As far as labels go, when someone tells you what they are you ought to be able to take them at their word. Thing is, any ten “Christians,” upon further inquiry, might be members of ten wildly different sects. What bothers me most, though, is that no less than 8 of them are likely to support laws that discriminate against someone in some way.

Oh, and there’s a discussion about the “religion” vs. “relationship (with Jesus)” argument at http://www.ragingrev.com.

We call them out of touch with reality… Poster (oops, label) by the name (oops, label) of kimmy (oops, label). You even used one, “Crystal D”, if you fear labels so much quit using them. Of course that would be impossible… Think of the store (oops, label) in which you would only have rows of blank boxes that contain some substance that cannot be named because labels are BAD (oops, label).

That is all our reality is based upon, a bunch of labels. We communicate with labels, we label things to understand them, they tell us what is safe and what isn’t. And there are all kinds of labels. Let’s get real here and cut straight to the chase. You aren’t talking about labels, your specifically talking about religious… “labels”… Maybe others such as nerds and jocks, but that’s just as pointless.

I’ll first say this, it is not the labels that separate us. It is straight at the actions, the action people should force their ideals on others. I’m not talking discussion or debate, I’m talking about the “I don’t believe gays should be able to be married, so I’ll pass laws to forbid such.” Or “I don’t believe in condoms, so I’ll ban them.” These are what are separating us. And no, before you start, fighting against those doesn’t constitute forcing beliefs, as we’re not forcing issues on others, they are free to choose and that is the difference. Labels no, hah, it’s a common tactic of religion, you say everybody who aren’t in the same religion as you are less than human, their going to hell, let’s kill them… that, is what is separating us. That prayer should be forced in institutions where people who don’t have the same faith are, that is what is separating us.

And I call BS. “I am not religious.” BS. You don’t seem to understand, that not being religious, isn’t a faith… huh. Strange talk for somebody not religious. Faith has nothing to do with atheism. Furthermore, I guess you don’t really understand religion, especially monotheistic ones. “Engaging” in discussion, is not allowed. You do not question faith. That’s heathen talk, could send you straight to hell.

Hehehe, really, you’ve just got hung up on words… er, labels. You just don’t like the manipulation of such labels for people’s own use. But of course, that is common nature. A pointless dislike, and very pointless argument.

For instance, I’m a woman. I define myself as a woman. That is my gender, sex and part of my identity. If I were to go off the deep end though, I’d make everyone around me completely miserable constantly trying to force them to define that label exactly as I want them to. I don’t do that for the label of woman.

And I don’t make people define the label of atheism exactly as it fits me either. But I’m an atheist. The label fits. I wear it.

I think it’s good for atheists to at least say, “hey, I don’t believe in your fairy tales” and at least let christians know that we’re around. It might not be an issue in Australia, but it’s a huge deal here where the religious right is constantly pushing to change the laws to a theocratic state.

When I lived in your fine country back in the early 90’s it was definitely a non-issue. But then again, in Melbourne, it was cool to be smart. So that’s another huge difference between what I know of Australia and what it’s like here in America now.

I think there’s nothing wrong with atheists getting together. It doesn’t make it a belief system if we hang out together, since we’re of like mind on one issue. It doesn’t mean we will agree on anything else, but hey, it’s definitely a start.

And community is one benefit that the religious have over us that helps them in many ways. It wouldn’t hurt us to have our own communities.

Over here, we need to come together to at least show the christian religious right that we are here and we have rights that we think are worth speaking up for. Again, it doesn’t make it a belief system to do that. It just makes us more capable of speaking with a common voice for our basic rights.

Again, I don’t know what it’s like over in Australia now. Hopefully it’s not like it is here and you can be more casual about your lack of belief in invisible men in the sky.