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KING DAVE

King Dave "An atheist is something I am, not something I do" ~ Christopher Hitchens
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Islam: "These People should have more Important Things to do then Worship the Beard Hair of a Schizophrenic." ~ Sam Harris (Video)

Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:58 PM EDT
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By King Dave

Complete video at Fora.tv: http://bit.ly/eCQhZD - via http://AtheistMedia.com

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 The Great Sam Harris. Ph.D  Neuroscience making too much sense. Sam Harris (born 1967) is an American neuroscientist and best-selling author. He is the author of The Moral Landscape, and The End of Faith, which won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction

It is time we acknowledged that no real foundation exists within the canons of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any of our other faiths for religious tolerance and religious diversity....Sam Harris

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King Dave

A great video.

In looking for pictures to post for this article, any humor about this subject is quickly lost. The true radicals are the brave men and women on the side of resistance.

Thank you for watching, I welcome your thoughts.

  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:05 PM EDT
Rank on Rank

It is time we acknowledged that no real foundation exists within the canons of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any of our other faiths for religious tolerance and religious diversity....Sam Harris

And what foundations exist or are provided in any Atheist viewpoint for religious diversity or religious tolerance? The very statement made by Sam Harris displays total religious intolerance and irreligious hypocrisy.

    Reply#2 - Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:52 PM EDT
    Chickenmann

    Rank are you aware of the irreprable damage that religion has done in this world? How many centuries/eons we've been set back in the name of one god or another? How much hate and intolerance is preached and spoken of in these "holy" texts?

    I'm not sure how much tolerance I can have for religion, considering all this. I guess my attitude is that it's okay as long as it just sits in the corner sipping its juice quietly and nomming on some animal crackers. Beyond that it doesn't get a voice any more.

    • 2 votes
    #2.1 - Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:14 PM EDT
    Grisham

    And what foundations exist or are provided in any Atheist viewpoint for religious diversity or religious tolerance?

    Lot's. Secularism would be one. Most atheists don't really care what people believe in, they just don't want those beliefs given more weight than any other belief people might hold.

    • 3 votes
    #2.2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:21 AM EDT
    Rank on Rank

    Rank are you aware of the irreprable damage that religion has done in this world?

    Chickenman, I am aware of irreparable damage Atheism has done in the world. Are you oblivious to it?

    Secularism would be one. Most atheists don't really care what people believe in

    Grisham, Secularism, as practiced in America has a decided anti-Christian bias. So no, secularism is no proof that Atheism is pro religious diversity or religious tolerance. Atheism has displayed neither.

      #2.3 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 3:20 PM EDT
      Chickenmann

      Rank I'm willing to bet that the damage done in the name of athiesm is minimal when compared to the amount of damage that has been done in gods name. I saw a poster once, maybe you have too. But it said "Science makes buildings- Religion flies planes into them". Don't get into this- I have the facts on my side, and all you have is faith.

      • 2 votes
      #2.4 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:20 PM EDT
      Rank on Rank

      Rank I'm willing to bet that the damage done in the name of athiesm is minimal

      Don't get into this- I have the facts on my side, and all you have is faith.

      Chickenmann, the damage done by Atheists is "minimal"?

      It doesn't take faith to read historical accounts of the genocides and human atrocities committed by the officially Atheist Nazis and officially Atheist Soviets. (Or even by present day officially Atheist governments like China.)

      Since you have the facts on your side. Do you know how many millions were exterminated under each of these regimes? The total number of Nazi Holocaust victims, both Jewish and non Jewish is estimated between 10-17 million. And by the Soviet Union 20 million people were killed.

      While you may derive a certain comfort from the notion that these people were not killed 'in the name of Atheism'. They were certainly killed by governments that were officially Atheist. One might even say by Atheists themselves.

      20-30 million lives. You consider that "minimal damage"?

        #2.5 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 5:19 PM EDT
        Chickenmann

        Rank, let's start with your "Athiest" Nazis. I would like to quote the pledge of youth that nazi youths went to:

        We affirm:The German people has been created by the will of God. All those who fight for the life of our people, and those who died, Carried out the will of God. Their deeds are to us holy obligation (http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/jufeier.htm)

        Doesn't sound that "Athiest" to me, does it?

        But let's put that aside for a moment and examine a much harsher reality. How many people, how many millions, even billions, of people wandered around in the church-mandated darkness of the middle ages? For 12 centuries people wandered around with the belief that the church and the bible were the only things which humanity needed to survive. How much knowledge, and how many centuries back did humanity set itself in those actions? In the burning of the library in Alexandria? How many people were killed in the crusades (hint: one figure I've seen is in the 9 million range)

        Let's examine other religions and religious sects. How many millions of Muslims have been killed in the centuries of sectarian violence that's happened in the middle east? Christ they still fight about who's imam killed who's imam 800 years ago!

        Hindus? Upwards of a million killed in the partitioning of India alone.

        Shall we go on?

        You seem to only want to talk body count- well there's your body count- according to one site I looked up over 809 MILLION in religous wars alone.

        You were saying something about 20-30 million lives?

