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This is true even here in our small southern town. We have seen an increase in our local groups.  If you are atheist, or agnostic. Join us! Humanists of the Shoals meets every 2nd Saturday. PM me if you are interested in joining our group.

 

New York City, USA - About 400 people are preparing to gather for a conference in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote the end of religion in the US and their vision of a secular future for the country.

Those travelling to the meeting will pass two huge roadside billboards displaying quotes from two of the country's most famous non-believers: Katharine Hepburn and Mark Twain. "Faith is believing what you know ain't so," reads the one featuring Twain. "I'm an atheist and that's it," says the one quoting Hepburn.

At the meeting, members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) will hear speakers celebrate successes they have had in removing religion from US public life and see awards being presented to noted secularist activists.

The US is increasingly portrayed as a hotbed of religious fervour. Yet in the homeland of ostentatiously religious politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, agnostics and atheists are actually part of one of the fastest-growing demographics in the US: the godless. Far from being in thrall to its religious leaders, the US is in fact becoming a more secular country, some experts say. "It has never been better to be a free-thinker or an agnostic in America," says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF.

 

Read more here:

http://wwrn.org/articles/36303/?place=united-states

 

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All religions are temporary.  They don't stand to scrutiny very well.  Up until now, religions that fade away have been replaced with other religions, often by persuasion, often by arms.

 

We live in an interesting time when we ask ourselves, with our newly-gained knowledge about the universe, why any religion is necessary.  None is.

 

This gives us unfettered freedom to determine real morality, real meaning, and real justice.  As a species, we're growing better.  It will take time, but those who come after us will recognize us as the vanguard of a necessary and beneficial movement.

 

DF

Originally Posted by Ronnie P.:

I'm starting a support group for atheists so they can move on.  It's called the hair club for men.


Heh. I'll supply the hair.

 

Semi, my wife and I have been considering attending one of those meetings just to see what we can see. We've been to a small get-together with some of the Humanists and they all seem like pretty real folks.  I liked every one of them that I met.

Originally Posted by Road Puppy:
Originally Posted by Ronnie P.:

I'm starting a support group for atheists so they can move on.  It's called the hair club for men.


Heh. I'll supply the hair.

 

Semi, my wife and I have been considering attending one of those meetings just to see what we can see. We've been to a small get-together with some of the Humanists and they all seem like pretty real folks.  I liked every one of them that I met.

 

 

Hey I was at that little get together! I really enjoyed hanging with you and your wife too. We would love to have you both come to the meetings. Not a whole lot different than the get together you went to except there is no beer, or wings. We have one this Saturday!

 

Best I don't get the hair joke either....but then I don't always get corny jokes so that might be the problem.

Originally Posted by b50m:

Explain something to me Dark, is humanist and atheist the same thing?

Wouldn't a humanist worship the human race?

b,

All humanists are atheists. Not all atheists are necessarily humanists.

 

"Many wonder how atheists can have morals. There are many moral systems an atheist could adopt; however, Humanism is the most popular. Humanism is a moral system founded on the observation that human beings have the potential to solve moral question guided by reasoning and evidence."

http://www.gainesvilletimes.co...on/24/article/56988/

 

http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism

If I kill someone, I go to jail. Not an intellectual or emotional system, but a system of law to prevent chaos. Invented in cave man times to keep order.

 

If i kill someone and I am religious, I go to jail and to Hell.

 

In both cases, I am aware of doing something wrong. In one case, my death ends when my last breath ends.  In the other, my death begins an eternity of torment for the transgression of taking another life that I had no right to.

 

One yields logical justice, the other yields moral justice. How odd that the legal system follows the Biblical system of 'an eye for an eye'. Which actually was a limitation on punishment. You were only allow to do to your attacker exactly the same as they did to you, no more, no less. You could not kill a man for stealing a sheep, nor could a man be let off for murder.

Originally Posted by b50m:

...How odd that the legal system follows the Biblical system of 'an eye for an eye'...

How odd that you don't see that the Biblical system actually follows the moral codes of humanity that preceded it by about ten thousand years of recorded history and probably about a hundred thousand years in total. Odd too that you credited cave men (older than God and Jesus) with the moral codes and forgot about it at the end of your post.

B,

 

How are ya? I have read and re-read your post and I am still unsure of what you are trying to say.

 

Why would our legal system not be an intellectual moral system? Why do we have laws? Not to ensure we don't sin, or go to hell. We have laws to protect society. If humans did not have the intelligence to try and do what is right to live together in a healthy society then we would not have advanced this far. We as a society have made laws and have set up moral standards based on knowledge and experience. Most of us know better than to beat our children with a stick. We know this because we have learned that physical punishment of children can lead to adults with mental and abusive issues. It hurts them emotionally as well as physically. The bible did not teach us that.

 

Our laws do not reflect an "eye for an eye". In some countries it does, if you steal you get your hand cut off. In our society we would never do that. Why? Because that would be cruel, that is the emotional side to our moral system.

 

I may be way off base on what you were trying to say, but it seems like you are saying that without god or the bible we would not be moral. I hope I am wrong in that assessment.

 

Originally Posted by A. Robustus:
Originally Posted by b50m:

...How odd that the legal system follows the Biblical system of 'an eye for an eye'...

How odd that you don't see that the Biblical system actually follows the moral codes of humanity that preceded it by about ten thousand years of recorded history and probably about a hundred thousand years in total. Odd too that you credited cave men (older than God and Jesus) with the moral codes and forgot about it at the end of your post.

.................................................................................................................................

 

Didn't forget, just haven't seen a code of conduct written by a cave man at Walmart. Yes, there  are many belief systems older than Christianity. And there  are moral codes older than the Bible. But all those codes are followed through in the Bible and since it is the most recent writings of a moral code used worldwide, I used it. The laws in the US have a basis in moral beliefs that I think were derived from Christianity. The founders did not want a pure Christan theology but realized that the basic Ten Commandments summed up preventing chaos quite well. So laws were born from morality. Now whether morality came from religion solely or not is another question.

Last edited by b50m

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