That's wrong, because then it would also be ok to discriminate against someone because they don't believe in God, they chose not to believe.
Because the majority of showrunners are men. Writers have never been taught how to write strong female characters so they gravitate to preconceived caricatures. What you consider sexism in TV and film is just the result of a male-dominated industry and certainty isn't intentional. If you want to focus on real sexism in America, look at corporate culture and the religious right.
How can you just say things when you actually don't know if what you're saying is true? There are countless people in this world that change their religious beliefs when they grow up. Both of my parents went to church every Sunday when they were kids and yet I haven't stepped foot in a church on a Sunday in my whole life. They're both atheists now. They grew up and decided that what they were taught to believe isn't necessarily right.
Religion is a series of beliefs. I think the beliefs are quite insane. If someone is constantly talking to their invisible friend I am made uncomfortable putting them in power. If their invisible friend is known to gleefully look forward to apocolypse, I don't like their finger on their nuclear trigger. If people had an argument against atheism that was convincing it would follow that you don't want them in power. I am not saying you can arbitrarily discriminate against someone for any belief, but beliefs have consequences and if you can't vote for someone on what they claim to believe when you think it relevant to their actions in power, I am not sure what criteria you are supposed to vote based on.
It's not that atheists like myself choose not to believe, it's just that there isn't anything to believe in. There was never a choice. Religion didn't exist until people made it up. Just because somebody says that something is real and I don't believe in it doesn't mean I'm choosing not to. I just don't think about it. Therefore I don't believe in it by default. But obviously Christians don't think of atheists that way. They think we choose not to believe because we're evil or something. It's more that we just live our lives without thinking of unnecessary nonsense.
Well, if you put it that way, then it's not a choice with us either. I can't just wake up one day and say I choose not to believe from now on. It doesn't work like that. Well here's a counter example, someone might be uncomfortable with an atheist with their finger on their nuclear trigger because they're not afraid of going to hell if they kill a buch of people. This argument is even more convincing than yours.
Yeah. We wouldn't want all this logical and rational thinking behind nuclear warheads. We want someone religious who weighs every option with how they'll be judged by God and if it benefits them getting into heaven.
So Christians only refrain from committing a nuclear holocaust because they don't want to be punished for it?
It isn't the only reason, but certainly is one reason more we have than atheists. Also, see my previous post.
Well, in a doctrine like Christianity if you forced someone to become Christian then killed them it would be better than letting them die an atheist and go to hell. And in general, killing in a Christian worldview just gets the good people to heaven faster, which hardly carries the same magnitude as ending their life for all eternity. If you want to claim exaggeration, you have to actually argue for it, not just state it like a fact.
Nah, some things are just so obvious that they don't need to be argued for. And I'll drop this argument since you seem to be heating up the discussion and I don't feel too passionate about religion anyway. Have a pleasant evening.
I'm not being condescending, I just don't want to take part in this discussion any more because I feel all you do is make exaggerations and broad generalizations about religious people. And I sincerely wished you to have a pleasant evening because I'm planning of having it too.
I wasn't exaggerating. I was using exactly what you said in an example. You make it sound like Christians do things because they don't want to be wrongly judged by God (which you think is a better quality to have than an absence of a fear of a hell), so I just said it how it is.
Saying "it is so obvious I am right that I don't need to bother arguing it" is condescending from my perspective. Hope your evening is pleasant regardless.
Let's put it this way: there are people out there that shouldn't be politicians let alone president because of their religious beliefs. There ARE people that take it too far. Michelle Bachman is a prime example of someone who listens to "God" way too much. But yeah, saying anyone who's religious shouldn't be president is a little extreme. Obama is a Muslim and to my knowledge doesn't bring his Muslim beliefs into his job at all.
Hardy har har. And I am not saying they should be banned from office, just that it makes me uncomfortable. It would count against them when it came to voting, but they wouldn't instantly lose.