To think the atheists on MN are a bunch of miserable whingers

[GothAnneGeddes]

Every bloody week it's a new thread whining on about how terrible it is that there is religion in the world.

A prominent feature of such threads is the intolerance and stupidity of religious folk, yet threads by believers insulting atheists are very rare.

Besides, aren't you all meant to be so happy to be freed from the shackles of religion, that you're too busy having fun to moan?

The statement was poorly thought out and of no substance. The poster did not say on likelyhood of numbers. There was no reason even given for picking that particular faith at all.

Yes I noticed that.

My brother is an atheist.

When his son (then 6) came home from school saying they'd been talking about God, and asked him about God, my brother said 'Well, I don't think there's a God, but different people believe that God created the world etc.'

His son thought about it a bit and then said 'Well I'm going to believe in God.' My brother shrugged his shoulders and let him get on with it.

Now that's what I call being sensibly secular

Roseflower,

I don't know why I bother, since you seem intent on being offended. But here goes, one more time.

Of all the people who knock on my door in the next month, I can make a good guess that many are going to be English. Yes there are Scottish people, Chinese people, French people, Polish people who live in this town, but it is more likely to be an English person because there are more of them. This says nothing about the propensity of different nationalities for knocking on other people's doors, just about the proportion of different nationalities that live around here.

It is not making any kind of judgment on people to say that you are unlikely to be attacked by a Zoroastrian or a member of the B'hai faith in the UK. There just ain't that many of them.

Manatee, that's what most atheists do - look at the school threads on MN.

Hully, I thought you were the god of your own religion.

I'm that too.

I find that most Christians are quite quite loony. My born again aunt went and stood in the midst of Jerusalem and prayed for peace whilst bullets whistled around her.

Good plan there, Aunt.

Roseflower, if it;s any help, people who are out-and-proud Christians are often horrible to Muslims. Just as Muslims are horrible to Christians on the grounds of reckoning each other believes in the wrong imaginary friend. And the sort of morons who will verbally abuse a Muslim stranger on the bus are statistically not unlikely to consider themselves Christian, just because a lot of British people (though not all and not necessarily the majority) will tick 'Christian' on official forms though they only go near a church for weddings and funerals.

Who is the "imaginary friend"?

Mine is called Jebediah-Bissmuller-Hottentooth.

But I understand that everyone has their own.

Roseflower - I think if you persist in being offended on this particular one, it's only fair to be offended on behalf of the atheists who were mentioned in the same sentence. Or is that different?

Yes, please go ahead.

Rose - if that was to me, I meant that YOU should also feel that atheists were being insulted too, and perhaps spare a little of your outrage for them too.

(As it happens, I don't think atheists (as a 'group') nor Christians were being insulted, so I'm not offended on behalf of atheists.)

Dog with a bone.

How dare you call me a dog!

Perhaps praying for the ability to duck a la The Matrix might have been more effective, Hully.

I'm confused - I thought Hully was my imaginary friend. But the rest of you can see her?

TondelayoSchwarzkopf......"Those bloody miserable whingeing atheists, always moaning, always trying to blow us up on the tube, always interfering in what we do in the bedroom, always flying planes into towers and mutilating their children's genitals, always defending child-rapists and trying to ban contraception, always lobbying the government for tax relief and subsidy for their 'belief systems' and special rituals. Bloody miserable atheists. Phooey. Why don't they leave us god-lovin death cultists alone?"

I couldn't have said it better.

It's kinda funny for you to say that when the non-believers state their beliefs they are ramming it down the throats of the believers, but from your post that the the believers are allowed to criticise the beliefs of the non believers.

It is legitimate to question the beliefs of others, religious or otherwise. The only requirement is that it is done in a polite manner. If your beliefs are so strong, it should not be an issue for someone to question them. Just as I have no problem for someone to quiz me about my lack of belief.........live and let live

I is an atheist
I don't give a tuppence what you believe.

My imaginary friend is called....Winston Obadiah Watson....he is a WOW dont'cha know

I've never had a imaginary friend :(

I can't believe this thread is still going

I have an imaginary love life.

dd1 has a mouse called 'noone'

it took ages for me to stop saying to her 'stop blaming noone'

as in nobody as in no one.....

she was only little, like nearly three...
bless her she still likes 'noone

My DS has an imaginary baby. Whose existence, or rather lack of existence, I had to explain to his class teacher who had begun to wonder why single-parent me never brought said baby to school when dropping off or collecting DS.
But don't worry, all those of you sensitive on the subject of imaginary friends, DS' teacher was perfectly respectful of DS' sincere and deeply held belief that he has an invisible baby brother who flies around in his magic cot and bites other people's trousers.

I wish i had an imaginary friend....

At least then i'd have a friend........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

in jesus.

Back in the days when I was a fervent Catholic I thought it was great to have my faith questioned because then I'd be blessed (Sermon on the Mount). That sense of having your faith bolstered and reinforced by others negative attitudes seems to have slipped a bit, which is interesting I think.