chom wrote:If you want to ban a topic because it brings out uncomfortable opinions, then you are seriously pussing out. I understand if you think religious discussions are shrill, and I'd agree that they are, but some of you guys seem to want to ban a topic for discussion so you don't offend people, and that's how pussies think. It also shows another way religions brainwash people--self censorship.
You sound like you have some deep issues that need to be resolved.
Oh, I do apologize. What word can I use? Pansies? Cowards? Candy-asses?
Whatever word I can use for people who practice self-censorship when it comes to religion or politics, I'll use that to describe what some of you guys are doing.
For Pete's sake, you're on an internet forum, and most of us are probably lucky enough to live in countries with free speech, and you guys are actually talking about banning a topic for discussion so you don't offend ideologies that have ruined the lives of millions of people, and continue to do so (how many kids' have had their peace of mind ruined by the thought of hell? How many adults, for that matter? How many women has religion subjugated?)
Religion has decent aspects, and it also has many terrible aspects--the decent aspects do not excuse the terrible ones, and they should be criticized for it.
One of the decent aspects of religion is that it gives us videos like this: http://vimeo.com/56515489
Cilogy wrote:
You sound like you have some deep issues that need to be resolved.
Oh, I do apologize. What word can I use? Pansies? Cowards? Candy-asses?
Whatever word I can use for people who practice self-censorship when it comes to religion or politics, I'll use that to describe what some of you guys are doing.
For Pete's sake, you're on an internet forum, and most of us are probably lucky enough to live in countries with free speech, and you guys are actually talking about banning a topic for discussion so you don't offend ideologies that have ruined the lives of millions of people, and continue to do so (how many kids' have had their peace of mind ruined by the thought of hell? How many adults, for that matter? How many women has religion subjugated?)
Religion has decent aspects, and it also has many terrible aspects--the decent aspects do not excuse the terrible ones, and they should be criticized for it.
One of the decent aspects of religion is that it gives us videos like this: http://vimeo.com/56515489
I'm not disagreeing with you, but now I think it's just amusing that you talk about the subjugation of women, and at the same time use misogynistic language like "pussy" or "pansy". It's not a matter of people being wusses or being weak, it's a matter of intolerance and hypocrisy.
What are you on about? How is telling (presumably) a bunch of men in a forum that they're behaving like pussies by self censoring themselves misogynistic? It's clearly meant to be slang for "acting like cowards".
The day I force a girl to marry her rapist--like in theocratic countries such as Iran, or as the Old Testament instructs people to do--you can call me a misogynistic monster that subjugates women. Calling me a misogynist for saying people who naively overlook behavior like that are "pussies" is pure bullshit and you know it.
chom wrote:What are you on about? How is telling (presumably) a bunch of men in a forum that they're behaving like pussies by self censoring themselves misogynistic? It's clearly meant to be slang for "acting like cowards".
The day I force a girl to marry her rapist--like in theocratic countries such as Iran, or as the Old Testament instructs people to do--you can call me a misogynistic monster that subjugates women. Calling me a misogynist for saying people who naively overlook behavior like that are "pussies" is pure bullshit and you know it.
Lol this just spiralled into comedy rather than a serious discussion. I never took this topic completely serious, with a title like that it's more one sided than a real discussion on religion. Everyone has their opinion and I'm all for that but calling those with a religion delusional and comparing it to "The Tooth Fairy" is not a discussion I want to be a part of.
What would you call somebody who believes that God lives on a planet called Kolob, or believes Blacks are cursed with that skin color? What about somebody who won't allow their kid to get a life-saving blood transfusion because they're a Jehovah's Witness? What about Scientologists, who don't allow mentally ill members to see psychiatrists, and steal the money of their members? What would you call somebody who's really looking forward to the end of the World, so they can go live on a cloud with Jesus? What about those who fully believe Allah wants Sharia law to rule the planet?
If you wouldn't call these beliefs deluded, then you're pretty deluded yourself.
Good video. However Hitchens made an error equating "faith" with "certainty." Certainty is an absolute. It is knowing
without doubt that something is true.
Faith... well faith is:
Mal: I'll tell you a riddle. You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you; but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where that train will take you?
Cobb: Because you'll be together.
I actually agree wholeheartedly with Hitch there. I've known plenty of fundamentalists (I probably was one when I was a kid) who were absolutely certain that God existed, that they'd heard his voice, and that Jesus was coming back "any day now"--because religious faith is about pretending to know things that you absolutely do not know.
Hebrews 11:1 pretty much sums it up: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see". Being assured that something exists or is going to happen, even though you've got no reason to think it does or will.
Just FYI--the early Christians' faith was based around the "certainty" that Jesus was coming back...in their lifetimes. Paul talks about it in 1 Thessalonians, and Jesus tells his disciples in Mark 13 that "this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away".
Early Christianity started out as a messianic doomsday cult, basically. It's why fundies are so obsessed with the rapture, because their religion is based on the theology of Jewish Apocalypticism.
Just a question. God is said to be immaterial, timeless and spaceless supernatural deity (it/he/she is not in this universe). So...if the universe we know is some 13.8 billion light years across and is rapidly expanding that means the space for god diminishes, right? ldmanface:
ldmanface: