Fox News *hates atheists. So it's not surprising that Fox's personal priest and propagandist, Fr. Jonathan Morris, would use his Fox pulpit to validate Fox's crusade. Sunday, Morris sweetly pimped the Fox message about - can we talk irony - how atheists force their beliefs on everybody else!
He then added his patented qualifier - "what I do find incredible though is that a small group of people who don't affiliate with any religion, which is completely acceptable and understandable, would be so oftentimes, not always but some of them so activist in trying to thwart other people's belief systems." As an example, he spoke about how, at a Steubenville Ohio school, an "activist, atheist group was trying to get them to not pray at the commencement" and "what did the students do, they stood up themselves and led themselves in the Our Father."
FACT CHECK: The "activist atheist group" is the Freedom From Religion foundation - a favorite target for Fox News. The FRFF told the school that the tradition of singing the Lord's Prayer, at graduation, was constitutionally problematic. Rather than incurring the expense of a lawsuit, the school removed the song from the program. The nice Christian students were upset and, as a protest, had the valedictorian lead them in the Lord's Prayer.
The loyal, little Foxpriest continued the propaganda: "One thing is not to believe, another is to try to keep people from expressing their belief and some of these activist groups do that." (Obviously the sweet padre isn't aware of the Supreme Court decisions (Doe v. Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. and Lee v Weisman) which clearly state that school led graduation prayers are unconstitutional!
The discussion turned to new polling data which shows that more people are not affiliated with any religion. Morris tried to put a positive spin on the data by noting that only a small percent of unaffiliated are atheists and the others are "seeking" to believe. What he doesn't seem to know is that, among the unaffiliated, 31% are either atheist or agnostic.
In the topsy-turvy Orwellian world of Fox News, it's the atheists who are pushing their agenda. Remind me of who is trying to push Christianity into every aspect of our daily lives and, vis-a-vis anti-choice laws, our bodies! And the "fair & balanced" Fox News is aiding and abetting. Thank God for Fox News and its clerical mouthpiece (He is loved by Roger Ailes) Fr. Jonathan Morris
*Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here
For me, it’s the example set by the so-called faithful that makes the difference: I don’t disbelieve in God but I don’t believe in Him either and the actions of far too many of those who say they believe in Him are not in keeping with the message of His son, Jesus. As an agnostic, I’ll wait until I can speak with God, himself. If Jesus was right, God won’t hold that against me.
Two weeks ago the Journal of the American Medical Association released a major study which shows that people who regularly attend church have less cancer, less heart disease and therefor live longer than people who do not. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/05/16/another-possible-benefit-of-going-to-worship-services-a-33-percent-chance-of-living-longer/
Research also connects the rise of religious “nones” with higher rates of suicide, depression, anxiety and substance abuse. http://www.mbird.com/2016/05/everybody-elses-biggest-problem-the-rise-of-the-nones/
More research: Nine studies that altogether evaluated 2339 suicide cases and 5252 comparison participants met all selection criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis suggested an overall protective effect of religiosity from completed suicide with a pooled OR of 0.38 (95% CI: 0.21-0.71) and I2 of 91%. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26110867
In a sample of depressed inpatients, intrinsic religiosity was found to be associated with resilience, quality of life, and fewer previous suicide attempts. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25863908
Simple Definition of religion: : the belief in a god or in a group of gods : an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods : an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group.
Well, here we go again. Faux christians keep trying to define a non-belief as a belief system.
Kinda tricky, eh?
Atheists do not believe in god. And that’s a religion?? Sounds more like some addle-brained asshole trying to post a ‘clever’ response to something beyond his/her comprehension.