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by gouda on 26 May 2014 - 18:05
The hand writing is on the wall,AmericaYour decline along the same lines will bring sudden destruction.America has be defiled moraly.
Americans spend atleast 40 billion a year on alcohol beverage.
The Fedelal Government National Institude on alcohol abuse and Alcoholism states,
By the time students reach the twelfth grade,50% drink regularly and 25% have been drunk.
Millions mor are drug addicts.
More later.
John

by gouda on 26 May 2014 - 20:05

by Red Sable on 26 May 2014 - 22:05
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-supreme-leader-jihad-continue-until-america-no-180230486.html
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America.

by Red Sable on 26 May 2014 - 22:05
I think the teaching of evolution goes hand in hand with humanism Shtal. Definitely part of the deception. :)

by Shtal on 27 May 2014 - 03:05
VK4 wrote: and somehow it is because evolution says its ok for men to rape women bwahahahaha.
RS wrote: I think the teaching of evolution goes hand in hand with humanism
You see RS, vk4 admitted that if I try not to post vk4 user name over and over within my posts, he would ignore me but I guess that is NOT the case as the truth reveals, which then I will continue mentioning his name within my posts…..lol
Okay listen closely RS, vk4 admitted to me while back in other thread that he does NOT believe in absolutes. Now if I ask him rapping women for fun is it absolutely morally wrong? Vk4 would say YES…then I would say based on what standard? Vk4 would say based on standard he doesn’t want to hurt women, but I will reply to him that is NOT absolute moral - it’s a preference and you don’t have absolute morality VK4. It’s like you like chocolate and some like vanilla. But VK4 is moral relevance and he would admit that, he would say it might NOT be wrong to rape women for fun? Depending on the situation as he see it…And VK4 is exposing his terrible world view, he is NOT greatest human being in the world but if their will come situation where that happens, maybe, it depends. Vk4 admitted raping women for fun could be WRONG, there could be a situation and that is exactly what evolution says which confirms how vk4 would approach it.

by GSD Lineage on 27 May 2014 - 03:05
Christianity has it's own problems now, with scandals involving priests and /or it's top leaders.
Shtal, I don't think you understand evolution at all. I know it took me a while to really "get" it.
The KJV of the bible is extraordinarily difficult for me to understand. You can have a group of christians at a table for bible study and all will interpret something different from an identical passage.
If you think about it, for example....
Why does Christianity use the image of a near naked and much tormented man nailed to the reminants of a hacked up tree? Why do these christians wear little replicas of this around their necks! or held in their hands! It hurts to look at that.
It is OK to be critical, that's how we adjust things to the times we live, nothing is forever the same, and that is why we evolve to fit the times. Not just us, but of religion and beliefs evolving as well.
I still can't figure out what those 4 legged insects were that was on another thread. Really!
To Shtal on things... http://www.thepretenddictionary.com/shtal
To go On and On ignoring your surroundings, set in your ways, trying to dominate others and make them just like you. And if they don't conform, lets deny them God.
Now, if you want, I'll come back and delete this. In all fairness I'm starting to understand a little.

by Hundmutter on 27 May 2014 - 04:05
I wish you lot would stop mutilating the definition of 'Humanism'.
It is a philosophy entirely separate from Christianity; and as such
no Humanist would masquerade as a Christian. Google it.
John, can you please provide a direct quote on what you reported
Toynbee as saying, (IN CONTEXT). TY.

by GSD Lineage on 27 May 2014 - 04:05
Hundmutter, who are you talking to?

