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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
- Lumping every single religious person under the same umbrella is completely inaccurate, lazy thinking, and absolutely no different than some Freeper posting crime statistics as proof of blacks as a lesser race. The logic behind this is solid, and no amount of "righteous" outrage will change this. If this angers you, then you know deep down I am right.
- Speaking of this, hard-core atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, etc. are really no different than the right-wing religious kooks. A personal example is based on my beliefs and my ethnic background that includes American Indian (I am a Christian who also believes in Native religious ideas). I know a fair amount of scientists due to my work, and I note that those who are derisive about my hocus-pocus American Indian spirituality are the mirror image of the conservative Christians who tell me I am going to Hell for my Native beliefs. A non-personal example is the hysterics from atheists who want to claim a moderate religious person like myself is partly to blame for 9/11, which really is no different than Jerry Falwell blaming the gays.
And finally, atheists (yes, I am talking to YOU, Richie Dawkins), if you want to proclaim how tied to reason and logic you are, it's not a good idea to call others names like a petulant third-grade playground bully.
Go argue w/a rabbi.
jewish are we?
Sure, people kill each other in the name of religion but religion is just a convenient cath-all for culture. We are a tribalistic species which eveloved through in-group altruism and out-group competition. Most religions were founded to form a common culture and moral framework that would trancend tribalism and bring about peace, prosperity and cooperation. However, it doesn't take long for peolple to break themselves into factions again.
yeah, what amyleetee said. go argue with a rabbi. we don't need you correcting us with 'facts'. i heard that jews like facts so you must be one.
"People behave ethically all the time without relying on myths"
Oh really now? Well where do you think your sense of "ethics" comes from?
I highly suggest this man invest in a Philosophy 101 course or something. I find anyone who makes anti religious platitudes and still holds on to conventional morality, unaware of how morality got here in the first place, to sound more ridiculous than people who actually do walk the walk and can tell you exactly where their moral compass orients.
If Maher were an actual nihilist, or at least made some note of the huge philosophical conundrum he has obviously blindly stumbled into, I might buy some of his diatribes.
Instead he's just a dumb kid rebelling against everything he sees without a cause or a clue.
I'm not really mad at him, just ashamed so many morons are going to completely miss this point thanks to a comedian playing iconoclast.
Congratulations you fucking idiot.
Nothing on this planet has caused more wars, hatred, and prejudice than religion.
Also, it should be noted that I'm certainly not defending religion or its resulting "slave morality" that has held mankind prisoner for almost all of known human history.
I'm just saying he needs to address all of morality if he finds fault with religion in the first place. The only alternative is nihilism (which is more a big metaphysical Q&A session that "Vee belieff in nussingk Lebovshki!"). But, as anyone could predict, he has absolutely no balls and the brain of an insect.
Isn't this the same man who called the brainwashed religious zelots who flew planes into the twin towers "courageous?"
Gee, it is almost as if he uses shock value to mask an underlying lack of originality or intellect.
Oh, and no, war has rarely been "about" religion. It has *almost* always been about real-estate and recently nationalism, of which religion is a tiny part. Religion has just been a way to get the masses to support the great big land grab that is war.
I think of Bill Maher as an entertainer who provides a platform for interesting guests, not as a dispenser of wisdom. I think he is an egoist and a fool; a fool for mocking people's religious beliefs, and a bigger fool for mocking God. The level of his argument is similar to that around the lunch table in my college cafeteria; odd that he has failed to advance from there by this point in his life. He says he is agnostic, but he talks like an atheist. I don't plan to see his movie, not because I disagree with the premise that religion has no proper place in the political debate, but because I wouldn't want to be subjected to his usual blasphemous "humor."
I think what Maher is trying to do in a subtle way. Is to wake Americans up to the fact that religion is running our country! That was my sense of the article. Some people think that the wealthy are running it! But, most religions are very wealthy and have their own agenda's they are pushing. The advent of religion as a political platform has become very troubling to a lot of us. As a person who is a firm believer in the Separation of Church and State this is a horrifying to witness in my twilight years. I was raised in a era (the 50's) where religion was left in the church pew. It was a very private matter between the person and the entity they chose to believe in. Prayers might be said in school but they were ignored by most (I don't remember one being said). But, it was unacceptable to proselytize. It was in the worst of taste and rude to force your religion on others. And I was raised in the Bible Belt of the Midwest (Iowa). You kept your religious opinions to yourself! I think people need to grow up! And go back to that ideal!!! Get their heads out of the bible and quit listening to the 'Power hungry greedy televangelists' who are trying to Christianize this country for their own ambitions. I think Christian's will find in the end it isn't in their best interest!!!!
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
