Reply #140: Stop by, we can share a bowl.

[immoderate]

I can't speak for the sheriff and the judge, their ratings with the public are generally high. Have they slapped any "Christians" with a possible 15 year sentence for making noise? Only this atheist activist? Their religion gives them a justification for what they are doing. They feel righteous in persecuting this poor woman.

The kind of reasoning that leads people to be atheists usually allows them to shed racism and a lot of other irrational prejudices along the way. You may not accept that rational thinking is anathema to racism, sexism and religion, but it is generally so.

Some people are into "feeding the hungry, comforting the bereaved, responding to violence with love, etc.," because they think they are racking up points with the deity. Others see them as the right thing to do. They are not religious. They are normal behaviors of sentient beings. They are adopted by religions, but they are cited by every ethical system religious and secular. Christians did not invent the idea of feeding the hungry, nor was it a revelation of any spirit, who until that time allowed all hungry people to starve to death.

Religion is not about doing good deeds, it is about spooks who can condone inhuman behavior.

--imm