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February 3rd, 2012
09:10 AM ET
From place of prayer to place of beerBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN (CNN)–The leafy, genteel north London neighborhood of Muswell Hill is well stocked with stores, coffee bars, restaurants and apartments. It also has plenty of churches – at least four were built within a few hundred yards of each other, thanks to the generosity of the developer who built Muswell Hill in the late 19th century. It turned out that was too many. Britain’s Presbyterians and Congregationalists merged in 1972, leaving Muswell Hill with a church that had no congregation. It was nearly torn down, then saved by local protests, and was briefly used as offices, abandoned, and finally turned into a pub in 1995. I visited the church-turned-beer-hall recently to take a look. Have a story like this of your own? Share it with us on CNN iReport.
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The more churches that stop preaching ridiculousness and start serving beer, the better.
When are you going to WAKE UP! The rich are buried in money while we work endlessly for them. Time to make a change for the BETTER!
Google the terms "Cash Simple Stock" and click the very first site! Go straight to the Penny' Stock section to find out how YOU can learn what the rich already know!
NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL YOU DO SOMETHING TO MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER!
This is a happy story! Beer is real!
Cheers!
How are you these days? All work, no blog for me. Peace.
It is the lack of REVIVAL,..,.....,......, the WORD of GOD says that if my people who are called by name shall humble themselfs and turn away from thier sins and call upon me, I shall hear from HEAVEN thier CRY and HEAL thier LAND...............................
@Collins
No, Sparky. It is a lack of god. Prayer does not work. A revival may make the participants feel warm and fuzzy for a time, but that is just brain chemistry. Every religion reports such feelings.
Cheers!
mmmmm... beer....
Prayer causes small kids to get hit by buses when they aren't paying attention.
Prayer takes people away from actually working on real solutions to their problems.
Prayer wears out your clothes prematurely.
Prayer contributes to global warming through excess CO2 emissions.
Prayer fucks up your knees and your back.
Prayer can cause heart attacks, especially among the elderly.
Prayer reveals how stupid you are to the world.
Prayer exposes your backside to pervert priests.
Prayer prevents you from getting badly needed exercise.
Prayer makes you post really stupid shit.
Prayer makes you hoard cats.
Prayer makes you crave the smell of kitty litter and leads you on to harder drugs.
Prayer wastes time.
But anal is! Come give it to me!
Seriously, you again?
About a million years ago, a friend and I went to England. There was a lovely pub in Birmingham that had once been a church. The beer was good, and Black Sabbath was on the jukebox. I thought it was a marvelous use of space.
Prayer changes things
Prayer is profound
Prayer is personal
Prayer is productive
Prayer changes things
-The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.-
"Atheism is not" piss off you're posts are annoying and aren't doing any good, you're worse than Reality. What a TROLL!
Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things
"Prayer changes things"
-The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.-
"Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things"
A new study shows that many devout Americans know less about religion than do atheists. To some observers, it suggests a shallowness of faith.
@forpetesake Don't get frustrated with our cutesy little prayer troll. That fine Christian WANTS you to be frustrated and angry and annoyed, because he loves you just as Jesus wanted.
No, he/she – or more precisely, it, has never supported any of its absurd statements, and continues on because it causes mild annoyance, and because it gets attention. It is the same lame impotent poster named "just saying" and "george" and a few others.
What do you do with trolls? DON'T FEED THEM! If nobody responds, it stops being fun for our fine example of Christian goodness.
Don't go for the bait, people. It is a bitter, lonely little troll desperate for attention. Leave it to fester in its own puss. His posts should receive zero responses.
"f nobody responds, it stops being fun for our fine example of Christian goodness."
Yeah, the emotional maturity of a 2nd grader.
i would like to teach the world to pray
In perfect harmony
Upon their knees
Beneath the trees
The cost of prayer is free
""`-The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.-,,,,
Do not waste another second of your life on this loser. Ignore with extreme prejudice.
