Oriphiel

I once performed a buddhist exorcism on a haunted doll. I don't believe in ghosts, demons, or an afterlife, but it was a fun way to pass the time. Some creepy stuff happened, but it was probably just the amount of infrasound in the area.

Reminds me of...

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William_the_Bloody

I'm aware of the temporal breaches theory. I know that this was not the case, I don't really want to delve into the details, athiests would never be convinced either way.

John Wilkes Booth

i just dislike the dawkins-lead campaign to call being an argumentative twat 'militant atheism,' where as the militants of other religions are actual militants willing to resort to violence and/or the threat of violence in favor of the ideology in question

i think this is a rhetorical tactic that some of the 'new atheist' polemics use to present atheism as inherently more benign than religion... contrasting the tactics of let's say ISIS with the tactics of the atheist organizations that launch lawsuits to remove nativity scenes and **** like that

i think it's a bit intellectually dishonest... first it's using a misleading term like militant to describe just being opinionated and argumentative

but also, it attempts to gloss over or ignore the real examples of militant atheism that have existed and do exist, typically under communist regimes

do i think atheism created the incentive for marxism/communism? not really... i think the incentive stems from a dissatisfaction with the capitalist system

but i think atheism was seen as a necessary component of communism, primarily because religion was seen as an ideological threat. communism (particularly in its totalitarian form) demands unquestionable loyalty to the state. religion introduces alternative priorities for people. it introduces its own ideological dogmas. dogmas which aren't your own are especially dangerous to a state that is reliant on its own dogmas to maintain unquestioning loyalty

hence chinese can actually be christians... they simply must attend state sanctioned christian churches. christians that attempt to stray from this path can find themselves in the laogai.

i don't know why you won't share the details of the story... based on your response about better a pussy than a fruit it sounds like you're worried about being thought of as crazy

shouldn't worry about that too much... people will think what people think. you should share it.

Black Francis

Weird, before my grandma died she used to see little children too, she would ask me who they were but i just figured she was just remembering her own children.

It's interesting to hear that other senior citizens saw the same thing, maybe when you're old you start to see the silhouettes of children running around because you have fond memories of them.

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"Hey Kids you got to meet the MIGHTY PIXIES!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRbCtIgW3A

William_the_Bloody

I never directly labeled Richard Dawkins as a militant atheist, though I believe he is, as he burns with the same religious fervor that a Baptist fundamentalists like Pat Robertson does. (Thankfully he's just far more rational)

Dawkins to me is a militant because he is a complete materialist who is out not to just discredit religion, but the belief in anything supernatural in general, ghosts, NDE, ect.

He is completely close minded on the issue and his little kabob of scientists have been known to mock and bully other well established scientists in the community for their beliefs in the probability of an afterlife. So militant yes.

As for "militant atheists" in regards to China, you bring up a good point in regards to atheism being an essential component to Communism. The fact that Christianity was brutally suppressed in the Soviet Union is proof of this, but today it is thriving under Putin's autocratic regime that is pretty much controlled by the ex KGB. Largely because it coincides with his ideological principles of European Conservative Nationalism.

Totalitarianism doesn't equate to atheism though, National Socialism was based on paganism and nature worship despite it's pseudo scientific Darwinian component.

The Batlord

The absence of a competing dogma is an essential component to communism. Whether it's religion or not is irrelevant.

Actually National Socialism wasn't really based on paganism. Some members of the party were involved in the Thule Society, and pagan occultism, but Hitler and most of his important flunkies weren't involved much if at all with any of that neo-pagan goofiness. Hitler actually outlawed occult organizations.

IIRC, the Nazis' relationship with religion in general (or at least with Christianity) was, "Don't **** with us, and we won't **** with you."

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William_the_Bloody

The driving force behind National Socialism was indeed paganism. Adolf Hitler's move to outlaw the Thule Society was a power play, but he himself had been indoctrinated in German paganism from a very young age.

From his fascination with Richard Wagner, to his occult following of Austrian mystics as a teen, all the prominent Nazi's during their younger years were steeped in German neo paganism, which consequently was the basis for their anti Semitic beliefs.

Hitler was deeply influenced by Houston Stewart Chamberlain and was present at his funeral that was attended by various high ranking Nazi's in 1927.

The Hitler youth movement was clearly designed to cut off the young from Christianity, being on a Sunday, it drew away and disrupted Christian youth movements. The reason the Nazi's never directly challenged the church was because it was too powerful, to do so, especially in the early years, would have been political suicide. Most of the prominent Nazi's like Heinrich Himmler despised Christianity though, and wanted to see it eradicated once victory had been achieved.

History was my BA. If you ever get a chance to read Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "Foundations of the Nineteenth Century & Alfred Rosenberg's "Mythos of the Twentieth Century" do so, they are fascinating reads, alongside Mein Kampf they are considered the ideological foundations of the Nazi party.

Alfred Rosenberg is often regarded as the chief ideological inspiration for the Nazi's, and his book was in many respects considered a sequel to Chamberlain's works.

Check out the link below.

https://archive.org/details/TheOccul...aOfTheSwastika

The Batlord

Interesting. I'll have to give that **** a look.

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John Wilkes Booth

i know you didn't. i mentioned him because years ago he led the charge, calling for a new militant atheism. but by 'militant' he basically means relentlessly opinionated and argumentative.

yet, when we refer to say 'militant islam,' we're not just referring to hard headed muslims. we refer to actual militants, willing to take up arms for their religion. the same goes for militant christians, buddhists, or any other religion or ideology for that matter. anyone who's most extreme tactics in their arsenal of weapons that they will use in pursuit of their ideological goal still falls short of actual coercion is to me, not really a militant. but that's just my opinion.
that just makes him opinionated, to me... and perhaps impolite. not militant.

putin's russia is not communist. it's closer to fascist. so that is easily explained.

actually, at this point, it's fair to say that china is hardly even really communist anymore. they honestly seem to be veering more towards a fascist state than anything else, from what i understand.

and communism need not technically be totalitarian. but historically... that has been the case.

but even if it weren't totalitarian... marx himself wrote about religion in negative terms, as something that had the potential to prevent the workers from recognizing their dilemma and free themselves from wage slavery, being instead placated and distracted by supernatural promises

Mr. Charlie

Haha. Freaking out on drugs is always funny in retrospect.