Planetguy wrote:yep...good advice from yod there.
an atheist band spreading the NONgospel...interesting concept. and why not?)
oh, oh...Let me, the former atheist, answer that one!!!
I wasn't an angry atheist. I figured that religion was a psychological crutch that some people needed to get through the day.
I wasn't a hypocritical atheist either though....my band didn't play AC/DC because they are singing religious music to the devil and, of course, he doesn't exist either if there is no God to have created him.
Now I can clearly see how hypocritical atheism truly is. Their "psychological crutch" is blaming any kind of faith for the problems of the world when the truth is exactly opposite. Secular humanism has produced most of the problems of this world, once you remove the "holy" texts which have no basis in anything historically proven. But the commentaries of men can be found in all religions....and in the secular "bible" of news media, science, and literature.
As a person of faith my eyes have been opened to the difference between faith (strong trust) and religion (manipulation through interpretation of texts).
Having faith has made me a much better person. Though I still exhibit all the symptoms of self-ambition and lusts of the flesh, I now at least have a standard that convicts me of it's harm to other people. Before, I didn't care. "Do what thou will, that is the whole of the law" is the First Commandment of the Satanic Bible and the foundation of atheism.
I find that people (religious or not) will find a way to justify just about anything they want to do. Religion does it through a twisting of the truth, and the non-religious do it through denial of the same truth.
Faithful people do it also, but they do it against their own conviction and there is the chance that they will turn from their sin and repent, if they are held accountable by other people of faith around them.
Now I see what I could not allow myself to see before. There are only two kind of people. Those who are honest with themselves (religious or non) and those who have convinced themselves of their own self-righteousness (religious or non)
I know many non-religious people who are dependable and honest. As a musician, they make up most of my best friends, actually. But I also no longer lump all people of faith as "superstitious" or "judgmental". That is no different that being prejudiced against black people or jews.
There is no "reason" behind it but bigotry. One may have caught on the receiving end of a judgmental hyper-religious pinhead...but that doesn't give you the right to be just like them in the opposite way.
And now I see how intellectually dishonest it is to blame all wars on religion, when atheists of the last century EACH killed more people than all religious wars combined. And by the way, except for the Inquisition, all religious wars have been started by muslims whose "holy" books were plagurized garbling of jewish texts, written by a pedophile on heavy narcotic drugs.
Yes, many have used religion as a tool to manipulate the religious masses...but the Word they claim as authoritative had to be intentionally mis-interpreted to do it.
But lest anyone think that I am anti-atheist, I want to state my position is that I am pro-people. My God tells me that all are made in His image and any offense against another person is an offense to my God, which would make me disobedient to my own supposed faith.
But genuinely, I would like REASON with the anti-religious but find that most are unreasonable, which makes them disobedient to their supposed faith.
With all sincerity, I welcome an honest person who disagrees with me. It is so much more interesting to talk with people who don't agree with everything I say or think.
and I say "shalom" to all
