Religious knowledge

Posted by in links, philosophy on Oct 11, 2010 | 0 comments

via Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish:

Read this first.

I would argue that you CAN be a believer but the very worst kind – someone who has chosen to take another’s interpretation of your religion and make it your own WITHOUT forethought and consideration. It invariably creates either a hypocrite (at worst) or a theological dichotomy (at best). For example, you can’t believe the Bible is the Word of God and then tell me you don’t believe in the Old Testament. You can’t say parts of the book are literal and then ignore others wholesale. You can’t claim your god is loving and then hold the Bible out as any truthful document. Not knowing what your religion teaches is what creates scorn in others who do not practice your religion and it’s what allows bad leaders to take advantage of it AND you.

Hatred festers in ignorance. If your faith is strong, it should be able to withstand some critical thinking. In fact, I’d argue that it MUST withstand some critical thinking – if only to keep assholes like Billy Graham, Pat Robertson and Bin Laden from turning what COULD be a positive thing into a weapon.

Because atheism is SO CRAZY

Posted by in tv on Oct 7, 2010 | 0 comments

This week’s Glee narrowly avoided getting it banned. By all means, all the characters should mock or try to dissuade the folk who don’t agree with them. Because it’s SO CHRISTIAN to be intolerant.

I was actually excited when Kurt said he didn’t believe in god because I thought “Whoa! We’re going to have THIS conversation!” Despite Glee fumbling some other storylines (or at least choking a bit) I was pretty hopeful that it might turn out to be good or even great. Sigh.

I’m glad Kurt got to stick to his guns, it’s just too bad it took a full episode of all his peers telling him that he couldn’t possibly be right and that life is too hard not to have god. Also, the only person who agrees with him is THE BAD GUY. Fuck you, Glee writers.

Luckily Kurt can look forward to many, many, many more years of the same treatment since the only religion REALLY tolerated in the US is Christianity. Not that I’m bitter.