Is Atheism a Religion?

Ray Comfort, once again, is repeating himself, and perhaps a gazillion other droolers like him, when he responds to an atheist rightfully claiming that atheism is not a religion.
Ray comfort drooled:

It’s interesting to note that one definition of religion is:

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."

He just stops right there with the definition. You will note that this is only one of the many definitions of religion. Here is the rest of the dictionary entry for "religion":

• 1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
  
• 2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
  
• 3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.
  
• 4. the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.: to enter religion.
  
• 5. the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.
  
• 6. something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience: to make a religion of fighting prejudice.
  
• 7. religions, Archaic. religious rites.
  
• 8. Archaic. strict faithfulness; devotion: a religion to one's vow.
  

This is very typical of religious people who insist that anything that they are opposed to is just another religion, as though everyone's religious views are equally valid when it's just one religion against another.

Of course, it also completely ignores what people usually understand when they read or speak the word "religion" in conversation. Most people in real life associate "religion" with robes, silly hats, candles, prayers, ceremony, clergy-collars, churches, holy books, priests, nuns, and clergy.

Ray continues:

That rightly describes the ardent atheist cause. Despite protests to the contrary by its faithful adherents, atheism is a form of religion.

Despite being educated in an English speaking country, Ray continues to have trouble thinking his thoughs over and proofreading.

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion." does not describe "the ardent atheist cause" at all. It doesn't even tell us anything about atheism. Ray's selective word definition can describe anything from being a sports fan, a Ford automobile enthusiast, a political activist, a collector, Soccer-moms, musicians or music fans, and a whole spectrum of different activities that people "pursue with zeal or conscientious devotion."

Being possibly one of the dumbest people in the English Speaking world, Ray, like all the idiots who echoe his statement (he's not the first person to make this argument by far) doesn't realize that not only is he pretty much calling any activity that is pursued with zeal and devotion, a religion, he's completely devaluing the concept of "religion" by equating himself and what he does with those guys who paint their faces blue and shout slogans in the stands at football games (which you have to admit is kind of close to what I equate religious people with).

Ray continues:

Though their numbers are small—-only 2 percent of the world’s 6.5 billion inhabitants—atheists are an ever-growing group of people with a "belief" system. Although many flinch at the thought that they have faith in anything, they believe that there’s no God, and even have "works" to confirm it.

Atheism is apparently a "belief system". Of course, whenever hard pressed to list the basic tennants of this belief system, most religious people will either pooh-pooh it and make a joke answer up, or they will try to conflate "atheism" with liberalism, evolution, communism, abortion, homosexuality, and other topics.

Ray concludes:

Their lifestyle is fruit of their belief system.

This implies that there is automatically something unpleasant or negative about the lifestyle of the average atheist. Of course, no details are ever given about what, in the lifestyle of an atheist, is not acceptable or pleasant. This is because like most of the brain damaged preachers out there who crusade against their "enemy of the week", Ray has no idea what the "atheist lifestyle" is, because he's never asked. In fact, if he did ask, he wouldn't find much commonality between atheists in their lifestyles that differs from that of the average Christian, beyond not going to church and not believing in gods. Atheists have lifestyles that are representative of a cross-section of society. There are certainly a lot fewer atheists in our prisons, which I can't interpret as saying anything bad about our lifestyle.

Ironic article I found...

I recently came across a posting of This article in the Washington Times. As you may or may not know, the Washington Times is staunchly conservative Newspaper that is owned by ultra-right wing Whack-tard, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose followers believe that he is the second coming of Christ. Anyway, here is the article as is appears on their site:

Not so brave

"Although it is often they who accuse us of being babyish, needing a big daddy in the sky to lean on, there is something profoundly immature about atheists. That surly, self-satisfied certainty that insists that one is the first person, ever, to see with a white-hot, burning clarity straight to the heart of society's attempts to
manipulate and control us all for its own ends.

