You call it mysticism, I call it reality. I don't force you to believe, why is it atheists want to force me to not believe?

As far as I know, nobody here places Ayn Rand on a pedestal as anything other than a great author and to a lessor extent philosopher. I have never made a in depth study into her views on God apart from discovering that she was indeed a atheist.

Even so, that does not require those of us who enjoy her writings to adopt this stance. And it is faulty logic to assume that this might be true. There is nothing in her writings about Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead that demand the rejection of God.

To "extrapolate her religious view to the largest percentage of members on a sight dedicated to her philosophy" is simply a error. To repeat the error does not make it less illogical. You simply cannot claim it as true based on her beliefs.

If you look to current polls (a pretty poor approach I freely admit) atheists account for less than 10% (I have not looked up the figures recently, but it's close) of the population. Of those polled 60% confessed to being Christian, 25% claimed other religious allegiances, 5% claimed some other none Christian belief (Satanist, wickken, other). With those numbers assuming that this group would be mostly atheist is, as I said, illogical.

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point for politest
that should be my username

Well, I figured you were trying to be polite and "person" was the politest word you could come up with. lol

I am not asking you to grant or not grant anything. I do not see what is hard to understand about that. My premises exist independent of your approval. I do not need you to grant them.

I have served overseas in multiple countries, and yes, people are not that different on a casual meeting basis. A smile and relaxed posture petty much means the same thing everywhere, even if people are from opposite sides of the planet. You are never going to go to a place with a culture that believes a smile to someone you meet is an invitation to open warfare. It does not work that way. Sure, some shake hands and some bow, but a friendly greeting between two people is pretty universal. The range of human expression is pretty limited. This does not account for subversive people of course, but they are hard to account for anyway.

The intent of this thread was simply to wish people Merry Christmas. I find it strange that this was to you an invitation to pick at people's beliefs or lack thereof, but everyone has to have a hobby I suppose.

I am going to do a really dangerous thing here and say Happy New Year. Yes, it is my premise that January 1 marks the new year, at least in our culture. Yes, I mean that as a goodwill gesture, and yes, I do know what goodwill is.

A personal quibble, I dislike referring to him as President, or Commander In Chief, or even POTUS.

I feel that he is a dishonor to the office that great men have held and served in. While his approach seems to be that the office is to serve him and that he views the troops that serve him as "play things", not men who will bleed and die. Men who took almost the same oath he did, except they will die before they dishonor it.

In general, I feel he is a disgrace whom most of his Illinois voters voted for in order to get him out of this state.

We are really all hoping he moves to Hawaii after he's out of office. Think of all the money we'll save not shuttling him back and forth on AF1. And he'll be able to golf everyday on his own dime.

This IS all my opinion.

I think simply because they choose not to understand it as a religious holiday but as some sort of general whateveryouwantocallitmightaswellbechristmassinceeverybodyelsedoes occasion to celebrate goodwill towards each other.

Merry Christmas doesn't have anything to do with my religious or non-religious beliefs. It is one of a very few times in today's America when people tend to be just a little more civil to each other. I enjoy that.

Why is "person" in quotes?

I should have said that better. I was not suggesting you were offended. It was a general statement about those who claim to be offended. Good points.

I would say first off say respectfully that I do not know you or see you as an authority over me. Therefore I do not need you to grant me any premise.

Secondly. unless you are dealing with a sarcastic person whom you do not know you can usually tell if someone is being hostile or showing you goodwill. Common sense covers that pretty well. If you had said telling good from bad in the conduct of one's own life and morality comes from god then I would agree, but telling if someone is being hostile or not is usually obvious.

I would contend that your assertion that most members here a atheists are a fallacy. I doubt that this could be fact.

Many ARE shocked to discover that not everybody shares their views on much of anything.

Back when Al Gore and George Bush were slugging it out to be the president and all the votes were finally counted and everything was decided we were visiting at a friends home for Christmas. Their daughter and new son-in-law were visiting and the son-in-law made the statement that it was hard to believe that there were so many people who failed to see things like they did. It was a moment that I allowed to pass, quietly thinking to myself that these two had much to learn.

Fast forward to this Christmas and we were back at our friends with the daughter and son-in-law AND two grandchildren. At one point we briefly turned on the news to catch some weather, and there were some comments about BO and Obamacare. I was surprised to hear this same young man say that he just hoped and prayed that the country can stay intact long enough for this "person" to be removed from office and a conservative to be elected.

13 years (and two children) made a great change in his outlook, and I'm sure that if he remembers the comment he made back then, he certainly regrets it. He has also come to understand that making statements like "everyone here thinks like ....", when you don't know how everyone thinks, is opening a door to reveal egg on ones face.

No idea should be safe from scrutiny.