KIDDING!

“We’ve been raised since we were born not to trust other people, but to trust your family and to trust God,”

Well, that summarizes a lot of the conservative evangelical worldview right there. All I need is my Bible and my gun.

Maybe if Einstein believed in a God to answer to, he might not have helped develop the atomic bomb.

That statement shows your ignorance of history. Einstein’s involvement with the development of the atomic bomb was minimal. He was kept away from the project and knowledge about the project was limited to relevant mathematical equations that people who were involved in the project would present to him on a few occasions for his help solving them. But despite those involved really wanting Einstein to know the nature of the project and to have access to it, the government considered him too high a security risk, because of some of his political views, and (baseless) suspicion of communist ties.

It’s questionable whether Einstein would have even wanted to get involved, if he was allowed and knew what was being built. When he found out the first atom bomb was dropped, his only words were “Oh, my God”, and he campaigned against atomic weaponry. My source is historian Walter Isaacson, who’s biography of Einstein I was enticed to read due to the endorsement of Pulitzer Prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

That aside, from your statement revealing that his lack of belief had to do with his supposed immorality, it seems you’re like those Christian apologists I’ve read who are more than willing to accuse atheists of wrongdoing, while simultaneously giving no credit to atheists who do good, and who are more than willing to excuse misguided Christians for wrongdoing, while simultaneously giving Christians heaps upon heaps upon heaps of credit for good things that happen in the world. Perhaps you believe that an atheist may be a good person, but nonetheless that he’s good despite his atheism, that his atheism makes it harder to act good, and requires a lot more effort to maintain goodness due to the absence of belief in God.

I say to you that despite your “civility”, despite your lack of vulgarity, which would make your statement a-OK on any Net Nanny / Miss Manners forum, your statement deserves the same advice to “shove it” as would an atheist who says that a Christian might have been moral if he didn’t believe in God, and who implies that his Christianity makes it harder to be moral, that it serves to strain him in his attempt to maintain goodness. Because you certainly didn’t bother to acquaint yourself with the circumstances surrounding Einstein’s situation and what his actual beliefs on the subject were (rather than just noting his agnosticism or deism) before thinking it fit to slander him and skeptics in general.

The Christian models, Shannon Stewart and Robyn Manning, are the craziest example. Robyn placed sixth, behind non-Christians 3, 4, and 5, who the Beliefnet blurb specifically mentions indulged in “drinking, smoking, and hooking up.”

Then: “Shannon placed second to eventual winner Adrianne Curry, who had absolutely no problem posing naked.” So apparently the lesson Beliefnet wants to convey here is that being good gets you to #2, but being bad gets you to #1.I guess even God likes a little T&A once in a while.

Let’s see, there’s plenty more fail in this article as well:
o The Weavers sound like a bunch of right judgmental dicks, and again, their devout faith only got them to third place.
o How come the Duggar boys get to wear jeans but the girls have to dress like rejects from Little House on the Prairie?
o Elisabeth Hasselbeck, (Filarski when she was on Survivor, may have played a “moral game” with no backstabbing or cheating, but apparently constant near-nudity was okay by her. She also didn’t win.

Maybe if Einstein believed in a God to answer to, he might not have helped develop the atomic bomb.

Actually, he didn’t help develop the atomic bomb.

He was among a number of scientists during the war who signed a letter urging Roosevelt to beat the Axis powers in developing such a weapon, which he later regretted.

A good number of religious believers developed and used the atomic bomb, and had no such regrets.

If some religious posters here didn’t deploy factually false arguments, and throw around dark moral insinuations with casual aplomb, perhaps their moral high-horses would reach occasionally out of the mud.