[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]But if it hasn't been posted before it is probably because Penn Jillette is a right wing libertarian.[/font]

as an example of a "bad" atheist because he's conservative. I mean they distort Harris all the time to make him sound like a monster, but here is a very famous, and well liked, atheist who is a far right leaning guy.

Still, haven't come across an atheist that is nearly as problematic as your garden variety theist.

Cuzz the bible tells me so.........not only do they hear a voice in their head, they hear a book talking to them .

You have to analyze, construct and determine your own code of morality; you don't get to take one off the shelf. The golden rule wasn't invented by any god or religious figure; it is intrinsic to the human character and built into us through evolution. I behave morally because I want and need to be a moral person.

not to rape and murder.

I mean, I get the Golden Rule and all that, and morality, as sane societal rules.
Wasn't raised in a religion, but I DO perfectly remember when I "got" some truths that most religious adhere to:

1. Lie,cheat, steal, kill is bad.

Sort of what George Carlin said so succinctly in his show, where he boiled the 10 commandments down to 4.

But I also got this in my head, in a burst of insight::

If God represents good and loves us, why is he terrorizing us into fearing him, with threats of death and hell.??

And if we are all God's children, why do we need another person to come between us and God in hearing Him?
And pay for the privilege? ( got that insight when I was 12)

So later on, when I understood fundamentalist thinking, I was left wondering why people not only needed to wrap themselves PUBLICLY
in the Bible ( does it not say something about praying privately?)
but also try to force others to live the way they do?

So, yeah...I liked the Penn poster, despite what other leanings he may have.

Says it all, doesn't it?

it tells me they can be made to believe ANYTHING

because on some level, we're afraid of how believers would behave if they lost their faith. I mean, just look at how many of them behave with it.

and I've never heard them ask that question. Straw man.

from apologists in debates. They try to demonstrate that everybody would be this horrible evil monster if gawd wasn't holding them back and end up just demonstrating that the apologist is a monster.

the AIDS ring is totally legit.

Just saw Robertson and assumed

I look at them and just see red.

Yep.

Fuck the Ducks.

by a "good Catholic," a fundie, a Baptist, to name only a few. It's a common question when I say I'm an atheist. And I never bring up my lack of religion myself, only to respond to a question or comment (like "atheists can't have morality&quot