</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Bumble Bee Tuna:
<strong>Honestly, most of the flaming is coming from your own side. I try to work more on keeping myself only to retaliatory flaming. Usually, my posts are pretty civil. Honest, but civil. As Massy was saying somewhere, you guys seem to think you have this unalienable right not to be offended. As an atheist, I'm used to being offended every day, when I look at my money and see "in god we trust" or have to hear "one nation, under god" every morning. I deal with it. Christians are usually free as the majority to say whatever they want about their beliefs. But when an atheist says his honest beliefs to a theist, it is taken as flaming. For example, Christians get offended when an atheist says "God doesn't exist". But then the Christians will come back around and say all the time that God does exist, and argue that they are just saying their beliefs. Well, so are the atheists. Most of the perceived flaming in this topic is just a matter of you Christians being hypocritical in this respect. I'm going to admit that some of my colleagues in this argument, and sometimes even myself, do flame needlessly. But the majority is just Christians trying to exercise their made up right to not be offended. Deal with it. And maybe after you get offended enough, you'll realize how stupid things like the Pledge of Allegiance are, and eventually enough Christians will stop using their majority to infringe on other religions' rights and governmental endorsement of the Christian religion will cease. That's my hope, at least.
Because there is NO argument for having these things. None. Unless you don't believe we should obey our Constitution.
-B</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Alright, reading this post has made me think.
First off, I want to say I'm sorry if it seemed like I was flaming, I didn't mean to, I just wanted this discussion to end.
Second, I want to say that the Pledge of Allegiance is not stupid. Maybe you think the "one nation under God" part is stupid, but for me it is simply a sign of loyalty and admirance to my country, not any kind of religious thing.
Third, I realize a lot of flaming is from the Christian side, and I apologize on behalf of myself and anyone else, a lot of flaming was coming from "our side." Mainly it is because people want to prove God exists, and then they can't, so they flame instead.
Fourth, I am offended every day, for various reasons, not only my religion. I mean, I know there are a
lot of kids out there who are now being brought up thinking that the whole world is fair and that they are always right, and that everyone will always agree with them. I know for a fact that this is not the case, because my parents raised me right. The world is not fair, and there will
always be people who don't listen to you, ignore anything you say, or downright oppose you, always, you can't avoid it. I'm sorry if it seemed like I thought I was always right and stuff, and I'm man enough to know when I'm wrong when other people tell me. In this case, I believe ther simply
is no right or wrong until the day we die, then we'll all know won't we? Until then, I say who gives a d@mn whether someone's a Christian/atheists or not. More atheists I know are nicer and better people than most Christians I know.
Fourth, the government definately doesn't endorse any kind of religion now. Seperation of church and state forbids any kind of mingling between religion and politics. It's just that the forefathers were Christians, and they wrote those kinds of things into the Constitution.
So again, I'm sorry if it seemed like I'm ignorant and stubborn. I try not to be, but hey, it happens to the best of us.
Fifth, yes, S_O_B_SlasherZ, I know that I'm the third person to show their ignorance, but I felt like the things I said were relevant enough to be ignorant.