In a rare display of authentic expression, a heathen made this statement.
“Religion has little worth… in fact it is worthless simply because the price one is required to pay is never worth it.”
Unintentionally, this product of mindless evolution has spoken wisdom!
Jesus said this:
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.“
It costs a lot to be religious!
You lose your entire self in the process.
Everything.
The old you disappears.
There’s nothing left.
(And even then…you come up short of the total bill.)
Then, a ‘new you’ begins to exist.
Each person has to decide whether or not that’s ‘good news’.
82 Responses
I’m wondering where the other Atheists are. Why aren’t they here criticizing Ark’s statement that Atheism is a “belief”???
Maybe they’re embarrassed.
“Stop making statements, Ark! You know better! The only way we can engage in dialog is if we ask ALL the questions! We are the ones everyone else is trying to convince…while comfortably standing in a void claiming not to believe anything, when the tables get turned. Ask questions! You’re making us look bad!” –Other Atheists
We ARE superior.. well at least our world view is.
And I have confidence in this belief based on evidence. I trust you understand?
Ark just admitted he is a believing being; he has a belief, despite claiming a lack of one.
And once more you demonstrate just how shallow you truly are.
Do you think Jesus would be proud of the way you behave?
I very much doubt it.
But you can pat yourself on the back that you are behaving exactly as non believers have been saying for ages.
Though you grind a fool in a mortar with pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him. Proverbs 27:22
Arkenaten told Jasmine, and I quote, “Atheism is simply the belief that gods do not exist.”
Apparently, atheism is, as we have always claimed, a belief.
Not a void.
Not ‘content free’.
Atheism is, absolutely, a belief.
Readers: you know we don’t edit or censor here. You can engage with Ark if you want. But it’s sad to see the good, thoughtful comments get buried. (I believe he bombs the thread with nonsense on purpose, to distract from the posts he can’t argue against.)
The worst thing you can do to a Narcissist is not reply at all. I’d like to try that for a couple weeks and see if we can raise the overall intelligence factor of the comment section. 🙂
Ark is a loudmouth and a bully but I don’t think he’s a narcissist.
I also don’t really think ignoring him is a bad thing. I banned him and his ilk months ago and the only fallout was that they patted themselves on the back incessantly for a while believing I just couldn’t deal with their superior intellects and then they moved on and found someone else to bother.
@Branyan
Yes, and that is all it is … your opinion, and to be honest, anyone who values critical thinking does not give a fig about your opinion.
Poor Poor Arkbuddy. I’ve been out of the loop for a bit, but it sounds like he hasn’t evolved at all in his thinking. What is that about? Thank you Jesus, for transforming my mind!!! I’ve traded in my peanut butter sandwich for a feast at the banquet table (I love that imagery, haha)
Gene makes a great point. Arkedummy is not evolving at all. Evolution must be dying.
~CQW
Worthless religion, blah blah… Indoctrination, blah blah… Fundamentalists, blah blah… Moron, stupid, rubbish, blah blah… Evolution, modern secularism, blah blah… Don’t you get tired of beating the same gong over and over? Evolutionarily speaking, you’d be the first to go since survival of the fittest relies on recognising what doesn’t work and changing something.
Yep. Same “conversation” on repeat, every day. He hasn’t dealt with the topic of the original post at all. I’m not sure he read it. Lol. Why should he? He’ll say EXACTLY THE SAME THING, no matter what anyone answers.
Mrsmcmommy,
Well… I did theorize that he is a bot on an occasion or two. It could just be an automated response to anything too convicting for him to deal with.
Dave
Romans 8:5-6 (ESV) – For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Religion is worthless. It is based upon lies.
There we go,amanda topic of the post dealt with.
Refute it …. I dare you to even try.
Atheism is worthless because it is based upon lies. There we go, your comment dealt with. Dare you to refute it with evidence that satisfies me to the degree I require.
