Christian Fundamentalist Checklist.

....So the moderators have dismantled my previous thread due to General ATS discussion and etiquette:-

What i want to higlight and discuss is fundamentalist preaching; and make users aware of the preaching that can come from a strict belief in the Christian dogma, or any other superstitious beliefs based on fundamental doctrines.

Notice that much of the criteria can be fulfilled by any strict belief in sinister dogma NOT JUST Christianity (Islam is just one example)

This isn't a case of bad eggs; religion is the cause of such prejudice; especially fundamental monotheistic religion; I feel Christians should condemn the following to improve their credibility.
www.rustylime.com...

You might be a Christian Fundamentalist if:

-You complain when Christians aren't allowed to practice religion in other countries, but you go berzerker when someone tries to set up a Mosque in your neighbourhood.

-You consider a single prayer that was 'answered' during your life time as a high success rate.

-You constantly challenge the work of respected scientists who established the age of the Earth as billions of years old through sound scientific practices, but have no problem believing the word of ancient tribesman who think it's only several generations old.

Obviously there are many backward people amongst our species; my case isn't that atheism or non-belief is superior, or that Christianity is wrong.

Christians, and other religious people - I want your view; i'm not ridiculing Christianity, only fundamentalism.

NOTE TO MODS AND CHRISTIANS: This is not an attack on Christianity as i've repeated; This is highlighting fundamentalist preaching, and how to spot fundamentalist preaching on ATS and elsewhere.



MOD NOTE: Posting work written by others

reply to post by awake_and_aware


Bravo!

Lets not forget.. You may be a Christian if it is completely reasonable to sacrafice your only son, because a voice in your head said so..

You may be a Christian if you believe you will burn for ETERNITY for the actions you achieved within the mere 80 or so years you are alive on this planet.

You may be a Christian if you believe pouring molten lead down the ear of infants is an acceptable way to extract a confession of witchcraft...

Thank you OP, truly those bible high retards are more of a spectacle than they are a serious malefactor.

S&F

IMO christians have no reason to be 'offended' at what you posted because it's true and they know it.

I am an ex-fundie, I pretty much believed what you quoted. Then I finally woke the hell up.

I see it as incredibly insidious and extremely vicious programming that perpetuates itself. It's a hard program to see, much less beat, if one is raised in that sewer. Logic seems to have no effect. They intentionally blind themselves to logic. You literally can't reason with them.

IMHO they see it as an emotional investment, and giving up that investment is too painful to contemplate.

reply to post by awake_and_aware

Not all christians believe everything in that list. However, many believe at least some of the things on it.

As to the age of the earth, and "respected" scientists. Even science is known to reverse itself and amend its theories when necessary. And I question scientific consensus as much as any fundamentalist. Maybe more.

Not all christians have a problem with evolution. In fact, I know a handful of atheists that question its accuracy.
Myself being one of them.

Noah had 120 years to collect those animals, and food for them. I think the problem is that the word Ark should have been plural.

The flat earth thing is getting really old on this board. It has been proven time and time again on ATS, that a flat earth has never been a common held belief. Do some research on it. It's actually quite interesting.

You know less about the Bible than your athiest and agnostic friends.

Unfortunately, there is truth to this especially in the more liberal churches. But among literalists, this isn't near as much the case. You will find many "fundamentalists" know their bible very well.

I don't know any fundamentalist who believes AIDS was a punishment from god. And I still know quite a few.

Christians, and other religious people - I want your view; i'm not ridiculing Christianity, only fundamentalism.

Then you are ridiculing christianity. Because fundi's are christians. They are just literalists.

reply to post by Klassified


I'm sure i mentioned that; Not all Christians are guilty of ALL of the checklist. And now the moderators, specifically "DontTreadOnMe" has dismantled most of it, as he did with another thread of mine.

I've noticed another thread I authored (also with off-site content) that is not directly related to any specific religion has NOT been dismantled, i'm wondering why?

reply to post by awake_and_aware

u2u him, and ask him if there are reasons other than what he listed at the end of your OP. He'll work with you.

Fundamentalists are a somewhat segregated bunch. From the wild to the mild. It's hard to pin them all down to specifics.

