When you said, "If nobody cares, does that make you a nobody. See the irony here?", you certainly seemed to be saying, that I care about whether you're an atheist and that I - according to what I'd said in the preceding post - am a nobody, so I think the answer to your question is yes.
OK, guilty as charged. I did attack
you... and your position. Can you blame me? Wasn't it the perfect set up? Tell me you wouldn't have done the same.
Well, yes and no. I was just being rude for the sake of it really, which isn't very Christian of me, I know. (People are complicated and often inconsistent. For example, I read the Bible, but I also use electricity without experiencing any degree of moral or cognitive dissonance.) You're obviously very intelligent and well-read etc., but I just can't take this evangelical atheism seriously.
Well, that is what cherry picking is for... to help with the cognitive dissonance. Most religious practitioners are quite adept at this... they take what works and ignore the rest. Only the fundamentalists seem to be unable or unwilling to do this. I take it you are not a fundamentalist. Good to know. There is some flexibility in you... and me as well. I am not a fundamentalist or evangelical... not at all. I have no doctrine, no code, no goal, no agenda... and do not wish to convert a single soul.
Admittedly, I haven't read very much of this thread, but I don't think anything you've said (that I've seen) is shocking. However, I do think that you think other people find your beliefs shocking and, more than that, I think you want them to be shocked. For example, when, on the previous page, you used a pejorative phrase like "silly superstitions" to describe Christian beliefs, or when you depicted hell in positive terms with references to being allowed to "have sex on Sundays with people of the same sex", it's pretty clear that you were aiming to be - at the very least - inflammatory.
All this talk... really, if I am to be honest, is more out of a need to express myself. I don't want to shock, offend, hurt, or humiliate anyone. At the same time, I don't try to be politically correct. I feel that religiosity should be open to criticism because it is an achieved status not an acquired one. The believer has chosen to believe. And traits that are chosen are fair game for critique and even scorn. If I dye my hair purple, you are free to laugh as hard as you like. But if I am left with one arm, laughter seems cruel and inappropriate. You get the picture, I'm sure. But something tells me you don't agree.
Anyhow, if there is any purpose to my posts, it is simply to inform and educate... to pass on information... to be a transmitter... a messenger. People can take it or leave it. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter... to me and my life.
It might be a better use of your time; I'm sure there are Christians who'd pay good money to see that.
Yes, weren't those Roman ticket holders who paid good money to watch the gladiators tear each other to pieces in the Colosseum arena, Christians? They did/do like a good, gory, titillating show. I'll keep that in mind. Of course, they will have to be cherry picking Christians.
I think I'm interested in the subject, but only tangentially.
Anyhow, I must now to bed. Uncle Fred is calling me
Tell Fred that Jeeves says, hello.