Letters to the Editor
Tobbar
Published Letters: 164 Editor's Choice: 9
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Let me clarify a few things:
[Read the article: "Religious belief itself is an adaptation"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]slz203: you set yourself up for that one, dude.
Gene: I want to make sure that you understand when I said there were no gods or demons or souls, that I specificallly meant your gods, your demons, and your soul. As others have already pointed out: when you have proof to the contrary, I'll be happy to listen. We've been wearing the special robes, eating the special foods, making the special offerings and saying the special prayers for a long, long, time. None of that has led to any evidence of the supernatural. Try as I might, I still can't have a conversation with grandpa and Elvis.
If all you do is point to ignorance, to the gap in human knowledge, and say that's where the gods are, that's just not good enough. Sorry, man.
Ann Regentin: Sorry you got the bad luck of the genetic/developmental draw. I'm happy to hear that you are making your way along the best you can. I will not worship at your ignroance, nor your misfortune.
Patricia: Sorry that the Skeptics let you down. Perhaps it is not their mission to provide aid to the suffering masses? Good point (and one that others have made, I'm not trying to cut them out) about science having that whole self-destructive nature. Kind of has that whole birth/life/death/rebirth flava doesn't it? So primal! Sorry you don't like the words awe and wonder. Keep in mind that 'spiritual agape' loses a lot of its power when one realizes there are no spirits.
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Creepy stuff
[Read the article: Sinners in the hands of an angry GOP]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are no gods, demons, spirits, souls, or afterlife.
Relegion is a cultural parasite, it feeds off human societies and claims everything good that is intrinsic to the human experience as its own creation. Good times, bad times, in-between times? Their god has something to do with it, you know, rewarding the faithful, punishing the filthy unbelievers.
Relegion is also far too rich of a plum not to be plucked by those seeking power- it's such a great cultural control tool. Thus you have leaders on both sides trying to hitch onto it. Seems that the hitch really only works with the very stupid of the society- and they are the ones most likely to believe in demons and witches and sky-spooks.
Fortunatly, they believe their own propoganda. Even the smooth operators like Delay are seduced by it, their arrogance grows beyond its bounds and they spout off stupid stuff like this that can be used agains them later.
I'm looking forward to the clash of culutre battles of 2006 and 2008. I wonder if it will get violent? The recent humiliations suffered by the relegious right must be avenged, of course, and with no god to do it, they'll just have to take a crack at it themselves.
Lock and load indeed.
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Solutions, smack-talk, and pop culture
[Read the article: Climate of hope]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, MikeInWeHo, are you saying that we should form a small group of financially powerful, environmentally dedicated people and then 'stage' some kind of eco-catastrophe to cow the American public into puting environmental concerns at a higher priority? And thus get more research dollars flowing into examining the problems and potential solutions.
- oh wait, that was already done, badly, in a Micheal Crichton book.
On a more serious note- I tend to agree with the author- you've got to have a solution to the problem or people will simply shut off after a while. I think that climate change is a hugely problematic issue simply because it so crushes people's egos. Makes them feel small in the face of the world and the problem. You've got to find a way to make them feel strong again, somehow in control or 'part of the solution'. Something like that.
And, on a less serious note, to Ohio-glacier-dude. Yeah all that happened, but not within your lifetime, biznatch. Dramatic shifts in climate (and sometimes, not so dramatic) have huge impacts on human populations. Couple of cold and rainy years and you get millions of Irish starving and bolting and a new nation is born. Couple of decades of drought and Africa is utter chaos.
Couple this withe the end of oil- which some have postulated is what is really enabling us to feed ourselves, and you've got a heady mix of doom. DOOM! It'll be like that Yul Brynner movie 'The Ultimate Warrior'. I'd better get in shape so I can stand shirtless in a town square, for hire to any of the warring starving factions.
Unless, of course, the Yul Brynner vision of the future is eclipsed by his arch rival Charlton Heston's own.
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