I found a quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and I wrote it on the white board in my teacher's classroom (he teaches transitional English and drama, and I'm not one of his students, I just hang out in his room a lot), and it was surprisingly well received. Only two students took issue with it, and it was allowed by the teacher, so I wrote it. It goes:
"If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with or prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? And if he has spoken, why is the world not convinced?"
Your thoughts, theists and atheists alike?
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The two students who had an issue with it...what was their reason(s) for it?
Well, one said that Mr. Bell could be arrested for letting me write it, but that's not correct. Freedom of religious expression still applies in school, and it's not a forced participation thing, nor is it an established piece of decoration or infrastructure. However, me being included in a team prayer before a quiz bowl game is a violation of my religious freedom if I'm forced to close my eyes and hold hands with my teammates, which I was. Regardless, I won't make a legal fiasco over something so petty.
The other student simply said that it was blasphemy and stormed out of the room. Doesn't really matter to me. The quote has been on the board since Monday and it hasn't been erased yet.
Mr. Bell is an atheist, by the way. We get along well naturally, so he lets me use his white board for whatever I want, provided he's not also using it. It was actually his idea for me to write the quote on the board.
Well, anything that promotes thought is fab in my book!
Teens are wonderful. I adore the elasticity of people your age. I appreciate the passion, energy, and inquiry of folks your age. Keep kicking ass, Jared. Hope for the future rests with those like you.
Thanks! I really appreciate that.
I love that quote.:) Thats really cool you have a teacher like that in your corner.
Hah I love it! That might be my new favorite quote, (if a bit lengthy,) in regards to god.
I have used not as well worded arguments like that before, usually when trying to corner a theist on their heaven/hell belief.
Often times if the theist stays with me in the argument, they will admit they do not know for sure all the rules on heaven/hell and that the book is a bit vague on the subject.
To which I ask them if they would play a board game with someone they never met, the rules are vague, and the stakes for winning or losing is: an eternity of paradise or hell, would they want to play that game? I have yet to hear a decent response to that. They usually say something along the lines of: "well god is not a game!!" And not answer the question. Or; "well it beats nothing!" To which I answer, an eternity of hell is better than nothing for you?
It's an open display of animosity inconsistent with atheism, and an unrepentant trait of ego-centric anti-theism. The former does not behave in that manner and the latter revels in it. Two different hats.
Remove emotion (animosity and ego) from the act and suddenly it becomes perfectly consistent with a human being simply expressing their opinion...yes?
I don't say things out of spite to those who have done nothing to deserve it. I say things to make people think. If you'll notice, no sentence of that quote deliberately claims that god is nonexistent, but that the worship of him is pointless. I never made any claims that should be offensive.
Shelley was an atheist or perhaps agnostic. He certainly didn't believe in a creator god, though he seems to have thought there was some kind of universal spirit.
A lecturer in my English literature course at university told us a story about Shelley and Byron challenging god by dancing naked on the roof of their villa in Geneva in the middle of a thunderstorm. I don't know if it's true. I've never been able to track the story down since. His wife, Mary, wrote "Frankenstein" during the same summer.