[Year 'round]
may reason prevail.

There are no gods,
no devils, no angels,
no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but
myth and superstition
that hardens hearts
and enslaves minds.

Facts cannot insult or offend unless one is in denial of truth. “Gods, devils, angels, heaven, hell” have remained invisible, with no evidence whatsoever for any of them, since forever on Earth.

Those who continue to abuse people’s fears by feeding them made-up crap like these should be jailed for being con artists and thieves. They must be attacked, but this sign is not any kind of attack, it’s simply a statement of “our” truth.

Don’t like being next to it? Hustle your ass somewhere else, honey. You will be accommodated, as all other religion-based nonsense is in this barbaric nation.

Please continue your conversation here.

It’s nice to keep all of the arguments together in one place for easy reference.

Mathew 13: 41-42

41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mark 9: 43-49

43And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

45And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

47And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

49For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

Matthew 5:22

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, ‘ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Matthew 23:33

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Luke 12:5

But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him

Luke 16:23

In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

James 3:6

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

————–

I could go on…

Piper you all share the same bible which clearly states non-believers are going to a hell of eternal torture.

No, Trig, you’re wrong. Read 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

“7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power”

I don’t care if I offend someone by saying Merry CHRISTmas because it is not my intention to offend

Well, you should care. It has been said that it is the mark of the gentleman that he never insults anyone unintentionally. We should always be careful not to offend people needlessly, and the more so when we come from a place of privilege, as you Christians do.

Atheists are more vilified than gays are in American society. And Greta, who falls into both categories, has written many interesting blog posts about that.

You, Timothy Kincaid, say that this placard is an angry attack. Has it perhaps occurred to you that this anger is justified? What we’re seeing here is the standard reaction of a peeved Christian, the sort who takes “Do you have any evidence for that remark?” as an attack.

You also gave me the strong impression that it’s okay to disagree with the conclusions of the Mormon Church, but illegitimate to question the assumptions and logic which brought them to those conclusions. If I’m reading you right, your thinking must indeed be very confused.

That said, Pyra Lynn is wrong too:

Piper you all share the same bible which clearly states non-believers are going to a hell of eternal torture.

I suggest you stop telling people what they believe. It doesn’t work very well. Also, the Bible does not state hell (or anything else) clearly. The Bible is a confused nonsensical mish-mash, and people find all sorts of strange meanings in there.

TRiG.

It seems 2 me that the basis of the arguments here boils down to freedoms of expression – a freedom U guys bang on about constantly, (& why not!).

So either U support this freedom of expression – meaning in all it’s forms & universally for everyone, or U don’t.
I hate 2 say it, but U can’t have your cake AND eat it folks – either NOTHING is off limits – or no one can say anything about anything. Ever.
U simply can NOT start adding ‘conditions’ 2 fundamental rights such as this one – “Well U have the right to express whatever U like, as long as U don’t offend anyone” – because inevitably SOMEONE is gonna get offended!
Every persons point of reference is different – & that’s something that should be celebrated – not censored!

Inevitably there is no answer that is going to satisfy everyone – but bagging others for what they say or do, ultimately does NO one any favors. If ANYONE should know that – WE should!

Peace.

I think the principle that Timothy (and others) are standing up for is, “It is wrong to attack another person’s faith.”

You’re quite close. Actually, I would put it as “It is wrong to (ab)use equal access protections to make a direct attack on the faith of others during a holiday display in a state’s Capitol”. Legal, but wrong.

Just as it would be wrong for anti-gays to insist that the State of California put up placards accusing gays of dying 20 years younger and of all being child molesters next to any gay pride displays. Probably legal, but wrong. Fortunately, so far anyway, the anti-gays in California have not stooped to the level of the FFRF in Washington.

SOME* Christians maintain that punishing gay people by word and deed is part of their faith, and claim that their faith is being attacked when people ask them to stop punishing gay people.

* meaning, “millions of”