        What I said is the damage athiesm has caused is minimal compared to religion. And this can't be talked about strictly in terms of body count. For how many centuries was learning hamstringed or outlawed by the catholic church? How many centuries did humanity get held back because the dogma of religion kept people from exaimining things that would potentially contradicted the catholic church?

        Like I said, Religion has had its chance to show us any form of value. That chance was called the dark ages.

        • 1 vote
        #2.6 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:58 PM EDT
        Reply
        King Dave

        Sorry Rank on Rank, you are totally wrong. Just more Christian failure.

        The first Treaty Hitler signed was with the Catholic Church. The current Pope is Joseph Ratzinger a member of the Hitler Youth.

        Hitler's religious views:

        In public statements, especially at the beginning of his rule, Hitler frequently spoke positively about the Christian German culture, and his belief in the "Aryan" Christ. In a proclamation to the German Nation February 1, 1933 Hitler stated, "The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."[10]

        Historian Joachim Fest wrote, "Hitler knew, through the constant invocation of the God the Lord (German: Herrgott) or of providence (German: Vorsehung), to make the impression of a godly way of thought."[11] He used his "ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity," according to biographer Ian Kershaw. Kershaw adds that Hitler's ability also succeeded in appeasing possible Church resistance to anti-Christian Nazi Party radicals.[12] For example, on March 23, 1933, he addressed the Reichstag: "The National Government regards the two Christian confessions (i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism) as factors essential to the soul of the German people. ... We hold the spiritual forces of Christianity to be indispensable elements in the moral uplift of most of the German people."[13]

        According to Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer, Hitler remained a formal member of the Catholic Church until his death, although it was Speer's opinion that "he had no real attachment to it."[14]According to biographer John Toland, Hitler was still "a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite his detestation of its hierarchy, he carried within himself its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God.

        In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote neither as an atheist, an agnostic, nor as a believer in a remote, rationalist divinity. Instead he expressed his belief in one providential, active, deity:

        On every Nazi belt "gott mit uns" "god on our side."

        quotes from Mein Kampf)

        Hitler wrote: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.."

        Stalin studied to be a Priest for 3 years.

        There is so much more, but I doubt the Christians care anyway.

        • 2 votes
        Reply#3 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:14 PM EDT
        Rank on Rank

        King Dave,

        Historical facts: Both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were officially Atheist. I know that goes against all you read or were taught as an atheist but it is true nevertheless.

          #3.1 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:28 PM EDT
          King Dave

          I was raised a Catholic, I discovered I was an atheist, not a convert, because my brain never allows me to believe any of the religious stories and I can not lie to people or to myself. And the Biblical stories are not moral anyway. Morality and ethics depend on human accountability, not passing upwards responsibility or praying it away.

          As for Hitler and his deeply held religious beliefs, I just quoted historians, wikipedia, and Hitler's own words..I work off evidence, not what I would like to believe. That is the difference between us, the religious and non-religious.

          Do you have any evidence to support your claims? I am listening..

          • 2 votes
          #3.2 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:49 PM EDT
          Rank on Rank

          I'm not talking about Adolf Hitler who was at best a Deist, not a Christian or Catholic, regardless of how often he mentioned GOD in his rhetoric or propaganda. None of his statement referenced the Bible, the New Testament, or the words of Jesus Christ.

          The Third Reich was officially Atheist.

          Although the "National Socialist leaders and dogmas were basically, uncompromisingly antireligious", Nazi Germany usually did not directly attack the Churches, the exceptions being clerics who refused accommodation with the Nazi régime. Martin Bormann, a prominent Nazi official, said: "Priests will be paid by us and, as a result, they will preach what we want. If we find a priest acting otherwise, short work is to be made of him. The task of the priest consists in keeping the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. To demoralize Poland, the Nazis killed almost 16 per cent of the Polish Catholic clergy; 13 of 38 Bishops were sent to concentration camps.These actions, and the closing of churches, seminaries and other religious institutions, almost succeeded in exterminating the Polish clergy.[The Trial of German Major War Criminals, Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany" (January 8, 1946) The Nizkor Project Nizkor.org: For example, "Entire 'Kreise' (districts) remained thus completely deprived of clergy. In the city of Poznan itself the spiritual care of some 200,000 Catholics remained in the hands of not more than four priests."] - Nazism, Church and State; Wikipedia

          Officially Atheist states are responsible for over 100 million deaths in the last century.

          Death rates for atheist ideological nations like the former Nazi Germany, Maoist China, Leninist-Stalinist Russia, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, Vietnam, and North Korea, among others are never going to be fully known, but there is a conservative estimate of over 100 million.[17] Nazi German genocide efforts killed tens of millions of Soviet citizens, in addition to millions of Germans, Poles, French, and nationalities throughout occupied Europe; while the Soviets killed tens of millions of their own citizens. In China, tens of millions of people were murdered or worked to death, and once the Khmer Rouge were forced out of power in Cambodia, over 25% of all Cambodians were dead or forever missing. - Atheism, Creationwiki

            #3.3 - Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:20 PM EDT
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