being a X-MAN. LMAO!

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:03:13 +0000

Shawn,
if you are that angry all the time,
then the stress of all that anger will hurt you in the end.
I am not convinced by all your yelling, screaming and profanity that your atheism would improve my life one iota.
Every time you carry on like this, you convince me that much more that I am where I need to be in my journey in life.
Take care, Shawn.

By: shawn

shawn — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:05:56 +0000

Life after death? PROVE IT! Existence of “higher” being? PROVE IT! Universe “created” in 6 days? PROVE IT! Earth is only 8000 years old?!? PROVE IT! Existence of Christ? PROVE IT! You see folks all the wonderful fantastic myths and lies perpetuated in your holy dribble, er…bible, excuse me, have ALL proven to be UNtrue. Yet sadly a vast majority of non thinking sheep still choose to embrace the easy way out. MORE sadly still is the sad fact that there are a number of us who, through self hatred and GUILT, still embrace these quackery ideals! Time to grow up folks! You may think you’re being clever by “infiltrating” religion and the GOP with your ridiculous MCC and Log Cabin Asskissers club, but the only ones you’re really fooling are YOURSELVES! Rationalism and supernaturalism ARE TWO VERY DIFFERENT SUBJECTS!! One deals in truth, the other believes in perpetuating myths and NON provable fairy tales! For those who think that science and religion are compatible I have just one word for you: BULLSHIT! Or is that two words? LMFAO!

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:14:23 +0000

Dave W,
I sit in on our church’s budget and general meetings. The money that I put in the collection plate is primarily for the running of our church, for its mortgage, to pay the key staff member, the utilities, the insurance, the snow removal, repaving the parking lot, grounds upkeep, man to clean the interior of the church, to search for our new long-term rector, what we do to fund programs for the hungry, to the Washington Diocese for literacy programs, outreach to youth, to Hispanics, and several different charitable activities for our diocese alone. unlike several conservative dioceses in Virginia, the Washington diocese is gay-supportive and gay friendly and gay rights are important to us. Akinola would not like our diocese. And his adventurism and meddling in our US church is a violation of church law. One diocese may not interfere in the affairs of another diocese. I would not welcome his intervention in my own church. Many of us would leave. We are a primarily liberal parish and we would be at total odds with Akinola. While we treat individual Africans with respect, our own church will not tolerate being linked to someone in Africa and certainly not to Akinola. We are in the DC area and we do not send money to Akinola and we do not seek direct ties with him.

Unfortunately, due to British rule (which has quit) Nigeria has many more Anglicans than in all of the US. Nigeria is a very populous country and has twice as many Anglicans as the US has Episcopalians (the US branch of the Anglican communion)
It is better for these AFricans and other archconservatives to go their own way and for the liberal branch of the US church to go its own way. A split would be good and beneficial for all concerned.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:42:59 +0000

Chris Sullivan,
Why do you care if some of us prefer to go to church, because some of us draw something out of church and out of being with a “church family”. If I never step into an another bar straight or gay, I am not missing anything. I miss my church when I am not there. Maybe some of us here feel a similar connection to a place of worship and contemplation that we don’t quite feel to say the bowling alley, the Seven-Eleven, the bookstore, the food store, or even the movie cinema, etc. We don’t care Chris what you do or where you go, so what is it about even gay, gay-welcoming and gay friendly places of worship that seem so worrisome to you, Chris.

I get more out of my church than I do out of the movie cinema. If the movie cinema went, I would feel sad, but not as sad as I would if my church left.

A Sunday without church is just not a Sunday to me. It makes my Sunday special and sets a positive tone for the rest of my week the way the local Starbucks never could.

Maybe that is what Bill and I feel.

A chance to be with a wide variety of people of a like mind and a like heart.

My church is special, the people there are nice and never a cross word, or an expletive heard there. A willingness to help, to volunteer, to care. Maybe Bill has found what I have found, a peace, a serenity and a comfort where we worship.

I deal with the ragged cares of the world 6 days a week all year long, paying bills, concerned about politics, about the economy, about a lot of things. What a peace, what a joy to surrender all that burden at church and to find rest for a few blessed hours each week surrounded by nice, gentle people who don’t spout anger, negativity, profanity and discord in my place of worship.

There is enough of that all week long. To be able to put that to rest sometime during the week is nice.

People who get rid of negativity and stress and find something to thankful for and able to let go of grudges and forgive are some of the longest-lived people and some many in our church are older people who have long since learned to let go of corrosive anger and stress, to live well, to forgive minor things, to be joyful.

Maybe Bill has found the same thing as well.

