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It's because in the United States, Christianity is overwhelmingly the predominant form of theism. If the US had a larger proportion of militant Muslims, for example (a proportion large enough to set policy at least in local areas), you'd see a lot more references to Islam.

Is it just me or it seems that whenever somebody bash down theism, I see references to Christianity? I mean, I am sure there are other religion out there. Is it possible that you don't agree with the execution rather the principle behind christianity? In addition to contact, maybe you should watch "Stigmata" or wait till it comes out on video.

Hasdi

More anti-Jehova ammunition for those boring Sunday mornings.

How so? It's anti-creationism, certainly, but that doesn't make it anti-theism. Keep in mind that many theists are firmly anti-creationist as well.

Where do you get this odd notion that the theory of evolution is "based on the assumption that there is no God"? The two assertions (evolution and theism) have no bearing on one another.
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Heheheh, I like that.

That big-john catholic dude they call the pope has been spending the last few weeks trying to impress on his billion or so subjects that heaven and hell are states of the mind, not places. I don't like it. I had a religious upbringing, was bar mitzvahed five years ago, and saw the absurdity of theism have since ceased having anything to do with any organised religion.

Wake up and smell the coffee. (Even if you don't like it.)

I encountered a bunch of DLMoody worshippers at his grave site in the middle of campus last year, and me and a dozen atheist||satanist friends took them on. They took the bible at face value, because, as one of them said, "My momma believed it. And Ah believe it."

These people say that man was created in god's image but they were created in their parents image. But they don't see the (il)logic to their statement. If I am created in my parents image, I should look exactly (bitwise and?) like my parents. And they should in turn look like their parents, and we should all be perfectly identical. Evolution (selective breeding, anyone?) is demonstrated in our generations. Language evolves, _computers_ evolve. (Yeah, they've been around forever....)

At school we were required to sing god-fearing hymns and christian drivel at our weekly campus meetings. When I protested publicly, I was told to stuff it, or to suck it up, by the faculty.

To anyone whose interested, I've published a socialist-atheist rant in a publication at my school. It may (or may not) contribute to this discussion.

(a few notes about my article. 1) as an experiment, we GPLed the magazine. :) 2) Its written for the school. 3) East Hall is a dorm 4) Franklin is the county the school was in. 5) There's probably at least a couple of readers who can immediately identify my old school from this article and post. :) )

I said:

Hiding behind literalistic definitions of terms in a vain effort to avoid the obvious -- that you are extremely religious -- is a cheap debating tactic.

To which you replied, completely ignoring the issue:

Without GOD you have no religion BY DEFINITION. I cannot change this. Atheism by DEFINITION is A=NO THEISM=GOD. It's isn't zealotry to point out when somebody has an incorrect definition and is using a word incorrectly.

I didn't say that hiding behind literalistic definitions was an example of zealotry; I said it was a cheap debating tactic to avoid the obvious: that you are religious ("extremely").

You falsely assume that the way things are now is the way they always have been. Who cares what decay rates have been like for a few decades? Who cares if the speed of light hasn't changed in 30 years? You CANNOT demonstrate that they have ALWAYS been this way. It is an untestable assumption. It requires faith to believe it. THAT is religious.

The remains of a three-toed horse can hardly be said to demonstrate the truth of evolution. That's just preposterous. Those bones do nothing but sit there. A scientist looks at them and concludes ("very scientifically," he assures us) that they represent a link in the evolutionary chain. Balderdash. Bones don't prove a process. They prove nothing more than that an animal once existed which had three toes but otherwise looked a lot like a horse.

Show me there is a god, give me testable evidence.

The evidence is all around you. Look at the world. You simply refuse to see it. You spend your entire life denying it.

Show me with "testable evidence" that there isn't a God. You can't. And it requires a religious (and highly dishonest) leap to categorically deny the existence of God when you can't prove it. That's like saying there's no oil in Kuwait because you dug a hole or two and didn't find any.

If you paid any attention at all you would see that I said nothing whatever (negative or otherwise) about the results of scientific effort. It is quite another thing when scientists make ridiculous efforts to explain the existence of the universe or deny the existence of God. Note what I criticized, please: useless scientific cosmology and epistemology. There are other things to criticize, of course (like so-called atheistic ethics). Observing that things work in such-and-such a way is very different from pathetic attempts to explain WHY they work that way. Here especially scientists fail.

Yes, I am an insignificant pipsqueak. I'll freely admit that. Even the greatest man alive is just a worm in comparison to God. That God deigns to have anything to do with us says more about his kindness than about our greatness.

Hiding behind literalistic definitions of terms in a vain effort to avoid the obvious -- that you are extremely religious -- is a cheap debating tactic.

Without GOD you have no religion BY DEFINITION. I cannot change this. Atheism by DEFINITION is A=NO THEISM=GOD. It's isn't zealotry to point out when somebody has an incorrect definition and is using a word incorrectly.

There is little if any fundamental difference between theistic systems of belief and your unsubstantiable claims concerning the legitimacy of the scientific method as a means for obtaining certainty concerning cosmological and epistemological issues.

Tell you what: I'll measure the echo of the big bang (i.e. background radiation of the Universe), measure the age of the planet in 5 different ways, show that the farthest stars are 15 billion light years away in 3 different ways, show that radioactivity is constant over the last 40 years, demonstrate the the speed of light has been constant at least since the 60's, show that the Great Deluge couldn't produce the fossil record we see, demonstrate the 10,000 species of animal couldn't survive on an Ark for 40 days and 40 nights (much less be fed) and show you transitional fossils for the horse, the pig, and the bird.

Show me there is a god, give me testable evidence. I don't even need to have multiple ways of testing it. Just 1. That's all I ask.

That crappy unprovable "scientific method" cured small pox, allows 6 billion people to live on the world at the same time, has more than doubled your lifespan, has made the flu a mild irratation instead of death sentence, created electricity, computers, television, cars, medicine, cures for cancer, pesticides. What has your miraculous religion done? Should we pray for a cancer cure or FIND one? Next time you're sick, scew antibiotics, forget medicine. Pray instead. God will let you live if it is His will right?

Your god is yourself. Your worship may not take place in a church building, but your devotion to your own opinions betrays a reverence that is indistinguishable from religious fervor.

You believe that you are created by the same Omnipotent all powerful being that created 30 billion light years of space. That created the very Sun, the Earth, SuperNova's, Black Holes, Pulsar's, Galaxies, and time itself. You believe that you are so important that this SUPER BEING takes a personal interest in YOU, in 30 BILLION LIGHT YEARS OF SPACE. Of that UNIMAGINABLE GREATNESS. YOU are important to the BEING that created ALL THAT. You are so PERSONALLY important that God Himself cares about you and takes a personal interest in your well being.

And you say I think I'm god? There is no god. I'm an insignificant pipsqueak, and so are you. You are so arrogant to think you have a personal relationship with that? Give me a break.