Brother Mario…  not all atheists are a mess. Just as not all religious people are a mess.
If I do not believe what you believe that means I lack salvation?  If that is how you see the world… honestly, I’m glad I wont be joining you. (Not that there is an afterlife anyway).

Many people come to terms with their lives without having to believe a 2000 yr. old human “died” for the sins of future generations to come.

Also, people do not “convert” to atheism. Atheism is not a belief.  It is a “lack” of belief.  I personally do not believe in any supernatural deity or being.  Some people have asked me about afterlife and my “soul”.  Well, the soul is simply the memory of you left on others.  I’m sure I will be remembered dearly by my wife and family and friends when I die.  You, they wont care because they do not know you. (Same will be on your side by the way.) 

Answer me this:  Does the mother of a murderer think he will go to hell or heaven?  And does the victim’s parent think he will go to hell or heaven?

Life is meant to be lived in a fruitful and joyful way.  If you need a deity (god, buddha, moroni, thor, zeus, etc) so be it… but you don’t have to.

BTW… Glad to see a “brother” comment a lot on these websites.  It is kinda hard for me to comment on religious sites.  I guess they do not want to be proven wrong?

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Brother Mario,

Think of the millions of Muslims who know, without a shadow of doubt, that you’ll experience eternal damnation. What a shame for you, huh?

That god can be so incredibly powerful, omniscient, and loving yet leave us absolutely no conclusive evidence is remarkable. In fact, I’d say that sounds like what we’d all agree on is blind faith.

If it just doesn’t add up, find a worldview that does.

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Reason is the Devil’s whore—Luther

Paul of Tarsus never got over being laughed at in Athens (ca 50 CE) by “a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers [who] began to dispute with him.” (Acts 17:18 NIV)  Both schools represented the best of empirical and rational thought in an era not noted for either.

Paul of Tarsus got his revenge in print and xians have followed his nihilistic ideology for 2,000 years:

27 God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are. . .1Cor1:27-28 NIV

Nietzsche saw in these lines the great inversion of the values of Antiquity which lies at the diseased core of western culture. His task became “the re-valuation of all values”—to overthrow religious institutions and moral “intuitions” perverted by xian valuations.

Paul and his fellow revenge seekers created a god out of their nihilistic values. He and the primitive church shared a perverse self-understanding characterized by inverted snobbery: We stink, but stinking is good. Not much has changed 2,000 years later.

Xianity cannot be refuted; it can only be dismantled. The de-deification of culture (including all the sciences) is our task for the next 100 years.

the anti_supernaturalist

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Brother Mario,
Why do you believe that the Bible is true?
ClearPursuit

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Mario, you are a supreme example of closed mindedness and expose religion for the brainwashed culture that it is. You need serious re-evaluation of what you think being Christlike is supposed to be. I pity you for your anger, prejuduce and distain.

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The Christians in ShipofFools do themselves and all of us a great service.  First, they have the courage to question their religious books.  Asking questions is a good thing.  The more questions we ask, the more answers we find or work on finding.  Second, when we see the ShipofFools and the literalist Christians together, it’s clear there is no coherent Christian position.  The foundation for a reasonable and decent civic life cannot be wobbly and contradictory interpretations of religious texts.  So, we need to find another foundation.  Time to move along.

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Oh Brother [Mario],
I never seem to grasp how exactly it is people like you manage to deal with the cognitive dissonance while drafting such self-righteous tirades.  I find it telling of your character and that of whatever it is to which your “prayer” was directed, that you would consider your vehement condemnation to be taken as humble. 
I would advise you against making statements of this sort as such insults are rarely persuasive to anyone, however, I feel it is highly informative for all to see those like you as the hate filled hypocrites that you are. 
If this is an example of the morality imparted by your brand of Christianity, I am unimpressed.

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Very nice Tarico.

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http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/05/late-night-the-devolution-will-be-televised/#comments

the devolution of man: neat pic.

kind of funny   unless you are a repub on here.

and if you are a repub well at least you are not the last chimp, but a close   cousin.

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“My exit from Christianity consisted of looking left and right and seeing every culture in existence just as passionate about their imaginary friends as my family was about theirs…”

It may be true that pity is a wonderful substitute for hate, but 2-dimensional, aggressive individuals such as “Sister Luigi” up there really make tolerating intolerance a labor of love.  Hear that, Deists?  LOVE - not because I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m naughty, but because I Like Being Nice:)

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In case you’d like to see the worst verses:

http://www.shipoffools.com/features/2009/chapter_and_worse_results.html

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Reality - Indeed, being good feels good. And it’s explicable behavior, evolutionarily speaking. It makes no sense that it would feel good if we do it out of fear. Ah, but that’s too obvious. Brother Mario, on the other hand, is explicable as a product of fear. Is it possible to pity something so disgusting? Not for me at least.

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