Photo by Österreichisches Weltraum Forum
Have you ever heard these common reactions to atheism?
You can’t be an atheist. How can you believe in nothing? Everybody believes in something. Maybe you’re an agnostic and you’ll figure it out one day. You’re just going through a stage. Your life must feel so empty and lonely.
I came across a popular objection today in the midst of an online conversation about how it’s more acceptable for atheists to bash religious people and call them names than for a Christian to talk the same way about atheists. Feel free to comment about this as well; I’m curious if you think it’s true in an online context.
Christian: I just think that it’s important that you believe in something bigger than you. God, Allah, the stars in the sky – believe in something so that you don’t feel alone in this world.
Me: Why do you think atheists are lonely?
Christian: Not lonely, but just with the few atheists who have bothered to sit with me & actually talk about it, they have told me that they think that there is nothing. Just people and then nothing. I haven’t done research or anything like that, just going off what I have been told. [My boyfriend's] best friend is a very loud atheist. He’s very open that he thinks there’s nothing bigger out there and that when we die, there’s just nothing.
Me: Interesting. I agree that after death there is nothing, but I like that. I also believe in bigger things like, you know, the greatness of community, love, humanity, etc. Also the wonder of reality without the supernatural. Why look for something imaginary when you can have the glory of the universe? So there you go—an atheist who isn’t alone, hopeless, nor lacking.
How would you respond?
Enjoy today’s assortment! Spread some laughter around today 
Check out my previous post on nutty religious comic strips.
God’s Computer
(source)
More tooooooons after the cut
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Photo by Anthony M.
A conversation on a Christian message board reads as follows:
Woman A: so you think [the verses about rewards in Heaven are] literal? I find a majority of the bible references are to give people an idea of what heaven will be like…. not to actually describe it. Honestly, if that’s what it is about, I’m not interested in “storing up riches in heaven” because riches mean squat to me. Not interested at all.
Woman B: Yes, I think it is literal, but also very much spiritual. Those who have given much will receive greater honor. … I believe that there are degrees of reward in heaven. Not everyone who goes to heaven will receive the same reward.
Those who make a last minute decision for Christ will have basic salvation, a gown but not a robe of righteousness, no crowns, no authority, no houses and lands. Saddest of all, they will have missed the opportunity to bring others to Christ–their children and families, their friends and fellow co-workers. Nor will they ever hear Christ say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
[Click here to read the verses she quotes to illustrate]
Isn’t it funny how some Christians believe the descriptions of Heaven in the Bible are literal, but still claim that (in order for God to be exempt from the natural laws and rules he places upon us, and in order to be supremely powerful and the cause of all creation) God and his realm are “outside of space and time”? If heaven existed and it were outside of the universe, there would be no physical senses, no gold, no houses, no crowns, no sequence of events, no perception of progression, and no concept of “the past” or “the future” at all.
Someone more knowledgeable than myself should explain this, but in my understanding, something outside of spacetime–or in a higher dimension–cannot possibly be understood in terms we use here inside the spacetime 3-and-4-dimensional universe. Yet the descriptions of God and his dwelling place are communicated in ways that can only be understood to us here, now, in our current dimensions. The verses and teachings about literal sensations, events, and objects are still believed. Why take these words from the Bible literally? Those streets of gold and beautiful mansions won’t exist as we imagine them because they can’t if they’re outside of the known universe. Even if an afterlife does exist, we could never hope to know about it or understand what happens there.
It’s clear to me that these buzzwords and Christian aphorisms that are thrown around casually are not at all understood by the common layperson. Heck, I can barely scratch the surface myself. Sine my words and thoughts can’t communicate this concept very well, I want to show you a video about dimensions that really bends my noggin. Hope you love it too! This guy is the shit, and I want to have his MENSA babies.
Meghan on 
LeetheGirl on 
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