Prayer changes things
All encouragements to prayer
Are offered to a lost and dying world
In the love and grace of God
And will continue until the
Peace and salvation offered by God
Is known and accepted by all
Prayer changes things
~~~~-The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.-~~~
don't study studies studies are misleading study God
atheists are being exposed to the light of Truth and are scurrying for the dark corners like the garbage roaches they are, prayer is being endorsed, life is good
"atheists are being exposed to the light of Truth and are scurrying for the dark corners like the garbage roaches they are"
Not only are you lying but you are passing judgment too, nice one now go to hell hypocrite.
"don't study studies studies are misleading study God"
Yo moron, you just said studies are prejudiced so studying your God is prejudice. That explains a great deal about you stupid crhistians. Plus you can't counter so you keep making stupid prejudice remarks. LOL!
Hey Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things
If prayer changes things, why did Christ ignore the SCREAMING of the little boys being buggered in his name? Perhaps because he approved?
If prayer changes things, why did Christ ignore the SCREAMING of the Jews being gassed? Perhaps he let them suffer because they worshiped the wrong God?
Or is it that prayer is a panacea for lifes losers?
I'd like to teach the world to pray
In perfect harmony
Isn't that a really old Coke commercial?
"Prayer changes things"
"`-The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.--
Please do not feed this troll, William. That's all it is, just a pathetic little troll best ignored. Do not waste another moment of you life on this maggot.
@Don't Feed The Trolls: So are you going to start posting this everywhere too? We're going to have three of you idiots now?
I will post just enough for those to get the idea. Some of you won't, and will perpetuate the cycle.
But I am especially happy that I pissed you off, Sean. Kind of a fringe benefit.
@Don't Feed The Trolls: You said, "But I am especially happy that I pissed you off, Sean. Kind of a fringe benefit."
You have awfully low standards.
Wlliam, obviously you have no heart for the answer to why bad things happen to the good or innocent. I have a question of my own. Where were all the good atheists when all this was happening? The same place all the good christians were, sitting on their corporate hands and doing nothing! The same for the Sudan, Bosnia and Rwanda.
Many can repudiate christians, few can repudiate true Christian principals and their foundation. What is the foundation for iatheistic principals? Oh, I'm sorry! It is the ever shifting sands of societal whims and supposed norms of the current time.
haime52.. Atheists do not believe in god beyond that our principles are the same as yours, not sure what you mean by atheistic principles. If your god exists he is doing an absolutely poor job of protecting the innocent. We, as atheists are trying to tell you that your religions are dividing the human race and that nothing will get solved until we look at each other as human, not as a catholic or Muslim, , protestant , Jew or what ever else you like to label yourselves with.
EvolvedDNA
It is not religion that divides it is pride of man. That same desire that took down the first man Adam in the Garden. Proof for you would be in early church writtings were christians were divided some liked Appollos, some Paul, Peter etc. The problem is that people were focused on the person not Christ. This is why Paul fought hard to get believers to recognize it is the truth of the Gospel that saves, it is the Holy Spirit not man or mans wisdom that unites.
Atheists are offended because the Bible says the things of God are foolishness to them and atheists realize that to be true. Christians are offended because atheists go to great lengths to use wisdom and logic to paint them as morons. Offense raises the hair on the neck and people can no longer hear each other. The devil wins because as we become more divided the truth get burried deeper and deeper
fred I think you're quite close to it. The thing is, it's really about God's Brother. Can we talk about it later?
James, is that you?
evolvedDNA – So we need unity like the USSR and China had? Which of the officially atheist countries do you wish to emulate? Any? None? Why, if atheism is so great and advances mankind so well, would you not wish to live in one of those countries?
All of you who somehow think that the absence of religion would make the world a better place need to think about the full ramications of that wish. I posit that the world would be a harsh unforgiving and very dangerous place with little influence of good to soften the selfish desires of mankind to gratify their own lusts, at any cost to others. After all, there is no higher power to answer to in the here after. You evolved, say our principals are thwe same, but forget where these precepts came from. Every moral principal we see, today, has its roots in religion, in one kind or another. The only founding principal of evolution is, though many will deny it, survival of the best adapted mutation.
Fred..we are not offended by what the bible says..it has no more wisdom than was known at the time it was written and offers no insights to human existence.. Most of it is a rehash of earlier writings from much earlier religions and gods, and is not original. What wisdom would you claim came from the bible that was not known. What exactly is the pride of man by the way? Beleif in a god is not required for any morality..that is a false claim by religions to enhance their status.