"Today, atheism is big business with the success of books like 'The God Delusion.' If you want to get ahead, be a heretic! Something, however, has been lost. Say the word 'atheist' 100 years ago and it conjured up a vision of sexy, freewheeling rebels celebrating life, love and creativity in their rejection of a higher power. Say it now and a vision of fun-hating killjoys, desperately scared that somewhere
a Christian is having a good time by singing lustily in church on a Sunday morning, comes to mind. And, sadly, the alleged 'humanist morality' never happened - to this day, 80 percent of all unpaid and unself-interested voluntary and charity work is faith-driven.

"The problem, which Western atheists miss, is that to be a heretic here requires no bravery whatsoever. On the contrary ... the mocking of Judeo-Christian belief is a mainstay of prime-time entertainment and has been so since 'The Life of Brian.'"

- Julie Burchill, writing on "For the love of Christ" on Aug. 14 at the Guardian blog Comment is Free

How typical, but ultimately ironic, as all you need to do is substitute all the appearances of "Atheist" and "Atheism" with "Christian" and "Christianity", and make a few appropriate changes, and you get, what I feel, is a far more accurate article:

"Although it is often they who accuse us of being babyish, afraid of big daddy in the sky, there is something profoundly immature about Christians. That surly, self-satisfied certainty that insists that one is the first person, ever, to see with a white-hot, burning clarity straight to the heart of society's attempts to manipulate and control us all for its own ends."

"Today, Christianity is big business with the success of books like the 'Left Behind' series. If you want to get ahead, be a Evangelist! Something, however, has been lost. Say the word 'Christian' 100 years ago and it conjured up a vision of pure, honest good folks, celebrating life, love and creativity in their acceptence of a higher power. Say it now and a vision of fun-hating killjoys, desperately scared that somewhere an atheist is having a good time living a Hedonistic lifestyle, comes to mind. And, sadly, the alleged 'Christian morality' never happened. Whenever atheists publicly demand to be treated like anyone else, the death threats from Christians start filling up their answering machines."

"The problem, which Western Christians miss, is that to be a believer here requires no bravery whatsoever. On the contrary... the mocking of liberals, Atheism and Evolution is a mainstay of Christian Fundamentalism and has been so for the last century."

Now doesn't that tell it more like it really is?

Ray's Award-Winning Stupidity

Yeah, I know I seem to have no other sources for my entertainment at times, but once again, I find myself commenting on Ray Comfort's bloggings again. I know there is a cure in sight for my addiction. Ray trully is too easy a target, and I really should look for bigger fish to fry. So I'll try... I promise!

Looks like Ray Comfort is using a legitimate criticism by an atheist to simply sell his video. It's really funny how Ray keeps trying to say that he's not a money-grubbing evangelist, then goes on to use legitimate questions from people as a shameless vehicle to sell, sell, sell. He doesn't even bother to address the question at all. Get this, Ray makes a big deal out of the fact that his video "The Science Of Evolution", won an NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) People's CHoice Award.

The National Religious Broadcaster's People's Choice award is hardly a prestigious award at all. They like to compare themselves to the Emmy awards, but there simply is no comparison at all. Essentially, you would likely NEVER see any of the programs awarded by the NRB get a Peabody award, an Emmy, or even a J. Fred Muggs award (bonus points if you get that!). The award he won carries the weight of the Adult Video News Best Actor Award (Yes, that's best actor in a porno video, and we all know how great the acting is in your average porno).

Religious television, in general, is just plain lame to begin with. The TV shows that CBN, TBN, Daystar and other religious networks run are notorious for being of such poor quality that they simply don't even rate when compared to even the lamest secular/commercial programs. This is because the Evangelicals who run those networks have such low standards to begin with, and have created their own little world where the normal standards of quality that the rest of the world uses simply don't apply. The average episode of the Simpsons or South Park has more depth, better writing and production values than that of the best Christian Programming. Having been a long-time watcher and monitor of religious television, I can say with confidence that the acting in most Christian Dramas are easily far below even the worst junk programming on regular TV. Occaisionally, real hollywood actors are cast in Christian programs, but overall, it seems that good acting is rarely valued in the world of religious broadcasting.

