There was a time of great religious turmoil in Ireland. During that time there were roadblocks manned by the national police. One day a car, pulled up to one of the roadblocks and the guard asked the driver if he was a Catholic or Protestant. The driver declared he was an atheist. The guard ask if he was a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheists.
My Great-Great-Great Grandfather and his family immigrated from Dublin, Ireland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1835. In the 1850s they had settled in Missouri with the purchase of 320 acres of farmland in Maries County. They were devout Catholics! They broke from the Catholic church when a major altercation developed over the payment of fees to a priest in order to receive last rites for his dying daughter. The altercation ended with Patrick chasing the priest down the street while “repeatedly striking him on the head with a shillelagh”. At that point Patrick became a protestant while other members of the family remained Catholic.
Throughout the history of man, religious teachings have been passed down from one to another. Most recently, the 10 Commandments as provided to Moses was essentially a reaffirmation of teachings as provided by the historical Buddha some 500 years BC with the exception of the exclusivity provisions. In addition, the Quran is essentially a reaffirmation of the Bible or the “Book” as referred to by the Quran, again with the exception of the exclusivity provisions. All religions like to claim they are the "true" believers.
It seems to me that if people “really” believed in God they would not think and act as they do. Throughout all of the religions I have studied and practiced, there is always some retribution for not heeding the teachings, yet people continue with what can only be called hypocrisy.
Again, it seems to me that if people “really” believed in God they would consider the possibility that God spoke to man since the beginning of time and not just in the past six thousand years. Surely the value of knowing and following the word of God would have been just as valuable hundreds of thousands of years ago to early man as it is today. Of course one of the major conflicts in religion is between Christianity and Islam or in the case of Ireland between Irish and Protestant. Both claim to be the "true believers" and are willing to kill each other in the name of God to prove it.
My personal religious training began as a child in the Baptist church. I faithfully attended church and bible school every Sunday and attended bible camp in the summers. I was a "Baptist" even when I joined the Marine Corps and they were pleased to confirm that by stamping "Baptist" on my dog tags along with my blood type and serial number. I guess the idea was that if all that was left of me was a toe, they could give it a good “Baptist” burial. Bible Belt Baptist back in the 50s were very strict and there is an old joke that “The reason Baptist don’t make love standing up is because they fear it might lead to dancing.”
It seems that one the liberating aspects of being an atheist is you can express your opinion about religion because you understand that since there obviously isn't a God, blasphemy is a victimless crime. A lot of atheist are "closet atheist" however, some are very prominent. Famous Atheists
They say Buddhism is the best religion for an atheist since they don’t believe in a “God” because the historical Buddha only considered himself as a teacher trying to relieve suffering. Of course, like any other religion, its all about the money. I never considered myself a "Buddhist" because like with other religions, I could never buy into the whole package. I did however find some aspects of the philosophy like self reliance helpful. Over the years I had done a lot of research into Buddhism and developed some of my research notes into a page titled "Buddhist Notes" in an attempt to share some of the "facts" and dispel some of the misunderstandings. Buddhist Notes
There was a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Group on religion. They found that when given a quiz on religion, atheist scored higher than anyone of faith on their understanding of the bible and religion. I studied Middle East culture, language and religion at Rice University and also have a copy of the Quran on my Kindle along with the King James version of the Old and New Testaments. I also have a lot of books and research notes on Buddhism as you can tell from the "Buddhist Notes" link above.
I recently had a couple young ladies knock on my door and they were going to give me some religious material and of course they were prominently displaying their bibles and extolling the virtues of Christianity. After politely listening to their prepared speech, I asked them if they were familiar with the teachings of Islam or Buddhism and of course they said no. I explained that if they were going to try and convince people they should be Christians, they might want to familiarize themselves with the alternatives. I explained that I do not share their beliefs but I do have a copy of the Quran and Bible on my Kindle so I can understand other points of view and they might want to read: Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” They quickly looked it up, stared at each other and then scampered away to share their enlightenment with others. Of course, I understood their need to raise money in the name of Christ just like the Buddhist have to raise money in the name of Buddha.
One of the more famous atheist that all Christians love to hate was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. He is famous for saying "God is dead!" Actually, he went on to say that recent developments in modern science and the increasing secularization of European society had effectively "killed" the Christian God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for the previous thousand years. In other words people were learning that they could not put the square religious peg in the round scientific hole.
