Self introduction

04-14-2010, 05:11 PM

Max Reason
Guatay, CA
Posts: 4

My name is Max Reason.
I am an atheist.
I support the separation of church and state.
I don't deny the existence of goodness, but it does appear to be a "vanishing species."
My interpretation of the first part of the first amendment is this :
Congress shall make no law that respects the establishment of religion.
This means that the people are not required to submit to an established state religion.

I welcome any questions or comments.

04-14-2010, 06:31 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

Hi Max! Nice to meet you.

My name is Christy, and I am an atheist also.

I agree with you in that I support the separation of church and state.

What are your thoughts on the “under God” in the pledge of allegiance?

Or the "In God We Trust" on all of our legal tender?

Look forward to chatting with you!

04-15-2010, 02:09 PM

Max Reason
Guatay, CA
Posts: 4

I glad you put "under God" in quotation marks.
I would call it the , "every benevolent, all powerful, all seeing eye," the one we see on the capstone of the pyramid, which I'm sure you're familiar with.
I would enterpret "In God We Trust" as "In defacto government we trust and obey."

Is there a chat room on this website?

Christy, have you ever had a person "who believes in God" ask you if you believe in God?
That's happened to me, and I used to be quite bashful, and didn't know how to answer the question, and then the believer became more emboldened, much to my bewilderment.
Nowadays, my answer is automatic and simple...No thanks, I'm an atheist.
I've come to learn that honesty is the best policy, when dealing with these kool aid drinkers.

04-15-2010, 03:08 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

I think the chatroom section of the website has yet to come. I believe there will be one sometime in the future though.

Yes, I get asked that question all the time. It took me a long time to be comfortable with being honest as well. Mainly because there is just such a harsh stigma attached to the word "atheist".

Now, many years later, I am perfectly fine being proactive with my beliefs.... or lack thereof.

Even when Jehovah’s Witnesses try to corner me... I will either tell them that I am atheist or make a smart alec comment like "I am way beyond God’s help...". Unfortunately, both answers seem to fuel their holy fire even more.

:)

04-16-2010, 08:16 PM

Max Reason
Guatay, CA
Posts: 4

The stigma is that we're totally evil, are riding on the hellbound express, and need to be cast into the lake of fire.
I'm not going to get up on a soapbox and tell everyone I'm an atheist, but if I get confronted by a kool aid drinker, then my hand will be forced, and I will issue the truth, which to me, is the most important facet of what I refer to as the guiding moral principle. The truth, just like ideas that originate from wisdom, we must seek out, from within, because, like the Man from Nazareth once said, the kingdom of heaven is within you, and I believe what he meant by that, is that heaven or hell is a state of mind, not something that awaits in the hereafter.
Yes, on a clear night, when the moon is new, you can point to the aerial display, the thousands of stars, including the shooting stars, thousands of them, visible to the human eye, and be totally amazed and enraptured by this. This is the local universe that you will see.
The infinite universe you will not see with your eyes, but just remember, if you look inside, you will really see that the universe is infinitely small, as well as infinitely large.

Can you imagine how badly they would you demonize you if you told them that J.C. was an atheist? Some of them would probably become violent and attack you. It would be just as bad as telling them that the lunar landing ( which it probably was ) was a hoax. I don't know if he was an atheist...not because I'm afraid to proclaim to others that he was, but because I honestly don't know.
I've read a few passages out of the New Testament, and in one of the books, it was said that Jesus was the Son of God.
When the Pharisees and Pilate asked him if he was the Son of God, his stance was, metaphorically speaking, that he was
"taking the fifth" ( 5th amendment ).
It is my suspicious belief, that J.C. was framed
as a practitioner of sorcery, by the
Powers that Be, e.i., Son of God, healing the sick and blind, walking on water, turning water into wine, etc.

Christy, I'm sorry to cut this short. I just remembered that I've got a mundane appointment, so I'll have to sign out.
Please feel free to send me a reply, and I'd love to hear from you.

Peace be on this House !

04-18-2010, 06:47 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

Hey Max!

Your post reminded me of something. (BTW, I do believe that if you publically stated that Jesus Christ was an Atheist, there is a good chance you'd be stoned to death within the week...)

Have you ever seen the Atheist for Jesus website?

