Science: See to believe
Religion: Believe to see

Emo

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off.
So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"
He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well... are you religious or atheist?"
He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
He said, "Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?"
He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"
He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off.

I think, therefore I am an atheist.

Infidel, one who does not believe in your god.

Oh look honey, another pro lifer for war.

Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on the weekend.

Religion - After Life Insurance, from Nuns on the Run

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. - Bertrand Russell

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.- Henry L. Mencken

Religion is the perfect justification for tyranny, because it doesn't require an ounce of reason or a shred of proof. - Anonymous

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. - Jonathan Swift

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years. - John Burroughs

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei

Wisdom begins where the fear of God ends. - André Gide, 1929

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 blind-folded fear. - Thomas Jefferson, 1787

The attitude is we live and let live.  This is actually an amazing change in values in a rather short time and it's an example of freedom from religion. - Tom Wolfe, 1988

Faith means not wanting to know what is true. - Nietzsche

The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power.  He knows there is a reason.  He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.  - Robert Green Ingersoll, "The Liberty Of All" (1877)

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.  The latter cannot understand it when a man does not submit to hereditary prejudices but courageously uses his intelligence. - Albert Einstein

Penn Jillette - There is no god

I believe that there is no God.  I'm beyond Atheism.  Atheism is not believing in God.  Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do.  You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car.  You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before.  Check again.  Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God.  She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power.  All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage.  The Atheism part is easy. 

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by.  So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God. "

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life.  I'm not greedy.  I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough.  It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me.  It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more.  Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven.  I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day. 

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories.  That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful.  I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic.  I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures.  Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong.  We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate.  I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less.  But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun.  It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future.  No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

Religious Philosophies

Protestantism

Shit won't happen if I work harder

Catholicism

If shit happens, I deserve it

Judaism

Why does shit always happen to me?

Islam

If shit happens, it is the will of Allah

Taoism

Shit Happens

Hinduism

This shit has happened before

Confucianism

Confucius say, "Shit happens"

Buddhism

It is only an illusion that shit happens

Zen

What is the sound of shit happening?

Jehovah's Witnesses

Knock, Knock, "Shit happens"

Atheism

There is no such thing as shit

Agnosticism

Maybe shit happens, and maybe not

Televangelism

Send money or shit will happen
Close-to-complete Ideology and Religion Shit List
Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian

EvilBible.com

Ladies, please take the Bible seriously

Wives be subordinate to husbands...As the church is subordinate to Christ, so should wives be subordinate to their husbands in everything.  Ephesians 5:22

Women keep silent in the churches.  Ask your man privately if you have questions about something.  I Corinthians 14:34

Women are to wear a veil as a sign that a man maintains authority over her.  I Corinthians 11:10

... When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.  (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

... However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

P.S. The world is flat.

How about this, lets try and consciously Evolve.

Bertrand Russell's essay Why I Am Not a Christian.
The traditional arguments for the existence of God.
The "ontological argument" says that God must exist by his very nature, since he possesses all perfections, and it is more perfect to exist than not to exist.
The "cosmological argument" says that the world must have an ultimate cause, and this cause could only be an eternal, God-like entity.
The "design argument" appeals to special features of the universe (such as its suitability for the emergence of intelligent life), submitting that such features make it more probable than not that the universe had a purposive cosmic designer.
Review in the times by By Jim Holt of the THE GOD DELUSION By Richard Dawkins.
My opinion, if you argue about god, you are arguing about something that in a very real sense, only serves to promote intolerance.   If you argue about your god, your are discriminating against everyone who does not agree with you.   You may be a nice, sincere person, but you are also a bigot.
What matters, is what you do with your life.  In our world, a belief in god and a religion gets in the way of reason.

The understatement of human history is that Reason is undervalued.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

god


God is a Concept by which we measure our pain
I'll say it again
God is a Concept by which we measure our pain
I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in Tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in Mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in Yoga
I don't believe in Kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me...and that reality

Pastafarianism

A student has been suspended from school in America for coming to class dressed as a pirate. But the disciplinary action has provoked controversy – because the student says that the ban violates his rights, as the pirate costume is part of his religion. Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism. The school, however, say that his pirate garb was disruptive. Pastafarians follow the Flying Spaghetti Monster (pictured), and believe that the world was created by the touch of his noodly appendage. Furthermore, they acknowledge pirates as being 'absolute divine beings', and stress that the worldwide decline in the number of pirates has directly led to global warming.

An Atheist Manifesto by Joseph Lewis

These sentences (exactly as quoted) actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Scouts are saving aluminium cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies' Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

The Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."