geoff wrote:
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
Stuart Noble wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Invented by the educated to keep the uneducated in their place.

Invented by the powerful more like it. The more educated you are, the
less truck you're likely to have with mumbo jumbo and silly hats.

In days of yore only the rich and powerful were likely to be educated.
And
intended keeping things that way.



And what wasn't understood was either under control i.e. divine or
outside control i.e. witchcraft

... and then you have "the myth", xtianity is one of the worst for this

There's a notion that virgin births, stars in the east, resurrection is
peculiar to the xtian religion, whereas, it was more or less a
pre-requisite for any self respecting prophet / saviour

Don't forget how e.g. the non-existent census which was required to put
the divine birth in the right town, the entry into jerusalem which was
heavily stage managed etc were attempts to make reality fit the prophesies

I think that if you are looking for a real religion, xtianity can be
dismissed as a con. It is also sadly lacking in any real answers
regarding how we got here - the creation myth is conveniently stolen
from the judaic old testament whose god was a warmonger who conveniently
changes into a benevolent god of love for the xtians

even the 10 commandments are stolen more or less from the egyptian view
of deity



for someone to tell me that being an atheist is a belief system, I would
quite bluntly tell them to **** off and see the light (after all
Lucifer is the bringer of light, isn't he )


Well there is a grain there. If you simply refuse to believe in anything
- which is broadly my position, ( Belief is temporary and not to be
trusted. I believe the sun will come up in the morning, but I am always
reassured when it does...) - then you are probably an agnostic,
accepting all possibilities and believing in none.

However its difficult to take an anti-religious stance whilst labelling
yourself an agnostic, so I too probably would say I am an atheist, in
the true meaning of the word as intended - someone who runs their life
without any involvement in religion or god concepts at all.

However the religious turn that into anti-theist. Someone who BELIEVES
there is NO god.

Its hard to make them see that absence of belief is belief in absence..