These kinds of discussions are notorious for the fact that, unless the Christian freely admits they must take their religion on faith alone, no other common ground can be established, ie whether formal logic should be the basis of the discussion, or the assumption that the Bible is already unquestionably true.


I too think that the reason many Christians find these kinds of things offensive is because it touches a nerve, and they realize there is legitimacy to what's being said.

For example:




This is a common graphic found on the internet wherever religion is debated.

Obviously the telepathy, cosmic Jewish zombie, etc. are not actually terms found in the Bible, and yet these are good synonyms for exactly what is being proposed.


I think there is a lot of truth to the Bible, but the same can be said of virtually any other religious or philosophical text, especially those which have had historical relevance in major world cultures. I don't think prayer or telepathy are really such absurd ideas. Similar ideas can be found not even in every major culture/religion in the world, but even science now recognizes what they call the "placebo effect," which simply amounts to the power of thought.


Basically what I'm saying is that the dogma and the semantics are the real stumbling block.

The only problem I have with fundamentalist Christians is their inability to relate with any other belief systems. There is something to that, that speaks to the inflexibility and lack of real love present therein, if you ask me anyway.

reply to post by bsbray11


I laugh when i see that picture-text because it is over-exaggered, and certain language is used for effect, but in essence, it's true. And some Christians actually believe that. It's become a meme in itself. That's the beauty of the internet, true freedom of thought, true wit, true comedy, comnig from the soul, no opression.

Originally posted by awake_and_aware
reply to post by bsbray11

 

I laugh when i see that picture-text because it is over-exaggered, and certain language is used for effect, but in essence, it's true. And some Christians actually believe that. It's become a meme in itself. That's the beauty of the internet, true freedom of thought, true wit, true comedy, comnig from the soul, no opression.

No, it misses comedy by light-years. The intent is to offend, and for something to be funny, it has to excite laughter, not snide superiority on one side, or frustration and sorrow on the other.

reply to post by Vicky32


See, i'm of a different opinion where i believe in freedom of speech. For example, I didn't appreciate the Islamists threatening that Denmark newpaper regarding the "Draw Muhammed Day" sattire. It's because the religious think they deserve respect, or to be free from sattire, free from criticism.

If the beliefs wern't so bizarre, such memes wouldn't develop. And a sense of "superiority" is not gained, it's comedy, it's sattire, it's fun. Again, if the beliefs wern't so extraordinary people wouldn't get hurt by public opinion.

reply to post by Klassified


You wrote:

["The flat earth thing is getting really old on this board. It has been proven time and time again on ATS, that a flat earth has never been a common held belief. Do some research on it. It's actually quite interesting."]

True, the flat-earth thing was more like 'folklorish' in the earlier christianities. There's no direct mentioning of it is genesis 1.

But then, genesis 1 CAN be challenged otherwise; as a cosmology it's pure non-sense. Though I have yet to meet a fundamentalist wanting to join a reality-check on geneis 1. It's probably ungodly or sinful to put the bible to a test.

With the exception of a few, who have invented their own version of 'science' for that purpose. In which case this special 'science' must be scrutinized.

reply to post by bsbray11


In a relatively short post, you succeeded with presenting the essentials of the situation.

The hurling back and forth of slogans, propaganda, dogmas, doctrines, with a sprinkling of semantic gymnastics, is basically meaningless; no matter what direction it comes from.

Not denying, that atheists on occasion ALSO present this graffito, my impressions from this and similar forums are, that christian missionaries prefer to stay on that debate level.

For reasons of either incompetence or unwillingness, real communicative dialogues are very difficult to achieve with 'missionaries'/spreaders of the 'good news'.

The incompetent group simply believes, that they already ARE standing on evidence-rockground: "It's true, because it's true", and mainly just parrot, what they've been spoon-fed with.

The unwilling group is aware of the problems for them in a real dialogue, so a set of evasive maneuvers have developed, and it takes time and insistence to break through these 'tactical' evasions.

Should it happen, that even the 'tactical' distractions are bypassed, the missionary will usually just make a disappearance-act. And start from square one the next time.

