Teapotistic Pastafarian

One topic that lately pops up in the Western world is what we call "Arabization of Indonesia and Malaysia", which is the seemingly trend toward assimilating more radical/fundamental Arabic-style Islamic traditions and laws.

I love the diverse Indonesian culture. And I have been impressed by the visible religious tolerance whenever I visited the country. These "Arabization" studies and talks made me curious on how Indonesians themselves view it.

Is Arabization really happening? Do you actually feel the changes over time? How does it effect daily lives, traditions, laws, politics, education system/curriculum, etc.? How does it effect other religious groups?

PS. I can understand some Bahasa Indonesia. You can answer this in Bahasa Indonesia. I will find a way to understand most of it. :)

...but someone asked "why are there still monkeys?"

I must have an out-of-date schedule...

Isn't it the easiest way to convince all humans beyond any doubt?

I am sure if he existed he'd have heard of CNN, ABC, NBC, BBC, etc. right?

Trillions of people have waited for God to prove himself since when prehistoric humans asked "why are we here?". God never showed up. But most people continue to insist in God's existence.

Is this power of wishful thinking or failure in concluding from historical lack of single evidence?

Why credit Gods for good things and blame humans for bad things?

Any thoughts?

When I challenge religious concepts, my intention is really to promote reason and critical thinking as I believe these are key to progress. But often theists think that I am proselytizing for atheism, which is silly.

Does this happen to you, too?

And why?

To me, it is about reason and not faith. You don't think it is about faith when I say "I don't believe in the Celestial Teapot's existence", do you?

Besides, contradictions and inconsistencies in the thousands concepts of Gods are enough evidence that all Gods are just man made hypothesis. More complex hypothesis than the Celestial Teapot but just as absurd.

So, I am just curious on why you think that about atheists...

Christians condemn others to hell all the time, here and in real life.

But, when, for a kick, I posted "Can you prove me wrong that the real God is FSM and He'll send Christians to His hell?"... The question quickly got reported and deleted.

Not that it is a big deal to me. But, I am just curious..

Do you see this double standard, too?

... when it is more logical for such "God" to never create cancer to begin with?

...and you are a strong atheist who hates being pretentious. At the presidential debate you are asked "Do you believe in God?". What do you say?

...in a sense that many people do need help to be moral. If we deny religion to them, they might not be moral enough for others.

Agree? Disagree? Any thoughts?

Tough choice. I cannot decide on it this morning.

- David Attenborough

- Dan Barker

- Richard Dawkins

- Daniel Dennett

- Sam Harris

- Lawrence Krauss

- VS Ramachandran

- Michael Shermer

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

- Steven Weinberg