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	<title>Comments on: The Unexpected Joy of Atheism</title>
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	<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/</link>
	<description>The Thinking Man&#039;s Glamour Model</description>
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		<title>By: Sachiko</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-470</link>
		<dc:creator>Sachiko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:19:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-470</guid>
		<description>This death bead recantation stuff is yet another total &lt;strong&gt;lie&lt;/strong&gt; that evangelical Christians love to put out, like their old trick of saying they &quot;used to be an atheist but&quot;, when in reality they never were (Kirk Cameron may well be one of these himself). The very famous example of Charles Darwin&#039;s supposed recantation was a complete lie put out by one of his maidservants, which is denied by all members of his family who were present at the time (even though they themselves were Christians, and his wife Emma was desperate for him to recant, as she feared what would happen to him after he died). As I say in my post, if these people &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; believed this stuff, then they wouldn&#039;t have to lie to support it.

There are of course odd examples of people who actually do recant on their deathbead, as people are rarely completely rational at this time, and they are also very fearful. Plus of course, there are some people who actually have converted from atheism to Christianity, but there are infinitely fewer than the other way around! As for Ray Comfort&#039;s supposed &quot;proof&quot;, I know nothing about it (or him for that matter), and I think that if his proof actually held any water, we would all know about it.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This death bead recantation stuff is yet another total <strong>lie</strong> that evangelical Christians love to put out, like their old trick of saying they &#8220;used to be an atheist but&#8221;, when in reality they never were (Kirk Cameron may well be one of these himself). The very famous example of Charles Darwin&#8217;s supposed recantation was a complete lie put out by one of his maidservants, which is denied by all members of his family who were present at the time (even though they themselves were Christians, and his wife Emma was desperate for him to recant, as she feared what would happen to him after he died). As I say in my post, if these people <em>really</em> believed this stuff, then they wouldn&#8217;t have to lie to support it.</p>
<p>There are of course odd examples of people who actually do recant on their deathbead, as people are rarely completely rational at this time, and they are also very fearful. Plus of course, there are some people who actually have converted from atheism to Christianity, but there are infinitely fewer than the other way around! As for Ray Comfort&#8217;s supposed &#8220;proof&#8221;, I know nothing about it (or him for that matter), and I think that if his proof actually held any water, we would all know about it.</p>
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		<title>By: Charles6995</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-469</link>
		<dc:creator>Charles6995</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:40:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-469</guid>
		<description>Hi Sachiko, 

As an agnostic (bordering towards atheism) My religious sister ( who claims that she&#039;s not religious) is always trying to persuade me to believe in God. Sometimes saying that if I still have doubts about God and die  the next day, I will be screwed. She has a very bias opinion about atheists. She believes that atheists are unhappy, have no sense of imagination (because in her words atheists believe in nothing) Stubborn, lacks common sense, and other things. She believes that the rapture is going to happen one day. That&#039;s one of the reasons I think every time religion is discussed, She is quickly is trying to persuade me to believe in God. Honestly, I think many stuff that she says is bullshit, but recently she said something that I&#039;m now wondering about. She says that its total fact that atheists who on their deathbeds or had a near death experience had been either wishing for God to save them regretting their disbelief of him or had an &quot; Out-Of-Body&quot; experience or whatever. And she starts to tell me about how some atheists became Christians or believers of God. One example she used in that theory was that of Kirk Cameron (a known Christian Evangelist, who at a young age was an atheist)  So I want to know that is this is an actual fact that many atheists who were on deathbeds or dying started to cry out for God. and What&#039;s your take on people were atheists before and are now Christians or believers of God?

