Thread: Atheist Buses Take to the Streets

This is why agnosticism rocks. You get to not care either way. So much easier.

Pff.

It's the lazy man's way out.

Lazy is awesome. Plus, it allows effort to be expended in other areas instead

Well, that campaign raised a shit load of cash, which has now funded the next phase:

Nice, huh? It'll be appearing on billboards in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, and I couldn't agree more with the message. Faith schools: 6,943 / Atheists: 1. It's a start.

Absolutely but I'm not sure it's going to make any parents think twice.

...but it's worth a try.

How do you raise a child without your beliefs somehow being inflicted on them? my husband and I often have this conversation, because we feel its important for our potential children to decide for themselves what they should believe. However, its obvious that the christian element is going to have some impact on their upbringing. I'm not going to stop praying or going to Mass or having other christian friends. Especially when they are little, and i can't really just leave them at home alone, until the decide going to Mass is something they want to do themselves.

However, my husband's parents claim that he found Jesus and was saved at 3, and that it was his decision to be a Christian. They believe that he chose that path for himself. Maybe i'll get a 3 year old who chooses to be Catholic, and that will save me heaps of trouble trying to work all this out

Maybe i'll get a 3 year old who chooses to be Catholic

The terrifying thing is, you actually think that it's possible for a three year old child to make such a massive decision. And you aren't alone in thinking this way.

Or maybe you don't actually believe that, but you've convinced yourself that you do. Hmm.

Let's look at this objectively:

The 3-year-old is full of wonder and spends a lot of time watching, observing, and imitating. Their days are filled with busy exploration of their world.

Three-year-olds are interested in perfecting motor skills, and it is common for them to spend the entire morning going down the slide or riding a favorite tricycle.

Three-year-olds have very little memory for past events and do not understand "yesterday" and "tomorrow" the way adults do. They often repeat activities or may do and undo actions such as putting a puzzle together. These sequences are important to later understandings of change and consistency.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

• talks so that 75 to 80 percent of his speech is understandable
• talks in complete sentences of 3-5 words. "Mommy is drinking juice. There's a big dog."
• stumbles over words sometimes - usually not a sign of stuttering
• enjoys repeating words and sounds
• listens attentively to short stories and books
• likes familiar stories told without any changes in words
• enjoys listening to stories and repeating simple rhymes
• able to tell simple stories from pictures or books
• enjoys singing and can carry a simple tune
• understands "now, soon, and later"
• asks who, what, where, and why questions
• stacks 5-7 blocks
• enjoys playing with clay or play dough (pounds, rolls, and squeezes it)
• can put together a 6-piece puzzle
• draws a circle and square
• recognizes common everyday sounds
• matches an object to a picture of that object
• identifies common colors such as red, blue, yellow, green
• can count 2-3 objects
• can solve problems if they are simple, concrete, real, and immediate, and if wants to
• interested in similarities and differences
• can distinguish, match, and name colors
• interested in features of animals that make them unique
• has good self-knowledge; can understand difference between self and younger children, but not between self and older children
• can say his age

Yet you think, that given all of this, a three year old can decide, based on totally impartial evidence, that Christ is the saviour. That in fact, science and quantum physics don't hold all of the answers with regards to where he came from, that all other religions (which he's obviously studied intently) are not as valid as Catholicism, and that, miraculously enough, he's decided to follow the same path as his parents.

Well, I'm glad that will save you 'heaps of trouble'.

When I was in second grade and everyone was doing some confirmation practice thing, and everyone was singing the "I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N" song, I highly doubt that anyone was actually listening to the words and meaning them. Kids have religion because it's habitual, not because it's what they literally believe. Your husband's parents are perhaps delusional. Parents sometimes are.

Originally Posted by Trionix

The terrifying thing is, you actually think that it's possible for a three year old child to make such a massive decision. And you aren't alone in thinking this way.

.

dude, i don't believe that at all. I was being sarcastic as a result of my in-laws believing that.

if i really believed that, would i be concerned about everything i wrote before that. Obviously if they could make a decision for themselves at 3, i wouldn't have to worry about my own christian influences rubbing off on them. That would make it easier. However, i have stated that i am concerned about it.

I'm sorry.

It's hard to spot sarcasm here sometimes!

But It's not atheist at all It's agnostic. I wouldn't be comfortable putting an atheist bumper sticker on my car because I have a few religious friends who I have no intention of offending despite my disbelief...but I would be comfortable putting that on my bumper. Because that comment is labelled atheist would I be labelled atheist if I used it?

Atheism isn't about saying, 'There is definitely no god.' We've been told that that's what we're saying, by various religious groups, but that's really not it at all.

All that's being said is that based on current human knowledge (science, whatever), there is no logical reason to suggest that there is a 'god'. No scientist will ever be 100% certain about anything, because if they were, science wouldn't work. Nothing new would be discovered, no theories would change, we would to all intents and purposes rely on belief, which would make us religious. Hence why we don't say, "God definitely does not exist."

Agnostics don't give a fuck one way or the other, they're like the people in the room who, halfway through a debate they've overheard, step into the conversation and loudly announce, "I'm nothing to do with this debate," and then march proudly back to their quiet corner. Whatever.