Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Not endorsing or condemning the proposition put in the link; just think it interesting in light of a previous thread on this forum.

http://clashdaily.com/2013/09/hey-athei ... -religion/

I don't know how to express this eloquently. One sentence in the ruling struck me as especially interesting: Protection against discrimination because of religion, in my view, must include protection of the applicants’ belief that there is no deity." I agree with the sentiment, but at the same time, there is a philosophical question. Is non-belief of something a religion? I don't believe Muhammed was the last prophet, for example. Does that make my non-Islam stance a religion unit itself, outside of my own faith?

I also found it interesting that certain creeds were not protected. I would imagine that many Deists would probably gain some "protection" now.

Sure, the aggressive atheists practice a religion - one as intolerant and vicious as that of the aggressive Islamists.

Much of the controversy over freedom of religion lies in the incorrect idea that "protecting" one's religion means preventing him from being exposed to any different religions...that in order to remain unoffended, one has the right to go through life without seeing any sign that different beliefs exist in the world. But this is not what the right to freedom of religion means.

Kreutz wrote:

As any discussion on religion always is

A simple view:

Islam believes Jesus was just another prophet.

Christians believe Jesus was God's son.

Jew's don't believe Jesus was God's son.

Atheists don't believe there is a God.

All believe in something. What makes atheists different? In my mind a real atheist would not preach there is no God. If they were secure in their belief they'd just laugh at everyone else and not take it seriously.

M1A4ME wrote:A simple view:

Islam believes Jesus was just another prophet.

Christians believe Jesus was God's son.

Jew's don't believe Jesus was God's son.

Atheists don't believe there is a God.

All believe in something. What makes atheists different? In my mind a real atheist would not preach there is no God. If they were secure in their belief they'd just laugh at everyone else and not take it seriously.

Wrong! 1 and 3 are the same they both believe he was just a prophet. In Christianity Jesus was the living embodiment of God, aka Jesus was/is God.

Spot on with the atheist though! Not to get personal but I believe they're all the same, that perhaps God is and isn't; one and many by many names yet always the same, that throughout man's history he/she/it has always been and always will be. I mean God is supposed to be our creator so why should we know better, who better to understand such foolish minds as ours than God.

And agnostics just don't know.

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thekinetic wrote:Wrong! 1 and 3 are the same they both believe he was just a prophet.

Jesus (Yeshua) is most definitely not considered a prophet in Judaism.

No,jesus is gods son,they are two different entities

The one thing that strikes me as being odd is the venom spewed by people in regulation to things the do not believe.

If I believe in God, and you do not? So freakin' what? How does that hurt you? It doesn't.

So an atheist who just shrugs, and moves along actually earns more respect than a venomous one who feels the need to "teach" others that they're "being stupid".

I will state this plainly, it hurts nothing, and no one to have faith in something bigger than yourself. Because if you think you're the top "A" dawg in this universe? You've fooled yourself, and no one else.

If everyone can agree on a definition of religion, then it should be simple to decide whether or not atheism is one.

I don't believe it should be considered a religion. But when someone asks, "what religion are you?" I'm not going to say "I am not religious. I am an atheist." It's much easier to plainly state,"I'm an atheist." However, that doesn't mean that I believe atheism is my religion.

Reverenddel wrote:The one thing that strikes me as being odd is the venom spewed by people in regulation to things the do not believe.

If I believe in God, and you do not? So freakin' what? How does that hurt you? It doesn't.

So an atheist who just shrugs, and moves along actually earns more respect than a venomous one who feels the need to "teach" others that they're "being stupid".

I will state this plainly, it hurts nothing, and no one to have faith in something bigger than yourself. Because if you think you're the top "A" dawg in this universe? You've fooled yourself, and no one else.

There are people like you describe in all aspects of life. Relevant to the forum, the anti-gunners are equally as rabid about something they actually know nothing about and are railing against the people who aren't causing the trouble and objects that do nothing without a person. Just like the anti-gunner, the atheist you describe DOES think your religion harms them. They heap a lot of the worlds problems (occasionally all) on religion.

MrJog wrote:If everyone can agree on a definition of religion, then it should be simple to decide whether or not atheism is one.

I don't believe it should be considered a religion. But when someone asks, "what religion are you?" I'm not going to say "I am not religious. I am an atheist." It's much easier to plainly state,"I'm an atheist." However, that doesn't mean that I believe atheism is my religion.

Simple disbelief is probably not, but there are at least a vocal minority who treat it like it is and expect everyone to "not offend" them through the practice of religion. On a slightly different theme, I would contend that all men are religious and put their faith in something even if they don't conscientiously acknowledge it. I.e. an atheist may not put their faith in atheism, but they do put faith in something.

An atheists beliefs do not harm me, why then would my beliefs harm an atheist?