Comments for Changing Religions

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Arthur

Arthur — Sat, 14 May 2011 17:50:48 +0000

14 'This is the teaching of all sages worthy of the name: that one must only be a pupil in order to cease being a pupil; 15 'That one must study in order to learn; and that one must learn in order to live. 16 'For in the brief season of life the first responsibility is to live, and to enrich life in oneself and others, 17 'So that the final history of things may be a history of good.'

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Arthur

Arthur — Fri, 06 May 2011 22:24:43 +0000

Man, Deacon, you’ve got to come back. You’ve got to review Anthony Grayling’s Good Book.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Haukur

Haukur — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:22:26 +0000

Sorry - here's a correct link to Why I Am Amusical.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Haukur

Haukur — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:20:02 +0000

This reminds me a little bit of Why I Am Amusical, an essay by a guy who's also making up his own religion.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by mrs. neutron's garage

mrs. neutron's garage — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:42:23 +0000

Bye Bye Arthur…

Now, for the serious enquirer into just what it is about our species that calls us to highly irrational levels of belief.. I offer this…
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all

A long (and I mean LONG) story of a highly successful man who spent over three decades La-La Land.

I offer this because I think it fits the title of this blog, if only in a very round about way.

Changing Religions… Building a post-Christian fellowship (And WHAT a fellowship it is!)

Respectfully
Mrs N

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Arthur

Arthur — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:44:50 +0000

Oh brother. Bye now.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by mrs. neutron's garage

mrs. neutron's garage — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:11:02 +0000

Settle down Arthur.

Who are these Calvinists and Lutherans you are referring to? No one is “comforted” by the thought of eternal torment.

Think of the millions and millions of people who buy lottery tickets. Their chances of winning are almost zero… BUT, the dreams of being rich, quitting their job and living the good life DO comfort them enough for them to make the dumb decision to buy a ticket every week.

Perhaps they are Calvinists Arthur….. Or “some sort of Lutheran”.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:40:38 +0000

Calvinists, evidently. And I think one of them was some sort of Lutheran.

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by mrs. neutron's garage

mrs. neutron's garage — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:00:22 +0000

Arthur, you have lost me.

…”comforted by the belief that they, and everyone they know, will most likely burn in hell forever”….

Who could be “comforted” by that?

Comment on The Atheist’s Thumb by Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:47:06 +0000

mrs. neutron's garage,

There simply are NO cultures that don’t champion and sanction paranormal beliefs, religions and imaginary consolations! NONE. ZERO.

Okay… and my point is that these are plain everyday matters of fact. You seem to believe that these are deep, difficult truths, or something, which folks here are simply refusing to grapple with. In fact, you seem skeptical of anyone who claims to prefer a painful truth to a pleasant falsehood.

You just can’t go thinking that all this religion folderol is just stupidity. It’s more than that.

And you’re awash with people who say “all religion is just stupidity”? You’re worried that this blog is awash with them? Is this about my “amputated their brains” line? That was a toss-off, you know. And my actual point stands, for what it’s worth: people who are comforted by the belief that they, and everyone they know, will most likely burn in hell forever after they die, are not really thinking about that belief. (For simplicity I’m assuming we all agree on what “comforted” means.)

Pain may be “a pedestrian fact of life”…

It almost sounds like you’re agreeing that it’s a pedestrian fact of life. But that can’t be right. You just took David D.G. to task for not giving pain its due.