For Ned

[Kylyssa]

Dear Ned,

I've noticed that you have been talking about Jesus a lot lately, concerned about us all going to Hell.  The problem with how you are going about it is that you are making the assumption that we think the same things you do, that atheists think Yahweh and Jesus as God are real.  We don't.  

Think about something you don't think is real, like Zeus or unicorns maybe.  Now, imagine someone told you that you'd be tortured by that thing after you die unless you believe in it.  Not very effective is it?  In fact, it would sound kind of mentally unbalanced to you, wouldn't it?  

I believe that you honestly think everyone is born believing in Jesus but in truth, no one is.  

If you want to preach to people who think God is real and convince them of things by scaring them with God, maybe you should try some people who are theists like Christians, Jews, or Muslims.  No one is going to be frightened by anything they don't think is real.

If your concern for our well-being is real, I appreciate it, you probably are a very nice and caring person.  Trying to scare people into believing something is kind of a jerk thing to do.  You probably think you are saving us and I commend you for caring.

If you'd like to save people in a real world kind of way, I suggest you turn to trying to save the 400,000 or so American teens discarded to the streets each year for religious reasons.  A percentage also die from being discarded, so if you can get them off the streets, you'd be saving lives for real.  Even if you could talk to your Christian brethren and convince them not to discard their children and not to allow other Christians to discard their children you'd be saving lives for real.  And if Christians stopped throwing away their kids like that, maybe people of other religions and none would have more respect for them, too.

It's hard to even listen to members of a group that either commits or condones atrocities.  It's hard for me to listen to you, talking of torture, when I've held children thrown away for Christian principles.  I've held them while they bled and cried.  I've loved them and cared for them.  Why would I want to listen to the representative of the religion responsible for harming them, especially when he comes to me speaking of torture?

If you could stop the wholesale discarding of children by Christians in America, or the legalized murder of homosexuals in Uganda, or the often fatal Christian exorcisms of children in Africa we might be able to listen to you a bit more easily.  But you'd still have to talk to us as if you believed us to be people and as such, your equals.  You'd still have to provide real evidence not just threaten us with eternal torture.  Go out and stop the Christianity motivated atrocities and then come back to convince us that God is real and then we can decide whether or not God would torture us for eternity.

You can start by taking one of those discarded teens off the street and loving him unconditionally.  It won't even be hard once you look into his eyes.  I don't believe in evil as a thing apart from actions but anything that inspires parents to throw away the greatest treasures they've been privileged to hold, their children, cannot be good for sure.

If your religion is not the worship of an imaginary (yet evil in nature) God then why do you speak so much of torture, the torture He would commit upon people who are in all other ways good simply because they don't grovel down to something they don't even think is real?  Why is your offer for us to obey an evil, imaginary God or be tortured?  Why isn't it an offer of the joys your imaginary God brings?

I'll stick to saving people for real, mostly the people your religion has hurt the worst who are near enough for me to make a difference.

Sincerely,
Kylyssa Shay, anti-homelessness activist

[Ned]

Hey, War of the Worlds was just a movie...with Tom Cruise!

[McQ]

Ned's been banned for one week.

[Kylyssa]

Ned's been banned for one week.

It's cool, he gave all the reply I ever expect to get from him.  Sometimes you just need to say something whether anyone is able to listen or not, able to make a coherent and meaningful reply or not.

[Reginus]

Hey, War of the Worlds was just a movie...with Tom Cruise!

???
Am I missing out on an inside joke?

[The Magic Pudding]

Hey, War of the Worlds was just a movie...with Tom Cruise!

???
Am I missing out on an inside joke?

I was wondering the same thing.
It may be an inside Ned's head joke.
Maybe Ned finds aliens coming from the clouds really disturbing, so he has to keep telling himself it's just a movie.
Aliens doing gods job, smiting the people and a scientologist as hero, it must be troubling on many levels.

[Tank]

Hey, War of the Worlds was just a movie...with Tom Cruise!

???
Am I missing out on an inside joke?

Ned just started randomly posting this comment around the forum.

I think Kal hit a raw nerve with Ned. I do wonder if Ned's faith is waning and he's just hanging around here because he's tempted to throw all the JC stuff out of the window but the meme just won't let go of him.

[karadan]

Ned's dead baby. Ned's dead.

[Ned]

Ned's dead baby. Ned's dead.

I'm not.

Haven't been able to respond to this topic until now.  No disrespect intended, as you all come across as decent people.  But if  I came across someone in real life who spouted the sort of pseudo psychology that is contained in this thread, I would struggle to restrain myself from sticking an umbrella up their ass and opening it.

[Asmodean]

[frankenstein]It's alaiv! IT'S ALAIV!!![/frankenstein]  

[pinkocommie]

But if  I came across someone in real life who spouted the sort of pseudo psychology that is contained in this thread, I would struggle to restrain myself from sticking an umbrella up their ass and opening it.

How very Christan of you.  

[Kylyssa]

Ned's dead baby. Ned's dead.

I'm not.

Haven't been able to respond to this topic until now.  No disrespect intended, as you all come across as decent people.  But if  I came across someone in real life who spouted the sort of pseudo psychology that is contained in this thread, I would struggle to restrain myself from sticking an umbrella up their ass and opening it.

It isn't pseudo anything.  Christians are committing atrocities.  I consider throwing a teenager into the street to be harmed an atrocity.  I consider legalizing the murder of homosexuals to be an atrocity.  Your religion supports and inspires both of these things and many others as well.  

I'm just pointing out that your religion is dirty and corrupt so stop trying to sell it to us by saying we'll be tortured for eternity if we don't buy it.  No wonder your thoughts run to violence (you would want to harm a person who said these things to you in person)  when someone points out that you belong to a corrupt religion that inspires people to commit atrocities.

Now here's some psychology for you - have you thought that perhaps you feel like committing harm to me because you are angry at being told again that your religion inspires people to commit inhumane actions and examples of those actions have been provided?  With no ability to prove that Christianity doesn't provoke inhumane behavior, all you have left is insults and threats.

[Reginus]

I consider throwing a teenager into the street to be harmed an atrocity.  I consider legalizing the murder of homosexuals to be an atrocity.  Your religion supports and inspires both of these things and many others as well.

So Jesus would support those things?

[Ned]

I consider throwing a teenager into the street to be harmed an atrocity.  I consider legalizing the murder of homosexuals to be an atrocity.  Your religion supports and inspires both of these things and many others as well.

So Jesus would support those things?

PWNED!

[i_am_i]

I consider throwing a teenager into the street to be harmed an atrocity.  I consider legalizing the murder of homosexuals to be an atrocity.  Your religion supports and inspires both of these things and many others as well.

So Jesus would support those things?

You talk to Jesus, right? So why not just ask him?