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(Date Posted:02/14/2007 04:00:32)
http://www.atheists.org/comingout/othercloset.htmlComment for one happy reader...'"It's extremely important to be true to yourself, and to maintain self-respect you have to be honest about who you are. If you are an atheist, that would mean being anopen and unashamed atheist. I think this is also true about being honest about how you left fundamentalism, regardless of what you believe/disbelieve now. "Coming out of the closet" can mean so many different things! So this page is useful to those of us who aren't atheists, also."Shadow
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In exchange for obedience, Christianity promises salvation in an afterlife; but in order to elicit obedience through this promise, Christianity must convince people that they need salvation, that there is something to be saved from. Christianity has nothing to offer a happy person living in a natural, intelligible universe. If Christianity is to gain a motivational foothold, it must declare war on earthly pleasure and happiness, and this, historically, has been its precise course of action. In the eyes of Christianity, woman(man) is sinful and helpless in the face of God, and is potential fuel for the flames of hell. Just as Christianity must destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.
-- George H Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God
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