What did you give up for Lent?

[adlp]

Originally Posted by Arkuski

I would like to request the mods to lock this thread. All I asked was for you guys to tell me what you were giving up for Lent, but I guess the mere mention of a religious ritual will ignite sparks of atheism and argument.

For the record, I agree with Cavernio. I view the practice of giving up something for Lent as a respectful observance of the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert. I do not mean to impose my beliefs on any of you, I was just asking my fellow Catholics what they were doing for Lent. For those of you who answered, thank you.

Now lock this thread.

welcome to ffr

[Choofers]

Originally Posted by RB_Spirit

The reason i said what i said, is because atheism is clearly a belief lol. I mean it is come on man -_- not implying that you are an atheist, but atheists tend to believe exactly what you said, "An atheist is one who rejects the notion of a deity or deities." that just sort of annoyed me for you to tell me that wasn't a belief, didn't intend to disrespect you, though.

except atheism isn't a belief

beliefs are formed based on opinions. i can believe that the tooth fairy exists, but there's no factual evidence that points towards the existence of the tooth fairy. sure, everyone knows that the tooth fairy isn't real. but we still have fully grown humans who are okay with the belief in a god/good. faith can be defined as a "firm belief in something for which there is no proof."

which i don't have because, quite frankly, i'm not an idiot.

[foxfire667]

Originally Posted by Arkuski

I would like to request the mods to lock this thread. All I asked was for you guys to tell me what you were giving up for Lent, but I guess the mere mention of a religious ritual will ignite sparks of atheism and argument.

I love how the creator of this thread posted this and people are still arguing.

I wish people here wouldn't be so quick to derail a thread when it has to do with something religious. How hard is it to just not post in a thread you cannot properly contribute to?

[ilikexd]

Originally Posted by foxfire667

How hard is it to just not post in a thread you cannot properly contribute to?

Apparently it's pretty hard.

Who gets hurt by tangential discussion? (this is not to say I condone the content-less posts of "religion" or "lol religion".)

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

I see nothing wrong with Lent at all -- this thread was technically hijacked unfairly from the very start. :P

Yea, I don't think it was my fault though.

[foxfire667]

Originally Posted by ilikexd

Who gets hurt by tangential discussion? (this is not to say I condone the content-less posts of "religion" or "lol religion".)

Well since this thread is dead anyway I guess we can go on a tangent and discuss thread tangents.

As easily demonstrated here, typically the original poster who is trying to interact with the community with a given topic. Not to say that no tangents in threads should exist, slight tangents usually are pretty harmless and still sort of contribute to the original topic at hand. Although it seems that when religion (or lack thereof) appears, people cannot contain themselves to convert any discussion into some sort of war ground for pointless bickering of beliefs.

For example, a slight tangent that probably would have been harmless and added to the discussion might have been "well I don't take part in lent, but I do take part in some other religious / non religious event similar to lent where I give up x and y". It's when the tangent completely strays away from the original point of the thread that it becomes an issue, especially when for some reason others like to follow suit, "Lol religion / non religion? So stupid, let's argue about it here and take over this thread."

[Garquillex]

Originally Posted by Choofers

which i don't have because, quite frankly, i'm not an idiot.

nothing good comes from atheist or religious militance

[Choofers]

Originally Posted by Garquillex

nothing good comes from atheist or religious militance

I don't think I'm a militant atheist, but really, believing anything without proof to back up the claim is naive and idiotic.

Not just in terms of religion either.

[blindreper1179]

I gave up Lent. This is going to be hard!

[bmah]

Even after Reincarnate graciously attempted to move the atheism debate elsewhere, people are still arguing. If you want to talk about going off on a tangent, make a new thread for that too. In the end, there wasn't much substance relating to the original topic.