Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on March 6, 2009 at 6:24pm

Seems to me it's not just Roman Catholic hypocrisy you report on, James.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on March 6, 2009 at 6:48pm

No, I am an equal opportunity religion basher, but I do not include Buddhism, which I regard as a moral system rather than a religion. Buddhism does not require a belief in "God," which is probably why Dawkins, Hitchens, et al. have relatively nice things to say about followers of Gautama Siddhartha. Yeah, I know, in the more baroque forms of Buddhism (mainly Mahayana), they have some fairly bizarre ideas about sainthood and all, and their cosmology is a bit much, but in the main, they are free of deist notions. Thanks for your comment, Ms. Fitzpatrick.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on March 7, 2009 at 9:00am

You're welcome, Mr. Martin.

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Permalink Reply by V1ktor on March 7, 2009 at 12:10pm

haha i like that header picture on your blog.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on March 7, 2009 at 1:52pm

It depicts my very most favorite hate group in all the world: the Rev. Phred Phelps' whacko church in the heart of the Bible Belt. The same guys who picket servicemens' funerals, I suppose because "don't ask, don't tell" nevertheless allows homosexuals and lesbians to serve their country. I never could understand how anyone could believe that denial of civil rights is OK even when applied to persons willing to die for them.

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Permalink Reply by V1ktor on March 7, 2009 at 3:44pm

If I had the power I would make it illegal to protest at a military funeral. It's ridiculous, at least they could respect parents and their grief. This is where common sense and humility should kick in. Unfortunately, it doesn't. This shows how religion puts a cork on basic human feelings and turns them into complete POS.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on March 7, 2009 at 3:54pm

I am afraid I cannot agree, and not solely on First Amendment grounds. My feeling is, people like Phelps make Christeranity look as ridiculous as it is. The more Faultwell's, Robber's Sons, Phelpses, et al., the more likely it is that people will turn away from the religion. This issue was taken up in a debate on the internet a while back between Sam Harris, one of our guys, and the British Catholic, Andrew Sullivan. Basically, Harris argued that mainstream religious types (e.g. Whiskeypalians) enable (to borrow a term from A.A.) the bigot televangelist buffoons. Sullivan accused Harris of throwing out the baby (no pun intended) with the bath water. Naturally, I see thing Harris's way. But, really, we need the John Hagees and Rod Parsley-Thyme-Sages as object lessons in the stupidity of organized religion, or at least its reduction to absurdity.

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