The problem with most religious TV is that is preaches dogma, and more often than not, quoting the Bible and preaching the Evangelical Fundamentalist dominionist message take precidence over quality acting, good writing, direction and production. An intelligent director, for example, would at least try to get actors to not act like they were in a grammar school play.

I mean, just watch Ray and Kirk's video and see how lame it is, and how downright retarded the writing is. It may be funny for Ray and Kirk to try to get an Orangutan on an airplane, and make fun of the ape because it doesn't speak, but they waste all that effort making an ignorant argument. The orangutan likely has a higher IQ than them. There is an excellent critical analysis of this video on Youtube, which I can't really add anything to. Ray and Kirk could easily surpass Captain Hook's Christian Pirate Puppets in terms of their mindless entertainment value.

Ray Comfort continues to just not get it.

Well, Ray Comfort continues to just not get it, despite what we've told him over and over.

Ray comfort wrote

(Presumably an atheist from his blog wrote):

Atheists, don't hate any god, fairy, leprechaun, unicorn or other fictional being. It's impossible to hate something that does not exist. Try to get this burned in your mind this time. Repeat it a few thousand times if that helps."

That’s right. Atheists don’t hate fairies, leprechauns or unicorns, because they don’t exist. It is impossible to hate something that doesn’t exist. And that makes the point. You hate God because He does exist. You spend your time thinking about Him, then arguing about Him, then blaspheming His name (what greater hatred can you have for a person than to use their name as a cuss word?), and showing contempt for, and ridicule of, those that love Him.

Ray still just doesn't get it. I can't believe he's ranting about this again. Ray doesn't seem to understand that the argument we atheists tend to have is not that God exists or doesn't exist, but that the people who promote God have a strong tendency to be IDIOTS. God says nothing. He does nothing to incur the wrath of atheists any more than the wicked witch of the west. Again and again, I have emphasized the point that it's not God that we have a beef with. It's some of his followers -- those few extremists, who are priggish, ill-mannered, unable to deal with criticism, unable to self-examine, ignorant, shouting, spitting weasel-like people living in their own esoteric universes -- these people have very ill-mannered, impolite, and outright RUDE ways of communicating their message. God is harmless and inoffensive. It's the people promoting him that incur our ire.

Ray wrote:

You have the axiomatic evidence of creation and of your conscience, and you are therefore without excuse. By professing the blindness of atheism you are denying the God-given light that He has given each of us.

Well, so what? Is Ray trying to say that he can't deal with criticism? Is he trying to say that if we call HIM an idiot, or a moron, it's an insult to God? Ultimately, Ray is playing this game where it's okay for him to deny and denigrate our beliefs, but if we touch his, it's persecution. In other words, this is a two-way street. If Ray can't take it, he shouldn't dish it out.

There are some cultures that will show so much contempt for a family member that has wronged them, they actually deny his existence. They refuse to acknowledge that he existed as a son. They don’t want to see him, hear from him, or talk to him. That’s what the professing atheist does with God, and his or her reason for doing so is moral. It’s not intellectual.

So let me get this straight. If I think that God does not exist, and my reasons for not believing him are that (a) his followers are logically inconsistant in their promotion of him, (b) the concepts from the Bible do not logically mesh with known scientific realities, and (c) most of the arguments used to support the existence of God are fallacies, then my reasons are moral, and not intellectual?

Well, that's the kind of reasoning you get from people like Ray. He has a dozen atheists write to him each day, and tell him the same thing, so he ignores them, and tells them that they really don't believe in God because they just want an excuse to have care-free sex (he didn't say that here, but on his blog, he tends to follow the "moral issue" comment with an explanation about atheists and Darwininsts using science or atheism as an excuse for wild sex). He's definitely got a one-track mind.

