Some Want God/Religion Out Of Inauguration

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There's some real tact on display in this post.

How is that statement tactless? Here's more of it:

I just find that for all the people who don't believe in the bible, from atheists to Muslims/Hindu/Buddhism what does that mean? That i can totally lie because god is a figment of an imagination and who gives a shit because he ain't going to do anything since he's not real? What do they do for people who DON'T believe in god?

I took her statement to mean that this is something that herself or a hypothetical non-Christian or atheist might think in that (hypothetical) circumstance. Again, what's wrong with that, how is it tactless? This is how they/we think, and there's nothing wrong with stating that.

Do Christians have to stop and think of putting statements about their belief into "tactful terms" so as not to offend non-believers? Do they qualify their belief by saying "maybe" or "might" to soften their stance out of concern for non-believers? Not that I've ever seen.

It works both ways. :)
 
If we can just mutually agree that there either is or may be a God, and respect that there is lots of different ways to worship God then we can coexist.

Atheists upset most people by holding bigoted and narrow-minded views that say the major religions are fundamentally wrong.

They simply don't respect the beliefs of other people. A Christian and a Muslim may disagree on some issues, but they believe in the same God. The divisive atheist will stand up and say that they are all wrong, usually without becoming an expert in the religious texts which make the best case for each religion.

Atheists should be allowed to not believe, thats religious freedom, but they shouldn't be going around telling others that there is no God and that their sacred beliefs are backwards; thats offensive and tactless, people should be allowed to believe what they want without having others tear it down. Just because atheists have no principles of their own doesn't mean they should be allowed to destroy those of other people.

Let's see more RESPECT and more COEXIST, if we just agree that God might be right then there won't be as much evil in the world.
 
If we can just mutually agree that there either is or may be a God, and respect that there is lots of different ways to worship God then we can coexist.

Atheists upset most people by holding bigoted and narrow-minded views that say the major religions are fundamentally wrong.

They simply don't respect the beliefs of other people. A Christian and a Muslim may disagree on some issues, but they believe in the same God. The divisive atheist will stand up and say that they are all wrong, usually without becoming an expert in the religious texts which make the best case for each religion.

Atheists should be allowed to not believe, thats religious freedom, but they shouldn't be going around telling others that there is no God and that their sacred beliefs are backwards; thats offensive and tactless, people should be allowed to believe what they want without having others tear it down. Just because atheists have no principles of their own doesn't mean they should be allowed to destroy those of other people.

Let's see more RESPECT and more COEXIST, if we just agree that God might be right then there won't be as much evil in the world.

Speaking of sweeping generalizations... ;)
 
If we can just mutually agree that there either is or may be a God, and respect that there is lots of different ways to worship God then we can coexist.

Atheists upset most people by holding bigoted and narrow-minded views that say the major religions are fundamentally wrong.

They simply don't respect the beliefs of other people. A Christian and a Muslim may disagree on some issues, but they believe in the same God. The divisive atheist will stand up and say that they are all wrong, usually without becoming an expert in the religious texts which make the best case for each religion.

Atheists should be allowed to not believe, thats religious freedom, but they shouldn't be going around telling others that there is no God and that their sacred beliefs are backwards; thats offensive and tactless, people should be allowed to believe what they want without having others tear it down. Just because atheists have no principles of their own doesn't mean they should be allowed to destroy those of other people.

Let's see more RESPECT and more COEXIST, if we just agree that God might be right then there won't be as much evil in the world.

I hope you mean what you say, because I have known quite a few atheists who were rude and tactless towards people who believe in a God. I have nothing against people not believing in a God, people are going to believe whatever they want to believe. What I have a problem are atheists being as bad as radical, fanatical religious people. I also don't like it when atheists make rude comments about religions when they expect people to respect their beliefs.
 
I'm assuming it sounded tactless in that, no, you cannot just lie in open court because of a Bible (which I don't think is even used anymore?). As a God-believing Christian, I also think the inclusion of "God" in these oaths is dumb. But sometimes people just come off with a lot of attitude, as if someone like *me* personally is responsible for such an outdated tradition. For the record, I don't really care about it either way. I'm not going to go against the oath because of the word "god", nor would I blink an eye if it was re-worded or included references to other religions.
 
