posted by Duamuteffe @ 10:59 PM
8 comments
The Raptor's Den
Voluntary experimentation-
Going through softcore mutation...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
About Me
- Name: Duamuteffe
- Location: United States
Rider (intermediate, eventer, but I don't event Intermediate) Writer (unpublished) Gamer (since age six) Reader (since before that) Music and Movie Enthusiast (always happy to discuss/debate) Artist (mindset, not necessarily talent) Self-Sufficiency Enthusiast (farm girl, hiker, and a fair shot) Proud To Be A Geek (see all of the above)
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8 Comments:
i found that to be both amusing and intriguing at the same time, though i didn't get the burning zepplin and dracula bits of the anti-semetic pic. oh well, thanks for the link :)
Not bad, though flawed at several points. Just for small instance:
"You Christians, if the transmission in your Camaro explodes, are you going to use prayer to reconstruct it? No, you'll call a mechanic. When your tooth hurts, you don't assume it's possessed by demons. You look for a cavity. Basic, everyday troubleshooting."
That's an optimistic statement. There are a great many Christians for whom prayer is their "basic, everyday troubleshooting" technique. There are Christians who pray for good parking spaces. There are Christians who, very unfortunately, pray as a response to physical ailment, which is why you occasionally hear of children dying tragically and needlessly of curable conditions, or being starved to death by their parents in an effort to exorcise "demons".
Also:
"Atheists, even if you reject the idea of God completely and claim to live according only to the cold logic of the physical sciences, you all still live as if the absolute morality of some magical lawgiver were true...When some guy hustles you out of eighty bucks in an ebay scam, you don't nod and say, "Interesting! This fellow lacks the genetic predisposition toward equitable dealing that generations of sexual selection in favor of social behavior has instilled in the rest of us! A fascinating difference!"...No, you think what that guy did was wrong. You want justice. You think he should have acted differently."
Personally, when I get screwed in the aforementioned manner, I usually think something along the lines of "This fellow lacks the genetic predisposition toward equitable dealing that generations of sexual selection in favor of social behavior has instilled in the rest of us. What an asshole! He'll probably die rich.", and I'll bet I'm not the only person to think so.
Like it or not, sociopathy is a survival trait, too. It's pointless to ignore the fact. Ruthless people are, more often than not, prosperous and/or prolific, and when the fragile veneer of civilization gets wiped away the law of the jungle remains, so long as life remains, at least.
Anyway, I could go on and on this about subject, but Real Life (*groan*) is beckoning. Over all, I think the author is a basically reasonable fellow, and means well, but does not fully understand the elemental nature religion or atheism.
Okay Sis, let me have it. Bombs away =D
Okey-dokey.
1) The object of the exercise is not to explain things to or about zealots of any stripe. This is aimed towards the middle bit of the bell curve, who may not generally have a chance to talk to the other group to find out what they're like. So when you say that Christians pray for things on a daily basis, yes, it's a fairly reasonable assumption, but in the general population it's not solely in lieu of other methods. They tend to do the same things Pagans do alongside ritual; i.e. seek out assistance of a more mundane sort to help bring the more divine assistance into your life. So if your transmission blows up, you might pray to find another one cheaply and soon, which is fair enough, but you'll start phoning local garages, too. It's only the zealots who sit around hoping for a new transmission zapped into their cars by direct intervention, and those kinds of people are outside the scope of the article and thus another debate entirely.
2) Just because you acknowledge the guy had a genetic predisposition towards antisocial behavior, it doesn't mean you don't want your sixty bucks back, and don't think of what he did as wrong- the guy isn't forgiven in either case no matter how his motivations are viewed. The author isn't discussing whether or not larceny is a viable survival trait, as that would be an entirely different debate, he's just pointing out that regardless of how you view the behavior as being generated, your view of its intrinsic value doesn't change, i.e., in both viewpoints it's still considered wrong for people to scam others.
3) I'm absolutely certain that none of us are qualified to claim that we understand the elemental nature of either religion or atheism. Seriously, that's a hell of a claim to make without years and years of academic study and dialogues with leaders of all stripes, getting into communities, etc. Nobody gets to claim that they're an expert in philosophy because they've read debates on messageboards; the groundwork and study and face-to-face interaction needs to be there. So the article can be judged on its usefulness and common sense instead, which is fairly high.
- - - - - -
And on a personal note, though I am neither an athiest nor a Christian,* I consider both to be perfectly acceptable worldviews, along with pretty much every other belief system out there, most of which having been founded on a core philosophy of "Don't be a dick." It's only extremists I get cranky with, and then it's not only limited to religion; I've met enough zealots on every convceivable subject to shorten my philosophy of life to "Moderation in everything."
* If anyone was actually curious, I follow a sort of eclectic spiritual tradition that borrows from a lot of other different traditions, but if I have to explain it in conversation I usually shorten it to "pantheistic pagan Taoist, " and the core beliefs as, "You can look through any window and see the sunlight, " which gets the more salient points across nicely.
Sis? might this be yet another incarnation of Nojim, or doth ye have other siblings with which we may peruse the varied subjects brought forth by your wandering hand Daum?
Yup, that's my older brother. Nojim is my adopted younger brother.
Hmm, well, I suppose we can both agree that "zealots suck", anyway...
Hello Mister Dagdamor =)
Dag's cool; he's Megs's younger brother. It's sibling-o-rama on my blog #grins#
why thank you daum :) it is a pleasure i am sure to make your aquaintance also mr. krovas :D
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