by Hundmutter on 27 May 2014 - 05:05
Re Toynbee quote, Gouda. Re Humanism: Shtal, Red Sable, anyone else
who has negatively mentioned 'humanism' in this thred !
by vk4gsd on 27 May 2014 - 06:05
shtal if you asked vk4 if raping women was good vk4 would say no, by the standard of not being a religious lunatic idiot. shtal is it only the fear of hell that stops you shoving live gerbils in yr own ass?
evolution if you learnt it explains the diversity of life, thats all it does and there is no better exlanation that has ever been found that can account for the observable facts - it has nothing to do with rape. and claiming that all the bazillions of species jumped off the ark and distributed themselves around the planet in about 4000years is just plain an offense to the human brain.
you claim evolution is the cause of the moral decay in america and makes people rape women eat babies yadada, i asked you for evidence - you did not supply any, you claims were hear-say and religious dogma. here is some evidence and please do check the sources;
In 2005, the Kripke Center released a detailed study called, “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies.” Long title, I know. But, what it said was very important and gets overlooked by many atheists. Keep in mind, the Kripke Center ISN’T secular and has no reason to promote a secular view. According to their own website, “The Kripke Center is dedicated to facilitating scholarly activity in the areas of religion and society. Special attention is given to promoting understanding between and among faith communities, including especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Kripke Center’s primary audience is the academic community, but its scholarship and services are available to all who seek them. The Center is named in honor of Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke.” The study had some amazing discoveries. They concluded:
Indeed, the data examined in this study demonstrates that only the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have, for the first time in history, come closest to achieving practical “cultures of life” that feature low rates of lethal crime, juvenile-adult mortality, sex related dysfunction, and even abortion. The least theistic secular developed democracies such as Japan, France, and Scandinavia have been most successful in these regards. The non-religious, pro-evolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator. The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted. Contradicting these conclusions requires demonstrating a positive link between theism and societal conditions in the first world with a similarly large body of data – a doubtful possibility in view of the observable trends.
It also stated (check out the graphs at the bottom of the report to see for yourself) that the United States, while still one of the most religious countries on earth, also has the highest rates of teen pregnancy, STDs, and abortions. So much for god looking out for his flock, right? They note:
There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms
But, I digress… This post was supposed to be about crime. But, it all ties together, which is why I felt it was important to start with the above information. Ask anyone with a masters in criminology and they’ll tell you that crime is caused by so many social issues: poverty, parenting, religion, economics, demographics, geography, etc. It’s a deep issue with a lot of sides. But, I want to look at just one… religious affiliation of those in prison. Denise Golumbaski, Research Analyst for the Federal Bureau of Prisons released the following numbers in 1997 under the Freedom of Information Act. take a look:
Response Number % ---------------------------- -------- Catholic 29267 39.164% Protestant 26162 35.008% Muslim 5435 7.273% American Indian 2408 3.222% Nation 1734 2.320% Rasta 1485 1.987% Jewish 1325 1.773% Church of Christ 1303 1.744% Pentecostal 1093 1.463% Moorish 1066 1.426% Buddhist 882 1.180% Jehovah Witness 665 0.890% Adventist 621 0.831% Orthodox 375 0.502% Mormon 298 0.399% Scientology 190 0.254% Atheist 156 0.209% Hindu 119 0.159% Santeria 117 0.157% Sikh 14 0.019% Bahai 9 0.012% Krishna 7 0.009% ---------------------------- -------- Total Known Responses 74731 100.001% (rounding to 3 digits does this) Unknown/No Answer 18381 ---------------------------- Total Convicted 93112 80.259% (74731) prisoners' religion is known. Held in Custody 3856 (not surveyed due to temporary custody) ---------------------------- Total In Prisons 96968
If you look at just the Judeo-Christian totals, they account for 83.761% of the total survey.
Catholic 29267 39.164%
Protestant 26162 35.008%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502%
Mormon 298 0.399%
So, what can we conclude from this? Either Atheists are really good at getting away with crime, or we commit less of it. I think the latter is more plausible. Yes, the total population of ”admitted atheists” in the country at that time was only about 8-15%. You would then expect the total prison population to be about the same… but it wasn’t. Atheists accounted for 0.209% of the total incarcerated – 1/5th of 1%. That’s at least 40 times lower than would be expected from random distribution based on the population. Hmmm…
Now, let me address the “naysayers” who will attack this (and there are many). There are obviously some difficulties in establishing the “validity” of the numbers. Yes, they DO come from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but people have made claims like “some atheists in prison say they are religious to get better parole”. While this may be true, it couldn’t be the majority, and most states don’t require religious affiliation to be listed in files available to parole boards. The results shown above was a random sampling of about 5% of the total US prison population (which anyone that has taken a basic statistics class knows is statistically significant and a big enough sample size to extrapolate results across the board). If religious affiliation was on EVERY prisoner file, this chart would have had more than 74,000+ prisoners… it didn’t.
Also, some people claim that the “8-15%” number of atheists in America at the time is highly suspect and must be exaggerated since it’s assumed that it includes “non-theists” that aren’t really “atheists”. My answer…. BIG FUCKING DEAL! Even if the study only counted 10% of the total of atheists in prison and the numbers for the whole U.S. population were as small as 4%, that’s still less in prison than in the overall citizenry. I don’t mean to use the numbers to say that being religious MAKES you commit crime… but i think it’s fair to conclude that being religious DOESN’T PREVENT YOU FROM BECOMING A CRIMINAL! If god (or gods – depending on the religion) is “looking out for” believers or giving them some form of moral compass not available to the heathens amongst us, then how do so many of them wind up in prison.
Myth: Religious people are better people and make for a better society! Result: Well… BUSTED!
EXTRA NOTE: As someone pointed out to me on Reddit, there is most likely a correlation here to intelligence. I had thought about it but didn’t think it was worth mentioning. There is a correlation between education level and belief in god. Smarter people tend to be atheists and smarter (better educated) people also tend to commit less crime (or hire better lawyers – LOL). So, I can see how it is possible that the less educated you are, the more likely you are to commit crime AND be a believer in a fantastical myth! I don’t presume to state that the evidence above is proof that being a believer MAKES you commit crime, but I think it’s fair to say that being an atheist means that you might be better educated than your religious peers and therefore less likely to commit crime. The belief or non-belief IS NOT the deciding factor to crime… just a correlation. I am only speaking to “moral authority” here, just showing that believers are no more “moral” or “good” due to their belief in a supernatural babysitter.
ONE MORE NOTE: Several people have asked what the overall religious population of the United States looked like in 1997 when these numbers on criminals were released. The following is the best I can find if from http://www.religioustolerance.org/us_rel1.htm:
In 1997, the US Society and Values magazine published an overview of religion in the U.S., using data from the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. 3,4 They reported:
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63% of Americans (163 million) state that they are actively affiliated with a faith group:
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There are over 300,000 congregations. | ||||||||
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There are over 530,000 priests, ministers, pastors, etc. | ||||||||
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Islam is numerically the fastest growing organized religion in the U.S., in terms of numbers of adherents. | ||||||||
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The most rapidly growing religious/spiritual/ethics grouping in the US is not an organized religion; it consists of non-believers (Atheists,Agnostics, etc.). |
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