I almost had a crisis in ethics yesterday. I live right next to a Seventh Day Adventist church, and they infest my neighborhood like cockroaches. I was walking my dog, and this old frail lady asked me where she could buy a lighter. I had a spare one in my pocket, and just handed it to her, telling her to keep it.

Then I realized she may come back with some jesus crap, that the lord put love in my heart yadda yadda yadda. If she was going to insult me like that, I was going to take the lighter back, even though that would be a cruel act.

I did the right thing, no jesus or god did it, it was me.

In the atheist hub there should not be any theist. They should only be in the other forums, like the debate forums.

Fully agree with your post btw Fievel Mousekewitz

And I watched the Fievel goes to america more times then I would care to admit when I was a kid.

@Fievel Mousekewitz: Now, now, don't get your panties in a wad. Welcome to the forum. I want to encourage you to rant on the theists but to do so rationally.

RE: "there's nothing after death" " You'll never miss consciousness when it goes the last time, as it'll be like forever dreamless sleep."

How could you possibly know this? We hold theists responsible for making inane claims about life after death, rebirth, Heaven or Hell etc....We hold them accountable for making assertions about which they can not possibly know anything. Why would you feel exempt from this same accountability. You have made a claim and now bear the burden of proof. Please explain how you know there is nothing after death. Can you prove it?

RE: "Stupid God believing idiots." All of them? Or just the ones doing idiotic things? Not sure how you would justify this. I know quite a few theists with advanced university degrees. Defining stupid, the dictionary asserts: "having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense." The university degree took care of the "intelligence" portion. As for common sense. Isn't it more common to think like a theist than to not. If it's common - well - most people in the world are theists. Common sense tells us that we should be theists too. Isn't being an atheist an "Uncommon" position?

RE: "but we could accomplish more if we would set aside religion." Organized and written religions are about 10,000 years old, It is believed that human ancestors have always engaged in religious rituals, care for the sick and elderly. Cro-Magnon people buried their dead like the Neanderthals, and probably had a religion: their art may have had magical or religious meaning s. Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals were closely related. Cro-Magnons seem to have evolved in Africa about 120 000 years ago and spread to western Asia by 90 000 – 100 000 years ago. https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/time/timeline/croMagnon.html

RELIGION was a survival tool, just like every other survival trait. One of the biggest factors, from articles I have read, in the extinction of Neanderthals, was their inability to bond and work together. The reason for human survival, more than anything else, was our ability to bond; to form clans, tribes and eventually towns and cities. Religion was crucial to the survival of the human species. It was a significant part of the bond that held groups of people together. Granted, it cause wars as well., When a tribe with its' gods met up with another tribe who worshiped different gods or had a different point of view, war could ensue. From the war, beliefs would change and religion like everything else human, evolved. The more complex we became, the more complex our religions became. Religion has always been a bonding force for the human species. It continues to be a bonding force today. It can not be denied that religions pull people together and give them a sense of tribal belonging. The question for me is this. Have we outgrown the need for religion? Will we ever do away with religion? If we do, what will be the bonding force for the human species? Secular humanism seems to be off to a good start. Have you looked around? We have atheist Churches. People who treat Atheism like a religion. I watched a video where one congregation was shouting "Praise Darwin." A completely idiotic thing to say as evolution has nothing at all to do with Atheism. (DID I JUST SAY THAT???? ARE THEIR IDIOTIC ATHEISTS??? OH MY.... THERE CERTAINLY ARE.) Some atheists are exactly like Christians who believe idiotic assertions without facts or evidence. Lucky for those of us participating on this site.... there aren't many of those kinds of atheists that stick around.

In my experience Christians insist on joining Atheist forums due to a combination of ignorance and arrogance.

The ignorance is usually shown by a complete misunderstanding of the very word 'Atheism' .That is exacerbated by adding all kinds of views and beliefs to atheists Most Christians I've seen on forums have never actually bothered to learn even the most basic elements of reasoned discussion. The anti science and anti intellectualism of Christians seems to be a requirement .

EG from Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation:

Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”

― Martin Luther

There is also an innate arrogance in Christians on forum; The unproven belief that they are in possession of some exclusive and absolute truth,. That poor atheists will naturally accept once all is explained to them .

