Comments on: Getting medieval on his ass

By: Lya Kahlo

Lya Kahlo — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 14:52:51 +0000

Duly noted. By that I simply meant I don’t care if they teach their kids to believe in god. Though, admittedly I do care if they are raising violent homophobes, or something of that ilk.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 01:41:19 +0000

Lya, I have to disagree with you when you say you “don’t care what you teach your kids at home.” I was raised by extreme fundamentalists. They were extremely abusive. People keep bashing the catholic church, but they’re just a little more high profile because it’s hard to keep track of all the little protestant fundamentalist groups. I mean, there are what, 52 kinds of baptists? If you add them all up there are way more instances of abuse than there are with catholic priests, the numbers are just less impressive because they fall into different columns. But I’m getting off point. I think that despite all that, the most abusive thing my parents did was the indoctrination. Teaching your kids to hate people is just wrong. They do it partly to keep you from questioning their religeon… i mean, if you thought some other variety of baptist was getting into heaven too, you might join the dark side. Then they do it partly to keep the abuse from getting out… if kids have real friends, they won’t need an invisible one and they might say something about what’s going on at home. This all follows from fathers being the head of the household and owning their families. I have a serious problem with religeous indoctrination. If people actually believe their religion is right, they could skip the indoctrination step and their kids would choose it anyway. Its a little disturbing to see perfectly rational people say that it’s ok for people to be religeous if they don’t interfere with the rights of other adults but it’s fine if their kids don’t have any rights.

Some religeons simply are better than others. I’ll take liberal versions of christianity and islam over the fundamentalist nutjobs any day. Not just because of how they treat other adults, but because of how they treat kids as well.

By: Lya Kahlo

Lya Kahlo — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 17:54:22 +0000

“It’s not what you believe, but how it affects others that is of greatest concern.”

PREZACTLY. Atheists that I know (myself included) don’t even remotely care what goofy fairy tales others believes in. I don’t care what you teach your kids at home, I don’t care what god you believe in. You’re free to follow what you like.

I do care when you (the collective “you”) try to force me to live the way you’ve chosen to.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:55:59 +0000

I know the general opinion is, of course, that no religion is good, and that we should simply follow the factual logic of men

Well, the point of atheism is to say that religion is the unfounded, illogic of men. That to start one’s day believing in ghosts is an unhealthy worldview. That from the beginning one should open one’s eyes, look around, and base one’s thinking on the observable universe, not one filled with invisible beings, malevolent or benign.

No one religion is worse than the other… However, the application of organized religion — the controlling of thought in large numbers of people, and especially the use of that thought control as a tool of hatred, that is worse by far than simply believing what you believe and leaving others to live in peace. We believe a democracy, for instance, should never endorse any religion. It may fight to defend your right to your religion, but that’s a totally different thing.

Like I say to people who come to San Francisco with intolerant religious views and then act shocked at two men kissing in the Castro: This town believes in a little thing we like to call “live and let live.” Most good people have a hard time arguing with that.

If you pay close attention to the postings on this site, the ones that criticize someone’s actions based on their religion are almost always also about someone having their rights taken away, infringed upon — or someone forcing their beliefs on others. It’s not what you believe, but how it affects others that is of greatest concern.

By: dan

dan — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 16:10:23 +0000

Can anyone clarify something for me? Is it the general opinion that one form of Christianity is better than another? Is it a case of the lesser of two evils? I know the general opinion is, of course, that no religion is good, and that we should simply follow the factual logic of men, but is there one form of religion more easily tolerable? I personally have many issues with fundemental christians and their lack of christian fundementals (love, charity, hospitality, etc ) Thanks!

oh, I should point out that I am a christian, and I’m not trying to pretend to be an atheist or anything like that. I do however respect the athiest view. Just like anything else, there are “good” athiests and there are “bad” christians, and vice versa.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:10:08 +0000

Rockstar: Nah, it wasn’t me. I’d bet it was Ron. He likes to call him Joey Ratzo.

Dena: Could you buy some more pillows soon?

By: Dena M. May

Dena M. May — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:46:10 +0000

Sean,

I see that you found a photograph of my bedroom. Thanks for posting the photo on this thread. Sleep-overs will never be the same.

By: Rockstar Ryan

Rockstar Ryan — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:28:07 +0000

*off topic sorta*

Sean, did you put that “Joey Ratzo” coin picture in flickr? Holy jeezus on fire that’s funny!