I don't know what you.mean by problem at this point. Could you clarify?
That's a good question. I was actually tempted to ask you that since, well, there's obviously a problem you have of some form anyway.
From my standpoint, you don't have any tangible problem, unless someone is demanding that you believe in Yahweh. I'm certainly not doing that, and I doubt anyone here is. And (as you're obviously an adult), I doubt anyone is demanding you believe in your circle of human contact/influence.
Ok well I would consider it a terrible thing regardless of which country we are discussing and historically speaking this has been the case throughout history. Eleven today many Christians would like to criminalize gay (secular) marriage and the idea of manifest destiny that was used to justify nearly wiping out the native americans and which resulted in their still being relegated to small reservations was a primarily Christian belief which even if it is not popularly held today (hard to say since we have not given back the land) has modern and far reaching consequences.
What do you mean by criminalize? Many Christians wish to see marriage relegated to a man and woman union. But it's telling how little aggression there is. There are pastors concerned about being forced to perform gay weddings. There's also concern that churches may very well be forced to hire gay employees. As of yet, there hasn't been any clear cut assurance this won't happen.
For the most part, so far, in terms of gay marriage, Christians are on the defensive. Not the offensive. As of right now, it's not about reacting against gay marriage, but defending the religious freedom of small businesses and church marriage services relegated to a man and woman.
From my experience, having known many Christians from all over, we don't want to get into anyone's business. We don't want to offend. We prefer to be liked than disliked. What's interesting, and this is why I asked if you were American (I'll just assume you can relate to my American references), the founding fathers were obviously not tolerant of homosexuality. We don't even ever see it discussed amongst the founding fathers. They would have never legalized gay marriage. And there were more than enough Christian
founding fathers to have outlawed deism or any other religion. We could have easily become a religious State like the Muslim world. So the fact that gay marriage is legal now, is actually very telling. What has happened is we've become more and more tolerant as time moved on. Yeah, we're probably more tolerant of homosexuality than George Washington or Thomas Jefferson was. The stance we took was whatever people do in their bedroom is their business.
Before gay marriage was legalized, the worry amongst Christians wasn't the existence of gay marriage, but exactly what had happened with some small businesses being penalized for not catering to gay marriage ceremonies, and the potential of churches receiving the same verdict.
As far as wiping out Native Americans, one problem is our most heroic founding fathers were a part of wanting them to convert. Like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Are you now anti-GW/TJ?
I don't think too many Native Americans are impressed with White atheists. Interestingly enough, a good number of Native American activists are Christians. There are Christian Native Americans who hold the same issue with European domination as any other Native American.
You can't simply gloss over the attitudes of Christians that are observable throughout history and the injunctions in the bible against homosexuality and women and non
believers (including believers of other religions) contained in the bible by saying that you personally disagree. Although it is admirable of you to realize that such biblical
commands and Christian attitudes are monstrous and should be disagreed with.
There's nothing in the Bible I disagree with. As far as attitudes about homosexuality, that's going to depend on an individual, and possibly region. There are some Christians who look down on homosexuals for the same reason a non-Christian looks down on them. I've spent a couple of months in Central America, where homophobia is strong. And it has nothing to do with the Catholic church. I was told by someone there that homosexuals are often killed. This is due to the Hispanic machismo attitude that believes a homosexual is an insult to their ethnicity. It's the same with many Africans.
There are some places like in the southern U.S., where there is an attitude about homosexuality similar to Latin America and Africa. Where I live, it's quite a bit different. The temptation is to not say anything about our beliefs concerning homosexuality. It's easier just to not say anything (in casual conversation), get along, and enjoy the colorful
cultural aspect of the gay community. But, ironically, not saying anything about our beliefs equals not caring.
This is a non starter. Atheists do not have a dogma or a creed and figures like Stalin and Mao did not persecute religious people in the name of atheism but rather in the name of the political systems they endorsed which are not shared by all atheists and are not "atheist commandments".
That's absolutely irrelevant. Just because communists don't do a terrorist act in the name of atheism doesn't mean a thing to the Christian who was imprisoned, tortured, or executed because they wouldn't proclaim non-belief in God. Believe me.....it doesn't fly. Organizational atheism (atheist activism) seems to have originated mostly in the U.S. Communist nations may not have embraced an atheist activist concept, but it really doesn't matter.
Besides, you're theory if it had any validity would be in danger because if we found just one communist who said "we do this in the name of atheism", it would be demolished.
There are no "atheist regimes" only regimes that incidentally happen to promote atheism.
There are no regimes that give themselves the title of atheist regime. No communist regime flies the "A" or "atom" flag. But they're an atheist regime by virtue of being atheist.
