Atheism is considered to be a religion by some, and not a religion by others. In this presentation, I will address a few questions and statements that are frequently brought up by Christians. The first statement will be that Atheists are bad people and that nobody can live a good life without god. The second will be, our founding fathers were Christians and this country was founded on Christianity, why should it change? And the last statement I will address is, “there is proof for Christianity!” The bible is proof! Isn’t it? I will address all of these questions from an Atheist point of view.

By:Daniel Warwick Period 7

Atheists are bad people? Hm.

This statement is completely false, here is why.• Christians make up 75% of the United States population• Christians make up 75% of the Prison Population.• Atheists make up 10% of the United States population.• Atheists make up .2% of the Prison population.• If atheists are bad people, why is it that many of them are the leading philanthropists of all time?

• Bill Gates – Donated 37 Billion dollars to charity.

• Warren Buffet – Donated 30 billion dollars to charity.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

- Psalm 14:1

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Atheists are bad people! Pt. 2 Summary

• Think about missions, Christian Groups take food overseas and say, “here, to eat our food, you must read our bibles and pray to our god.” From an atheist point of view, you would say. “We know you are malnourished and need food, so here, eat.” There is no god involved, no religion involved. We merely see that there are people in need and help them, which is the right thing to do.

• From the moment people are born, they have something in them that distuingishes right from wrong. From the moment that you are born, you know it is wrong to kill someone. You do not need a list of 10 things to tell you how to live your life, because that is already in you.

• Lance Armstrong – 7 Time Tour De France winner.• Issac Asimov - A science-fiction writer and science popularizer.• Richard Dawkins - Holds the Charles Simoyni Chair for the Public

Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.• Francis Crick – Co-Discoverer of DNA and the heredity molecule.• Steven Pinker – MIT cognitive scientist.• Also, Angelina Jolie, Woody Allen, Ray Romano, the list goes on and on.

To say that atheists are bad people is like saying that murderers are good people, it’s just as asinine, and neither statement is justifiable at all.

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Our founding fathers were christians, and this country was founded on the name of God and christianity, why should it

change?

First off, to say our founding fathers were all Christians is absurb. Lets take a look at some of them:

• Benjamin Franklin – Quoted saying “Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” And, "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies."

• Thomas Paine – Wrote “The Age of Reason”, which was a book promoting using reason when thinking about things such as religion. He was not Christian, but a deist. Which is the belief in a nonomnipotent god, and he did not believe in an afterlife or miracles or any of the Christian faith.

• Thomas Jefferson – “"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.“ & "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." There are tons of more quotes such as these, the point of it is Jefferson was not a Christian, but like Paine, was a deist.

And if this isn’t enough proof….. (Dawkins) 122

Treaty of TripoliLets take a look at Section 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams on June 10,1797.

• Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

• It says it right there, the United States of America was not in any way founded on the Christian religion. Also, whether, atheist, Christian, Deist, or whatever religion, all of the founding fathers were secularists, or wanted separation of church and state. This also means that they would not want “In God We Trust” on our money or “One Nation Under God” in the pledge, but religious zealots have hijacked this country and unfortunately that’s how it is.

(Wikipedia)

There is Proof for Christianity! Isn’t there? I mean, isn’t the Bible proof? - Quotation

• There is absolutely zero proof for Christianity.• God has never left any physical evidence of his existence on

earth. • None of Jesus' "miracles" left any physical evidence either. • God has never spoken to modern man, for example by taking

over all the television stations and broadcasting a rational message to everyone.

• The resurrected Jesus has never appeared to anyone. (The Bible we have is provably incorrect and is obviously the work of primitive men rather than God.

• When we analyze prayer with statistics, we find no evidence that God is "answering prayers."

• Huge, amazing atrocities like the Holocaust and AIDS occur without any response from God.

(God is Imag.)

• What most people do not know is that early Christian officials voted on what books to put into the bible. Yes, you heard that right, voted. I thought the bible was supposed to be the word of god? But when you look at it, it is merely the work of men.