By: Dave W

Dave W — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:56:24 +0000

To clarify from the atheist’s corner here for Morgan and others defending their faith:
-It really is organized religion that causes so much evil on the planet. Not you personally, and maybe it sounded like that is what we meant but it isn’t.
-The harm you do do personally is when you put money in the offering plate. Morgan says it doesn’t matter to his church what happens in Africa…but it does, as he is funding that horrific situation. Please google Akinola to learn more.
-Someone else said if we can’t respect each other here what hope do we have? I agree so let me say it: Morgan, I respect you. I do believe what you say, that you gain purpose in your life, direction, moral underpinnings, community etc. etc. I do believe this is your benefit.
-However I also know that you are being used by your church to fund the machine that has worked against us for millennia. Your current “liberal accepting” church is merely a front to gain members who otherwise wouldn’t join and contribute.
-I’m glad you believe in evolution and science. I have a hard time reconciling creationism with science. I know many christians, likely like you, choose to believe the bible is more of a fable and thus is ok to be interpreted so as not to debunk evolution. But I ask, why bother? Evolution wasn’t an idea when the bible was written, ignorant people (flat-earthers) actually believed what they wrote in the bible because it was passed to them by power hungry leaders just like the way your faith tradition was passed to you: packaged so as not to offend contemporary sensibilities. So, why bother trying to make it fit when a brief review of history reveals it can’t, doesn’t want to and wasn’t intended to.

We really shouldn’t be about offending each other and I’m sorry if I did to anyone here. We have freedom of (and from!) religion here in the US and I think it is a good thing. Believe what you want. The issue is when it is used to harm me and my family….and when I see potentially like-minded people falling for the trap I have to throw them a lifeline, which you can choose to ignore at no offense to me.

But it is just that: a belief. The fairy tales they tell in church simply are not true, can’t possibly be true and without significant manipulation of the facts you have been told over years, can’t possibly be believed to be true.

Its a lie to control you. I’m sorry if that offends, it is meant as help, not to harm.

The long drawn out arguments make my point…way too defensive for something if it were true. It just can’t be. Where is this place you all get to go to anyway? how is it less ridiculous than the virgins muslims get? how are they wrong and you right? How does a virgin get pregnant? How do you believe that and not have a warped view of human sexuality?

It just isn’t possible to be true!

By: Chris Sullivan

Chris Sullivan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Bill – not involving oneself in an organized religion is not “giving up on God”. Many people don’t feel the need or desire to pursue their spirtuality in a communal manner.

By: bill

bill — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:29:40 +0000

I’m gay and go to church and find this very sad. belief in God is a good thing. I don’t think most churches are responsive to the needs of todays people. I was raised catholic and find that most of the people don’t really follow what the pope preaches. I really think that going to church can be a positive thing. Try The MCC or United Church of Christ both very liberal denominations. Certain Episcopal diocese are also welcoming. I’ve tried them all and love each of them. Don’t give up on God. He loves us, he made us. Just because some fundamentalist think we are damned because we are gay doesn’t make it so. They may be loud and scary but I believe most religiously sane people see them for what they are. Sad disturbed people.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Pollyanna but you’d be surprised how comforting it is to pray with a congregation for peace and justice for the oppressed. I’ve said enough Remember we are all Gods creatures. We need to be treated with dignity and we should treat each other with dignity and love.

By: Chris Sullivan

Chris Sullivan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:06:09 +0000

Any connection between “God” and organized religion is no doubt purely conicidental.

The decline in the following of these belief systems (religion) makes sense. As society educates itself and matures, the need for magical mythologies declines.

Having faith in a “higher power” that many call “God” does not need to include humankind’s bastardization of belief known as “religion”.

The Catch-22 of using “faith” as a justification for believing the utterly ridiculous is merely sad.

So many of these self-serving institutions have painted God in THEIR image and likeness – projecting onto God all of their petty human failings… power, greed, control… whoever/whatever God is, is certainly greater than all of our petty human weaknesses.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:57:39 +0000

Weather one is a Christian or not makes no difference if people could sort through all that crap that is put out there and get down to the basic tenents of any religion and get rid of the self serving hatful talk that was written in at that time in history weather it is christianity or islam we would not be going through all this shit that we are going through now , religion is a personl belief but it should not be politiciazed I belive in the strict seperation of church and state where no one,s tax money is used for anything that is deamed religion religion , prime example Bush,s faith based instiutions and that is still going on once we wake up and start dealing with the real causes of all these conflics religion then we can start dealing with the real need of humanity compassion and the growing populations global warming and the distruction of our planet , when we have no food to feed everybody,religion has messed up generation but it has saved generation to we should not overlook that, look for the good and despose of the hate and strive for balance,the native american I belive hade and still have the answer balance .