He will go away if he stops getting attention. (Also–if no one else comments to him, I will be able to hatch my plan…) (*mischievous grin*)
Okay, I just woke up and got up to date. I’ll stay out of the comments for you to hatch your plan. XD
Smile … How’s that cognitive dissonance, Jasmine?
🙂
Watcha gonna do when your kids eventually tell you to stop being so silly for believing in a global flood?
They won’t. They’ll be too busy out raising the dead, healing the sick and casting demons out of anti-theists for that kind of nonsense.
Smile! Nice retort. Good one! Don’t give up your feisty side, it will help tremendously when you eventually kick into touch the nonsense of religion.
Thanks, definitely won’t be giving up my feisty side since God made me that way. Don’t worry, I’m already plenty in touch with the nonsense of religion, especially since reading your comments. Praise God that Christianity is nothing like you describe it!
Really?
Have a read of this. It will make your toes curl… and it is fact
http://www.babcp.com/Review/RTS-Trauma-from-Religion.aspx
Blah blah-blah, yes, I get it. Some people have had psychos teach them a twisted Christianity and they have PTSD from it. Do you see me cutting myself? Do I sound fearful to you? Apparently my awesome life is not fact and you’re just waiting and watching for when I start fitting and foaming at the mouth.
Atheism is worthless because it is based upon lies.
Once again, you simply do not understand what you are trying to refute.
Atheism is simply the belief that gods do not exist.
If this is a lie then the onus is on the proponent of the belief, the Theist,that they do exist … to provide the evidence.
So far no evidence has been produced to demonstrate this.
But if you have the evidence then for goodness’ sake, produce it and I will be the first to acknowledge.
How hard can it be?
From a human sporting a brain that is capable of an imagination so incredibly complex and strong that it could deny even the most basic of proofs, why should I offer any?
If the life of your child depended on it would you offer it then?
Sure. How I live my life will be the proof. But thankfully even so, their lives won’t depend on me getting everything right, because I’m not perfect. Their lives will be in God’s hands.
Then you should have no qualms offering me evidence then should you.
let’s see it, Jasmine. Don’t be coy.
Not at all. Keep watching.
I am watching … and waiting.
“And I feel confident in expressing the hope from all Daddy’s alternative readers that he will eventually start telling it.”
I thought you were going to stay away today. :/ I thought our little talk was paying off about how you’ve already said EVERYTHING you have to say… darn.
Well, manipulating disingenuous people like you and daddy have a fascinating appeal
I am always a little surprised – and that is a surprise in itself, right! – that when I think you have sunk as far as you could go … bingo! Up pops Daddy with another piece of polished filth. He is like the King of non- comedic excrement.
And I find myself shaking my head in … I was going to say admiration, but that might be the wrong word … revulsion would probably be more accurate.
For me it’s a bit like an anthropological study in mental health issues and depravity.
And you both do it so well!
It reminds me of a joke about two Devils. A Big Devil and a small:
We’ll call them JB and Little Mandy (Not their real names, obviously)
Anyway, one day, these two Devils are chatting away, discussing about the topic of their next abominable post when Little Mandy pulls this big face and pouts like a petulant, spoilt little brat and whines to JB and says:
”I’m going back to my own blog, ‘cos. I’m tired of being the lessor of two evils.”
Gotta love religion, right?
🙂
@James
And the great transatlantic slave trade was instituted by Christians who used the bible to justify it … as they did apartheid.
It was Christians who jailed Mandela and Christians who let him out.
The bible is replete with examples of slavery. That your god laid down rules for!
Maybe if you steered clear of hyperbole, James and for once thought things through
before you went on with your 99 percent echo chamber posturing?
Just a thought …
You wanted to come over here and repeat the same things you said yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that…?
What was your problem with the original post, that you’re somehow bringing up slavery (which Evolution permits) again?
Well why not?
You continually put up the same basis for all your posts?
Why not put up a post that tells James what an idiot he is for believing in Young Earth Creationism and how science has demonstrated his view is ridiculous?
Maybe we could have an interesting discussion instead of you banging the same stupid Yahweh-gave-us-morality drum every bloody day.
