No, that's absurd. The constant misrepresentation of what atheists and scientists say and blatant lies from the religious extremists lead to an overall mistrust and misunderstanding of atheism by moderate religious folk.

For example, when in Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled" Richard Dawkins says that even if we said that aliens came to earth and created us, that still wouldn't answer the question because we would need to find how they were created, the religious people flipped it to claim that he believed that aliens created us. Similarly, the theory of evolution is constantly misrepresented to say that we came from monkeys, even though we constantly correct them to let them know that apes and humans came from a common ancestor. With the big bang they claim we all believe that something came from nothing even though we constantly correct them. And the biggest issue is how often we are mistaken for religious Satanists. Hell, I thought atheists were religious Satanists until I was about 15 because of my Christian church. It is no wonder atheists are so hated and mistrusted even though for no good reason. We only expect respect, equality, and for people to think rationally. Rationality is key to understanding and we want to promote progression for all of humanity. Most of us don't discriminate, just like most religious people don't, but we want to get rid of the immediate fear people have the second they hear us say "I'm an atheist". That misconception is created by evangelists and that is why we attack the extremists. The extremists are also the ones getting laws passed to promote their religion and convincing people that the U.S. is a Christian nation. We attack evangelism because we are persecuted by powerful evangelists. When atheists put up an add that says something to the effect of "don't worry, God probably doesn't exist, so live your life," the powerful protestant church has to respond with 40 ads that say "atheists are going to hell. Pull the plug on atheism". That's disrespectful and attacking against something that was not intended to do that in any way. Then you have people like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, etc. and it isn't just Fox News doing it. CNN, ABC, CBS, etc. All of them are attacking us. We even have senators on the offensive. That is why we do what we do.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

there was some argument Paul had with Peter etc where they decided it was okay to eat those things, i can't remember most of it now though.

I don't think you can blame the whole persons religion though, rather its just this guys family's beliefs that are fucked up, not the entire religion. they themselves obvioulsy have some fucked up views but i would blame the person and his beliefs. As long as you realize not all christians believe this, so you can't say "christianity must be banned because this one guy in Australia killed someone so they must all be like that". But yeah this guys personal beliefs are screwed up

Everything else is ethereal...

we can't create nor support such a law "A conviction that with reason, an open exchange of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children." this is one of the main ideas of secular humanism any atheist is inherently a secular humanist so any serious atheist can't neither give or take privileges from religion our philosophies attitude is laizzes faire our ideas are needed in a society so a level of tolerance and understanding can exist

I didn't know atheists were being misinterpretated totally passed me by, i live in the U.K mabey thats why.

You know i had no real interest in this issue until joining this forum, because for me at least it wasn't one and probably still isn't however you guys stateside clearly have issues to deal with, Atheist=Satanist....LMAO!! if anything should be labled Satanic in my book are the vile and twisted extremists bastardising the example of Jesus.
Who was basically a guy sick of hypocrasy......average Joe, though thankfully not a Plumber.

I found it funny when Al Megrahi was released and all the families of deceased americans were screaming eye for an eye as were many Senators, Congressmen, not to mention the Secretary of States stance as well as the President and it was immediatly clear to me that the US is not a Christian state and that those people lacked compassion and were far removed from Christianity.

Bear in mind the Pan Am flight wiped out the best part of a Scottish village, people i know personally had family members killed and did not share the same sentiment as their US counterparts.

If i want to know about science i'll read a book by or listen to a scientist, if a so called Christian tells me they're wrong because the bible says so it will hardly sway my opinion.

I like to think other people think that way too.

Fox panders to the religious right but Murdoch is a secular Jew...(oxymoron?) your media is scaremongering using religious nuts as a smokescreen, everyone else is chasing the ratings.
A one eyed bat can see through that.

I doesn't take media giants to spread a message sucessfully....a sound message will spread itself.

The Iranian revolution of 79 was done by word of mouth from Paris, sure it set up a Theocracy but was a revolution none the less.

Get people to question the news before religion and question the agenda of Editors and programmers.
Persuade people to turn off their TV's.
Question the lobby system.
Religion is the curtain, get to the guys behind it.

Consume less Conserve more.

Added (23/Oct/09, 5:42 Pm)
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Given that Jesus wanted established law upheld, therefore the teachings of all the Abrahamic/Semetic Prophets before his mission, what gave Peter or Paul the right to do so and under what authority?

Do Christians follow the example of Jesus or the teachings of Apostles with editorial consent by a Roman Emporer?

The end.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

okay, that makes St John a prophet... and?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

^^^You can not say that the religion is not to blame. Without the religion, they would have in no way the grounds to justify themselves. No one could do what they are doing without religion. Well they could, but they would be thrown out immediately without question.

Then the peeps spreading have to use their superior intellect to formulate their message in a more digestable manner or stop bitching or get on a Pinky and the Brain mission....LMAO!!!!!!!!!

Otherwise it's all gas.

What's that?

Added (23/Oct/09, 6:58 Pm)
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The link presented itself after i posted!

The parenthesis in the link for Wikipedia won't connect to the rest of the link. This site automatically separates it, so if you copy and paste it with no spaces then it will take you right to it.