A common misconception among Christians is that atheist simply don't understand religion. Obviously, according to the Pew Research poll mentioned earlier, atheist do understand religion which is why they reject it. In the case of Nietzsche, he was born in a rural area southwest of Leipzig, Germany, in 1844, his childhood was strongly religious: his father and both grandfathers were Lutheran ministers. In 1864 he enrolled at the University of Bonn, where he studied theology and philology—the interpretation of classical and biblical texts. The following year he enrolled at the University of Leipzig. Attending lectures by fellow philologists familiarized him with the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose atheistic viewpoints seem to most scholars to have inspired Nietzsche’s trek away from his religious roots. Nietzsche also served as a medical orderly in the Franco Prussian was so like me, he probably had some difficulty with what he saw and what he understood about the existence of any God. I have included some his quotes in my Famous Quotes blog: Nietzsche
One of the most famous atheist was Sigmund Freud. He claimed that religion and the belief in a supernatural “Father” figure is nothing more than a childish obsessional neurosis. In fact he called religion a “universal obsessional neurosis”. He claimed that the need of people to have a protective father satisfies a sense of “infantile helplessness.” Some people say this is why people get religion when they go to prison because of fear and a sense of helplessness and somehow this supernatural father figure will protect them. The same holds true as when people get religious as they get old and face death because they are in fear of something they can’t control and are looking for that protective father figure they no longer have. That is why they say there are no atheist in foxholes during combat because people are in fear of their life and feel helpless in that they may die any second and look for protection from a father figure. Actually, a true atheist would realize, as would a Buddhist, that he is on his own and needs to fight like hell to save himself rather than rely on some metaphysical spirit to vanquish the enemy. In some battles, you have devout Christians fighting devout Christians so who’s foxhole is God going to protect. Freud went on to call praying “wishful impulses”. He wrote a paper titled “Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices”. He concluded that “Psychoanalysis has discovered that Xs are the symptoms of neurosis; religion exhibits Xs; therefore religion is a neurosis.” Source: Freud and Jung on Religion by Michael Palmer.
Faith, like hope is a wonderful thing. Like hope, it cost nothing and is well worth the price.
My Great-Great-Great Grandfather and his family immigrated from Dublin, Ireland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1835. In the 1850s they had settled in Missouri with the purchase of 320 acres of farmland in Maries County. They were devout Catholics! They broke from the Catholic church when a major altercation developed over the payment of fees to a priest in order to receive last rites for his dying daughter. The altercation ended with Patrick chasing the priest down the street while “repeatedly striking him on the head with a shillelagh”. At that point Patrick became a protestant while other members of the family remained Catholic.
Throughout the history of man, religious teachings have been passed down from one to another. Most recently, the 10 Commandments as provided to Moses was essentially a reaffirmation of teachings as provided by the historical Buddha some 500 years BC with the exception of the exclusivity provisions. In addition, the Quran is essentially a reaffirmation of the Bible or the “Book” as referred to by the Quran, again with the exception of the exclusivity provisions. All religions like to claim they are the "true" believers.
It seems to me that if people “really” believed in God they would not think and act as they do. Throughout all of the religions I have studied and practiced, there is always some retribution for not heeding the teachings, yet people continue with what can only be called hypocrisy.
Again, it seems to me that if people “really” believed in God they would consider the possibility that God spoke to man since the beginning of time and not just in the past six thousand years. Surely the value of knowing and following the word of God would have been just as valuable hundreds of thousands of years ago to early man as it is today. Of course one of the major conflicts in religion is between Christianity and Islam or in the case of Ireland between Irish and Protestant. Both claim to be the "true believers" and are willing to kill each other in the name of God to prove it.
My personal religious training began as a child in the Baptist church. I faithfully attended church and bible school every Sunday and attended bible camp in the summers. I was a "Baptist" even when I joined the Marine Corps and they were pleased to confirm that by stamping "Baptist" on my dog tags along with my blood type and serial number. I guess the idea was that if all that was left of me was a toe, they could give it a good “Baptist” burial. Bible Belt Baptist back in the 50s were very strict and there is an old joke that “The reason Baptist don’t make love standing up is because they fear it might lead to dancing.”
