I heard most atheists are autistic

[Fickle]

@mauricio

The altruism Christians talk about is an idealistic irrational fantasy shown in this bible verse: [21:1] As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. [2] He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. [3] "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. [4] All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
They see just merely accepting and thinking of the rational self interest implications in any type of action we do as an impurity which spoils your good deeds and makes them lesser. They see atheists as immoral because atheist do not buy into their delusion of almost suicidal altruism and tend to be more pragmatic in their ethics.

Just an observation... however I noticed how very large and expensive all the churches are around here. How the church parking lots are filled with very expensive vehicles and all the people wearing expensive clothes. Meanwhile... inside they generally talk of business and how well they are doing, what they have and what they just bought, who they know of influence. How that gaudy dress that woman is wearing is from last years line up. Why that man has cheated on his wife so many times yet that woman over there who left her husband must be a whore.

Not to mention the fact some whom I know there are also know to screw over everyone they meet at the first opportunity for profit. It was and continues to be these little inconsistencies which turned me off religion. These churches seem pretty normal otherwise... if you can tolerate the bigotry.

[Duncle]

@mauricio
Just an observation... however I noticed how very large and expensive all the churches are around here. How the church parking lots are filled with very expensive vehicles and all the people wearing expensive clothes. Meanwhile... inside they generally talk of business and how well they are doing, what they have and what they just bought, who they know of influence. How that gaudy dress that woman is wearing is from last years line up. Why that man has cheated on his wife so many times yet that woman over there who left her husband must be a whore.

Not to mention the fact some whom I know there are also know to screw over everyone they meet at the first opportunity for profit. It was and continues to be these little inconsistencies which turned me off religion. These churches seem pretty normal otherwise... if you can tolerate the bigotry.

Absolutely. Their Christianity functions as a kind of get-out clause for actually doing anything moral. In their delusionary universe they are moral because they are Christian, and anyway God'll forgive them if they do anything bad. Furthermore, because morality is set down eternally in God's true word, the Holy Bible, they don't have to ponder any ethical issues themselves.

It gets even worse, though. Because the Word of God is eternally true, the morality that they espouse is the morality of a bunch of ancient goat herders. The Bible is full of atrocities, and God Himself is a malevolent monster who condemns most of the humans who have ever lived to eternal torment on the flimsiest of pretexts. The whole idea of moral progress is quite alien to Christianity, and unsurpringly the Catholic Church and Evangelical Protestants (others too- but those especially) have fought tooth and nail against the extension of civil rights to minorities and less priveleged groups.

Is Christianity altruistic? I think not. Morally repugant would be more accurate.

[stromboli]

Have experience with several different churches. there are small churches that do support good causes. I was involved in some of that as a Christian. By contrast the megachurches that could theoretically do the most good aren't altruistic.

Small churches in humble surroundings are focused on their mission as they see it. Big lavish churches are nothing but monuments to the builder. A mega church is the equivalent of the Pharaoh's pyramid in modern terms. Another example is the Mormon church, which touts the giving of $40 million a year. But if you figure it out, it works out to be about $4 a member. Target give more in a month than the LDS church does in a year. The fact they can build a $2 billion mall and have multimillion real estate deals in the works shows exactly how altruistic they are.

[widdershins]

Even the smaller churches I'm familiar with don't actually "give" anything.  The tiny 20-30 member church I used to be in would only "give" a starving person food in exchange for attending services or listening to the propaganda.  They NEVER just said, "Oh, you poor thing!  Have some money!"  If someone came to the pastor hungry, he would take that person to McDonald's and buy them a meal and he would preach to them.  He wouldn't give them money and he didn't do it without getting something in return, the power trip of having someone under his complete control, forced to do his bidding until he fed them.  To be fair, though, "his bidding" was just to listen to his insane babble about God and Hell.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Even the smaller churches I'm familiar with don't actually "give" anything.  The tiny 20-30 member church I used to be in would only "give" a starving person food in exchange for attending services or listening to the propaganda.  They NEVER just said, "Oh, you poor thing!  Have some money!"  If someone came to the pastor hungry, he would take that person to McDonald's and buy them a meal and he would preach to them.  He wouldn't give them money and he didn't do it without getting something in return, the power trip of having someone under his complete control, forced to do his bidding until he fed them.  To be fair, though, "his bidding" was just to listen to his insane babble about God and Hell.

The biggest joke ever is that people associated with a church must be "good people". You see it a Sunday School teacher is charged with seducing her junior high school-age students. "Oh, that's so shocking! She was a Sunday School teacher!"

[TomFoolery]

Knowing that you are a woman makes this post weirdly kinky.  Sorry.

No, knowing that I'm a woman makes this post about godlessness even better.

[stromboli]

We think about altruism in terms of money, but services matter as well. One church- a Jesus People Ministries- had a black pastor whose father had died in prison. We did a personal outreach of prison ministries that actually did some good- the individual that was my assistant as a youth leader was a former gang member who had reformed and became a very fine man. He got Microsoft certified and held a good job and was a fine father to his family. Another individual who spoke occasionally had spent years in prison and become a reformed man because of the pastor's ministry.

We were a small church of less than 100, but a great deal of good was done for the community. There are churches- probably a minority- that do strive to do good things. I personally did volunteer work at the local homeless shelter and cooked Thanksgiving dinners for shut in families. There are good people that do good things.