Posted on 09/27/2001 8:25:15 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM
ATHEISTS REJECT COUNTRY'S TURN TOWARD PRAYER
CHAMPAIGN, Illinois, Sep 27, 01 (CWNews.com) - The US' largest atheist group has rejected the public expressions of piety in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, especially those by politicians, according to the student newspaper at the University of Illinois.
Ron Barrier of American Atheists told the Daily Illini that nationally televised prayer services, presidential references to God, and calls to prayer leave atheists feeling forgotten as US citizens. "Nonbelievers were touched by the tragedy just as much as believers were," Barrier said. "All we're doing is asking for a little sensitivity. Just because one does not have religious beliefs does not make one less of a citizen."
"People who want to pray are free to do so, but we don't because we don't understand what they are doing," Barrier said. "It is humans who will clear this debris up, rescue other humans and rebuild the section of New York City. There will be no divine interference involved. People may find comfort in it, but we fail to see what purpose prayer serves."
Shane Taylor, director of the university's Christian Campus Fellowship, proffered an explanation. "It's such a core Christian idea that God wants a relationship with us," Taylor said. "It's like a relationship with anyone else. We're going to communicate with God over matters of the world, and we're hoping the president and other leaders are asking God for wisdom. We've been told we'll receive guidance and answers from God, and that is why we still pray."
As for the claim that President George W. Bush is promoting religion, Taylor said: "Our president is a Christian. His faith is a part of who he is. It's hard to ask the president not to have his faith be a part of how he responds to the attacks."
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Two bits you can't quote me saying that.
In fact, I took the opposite side once in a discussion with OWK, and proved that some basic codes are a nessesary evil in congested areas, and protect all our rights, in the same manner as criminal law. - Scumbag.
You should think more deeply.
"Once you leave this house, you're on your own."
This does not interfere with a parent's authority over a child who lives under his roof, is unable to assume
responsibility for his legal acts, and is a dependent.
In answer to your question, God does not allow evil. He made all things good. Man has the free will to choose evil, which he frequently does. For God to disallow that choice would be to make Man a mere robot.
As to God's seemingly cruel orders to His chosen people in the Old Testament, think of it as His genetic engineering program. These wars were going to occur with our without God's intervention. His guiding hand was used to help a small, unremarkable people survive millennia and produce a single perfect human being who would live a life that would set an example to which we would all hopefully strive. And to those of us that believe in the witnesses, that life was snuffed out on the cross, and rose again from death three days later, and was seen by people willing to die rather than deny that they saw the resurrected Christ.
I'd like to see your bona fides that makes you judge of The Catholic Encyclopedia as "theological pap." A wee bit arrogant, TP.
This does not interfere with a parent's authority over a child who lives under his roof, is unable to assume responsibility for his legal acts, and is a dependent.
Since the decision to leave resides entirely in the child (according to the whacko LP), the "authority" is of no moment. It is meaningless. The LP recognizes NO authority beyond the child. Bizarro.
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Two bits you can't quote me [explain why YOU think] I'm saying that.
In fact, I took the opposite side once in a discussion with OWK [that is in the archives], and proved that some basic codes are a nessesary evil in congested areas, and protect all our rights, in the same manner as criminal law.
How true. -- Even a blind scumbag sees the light, inadvertantly, now and then.
-- Imbe, if you need a Pope to tell you how to live, I gotta love it.
-- I don't. -- You will have to learn to live with it.
You are daft. -- What kind of words on which thread were deleted? You are just making more unsupported scumbag allegations.
You depend on a weasel worded defense of "some" building codes in one "debate" with OWK
I've stated those same views on many threads over the years at FR, and am prepared to defend them here. What is your problem with them? - Be specific, or be a fool.
but your libertarian positions are well known, not bright but well known. Laughing at you is the only answer, civil discourse isn't possible. I know, I;ve tried.
Only YOU think you've tried, scumbag. - Most of your posting is irrational bull, like your weirdo 'code' flap above.
Sorry pops, but rational discourse with you is impossible.
That does it. I am hereafter abandoning God because these loons demand it. They'll put us back on the right course, golly, just like, well, Bill Clinton.........Yeah, right.
Sit down...shut up and stop feeling sorry for your sorry asses. This is not about you!
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