PS: When I was researching about Kirk Cameron I found out about an event in which He and a fellow evangelist named  Ray Comfort participated in a televised debate with atheists Brian Sapient and Kelly O&#039;Conner of the Rational Response Squad about the existence of God. And when I kept researching about the debate. It was known in the debate that Ray Comfort stated that he can prove scientifically, without relying on faith or the bible the existence of God. And I want to know if You or anybody see this debate and explain to me what happened during the debate and what was Comfort&#039;s claim of God existence?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Sachiko, </p>
<p>As an agnostic (bordering towards atheism) My religious sister ( who claims that she&#8217;s not religious) is always trying to persuade me to believe in God. Sometimes saying that if I still have doubts about God and die  the next day, I will be screwed. She has a very bias opinion about atheists. She believes that atheists are unhappy, have no sense of imagination (because in her words atheists believe in nothing) Stubborn, lacks common sense, and other things. She believes that the rapture is going to happen one day. That&#8217;s one of the reasons I think every time religion is discussed, She is quickly is trying to persuade me to believe in God. Honestly, I think many stuff that she says is bullshit, but recently she said something that I&#8217;m now wondering about. She says that its total fact that atheists who on their deathbeds or had a near death experience had been either wishing for God to save them regretting their disbelief of him or had an &#8221; Out-Of-Body&#8221; experience or whatever. And she starts to tell me about how some atheists became Christians or believers of God. One example she used in that theory was that of Kirk Cameron (a known Christian Evangelist, who at a young age was an atheist)  So I want to know that is this is an actual fact that many atheists who were on deathbeds or dying started to cry out for God. and What&#8217;s your take on people were atheists before and are now Christians or believers of God?</p>
<p>PS: When I was researching about Kirk Cameron I found out about an event in which He and a fellow evangelist named  Ray Comfort participated in a televised debate with atheists Brian Sapient and Kelly O&#8217;Conner of the Rational Response Squad about the existence of God. And when I kept researching about the debate. It was known in the debate that Ray Comfort stated that he can prove scientifically, without relying on faith or the bible the existence of God. And I want to know if You or anybody see this debate and explain to me what happened during the debate and what was Comfort&#8217;s claim of God existence?</p>
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		<title>By: Sachiko</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-437</link>
		<dc:creator>Sachiko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-437</guid>
		<description>Hi Alan,

I can understand why you might take the Blasphemy Challenge that way, but I think I have &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/censorship-and-the-blasphemy-challenge/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;already explained&lt;/a&gt; my reasons for doing it, and I stand by them.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Alan,</p>
<p>I can understand why you might take the Blasphemy Challenge that way, but I think I have <a href="http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/censorship-and-the-blasphemy-challenge/" rel="nofollow">already explained</a> my reasons for doing it, and I stand by them.</p>
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		<title>By: Alan</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-436</link>
		<dc:creator>Alan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:08:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-436</guid>
		<description>Sometimes what we feel as our own &#039;best interests&#039; isn&#039;t good for us in the end. Not always but sometimes.

 But you video about blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is a little over the top. I just thought it made you look like you&#039;re going out of your way to insult them. No need to do that, don&#039;t you think? 

 Anyway, we are who we are. If I was your Fundamentalist Christian neighbor we would get along. I make it a point to love and respect even if I don&#039;t have the same ideas (beliefs). There are thousands of Fundamentalist Christians out there who do just that but they aren&#039;t in the news. When anything becomes a big organized force it changes its true purpose and becomes corrupt, human selfishness and self interest makes it so.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sometimes what we feel as our own &#8216;best interests&#8217; isn&#8217;t good for us in the end. Not always but sometimes.</p>
<p> But you video about blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is a little over the top. I just thought it made you look like you&#8217;re going out of your way to insult them. No need to do that, don&#8217;t you think? </p>
<p> Anyway, we are who we are. If I was your Fundamentalist Christian neighbor we would get along. I make it a point to love and respect even if I don&#8217;t have the same ideas (beliefs). There are thousands of Fundamentalist Christians out there who do just that but they aren&#8217;t in the news. When anything becomes a big organized force it changes its true purpose and becomes corrupt, human selfishness and self interest makes it so.</p>
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		<title>By: Sachiko</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-431</link>
		<dc:creator>Sachiko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:48:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-431</guid>
		<description>They do have the right to vote on the basis of their religious beliefs, and I have the right to criticise them for doing so, as I think it goes against their own best interests (as well as everyone else&#039;s).</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>They do have the right to vote on the basis of their religious beliefs, and I have the right to criticise them for doing so, as I think it goes against their own best interests (as well as everyone else&#8217;s).</p>
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		<title>By: Alan</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-428</link>
		<dc:creator>Alan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-428</guid>
		<description>Okay. But you have to agree that if we all support a type of democratic process even the people that we might not get along with or agree with in our own foundational beliefs have the right to vote for what they hold to be truth. We all have to give some of the time. As long as the bill of rights and the constitution are not thrown out, any party (belief system) has the right to exist. 

 It seems SOME of your reasons for not &#039;liking&#039; fundamentalist Christians are based on their personal &#039;mental&#039; thoughts. 

