So what do you guys think of this Ted Haggard thing?

[Setec]

This was an awesome week for anyone who's sick of religion and the widespread misconception that faith is a virtue. First Kent Hovind gets convicted on enough counts of tax evasion to remain in prison for almost as long as the time since he believes dinosaurs and humans coexisted. (As Lewis Black says, "Anyone who thinks The Flintstones is a documentary is an idiot!") Then Ted Haggard, one of the people I most despise in the entire world and a leading voice of the anti-science movement, turns out to be a prostitute-soliciting meth-using sodomite whose hypocrisy towers to even more incomprehensible levels than those of a typical anti-evolutionist. The only way this could get any funnier is if Dick Cheney shoots somebody else in the face... please let it be Pat Robertson.

 

[joe]

Did you know over 55% of the US thinks the world is about 10,000 years old?

That means 55% of the population, at a minimum, is retarded, and/or very easily misled.

 

[micfire]

Did you know over 55% of the US thinks the world is about 10,000 years old?

That means 55% of the population, at a minimum, is retarded, and/or very easily misled.

That tells much about America's educational achievements...

 

[joe]

The thing is, the only place they would get that number from is the bible. 55% of the population believes the Genesis story is what exactly happened.

 

[sebastya]

As a Christian myself, it ticks me off to no end because it is yet more ammo for the anti-religion/christian folks out there to point their finger and say "see, look at THAT! Don't preach to me hypocrites!" Guys like this are a sham.

I will say as a Christian these days, I am more and more against "religion" as it has shaped out in modern times. It's embarrassing. Luckily I am a member of a pretty kick ass church. I play in the praise band for the contemporary service and we rock out! Awesome fun. We have grandmas, families, biker dudes, punko kids, you name it, quite the assortment, and its refreshing to see as noone judges the other.

Most Christians are against religion. Most people don't know that.

 

[sebastya]

Many will just defend it, but Chrisianity is based on faith in God not in people.

amen bro

 

[[R]DeVore]

I didn't read the whole post so forgive me if this is a repeat of someone elses comment:

"OH BOY, ANOTHER GAY REPUBLICAN"

 

[Andrew]

This was an awesome week for anyone who's sick of religion and the widespread misconception that faith is a virtue. First Kent Hovind gets convicted on enough counts of tax evasion to remain in prison for almost as long as the time since he believes dinosaurs and humans coexisted. (As Lewis Black says, "Anyone who thinks The Flintstones is a documentary is an idiot!") Then Ted Haggard, one of the people I most despise in the entire world and a leading voice of the anti-science movement, turns out to be a prostitute-soliciting meth-using sodomite whose hypocrisy towers to even more incomprehensible levels than those of a typical anti-evolutionist. The only way this could get any funnier is if Dick Cheney shoots somebody else in the face... please let it be Pat Robertson.

Kent Hovind was a complete loon. Even other creationists think he's full of bullshit. Fortunately he's great entertainment: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tUY1k7B7hgM

 

[Setec]

Kent Hovind was a complete loon. Even other creationists think he's full of bullshit.

Everybody's pretending now that they've thought he was bullshit all along. None of that's true. Neither is the "most Christians don't like religion" either. If you grew up in the city or an unusually progressive small town you might be able to get that impression, but anyone from the small-town or rural areas in the Midwest and the South knows that lunatic fundamentalism is the rule among Christians rather than the exception. There you'll find confident assertions that evolution is a myth by people who mostly never even took high school biology, D-students who tease A-students for reading about the Big Bang, and millions of people who say the word "atheist" with contempt previously reserved for the n-word.

And being a Christian but not a fundamentalist isn't really much better than being a fundie. If you're going to believe in any fairy tale creatures, from unicorns to goblins to god to elves, it's not all that much less silly to buy only part of the story than it is to buy all of it. Those who profess to have a direct relationship with the water-walking reanimated son-of-a-virgin instead of relating to him via a church are every bit as delusional -- they've just cut out the middleman.

Ted Haggard was the worst of the worst: a powerful mainstream fundamentalist who devoted himself to spreading that virus and impeding science education. He was the very definition of evil and if there actually was a hell he'd end up sharing a cell with Jerry Falwell and the Taliban. I'm just hoping he holds off on killing himself so we can enjoy the knowledge that he's miserable.

 

[chrislingle]

I am a card carrying republican, active in all that shit and I never heard of this guy until a few weeks ago. I am an atheist, but think I would rather live in a country governed by christian values than one not.
Show me were the founding fathers said anything about a seperation between church and state? that bullshit was not started until the 1950's or so! Tollerence can only go so far. When you are tollerent of 1 group often you insult another!

 

[emp]

I am a card carrying republican, active in all that shit and I never heard of this guy until a few weeks ago. I am an atheist, but think I would rather live in a country governed by christian values than one not.
Show me were the founding fathers said anything about a seperation between church and state? that bullshit was not started until the 1950's or so! Tollerence can only go so far. When you are tollerent of 1 group often you insult another!

Actually, I would like to live in a country ruled by science.
Think of all the shit we could disperse with... start with racism continue til done.

Ya, I am an atheist.

::emp::

 

[chrislingle]

racisim is a figment of the imagination. Most people in this country don't care what your skin color is, they care how you act, the dumbasses (hoolagins) for the most part in this country are black but if we got rid of idiots like Jessy Jackson and Al I did not by my rolex Sharpton we would be better off. I can be descriminated against and it is not racisim it is repayment for shit that happened before I was born!

 

[Setec]

I am an atheist, but think I would rather live in a country governed by christian values than one not.

