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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Is it that much harder to say Those no good Francophones, untrustworthy Anglophones or thouse ignorant Southerners, or elitist Northerners?
Tribalism is the nature of humans, and religion is a convenient tribe when in doubt, but it's no more usefull than any of the other tribes that we manufacture.
Certainly American Whites invoked God to justify their opression of African Americans, but do we really think that had they just all been atheists that they would have gotten along just fine?
In truth, as religion tends to move beyond genomic expression and regional difference (at least in our modern world) Religion acting as a super-tribe can bring peace to waring peoples.
Though by no means a nobel example, think of the peace that might yet be achieved between Arab and Persian under the banner of Shia Islam? And if despite being unified by faith, the tribal differnces between Arab and Persian proves more than religion can overcome, then what do we say of the great evil that is religion then?
Religion is a tool man uses, and like any tool it can be used for good or for evil, and the choice to use it as such is man's responsibility.
Religion may not be necessasary for man, but before we toss out the baby with the bathwater, perhaps we should ask why such a ubiquitious trait evolved, why it persists, and what purpose it serves to help further our species.
So much of the debate about religion follows an all good or al evil discussion, and neither is adequatly correct. But a real conversation on the topic can't go forward until we all admit we aren't fully right.
Maher is pretty good at making boobs and fanatics look like boobs and fanatics
They do a pretty good job of handling that all on their own.
Again, this is limited by my lack of familiarity with other than judeo-christian thought, but as far as i know it applies to pretty much every other religion, with the possible exception of scientology...
What does religion tell us about.. the cosmos? Other planets? How come nobody mentioned that they exist, let alone that the stars would have their own set of planets. Did the Creator decide to put intelligent life on them or not? Do they worship God as well, or are they heathens we can treat like Native Americans? We could use some moral guidance on these subjects before we get out there and start messing around.
And what about DNA? If species are just hammered out of clay rather than by evolution, why bother making them backwards compatible in the basic operating system? And on a more practical note on the same topic, any advice on the morality of handling the increasingly fuzzy boundaries between human and nonhuman, which the scriptures seem to treat as firm and inviolable?
Quantum mechanics? If anything would seem to rival the most abstruse mystical concepts, it would be wave/particle duality, the Uncertainty Principle, the whole probabilistic nature of what we discern as hard reality; might as well toss in relativity there, too. No need for Kaballah when you have Schroedinger.
I mean, in between telling us that the universe was created in 6 days, and woman was created from Adam's rib, it would have been awesome, literally, to toss in "and by the way, everything you know and believe to be reality is merely highly probable, and things which you believe to be physically impossible happen all the time; you'll understand when you invent the tunnel diode".
Any religious authorities opining on why none of the really transcendent discoveries of modern science are addressed in the Bible? I mean, with the limited subject matter, it almost reads like it was written by Middle Eastern shepherds a few thousand years ago, rather than dictated by the Creator and Lord of the universe. All He had to do was toss in a couple of hints to the current vision of reality, which would have been meaningless to Moses but would certainly have enhanced the book's reputation today. I mean, look at how well Nostradamus is doing.
Maybe, whether the Bible and its derived relgions are the direct work of the Divinity or not, they aren't meant to be a science text? Heck, it can't even provide you the correct value of pi to a decent approximation.
If you read what I wrote, I'd said "You'd make a fine Jew, if you're not already!" Jamiso misquoted me. I'm not a proselytizer.
I'm not ashamed of anything here. You, on the other hand, out and out lie.
I'm not so sure about that, Bill. Research has been done that people will do just about anything if they're absolutely convinced there will be no accountability, no consequences. What the myths of religion do is provide the threat of consequences, whether it's just karma and "what goes 'round comes 'round," or the more gruesome idea of roasting over an open fire for eternity. I'm happy being an agnostic, but being an agnostic means I don't know...so being a good person is like hedging my bets. I'm not sure I'd want to live in a world of true atheists.
All but the most sociopathic or self-destructive of atheists realize that the reason that one doesn't do evil shit or screw w/ other people is because it makes you unpopular and despised and feared.
Do that sort of thing enough times and there tends to be a comeuppance - not a cosmic or religious one - a real world real time comeuppance of jail time or beatings or death by the people you've done evil too or their agents.
Lovemaking and laughter and happy children and fuzzy kittens and so on are all tangible real world bits of "heaven" that exist right here on Earth right now. One can be happy and fulfilled and moral with their years here on Earth - without having to be threatened by invisible beings.
Sure an eternity of hangining out and having a great old time w/ all of my dead friends, relatives and pets in some afterlife is an appealing thought - but it seems sort of unlikely. If it happens - great, but I'm not going to let some invisible being or his agent tell me that I have to wear a special hat or not eat pork or tell my daughter that her menstrual cycle makes her disgusting or that I should hate that guy over there or I have to kneel x number of times a day and face that way or talk to a tree and so on and so forth.
And if I don't do all of the above then I won't get to see may family in the afterlife or maybe I'll burn in hell or I'll cease to be or blah blah blah.
I'm a nice guy now, without the cosmic threats or fear. If I have doubts or fears about how my life is going I figure it for myself or rely on my friends and family. Don't need the almighty space man to sort things out for me.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