I'm assuming it sounded tactless in that, no, you cannot just lie in open court because of a Bible (which I don't think is even used anymore?).

Oh, okay. I totally didn't read it that way, but I see what you mean. And besides, I don't really think it's the oath that prevents lying in court for most, even among Christians, but the potential consequences of perjury.

As a God-believing Christian, I also think the inclusion of "God" in these oaths is dumb. ... For the record, I don't really care about it either way. I'm not going to go against the oath because of the word "god", nor would I blink an eye if it was re-worded or included references to other religions.

Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way. I'm not militant in my beliefs at all, and it's all a relatively small concern for me in my day to day life.
 
I hope you mean what you say, because I have known quite a few atheists who were rude and tactless towards people who believe in a God. I have nothing against people not believing in a God, people are going to believe whatever they want to believe. What I have a problem are atheists being as bad as radical, fanatical religious people. I also don't like it when atheists make rude comments about religions when they expect people to respect their beliefs.
What is a fundamentalist atheist?

A fundamentalist Christian is probably a literalist, they will accept the inherent truth of the Bible and apply it to their world view. Their theology often clouds their acceptance of established scientific facts and their social agenda follows that of bronze-age semitic tribes.

I will try to make a generic fundamentalist atheist for comparison, its a little hard because we have the disadvantage of not actually having any canon, or necessarily agreeing on anything other than the likely inexistence of God.

A fundamentalist atheist asserts that the likelihood of Gods existence is minimal, on the basis of the observable evidence we can have naturalistic explanations that don't add an impossible to prove God, this is constantly up for revision

Atheists are not the ones asserting that they know a God exists, and furthermore that they know what that God wants me to do, and that the other religions are misguided because they have the real truth. Freethinkers aren't mutilating their children's bodies, frightening them into belief, or telling them that they will go to heaven for martyrdom. Freethinkers aren't blowing up rival sects mosques, or abortion clinics, or churches for that matter.

Moderate Christians always evoke the idea of a fundamentalist atheist, a beast which is both morally and practically no different than the most bigoted and hateful deep southern Baptist. The type of atheist who wants to shut down all churches, kill all priests, ban the bible entirely etc.

What on earth do you mean by fundamentalist atheist? What is a moderate atheist, someone who says God only partly exists? And can you really sit back with a straight face and tell us that religious societies aren't a little bit more prone to producing violent bigotry than those more open and secular ones?

If you take the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens as the public faces of modern atheism they are mostly polite, they get characterised as hateful bigots while men like Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Yusuf al Qaradawi, and Joseph Ratzinger get public praise as men of peace. It is morally retarded and demands more good people who are atheists to stand up, affirm their unbelief, and undo the propaganda that people have about atheists.

The simply act of saying that there probably is no God and the universe is natural is atheistic fundamentalism, what I posted was deliberately ironic and is diametrically opposed to my feeling that atheists have just as much right to discuss their beliefs and to protest unwarranted religious interference in the affairs of government.
 
Some people can read irony.

Yeah, I knew what it was. Either that, or you'd had a personality transplant in the past few days.


To clarify, I misread Amy's original post, in that I thought by lying she meant taking the oath anyway while not believing in it and thinking it's stupid, as opposed to taking the oath while not believing, and that being a potential out for not having to tell the truth in court.

Either way, I still don't see how the statement is offensive. :shrug:
 
Your presciently hyperdeveloped left brain is finally succumbing to its true calling?
 
Newdow is the same guy who filed the suit on behalf of his daughter, regarding the Pledge Of Allegiance in schools. He constantly files lawsuits, it seems to be a hobby :shrug:
 
How?
"One day I was just looking at the coins (that) is what brought this up. I saw 'In God We Trust' on my coins. I said, 'I don't trust in God,' what is this? And I recalled there was something in the Constitution that said you're not allowed to do that and so I did some research. And as soon as I did the research, I realized the law seemed to be on my side and I filed the suit. It's a cool thing to do. Everyone should try it."
 
Gee, I hope the "...this nation, under God,..." chiseled into the stone of the Lincoln Memorial couldn't be seen by the TV cameras or gathered multitude today. Someone might feel compelled to file a lawsuit.
 
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