It seems that one the liberating aspects of being an atheist is you can express your opinion about religion because you understand that since there obviously isn't a God, blasphemy is a victimless crime. A lot of atheist are "closet atheist" however, some are very prominent. Famous Atheists
They say Buddhism is the best religion for an atheist since they don’t believe in a “God” because the historical Buddha only considered himself as a teacher trying to relieve suffering. Of course, like any other religion, its all about the money. I never considered myself a "Buddhist" because like with other religions, I could never buy into the whole package. I did however find some aspects of the philosophy like self reliance helpful. Over the years I had done a lot of research into Buddhism and developed some of my research notes into a page titled "Buddhist Notes" in an attempt to share some of the "facts" and dispel some of the misunderstandings. Buddhist Notes
There was a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Group on religion. They found that when given a quiz on religion, atheist scored higher than anyone of faith on their understanding of the bible and religion. I studied Middle East culture, language and religion at Rice University and also have a copy of the Quran on my Kindle along with the King James version of the Old and New Testaments. I also have a lot of books and research notes on Buddhism as you can tell from the "Buddhist Notes" link above.
I recently had a couple young ladies knock on my door and they were going to give me some religious material and of course they were prominently displaying their bibles and extolling the virtues of Christianity. After politely listening to their prepared speech, I asked them if they were familiar with the teachings of Islam or Buddhism and of course they said no. I explained that if they were going to try and convince people they should be Christians, they might want to familiarize themselves with the alternatives. I explained that I do not share their beliefs but I do have a copy of the Quran and Bible on my Kindle so I can understand other points of view and they might want to read: Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” They quickly looked it up, stared at each other and then scampered away to share their enlightenment with others. Of course, I understood their need to raise money in the name of Christ just like the Buddhist have to raise money in the name of Buddha.
One of the more famous atheist that all Christians love to hate was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. He is famous for saying "God is dead!" Actually, he went on to say that recent developments in modern science and the increasing secularization of European society had effectively "killed" the Christian God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for the previous thousand years. In other words people were learning that they could not put the square religious peg in the round scientific hole.
A common misconception among Christians is that atheist simply don't understand religion. Obviously, according to the Pew Research poll mentioned earlier, atheist do understand religion which is why they reject it. In the case of Nietzsche, he was born in a rural area southwest of Leipzig, Germany, in 1844, his childhood was strongly religious: his father and both grandfathers were Lutheran ministers. In 1864 he enrolled at the University of Bonn, where he studied theology and philology—the interpretation of classical and biblical texts. The following year he enrolled at the University of Leipzig. Attending lectures by fellow philologists familiarized him with the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose atheistic viewpoints seem to most scholars to have inspired Nietzsche’s trek away from his religious roots. Nietzsche also served as a medical orderly in the Franco Prussian was so like me, he probably had some difficulty with what he saw and what he understood about the existence of any God. I have included some his quotes in my Famous Quotes blog: Nietzsche
One of the most famous atheist was Sigmund Freud. He claimed that religion and the belief in a supernatural “Father” figure is nothing more than a childish obsessional neurosis. In fact he called religion a “universal obsessional neurosis”. He claimed that the need of people to have a protective father satisfies a sense of “infantile helplessness.” Some people say this is why people get religion when they go to prison because of fear and a sense of helplessness and somehow this supernatural father figure will protect them. The same holds true as when people get religious as they get old and face death because they are in fear of something they can’t control and are looking for that protective father figure they no longer have. That is why they say there are no atheist in foxholes during combat because people are in fear of their life and feel helpless in that they may die any second and look for protection from a father figure. Actually, a true atheist would realize, as would a Buddhist, that he is on his own and needs to fight like hell to save himself rather than rely on some metaphysical spirit to vanquish the enemy. In some battles, you have devout Christians fighting devout Christians so who’s foxhole is God going to protect. Freud went on to call praying “wishful impulses”. He wrote a paper titled “Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices”. He concluded that “Psychoanalysis has discovered that Xs are the symptoms of neurosis; religion exhibits Xs; therefore religion is a neurosis.” Source: Freud and Jung on Religion by Michael Palmer.
Faith, like hope is a wonderful thing. Like hope, it cost nothing and is well worth the price.
