Respecting the beliefs of others

Got Originality? Thou shall not covet. "Tiny is, as tiny do."

"The Court finds that FSMism is not a 'religion' within the meaning of the relevant federal statutes and constitutional jurisprudence. It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education. Those are important issues, and FSMism contains a serious argument—but that does not mean that the trappings of the satire used to make that argument are entitled to protection as a 'religion,'" the judge ruled"
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/pastafarianism-is-satire-and-not-protected-religion-court-rules/

What is a real religion?

Sure the Flying Spaghetti Monster was invented as a means to combat the teaching of creationism in public schools in Kansas. And Scientology was invented as a means for SiFi author L Ron Hubbard to become wealthy. So what? These things take on a life of their own once set free. Who's to say that Jesus wasn't invented by the Romans as a means to undermine Jews in Judeah. The Mormon religion was invented in a cave in Palmyra NY by a convicted con man and look how successful it has been. What qualifies a religion as a valid religion?

Since we demand no evidence to support our religious beliefs then all should be acceptable. Any crazy idea that anyone comes up with should qualify for a tax deduction. Don't you agree? Scientology has already fought the good fight with the IRS and won. Shouldn't Pastafarianism also qualify for tax free status?

Is there any doubt that the Virgin Islands is the perfect place for Pastafarianism? With our affinity for pirates we are the natural setting for the world wide headquarters for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Arrgh! I say that any building which flies the Pirate Flag(skull and crossbones) should be eligible for tax free status.

We need to gather and sing hymns to his holy noodleness. Some hymns that come to mind are "Holy Holy Pastaroni", "A Meaty Pasta is Our God", "By His Noodly Appendage", "I Am The Braise of Life", "What Sauce is This", and "We Three Cheeses". Perhaps the most widely known hymn of Pastafarianism is sung by members across the globe: "On Top Of Spaghetti (All covered with cheese)".

Our beliefs are as valid as anyone's, we can't prove them but neither can you disprove them!

Strippers and Beer beats St Peter any day!

Religion is a good thing, right?

The Followers of Christ is a religious sect that preaches faith healing in states such as Idaho, which offers a faith-based shield for felony crimes – despite alarming child mortality rates among these groups
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/13/followers-of-christ-idaho-religious-sect-child-mortality-refusing-medical-help

This is a REAL religion. Because it's based on loving Jesus. Donations are tax deductible.

Remember, Jesus loves you, and he needs your money.

Want to know more about the Catholic Church?

Spotlight
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Around the world, a number of countries continue to criminalize atheists and humanists, with 13 having laws which enable them to impose the death penalty.

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-13-countries-where-being-atheist-is.html

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
- Steven Weinberg

So there's a difference ? As in , "Respecting the beliefs of others" ???
Kinda getting it now after 18 pages. Hate the Game, not the playa??
Stoopit Boy Scouts steered my ass all wrongs .Please enrich us all with more scientific theories and opinions. Or Facts.

Edit to add; " Makes its own sauce when you add water."

"I know it doesn’t make sense. I know it’s hard to understand how otherwise intelligent people can believe things that sound ridiculous to anyone not raised to accept them as sacrosanct. It seems untenably contradictory, but that’s just how humans are. In case you haven’t noticed, human beings aren’t entirely rational creatures, and that goes for the most intelligent and well-educated among us as well."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/10/09/why-do-intelligent-well-educated-people-still-believe-nonsense/

Totally agree. Well played.

Faith makes some believe crazy things.

Brazilian pastor is behind bars after telling his flock that his penis contained ‘holy milk’
http://freethinker.co.uk/2013/02/05/brazilian-pastor-is-behind-bars-after-telling-his-flock-that-he-penis-contained-holy-milk/

Hope for our future!

A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to have no religion have exceeded the number of Christians in Britain. Some 44 per cent of us regard ourselves as Christian, 8 per cent follow another religion and 48 per cent follow none. The decline of Christianity is perhaps the biggest single change in Britain over the past century. For some time, it has been a stretch to describe Britain as a Christian country. We can more accurately be described now as a secular nation with fading Christian institutions.

Hopefully the U.S. will follow.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/britain-really-is-ceasing-to-be-a-christian-country/

I don't know if this has been posted, but this quote sums it up for me

"You’ve gotta respect everyone’s beliefs." No, you don’t. That’s what gets us in trouble. Look, you have to acknowledge everyone’s beliefs, and then you have to reserve the right to go: "That is fucking stupid. Are you kidding me?" I acknowledge that you believe that, that’s great, but I’m not going to respect it. I have an uncle that believes he saw Sasquatch. We do not believe him, nor do we respect him!”

--Patton Oswalt

I don't know if this has been posted, but this quote sums it up for me

"You’ve gotta respect everyone’s beliefs." No, you don’t. That’s what gets us in trouble. Look, you have to acknowledge everyone’s beliefs, and then you have to reserve the right to go: "That is fucking stupid. Are you kidding me?" I acknowledge that you believe that, that’s great, but I’m not going to respect it. I have an uncle that believes he saw Sasquatch. We do not believe him, nor do we respect him!”

--Patton Oswalt

This is basically what I said in the very first post of this thread.

People have a right to believe any nonsense that they wish. They have a right to believe that the Easter Bunny is their Lord and Savior if they wish. However, those of us who require evidence to support our beliefs have no obligation to respect this nonsense and in fact have every reason to stand up and call it nonsense.

