I guess Euroupe is a funny thing...But
without looking too much at surveys (somthing which I should be ashamed of)I
still think that there's a big atheist "feeling" in Euroupe. I've been to
many countries in Euroupe and although there are large numbers of officialy
religious people most are not "true believers" ie. they dont go to church, never
read the bible...they are sort of ignorant agnostics. Obviously there is
no way you are gonna find that "God bless countryX" crap in Euroupe!
The number of priests in countries
such as Italy is rapidly declining and it seems that everyone on this continent
is becoming a bhuddist (I think of bhuddism more as a philosophy than a
religion)...So I wouldn't give religion more than 50 years on this
continent.
Sadly Malta is an exception...The pope
is actually coming to my school in a few months...
From: Darwin Bedford <Darwin@atheists.net>
To: "Mike Vella" <sowndzz@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Hi again!
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 21:52:48 -0800
Mike,
Where do you get your information that "atheism took off in
Euroupe"?
RE: your "fuck you father" prayer -- I don't call it a prayer. One
person
called it a "diatribe". Below is what I had to say about it. I
don't have
any more of them, but it only took me 5 to 10 minutes to write
it.
>Hi,
>
>I am bewildered...
>You are an atheist... a position that I don't suppose you have come
to
>without any great amount of thought; yet your site has what appears to
be a
>book cover, with (I am assuming) a picture of Jesus. The
curious thing is,
>he is cursing a God that you don't believe in.
>
>There is a brief diatribe under the picture in which I believe you
are
>quoted. The main thrust of the quote is a blanket statement of
anger
>towards God for the way things are in the world. Which one is it;
do you
>believe there is no God, or do you believe in God but are just mad at
Him?
>
and my response ...
Dear bewildered,
My intention is by saying "fuck you" to an entity that supposedly has
the
power to vaporize me shows that I do not fear a god entity because it
is
blatantly obvious that I do not believe that a god entity
exists.
Darwin Bedford
At 01:54 PM 2/5/01 +0000, you wrote:
hi Darwin,
Yeah you are right about the
church school thing...But hey the
pope is paying for my education so that I can become an atheist
writer!
For atheists in this country life is realy strange, over 60% are
church
goers, and Muslims form a huge chunk of our population so I'd say
Atheists
are a very very small minority. Why do you suppose atheism took off
in
Euroupe but not In the USA?? I mean besides the fact that Europeans
are
more intelligent :) ... but Atheism isn't such a hard concept to
grasp! Also Malta's "official religion" is Christianity...Is that
legal
according to Human rights??
and one last thing! I really liked your "fuck you father" prayer and
was
wondering if you had any more of those!
Thanks
Mike
From: Darwin Bedford <Darwin@atheists.net>
To: "Mike Vella" <sowndzz@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Marilyn Manson
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 23:09:35 -0800
Hi Mike,
- Marilyn Manson -- I like his music; saw him with Whole when he came
to
Vancouver. I don't know what he thinks, but, violence is anti-social
and
we being social animals will always try to put an end to things that harm
us.
- you go to a "church school" ?! -- a school is where you learn what
is
believed to be true; a church is where to practice a religion comprised
of
false beliefs; a "church school" must be where you learn what you are
supposed to believe about a particular religion. It's too bad you
don't go
to a real school.
Darwin Bedford
At 07:45 PM 2/4/01 +0000, you wrote:
hi,
I'm a 14 year old Atheist from Malta (Euroupe), I
think your website
is really great!! lots of fantastic material in it. Anyway to get to
the
point...I recently succeded in convincing a friend of mine that god
(which I spell with a small 'g') is a joke...The strange thing is
that
the arguments which convinced her were not of Carl Marx,Bertrand
Russel,
Mark Twain etc... But Marilyn Manson!
Now I'm a great fan of his, I love his
revolutionary ideas and I
don't think he is a gimmick. However he has a morbid facination
with
death. Now I'm sure he's convinced lots of christians that god does
not
exist, but he also encourages violence...what do you think about him?
Do you think the world needs atheism at all costs or are
there
limits? I mean surely a christian Is much better than a violent
maniac....Please tell me what you think.
I also go to a church school and I'd like to say that
the ignorance
of the priests there convinced me that if god exists he is not worthy
of
worship...The headmaster (who still thinks I'm gonna be the next
pope)is
always telling me what a great priest I'm gonna be!...He still
doesn't
know who drew the inverted crosses on the toilets...
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
Mike
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