Haimes52..Would you then like to live in a country like Iran? or Saudi where religion rules..and god looks after his folks. Or is that not the same god that you believe in? Humans have the capacity to co exist with out the delusion of having a sky daddy. All you need to do to convince us of your god is to give us proof of his existence..but you cannot because he does not exist. Of course our principles are the same.. just because I do not believe in your god does not alter that fact. It sounds like you have accepted that evolution is real, as it is of course, and it is based on random mutations and natural selection..you are a product of it . Just as the god you believe in is shaped by the area you live in..if you were born in the middle east you woulf have a different belief structure. I cannot believe that for 200,000 yrs or so humans had no principles or morality and had to wait till god got of his duff and sent a guy down here to sort it all out....
@William: Why would anyone care about Jews getting gassed? I hear they deep fry well...
Getting enough fluoride "Stormfront"? Try putting it up your asshole. One of your friends can help you with that.
I wonder if they found any dead altar boys under the altar?
Why? Did Presbyterians and Congregationalists have any problems? Or are you just speaking out of your @ss on this.
You think one cult buggers less than the others?
Its like arguing the SS was better than the Gestapo.
Its like a religious Baskin Robbins in this country. 31 Flavors of cult, but really only five or six ingredients.
They are ALL guilty by association with the same imaginary savior.
@William Demuth- "You think one cult buggers less than the others?"
You think one religious group buggers more than the others? The same amount?
Facts man...where are the facts in your crazy accusations.
"Its like arguing the SS was better than the Gestapo."
No..no it's not. You are wanting to co_mpare without evidence, just your personal bias, a paramilitary group ran by the Nazi's that was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions to that of a religious group that you have yet to show anything negative of. Oh and it seems you have stumbled into Godwin's Law.
"They are ALL guilty by association with the same imaginary savior."
Ummm...no. But hey...then you are guilty too under your thinking. Since you do nothing to eliminate the problem that you believe exists....you are guilty of allowing evil men prosper. Good job.
Swain
Spend five minutes doing research. You are to bright to be in denial.
Your false indignation continues to put children at risk and you know it.
Christianity has had a child buggery problem since the dark ages, and no amount of PC malarky will change it.
@William Demuth- "Spend five minutes doing research. You are to bright to be in denial."
Sooo...no facts eh? You are too bright to make acc_usations without evidence. Especially if it's really as simple as a five minute search.
"Your false indignation continues to put children at risk and you know it."
No...it doesn't. When there is a crime, I expect the law to fully prosecute those held responsible. I believe in the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" instead of your concept of that religious ppl are "guilty until proven innocent".
"Christianity has had a child buggery problem since the dark ages, and no amount of PC malarky will change it."
I have never denied that such things have happened. However, it is highly ignorant to blame an entire religion for a problem that is not unique to a religion. If there was a religion that specifically said to ra_pe women and children..then yes, you can condemn that religion as a whole based on your views of morality. However, you should not blame an entire religion and those that follow it because of the stupidity of the few.
@Uncouth Swain: You said, " If there was a religion that specifically said to ra_pe women and children..then yes, you can condemn that religion as a whole based on your views of morality."
There is. It's called "Islam."
@Stormfront- got anything to back up your accusation? Maybe something from the Koran that says that.
The point has been made before but I find it to be more true everty time I read the comments on a religious storyline. Its a bunch of folks who have no faith or belief in any supernatural being that downtalks others who do. Be it Christianity, islam, Catholic etc. Those individuals from perseption are always negetive, and go as far as saying religious folks arent needed(basically kill them off). So my question is what do they stand for, what positive encouragement do they offer. Really, what people of any faith offer is the mindset that they owe all of who they are to a supernatural force(the radical ones). So in a community of people what you should get, although its forever a (work in progress as the bible, the quaran etc teach) is people of faith who strive to encourage, love, and live a life of standard. So what is the benifits of living by a scientfic opinion or fact? If we live simply for self, what we are really doing is debting against the fact that people need one another and being selfish? Im really curious to know what the benifits are of being atheist, because i've not seen a positive comment yet, just self righteous people who try to find the most negative way of shining a light on other people. i.e there is no God so your all wrong ha ha ha etc. So what good characteristics do you all offer?