Ray continues:

If it was an intellectual issue there wouldn’t be any argument.

Yes, because we all know that no true intellectual can disagree with Ray Comfort's powerful reasoning. After all, Ray is the epitome of the word "intellectual", isn't he?

Ray finishes with:

But because you love your sins and you know that God requires an account for every action and every word (including your thought-life), you can’t stand that thought, and so you deny His existence.

See what I mean -- we "love our sins" (that's a buzzword for "wild, adulterous sex" in Ray's vocabulary). Despite the fact that we've given him plenty of rational, logical, and scientific reasons to doubt Christianity, and usually mention that one of the biggest turn-offs are the utter twits like Ray who promote a bizarre version of it, none of that means anything. Ray won't listen to anything we have to say, because he has made up his mind what goes on in our minds, for he has his Bible to tell him what we think. Is it even possible for Ray to simply accept what we have to say for us, or is he going to continue to play the "I know what you really think" game?

Ray's "Empty Threat Of Hell"

Once again, Ray just doesn't get it, and rather than use actual statements that actual atheists make on a subject, he decides to just make up what he imagines atheists are thinking, because it's much easier for him to talk to himself than have an actual 2-way conversation.

In Ray's Bizarro-world, atheists couldn't possibly make their decisions based on logic and rational thinking, because if they did, they would have to agree with Ray on everything, because Ray is allegedly a logical, rational-thinking person.

Yeah, in a pig's eye!

Ray thinks that atheists deny Hell merely because we don't like the idea of it. Of course, he gets this notion not from reading what atheists have to say for themselves, but from what other dogmatic Christians have said about atheists.

No Ray, We don't simply deny Hell because we just don't like the thought of all that eternal torment going on. We deny it because nobody can offer any rational, logical proof that such a thing is real.

Yeah, I know it's hard for you to conceive of people who don't accept the Bible as 100% God's only truth, but we don't. We actually have read it, were not impressed with it, and have a standard of proof that is more sophisticated and accurate than yours. I mean -- I don't believe whatever is in an ancient book just because it's ancient, and just because a bunch of people are obsessively compulsive about promoting it.

Now I know it's hard for you to conceive that people can read the Bible, and NOT be immediately compelled to drop to their knees and start asking God to please not burn or kill them, but well, we exist.

It's must be terribly, terribly difficult for you to conceive that there are people who don't accept what you claim is "obvious" to you. Well, not everyone sees what you do the same way.

You cannot conceive that your are irrational.

You cannot conceive that you are illogical.

You cannot conceive that you are not very intelligent.

These flaws in you will continue to make you a sort of laughing stock, and continue to hinder the prospect of convincing anyone other than people who are already beleivers.

It's not hard at all, by the way, for me to conceive of the opposites of theses things -- that there are people who can read the Bible and come away from it totally believing it, and being totally obsessed with pushing it on everyone else -- Gullible, obsessive-compulsive, feeble-minded people have been a historical reality, as they are today.

Michael Medved Shoots Discovery Institute in the foot!

Remember that old saying about giving someone enough rope to hang themselves with? Well, recently Michael Medved did just that!

Michael Medved, a Movie critic, outspoken lunatic conservative, and senior fellow at the discovery institute said everything we need to know about Intelligent Design, when he said:

The important thing about Intelligent Design is that it is not a theory - which is something I think they need to make more clear. Nor is Intelligent Design an explanation. Intelligent Design is a challenge. It’s a challenge to evolution. It does not replace evolution with something else.

Source: The Jerusalem Post, Aug 6th, 2008

There you have it.

Intelligent Design is NOT A THEORY; Therefore it has no business in biology class, since it's not even a theory.

Intelligent Design is not an explanation; Therefore it is not science, since the whole purpose of science is explaining how things work in the natural world.

Intelligent Design does not replace evolution with something else; therefore, it's place in a science class is superfluous and trivial at best.

