Chris Pattern says that "atheists are "intolerant" of religion."

[ivykaty44]

Is he correct? And should atheist be tolerant of religion?

I'm like that really annoying pissed person in the pub who keeps barging into people's conversations and trying to get them up to dance

I doubt it about Wakeman and Supertramp. not sure about Floyd. Would need to look into it. 'Dark Side of the Moon' springs to mind. May have significance. any other significant song titles or lyrics they have made?

Well, there is the little known "yes" song, which is a 320 minute instrumental, called "Join with us and we will promise you the world but take care! For at our heart is a liberal-green-athiest conspiracy to silence the moral majority and take over the world".

Could that mean anything, do you think?

Rick wakeman's hair has always struck me as suspicious.

SQ - I demand a link to that one. Just because I love instrumentals .

SGB - but isn't it a nice, cuddly sort of derailment? Even the tinfoil hats have fluffy pink feathers on.

SGB tell us about the rock stars. You missed the satanism in music thread. That was an interesting thread. JayZ, Rihanna etc.

I missed the satanism in musc thread too. Drat.

Here's something to think about

Aquinas proves atheists are closer to God than they think

vintageteacups,

Reading the Aquinas argument. Your view may be quite close to his

'As an atheist though Claig, I still believe there is something more than just earth. I do actually believe in ghosts/spirits/aliens but the whole idea of a God makes me laugh.'

Interesting article claig.
As I was crossing from Christian to Atheist (in a step that just happened over time really), and to make myself feel less guilt to get married in my home town church, I kind of came up with this theory that to me, God was all that was good in a person.

Not a person who created us; just us and our conscious mind. God, to me then, was this knowing goodness in ourself. I explained this to DP and he said he thought that sounded a really nice way to think of it and said he could it made me feel happier to think that than to believe in an 'exisiting' God.

The reason I don't believe we are the only ones in the universe is because, if that were true, there'd be no point in the world as we know it. I often think, if Earth disappeared in a click of your fingers, what would it all have been for? Therefore, I truly think there is something watching/creating the world in which we live but I think it's more likely to be an experiment type thing/Alien universe, as opposed to a God.

I have a similar belief to you. I think we are all creations of God, as is everything in nature. I think God is part of us and is in us. That is why religion is inbuilt in many people. Religion means to tie or bind back to link us back to the source that created us. We are in control of very little. Day by day we age and one day we will die. There is nothing we can do to stop it. We are programmed to age and return to dust. Deep down our subconscious works on autopilot, and we have no conscious control over it. We create our identities, but beneath them we are driven like clockwork without any input from us. We are all part of the whole and serve some purpose of which we are unaware. There is a point to it all, but none that we will ever find. I believe like Aquinas that God is everything, and therefore God is also nothing.

But probably unlike you, I do believe that sometimes God can intervene and help His creation. I believe that faith and prayer can sometimes link back to the source and be helped by the source. That is why in times of crisis, many people pray and ask for help. Sometimes strange things happen and people do receive help. I don't think it is coincidence. I think they have accessed that source.

Even if they aren't actually helped, they receive comfort and solace from the troubles of life. When you see teh old babuschkas coming out of Russian churches making the sign of the cross, you can see that they feel better, have gained comfort and communed with something greater than themselves. The 'League of Militant Atheists' tried to force them to stop, they wanted to re-educate them and take away their source of solace, because as their slogan said

"Struggle against religion is a struggle for socialism"

But the babuschkas didn't care for socialism, they weren't part of the revolution, they were just ordinary people who wanted teh freedom to believe what they believed and to gain comfort from their beliefs. The 'Society of the Godless' and the communists had robbed them of prosperity and freedom and even wanted to take away their faith.

But evil always loses in the end, and religion won teh struggle and now babuschkas can freely worship once again.

Lord knows the Russian people have suffered enough. They only wanted to pray for salvation. But their socialist revolutionary communist overlords and the League of Militant Atheists even wanted to deny them that right. But their faith never waned, they prayed that God would come to the rescue and they kept saying "don't let the bastards grind you down".

I don't like anyone who takes freedom away from the people and who forces them to change their beliefs in re-education camps. I am with the babuschkas.

I am also against theocratic states that try to force atheists to change their beliefs. I am for freedom.

"But the babuschkas didn't care for socialism"

Ha!! You should see the babushkas who parade daily around Moscow with their medals and pictures of Stalin, weeping at his absence. They cared for their pensions which are worth diddly squat in the new capatalist Russia.

"Babuschkas" are not a separate breed of homo sovieticus. Some are religious, some are communist, some do not give a damn either way. Go to Russian orthodox churches without your headscarf, you will fly out in no time from some of them, abuse and all shouted by these very pious "babuschkas". Very 'tolerant'.

There are also "babuschkas" who are human right activists and are beaten up to blood by police during legit demonstrations.

english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_europe/2010-01-01/061026216914.html

I agree there are all types of babuschkas. I really meant the religious babuschkas who wanted to go to church and pray, not the communist ones. It takes all sorts, and everyone should be free to do as they please.

slug, I agree. the Russian people were ripped off by the socialists who robbed their freedom and now they are robbed by the capitalists and oligarchs who rob them of their pensions. The Russians have suffered under gangsters of one type or another for decades. One day let's hope they are free.

'Am a bit of a libertarian with a welfare state for the vunerable thrown in'

That sounds great to me, I'm all for that. Welfare state for everyone, since we all pay.