Letters to the Editor
BadReligion
Published Letters: 509 Editor's Choice: 7
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I'll say it again
[Read the article: News flash: Jennifer Love Hewitt wears bathing suits]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't want to read through all of the letters about this, so I apologize if it's been said before.
Isn't it true now that eating disorders don't really arise because of these media images? Is it not due to something much more complicated?
Who are the people so involved with this vapid celebrity culture? I work at a bookstore; and I see women (sorry, but it's whom I see) buy these magazines frequently, but everyone seems to agree that this is a stupid and inexplicable part of society. Who pays attention to Perez Hilton, and all his nonsense?
I'll say it again: the worst part about all of this crap is that conservative religious groups (not just Muslims) seem to convince themselves that everyone else is living in one big issue of Us Weekly.
I hate that.
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It's OK, but...
[Read the article: "Shortcomings"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]His earlier work, available now in several books, is much better. This one is just so constantly whiny, and Ben really is a pain.
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How the other half lives?
[Read the article: Teen pregnancy: It's baaaack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've heard/read about teen girls wanting children, and it, like so much else, is just mind-boggling. Isn't it illogical to have a child because you don't see much of a future for yourself? Isn't that backwards?
RedSkyAtNight, are you a fan of The Fixx, or is that just a nautical reference?
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Swatting the Hornets
[Read the article: Romney: "Freedom requires religion" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I knew it was coming, Hornet Driver. Do you really want to measure the crimes of 20th century communists and some 19th century revolutionaries against all of the religiously motivated crimes throughout all of the past, present, and probable future? There's no comparison! None at all!
With that said, whenever somebody pulls out that "Stalin was an atheist, blah blah blah..." line, I want to respond with this: "Yeah. Don't piss us atheists off. You might regret it."
Oh, and for all of the people pulling out that "Christian Nation" crap, have you ever heard of the Treaty of Tripoli?
Article 11 reads:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
John Adams approved it.
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Dysgenics
[Read the article: Teen pregnancy: It's baaaack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've always been logical, and I find it hard to understand why others aren't.
The previous comments have explained the situation pretty well, I guess, though it still makes no sense to me. I'm thinking of situations like Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, and different periods in American history (and elsewhere) when economic problems led people to curtail their breeding. This had very positive results.
I wonder why that situation isn't more common, and why we see the reverse in the U.S. today. What do you think we can do about it?
Do you think this has a seriously dysgenic effect on the U.S.?
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US out, peacekeepers in
[Read the article: Makeup, un-Islamic dress bring death]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Follow that formula. The US's imperial designs on Iraq never come to fruition. The oil is nationalized and the goodies are doled out on the basis of need. The country has another boom like they had in the 1960s-1970s. With education and prosperity, moderation and secularism usually follow, unless we're talking about Saudi Arabia and places like that. Others have mentioned that the situation for women was much better back when church and state were separated at gunpoint. It's true in Syria today, another secular state.
Or, humanity could collectively come to its senses and realize there is no god. I'm an atheist based on common sense, not any particular bit of knowledge, though critical thinking helps.
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Islam is not an ethnic group
[Read the article: Girl murdered over hijab?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anglo-Saxon editors can still be Muslims, Canuckistan Bob. The two are not mutually exclusive. It's a belief system, not an ethnic/cultural background. With that said, like all religions, it's complete and total poisonous nonsense, and anyone who knows this should say so, and keep saying it, and behave accordingly, until Islam is thrown into the trash of history.
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Self-repression
[Read the article: Girl murdered over hijab?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That professional repressed herself. Religion stops a thinking brain. We're not all like the "feminists" or "liberals" who give Islam a free ride. All religion is vomit, and this is part of the reason why.
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Good point
[Read the article: Feminist hypocrisy on the hijab?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's a good point about laicite: It liberates children from the religious tyranny of their parents. This sort of thing can certainly happen in the Middle East: Habib Bourguiba was Tunisia's first PM after independence, and he famously called the veil an "odious rag" and tried to have it banned entirely.
Others have already explained how disingenuous it is to compare "Western beauty standards" to enforced religious garb.
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Speak for yourself, Tim
[Read the article: Feminist hypocrisy on the hijab?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nobody needs "supernaturalism." Indeed, religion poisons everything. The only hope for our common future lies in the rejection of superstition and the advance of logic, reason, and common sense.
Ms. Anthropia and others have it right: Religion stops a thinking brain. It has an uncanny power to convinve people to choose their own repression, and then offer dishonest excuses defending it. I don't trust what religious types tell me. CanuckistanBob shouldn't trust his co-workers. Even an educated, employed woman (or man!) is still repressed if they are forced (or convinced) to wear religious garb/symbols, especially hot/stifling/ugly ones like the hijab.
I'm so sick of this multi-culti, PC, culturally relativist crap. It's so counterproductive and self-defeating. It gives ammunition to right-wingers. It constitutes kowtowing to the most reactionary, retrograde forces in the world. Religion shouldn't get a free pass.
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Pyramid Scheme
[Read the article: Birth control costs spike off campus, too]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kufir, all pyramid schemes have to collapse eventually. The same applies to reproduction.
If college is the easiest time/place in which to get laid, does it follow that there's no hope for someone who couldn't get laid then?
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Imagine no religion
[Read the article: Fighting abuse one mosque at a time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At least a secular abuser won't have the "It's in the Quran!" excuse to use on himself and others.