It was monks and Christian leaders who increased literacy rates and preserved so many ancient writings during the Middle Ages. It was religion that inspired the greatest architecture of the Byzantine Empire and the most celebrated art of the Renaissance. It was religious conviction that drove groundbreaking scientists like Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Blaise Pascal. And it was Christians like William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela who led the most important Western movements against slavery and racism.
These are just a few examples. But they certainly suggest one cannot simply say that religion is worthless when it clearly is not.
I understand that non-belief has its share of vocal evangelicals but they would do their cause a huge favor if they steered clear of hyperbolic absurdity and comments that are 99 percent echo chamber posturing and 1 percent thought through.
Can’t remember if I’ve linked this before. Doesn’t matter. It’s a great book that I recommend to anyone interested in understanding why Western culture rocks:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-that-Made-Your-World-ebook/dp/B004Z70982/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488144283&sr=8-1&keywords=the+book+that+made+your+world
I will definitely check it out
It’s really great! Very readable and jammed full of history. The author grew up in Eastern culture. He is very honest about the marked differences between Eastern and Western philosophy. (Spoiler: Christianity changed the world.)
Christianity absolutely changed the world, there is no doubt about it.
Yeah, try as they may with their CE and BCE, the numbers for our calendar year (though a couple of years off or so) reference the birth of Christ.
Not bad for Someone Who is being accused of being a fictitious character.
Dave
2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) – Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Virtually everyone was ”religious’ back in the day, James, and the Roman empire and those that came after ensured this.
Why do you blithely ignore other cultures that were not Christian?
Have you considered the Chines for example?
What about the pre-Muslim Arab world?
I won’t follow you down some bottomless rabbit hole Ark.
You said religion is worthless, I countered with some reasons why that statement is moronic. There is no discussion to be had.
If Ark could read things. He would benefit from that book too.
Nah, he wouldn’t. He is a scoffer and will remain one until the Holy Spirit softens his heart.
I’m going to write about that topic in the future. I’m curious about hard hearts and the relationship to free will.
That will help a fascinating read, I’ll look forward to it.
Religion IS worthless.
And the only thing that is truly moronic is that you being an indoctrinated fundamentalist and Young Earth Creationist are too ignorant to understand why.
And also too infantile, egotistical and churlish to think I am referring solely to your stupid bloody religion.
You are still as funny as you always were.
Let’s talk about the values of teaching Young Earth Creationism shall we, James?
That will be a hoot and a half!
Nah, let’s not talk at all Ark.
I don’t have 16 hours of free time a day to entertain bloviating anti-theists. Sorry, not my cup of tea champ.
That’s right … rather stick to drooling over Ken Ham and his ilk.
Now that’s a em>really intelligent life choice!
Well bugger my giddy aunt.
Am I getting lectured on life choices by someone who has vowed not to sleep a wink until every Chritian on the Internet is made aware of what a disgting eruption of hairy lizard droppings he is?
Ironically, I think Ark actually IS sleeping right now. (Which means his insomnia wasn’t as bad tonight as yesterday. lol.)
Yes, you might well do exactly that , James …
Wait, why is religion worthless? I think I missed something.
Are you referring to all religion or just the christian faith?
Are we saying it’s worthless because of what you get out of it, or what you put into it?
because it is based upon a foundation of superstitious nonsense.
I think you put your finger on the issue right there … faith
”Faith is believing in what you no ain’t so.”
It is worthless, period.
Actually faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing.
I debated with Mr. Branyan about this on one of his posts.
Faith in the religious sense is not the same as trust in the non-religious sense.
You have faith that Jesus of Nazareth arose from the dead.
You have no evidence.
That seems more like an opinion than something you researched.
Really?
Based on the scurrilous nature of its claims,Christianity has always seemed like an opinion.
Wrong.
Really? How so? Please elaborate.
Christianity didn’t “always” seem like an opinion. Living bathed when people were used to a polytheistic (and others a monotheistic) way of living, believing in a God wasn’t that far fetched.
