Man there’s nothing that’ll get me going faster than someone who won’t entertain even a basic argument on their beliefs. Faithinate recently wrote a short note on Facebook that was clearly meant to enflame someone. She wrote that religion hijacks morality [paraphrased]. Now, as much as I agree with this on so many levels, she has a friend who clearly doesn’t agree and in fact it turns out she’s a pretty strong xtian. So of course the first thing she does is get offended and start saying that we need to respect her religion and basically everything about it.
So it got blown up after that by me and a couple other people who chimed in and while I’m not going to bore you with the same old arguments you all know, I’ll just say that after all this time in the discussion she’s not even willing to entertain any kind of question that the original statement may be right. And in fact, she got into this ridiculous diatribe that her religion is really the new testament and that the old testament doesn’t count. And that her god was generous and loving and how much she loves him with all her heart yada-yada-yada. You guys know all that fucking rhetoric that menas nothing at all to anyone, including the person saying it.
But to me, it’s offensive that these people can’t even entertain a basic argument about their faith. Faith is faith, but unexamined faith is nothing. And it means nothing unless you examine it. They act like being xtian is the same as being gay. You’re either born that way or you’re not. There is no choice in the matter. So to question it is futile because it’s what you are. When you’re really full of shit is what you are. Seriously, if you can’t put your religion up to even the simplest scrutiny then what do you honestly believe in? If you can admit that your religion isn’t perfect then there should be no reason you can’t look at it with a critical eye and say when something’s clearly not right. How hard is that? It doesn’t weaken your faith in the least to question how it’s practiced.
Anyway, the whole thing ended by her saying she’s pray for me… pray that I’d be able to open my mind. That’s a fucking gas. She won’t even discuss the simplest topics about her religion that do anything but praise it, and I need to open my mind. And I’ll say again…religion turns off your brain.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Oh grow the Fuck Up!
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1 comment:
I think the "religion hijacks morality" comment was spurred by a conversation Faithinate and I had. I also posted about it before. For me the statement comes from the feeling I often get when talking to religious people that a lack of religion is a lack of morality. Many can't seem to grasp morality as a concept apart from their god(s).
I sort of wanted to chime in on the discussion, but it was so far gone by the time I read it I decided I wouldn't be contributing anything. The discussion Godwin'ed out with the false and odd claim that Hitler was an atheist.
I don't think I've ever swayed someone's point of view, and perhaps that's another blog, but if there's one thing I'd like to sway religious people about it's that atheists can be moral people. Hence, religion hijacks morality.
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