• If we perform scientific, double-blind tests on prayer, and if the prayers involve something concrete and measurable (for example, healing people with cancer), we know that there is zero effect from prayer. Every single "answered prayer" is nothing more than a coincidence. Both scientific experiments and your everyday observations of the world show this to be the case every single time.

Lets look at the bible just a little more…..

Proof for Christianity? Paraphrase.

(Why are….)

The Bible

The only thing the Bible is evidence of is humanity’s foolishness, and if you do decide to take it as fact, it is also one of the sickest things to ever be written. For example:

"And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son...." (II Kings 6:28-29)"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:10-11)

Note: These passages are nothing. There are hundreds of worse ones. Unfortunately, I would be expelled if I put them in here.

(No Beliefs)

The Bible Continued"For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters so a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods." (Exodus 34:14-16)

So god was Jealous? Huh.

"AND Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." (1 Chronicles 21:1)"AND again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." (Samuel 24:1)Here we have either a contradiction, a grave Biblical error, God and Satan working together, or the unmistakable interpretation that God and Satan are one and the same! Given that fundamentalists believe the Bible contains no errors or contradictions, then that leaves only the last two possibilities.

(no beliefs)

And Jesus?

It was likely that Jesus did not even exist. There were hundreds of historians who lived at or around the time of Jesus and not one has recorded anything about him. Don’t you think someone who gets Crucified and Resurrected and performs all these miracles would have made it on paper somewhere? But no, they didn’t.

• There are no contemporary Roman records to prove that Pontius Pilate executed a man named Jesus. There is not even a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus.

• All the documents pertaining to him were written at least 30 years after the death of the alleged Jesus and are from either unknown authors, people who had never met the earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Many have been proven to be outright fabrications, pious frauds or interpolations derived from hearsay accounts and can not possibly serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus.

(why are…)

Jesus ContinuedMost Christians have never heard of Horus or Dionysus or any other Pagan gods. But the fact of the matter is, there have been hundreds of fictional characters that came way before Jesus that had the same attributes as him, for instance:

• Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger, with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.

• He was a child teacher in the Temple and was baptized when he was 30 years old. • Horus was also baptized by "Anup the Baptizer," who becomes "John the Baptist." • He had 12 disciples. • He performed miracles and raised one man, El-Azar-us, from the dead. • He walked on water. • Horus was transfigured on the Mount. • He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected. • He was also the "Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah, God's Anointed Son, the Son of Man,

the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word" etc. • He was "the Fisher," and was associated with the Lamb, Lion and Fish ("Ichthys"). • Horus's personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the "Father." • Horus was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One," long before the Christians duplicated the story. • In fact, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother

Isis - the original "Madonna and Child"

The point is, the story of Jesus is nothing new. Many have claimed to be the “Messiah” even in present day, but to claim that Jesus was the son of god is absurd, for Jesus may have never even existed.

(why are)

ConclusionThe point of this Presentation was to give you a new perspective on Atheism. The term Atheism has turned into a term that provokes fear and uncertainty into people. When people hear you are an Atheist, they say “Blasphemy!”, and then go back to praying to their imaginary character in the sky. I don’t see how that is any less absurd than not believing in a god. In the end though, just know, Atheists are not bad people, and when you examine your religion, you are bound to find countless holes in it.

Rubric

• Research Rubric• Introduction Slide (5) _____• Quotation Slide (15)_____• Summary Slide (15) _____ • Paraphrase Slide (15) _____• Conclusion Slide (5)_____• Works Cited Slide (10) _____• Parenthetical Citation (10) _____• Pictures (5) _____• Quality Production (10) _____• Computer Lab Ethics (10) _____

Works Cited

“Atheist” 15 April 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU

“Celebrity Atheist List” 15 April 2008 www.celebatheists.com

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. United Kingdom: Houghton Mifflin, 10/18/2006

“Famous Atheists...” 15 April 2008http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

“God is Imaginary” 15 April 2008 http://www.godisimaginary.com/i8.htm

“No Beliefs” 15 April 2008 http://www.nobeliefs.com

“Why are…” April 15 2008 http://englishatheist.org/indexz31.shtml

Wikipedia April 15 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_tripoli