Nonsense.
Religion fosters bigotry and hatred. It lives off those it defrauds as all parasites do, and demands ignorance as the price of admission. It asks it followers to suspend thought and be subservient to a cult, offering nothing more than lies design to exploit the victims fear of death.
Religion fosters an environment where fee independent rational thought is suspended, and those who refuse to submit to it are persecuted. It has had a major role to play in the greatest acts on inhumanity EVER inflicted on mankind. If you simply free your mind from your indoctrinations, you will realize we are ALL in this together, and your individual perception of being "preferred" in any way by an omnipotent being is just egomania run wild.
Please grow up, at this time in humanities history, we cannot afford to tolerate egocentricisim and immaturity any longer.
"All you negative ninnies! I'm not gonna take it anymore!"
OK, since you asked... and criticized quite liberally, I will respond.
First, it's very telling that most of the religious people who post on these forums can't form a well-structured sentence. That's point one.
As far as atheists/agnostics and nonbelievers being "negative" that is a false perception. You are on this site touting positive "proof" of your religion, and we do not believe in gods or religion, so we take a negative stance in the argument, but the burden of proof is yours to prove your god's existence.... not ours.
Most atheists/agnostic are humanists. This is a very positive view of the power of humanity to improve it's plight, and a non reliance on faith and prayer to solve problems. Because of this, we tend to be very proactive while most of you bow your heads and pray to (yourselves) which provides no relief or solving of the problem at hand.
Many on this board may seem negative because living among all of you gets VERY VERY tiresome. It is REALLY hard to live among people who don't understand simple math, science, logic or reasoning.... and especially those who can't use grammar correctly. Unfortunately, most of the world has an IQ of 100, and this isn't really adequate to comprehend some of the concepts that lead to atheism. The few religious zealots who are intelligent seem to have been unfortunately brainwashed, or have some sort of psychological disorder. Living among you is frustrating, and so, occasionally, we seem PO'd.
I realize these facts will not bring more agnostics from the low side of the IQ bell curve, but I must speak frankly.
...and William Demuth, I really like your post;)
*every
*It's
*downtalks ?
*catholics are christians
*perception
*negative
*aren't
*quran
*benefits
*scientific
*debting ?
*I'm
*I've
*you're
But at least "atheist" was spelled correctly.
William, false religion fosters those things. So sorry you have had an apparently bad experience with it. It is unwise to condemn all religious persons for the sins of the few. It is a bit like saying, " Some Chinese hate America and wish to kill us, therefore all Chinese are our enemy."
Finally those churches are getting put to good use. I live in Pittsburgh and we have converted many churches into bars. If you are ever in town check out the Church Brew Works. Good stuff.
I'll drink to that
Prayer changes things
~~The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.~~~
Prayer changes things
Prayer is happiness
Prayer is hopefulness
Prayer is heavenly
Prayer changes things
"~~The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.~~~
You're like Reality's annoying alter ego. piss off already.
I'm with you fred perhaps nope will catch a clue
"`The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs"`
Do not waste another moment of your life on this idiot
When the people who go to the bar think they have imaginary friends, they will come to their senses in the morning.
People don't kill and oppress and torture each other because they believe in different bars.
In a bar, they don't make you read and obey absurd boring books obviously written by Bronze Age peasants in some cesspool nowhereland in the Middle East.
Unlike a church, the spirits in a bar actually exist.
Feel free to add your own reasons!
The bar doesn't ask you to believe that you're getting something for your money.
The bar has NFL ticket on Direct TV
If someone is giving an annoying sermon you can yell at them to shut up.
But, when we go to church, we have imaginary friends there, as well......
Cheers!
They've been converting (hee, hee) churches here in Canada into apartment building and private homes too.
It's happening here in the US too. I have friends that converted a church into their home. It's cool because it's such an open floor plan with awesome windows.
And we are starting to see the light!!!!
To wit:
Recognizing the flaws, follies and frauds in the foundations of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, the "bowers", kneelers" and "pew peasants" are converging these religions into some simple rules of life. No koran, bible, clerics, nuns, monks, imams, evangelicals, ayatollahs, rabbis, professors of religion or priests needed or desired.
