[Kosh]

Seems like this guy is trying to be the next Ted Haggard

Not believing in a Supreme Being takes more faith than believing in one, according to Pastor Rick Warren. "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist," Warren told Fox News anchors Steve Doocy and Martha MacCallum Monday.

"You know, Steve, if I'm walking down a mountain and I see rock out of place and I go 'that's an accident.' If I'm walking down a mountain -- on the trail -- and I find a Rolex that's evidence of design," he explained. "It actually takes more faith not to believe in God than to believe in God."

Warren laughed at the idea that Humanists would place ads in large cities that read "No God?... No problem."

While Warren scoffs at atheists, he seemed to respect every other belief system. "The are 600 million Buddhists in the world. There are 800 million Hindus. There are one and a half billion Muslims and there are 2.3 billion Christians. The actual number of secularists in the world is actually quite small outside of Europe and Manhattan," said Warren. "You know the future of the world -- you may not like this -- is not secularism, it's pluralism. So we better find out what everybody believes."

Bashing on atheists isn't new for the pastor who has also compared gay marriage to pedophilia.

In April of 2007, Warren told Newsweek that he "never met an atheist who wasn't angry" and that "far more people have been killed through atheists than through all the religious wars put together."

"Thousands died in the Inquisition; millions died under Mao, and under Stalin and Pol Pot," Warren said in 2007. "There is a home for atheists in the world today—it's called North Korea. I don't know any atheists who want to go there. I'd much rather live under Tony Blair, or even George Bush."

EDIT: added the rest of the article. Seemed rather short.

[iamzack]

why are ignorant assholes allowed to make news?

[Mongoose]

And why do people insist on bringing said "news" to our attention?

[Kosh]

Because unfortunately people like this have a fair amount of sway........

[General Battuta]

Ah, heuristic illusions are wonderful.

Illusory correlation explains so much.

[NGTM-1R]

"is not secularism, it's pluralism. So we better find out what everybody believes."

You don't want to know what I believe, over here in my Jungian Agnosticism.

[karajorma]

Stalin and Hitler were both religious actually (although it's hard to tell what Stalin was to be honest). So he's wrong on the numbers.

[iamzack]

Even if they weren't religious, it's important to point out that very few people have ever died in the name of atheism. People die in the name of religion every day.

[Scotty]

I would call that due to Atheism being less a belief than a lack of one.  It's kind of hard to die in the name of a lack of something.

[StarSlayer]

I would call that due to Atheism being less a belief than a lack of one.  It's kind of hard to die in the name of a lack of something.

For Science!

[Nuclear1]

Ugh, Rick Warren.

I'd love to have a debate with this asshole about how the human perception of beauty in the environment is more of a result of thousands of years of the human mind attempting to make sense of and find meaning in the world around it (you know, like religion), and not the result of some higher being taking time out of his busy day to make a rock on a mountain look pretty for a part of his creation he knew was going to **** up.

But that would be like arguing with a brick wall.

I would call that due to Atheism being less a belief than a lack of one.  It's kind of hard to die in the name of a lack of something.

You apparently missed that South Park episode didn't you?


Science damn you, United Atheist Alliance!

[General Battuta]

I would call that due to Atheism being less a belief than a lack of one.  It's kind of hard to die in the name of a lack of something.

Sure, in much the same way that mental health is less a delusion than an absence of delusions.

Not that I consider faith a delusion, but I want to be careful to steer away from the suggestion that atheists have some kind of gaping hole or absence in their lives.

[NGTM-1R]

Not that I consider faith a delusion, but I want to be careful to steer away from the suggestion that atheists have some kind of gaping hole or absence in their lives.

Considering faith is belief in the absence of proof, it's getting pretty close to a classic definition thereof.

[Ford Prefect]

Funny that he mentions Buddhism in there, considering Buddhism is generally atheistic, and those Buddhist sects that do (sloppily, I would argue) include a vague deity certainly don't consider it a creator.

[General Battuta]

Not that I consider faith a delusion, but I want to be careful to steer away from the suggestion that atheists have some kind of gaping hole or absence in their lives.

Considering faith is belief in the absence of proof, it's getting pretty close to a classic definition thereof.

Well, okay, yes, 'faith' is a cognitive illusion springing from some elements of our neural hard-wiring, but I am open to others who want to derive value from that illusion. In the end everything's arbitrary, so I don't see it as a bad thing so long as it doesn't lead them to restrict the freedom of others who do not share their particular illusion.

[Galemp]

I'd reply to this but I don't have faith that Pastor Warren would care.

[iamzack]

I get annoyed when people think belief is rational. It's not, by definition. Go ahead, believe in the magical father figure in the sky, just don't claim there's a logical basis to it. Geez.

[mxlm]

The notion that the Soviet and Chinese states are atheistic breaks down the moment you look at what are in effect shrines to Mao and Stalin. It's closer to god-emperor stuff than anything else.

[Nuke]

i personally dont like atheists, i dont like bible thumpers either. really i dont think i like anyone.

The notion that the Soviet and Chinese states are atheistic breaks down the moment you look at what are in effect shrines to Mao and Stalin. It's closer to god-emperor stuff than anything else.

thats not atheism thats communism. marx was a paranoid bastard. he thought everything religions did was to control people. just cause your paranoid doesnt mean their not out to get you.

[blackhole]

Why do people continue to argue about this if all of them are too stupid to listen to anyone in the first place?