Hi Leanne, Thank you for your comments. I will back off of the subject of religion: A. When people are not such idiots (as one did in a forum recently) as to say Atheists are not really Atheists, they only "Claim" to be Atheists. This clueless fool is inferring I and other Atheists are either so stupid we do not know what we believe OR we are lying! OR they are so totally stupid as to say things like: "There are no Atheists in foxholes. B. When Atheist and Agnostic are capitalized just like the names of ALL religions are. C. When our putting we are an Atheist on an application form does not cause us to not be hired. OR get us fired if we say we are Atheists after we are hired. OR stop us from being promoted. OR get our business boycotted. D. When being an Atheist does not get you beaten up JUST because you are an Atheist. E. When being an Atheist does not get you KILLED JUST because you are an Atheist. F. When EVERY State in the U.S. treats Atheists just as well as they treat religious people. G. When they STOP having Witch Trials in the United States. H. When they take their religious crap OUT of our pledge and OFF our paper money. (Thus putting our pledge and our paper money BACK to where they were in 1954.) I. When they STOP trying to put THEIR (or any) prayers in schools where they do not belong in the first place. J. When the American taxpayer STOPS having to pay EXTRA taxes to illegally support religion in the U.S. (It was an average of $900.00 a year BEFORE Bush got into office & so it HAS TO BE higher now.) K. When Christians STOP LYING about the religious belief of our Founding Fathers L. When Christians STOP LYING about the Founding of our country. M. When Christians STOP LYING about the principals they United States was founded on. N. When Christians STOP baring progress by doing stupid things like preventing embryonic stem cell research and baring the sale of birth control pills. (NO ONE makes the Christians do any thing they do not want to do and they have NO RIGHT to force others to live by their rules.) During the Dark Ages, Christians held up progress for many hundreds of years. Had they not done that we would be hundreds of years ahead of were we are now! Most probably this means NO CANCER and many kinds of other fantastic medical advances. O. When MOST Americans Atheists are NO longer so VERY AFRAID of what our Christian neighbors will do to us if they know we are Atheists, they will be very open about being Atheists. At this time, MOST American Atheists are TOO AFRAID of Christians to publicly state they are Atheists. And I am sure I have forgotten some things where Atheists are put at a disadvantage SIMPLY becasue we are Atheists. So Leanne, I think you can see I will be long dead before these things happen. Please, Take Care! Neil P.S. We Atheists have nice, meek and screwed over in the United States for long enough! Just like the Blacks, Women and Gays before us, had to stop being nice and meek and being stepped on had to take action, so are we. Some of us are so sick and tired of the way Christians have been treating us, WE WILL CHANGE THINGS or damn well DIE in the attempt!

Neil,

I have to say that you have provoked me now and although I won't be answering all your points, here are some.

I see clearly that although you are opposing all religions, Christians seem to be the ones which caused you most of the pain.

I don't really want to get into discussions on religious topics because I believe that what you are describing here could be just qualified as the problems of any minority group which you are member of.

Here I'm only going to give you one example how I dealt with the problem when I was considered myself as minority group.

When I came to Canada 15 years ago, I could barely speak English and nobody would give ma a job in my profession.  Canadian educational institutions wouldn't recognize my degree from my country (Poland) because I used to attend those schools during communist times and educational system there was different than most western countries.

I had two kids 1.5 and 3 years old and nobody to turn to for help.

I had two choices, take the job in areas which didn't require any qualifications, (construction, cleaning, restaurants), or go to university and get Canadian certifications showing that I can be as good as anybody else.

It took me 2.5 years to complete 4 year program ( I was awarded twice during this time), while taking care of my pre-school kids. I started the school 2 months after my arrival when my English was still very bad and I had no other income.

I took loans which are now paid back.

But I didn't stop there.

I started my own business. I started the company which is now helping you and me communicate.

This company produces income which puts me in the top 5% of earning Canadians.
I employ several people and pay commissions to over 20,000 affiliates all over the world.

15 years ago I had empty pockets and nobody would accept me for a position because my education wasn't good enough.

I didn't go and cry how bad my situation was.
I didn't blame my situation on other people who were better off and who were stopping me from getting where I believed I should be.

I took responsibility for my situation and changed it.

I didn't care what is printed on money. What I care is that I have enough money today to pay each month for several kids in the third world. Thanks to this they can go to school and get medical care.   



Being happy is more important than being right.

I wished that you could turn your energy more towards the positive.
Stop blaming and start doing.

Bogdan Fiedur

Hi Bogdan,

Thank You!

The Problem in this World is.....

          HATE!         

BLESS YOU,

Jerilyn

 

Thank you for that inspiring thought.