Ditto for houses of "worthless worship" aka mosques, churches, basilicas, cathedrals, temples and synagogues.
Good use for a church...
You mean it's a good use for a building that is no longer a church.
I can think of about 1000 better uses for a church than religion......
Yeah...but you are a no one.
At least it has spirits in it ,real ones this time.
One church is too many.
For you perhaps.
If all churches were removed there would be no history. Mankind as we know it would cease to exist. When atheists rule millions die.
The Truth
The Twenty (or so) Worst Things People Have Done to Each Other:
M. White, http://necrometrics.com/warstatz.htm#u (required reading)
The Muslim Conquest of India
"The likely death toll is somewhere between 2 million and 80 million. The geometric mean of those two limits is 12.7 million. "
Rank …..Death Toll ..Cause …..Centuries……..(Religions/Groups involved)*
1. 63 million Second World War 20C (Christians et al and Communists/atheists vs. Christians et al, Nazi-Pagan and "Shintoists")
2. 40 million Mao Zedong (mostly famine) 20C (Communism)
3. 40 million Genghis Khan 13C (Shamanism or Tengriism)
4. 27 million British India (mostly famine) 19C (Anglican)
5. 25 million Fall of the Ming Dynasty 17C (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion)
6. 20 million Taiping Rebellion 19C ( Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion vs. a form of Christianity)
7. 20 million Joseph Stalin 20C (Communism)
8. 19 million Mideast Slave Trade 7C-19C (Islam)
9. 17 million Timur Lenk 14C-15C
10. 16 million Atlantic Slave Trade 15C-19C (Christianity)
11. 15 million First World War 20C (Christians vs. Christians)
12. 15 million Conquest of the Americas 15C-19C (Christians vs. Pagans)
13. 13 million Muslim Conquest of India 11C-18C
14. 10 million An Lushan Revolt 8C
15. 10 million Xin Dynasty 1C
16. 9 million Russian Civil War 20C (Christians vs Communists)
17. 8 million Fall of Rome 5C (Pagans vs. Pagans)
18. 8 million Congo Free State 19C-20C (Christians)
19. 7½ million Thirty Years War 17C (Christians vs Christians)
20. 7½ million Fall of the Yuan Dynasty 14C
@An inconvenient truth- ignoring Reality's misguided drivel...you are incorrect. Human history would go on. Yes, many religious groups helped keep history alive throughout our collective time on this rock but history isn't exclusive to those that are religious.
Being atheist or religious is irrelevant to the very human concepts of power, greed and ignorance. These (and not religion like Reality would make you think) are the key causes of human on human war.
Inconvenient truth.. religion is an enabler of horrors.. with your god, the "real one" you are allowed to do anything to protect his good name. You do not need a god to be moral, its only been told to you in order to enhance religions' status. We live in, and always have lived in, a godless word . We live in a word full of god infested minds.. and that is the trouble.
*:" Is religion responsible for more violent deaths than any other cause?
M. White, http://necrometrics.com/warstatz.htm#u (required reading)
A: No, of course not – unless you define religion so broadly as to be meaningless. Just take the four deadliest events of the 20th Century – Two World Wars, Red China and the Soviet Union – no religious motivation there, unless you consider every belief system to be a religion."
Q: So, what you're saying is that religion has never killed anyone.
A: Arrgh... You all-or-nothing people drive me crazy. There are many doc-umented examples where members of one religion try to exterminate the members of another religion. Causation is always complex, but if the only difference between two warring groups is religion, then that certainly sounds like a religious conflict to me. Is it the number one cause of mass homicide in human history? No. Of the 22 worst episodes of mass killing, maybe four were primarily religious. Is that a lot? Well, it's more than the number of wars fought over soccer, or s-ex (The Trojan and Sabine Wars don't even make the list.), but less than the number fought over land, money, glory or prestige.
In my Index, I list 41 religious conflicts compared with 27 oppressions under "Communism", 24 under Colonialism, 2 under "Railroads" and 2 under "Scapegoats". Make of that what you will."
1.
I love when Reality has his own pre-planned arguments. He always wins...or loses...or both.