Had a conversation with a vocal Christian.

Apparently, atheists are amoral degenerates because they don’t fear god or divine wrath or hell. Waxed ineloquently.

When he stopped to catch his breath; I asked if he thought i was amoral.

He didn’t catch the warning flares. Went on to more or less repeat all of what he said, adding in that this lack of fear is why they need to punish us.

So, i asked him what Christ’s last instructions were. He stared at me blankly. Had to think about that.

Finally he said “spread the gospel…” as if maybe it was a trap. (Hey, some of his survival instincts are still working…)

So, I asked if he really thought that he was doing a great job of that right now. He looked confused. So I asked him what the gospel was

“The news of christs sacrifice and his love for everyone…”

So, I asked him what divine wrath and judgment has to do with it. So he went on a massive diatribe again about god’s judgement and how if they didn’t were all fucked.

“It’s a good thing I don’t believe in your skydaddy, then. A fairy tale can’t fuck for shit. Oh. And can we talk about how the only reason you're a good person is divine wrath?”

The fun part was he filed a complaint with HR. Apparently I was the one harassing him. (And apparently the Dumbass forgot that he worked for a contract security company. We have security cameras… everywhere, including in the waiting lobby’s coffee service where he had cornered me.)(he got told to shut up. And then quite because of PeRsEcUtIoN)

I mean, there's more stopping me than just that. Like being surrounded by people who actually believe that crap would disgust me constantly.

That doofus who made the McDonald's documentary was given a tv show for a bit. His idea was to have people who are opposites swap lives. The religious moron who swapped with an atheist kept saying that if you didn't get your morality from the christian bible, where do you get it. The fucking guy couldn't imagine people having an innate sense of right and wrong unless the church spoon-fed it to them.

Many many people that go through real seminaries come out atheists, but then need income so they become pastors. My wife went to seminary when she was questioning her religion and after learning about it was an atheist. She didn’t become a pastor tho.

Literally me. My grandfather was a pastor for over 60 years. Owned two homes on twelve acres. RV. Wood shop. Income from multiple churches.

Somehow never had money. Turns out a considerable portion of his income was being passed up the bullshit chain. Savings? What's that?

If the only thing keeping you moral is the threat of divine punishment, you ain't moral.

Morals? Try laziness. It sounds utterly exhausting to peddle shovelfuls of bull excrement all day after day after day. To soothe and stroke the constant irrational, ignorance-fueled beliefs, anxieties and xenophobias of "your brothers and sisters in Christ".

Just in case anyone feels the ~~entrepreneurial~~ holy spirit flowing flowing through them and wants to become a legally ordained minister, https://www.themonastery.org/ can hook you up for the low low cost of your email. Ive been a minister through them for over a decade. I originally did it as a joke but you can actually use it to do all the priestly things like perform weddings and stuff.

Yep, the only way to form a cult that amasses wealth and draws hot groupies is though fear and hate rhetoric. And I'm not willing to create a ministry that's abusive and hurtful for personal gain.

Some people do start benign NRMs based on mild virtues like kindness, compassion, mercy and generosity, but those aren't the ones that get huge and go nationwide...not while retaining their core values, at any rate.

Why are the memes on this sub just the most god awful (lol) unfunny boomer-ish memes anywhere on the internet.

Jokes on you, an atheist pastor only in it to fleece his congregation is still a good servant of God :D

My wife, the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher, says this all the time.

It looks like easy money, I know I could go all L Ron Hubbard and take advantage of people in that way, but I couldn't live with myself. My godless moral compass won't allow me.

Something fun to think about: English has a shit lexicon for talking about wrongdoing.

We have sin, which is wrongdoing against God (as informed by our ministries, hence why thinking sexy thoughts is sinful but war profiteering is not.)

We have crime which is wrongdoing against the state, which is why exposing embarrassments of the regime gets you more prison time than murder one.

When it comes to wrongdoing that doesn't involve church or state, we have to use a phrase that awkwardly fits:

• crime against humanity
• sin against nature

Our laws tend to function around sin and crime (yes, even here in the States, where there's an alleged wall of separation.) When there are victims, we first see to it the state is satisfied before we look to the well being of those affected. In many cases, the victims get no aid, no reparations, nothing.

Wrondoing can be neither crime nor sin, and still affect:

• other individuals
• the community
• a given demographic (black neighbors, gays in your community, women)
• the environment (including biodiversity / wildlife, entire ecosystems)
• the people of a region or a nation (independent of the entity of the state)
• the international community (international law and international courts exist, but they have very little power to enforce that law, hence why Putin and George W. Bush are both at large)

Most wrongdoing done by religious institutions are disregarded as sins. And most wrongdoing done by state agents are disregarded as crime. And then much wrongdoing is too complex for courts to understand or establish jurisdiction (The hedge-fund shenanigans resulting in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2008 or the OxyContin lobbying / marketing campaign by Purdue pharma resulting in the current opioid epidemic).

So, in this case, newspeak is here, and when we have to sort out our own morality, it helps to be able to figure out who is affected, and who or what we're looking to safeguard when we're making a proscription.