Intelligent Design is a challenge to evolution; therefore, given the rest of what Medved has admitted, it is a largely UNSCIENTIFIC challenge, carrying no weight whatsoever in the scientific fields, and is strictly a sociopolitical challenge, if anything.

So do we need to waste any more time arguing the subject of Intelligent Design, and whether or not it belongs in science classes?

Ray Comfort's Starter Kit

The following is my take on Ray Comfort's latest blog, Atheist Starter Kit. I am continuously amused by how ironic Ray and his Peanut Gallery are.

---

Evangelical Christian Starter Kit

If you are a newly converted Christian, there are many things you need to know in order to stay on track with your salvation. Here are ten suggestions for the newly converted:

1. Whenever your poorly-conceived representations of "what science is" and "what atheists believe" is referred to as a "straw man argument," or "circular reasoning", or you mis-quote a scientist, and someone calls it "quote mining", just accuse your opponents of repeating a mantra, like they are a robot. Play dumb and try to make them think you don't actually know what those terms mean.

2. When an unbeliever says that science or evolution calls a literal interpretation of Genesis into question, dismiss such common sense by saying that the Bible has been around for 2000 years, and that millions of people believe it, because it's God's truth, and that's good enough reason to keep the faith.

3. When you tell an unbeliever that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose (Pascal's Wager) by obeying the Gospels, and they reject it, claiming that Buddhists and Muslims can say the same thing about their faiths, just mindlessly quote passages from the Bible, especially passages that emphasize that unbelievers are fools.

4. If an unbeliever tells you that "there is no evidence that Jesus existed", mindlessly quote from the Bible, and tell them that if Jesus didn't exist, how come all the Gospel writers talk about his life in detail? Also bring up how people have believed that Jesus was real for 2000 years, and how that must mean he is.

5. Do not read and interpret the Bible for yourself. That is a big mistake. Always obey what your Pastor tells you is the correct interpretation.

6. When unbelievers use big words, like "Megalo-maniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully" to describe God, or they make a big deal about education and your lack thereof, attack them for being prideful of their education (Pride is a sin), or ramble on mindlessly about how colleges are "just mills for pumping out gay communist liberal atheists".

7. Say that you were once a genuine atheist, and that you found it to be false. (The cool thing about being an Christian is that you can lie through your teeth, because you believe that there is nothing wrong with lying to God's enemies). Additionally, if an atheist claims that he was once a Christian, and found that it was false, point out that this is impossible, simply due to the very definition of Christianity as "one who knows the Lord". PLEASE NOTE: It cannot be overly emphasized how learning and using these little phrases can help you feel secure in dismissing common sense.

8. Believe that nothing is 100% certain, except the truth of the Bible. Do not question it. Believe with all of your heart that there is credible scientific evidence for Biblical inerrancy. When you make any argument, pat yourself on the back by concluding with "I know I'm going to Heaven, what about you?" That will make you feel good about yourself.

9. If unbelievers respond to the threat of eternal punishment by saying that they don't believe in the existence of Hell, Tell them that if they don't believe in something, it doesn't make it NOT exist. Don't follow their logic about there needing to be reasonable proof that Hell exists as a prerequisite (Another big word!) for believing in it, or that other line about the tooth fairy and leprochauns. Just repeat that only fools deny that God and Hell exist.

10. Blame Atheism and Evolution for the atrocities of the Nazis, even though Martin Luther's influence on historical antisemitism was far greater, and the Nazis emphasized their conservative Christian heritage. You may want to emphasize that people believe in evolution because it lets them be adulterers without guilt.

11. Finally, keep in fellowship with other like-minded Christians who believe as you believe, and encourage each other in your beliefs. Build up your faith. Never doubt for a moment. Remember, the key to Christianity is to be unreasonable and willfully ignorant. Fall back on that when you feel threatened. Think shallow, and keep telling yourself that you are going to Heaven. Remember, an Christian is someone who pretends that they know what's best for everyone else.