One of the most powerful appeals of dogmatic God-centered religions like Christianity can be summed up perfectly in this song by Steven Curtis Chapman that was all over Christian radio back when I was a Christian. Even now, it is beautiful to me.
Sometimes His eyes were gentle
And filled with laughter,
And sometimes they cried;
Sometimes there was a fire
Of holy anger,
In Jesus eyes.
But the eyes that saw hope in the hopeless,
That saw through the fault to the need,
Are the same eyes that look down from heaven
Into the deepest part of you and me.CHORUS
His eyes are always upon us;
His eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyes, in His eyes.Sometimes His voice comes calling
Like rolling thunder,
Or like driving rain;
And sometimes His voice is quiet,
And we start to wonder
If He knows our pain.
But He who spoke peace to the water
Cares more for our hearts than the waves,
And the voice that once said “Youre forgiven”,
Still says “Youre forgiven” today.Sometimes I look above me when stars are shining
And I feel so small;
How could the God of heaven and all creation
Know I’m here at all.
But then in silence He whispers,
“My child, I created you too
And youre my most precious creation;
I even gave my Son for you.”CHORUS
His eyes are always upon you;
His eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyes,No matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyesSometimes His eyes were gentle
And filled with laughter,
Christians often say that we are called to be like God and Jesus, to be as loving towards lesser beings as possible. Meanwhile, when we look at how atheists often present themselves on the internet, we see very little compassion or respect for the downtrodden and broken. Instead, we see bigoted crap like this from the “Amazing Atheist”:
No, you bastard, you know nothing about the topic of triggering….
That video comes from the same sort of atheist who claims that religion itself is a scourge to society. I referred directly to such an atheist fanatic while commenting on a much earlier blog entry:
https://dalehusband.com/2010/08/09/misdefining-terms-for-purposes-of-propaganda/#comment-677
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2010/06/in-defense-of-m.html#comment-219719
truthspeaker | June 15, 2010 2:53 PM
It wouldn’t matter if all religions behaved like the Society of Friends and the ELCA. It is still based on the premise that believing in things without evidence as a virtue. As long as it starts with that premise – and it always will, because if it didn’t it wouldn’t be religion -, it will always be evil. There’s just no getting around it – promoting irrationality as a virtue is bad for humanity. No matter how much you polish the turd, it will still be a turd.
Both the Unamazing Asshole and the “truthspeaker” can go fuk themselves. Denying something does not disprove it, in both cases. And ignoring the good that religious people often do in the name of their religions is, well…..IGNORANCE!
I will rewrite the song by Steven Curtis Chapman to reflect how I wish white male atheists would conduct themselves, instead of only thinking about themselves.
Sometimes our eyes are gentle
And filled with laughter,
And sometimes they cry;
Sometimes there is a fire
Of righteous anger,
Deep in our eyes.
But the eyes that see hope in the hopeless,
That see through the fault to the need,
Are the same eyes that look within ourselves
To seek the best of what we can be.Our eyes should always be looking;
Our eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where we go,
We will always see with open eyesSometimes our voice comes calling
Like rolling thunder,
Or like driving rain;
And sometimes our voice is quiet,
And they start to wonder
If we know their pain.
But if we speak peace to the world
And care for their hearts anyway
Then the voice that once says “You are loved”,
Will say “You are loved” every day.Sometimes we look above us when stars are shining
And we feel so small;
How can such tiny creatures on this one world
Make a difference at all.
But then in the silence remember,
That we exist in vast numbers too
And when we all work as one species
There is so much good we can doOur eyes should always be looking;
Our eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where we go,
We will always see with open eyes
Could that happen? Perhaps, but we would have to look to these:
Because it is HUMANISM we all need, not just atheism. If the progressive humanists among atheists can defeat and drown out the conservative bigots, and then provide all the charitable and emotional needs of people who need help and comfort, then they will cause the final downfall of dogmatic religion around the world. Let it be so.
Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants 
Do you think it’s possible to disprove a particular god concept? Like debunking christianity or the abrahamic god of the bible?
(Dale Husband: No, I do not and some atheists seem to know that, which is why they insist that atheism is the default state of [non]belief and that if theists have not met the burden of proof, no one should be a theist. But this absolutist attitude is arrogant beyond belief [pun intended] because religious people usually say their beliefs are a matter of faith rather than proof. Ironically, it was Christian apologists over the centuries with their assertions of “proof” about their faith that opened the door for atheists and other non-Christians to counter the apologists’ claims and thus to discredit Christianity itself. A perfect example of this is here:
https://dalehusband.com/2009/10/12/lying-about-history-for-the-bible/)
And would you describe yourself best as an agnostic humanist?
(Dale Husband: Yes, that is exactly what I am, just like Carl Sagan was before me.)
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