Who is the raving atheist

I believe in God, in the divinity of Jesus Christ our Savior, and that He was born and died for our sins so that we may have eternal life. God bless you all and Happy New Year! Pages: [ 1 ] Go Down. Lightfoot Posts.

I think we as Christians should support and pray for those who have come to faith out of the darkness. The Angels rejoice, as we should. One person with God is a majority. Join Date: Jun Posts: 7, There's no sign of a buildup.

I looked around at all the stupid comments on that atheist thread, and this comment was the best:. Three years ago he appeared in the atheist documentary "The God Who Wasn't There" and so at first blush many might think this was a hoax. Especially since last year on April Fools another person who was part of the same documentary released a video singing a Christian praise song.

Some of his friends such as Dawn Eden vouch for him on this and I believe that this is no joke. As one person says, the country is the U.

Actually, in this country, when you dunk a crucifix in urine, that's "art," and when you hang a framed copy of the Ten Commandments inside a courthouse, that's a crime. Well, the posted, framed copy of the Ten Commandments wasn't technically a crime, just "unconstitutional", but the crucifix in urine is definitely considered art and, I'm told, was funded by U.

The underlying issue, frequent desecration of Christian symbols coupled with a growing protection for Islamic symbols, has sparked a lively debate which will probably result in yet more legislation over religion.

I can understand dismay, disgust, and disillusionment with selections of religious dogma, but to throw out God along with selective religious dogma is, in my view, the equivalent of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Well, I hope you don't consider this "raving". Hanging the ten commandments in a courthouse would be funded by taxpayer money too. Taxes fund a lot of things taxpayers don't necessarily endorse. The questions are more: Is mocking and desecration of religious values and symbols ethical and moral?

Can one defend one's values only by undermining the values of others? Does independence mean supporting something positive, rather than trying to undermine and eradicate the opposition? The courthouse is a government building, in which equal justice under law is supposed to be dispensed.

Putting up the commandments of a particular religion to worship only their god, to keep their sabbath, not to covet has nothing to do with the laws to be upheld in that courthouse. If the commandments included only items which are crimes under our laws murder, theft that might be different.

We have no laws at present thank ghod requiring anyone to have no other gods before Yahweh, or to keep Saturday or is it Sunday? I simply pointed out that not only was the art described in 26 possibly funded that way, but the posting of commandments in a courthouse would be as well. I've known a few. But do be aware that there are people who start at the beginning, and ask themselves whether there is any good evidence that a deity exists.

If they find none, they throw out the dogmas along with the gods, not vice versa. I'd never heard of the Piss Christ until now. While not condoning basic human flaws, I must say that what comes around goes around. Hitler wanted a thousand years to exterminate those who didn't agree with him; fortunately he didn't get it. Unfortunately, Christianity got over a thousand years to kill, subjugate, and torture those who were against it. Whether someone defiles a cross or a swastika, they're all the same to me.

They're both proof that man came from the trees. Is piss christ actually a desecration? I notice that the artist's page on Wikipedia says he was brought up a strict roman catholic. What is he trying to say with the image piss christ is not a crufix dunked in urine, its a particular photograph of a particular crucifix dunked in a glass of the artists urine, this distinction may be important cf Lolita? The problem is that conservatives the small c is vital don't generally like avant-garde art, they are afraid of it because they are unsure of its meaning.

What is worse is they are threatened by this uncertainty, so act to supress the art that causes it to arise. So what is piss christ? A meditation on the state of modern christianity? A representation of christ's humanity? On a last note, since I could not find a name or a photo 3 to put with The Raving Atheist we will be referring to him simply as John forgive my lack of imagination when it comes to pseudo names. John grew up in a largely secular area of Long Island. But I remember once, when I was seven or eight years old, my mother fainted, and my first reaction was to run upstairs and pray about it, to ask God for help.

However, it was during high school that John began taking a greater interest in the things of religion. He became close friends with a Reform Jewish kid who had a brilliant scientific mind and who also openly mocked religion. During his freshman year at college John worked for a short time as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. He then settled into a clerical job and found much of his free time holed up in the Los Angeles library reading about religious cults and deprogramming.

They invited me into their group, and I hung out with them for a weekend retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains. When they tried to convince me to send for all my worldly belongings, my suspicions were confirmed. I packed my bags and headed back to college, determined to write about my experiences and my conviction that all religions were cults.

John went on to write an essay of his experience. This assisted him in putting his views and opinions of religion into perspective. His piece was then published in the college newspaper although the editors cut a section that attempted to draw parallels between the Moonies and the Catholic Church.

Not long after did John begin his blogging for atheism. He hated religion and religious people. I got to know him and soon was engaging in debate with other lawyers about atheism. My focus on atheism as a lifestyle led a friend to suggest that I begin a blog. So in late I began co-writing a political blog with a college acquaintance, my posts focusing frequently on religion.

To my mind, however, it was still only possible in the sense that one might be sharing the room with a purple hippopotamus that evaded detection by darting away the moment one tried to turn around and see it. In other words, there was no evidence for it. In late John attended a blogger party where he sat next to a Catholic blogger named Benjamin. To the limited extent I had previously considered the issue, I believed abortion to be completely acceptable, the mere disposal of a lump of cells, perhaps akin to clipping fingernails.

More significantly, the overwhelmingly pro-choice atheistic blogosphere also fell short in its analysis of abortion. Having formerly equated atheism with reason, I was slowly growing uncertain of the value of godlessness in the search for truth. In a later, conciliatory gesture, I linked to a post-abortion healing blog favored by my religious adversary—an act that brought me into contact with a group of pro-life advocates whose selfless dedication to their cause moved me deeply.

I was inspired by their gentle and reasonable writings, particularly the story of a woman named Ashli, who wrote with painful honesty about how her late-term abortion had affected her. She now channeled her suffering into efforts to help women in similar situations and save them from the fallout of abortion. John began communicating with Ashli who eventually asked him if he would be willing to assist with some of her pro-life work.