While I am sure it is a purely a money making venture to the owner, it is still quite interesting.

I have said on several occasions that I am an atheist with (mostly) christian morals.... This site goes a little bit further into it.... too far, even.

Check it out. Let me know what you think.

http://www.atheists-for-jesus.com/

Another interesting article that I found while searching for that site:

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/20>

04-21-2010, 05:04 PM

Max Reason
Guatay, CA
Posts: 4

Hi Christy,

I saw the website, atheistsforjesus.com, and it appears to be interesting. The article on the main page looked quite lengthy, so I copied and pasted it into wordpad, and I'll read it later.
You know Christy, I've heard on different websites, about different stories of Jesus. Some people are saying that Jesus was equivalent to the Egyptian god, Horus, and the he had children with Mary Magdelene. Others claimed that he was of African decent, dark skinned. Some claimed that he traveled to distant lands in the far east, crossing the Bering Straight, even having his head shaved bald. In the Urantia Book, which can be found online, the entire life of Jesus is chronicled. Curiously, in the Bible, only the final two years of his life was recorded.

Regardless of all these claims, I'm not really concerned with the superficialities of his appearance. What is important to me is his teachings... not his birth, not his crucifixion, but his TEACHINGS !!!

P.S. You're from Denton, Texas, right?
How far is that from Austin?

04-27-2010, 09:03 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

Hey Max!

How have you been?

It's funny that you brought up the Urantia Book. I was reading up on that recently. What I don't understand is how it was written in the 1900s... Between 1922 and 1955. How is it even possible to randomly come up with a biography for someone after THAT long?? Did someone (or even a group of people) just get extremely bored and decide to write this book? If so, wow. It's extremely long and detailed.

My take on Jesus is that he was framed by a group of people who had decided to impose a set of morals on the world with the worst type of consequences.... The eternal kind. They needed and idol for people to look up to... who better than Jesus? That name seems catchy enough to me :)

But that's just my humble opinion.

BTW, Denton is about 4 or so hours from Austin.... I think. Depending on how fast you drive ;) Is that where you are from?

05-08-2010, 08:57 AM

MrWonder
Medium City, TX
Posts: 226

"...like the Man from Nazareth once said, the kingdom of heaven is within you, and I believe what he meant by that, is that heaven or hell is a state of mind, not something that awaits in the hereafter."

Hi Max,

You are not far from the truth with that statement. The kingdom of God is wherever God is king. Therefore His kingdom is within the believer. Now it is true that a day will come when the kingdom is also on this earth, but it's not here yet. And by the way, I am NOT a Jehovah Witness nor do I drink Kool-Aid but I like it when I can find it!

:-)

Of course I don't refer to the Jim Jones variety. Did you know Jones claimed to actually be Jesus Christ? And cursed and stomped on the Bible? The people that followed him were not Christians by any means - they had a religious instinct, sure, but they were worlds away from Christianity, as he himself was.

The posts above were interesting, but I am having difficulty navigating this site so if I don't make it back here to comment further, it's because I couldn't find the way!

MrWonder

05-08-2010, 09:03 AM

MrWonder
Medium City, TX
Posts: 226

"Congress shall make no law that respects the establishment of religion.
This means that the people are not required to submit to an established state religion." -- Max

Hi, I wanted to add this - I basically agree with your statement. It means Congress cannot make laws that favor one denominational belief system over another and there is to be no state church that people are directly taxed to pay for.

I believe all people should be involved in their government, or else there is no self-government, but I do not believe all people should be involved in everyone else's religon.

In other words, we all have the right to vote, run for office, hold office, etc., but only Presbyterians have the right to run the Presbyterian church, only Baptists have the right to run the Baptist church, and no one in government has any right to tell any of them how they are to worship God. I subtract from that anything that causes harm to other people, like the aforementioned Jim Jones. No right of freedom of worship gives him the right to murder people. Of course he did it in Guyana, not here, but it's a fact he was a murderer and an American citizen and it's too bad people followed his foolishness.

12-16-2011, 12:09 PM

Athinker
Dallas, TX
Posts: 2

My name is Athinker. I am a Christian and I support the U.S. Constitution which prevents Congress from passing any law that would favor any religion or non-religion over another.