Can Atheists and Theists find common ground as Agnostics?

I enjoyed ‘Letter to a Christian Nation’ by Harris. He is not as popular as many atheists but I do tend to agree with many of his perceptions of Islam. I think Christianity would be every bit as bad were it to have any actual power in the USA. Lucky for us, our version of Christianity has been chopped to pieces, torn apart, and depleted of power, over the past hundred years. Can you imagine if we were as dogmatic as Nigeria? We would still be burning witches, killing homosexuals, and torturing non-believers. Religion can be a very scary thing.

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We’re closer to that in the U.S. today than we were ten years ago.

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“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.” God Is Not Great

“What happens to the faith healer and the shaman when any poor citizen can see the full effect of drugs or surgeries, administered without ceremonies or mystifications? Roughly the same thing as happens to the rainmaker when the climatologist turns up, or to the diviner from the heavens when schoolteachers get hold of elementary telescopes.” God Is Not Great

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But remember, just as cornered animals can be very dangerous, the religious types will increasingly fight back more savagely as their power and influence wanes.

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A tendency that may constitute an existential threat to humanity, if unleashed in a country with a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. Especially given the apocalyptic nature of Abrahamic religions and the prevalence of “rapture” fantasies in said country.

Satirising the propensity of fundamentalists to try and precipitate some apocalypse in order to hasten the “second coming” has been a comedy staple for decades, but the trouble is, many of the unhinged, swivel-eyed loons in question are sufficiently palsied by their infantile attachment to weird interpretations of Bronze Age mythology, to connive and scheme to make that satire a lethal reality.

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I was thinking that the orange jesus, so many wingnut Qanon christians believe was sent by god is so narcissistic that he wouldn’t risk his own life. It gave me a momentary feeling of relief and well-being until I realized that the orange jesus is as dumb as a sack of nails. All it would take is one equally batshit crazy true believer to whisper, “Mr President you’ll be perfectly safe and when you emerge from your bomb shelter all your enemies will be gone and you’ll have the WH secretary pool and your very own Macdonald’s all to yourself”. I think he would go for it.

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A sack of nails is useful.

And in some situations I would trust my life to a well placed and hammered nail, not so orange jesus. So I need a better comparison for stupid. how about bag of rocks. For useless I liked the one that went, Women need men like fish need bicycles. The visual was a fish riding a bike.

Well, you can always give up looking for an appropriate simile and just call him a despicable human being. :wink:

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Actually you only need three to create a deity and a religion, so I’m told… :wink: :wink: :smirk:

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One wonders what the symbol of christianity would have been had jesus been executed by some other method…
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Hmmmmmm I googled “bdsm jewelry” thinking maybe I’d find some miniature torture devices in lieu of the crosses people bizarrely wear, but alas, that didn’t exactly pan out :smirk:. Googling “guillotine jewelry” was more successful. A whole range of necklaces, earrings etc. Searching for “gallows jewelry” turned up mostly nooses as accessories. No more creepy than those crosses.

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I’m pretty sure noose jewelry has been trade marked by the proud boys.

Well if Jeebus had been executed in the 20th century, they would all be wearing miniature electric chairs around their necks…

Edit to throw the switch

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Ohhhhhhh I want one. The irony of supporting the death penalty seems lost on many christians. Alabama just did an execution with nitrogen so lethal injection might become a thing of the past. That state’s supreme court also just declared frozen embryos “children”, couching it in very religious terms. Effectively shutting down IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments. Still more irony. Forcing women who don’t want children to give birth and keeping people who desperately want children from having them.

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Imagine if the Jews had actually had exicuted him. We’d all be stone worshipers. What if he was executed by Muslims? Would we all wear little suicide jackets to church on Sunday? Op! I meant to say ‘Friday.’ And if scientists had killed Jesus we would all be walking around with gold chains that had ‘NOTHING’ attached to them. What in the fuck kind of fun would that be?

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Well, I have one of those and was going to wear it today, but apparently it was absorbed by the nothing attached to it…
I guess I will just wear my monkey paw broach instead…

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Ahhh yes! ‘The Monkey’S Paw’ I really don’t need to say anymore.

Well @Cognostic you’re not giving scientists much credit for evolving a suitable symbol for their gold chains. They could wear miniature telescopes, microscopes, test tubes containing miniature embryos really the list is endless. Each discipline would no doubt come up with their own symbol. The embryo in a test tube could only be worn for short periods lest in thaw and the wearer be stoned for murder. :laughing:

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