When you have major surgery, or even minor surgery, don't thank GOD that you end up healthier afterward. Thank all those in the medical profession who studied, researched, and developed the methods of modern medicine to benefit the living and improve our quality of life while we are alive. People should live for life, not for the supposed fantastical fairytale afterlife.

The so-called Smug-Bastard sense, is a sense used to detect those of Demon-kin. The red skinned cloven-hoofed type that invade our plane of existence and try to tempt and turn us into kindling for the big red horned dude under the ground.

All those non-believing non-religious heathen bastards are going to burn in the everlasting flames of hell for all eternity. While... I.. a believer... a TRUE(tm) UNSMUG(tm)believer of the only true faith out of many thousands and thousands throughout human history will not suffer such a fate.

I will fly up into the magical sky heaven and live with winged sky fairies with bird wings, basking in the sun of my bearded white anglo-saxon god.

Now, on the other hand if they would just repent, give in, and profess total and complete belief in the ultiate fairytale known as the Bible.. literally, and unquestioningly supporting EVERY word in the Bible 100% as absolute truth. Then.. and only then would I consider them an equal. An equal under heaven.

I am not smug in the least. I am simply a servant of God. Praised and GLORY to him. God Bless the USA, for God prefers US over them.

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:
part of the atheist's argument is that belief itself is not sufficient grounds for believing something.

the atheist viewpoint is simply:
"None of these seems like good enough reasons to believe anything."

we just need better reasons. We tend to accept scientific conclusions, and sometimes they easily outdo religious fairytales in being the most wild and wacky claims

What does the atheist do when confronted with contradictory evidence? What does the atheist do when confronted with anecdotal evidence that explicitly invalidates known conclusions.

I assume you are aware of your own belief system, i.e., there are certain assumptions in your knowledge tree. What does an atheist do when the root of that tree is ripped from its foundation?

The religious argues that God exists because I believe he exists. The atheist argues that he isn't satisfied because he doesn't believe that belief as sufficient.

No. part of the atheist's argument is that belief itself is not sufficient grounds for believing something. That is an argument against circular reasoning. the atheist equalent would be to say "I doubt so strongly that there is a god, that simply based on my doubt alone, God cant exist" I have never heard an atheist use that kind of reasoning, and certainly not Sam Harris.

But the whole theist "argument" usually boils down to arguments like that. Really basic fallacies like :
"I believe it because I really, really believe it"
"I believe it because millions believe it"
"I believe it because its in the book, and the book says its true"
"I believe it because its personally consoling to me"

Where as the atheist viewpoint is simply:
"None of these seems like good enough reasons to believe anything."

Which is by far the LEAST arrogant position. Like the religious, we are prepared to believe just about anything, we just need better reasons. We tend to accept scientific conclusions, and sometimes they easily outdo religious fairytales in being the most wild and wacky claims (such as quantum physics) but we accept it based on these claims ability to withstand constant scientific scrutiny, like peer-reviewing, competition, testing, new observations, predictions etc.

Your video, Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale, has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

the way i personally interpret the more grand stories, noah's ark, the creation story, etc etc. For me its not so much did these happen literaly or are they metaphors because that would be to miss the point i think. The tradition of Hebraic storytelling is similar to what we know today as fairytales. Stories that are wildly imaginative and that convey a certain message, or "moral of the story".

The ancient Hebrews had a way of explaining and describing great theological truths through story or parable. Often times they would use things that took place in history as the backdrop, so to speak, for these parables. It's not important whether or not the events actually took place as they are told but rather it is the message that is important.

So, i guess to answer your question, no i dont necessarily believe the earth and all its inhabitants were created in a literal six days or that Noah snatched up every animal on the planet and rode out the great flood and so forth. But if they did it wouldnt matter much to me either way. The message is what is important.

One I get a lot as a rebuke of sorts for my tattoos and piercings (when i had em) is Leviticus 19:28 - Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD

However those that would use this to rebuke me are hypocritically "picking and choosing" for Leviticus 19:27 reads, "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard."
And I assure you all of em were clean shaven and had nice haircuts. But again its all silliness really because those laws were more or less specific to the Levite priests ....... and I'm not a priest nor a Levite

here's the thing with the Bible. If you want to critically analyze it you cant go about it the same way you would write a report on some book you read in high school. It's important to remember that this was a book written by many authors over many, many centuries to all kinds of target audiences and backgrounds.


In short, Garden of Eden? Maybe, maybe not. Not really important.
The great flood and all those animals? Maybe, maybe not. Not really important.
6000 year old earth? Well since science has pretty conclusively proven it is much older than that, no. But then again, if somehow science was wrong and the earth WAS 6000 years old it still wouldnt matter. The Bible was not written to tell us how old the earth is.

Jan Jakub Kolski directed Jasminium - imdb link.

Excerpt:
The film is about love: primarily about love or love relationship between a man and a woman. The viewer is gradually introduced first to Patricia's unrequited love to the movie star, and as the story unfolds, also to Jasmina's tragic love story with one of the monks, and finally the unhappy love story of Natasza, the main character. And the movie is about love in a more general sense, or similar feelings between human beings: exemplified in the unusual friendship between the little girl Genia and Brat Zdrówko (Brother Sanitas), or Natasza's friendship with Patricia.
...

The precocious narrator Genia is the only person who does not have a tragic love story hidden in the past for obvious reasons. Therefore her narration of the story is fairly objective, with her adorable dryness adding to the humorous aspect. In the end, however, Genia experiences her own version of a sad love story when she must leave Brat Zdrówko.

The key to solving all the mysteries of love lies in finding the right aroma. The film is all about magical smell. This extraordinary idea also adds to the fairytale aspect of the film. The important fact is that Natasza's magic perfume works as a love potion only because the love is already there. She merely gives a little boost by caring and acting upon her sympathy. This leads to the final topic of the film: "saintliness," as the director comments.

