fett on 3/4/2010 at 14:32
...explodes from sheer LOVE, you mean. The outpouring of support and emotion for my spiritual crisis was worthy of a Nicholas Sparks book. I actually expected reactions to be more along the lines of RBJ's so that we could have a good old fashioned religious row. I didn't have enough time Thursday for the subtlety I'd envisioned, but hats off to RBJ for being my partner in douchebaggery. Like Turtle said, if you need a douchebag, he's your man. ;)
Oddly, everything I said was true...four years ago. Actual experience, actual thoughts. I'm not saying I don't still have days like that, but April 1st wasn't one of them. I'm embarrassed that so many of you fell for it. I think we're all getting old or something.
So I owe you guys. Next week I'll try hard to post something I've been working on - an explanation of why I left christianity. I get a lot of PM's about it and it's obviously a topic many of us can invest in. No bullshit, I promise.
Queue on 3/4/2010 at 14:39
Quote Posted by fett
...explodes from sheer LOVE, you mean.
Why, yes. Of course.
Epos Nix on 3/4/2010 at 21:16
Quote:
Next week I'll try hard to post something I've been working on - an explanation of why I left christianity.
...and I hope we mean the organization here, not the core principles of 'love each other' and charity. Unless you simply decided that being a complete ass to everyone was the best way of going about life, which I doubt.
PeeperStorm on 3/4/2010 at 21:42
Quote Posted by Turtle
I don't think you really have to separate those things. I've known RBJ for a lot of years and he's always been a douchebag.
I think you're confusing douchebags and assholes. They're similar, but the asshole is smarter. He's the guy holding the video camera and laughing, while his douchebag friend is the one who accidentally sets his crotch on fire while trying to light his farts. And that is how funny video clips end up on YouTube.
At least I have the consolation of knowing that International Be A Fucktard Day is done for a year.
fett on 3/4/2010 at 21:43
Quote Posted by Epos Nix
...and I hope we mean the organization here, not the core principles of 'love each other' and charity. Unless you simply decided that being a complete ass to everyone was the best way of going about life, which I doubt.
Well, since Christianity is the only creed that teaches "love each other" and charity, unlike all those foreign religions that teach incest and cannibalism, I obviously mean the organization. I'd hate to leave the theology because love and charity make no sense whatsoever outside of it.
Just to clarify, it's not that I decided to be a complete ass to everyone, it's just that once I quit going to church, I couldn't stop myself.
Epos Nix on 3/4/2010 at 23:23
I just find it of particular interest where the decision is made to reject a certain creed. How much do you have to disagree with before you say you've rejected it fully? And when you say 'fully', are you really rejecting everything that is being taught, or bits and pieces that haven't quite added up... (questions aren't aimed at you, fett. I'm merely allowing for my train of thought).
For me, I've never considered myself a Christian because I don't believe in the idea of a Grand Creator. However, I'd happily defend Christ's teachings on nonviolence and humanitarianism. And even still, I have my own beliefs as to what exactly the Grand Creator, Holy Spirit, et al, really are in a real, physical sense. I merely reject the common perceptions of these ideas. So I suppose I simultaneously accept and reject the teachings of the church...
Tocky on 4/4/2010 at 05:42
As much as I understand scientific method and the fundamental priciples of logic, as much as I reallize Darwins truth and Einstiens relative brilliance, there is still a stubborn part of me which curses fate or bows in humble awe at beauty. Sure, I understand the spaghetti monster when he speaks of absurdity. Yes, Nietzsche is cold and hard and perfect. True, to believe in that which was invented to control the masses is insanity. I understand that perfectly. The emotional strings religion pulls are coarse and obvious. There is only logic and the vagaries of reaction. No doubt. Fear of oblivion is quite a motivation for invention.
Nevertheless, though you pity or despise, I leave a part of my mind open to magic. I see the spider wire, I feel the grip of pad on the card you are not looking at, I hear myself talk to distraction while the stealthy hand moves. I understand the power to decieve. Yet somehow I manage to fool myself. Though the universe will surely stagnate in the cold grip of entropy, I hope, I pass on that which I most treasure anyway thus spitting in the eye of reason. How crazy it is to think any of it matters on the way down the drain. But I do. So who am I to laugh at anyone who believes in an unseen hand nudging the pieces a bit when I understand the comfort of being a fool?
Ah but such kindness only encourages doesn't it? Bits and pieces aside mind you.
Muzman on 4/4/2010 at 12:20
While I understand the sentiment, the dichotomy isn't as ...dichotomous as you suggest. Rationalism only seems to demystify the world because religion for so long dictated a rote version of wonder in place of real attempts to understand things. The world is still full of mystery and greater things, arguably moreso since there's no longer any catch all answer handed down by the supposedly more in tune.
A mind open to magic is exactly what you need to navigate a universe of now multifarious interactions, each more counter intuitive than the last. Just so long as "magic" is more about the question than a substitute for an answer.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8HmlZpOSxU) "The magic word is 'beauty'" PZ Myers
(PS. excellent foolin' shenannigans fellas)
Namdrol on 4/4/2010 at 12:32
And anyway rational materialism is just another ideology.
Until the sceptics learn to apply some of their scepticism to their scepticism, they're as lost up their own arses as those they rail against.
(Pastor Joke - SD delivers once again)
Muzman on 4/4/2010 at 13:40
Well, I'd have to say an ideology that manages to regularly make stuff go and produce generalisable knowledge about this go-ing has kinda justified its existence (and really I'd dispute that it's an ideology at all. It doesn't make any proposals for how to live or understand human nature per se (well, not ideally, hur hur). Just how not to get caught in BS along the way).
