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!

_________________________________________________________________________

From: Darwin Bedford <Darwin@atheists.net>
To: "M*** V****"
Subject: Re: Marilyn Manson
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 23:09:35 -0800

Hi M***,

- 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
www.atheists.net

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 "fuçk you father" prayer and was wondering if you had any more of those!

                                      Thanks

_________________________________________________________________________

To: "M*** V****"
From: Darwin Bedford <Darwin@atheists.net>
Subject: Re: Hi again!

M***,

Where do you get your information that "atheism took off in Euroupe"?

RE: your "fuçk 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 "fuçk 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
www.atheists.net

From: "M*** V****"
To: Darwin@atheists.net
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 18:16:50 -0000

hi Darwin,

The reply you gave that guy was very good!

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...