that picture is nice.

i would rather die than accept “god”, he is a made up, multi thousand year old dick that has given nothing but false beleif to the billions of people that see to him. Unfortunatly he is so powerful people are willing to kill themselves in his name……. wtf?!

I agree with you 100%. There is no better way to describe my feelings for “God”. Why can and why do people believe something like this. Science is the real creator of us, the earth the surroundings around us. People who want to spend time worshiping this “God” have not yet opened their eyes. They have not yet realized that believing in god is the same as believing in the Easter Bunny!!! There is no point, “GOD” doesn’t exist.
I always ask people if they believe in god. If they say yes, I then ask them if they believe in magic, if they say no, I say WTF!! To me they would be the same thing!

have either of you ever talked to a devout christian that way? i guess i should remember that this is the internet where being condescending is often confused with being confident and smart, and the people behind their keyboards aren’t usually as arrogant and misguided as they want to be in real life.

surely even if you cannot bring yourself to believe in god, then you can very well empathize with those who do. comparing god to the easter bunny is about as mature as evangelicals claiming homosexuality is a mortal sin and has comparable effects on both believers and homosexuals. that is, it makes you feel like shit and feel spite towards the other person, and ruins all possibility of decent and mature dialogue between otherwise opposing groups. what did you hope to achieve by saying god is magic? “wow! i never thought of it that way… surely you are correct, i’ll now rearrange my entire life to accommodate your rude and asinine comparisons!”

i’ve never understood the apparently human desire to displace other people from their beliefs; both sides are guilty, and all it serves to do is fuel a long established feud between “believers” and “rationalists.” good job.

In my own personal opinion (and you ain’t gonna like it):

All religion is a hoax.
Proof that all religion is a hoax is very easy to come by.
Proof that religion is real, doesn’t exist.
Religion is the devil itself; dividing humanity and causing war and spreading hate.
Those who do believe, I believe, are brainwashed. Completely not their fault.

But basically, science is evolution & always has been, and there is extraordinary proof of this.

Think about it: Were Adam and Eve married before they did the dirty? Err…no? Enough said.

Congrats to those who believe in religion, I truly believe it gives people hope. But, empathize with them? What for? People hate me because I believe in science. Why do they hate me? Because they believe in their religion. That nicely brings me back to my point: religion = division & hate.

I rest my case.

I disagree with Alice,
People wage wars for resources and always have been, whether that be land, water, fossil fuels or “processed” riches like gold, silver and other kinds loot. Did I mention captives and slave labor?
Hate is largely caused by having been attacked or being brainwashed / pumped-up in order to attack someone. Leaders start wars and get common people hate and kill each other, and that most often is done in the name of God/gods, never mind that it could be quite contrary to the letter and intent of the religion used (misused).
Fear of the unknown also makes you hate the “unknown”, that is other cultures and nations, so hate is caused by ignorance.

Most world religions spread the message of love, moral laws that are very beneficial for the society. Please familiarize yourself with these writings.

As far as comparing religious beliefs to magic and Easter bunnies – you can grossly oversimplify any concept and make it laughable and both religious people and atheists are guilty of that.
Not recognizing the allegories in let’s say Bible and going with the literal interpretation will get you there. Remember the model of the solar system from school science class? If you were to literally understand that planers rotate around the sun on a thick wire axles that would be pretty dumb, wouldn’t it?

-Agnos-theist

Carrassi, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Tom and courtney might never be expected to become believers but they sure as hell could use some nuance in their thoughts about religion.

The people who believe in god or anything else are brain washed. They just want something to believe in. I believe in science mom not no make believe god.comets, atoms and other maters made us.