may i ask as a curious noob.. any past nonbelieving hosts of DU religion?
i honestly don't know and just wondered. studies have shown that atheists etc know at least as much if not much more about religious traditions as their believing fellow human beings.
ps.. this is my 1st thread attempt in 'religion' so plz take it easy. let's be curious people with each other for once is how it seems around here. myself included.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and i'm just plain glad to hear it. 
now that that's out of the way what do you say to a re-introduction session. we all interact almost every day and i don't know the first thing about any of you. i feel like so much pointless sniping goes on that it's impossible to work through anything mostly because we don't really know each other. we can't reveal personal details here, but we can get pretty close.
i'll start..
i'm a nerd. see my posts in the 'computers & internet' topics. i have a couple teenage sons 15 and 17. one lives with me, the other with my ex a couple miles away and it's a pretty good arrangement. i have a job (thank mammon!) at a little computer repair & sales shop in a medium sized city in the west. the pay isn't great but it's full time, so.. we're getting ready to move to a rustic cabin up the canyon where we'll have to heat with wood. thankfully there's a propane tank
i went through a breakup a couple months ago and it's been.. tumultuous. i've lashed out. probably on teh webz more than irl, but still i know it ain't right and i'm sorry to anyone i've offended. this one was different. she was sweet, before things went sour.
look we're all on the same page about our politics or we wouldn't still be here. even me the noob. we can't 'set aside' the issue of religion because the right won't let us. how is it possible for us to see each other as people enough to come together after all? to expand our sense of solidarity to include the too many splinter groups that form the progressive coalition?
just curious. and yeah the last few questions are probably rhetorical.
I am not a host here, but I am a lifelong atheist and I do frequent DU Religion threads. I have made many friends here.
Yes, things can get contentious here. But there are many of us on all sides of the argument -- Let's not assume it's a dichotomy -- who like the discussion in spite of the possibilities of the multifactorial of positions that one could profess.
Of course, there are also those who like to throw chairs. I've done that in the past, on occasion here, but I have decided that I will no longer do that.
Welcome, friend. I am sure you will be a valuable contributor.
on edit: Damnit! It's late. That one sentence was a bitch!
I mean, when one is serious about religion, they can't be wrong. Right, charles?
So there.
And I'm a jerk to play into your tit for tat by responding. Apologize for that. I'm better than that and so are you. You make some good points in discussions.
Take this knee jerk response for what it is.
But what can I say? Hypocrisy, especially when it comes from those that think they are better than everyone else, pushes my buttons.
I'll not let a hypocrite, especially those of epic proportions, slide so easily. YMMV.
21% of atheists and 55% of agnostics believe in god
8% of atheists and 17% of agnostics are absolutely certain god exists:
<snip>
They Don’t Make Atheists Like They Used To
By CHRIS SUELLENTROP
If only George Carlin were around to ponder this oxymoron: Steven Waldman, the editor-in-chief of Beliefnet, digs into the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (and reported on by The Times yesterday), and finds an interesting nugget: “21 percent of atheists believe in god.”
“What this means is that Atheism has become a cultural designation, rather than a theological statement,” Waldman writes on his Beliefnet blog. “Some are likely declaring themselves atheists as a statement of hostility to organized religion, rather than to God. This might help explain polls showing rising numbers of Atheists.”
(On the flip side, Waldman also notes that “about a quarter” of those who say religion is “very important in their lives” don’t attend religious services.)
21% of atheists believe in God
by chunkdz
And a whopping 73% of atheists do not believe in God.
How long have I been telling you these are not rational people we are dealing with?
With quotes all the way from 1651 ("But his anger burns against you; O you false Religionists!"
, through 1693 ("As for the moderate, rational and intelligent religionists, they are so few" up to Terry Pratchett in 1999 ("Evolution..caused so much trouble from religionists because it takes the gloss off one of their favourite arguments, the argument from design" .
Take my word for it - it does not work!
