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Bringing you atheist articles and building active godless communities takes hundreds of hours and resources each month. If you find any joy or stimulation at Atheist Republic, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
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Although I absolutely sympathise with everything you have written, I think you need to be very nit-picky and pernicity with your language. The belief in hell, and the teaching of this doctrine to the innocence of children, is a pitfall of religion, and not an inherent belief in a god. Religion spills down from, and expands on theism, creating (normally false) dogmatic teachings that teach mortals how to live based on the wants of this theistic God. This specification needs to be adressed as belief in hell does not directly derive from theism but from religion. Of corse there are major problems of theism that need to be adressed, but hell is my one of them
I agree, mostly, but as far as I am concerned the entirety of both religion and theism are problems that must be riddin of.
@ Ewan Smith
Sorry, I didn't see your post for some reason.
I'm guessing this was an answer the entire thread/subject? I find myself struggling to understand what actual point you are trying to make.
"This specification needs to be adressed"
You might have to define or clarify what you mean when using the words 'religion' and 'theism' here, as you seem to be addressing the difference between them.
I don't quite understand what point you are trying to make about "belief in hell" in this context.
If Jesus did exist, he would have wept...
"Mississippi governor signs law authorizing guns in churches"
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/mississippi-governor-signs-law-autho...
I think they liked the movie Kill Bill
Religion of peace strikes again...
"Bangladeshi university professor hacked to death in Rajshahi"
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36119151
A North Aurora pastor who’s a convicted sex offender has been charged with sexually abusing a child at his church.
"Robinson previously was convicted of sexual abusing a 16-year-old when he was 25 years old, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry. He has been on the state sex offender registry since 2005."
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/pastor-charged-with-sexually-abusing-ch...
Of course... why shouldn't the church let a convicted sex offender keep working as a pastor?
"A Florida priest was busted for asking a male undercover officer in a public park to give him oral sex"
"Stephen Glenn Charest of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, bluntly told the detective, “I want you to suck my ****.” "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/priest-collared-for-requesting-oral-...
"Death sentence upheld against Mauritanian blogger for “insulting” Islam"
http://iheu.org/death-sentence-upheld-against-mauritanian-blogger-for-in...
Demanding criticism to be silenced is only a sign of weakness. It's pathetic.
"A suicide bomber killed at least nine people when he detonated an explosive vest after Friday prayers at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in southwestern Baghdad"
http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-suicide-bomber-kills-nine-at-baghda...
"Seven policemen guarding polio vaccination campaign officials were killed in two separate attacks near in a town near Pakistan's financial capital Karachi today."
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/7-cops-guarding-polio-vaccination-wor...
"Boko Haram gunmen kill 11 in NE Nigeria"
"Boko Haram has killed nearly 1,900 people since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May last year, according to AFP reporting.
Overall, an estimated 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the insurgency in 2009."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3551626/Boko-Haram-gunmen-k...
Using hell as a terror tactic to scare children. It was used on me, and it worked for many years.
from fatima.org:
The Secret imparted to the three shepherd children at Fatima on July 13, 1917 had three parts. The first part was fully revealed in Sr. Lucys Third and Fourth Memoirs, written at the command of her bishop, in 1941. This first part of the Secret of Fatima describes what Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco saw on that day. We quote from Sister Lucys memoirs:
She [Our Lady of Fatima] opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls [of the damned] in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.1 This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, Who had already prepared us by promising, in the first apparition, to take us to Heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.2
Our Lady then explained to the children, "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go."
"How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother."
How kind of her not to tell her son about the grievous immorality of hell, or to at least turn it into something less evil.
Heaven needs logic. And compassion.
The idea of heaven/hell/religion in general needs to go away. Yes, I am an antitheist.
Bangladesh - "Two persons including the editor of Roopbaan, the country’s first ever LGBT magazine, have been hacked to death at a flat in capital's Kalabagan."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36128729
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/apr/25/dipu-monis-cousin-amo...
"The Vatican Just Put a Convicted Rapist Back in a Parish"
"Father Joseph Jeyapaul is a priest from India who admitted to raping two adolescent girls in Minnesota when he served the Crookston diocese from 2004 to 2005."
"In February, the Vatican approved lifting his suspension from the priesthood and agreed that he could be reassigned to a new parish in India. That parish even made him the diocesan head of its commission for education."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/24/the-vatican-just-put-a-...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/india-priest-convicted-...
"The president of Liberty Counsel, the religious law group behind the recent wave of anti-transgender bathroom bills, announced that she plans to carry a gun with her to the women’s restroom."
"The type of fear-mongering promoted by this hate group is not only reprehensible, but it is putting lives in danger."
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/christian-lawyer-says-shes-taking-glock-...
"San Diego priest who pleaded guilty to sexual battery finds new home at Oklahoma parish"
"...no one at the church was told about his crimes."
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/san-diego-priest-who-pleaded-guilty-to-s...
"Angry Pastor Boycotts Target Over “Perverts”, Employed Child Rapist As Youth Leader"
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/abletochoose/2016/04/target-transgender-boy...
"French cardinal admits mistakes in child sex abuse cases"
"his diocese has made “some mistakes” in the management and nomination of certain priests"
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/26/french-cardinal-admits-mistakes...
"CA--Bishop claims “abuse is over” while he lets predator work elsewhere"
"McElroy claims “Catholic schools still have one big advantage” because “We’ve had our big sex scandal. It’s in the past.""
""I promise that your kids are safe with us,” McElroy tells San Diego parents while he lets Fr. Jose Alexis Davila work at four Oklahoma parishes while giving parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public no warning whatsoever."
http://www.snapnetwork.org/ca_bishop_claims_abuse_is_over_while_he_lets_...
"Canadian hostage John Ridsdel confirmed dead as police find severed head in Southern Philippines"
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/head-found-on-philippine-island-...
"Kentucky Board Officially Approves Tax Incentives Worth Up To $18,000,000 for Noah’s Ark Theme Park"
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/26/kentucky-board-o...
Money well spent, no doubt...
Archdiocese of St. Louis: a few people were let go, but the Archdiocese doesn’t pay unemployment.
One of the most interesting things to note in the story:
"The person asked that I not use their name as they feared retribution in their own parish for criticizing the church."
In "the land of the free"?
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-laid...
"A survey the association conducted in 2009 found that out of 45 Catholic dioceses, 25 of them either paid into the state system or provided a similar unemployment benefit through a reimbursement program."
"The Vatican's financial watchdog has revealed a sharp increase in the number of suspicious transactions reported last year.
There were 544 reports in 2015, up from 147 the previous year."
How can this be allowed?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36162345
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/28/vatican-flags-more-than-540-sus...
"A 22-year-old woman says the prominent bishop of a Baptist church in Prince George's County repeatedly stalked, harassed and made unwarranted sexual advances toward her at the church"
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Maryland-Pastor-Accused-Sexually...
"Two more paedophile cases hit French Catholic church"
"Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, is accused of covering up sex abuse by priests"
http://en.rfi.fr/france/20160428-two-more-paedophile-cases-hit-french-ca...
Previous links:
French cardinal admits mistakes in child sex abuse cases
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/26/french-cardinal-admits-mistakes...
Pedophilia in Lyon: the confused explanations of Cardinal Barbarin
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=t...
Lyon: the sexual abuse cases that poison the diocese
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2F...
"A priest of the diocese of Bayonne implicated in another case of pedophilia"
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie...
Actually there are a lot of reasons for being atheist which is natural
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