There's no such thing as "Christian values." People live by cultural values and then cherry-pick the parts of their religion that fit and highlight those. The Bible is so packed with conflicting ideas that every Christian has to choose which ones to take literally and which ones to ignore.

Take the Bible, filter it through the right obfuscated mish-mash of theological ramblings, and presto, you've got a religious justification to take credit for your culture's values -- no matter what they are. Currently they've swept most of the stoning and smiting under the rug, but they've moved the couple of sentences about homosexuality front and center! The beautiful irony is that Ted Haggard was a part of that campaign to build the hatred he's now facing.

We could just as easily pull values from the Bible which make Saudi Arabia look like a nation of rowdy liberals. "Chistian values" could mean having your slaves throw stones at people who kiss before they're married.

We are not a nation of Christian values. We are a nation of American values. Christianity tries to take all the credit, but that's bullshit. Thank goodness we have enough real Americans to oppose the Christian extremists who are trying to use the undeserved good reputation of Christian values to push a radical anti-science agenda. In fact, if any values can be called distinctly Christian, they're the ones involving hatred of gays or Jews, or any other stupid values which appear in religion but not among clear-thinking people. But even those can't really be called "Christian values" because they're shared with Islam and various other, less successful cults.

By the way, I don't give a rat's ass about what the founding fathers said about Church and State. (Although the greatest of them were not very religious at all.) Church is f'ing stupid, and it shouldn't influence government policy whether people knew that in the 1770s or not. The separation of Church and State has been framed as a constitutional issue because that's the best way to deal with it in the courts. But the real justification for promoting it is that faith is crazy and very harmful.

By the way, tolerance is overrated, or at least in the typical sense of misusing the word to mean "respect." I tolerate religion in that I don't go out and impede people from practicing it. But I refuse to respect it, and a lot of people have confused disrespect with intolerance.

 

[Setec]

Shit, why did somebody have to start a religion thread? Now I'm never gonna get my arbi pages finished.

 

[sebastya]

There's no such thing as "Christian values." People live by cultural values and then cherry-pick the parts of their religion that fit and highlight those. The Bible is so packed with conflicting ideas that every Christian has to choose which ones to take literally and which ones to ignore.

Take the Bible, filter it through the right obfuscated mish-mash of theological ramblings, and presto, you've got a religious justification to take credit for your culture's values -- no matter what they are. Currently they've swept most of the stoning and smiting under the rug, but they've moved the couple of sentences about homosexuality front and center! The beautiful irony is that Ted Haggard was a part of that campaign to build the hatred he's now facing.

We could just as easily pull values from the Bible which make Saudi Arabia look like a nation of rowdy liberals. "Chistian values" could mean having your slaves throw stones at people who kiss before they're married.

We are not a nation of Christian values. We are a nation of American values. Christianity tries to take all the credit, but that's bullshit. Thank goodness we have enough real Americans to oppose the Christian extremists who are trying to use the undeserved good reputation of Christian values to push a radical anti-science agenda. In fact, if any values can be called distinctly Christian, they're the ones involving hatred of gays or Jews, or any other stupid values which appear in religion but not among clear-thinking people. But even those can't really be called "Christian values" because they're shared with Islam and various other, less successful cults.

By the way, I don't give a rat's ass about what the founding fathers said about Church and State. (Although the greatest of them were not very religious at all.) Church is f'ing stupid, and it shouldn't influence government policy whether people knew that in the 1770s or not. The separation of Church and State has been framed as a constitutional issue because that's the best way to deal with it in the courts. But the real justification for promoting it is that faith is crazy and very harmful.

By the way, tolerance is overrated, or at least in the typical sense of misusing the word to mean "respect." I tolerate religion in that I don't go out and impede people from practicing it. But I refuse to respect it, and a lot of people have confused disrespect with intolerance.

right.....

 

[matrics]

This whole thing is just so gay...

*Loads shit-a-pult batteries to breaking point*
*Places BIG fans in front of everithing to do with religion*
*Aims with laser sight*
*Wait for it... Wait for it... FIRE!!!111!!one*

That about sums up my opinion about this matter. After all, this IS "shooting the shit", right?

 

[Josh P]

well, for those of you who want to get owned in a creation / date of the earth thread, start one up and give me a shout

55% of america then is right. I can't wait to get started on this one.

But for now check out http://answersingenesis.org/

 

[matrics]

well, for those of you who want to get owned in a creation / date of the earth thread, start one up and give me a shout

55% of america then is right. I can't wait to get started on this one.

But for now check out http://answersingenesis.org/

Ok, altar boy or whatever, give it your best shot! Let me hear your propaganda - I was in the mood for fiction anyways

 

[Josh P]

You read anything on that website yet I'm a good debater, but I dare they they are smarter, what with PhD's from the nations top schools and all that. They're some of the smartest minds in america, are you still saying we're retarded for believing in creation?

 

[chrislingle]

setic - wow, who the fuck cares if I call being a good human being "christian values" or something else? Shit in every election what is one thing this country can agree on? GAY MARRIAGE IS WRONG! nobody except for a few left wing fags wants it! now ask the same people if they have a problem with fag couples having the same benifits as married couples the answer is always the same, let them if that is what they want. The thing is the fags are trying to ram something down our throats! The same thing with this bullshit about global warming! there is more prof that it does not exist, the latest climate info for oct. just another example.
You say as fact that science proves you right, have you ever wondered if maybe a higher power put the evidence there for you? I am just saying, I don't believe in a higher power but I don't make not believing into a religion, think you and many atheists do!