Dang, If I only had a penny every time someone made an accusation like that… I would have enough money to… LOL.
Well, technically, only Cog’s skull is as thick as a brick. The rest of him is a strange combination of sinew and dried leather with oily matted hair patches in odd places.
@Cognostic By the way, were you ever able to find clippers strong enough to trim your toenails, or do you still use an angle grinder?
Oh, I recently upgraded to titanium boots. Thought you might want to know.
You lightweight! If’n good Mericun steel wurse good enuff fur yrawn granpoop Boiler, otabe gud enuff fur yewall.
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Angle grinder? What’s that? The best way to keep toenails trimmed is the same way you keep your fingernails trimmed; just drag them along the ground as you walk.
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That would depend if your sole purpose in debating the topic was to reason a theist out of theism. That theists do abandon their beliefs is simply a fact, and I have on rare occasions seen some come here and state plainly that the debates here influenced that abandonment of faith based belief.
However debating religions has other uses, since my primary desire would be to oppose only pernicious beliefs, this is best done with reason, and such reasoning would be ineffectual if it were never shared with those who hold such beliefs. Debate also helps me examine my own rationale, and this helps me to fight my urge towards bias, and to keep an open mind.
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War is organised murder, and nothing else. - Harry Patch
While I understand and share the sentiment that reviles war, this is pretty facile reasoning that ignores context, it is also semantically incorrect, since murder is the unlawful killing of one human by another. However I assume he using murder here as a metaphor for all killing.
You speak of reason as if it is a reason for living.
Why wouldn’t it be? We attach subjective meaning to our lives, why not that? Of course you may not agree, but then your ability to reason so far seems to consist of bombast and reeling off absolutes, peppered with the odd quote taken out of context, and that you’ve clearly not properly examined.
If you learn to reason for yourself, you may stop being a simple automaton who repeats ideas without considering them critically, and even enjoy it for its own sake.
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Sure, why wouldn’t you? I’m a walking/talking middle finger in the faces of believers. You’ll know at a glance that I’m not a fan of christianity, or any other religion.
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And Christianity is a walking middle-finger to all non-believers. (We will be partying in heaven while you burn in hell. Hallelujah.! And praise the Lord!)
So, what you are really saying is that you have not yet been able to shake off your ‘Black and White’ fallacious Christian upbringing. Everything is, after all, good or bad, rght or wrong. You either believe a god exists or you believe a god does not exist.
Sorry for you, that you do not understand. It makes you a poor representative of atheist thought. Still, a lot of atheists do start out that way. There is room for growth.
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Can I get a hallelujah?
God works in mysterious ways… 
Amen brother, wide is the path and easy is the way etc etc…
Being wary of a belief, and of any pernicious effects it may sometimes have, is simply prudent, hating anyone who holds the belief, is simply bigotry…
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As much as it pains me to the core to be forced to agree with anything Cog might say, I’m afraid this is one of those times I must bite the bullet and concur with that mangy mongrel’s evaluation. (Dammit… 
) Anyway…
On one hand, I fully agree it’s okay to be annoyed (or sometimes even outraged) at some of the nonsense acts committed by those of Christian (or other religious) faith. Perfectly understandable at times. HOWEVER… To remain in an almost constant state of animosity toward those who use their LAWFUL FREEDOM to believe and worship as they choose is an exercise in self-defeating futility. Why do that to yourself?
Remember, you escaped! You see through the bullshit. You are no longer delusioned by their ancient dogma. YET… By maintaining your constant anger and allowing every single little “Bless you” and “Praise the Lord” and “God is good” utterance to ignite your ire and raise your blood pressure, you are outwardly and inwardly displaying how YOU STILL ALLOW THEIR RELIGION TO CONTROL YOU. (Let that sink in a moment.) Even worse, you are actually helping feed into their view that you need their god to “help save you from your misery.” In other words, you are showing them EXACTLY what they expect to see from a godless heathen. In their minds, Satan controls you. And, as such, guess what… YOU end up encouraging their justification for shunning atheists. Rather counterproductive, don’t you think?
Personally, with the exception of those trying to force their religious laws into our government, I find the whole thing incredibly amusing nowadays. You see, I spent a majority of my life being controlled by the Chistian concept of Satan and hell, even though I KNEW something was wrong with the whole thing ever since I was a little kid. Thankfully, I finally made my escape a little over five years ago. Granted, I spent the first 5 or 6 months venting and releasing all my pent up anger and frustrations during my adjustment. After that, though, I have been a happy man ever since. Basically, I refuse to let myself be controlled by that belief system anymore. Not for another second. Moreover, most people I know would never guess I am an atheist. None of their business, as far as I’m concerned. (If they were to ask, however, I would tell them the truth.) Where I live, you can’t go out in public without somebody saying, “Have a blessed day.” I simply smile and say, “Thank you. You, too.” Or, if I sneeze, somebody nearby will say, “God bless you.” Again, I just smile and thank them. Why would I do otherwise? They are simply being polite in the way they know how. It does not annoy me or make me uncomfortable in the least little bit. My eyes are open now. And I absolutely understand why most people find it so difficult to ditch their religious indoctrination. And my jumping down their throats and acting like a belligerent ass toward them certainly is NOT going to encourage them to change their minds. But, hey, that’s just me…
(Edit for having a blessed day.)
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Well of course, you are ASSuming that everyone in the “Atheist World” wants them to change their minds…some of us jackasses just enjoy being a “beligerant ass”, and them changing would remove an opportunity for ongoing entertainment.
.
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Edit to poke the bear
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Okay, look, I never said there wouldn’t be drawbacks to having them change. It should be understood, though, that sometimes we have to sacrifice our own sources of entertainment for the good of others. Besides, let’s be real, we all know there will never be a shortage of entertaining specimens in that area.
(Edit for self-righteous glory.)
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Look at it this way. Christianity is 500 years ahead of Islam. When the Christian get a prophet that takes them to the promised land, someplace like Jones Town or North Korea for example, and tells them that this will be the promised land. Then they will have their own country like the Jews. They can spend all their time knocking on doors, accusing each other of being false prophets, singing glorious hymns to God, and eating as many wafers washed down with the blood of the lamb as they can stomach. Then they can martyr themselves just as the Israelites did and leave the rest of us alone as we work on the Islamists and Muslims for the next 500 years.
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you are forgetting the Hindus and Scientologists there mate.
Edit for being clear about my inner thetans,
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Ah yes, there it is…the great sacrifice for the benefit of all of mankind. I guess I just underestimated the degree of your magnanimity. Clearly you possess the power to “change” other’s minds and would never use that awesome power for entertainment or self-gratification. Frankly, I am humbled by your altruism and self-sacrifice…
Edit (in the presence of greatness)
Well, thank you. Naturally, I’m not one to brag about how incredibly awesome I am. Just not my style to self-glorify my willingness to put the needs of others before my own, despite the fact I am the most giving person I’ve ever known. My generosity even amazes ME sometimes. But I am far too humble to draw attention to myself and point out those highly admirable qualities so that others might place me on a pedestal and gaze upon me in awe and admiration. So having you recognize my greatness and sharing it publicly with others without my offering you monetary compensation is indeed a welcomed boost to my reserved ego.
(Edit for buying extra mirrors.)
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