agnostics are heretics. They say there is no God.
Wrong. "Extreme" athiests believe there is no god. Agnostics just realize the predicament that if there is, or is not, a god, it's all unknowable. And because of that, agnostics actually have the choice of believe or not believing in a god. The believers basically just try not to define which that they do not know unlike organized religion does. And I, myself, fit into the "agnostic believer" catagory.
If you are an atheist/agnostic:
Do you think that the religious believers are trying to convert you whenever they can?
Do you think that religious believers are doing something wrong?
Do you think they are bad? Evil? Good? Other?
Do you think they oppose you?
Do you think they want to harm you?
I do not feel as if religious believers oppose or want to harm me. However, I do realize that there are some that do, but I've yet to encounter that, thankfully, for living in liberal Southern California.
And no, I do not feel as if religious believers are bad people. Obviously there are those that are bad, but that is the small minority. Most religious believers are good people trying to better their lives and be closer to god. And for those that try to convert others, I do not really blame them because that's something natural. If someone feels as if something is helping them better themselves, they want others to benefit as well. There's a reason why Viagra is publicized ya know.
Time for the ranting..
Now the only faults that I see in religious believers is their blind faith. Not their blind faith in believing in a god, but the blind faith of their religion. And by that I mean that each religion feels as if they actually know it all. They take their books and accept it as complete fact and that's silly. Go ahead and take the good things from your book and apply it to your life, but when it comes to mystical and other such profound things, when there is absolutely no proof to those claims other than the claims themselves, it makes the person a sucker.
Those types of people are only hurting themselves. They're basically dedicating their lives to most-likely falsities and something such as god is of huge importance and has a huge impact on their lives. I just cannot imagine living my whole life a lie. And then when those that say "it all may be true", because so many other religious thoughts say the same thing, the odds are highly against them and it once again makes them a sucker. I just for the life of me cannot understand the illogicalness of them not being able to realize all that and the only conclusion I can come to is that they were brainwashed, fear the unknown, or have such high hopes that they become dedicated and then can't turn back because they're in so deep now.. just like a gambler who's lost it all and is down to their last $1000 in hopes of still winning it big. You all have my sympathy.
Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those that study religion, so long as it's religion as a whole. I just do not like those that dedicate their lives to just one religion because it's insane. It's insane to confine oneself to one set of beliefs when it comes to something important, and so unknowable, such as god. If there's something I don't know, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna research the darn subject. I don't see people trying to pass the S.A.T.'s just by having knowledge in english and no other subject. Why is it that people can use logic and expand their knowledge in most important situations, yet when it comes to god -- which most everyone believes is the most important thing there is -- the're half-assed about it? Actually no, not half-assed, not even quarter-assed, they just flat out don't care even though they sure as hell will say they do and will hold and defend that position to their dying last breath. They're being lazy beyond belief learning the bare minimum to get by. Well, that's nothing new, heh.
And yes, I do realize that religion is a huge subject and even just studying one religion takes a huge amount of time. But that's the problem right there too. Many study their one religion too much as if trying to find some hidden secret. They wind up becoming specialists due to all that time spent and while it makes them knowledable about their one religion, they actually know less about god because of that. They know a lot about little and little about a lot. About their one religion they know a lot, but about god, they really don't know jack squat and that's the problem. They choose to follow Christ, follow Mohammed, follow Buddha, or any other past prohpet's ideas, instead of god him/her/itself. Anyone but me see the problem in that? Please quit wasting your time with one religion and expand your knowledge. Why do you take that care with other tasks but not when it comes to the most important of all?
So there's my ranting and preaching. And sorry, heh, I'm kinda buzzed right now.
- N