Churches... Wtf...

A little background on my beliefs. I'm atheist obviously, but I do not care if others worship anything they want. I only care when they try to impose their beliefs on me, or try to force change in government(local or federal) to force non-believers to, or if it effects my everyday life. I recently saw, well noticed would be more like it, that alot of churches near me were putting on the signs outside, things like "Go to church, or the devil will get you", or "Choose the bread of life, or you are toast". All very funny to read, but threats like this make me furious. Anyway, these made me notice just how many churches were near my home... so i counted on my main road. The blvd alone, spanned 13 miles, and there were 36 churches visible by the road or on the road itself.

The town I live in, is 46.6 square miles according to the .gov site, within my town there are 162 churches currently active. 12 that are closed down and vacant.

This is almost 4 churches per square mile... I mean wow... do i live in the middle of jesus town or is every town this way? Whats your town like? More importantly, does our tax dollars pay for all of these churches? Do we need these many churches?

Burn them all down and let god sort em out.

I doubt your town has 162 different religions, so something is definitely wrong with that picture as far as that many churches being concentrated into that small of an area.

Taxes do not go to fund churches....this is why they pass a collection at the gatherings. People who attend give freely to the church through donations and this is how they stay funded.

As far as being in Jesus town, it must bother you if you are going to start a post on it. If you don't care then just ignore them.

Who cares, they can post what ever sign they want on their property.

They should not try and much government agendas? Really? The majority of our national laws and the backbone of our forefathers where of religious agendas.

Anyone with half normal intelligence to state the things you did previous to the idea taxes pay for churches! Just like above poster said, they are donation driven.

Couple things I would do: Reading in these areas- epistemology, Religious theory (not just Christianity), The foundations of atheism (David Hume a good place to start), Understand the 1st amendment, the constitution and the social ramifications in both how they came about and what they mean today. and So on.

What bother me even more then the unevaluated religious, is the unevaluated atheist.

Who said it? "The unevaluated life is not a life worth living!"

This stands true 2500 years ago as it does today.

Yeah churches is messing up with that non sense. I am still a Popeye's Cajun Lover though.

You need to read more carefully before you start going off on a tangent like that. Stated how he feels on one part, asked a question on another.

I read it twice thank you because. dont get your moms pink panties all in a bunch you should probably take off and put back in her drawer before she gets home. (*^.^*)

herpy derpy derp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Office_of_Faith-Based_and_Neighborhood_Partnerships

Well, technically giving to a church can be a tax write off like giving to any charity. This isn't direct funding... but if you're asking whether or not the existence of churches reduces money our federal or state governments get... the answer is yes so long as they use their donations as a tax write off.

Omg, you're such a hardass.

you think thats alot? look how many are in charleston southcarolina.

* They may not use direct government funds to support inherently religious activities such as prayer, worship, religious instruction, or proselytization.
* Any inherently religious activities that the organizations may offer must be offered separately in time or location from services that receive federal assistance.
* FBOs cannot discriminate on the basis of religion when providing services (GAO 2006:13[3]).


They can only use money for the same services that a secular organization would offer, and they can have no religious preconditions or religious agendas in order to receive the aid.

I know I be like totally E-THUG RAWR!!!

lolz

I read the wiki article because I was mistaken that government funding doesn't go to churches. Apparently groups that do try to convert people ARE getting government money. I do believe an evangelical group thats going into prisons to convert people was given as an example. The supreme court then decided on the lawsuit that came up. Apparently individuals aren't allowed to challenge executive orders in court. 5-4 ruling.

^^; apparently they CAN use government funding for evangelical purposes. Who knew.

Obviously I care, and any sign that publically states threats if I don't do what they want I find offensive. It's like me posting signs in my yard saying there is no god and if you don't believe that then I will torture you.

Furthermore there are that many churches in my town according to the .gov census and idk why you'd assume I was talking about different religions, they are all variations on Christianity except the 4 temples we have.

Mostly I'm wondering why people think these kinds of threats will get you more members for your church. And why any 1 town could possibly need this many temples of worship.

Got any pictures of them saying they will personally harm you instead of being punished after you die kind of deal?

Boring

"Lighthouses are more useful than churches" Benjamin Franklin

"This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in
it" John Adams

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man" Thomas
Jefferson

:-D

You must remember, you write one sentences and maybe 3 people read it. Those 3 people may agree/disagree with what you wrote but more importantly they read it in their own special individual way. Everyone intakes information differently, what I'm writing now I'm sure someone thought I was pointing out they're HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE by the word special but I didn't I honestly mean it's special as it's individual. Regardless of this, those 3 people may take the basic structure of what I said and preach it the way they read it.

Times this by the hundreds of billions of people that haven't read their own religious textures fully but preach about it anyway getting the messages wrong and mixed up. Then throw in the obvious variation of the same textures over many years of chinese whispers translations. Not to mention omittances from the original scriptures, you get a very confused current batch of religious people.

You can understand their almost staggered stance when they are trying to "spread the word of God". When some of it's congregation see how much money a small church rakes in through tithes and donations, jealousy ticks a small box in their mind. The opportunity to become your own pastor, rent a small church and begin a new leaf with a slightly different variation of the "truth" opens a new building in your town.

Nonetheless the original statement of this topic is flawed. It is not correct to say they can believe in whatever they want then get angry at a sign. That sign has no indifference to you, except your wanting to remove them of what your country has grown on. Freedom of speach and freedom of religious beliefs. If you really didn't care you wouldn't take any notice and leave them to do whatever they want.

The point you made about certain groups getting into politics and government groups to change things to suit them, yes that is wrong and also against your original American Constitution. Unfortunately like I said above about the religious textures being miscommunicated, it works in the same way with your state by state law system. Of course it allows alot of good things to happen, also diffuses the want or urge by most Americans to want to know their own laws. Some of your own police units don't even know state law. It's ridiculous.

Something we can agree on.

Benjamin Franklin was the most wise of the founding fathers.

Was making a point about it being excessive.

The Fear Factor.

How true is it that the people leading churches are gaining most if not all of the money coming in?

Another thing we can all agree on: Benjamin Franklin was the original bossman.

They can believe whatever they want just do it privately. Also this government was founded on secularism and is in no way founded on religious views. There is nothing that a church does that cannot be achieved by purely secular means. But that's another topic entirely. The topic at hand please.

There should be legislation about church signs. It shouldn't have anything on it more than the name of the church, people associated with the church, and information about it.

None of this "spiritual information or messages" ***.

How about I open an atheist church and put "God laughs when your relatives die" on the sign? How much flak would I catch for that?