Comments on: The atheist is always wrong II

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:13:31 +0000

Zipi, I think it will depend on where you are; even if you’re in a liberal place, you’ll still have us, though, to remind you of this country’s nutty bits!

Ramen, Jack of Hearts!

By: Jack of Hearts

Jack of Hearts — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:51:36 +0000

Remember what our old pal Thomas Jefferson said:

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

Now *that’s* something our kids should be saying in class every morning!

By: GMFORD

GMFORD — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:55:42 +0000

While religious fanatics may see a bright future where they run everything and interfere with everyone, the pendulum has swung as far as it will go in that direction. The sleeping giant of public awareness has been awakened and will begin to pull it back towards the center. The popularity of Dawkins’ book and the others is the first sign of this as well as the open discussion of theocracy as a problem.

By: Tommykey

Tommykey — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:23:45 +0000

Contrary to what Mark wrote above, people do change. He must not realize that many atheists were formerly religious people, like myself. Just as some people who are atheists end up embracing religion.

By: Zipi

Zipi — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:01:06 +0000

I have very recently left Japan, Eve. I am soon moving back to your continent. *nervous laughter* Will I survive after geting used to Japanese secularism?

By: Eve

Eve — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:54:28 +0000

ConcernedJoe, I too could have a drink (in my case it would be a real tart Margarita!) with Mark and discuss things both politely and passionately. I’ve noticed a lot of people tend to label passion and intensity as “militancy” and/or “anger,” and I think xianity’s insistence on meekness and humility may be the culprit there. The only people expected to speak heatedly are preachers in the pulpits!

Good point, Zipi. How’s Japan?

Sarge, that’s so true.

ChuckA, as soon as I get a chance I’ll check out that vid; thanks!

By: ChuckA

ChuckA — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:07:52 +0000

Something completely off-topic…well…maybe not.
Erm…”Speaking of life”…a musical interlude?
For those of you who may have missed the Tony Awards [the Broadway musical haters?]…one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest songs (in this musician’s opinion), in arguably the best performance of the night:
“Raúl Esparza – Being Alive – 2007 Tony Awards”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-63q88zpmc

Patti LuPone did his introduction; so in honor of her; here’s her marvelous performance from 1992 of the song…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbE_Y_9fMuU

Be Well, GifSters.

By: Sarge

Sarge — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:37:21 +0000

I ran across one of the daughter’s of the woman who I mentioned who had recently died. Yhis lady is actually a very delightful person and about as opposite from her mother as you can get. I really like her. She is a ‘minister of music’ at one of the local mainstream churches, and a ‘believer’, and she had a bit of a joke for me. She said she figured her mother and I would both wind up the same place, and the eternal question would be: would that make it hell? My take is that oblivion awaits us all. And a damn good thing, too.

I have what are now termed “learning disabilities”. In my school days these were termed laziness, stupidity, and non-cooperation. Well, I admit to being on shaky ground on the last one…but the main way I managed to get through school was memory, especially with math, because I didn’t have the faintest clue about what was going on. I didn’t “read the right way”, dyslexia being one of the problems. Finally I recieved some tutoring from a team from a local university and they taught me a different method of mathematics using a process of transposition. This stuff started to make sense! I’m actually starting to get good grades, learning! Mathis not a nap time or degrading, frustrating experience! And then, alas, we had to come to the board to work problems, and I was stopped. What the hell did I think I was doing? My explanation fell on deaf ears, the State of Virginia as embodied by the teacher decreed that there was one proper way to do this, and if it wasn’t dome thusly, it was a failure. So, back to nap time. And they revised my past good grades because I wasn’t doing it right.

And so it is with religion. The end result is really not that important, not compared with the approved processes. It’s the rituals, movements, hymns, guilt and fear. I heard a person at the barber shop a while back (a ‘good christian’) who was holding forth against atheists (’no brake’ on us) and gay unions. At the time he was on his third wife, and it has since come out he was cheating on her. But he was saying the right words, conforming to the accepted norm.

At its core I think that’s what most people’s religion comes down to, a process that they claim makes sense to them even when they admit it doesn’t.