It is interesting to see how hypocritical many people are. Many will quickly stand up and condemn the racist, sexist and often violent pronouncements of public figures but will remain silent on the racist, sexist and very often violent pronouncements and requirements which are found in the Bible or the Qur'an. Why is one OK and the other to be condemned. Is slavery, misogyny, child and spousal abuse acceptable if the holy book says that it is? Isn't it interesting that modern society has thrown out 8 of the 10 commandments as being irrelevant and only the prohibition against murder and stealing have remained. Yet somehow many think that we should respect their holy books.

Many still think that "In God We Trust" belongs on our money and as our national motto.

I think our national motto would be more accurate if it was "Many Of Us Are Stupid". Aren't the two essentially the same?

Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn’t add up.
...
In sum, there are clearly good reasons to doubt Jesus’ historical existence – if not to think it outright improbable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/did-historical-jesus-exist-the-traditional-evidence-doesnt-hold-up/

Extra extra read all about it.

Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-assures-atheists-you-don-t-have-to-believe-in-god-to-go-to-heaven-8810062.html

The religion of Peace strikes again.
Many will blame the violence in Orlando on guns and will call for more gun control. What about more religion control. They didn't use guns in Boston, they used pressure cookers. They didn't use guns on 9/11, they used box cutters and airplanes. But they all did it in the name of their religion yet no one calls for religion control.
Except Trump.

If the 2nd amendment isn't an unconditional right then why is the 1st amendment. License religious institutions. Tax religious institutions. Make them accountable for the actions of their members and the hate they teach.

We are not one nation under god. We are one nation under the constitution.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/godless-the-truth-beyond-belief--4#/

Atheist Tunes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr1I3mBojc0

Way to go Partner !

----- Keep emphasizing the title of your thread !!!!!!

-Home Internet = @ $50-$150 per month.
-Search Engine of your choice= $ 0.00
- " My God thinks your God's Dumb" = "Priceless"

There is no scientific evidence indicating that God exists. We all know that. For example:

•God has never left any physical evidence of his existence on earth.

•None of Jesus' "miracles" left any physical evidence either.

•God has never spoken to modern man, for example by taking over all the television stations and broadcasting a rational message to everyone.

•The resurrected Jesus has never appeared to anyone.

•The Bible we have is provably incorrect and is obviously the work of primitive men rather than God.

•When we analyze prayer with statistics, we find no evidence that God is "answering prayers."

•Huge, amazing atrocities like the Holocaust and AIDS occur without any response from God.

•And so on…

http://godisimaginary.com/index.htm

finite minds attempt at explaing infinity.religion is the opiate of the masses,and finaly all religions are merley philosophies.untill your in a foxhole

Hospital slammed for leaking imam’s cucumber extraction
http://freethinker.co.uk/2016/06/27/hospital-slammed-for-leaking-imams-cucumber-extraction/

Atheists winning over Muslims with seductive reasoning
http://freethinker.co.uk/2016/06/22/atheists-winning-over-muslims-with-seductive-reasoning/

"To me, absurdity is the only reality." Frank Zappa

Edit to add: Also by FZ: "I'm so cute".
Ironically sums up the OP's long winded, repetitive, judgmental babble.
Got Narcissism ?

Admittedly Frank says it better than I can.

The Treaty of Tripoli, the first treaty signed by the United States of America - 1797
"Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.

The treaty was printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and two New York papers, with only scant public dissent.

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. . . . Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find inducements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you."
—-Thomas Jefferson's letter to nephew Peter Carr, written from Paris, Aug. 10, 1787

"Gullibility and credulity are considered undesirable qualities in every department of human life—except religion . . . Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds? . . . Atheism strikes me as morally superior, as well as intellectually superior, to religion. Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong."
—-Christopher Hitchens, "The Lord and the Intellectuals," Harper's (July 1982), cited by James A. Haught in 2,000 Years of Disbelief (1996)

“I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul. . . . I am an aggregate of cells, as, for instance, New York City is an aggregate of individuals. Will New York City go to heaven? . . . No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions.” —Thomas Alva Edison, The New York Times, Oct. 2, 1910 ("No Immortality of the Soul" Says Thomas A. Edison, interview by Edward Marshall)

“Man is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion—several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.”
—-Mark Twain (1835-1910), Letters from the Earth, "The Damned Human Race," 1909

“If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy.”
—-Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," from The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark

"As I see it, man is a product of his conditioning, and the social forces which mold his morality and conduct — including racial prejudice — are influenced more by material things like food and economic necessities than by the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the high priests of commercialized superstition. Now don't get me wrong. I'm for decency — period. I'm for anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday — cash me out."
— Frank Sinatra, Interview, Playboy magazine, February 1963

TL;DR

summary?

Religion is bad, the us isn't based on religion.

(so much easier that way)

DUDE !!!! Exactly !!!! That's what i'm sayin'.That's why I prepared at our annual "Fourth" backyard, family and friends, weekend get-together grill-out and Barbeque, two different kinds of Brats (Chicken and Goat), Burgers and Veggie Kabobs.
Actually was cooking on three (3) different grills!!! Try that while stirring home-made Quinoa and Tahini Curry sauce at the same time on a side-burner !!!!!
Got Plants ???? DUDE?!?!?! !!!!