tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post3630885323852784257..comments2023-06-05T08:45:15.940-07:00Comments on zen hell: We Luv Torture!Jeff Syrophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-34728509422041044892015-01-23T06:20:17.003-08:002015-01-23T06:20:17.003-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-38212615854030294342015-01-14T20:59:55.721-08:002015-01-14T20:59:55.721-08:00Anonymous,
I agree with you. It's almost beyon...Anonymous,<br />I agree with you. It's almost beyond belief that we've devolved so as a culture that professional TV personalities (expert speakers) are almost expected to interrupt one another. Personally, I think interrupting is almost a form of violence. However, in light of how popular Fox is and how the young woman pictured in my blog was GUSHING over how awesome Amerika is and how necessary torture is, and how it's GOOD for the government to hide it from us, this video is well worth watching.Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-67284551335733126112015-01-14T20:54:35.564-08:002015-01-14T20:54:35.564-08:00I'm sure there were some good points made duri...I'm sure there were some good points made during that video, but quite frankly I'm up to here with anything on TV that has two or more people talking at the same time. These people are rude, but more to the point they are stupid to the marrow if they think we can clearly understand anything when there are three people talking at the same time. If I wanted to hear that sort of noise, I would volunteer at the local grammar school.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-66818477174836067582015-01-12T18:21:50.461-08:002015-01-12T18:21:50.461-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-91506257010555933872015-01-05T20:15:23.015-08:002015-01-05T20:15:23.015-08:00Eileen S!
So nice to see you here!! Isn't it ...Eileen S!<br /><br />So nice to see you here!! Isn't it amazing how split the American population is. It almost seems like we need a new Civil War, but this time it would be a lot messier because we aren't nicely split into Northern and Southern states--we all live totally mixed up together! Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-69184851182952043682015-01-05T19:39:11.022-08:002015-01-05T19:39:11.022-08:00My first instinct was to laugh while watching the ...My first instinct was to laugh while watching the Fox News discussion, ridiculous. It is terrifying to see such stupid, inhumane people and to know that part of our nation agrees and supports their stance. Eileen Snoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-58177183768373661422015-01-04T14:51:28.456-08:002015-01-04T14:51:28.456-08:00I answered him:
"To me, that's like havi...I answered him:<br /><br />"To me, that's like having your kids be part of an organization that teaches that the Earth is flat so that they can have this learning experience and then decide for themselves whether Earth is flat or round. My kids can learn all about church, and not just Christian/Catholic churches, but Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Scientology churches as well, very, very well from the outside, just as they can learn about torture, foot binding, slavery, etc., without having to experience it directly. <br /><br />"I think you should take them out of church immediately before it messes them up for life: guilt, fear of the Creator, alienation from non-"Christians", alienation from nature, and shame about their bodies. Plus, there is a huge amount of built-in sexism in all "Christian" religions, so I especially wouldn't want my daughter to go anywhere NEAR that conventional "Christianity". For my son, though, it might be a pretty good deal! :-)<br /><br />"To help them reach their own understanding about church, you should have them watch the wonderful new Cosmos series, narrated by astrophysicist Neil DeGrass Tyson. He's been attacked a lot lately by Amerikan "Christians" for this wonderful science show (a continuation of the old "Cosmos" series presented by American scientist Carl Sagan) because he simply lays out the science of life and evolution as it actually is without bowing even slightly to early Iron Age mythology, which is what the Bible is.<br /><br />"But not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, there are amazing things IN the Bible. Thomas Jefferson wrote to president Sam Adams, "In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man [Jesus]; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills. ["dunghill" means a pile of animal shit]<br /><br />"Jefferson considered Jesus the most brilliant teacher/philosopher who had ever lived. He wrote that Jesus provided "the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man."<br /><br />"However, like me, Jefferson hated our society's propagation of ignorance by treating the Bible as if it were a holy book. He wrote to his friend Oliver Short that the "immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, [and] regeneration" are the result of "the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects," i.e., the writing of crazy people. The church is a repository and a spreader of this craziness. As you have read in some of my blog posts, fundamentalist religion operates like a computer virus, and children are like new computers that haven't yet had antivirus programs (e.g., McAfee or Norton) installed."<br /><br />So Jeff A, you have really hit on a raw nerve this Christmas season, and I deeply appreciate it. You cancel out some of the others who are making me feel more and more alone.Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-47650252555902303962015-01-04T14:50:28.557-08:002015-01-04T14:50:28.557-08:00Jeff A,
Thanks for bringing this up. One of the m...Jeff A,<br /><br />Thanks for bringing this up. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of my life has been the gradual slip-sliding back to religion by the smartest people I've ever known, by almost ALL of my closest friends. When my friends and I were younger, we were on the same page. But while I STAYED on that page, and became a lot more clear, focused, and adamant about how dysfunctional and insane fundamentalist religion is, they gradually drifted back to embracing Iron Age superstition as something to base their lives on! <br /><br />They had heard my rants about religion and even joined in as fellow ranters. In my younger days I hadn't quite gotten to the knowledge that teaching fundamentalist religion was actual child abuse, but a lot of what I said and wrote about it indicated that I thought it was pretty damned abusive. And now they have become child abusers themselves. (However, because they are smart and loving, their kids are coming out OK, but nonetheless they have burdened them with a huge LIE taught to them by their dear parents; they have damaged their critical thinking ability; they have wasted their time; and they may have alienated them from true spirituality for life.<br /><br />I just wrote the other day to one of my friends, who had just surprised me by admitting that he'd had all three of his children baptized. He wrote, by way of an explanation, "I want them to reach their own view and understanding of religion and church."<br /><br />I answered him:<br /><br />[keep reading at the next comment--I just went over the comment character limit]<br /><br />Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-14053028010225738942015-01-04T13:43:13.851-08:002015-01-04T13:43:13.851-08:00Man, that Fox News report was hard to watch.