 The overwhelming majority of atheists are not out of the streets foaming at the mouth and the same can, and should, be said for fundamentalist Christians.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Okay. But you have to agree that if we all support a type of democratic process even the people that we might not get along with or agree with in our own foundational beliefs have the right to vote for what they hold to be truth. We all have to give some of the time. As long as the bill of rights and the constitution are not thrown out, any party (belief system) has the right to exist. </p>
<p> It seems SOME of your reasons for not &#8216;liking&#8217; fundamentalist Christians are based on their personal &#8216;mental&#8217; thoughts. </p>
<p> The overwhelming majority of atheists are not out of the streets foaming at the mouth and the same can, and should, be said for fundamentalist Christians.</p>
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		<title>By: Sachiko</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-417</link>
		<dc:creator>Sachiko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-417</guid>
		<description>I&#039;m not attacking anyone - I just answered your question on how I define &quot;fundamentalist Christian&quot;.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m not attacking anyone &#8211; I just answered your question on how I define &#8220;fundamentalist Christian&#8221;.</p>
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		<title>By: Alan</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-416</link>
		<dc:creator>Alan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:27:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-416</guid>
		<description>I can understand you opinion about the teaching of &#039;creation&#039; in public schools. But I am figuring that you know the majority of &#039;FC&#039;s&#039; do not go around killing abortion doctors.  I am sure it happens ever once in a while (which is not a good thing anyway) but I don&#039;t read about this like I did 20 years ago. If they look forward to the rapture isn&#039;t that their personal belief? I can&#039;t see why you would be against people believing what they want. You want people to respect or at least tolerate your beliefs. This is the price we pay living in a democratic society. I am sure you believe people should have thier own freedom of belief, including Fund Christians. Don&#039;t be so hung up on them or you will appear just like you think they appear. It seems that there is a modern day witch hunt against Fundamentalist Christians. Ironic. But they have been around your entire lifetime. They are not any different then they were 30 years. They voted their beliefs back then too, didn&#039;t they? They are getting all the flak. I am sure there are millions of voters who are strict conservatives that aren&#039;t in that group.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I can understand you opinion about the teaching of &#8216;creation&#8217; in public schools. But I am figuring that you know the majority of &#8216;FC&#8217;s&#8217; do not go around killing abortion doctors.  I am sure it happens ever once in a while (which is not a good thing anyway) but I don&#8217;t read about this like I did 20 years ago. If they look forward to the rapture isn&#8217;t that their personal belief? I can&#8217;t see why you would be against people believing what they want. You want people to respect or at least tolerate your beliefs. This is the price we pay living in a democratic society. I am sure you believe people should have thier own freedom of belief, including Fund Christians. Don&#8217;t be so hung up on them or you will appear just like you think they appear. It seems that there is a modern day witch hunt against Fundamentalist Christians. Ironic. But they have been around your entire lifetime. They are not any different then they were 30 years. They voted their beliefs back then too, didn&#8217;t they? They are getting all the flak. I am sure there are millions of voters who are strict conservatives that aren&#8217;t in that group.</p>
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		<title>By: Sachiko</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-413</link>
		<dc:creator>Sachiko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:34:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-413</guid>
		<description>Actually, I am anti-faith in general, but the vast majority of my readers are western, so like Richard Dawkins I tend to use Christianity as an example to explain what I&#039;m talking about. Overall, I think Islam is actually worse at this stage in history, but few of my readers are from Islamic countries!

By &quot;fundamentalist Christian&quot;, I mostly mean the sorts of extreme conservartives who believe in the literal word of the Bible, and act accordingly. For example, advocating the teaching of creationism in science class, or the murder of doctors who perform abortions, or looking forward to the rapture etc.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Actually, I am anti-faith in general, but the vast majority of my readers are western, so like Richard Dawkins I tend to use Christianity as an example to explain what I&#8217;m talking about. Overall, I think Islam is actually worse at this stage in history, but few of my readers are from Islamic countries!</p>
<p>By &#8220;fundamentalist Christian&#8221;, I mostly mean the sorts of extreme conservartives who believe in the literal word of the Bible, and act accordingly. For example, advocating the teaching of creationism in science class, or the murder of doctors who perform abortions, or looking forward to the rapture etc.</p>
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		<title>By: Alan</title>
		<link>http://www.sachikospace.com/english/2008/08/the-unexpected-joy-of-atheism/#comment-412</link>
		<dc:creator>Alan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:42:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sachikospace.com/english/?p=118#comment-412</guid>
		<description>It seems that you are not anti-faith but just anti-Christian. Can you confirm this please. Maybe I am wrong. I am not a reader of your blog, first time, so I haven&#039;t read other posts here but it seems you just have a standing position against this belief in Jesus as God/Creator.

 Many people today are using the term &quot;Fundamentalist Christian&quot;. Can you define your idea of this term? Just curious.

 Thanks, Alan</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It seems that you are not anti-faith but just anti-Christian. Can you confirm this please. Maybe I am wrong. I am not a reader of your blog, first time, so I haven&#8217;t read other posts here but it seems you just have a standing position against this belief in Jesus as God/Creator.</p>
<p> Many people today are using the term &#8220;Fundamentalist Christian&#8221;. Can you define your idea of this term? Just curious.</p>
<p> Thanks, Alan</p>
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