Always is too strong of a word man. It is an absolute. Don’t do the when debating about history, due to the fact that you don’t know all of the variables.
“Only a sith deals in absolutes…”
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist using that. How many times will I get the chance to quote the revenge of the sith in my life time???)
I am not arguing the veracity of there being Christianity but rather the fundamental claims of Christianity, and I did write the claims.
All of those are pretty much nonsense.
“Please elaborate.”
Please don’t. Lol.
He’s not looking for actual dialog. Pearls before swine. 😉
Too late!!! I replied.
But, I believe that some people deserve answers. I gave hime a statement about his life, that didn’t tell why I said it.
Haha. It’s okay, everyone needs to take their turn on Ark’s broken Merry-God-Round a few times.
(But, when a person admits they won’t accept a source unless it is a non-Christian one, there’s no help for them. They’ve made their choice, and they wear their biases proudly. So, once you’ve had enough, you’ll just have to quit responding. He will NEVER let you have the last word.) :/
Go ahead and ask him what he thinks the “fundamental claims” of Christianity are. Go ahead and ask what type of evidence he would accept. But we’ve been all of those places, multiple times. He doesn’t answer questions. He only asks them. 🙂
I see. One side of the coin thinks that they are the only side that shows, due to the fact that they have never seen the opposite side.
Hey, Rainy. Ark has to tell himself that his process of figuring out what’s true is VERY DIFFERENT from a Christian’s, or everything falls apart for him. Atheists believe (very strongly) that what THEY have is evidence, and what religious people have is “blind faith.”
You’re correct–of course–that faith and confidence and trust are all the same. A Theist uses them freely and interchangeably. But, it’s important for an Atheist to separate them (artificially) so they can feel superior.
I think it’s kinda funny that Christ came to save us from exactly what people think religion is: keeping all His rules and being perfect. The point is, we couldn’t. So He did it for us. Christianity is the only religion that is based on someone else’s perfect performance, not our own. Which is why when we lose ourselves to Christ, we’re made new by His righteousness.
It’s not about what we do, but what He did. The fact that all of us have an innate desire to do better and yet also have a deep secret fear that we can’t points to this truth.
I agree. At first, though, it seems like we’re giving everything up. It seems like the short end of the stick. It takes some time before we realize that we’ve traded our peanut butter sandwich for a permanent chair at the banquet table.
We’re giving up selfishness and pride, really. It hurts like heck to do it because it’s our flesh screaming, but we’re always better off without it.
John,
A better question to ask is “what kind of bargain did Jesus get in us?”
Most of humanity rejects His sacrifice. Many Christians can’t be bothered to live for Him, and even the best of us fail on a daily basis.
I am glad God thought it was worth the cost.
Dave
Matthew 13:45-46 (ESV)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
It’s my opinion that God isn’t disappointed with the deal he made. He knew what He was getting into. He chose us.
Despite our constant rejection, He seems quite smitten with us.
John,
I agree. I was giving perspective for when humans like us whine about the inconvenience of sacrifice compared to the amazing grace of God.
Dave
John 1:16 (ESV) – For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Ark will not be able to respond when you point out to him that evolution does not contain morality so religious indoctrination is not wrong. It’s just how you’ve evolved.
He will keep saying things for awhile but you can just remind him that you and he are both products of mindless evolution. Religion is just an aspect of evolution, like any other instinct.
Society certainly CAN continue striving for Goodness and Truth and Love without acknowledging those things belong to God…
And there certainly ARE many “bonuses” to not giving credit where it’s due.
But, eventually, people are going to start asking, “Why are we doing this?”
and “Where are we trying to go?” and “Isn’t it pointless?”
You can take God out of your vocabulary. But you can’t take the longing for God out of your soul.
Who said it and where? I just googled it and there’s nothing, not even for the first four words. Religion has worth to anyone who believes it – it can bring eternal security, easy rights and wrongs on a well-trodden paths, and ready-made tribal groupings.
https://branyancomedy.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/woes-from-a-deconvert/comment-page-1/#comment-15208