The film's message is that the most important thing between people is love and caring, and acting upon one's caring for another person. When the caring and acting reaches a certain level, it qualifies to be saintliness. The final scene, when Brat Zdrówko becomes a saint, confirms this idea. As the viewers saw in the film, Brat Zdrówko is the one who cares the most, even about the piglets; he is the one who acts the most to take care of the entire monastery, silently and inconspicuously. This final message is conveyed again with "a sense of humor and tender attentiveness" as Zdrówko complains he cannot light the stoves with the stigmata his hands.

My flavor of Christianity(tm) is better than yours! DIE INFIDEL!
No! My flavor of Christianity(tm) is better than yours! DIE HEATHEN!

Well... secular science/medicine helps those dudes live beyond 25. So there. Who has magical powers now?

Get over it. Magic is not real. You can't walk on water. Some dude did NOT turn water into wine. Snakes cannot talk. The flood NEVER happened (where the frack did all the water drain to if the entire earth was inundated?). The Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, not a few thousand. Your book of god was written by a various politically repressed guys wearing burlap sacks for clothing with nothing more to hope for than making their wild fairytales come true.

Rivers don't run with blood. First born males were not taken by a magical dark cloud. Some idiot did not part the waters and summon forth a column of fire to single handedly drive away the infidel from the 'saved people'.

Magic is not real. Get over it. My shit stinks just as bad as yours.

If you were intelligently designed, would your happy fun play-place be the very same place as your sewer system? Yeah. Good job designing that one turd for brains.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'indie rock, Black Sheep Boy, music video' to 'indie, Black Sheep Boy, fire, beast, knife, Okkervil River, austin, texas, fairytale, usa' - edited by Eklek

LOL. The scary thing about it is you bet your ass this sort of crap happens.

My wife is asian of buddhist (non practicing) background. The local Christians, since we moved to the community 6 years ago, stop by the house nearly every two weeks to try to convert her.

They have been smart to not stop by while I was home, or I'd hand their asses to them. Christians and their doomsday fairytales, magic-men, and flying people. Yeah. It is all real. Yeah.

Top drawer collection of videos and documentaries exposing religion for what it is. An ancient fairytale, written by a bunch of madmen in a contest to conceive the the vilest madman of them all. Oh, and don't forget the talking snake. Kidchaos..

Point made... I am agnostic/atheist, and I am being called a moron (apparently by a militant atheist) because of two words I used that seem to describe perfectly the individual that made the response. Well played ajkido.


Firstly, I don't agree that you're an idiot, but even if that isn't true, how does this make your point? He, if he's a so-called "militant atheist", expressed his opinion quite clearly. Your point was that apparently "militant atheists" are yet another group of people who lie to themselves and others and that you wish that the "spoke their minds" and "stop drinking the kool-aid"

I agree that his comment was rather rude and stupid, but thats not the issue, and even if ajkido does fit your description, doesnt mean thats got anything to do with being a so-called "Militant atheist" I'm rather strongly against being bullied around by people over fairytales myself, and if thats what you call "militant", then count me in, but you'll have to explain how that makes me dishonest about my own opinions.

Dude, he is not kissing her hand, he's licking or sniffing it. Bless you and your fairytale view

The question he was asked by Wallace, which is cut off in this video, is "'Israel must be wiped off the map.' Why?" Ahmadinejad's argument for wiping Israel off the map is that "Israel is a fabricated government."

His argument that Palestinians don't have democracy also seems deceptive. They have democracy, but part of their current government (Hamas, not Abbas) is subjected to physical interference from Israel and financial constraints from many other countries because it's broadly regarded as a terrorist organization.1 That doesn't sound like a legitimate support for Ahmadinejad's thesis that Israel must be wiped off the map.

With the jingoistic threats and lies Ahmadinejad consistently authors (the holocaust is a "fairytale"), it doesn't seem reasonable to defend him any more than you defend Bush.

This man, fox news, and all his "scientists" are fucking lunatics.
CO2 concentrations have only breached normal nominal ranges from nature alone within the past 20 years.

How can he say stuff like this ? Hes a fucking climatologist, youd think the guy would bloody well know better.

Australia is facing the LARGEST drought we have ever seen, and it is persisting.
That is to say, that previous lakes and river/estuary systems that went close to being dry, still had recoveries due to late rain seasons, and the ecosystems would survive...thats not happening now, the rivers and estuaries are literally dieing, and have no chance of recovery if it continues along this path.

Our farming industry has been decimated, they have been forced to sell off all their cattle / sheep, and destroy all non-essential plants, and trim back to the stalks those that arnt in flower / spawn cycles. If this was the US, and we had a similar system with FEMA, this would of been declared a national emergency and been ongoing for the past 10 years.

I honestly can't remember the last time it rained here, theres this huge water resivour that was built behind my house estate about 70 years back to prevent flooding, because this area was prone to it back then...and now, no rain.

Global warming is a crock ?

What about the berring straight being OPEN for the first time, EVER during the summer months!! ?

Or the perma-frost in the outer rim of the atlantic region (norway, iceland, greenland etc.) thawing out ?

This isnt fairytale shit made up just to scare people, it is actually fucking happening. That this guy has the audacity to pool together 30000 willing idiots with pHD's is a scorn on his curriculm vitae`, im amazed he even manages to keep the weather channel running.

Australia is having to invest in massive scale water infrastructure upgrades, billions and billions of dollars is being pumped into desalination plants and new pipelines to help prevent the death of this country. It is serious, and it has nothing to do with population, the country has had a steady population for quite some time, and increases due to immigration do nothing to dint the overall size of the populus.