Bogdan, After I had written everything below the double line ==== below, I again thought about your comment: "Stop blaming and start doing." And then I wondered: "Why the hell do I even bother writing things he either does not read OR does not comprehend OR has such a short memory span he can not remember?" I TOLD YOU OF ALL THE POSITIVE THINGS I HAD DONE AND THEN YOU TELL ME TO: "Stop blaming and start doing." ????? I've ALREADY DONE MORE DIFFERENT things than MOST people ever even consider doing much less ACTUALLY do them! I have LIVED at higher altitudes (14,300) than most Americans ever even get to. I have swum in the Atlantic, Pacific, the Caribbean with sharks, barracudas and dolphins. Waded in the head waters of the Amazon with pharina. (sp?) Lived in Jungles with vampire bats and in Rain Forests with orcards. I have panned for gold in the high rockies, spelunked in Ky. Utah and Colo. staked uranium claims and been in a real possie. Been drug over gravel and rocks by a mule thinking I was going to die. Same while rolling over and over in an El Camino. Nearly died climbing twice, from cars two or three other times and from internal bleeding three times. (So I have come very close to dying, both quickly and slowly, MANY times and I have NEVER asked or even thought about asking any "god" for help!) I have, among MANY other things, been a deep sea diver, a civil defense policeman, an MP, an industrial engineer for Xerox, a lifeguard, and a paratrooper. I've lived in 3 counties and visited at least 9 others. Lived in 10 states and 20 cities. I read twice as fast as do most college graduates of the 1950's when grades were much harder to get than they are now. And I have above a phd level in vocabulary. May still have the highest score ever recorded on the Xerox listening comprehension course which means my listening skills are an average of four times better than most peoples. I have placed in the top two in both dance and in military drill and ceremonies contests. (While I never won one, darn it, I did win a "best legs" contest once.) :-) And I have been fortunate enough to have shared true (not just the kind my boy Bill Clinton did) sexual relations with at least EIGHT times more women than most men do. I've held management positions with three of the worlds top corporations. (NCR, TRW and Magnavox) At NCR, I had more cost centers & supervised more people than ANY production supervior ever had. (before or since) When I left, they had to hire TWO people to do what I'd been doing for years. And at nearly 72 years of age, I am still playing beach volleyball (two on a side) in the deep sands of Manhattan Beach, Ca. (Which the pros say is the toughest sand there is to play in.) SO DO NOT GIVE ME ALL THIS TOTAL CRAP ABOUT: "Stop blaming and start doing." =========================== NOW TO WHAT I WROTE BEFORE =========================== Christians have NOT done ANYTHING to cause me Pain. My being caused any pain, OR not being caused pain, has NOTHING to do with it with my complaints about Christians and the way many of them act. (Like acting as if they OWN the United States or someone has no right to discuss their many bad points or point out all of he terrible things in the Bible.) IF it was Moslems or Jews or whomever was discriminating against us & causing us problems, they would be the target. Only here is the United States IT IS the Christians who are doing it. I am not Black and NOTHING was done to me to make be put both my physical well being and my life on the line for Black civil rights. (Which I did on more than one occasion.) I did, and do it because the discrimination against Blacks was, and is, WRONG! (So is the discrimination by Blacks against Whites which I see all too frequently now.) As I am NOT a Woman, Nothing was done to me to cause me to join their struggle for equal rights or to cause me to become a member of NOW. I did, and do it because the discrimination against Women was WRONG! And as I am not Homosexual, Nothing was done to me to make me support their right to NOT be discriminated against! I did it, and I do it because the discrimination against Homosexuals was, and is WRONG! When I see someone physically attacking another, they have NOT caused me any pain and yet I have always rushed to the person being attacked aid. WHY? Because the actions of the attacking person was WRONG! Evil wins when good people do nothing! The same applies here! Next, while I really do admire your determination, your success, and while I congratulate you on what you have accomplished, NOT ONE THING you said had ANY thing to do with the discrimination which was faced by Blacks, Women and Gays before now & is still being faced by we Atheists today. One of the things YOU are seemingly unable to grasp is there is GOOD and there is EVIL! There is RIGHT, and there is WRONG! Discrimination against people simply due their sex, their skin color or their sexual preference is both Evil and Wrong! And discrimination against people, JUST because they are Atheists, IS also both EVIL and WRONG! Are you saying ALL of those who fought against the discrimination of Blacks, Women and Gays were wrong for doing so? That these people should have all directed their energy towards something which YOU consider positive? Well, IF you had a clue on this subject, you would see my energy IS directed toward something very positive. I am doing what I can to WAKE others up to the discrimination against MILLIONS of Atheists here in the United States and over a Billion Atheists world wide. To EDUCATE others that MANY very famous, successful & accomplished people were, before they died, OR are Atheists. The United States and the world would be much worse off without the many great things ATHEISTS have contributed to it. For only a few examples, where would we be without Tom Edison's inventions and Henry Fords mass production? Mozart's & Brams & Beethoven's music? Walt Disney? Mark Twain? And on and on and on! Far too many people go through much, to most, to ALL of their life WITHOUT even knowing there are others who do not believe in the childish superstitions called religion and gods. Below is a link to another one of many stories about discrimination against we Atheists here in the United States. The author is a women who is in our military and who is a fellow member of a military Atheist group. - http://maaf.info/ YES, THERE ARE ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES! http://maaf.info/ - http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/492272.aspx And here is an article about why religion should, or should not, be respected. - http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/488348.aspx Here's a link which PROVES far too many of our present day "Christian leaders" are nothing other than junior Hitlers. Before you read the hateful comments from these "American" Christian leaders, consider the following: If a crowd of people are standing there watching others lynch someone and they take NO action to stop it, they are legally just as responsible for the lynching as are those who actually lynched the person. The EXACT SAME applies here. ANY Christians who observe and/or know of ANY discrimination against Atheists and do not take action to stop it from happening are JUST AS GUILTY as those who commit the discrimination! - http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/mine/quotes.htm Below is a link which contain a very few of the millions of stories about how Atheists LEFT whatever religion (mostly Christian) there were programmed in to and became Atheists. Some of these tell of how the writers are SO AFRAID of what CHRISTIANS WILL DO, they do not let any others know they no longer believe. ----------- De-Conversion Stories - http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9663.htm ---------- More De-Conversion Stories - http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml8453.htm -------------- And More - http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/ - -------- Why do people become Atheists? While this author is sure many. to most, people's stories are roughly similar to his, not all are. ... The stories below are presented verbatim, and one or two include strong language - http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/why_become.html