Originally posted by both bogomil
["The flat earth thing is getting really old on this board. It has been proven time and time again on ATS, that a flat earth has never been a common held belief. Do some research on it. It's actually quite interesting."]

True, the flat-earth thing was more like 'folklorish' in the earlier christianities. There's no direct mentioning of it is genesis 1.

edit on 12-6-2011 by bogomil because: typo and spelling

And so you distort what he said!
You know (or should) that none of what you call "the Christianities" ever taught a flat earth. AFAIK there was a Flat Earth society in the USA in the 19th century, but that's all

No, it misses comedy by light-years.

That's a nice SUBJECTIVE opinion you've got on comedy there. I don't particular like Bill Maher, i think he's an idiot; i don't find him funny just as you don't find my taste in comedy funny.

Subjectism, variety, diversity is cool. I wouldn't want everyone liking the same things and thinking the same way, things would be grey and mundane. It would be like being in Heaven for eternity or something.

"Variety is the spice of life", and all that jazz.

Originally posted by Vicky32

Originally posted by both bogomil
["The flat earth thing is getting really old on this board. It has been proven time and time again on ATS, that a flat earth has never been a common held belief. Do some research on it. It's actually quite interesting."]

True, the flat-earth thing was more like 'folklorish' in the earlier christianities. There's no direct mentioning of it is genesis 1.

edit on 12-6-2011 by bogomil because: typo and spelling

And so you distort what he said!
You know (or should) that none of what you call "the Christianities" ever taught a flat earth. AFAIK there was a Flat Earth society in the USA in the 19th century, but that's all

But I agreed. The flat-earth is not validated by the bible. It was a 'popular' concept in the earlier christianities. Similar to the myths around Lilith, Lucifer and the Pan-inspired presentation of the devil with horns and goat-legs.

reply to post by Vicky32


Really? I know a priest who laughed at that, two in fact. Relatives of mine.

The intent isn't to offend, it's to point out how ridiculous the idea sounds when stripped down to its barest of bare bones, which is at the heart of a lot of comedy.

reply to post by Klassified


Re: The flat earth thing...it was actually a commonly held belief by many people. There's evidence to show that the first person to question the idea was in the first century BCE and that the idea really didn't spread too far outside of certain intellectuals for quite some time.

There is also all the evidence that people though that the Earth was covered by a dome and was a circle through artwork and the language used throughout the Bible to describe a circular Earth.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul

madness, you and I may have our disagreements on some things, but I find it surprising this would be one of them. I would never argue that there weren't pockets of people that might have subscribed to a flat earth. Or maybe those who held it as a theory. As you know, both chadwickus and myself have done threads on this. And I have done a modicum of reading since. Even the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and others knew the earth was not flat.

Everything I've read and researched says this has never been a widespread and common belief. And the Catholic church, who has been accused of many things, cannot even be held liable for this one. They certainly never taught it.

So yes, there may have been some peoples at some time, even in the recent who have subscribed to this. But common and widespread? No.

Myth of the flat earth

You confuse the ignorance of men with the truth that God presents. It takes time to catch up to God's intent for man. We are children now and men later. It takes the education.

1 Corinthians 13

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It may interest you to read this post: LINK

Or this post: LINK

Originally posted by SunTzu22
reply to post by awake_and_aware

 

Bravo!

Lets not forget.. You may be a Christian if it is completely reasonable to sacrafice your only son, because a voice in your head said so..

You may be a Christian if you believe you will burn for ETERNITY for the actions you achieved within the mere 80 or so years you are alive on this planet.

You may be a Christian if you believe pouring molten lead down the ear of infants is an acceptable way to extract a confession of witchcraft...

Thank you OP, truly those bible high retards are more of a spectacle than they are a serious malefactor.

reply to post by SuperiorEd


You wrote:

["You confuse the ignorance of men with the truth that God presents. It takes time to catch up to God's intent for man. We are children now and men later. It takes the education."]

For sure. AUTHORITY always knows best.

Unfortunately competing 'authorities' eventually end up with shooting it out, with the risk of blowing this planet to bits. A bit less guru'ism and more 'live and let live' would work real miracles.