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Re: Counting Gaps Send a noteboard - 15/03/2011 01:26:37 AM
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.
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
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This makes me feel sick, and very angry. - 12/03/2011 11:00:10 PM 1545 Views
Yeah, that's pretty messed up - 12/03/2011 11:07:31 PM 672 Views
People think the Earthquake is the payback for Pearl Harbor? - 12/03/2011 11:24:29 PM 746 Views
At first I thought it was just really dark humor, which I admittedly have a taste for. - 12/03/2011 11:31:51 PM 677 Views
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 786 Views
Makes sense. - 13/03/2011 07:17:46 AM 643 Views
I'd hate to be the one who started that as a joke - 13/03/2011 05:16:38 AM 758 Views
Wow *NM* - 12/03/2011 11:50:56 PM 354 Views
this does as well, and it's also related to people's ignorance - 13/03/2011 01:26:29 AM 882 Views
that video deserves it own thread - 13/03/2011 01:57:24 AM 765 Views
done - 13/03/2011 07:06:01 AM 656 Views
That video disturbed me enough that I tried to figure out why anyone would do that. - 13/03/2011 05:39:20 AM 727 Views
I agree with you - 13/03/2011 06:07:18 AM 584 Views
It's the hypocrisy of people who don't recognize their ancestors also moved here. - 13/03/2011 06:21:41 AM 737 Views
except that they had a town supervisor and two congressmen, that's hardly uneducated - 13/03/2011 06:55:49 AM 771 Views
Hah. If only. - 13/03/2011 07:19:18 AM 677 Views
I think all us brownish minorities - 13/03/2011 08:39:16 AM 857 Views
america: love it or give it back! - 15/03/2011 01:24:57 AM 693 Views
*NM* - 13/03/2011 03:07:25 AM 255 Views
Wow, what idiots. *NM* - 13/03/2011 03:33:05 AM 270 Views
I would collect money to have them sterilized. *NM* - 13/03/2011 03:56:15 AM 421 Views
Where can I donate? *NM* - 13/03/2011 09:04:46 PM 281 Views
Ah, I get it now: - 13/03/2011 04:03:33 AM 813 Views
How the hell can you even read this? - 13/03/2011 05:08:47 AM 625 Views
I posted that I donated $10.. and was AMBUSHED by one of my fb friends. - 13/03/2011 05:23:14 AM 723 Views
did you unfriend him? *NM* - 13/03/2011 01:18:58 PM 294 Views
I have a "friend" who is always posting religious quotes... - 13/03/2011 07:59:21 PM 852 Views
I lack your restraint. - 14/03/2011 12:58:20 AM 630 Views
I have one of those, too. - 14/03/2011 02:11:45 AM 652 Views
I have a friend who posted something like that after the Haiti Quake - 14/03/2011 03:33:34 AM 766 Views
that is what the hide feature is for - 14/03/2011 04:11:26 AM 616 Views
Yeah, I'm about there with her. *NM* - 15/03/2011 12:29:14 AM 318 Views
I wouldn't have been able not to reply - 14/03/2011 12:04:00 PM 977 Views
I doubt many of those people even remember Pearl Harbor - 13/03/2011 01:17:41 PM 814 Views
Too true. - 14/03/2011 12:30:32 AM 660 Views
Yup. Unfortunately, some people are just assholes. *NM* - 14/03/2011 03:30:54 AM 289 Views
It annoys me, but - 13/03/2011 03:08:51 PM 796 Views
And I always thought the atomic bombs were related to PH. - 13/03/2011 09:53:28 PM 646 Views
Nah, we just really hate sushi. *NM* - 14/03/2011 07:29:40 AM 252 Views
Re: Any society. - 14/03/2011 02:48:03 AM 855 Views
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 640 Views
I think the point was that atheists don't tend to believe in divine retribution. *NM* - 14/03/2011 08:22:00 AM 287 Views
This is true. - 14/03/2011 05:50:11 PM 698 Views
Re: This is true. - 14/03/2011 05:51:45 PM 847 Views
Re: Counting - 15/03/2011 01:26:37 AM 815 Views
Religion throwdown? In this thread? Was not expecting it, but okay. - 15/03/2011 06:33:32 AM 857 Views
Unreal. - 15/03/2011 03:02:05 PM 687 Views

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