"If Atheism Is A Religion, Then NOT Collecting Stamps Is A Hobby" (What Think Ye?)

I was reading Bishop Burton's April conference talk, generally talking about the Church welfare program on its 75th anniversary, and came across this paragraph,

"One of the distinguishing characteristics of this inspired gospel-centered endeavor is its emphasis on personal responsibility and self-reliance. President Marion G. Romney explained: “Many programs have been set up by well-meaning individuals to aid those who are in need. However, many of these programs are designed with the shortsighted objective of ‘helping people,’ as opposed to ‘helping people help themselves.’”

I thought this was worth sharing, so I put it out on Twitter.  Since Twitter is basically a collection of text messages (you have to condense your thoughts to 140 characters), this is how I shared the thought ...

Seriously consider: Is it enough to help people or is it important to help people help themselves?

I believe this is an important thing to consider and discuss.  But you never know what will cause a dialogue and what won't.  To my knowledge, this passed without anyone commenting on it further.  However, while I was there I saw this other comment from Seth Adam Smith:   "If atheism is a religion, then NOT collecting stamps is a hobby." 

That got my juices going.  Some of you have probably heard me express my feeling that atheistic activists are actively trying to force their beliefs on the rest of us by systematically denying us the opportunity to express our beliefs in God under the premise of separating church and state.  Whatever happened to freedom of speech?  In effect they are trying to make atheism the state religion, or at least protecting the expression of non-belief while denying the right to express belief.

After considering a non-offensive response that met the 140 character criteria, I put out the following comment:  "Atheism is a belief set, collecting stamps is not."  

Apparently my thought was a bit much for Chris Morse, who added this to the conversation, "No, it isn't a belief set. It's a single position that can be included in a number of different belief sets."

 

Not wanting to get diverted to a discussion of whether atheism is a belief set or a single position, I replied "Perhaps you would have preferred: Atheism is a belief, collecting stamps is not."

 

At that point the conversation died ...

 

What think ye?

 

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I tried to find a walk with a little more climbing to get me ready for tomorrow, and found this category 5 gem:  http://terreeeblay.blogspot.com/2011/06/124.html.

 

(In the world of Humana Fit, there are categories 1 to 4 and HC that are meant to be the equivalent of the categories used in Le Tour De France.  Then they add a category 5 at the bottom.  Most of my walks have too little climb to have any categorization at all, so this was a pleasant surprise.)