You should know better than to ask that of an atheist. Freedom of religion should be balanced with freedom from religion. Enjoy it if you must, but keep it away from people who don't want it. A captive audience is not free.
In this case Muslims were not trying to preach to a captive audience in a school. Catholics were. Some very enlightened people, even some religious ones, a couple hundred years ago very wisely concluded that it would be a very good idea to keep church and state separate. Keeping all religion away from the affairs of state, not just the ones you don't like, stops the ones you don't like getting involved in state affairs. Does that fill you in any?
Most people who think the Church is judgmental, intolerant, hypocritical and pious usually feel that way because the Church doesn't accept their point of view or lifestyle........ see my above post. While everything man gets involved with often ends in a mess, the Church at times falls victim too.... it's not the message, it's the messenger............ however looking at societies values today in a ever evading progressively anti-church, anti-christian mentality - I can't see an improvement, instead I see morality and social structure eroding exponentially as traditional christian values are driven from our schools, government and public as a whole.
How are people who don't believe in God or religion qualified to talk about these subjects? Just curious. Sign me up for some commie news letters on how to trade stocks.
Frankly, I'm as "qualified" to talk about god as you are. What makes you think you're more qualified? Because of your monologues directed at him? What do you actually KNOW about god, other than what you've been told about him by others who were in turn told about him by others, and so on? Speaking of which, remember this thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=240236&highlight=monkeys+ladder And in any event, what does "qualification" have to do with my post to which you responded?
its documented fact that athiests know the bible better than christians. Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says Report says nonbelievers know more, on average, about religion than most faithful. Jews and Mormons also score high on the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey. If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist. Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith." http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/28/nation/la-na-religion-survey-20100928
I don't believe in Unicorns yet somehow I feel qualified and compelled to discuss Unicorns. Why would I even want to?
"The Church" message here is one of intolerance. It is not a good message. Societies values are and were set despite "the Church" not because of it, and it's easy to see how those standards would decline overtime. Being constantly bombarded with the sort of crude ignorant christian values, which will condemn parts of humanity which doesn't fit with it's contemptuous beliefs, would do that.