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a fatal flaw in that notion; In my experience, most members (including me) of Atheist forums were originally believers of some kind. Many of us know exactly what we have rejected. Many have a far greater knowledge of Christianity and scripture than most of the Christian dropkicks who come here.

They presume too much and in doing so they disrespect us as people . ----- that is why I have only contempt for most believers who find their way to an atheist forum where I am a member

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@Fievel ,minor point: Some kind of formalised spiritual beliefs have been found in remains of cultures many thousands of years old :

"Prehistoric religions are the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. The term may cover Paleolithic religion, Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion and Bronze Age religions."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_religion

Men invent religions to meed their needs. Religions always reflect the cultures which invent them ; Hence brutal, aggressive societies invent brutal aggressive gods, such as YHWH ,Marduk or the South American Pantheon with its human sacrifice. Religions do not create wars or hatred, murder or any other human vice. They are simply used to justify literally any behaviour you can possibly imagine.

When religions are abolished they are replaced by something else, often worse; The biggie is personality cults. Not only in countries such as say Soviet Russia ,China under Mao or North Korea. I'd suggest the near worship of President Trump by many of his follwers has elements of a personality cult

@Fievel Re: "You never answered my question either, why are you here if you're a Christian?"

Ummm... I'm guessing (hoping) you mean that in a general sense as to say, "Why are there any Christians on this site?" Because, rest assured, that mangy, flea-bitten, poo-flinging primate we know and love as Cog is about as far removed from being a Christian as a person could ever get... *chuckle*... That being said, I'll take a shot at answering your question, because it is indeed an interesting topic worth exploring (in my humble opinion)...

To be honest, my initial knee-jerk answer to that question is much along the lines of what yours might be. Namely, "Hell if i know."... *shrugging shoulders in confusion*... However, after taking a step back and giving it a little thought, here are a few speculations I have formed.

1. We haven't had many as of late, but sometimes we get a flood of high school and/or college students taking religious courses, and part of their assignments seem to be "interviewing" atheists on atheist websites. We have had a rare two or three who have actually been interested in learning something, but most of them are pretty much just going through the motions to get a passing grade.

2. There a few "regular" theists we have had on here who grace us with their presence off and on to discuss various subjects related to their particular dogma in an attempt to prove to us how incredibly stupid we close-minded, immoral, and intellectually challenged heathens truly are compared to their perfect god and its "objective moral" teachings. And, usually, after a day or two of having their asses shredded into hamburger, they disappear back into the Netherworld to lick their wounds until they recover enough to return for another round.

3. Sadly, MOST of the "theists" we get on this site are really just bridge-dwelling trolls and/or sock puppets. And I personally doubt any of them are even remotely close to being the faithful "god fearing" Christian/Muslim/etc. that they claim to be. Quite honestly, it is actually a relief and a pleasure on those very rare occasions we get a genuine for-real theist on here who is sincerely interested in having productive discussions with us.

4. Sometimes there are those who still identify as a theist of a particular faith, but maybe they are starting to have doubts and have arrived here in search of answers to help them make a very important life-changing decision. Can't speak for the others, but those are really my favorite ones, because it gives us a chance to have a positive influence on that person's life with the possibility of helping another fellow human escape from the insidious clutches of religious indoctrination.

No doubt there are several other reasons theists arrive here to engage us in discussions, and it is anybody's guess as to what those reasons may be. Furthermore, there are likely untold numbers of theist members who lurk around the site reading the various threads but will never make a post. To me, that is something important to keep in mind, as what we say on here could have an influence on somebody (good or bad) and we may never know one way or the other. Otherwise, the only other explanation I have for you is that people are people, and people do things for very strange reasons sometimes, regardless of their gender, age, race, sexual preferences, political stance, or..... religious beliefs. There you go...

Oh, by the way, welcome to the AR. Hang around long enough, and you will see what I mean. At the very least, it can be a fantastic learning experience.

@Cognostic

I am getting the impression you do not want to face death, as you don't want to die. You can not help it, we all have to die. Face death, don't try to run from it, that wont work.