I h...Man, that Fox News report was hard to watch. <br /><br />I have a coworker who is an educated archaeologist who has studied evolution. We are constantly listening to "Power of Myth", The People's History of the US", "Democracy Now", "Hardcore History" and other liberal, almost anti religious podcasts/ebooks. We are always commenting on how crazy religion is. One day he said that he is thinking of raising his daughter (his wife is 8 months pregnant) as a Catholic so she has a good network. It was so bizarre and eye opening to me that someone could even consider that as an option when they have similar world views as me. WTF! <br /><br />-Jeff A. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-16874026871285044842014-12-24T13:01:46.312-08:002014-12-24T13:01:46.312-08:00B,
I totally hear you. My words on the page, espe...B,<br /><br />I totally hear you. My words on the page, especially in light of how gaga and fake-nice people get during this "season," make me look angrier than I am, though. If you saw me writing them, or heard me saying what I wrote, you'd see that I was writing in a spirit of fun.<br /><br />I just read a good article by John Messerly, "Religion's Smart People Problem: The Shaky Intellectual Foundation for Belief," and it ended like this:<br /><br />Besides, faith without reason doesn’t satisfy most of us, hence our willingness to seek reasons to believe. If those reasons are not convincing, if you conclude that religious beliefs are untrue, then religious answers to life’s questions are worthless. Religion may help us in the way that whisky helps a drunk, but we don’t want to go through life drunk. If religious beliefs are just vulgar superstitions, then we are basing our lives on delusions. And who would want to do that?<br /><br />Why is all this important? Because human beings need their childhood to end; they need to face life with all its bleakness and beauty, its lust and its love, its war and its peace. They need to make the world better. No one else will.Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-30299869264043753512014-12-24T12:58:38.585-08:002014-12-24T12:58:38.585-08:00I generally share your outlook on current events (...I generally share your outlook on current events (my outrage during the bush years was on par with the yours). I wonder if people like you and me have become too entrenched in the folly of man. We all serve to enlighten one another, and it may be the time to remember to forget some of the more negative memes we can focus on and stop being angry young men.<br />--BAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-8318703866645025442014-12-24T12:26:44.019-08:002014-12-24T12:26:44.019-08:00Thanks for your good comment. To most Americans it...Thanks for your good comment. To most Americans it probably sounds very odd when someone says so matter-of-factly that teaching fundamentalist religion is child abuse. It probably even sounds mean and hateful. And yet it's simply true! <br /><br />It is profoundly upsetting when I see each new President put his right hand on a Bible. (The fact that it's always a "his" and never a "her" is itself a side effect of Bible belief!) How could the leader of the most powerful country in the world, the master of our nuclear arsenal, put his hand on THIS book?! Look what God commanded in it!:<br /><br />Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children. Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.<br />Judges 21:11 Jeff Syrophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553710770858649264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34600314.post-44083553114981043142014-12-24T07:28:43.941-08:002014-12-24T07:28:43.941-08:00About child abuse and fundamental religions....Thi...About child abuse and fundamental religions....This in particular resonated with me today because I just finished reading "Cut Me Loose" by Leah Vincent, a girl raised in an Ultra Orthodox family with medieval ideas about gender. She made it out into the world but no one could imagine the agony along the way.the buenaventurianshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11149450853778950900noreply@blogger.com