Honest Opinions for a Research Project

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Tin-Man's picture
@Lindsey

@Lindsey

Well, by golly. And a most sincere "Thank you" to you, young lady. It is indeed a very rare thing for us to get a post such as this where the person asking the questions actually bothers to respond. Sorry to hear that you are so terribly swamped with finals and such. I do understand that can be incredibly hectic. Perhaps when you finish all of that and catch a break you might be able to pay us a visit and have a few discussions without all the pressure or rush. Hope the info you got on here helps. Best of luck on your finals.

Old man shouts at clouds's picture
@ Lindsey

@ Lindsey

Crumbs...a questionnaire, then a response? What in the? Well, Lindsey, thanks for coming back and responding. Not only unusual but also very nice of you to explain what it was about,

Look forward to chatting again one day...and best of luck with your finals!

arakish's picture
Guess I am the late one.

Guess I am the late one. What I get for having to crunch some data...

How would you describe your religious background and church involvement?

Never had one except bad. No involvement whatsoever. Churches have sucked in enough gullible people they don't need any more help.

What do you think is important in life?

You are born. You eat. You defecate. You reproduce. You die. Can't get much simpler. As I have done my whole life, I have done what I could to help promote the well-being of humanity no matter how small or insignificant. I ain't had the illusion of self-importance like most Religious Asolutists. Ever. I just try to do the best I can, even if my best never gets recognized as ever having occurred.

What do you think it takes to be straightened out with God?

I am going to assume that by "straightened out" you mean "reconciled" since that is the only word that makes sense. There is nothing to be reconciled since the "god" concept is an imagination created by those who had megalomaniacal tendencies many thousands of years ago. They used this imagination to get people to give them the "best of the best" so they can live "high on the hog" without having to do any work. This progressed until you only see megalomaniacal psychotic sociopaths who only want to enslave as many humans as possible.

How would you describe Jesus?

A fraud. A myth created by more megalomaniacal psychotic sociopaths to continue their attempts to enslave humans.

What are your thoughts about churches today?

They should be taxed. With that money earmarked for ONLY providing higher education for those who wish it.

Now off to read the other responses.
rmfr

Grinseed's picture
A wise old metal man once

@ Tin

A wise old metal man once told me "Don't hold your breath buddy." He was advising me on the best way to kill myself but its a sagely bit of wisdom appropriate for many occasions.

rat spit's picture
How would you describe your

How would you describe your religious background and church involvement?
- non-existent

What do you think is important in life?
- staying alive as long as you can

What do you think it takes to be straightened out with God?
- I honestly don’t know. “Being good” doesn’t cut it. “Believing in his one and only Son” is counterintuitive to think of how many people go to Hell for merely not believing.

How would you describe Jesus? The personage of the kingdom of heaven - a place of love.

What are your thoughts about churches today? They aren’t preparing young children for a life in today’s world.

Sheldon's picture
I am an atheist, and have

I am an atheist, and have been most of my adult life. The only purpose our lives have are what we instil them with. I don't believe any deity exists so "getting straight with god" has no meaning to me at all. I don't know if Jesus was a real person, but have seen no objective evidence or any compelling argument that if he was he was anything but human. Some of the teachings assigned him are deeply immoral though. The concept of hell is assigned to "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" after all.

What I think of churches varies necessarily from church to church. However I think the late author and polemicist Christopher Hitchens summed it up quite well.

"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse."

Christopher Hitchens

I_need_help_for_a_class's picture
Here's my assignment, I just

Here's my assignment, I just left out the answers I recorded from the replies posted. Thank you all for answering, I promise I wasn't trolling (I love that that's one of the guidelines on this website):

In Inazu’s conclusion of the book that transitions the reader into the practicality of the real world, he leaves three imperatives of confident pluralism that incorporate the three virtues of tolerance, humility, and patience (128). Inazu’s view of collective action does exclude social media protests, “hashtag activism costs us little” (128). This is actually comforting to me and gave me more hope in addition to the hope Inazu adds to the three virtues in his vision of the future of confident pluralism (133). Recently I posted in an atheist forum to obtain answers as a way to receive the differing viewpoints, in which I was met with a lot of uncalled for accusations. Although my reaction was amusement and not discouragement, I read through the other forums on the website, and other Christians engaged in conversation on different topics, one of which was directly addressing Christians. The consistent ad hominem attacks made any attempt to continue a reasonable conversation appear hopeless. This was the perfect example of what politics have been lately in that from our perspective there is a lack of unity that comes from the differences and unwillingness to be patient or tolerant, or even humble (pride was a common theme from a lot of the posts in the forums that I read). Yet the Christian replies were not taken down from the website, differing opinions could still be heard, regardless of public reaction. This contrasts with past politics in that there was unity but “a good deal of [earlier] coherence was only made possible by suppressing or excluding dissenting or unheard voices” (131). Inazu’s warning about collective action imperative could be portrayed through the example of my ignorant learning experience in that the pressure and intolerance of the majority belief discouraged the minority belief from further dialogue (128). Although in one post there were questions with the position to engage in debate and appeared to be asked with the intention of mutual understanding, the attempt of peaceful conversation was destroyed by other intolerant comments of other individuals of the collective majority. This experience did not discourage me from future dialogue, but it did dissuade me from future dialogue over the internet in which the opposing side on any issue can hide behind a protective username and avatar. I would much rather discuss anything deeper than a grocery list in person. I’ve had many conversations about religion and beliefs with atheistic and some agnostic friends, but those conversations were definitely a lot more pleasant and respectful towards my beliefs in that they did not lead to the frustration of online conversation in which there is no relationship on the line. In future conversations with atheists (in person of course) I will bring up the arguments read on the other forums to hear their views and see with what they agree and disagree.

Sky Pilot's picture
Lindsey,

Lindsey,

Shorter paragraphs are your friend.

Chicken's picture
Well I can’t say I expected

Well I can’t say I expected much different. Our sincere responses to your questions were not even included, instead we are called intolerant and accusatory. You know lumping people into generalized groups becomes xenophobic at the end of the spectrum. I hope you learn to better navigate and understand how the internet works and how to pick and choose the informative, positive data from the negative. Good luck, may your next foray into a forum be a better experience, and do keep an open, critically thinking mind.

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