Vintage era

On 9 February 2013 16:44, Doc <doc at vaxen.net> wrote: I don't. But see, it's a bit like this cartoon: http://www.atheistmemebase.com/2012/03/30/quit-persecuting-us/ (For the WWW impaired: a single figure says "god probably doesn't exist". 50 identical figures shout "stop persecuting us!") There are many billions of religious people in the world. *All* of their beliefs are based on superstition and myth; that is the nature of religion. None of it can be demonstrated; if it could be, it would not require faith and it would no longer be religion. The religious run most countries; their houses of worship line the streets of every city. You cannot be a Girl Guide or a Boy Scout without making obeisance to their invisible friends. In many countries, mine included, you cannot sing the national anthem without invoking some religion's mythical deity. But the minority of us who are free of this kind of mental infection and who actually base our worldview on facts and reason just occasionally open our mouths and point out that the claims of the religious are ridiculous, that when held up to the light of day, they are self-evident nonsense, *we* are the ones who get attacked for oppression. No. I am not oppressing anyone. The christians, muslims, jews and so on oppress billions. Don't accuse me. If they still had the power they once had, they would torture me to death. All I do is point out that their belief is a self-inconsistent travesty. They killed millions in the name of their illusory magic sky-pixie. People are still killed daily over it. This man believes in a series of ridiculous fairy-stories that no unbrainwashed person would believe. He has personally attacked me on this mailing-list for not sharing his delusions. He has personally emailed me to mock my reasoned, evidence-based, factual, materialistic outlook and to try to infect me with his sick twisted death-cult. His death-cult which involves images of pain and death as its leitmotif; adherents of which adorn themselves with little effigied of a dying man, or with pictures of an instrument of torture. It is sick, horrible, and wrong. It distorts minds, destroys lives, robs people of their freedom to express their sexuality, it denies gay people the same rights as straights, it denies women reproductive freedom. Related sects routinely mutilate the genitals of infants. They are all abhorrent, disgusting cults and the sooner the world is rid of them the better. And no, I will not shut up about it, and no, I am not ashamed of it, and if I my stating these blatant and self-evident truths offends people, well, *good.* I am offended by their superstition and what it makes them do. It made me think. Perhaps being offended will make them think, too. Being offended never hurt or injured anyone. Being offended is good for you. It challenges you, makes you question things. I hate all faiths, pretty much equally. Some are more evil than others, such as scientology or the jehovah's witnesses or the christ-scientists - religions which routinely kill children by denying them medical treatment. But they are all mental infections, viral memes that destroy minds and lives. It's just that some come up more often than others. I don't pick 'em out. They self-select. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884