I dislike it when people from a particular point of view (e.g. here, you and religion) say something like "I only counted X" as a means of weakening a point. Well, you didn't count well. There are six that specifically mention God or Lord, so 100% more than what you counted. Additionally, there are many more that are referential in that respect. No big deal, but you could have at least counted them all and then said "I counted six".
You'll note all I said was "the bad side of religion". In reality, I think this is all a little over dramatized; many of those people appear to be fourteen year old boys who probably don't even know if they believe in God or not, and probably won't spend more than two hours, combined, over the course of their lives, really considering the implications of divinity or of an empty universe. I don't think any intelligent religious person would have a perspective like this; I've just always found the idea of "divine retribution" to be oddly masochistic, as though there's some satisfaction derived from the punishment handed out for some long ago transgression (whether banging your secretary on your wife's birthday, or starting a war). Ian McEwan mentions something similar, when he talks about how odd it is for people to pray to God to save a family member's life, and then -- once they've died -- people pray to God to accept their family member into heaven. There's an odd dichotomy in religion, to me: God should forgive me for my sins; God should punish that other guy for his sins. I'm not saying this is the case among those people who are really well read and thoughtful about religion, just among the great mass of the world.
You'll note all I said was "the bad side of religion". In reality, I think this is all a little over dramatized; many of those people appear to be fourteen year old boys who probably don't even know if they believe in God or not, and probably won't spend more than two hours, combined, over the course of their lives, really considering the implications of divinity or of an empty universe. I don't think any intelligent religious person would have a perspective like this; I've just always found the idea of "divine retribution" to be oddly masochistic, as though there's some satisfaction derived from the punishment handed out for some long ago transgression (whether banging your secretary on your wife's birthday, or starting a war). Ian McEwan mentions something similar, when he talks about how odd it is for people to pray to God to save a family member's life, and then -- once they've died -- people pray to God to accept their family member into heaven. There's an odd dichotomy in religion, to me: God should forgive me for my sins; God should punish that other guy for his sins. I'm not saying this is the case among those people who are really well read and thoughtful about religion, just among the great mass of the world.
I cannot even copy his manner because the manner of his prose was the manner of his thinking and that was a dazzling succession of gaps; and you cannot ape a gap because you are bound to fill it in somehow or other -- and blot it out in the process. -- Nabokov
This makes me feel sick, and very angry.
12/03/2011 11:00:10 PM
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At first I thought it was just really dark humor, which I admittedly have a taste for.
12/03/2011 11:31:51 PM
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Re: At first I thought it was just really dark humor, which I admittedly have a taste for.
12/03/2011 11:51:36 PM
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this does as well, and it's also related to people's ignorance
13/03/2011 01:26:29 AM
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That video disturbed me enough that I tried to figure out why anyone would do that.
13/03/2011 05:39:20 AM
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I agree with you
13/03/2011 06:07:18 AM
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It's the hypocrisy of people who don't recognize their ancestors also moved here.
13/03/2011 06:21:41 AM
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except that they had a town supervisor and two congressmen, that's hardly uneducated
13/03/2011 06:55:49 AM
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Re: That video disturbed me enough that I tried to figure out why anyone would do that.
13/03/2011 06:59:22 AM
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I guess if you consider supporting suicide bombing as moderate then they nust be moderate
13/03/2011 05:16:10 PM
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I posted that I donated $10.. and was AMBUSHED by one of my fb friends.
13/03/2011 05:23:14 AM
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I have a "friend" who is always posting religious quotes...
13/03/2011 07:59:21 PM
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I have a friend who posted something like that after the Haiti Quake
14/03/2011 03:33:34 AM
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If God's that pissed off about Pearl Harbor (mind you 70 years is a long time for vengeance..)
13/03/2011 11:21:56 AM
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Re: Any society.
14/03/2011 02:48:03 AM
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Atheists don't ever have twisted senses of justice? I must know quite a few believers in denial.
14/03/2011 07:35:13 AM
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I think the point was that atheists don't tend to believe in divine retribution. *NM*
14/03/2011 08:22:00 AM
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This is true.
14/03/2011 05:50:11 PM
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Re: Counting
15/03/2011 01:26:37 AM
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Religion throwdown? In this thread? Was not expecting it, but okay.
15/03/2011 06:33:32 AM
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