You see people, that’s how you deal with atheist skum. With LOGIC! Hit that bullseye and the rest of the dominoes will come down like a house of cards… CHECKMATE!

And on that note…

Dunt dun duuh DAAAAHHHH!

!!!!!!!!!MY ATHEIST STORE!!!!!!!!!

Aristotle’s Muse

This is my store. Maybe wearing an atheist T-shirt won’t change the world, but enough of them just might.

You have to understand that at that age I did not fully understand the difference between reality and fantasy. I honestly believed that the world I “saw” in my mind was real. It came as a shock that whatever my brother “saw”, he was obviously not tapping into the same “world” or “reality’. He did not share my world, unlike other experiences we could and did share.

I also understood enough at that age that the question that came into my mind was a terrible, terrible question, possibly put there by Satan himself, and not ever to be discussed with anyone, especially not my parents, my religious teachers, or–as i got older–believers in general. I did not have to wait until I died for God to punish me–His Representatives, in the shape of the adults who had authority over me, would see to it that I was punished right here on earth, I had a pretty good idea what these punishments would entail, so I kept my mouth shut and went to church each Sunday. For the Christians who may be reading this, especially those of you who are parents, I have a question. Why do you find it necessary to instill your faith in children by force? Why do you find it necessary to punish a child when he or she asks the same kind of questions (although in a less sophisticated way) as many of us on this site? Are your children truly free to ask whatever they want? Do they go to church and believe because they truly believe as you do, or do they go to church because they have no other option? If the latter, how well do you really know what is going on in your child’s mind? Trust me, my parents never knew (and still do not know to some extent) how I really felt about God and religion.

As I said before, I used to have imaginary friends. But my parents and my teachers felt that this was unacceptable, and embarked on a program to eradicate this undesirable behavior. It was ok to talk to statues of Jesus and Mary but not ok to talk to my imaginary friend. Again, I could not ask what the difference was.

All my life I have wrestled with this issue, fantasy versus reality. What is fantasy? What is reality? Is God reality because other people say so? Is my imaginary world fantasy because other people say so? Is my selfhood only to be defined by others?

When my brother and I argued it was because we were only tapping into our own separate heads. There was no external Fairyland. Now, I have been told that there is an external God, that there is an external Jesus, and that these are all real.

My challenge to those who would insist that I believe that this is so, give me some proof that you are tapping into some exterior reality. If God exists, as you say, and He knows everything, then tell me something about myself that I have never revealed to anyone. There is something very specific I am looking for; and it is nothing that can be known by guessing. This is how I will know that I can take someone seriously when they talk about having a relationship with God.

Or can they?

Let them try, huh?

Some imaginary friends have helped some people, though.

Imaginary or not, it is how people used these “friends.” Is it for benevolent reasons or the opposite, for malevolence? That’s the bigger question.

It has been said that imagination and dreaming have led to the countless contributions to human progress and human suffering..

Used your “imaginary (or not) friends” wisely, beautiful people.

On to the subject of your comment, it’s unfortunate that not enough people know enough to go to the hospital when they’re sick– or worse, when their kids are sick. The “wonders of nature” are very poor evidence for a god; I agree. And tragic deaths caused by relying on faith instead of medical science may not be evidence against a god, but should be evidence against the sanity and rationality of the believer.

cincyatheist = 12 letters

Talk about coincidences!

:>)