Anti-Semitism. In principle, is this the same as...

[Rum]

I don't agree. My partner was born in a Catholic family. None of her family 'practice' or even think of themselves as Catholic. She is very agnostic in her outlook. I think the recent history of the Catholic church, not least the abuse that has been uncovered has eroded their credibility amongst people who would have been 'natural' believers more quickly than anyone could have guessed. Ireland used to have what was in effect a shadow government in the form of the Catholic Church. No longer.

Rum the catholic church has your partners soul. She is on the registry. To remove her name from the registry is almost impossible. There is a Dutch guy on Ratskep who did manage but it took a lot of time and effort.

The effect of the abuse carried out by the catholic church is very visible in Ireland. In my wife's home town in Limerick County there is only one Sunday mass that is poorly attended and the priest is an African. In my wife's youth there were at least three priests and three masses on a Sunday and there was also a daily mass.
That is all gone.

BTW for a muslim it means death if he claims he does not believe (well according to the koran).

'Has your partner's soul'? Come on now.

As to being apostate - I was part of a born again Christian group in my late teens and briefly (like for about 18 months) was a true believer. I was lucky enough to leave the setting when I was entrapped (I use the word advisedly) by leaving Hong Kong for home leave with my parents. While away I decided it was all baloney and when I returned to HK six months later informed some of my Christian pals. I was told in no uncertain terms that a special place in hell is reserved for people who have 'found god' and then rejected it/her/him.

Some loving god - as ever.

A good number of my Xian pals of the time drifted away in due course. One of them - my best friend through school contacted me a few years ago when he was about to retire to Oz. We had a really great reunion. He is now living out his retirement drifting up and down the east coast of Oz, drinking beer with his very lovely wife and telling god to fuck off.

[Hermit]

What the various churches say about adherents is becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Vatican might regard me as one of its 2.1 billion members because I was baptised as such in 1953, but nobody else does. My family, friends and acquaintances know me as an atheist and the Australian government only enquires if I adhere to any religion at the moment once every five years. My passport makes no mention of my (ir)religiosity at all.

Times change.

[Strontium Dog]

I'm not sure how there can be atheist Jews since in my naivete, I'm thinking that a Jew is by definition a follower of Judaism. If a Jew converted to, say, Christianity, would they still be a Jew? How can you have a Jewish Christian?
If a person rejected their religion and became an atheist they would be an atheist of the country of which they are a citizen: Israeli atheist, British atheist, etc.

Well I think you are incorrect. There are a load of people who would identify themselves as Jewish but not believers in Judaism.

Here's a list of a bunch of 'em in fact:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_J ... _agnostics

All the best Jews are atheists. Judaism practically encourages it tbh, so it's not surprising so many end up abandoning God (including my dad).

Some notable names on that list from a Rationalia perspective:

Sam Harris
Christopher Hitchens
David Silverman
Bill Maher
Greg Epstein
Stephen Fry

And while we're at it, some notable names on that list for the ISREAL IS A THEOCRACY!!11 crowd:

David Ben-Gurion - first Prime Minister of Israel
Golda Meir - fourth Prime Minister of Israel
Yitzhak Rabin - fifth Prime Minister of Israel
Moshe Dayan - legendary Israeli general
Theodor Herzl - founder of modern Zionism and therefore the "Father of Israel"

[Forty Two]

Pervin, does the motivation and purpose for creating this thread matter here? Or, is that only for your known suspcious characters or usual suspects? Was the tone and manner in which this question was asked acceptable, or do you infer any untoward intent here? Just checking....

[pErvinalia]

Seems fine to me. Are you going to be OK with that?

[Forty Two]

The question is, are you going to be o.k. with it. You object to myriad threads, so -- it's good to get this out of the way early -- make sure that you are satisfied that a bigot didn't start the thread, and that it was created without any indication of an improper motive or intent. You're the expert on what people really mean, as opposed to what they write, so it's important to clarify.

[pErvinalia]

It's been clarified. Are you going to continue this derail?

[Scot Dutchy]

What the various churches say about adherents is becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Vatican might regard me as one of its 2.1 billion members because I was baptised as such in 1953, but nobody else does. My family, friends and acquaintances know me as an atheist and the Australian government only enquires if I adhere to any religion at the moment once every five years. My passport makes no mention of my (ir)religiosity at all.

Times change.

It has nothing to do with what you now think. You are on the catholic registry. No document here as your (non) religion on it. It is never recorded. We never have a census and if we did there would be no question about what you believe.

[pErvinalia]

Who cares if you are still on the Catholic registry?

[Forty Two]

It's been clarified. Are you going to continue this derail?

Oh, if you object to derails, I'll certainly stop. Will you also not derail other threads? Just want to make sure this isn't another special rule you're creating - Give a quick confirmation that you will also not derail, and you have yourself a deal.

[Scot Dutchy]

Who cares if you are still on the Catholic registry?

Of course nobody cares except the catholic church. It uses the data to back up its claim on numbers.

[pErvinalia]

It's been clarified. Are you going to continue this derail?

Oh, if you object to derails, I'll certainly stop. Will you also not derail other threads? Just want to make sure this isn't another special rule you're creating - Give a quick confirmation that you will also not derail, and you have yourself a deal.

Do what you want, but for the love of God will you stop whining?

[pErvinalia]

Who cares if you are still on the Catholic registry?

Of course nobody cares except the catholic church. It uses the data to back up its claim on numbers.

You said they "own your soul", like they have some sort of hold over you. Using the registry to back up its claims isn't holding anything over you.

[Forty Two]

It's been clarified. Are you going to continue this derail?

Oh, if you object to derails, I'll certainly stop. Will you also not derail other threads? Just want to make sure this isn't another special rule you're creating - Give a quick confirmation that you will also not derail, and you have yourself a deal.

Do what you want, but for the love of God will you stop whining?

Fuck off then. I'll continue the derail, because fuck you.

[Forty Two]

Who cares if you are still on the Catholic registry?

Of course nobody cares except the catholic church. It uses the data to back up its claim on numbers.

You said they "own your soul", like they have some sort of hold over you. Using the registry to back up its claims isn't holding anything over you.

You're an anti-Catholic bigot.