(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Anonymous commenters who haven't the slightest clue what they're talking about annoy me.

Of course, he *does* prove my points about "religion is brain poison" and "the education system is dismally failing to instill basic thinking skills".

Comments

[larabeaton.livejournal.com]

How the hell did he/she/it find your post from two months ago to respond to today? Googling for religion and "brain poison"?

[jerril]

Thank you EVER so much for taking the time to pull appart his straw man and the IP lookup thing is hysterical.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Religion doesn't have to be brain poison. I have a religion. i like it just fine. but I realize that a lot of what my religion teaches is silly hogwash that defies sceence and reason. I don't believe it because I think it's logical, i believe it because it gives me a moral and intellectual basis for betting myself and because I choose to.

As I've said many times, the trick to religion is understanding that it's dumb. All religions are dumb from virgin births to sacred cows to aliens behind comets. No one of them has any docterine that isn't stupid. So if you wish to be a religious person, find a religion that you think will help you become a better person, accept that it's beliefs are dumb, and believe them anyway. And for god's sake don't go crazy about it. Just because you have faith in the fact that god created the earth doesn't mean it's true or that you should expect other people to believe it. And if you want your children to believe it, tell them. If your faith is worth a damn they'll listen.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

> Religion doesn't have to be brain poison.

And drinking alcohol doesn't necessarily mean you have to stink, live on the street, and scream at invisible people.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

precisely my point. All things in moderation. it's not about having a faith or a belief, it's about not being able to let go of it in favor of reason.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Why do you need religion to be a better person? Is there no reason why making yourself and the bits of the world you have some influence over better must involve a religion?

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

s/no reason/a reason/

[larabeaton.livejournal.com]

While I am hardly the advocate for religion, I can see anivair's point. Christianity, for example, has got lots of good stuff in it. Love thy neighbor, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, let the one who is without sin cast the first stone. That Jesus guy had a very good philosophy of life.

There's nothing to say that you have to accept Jesus as your personal savior to be a good person, but if doing so helps you to be a better person, then rock on.

The problem I have with religion is that so many religious people use it wrong, trying to inflict their beliefs on others, using it to sit in judgement on other people, harrassing doctors who run abortion clinics, etc. Which are about as far from the teachings of Christ as strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing up a 7-11 is from the teaching of Mohammed.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Sure, but you can love your neighbor and do unto others without needing to be Christian, so the question to anivair is why does s/he bother, when s/he states outright that religion is pretty silly and s/he's just in it for the betterment of self.

I really don't have a problem with 99% of the religious people out there, they aren't whackos, but at the same time, it's more like they do it because they don't know any other way, than out of any sort of conviction of faith.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Religion is a crutch, as I said. But it also fills a nice void in the human mind. We want to be part of somehting larger. And I want that somehting larger to be my pleasant collection of gods and spirits. Sure, that somehting larger could be humanity, but I hate most of them, so it makes it hard to commit to it.

Also, and I'm sure john will hate this, I've just seen and felt too much abnormal stuff to think that there isn't somthing. I firmly believe that there is a somehting. Something more than we assume, anyway, and more than we logically accept. I don't know what that somehting is, but I choose to access it via religion because it works for me.

Some of what I've seen and felt outright contradicts my religion. but that's ok because I don't want religion to explain the universe to me. I'm happy with science, reason, and logic ecplaining the universe to me. And I can live with not knowing stuff. Religion is there for the framework and the support.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Sure, that somehting larger could be humanity, but I hate most of them, so it makes it hard to commit to it.

Heh. Yup.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

You don't need religion to be a better person, but sometimes it's nice. I'm sure I could be a fine person without it, but religion gives me somehting to strive toward. it's a crutch, to be sure, and a tool when used properly. And it has the added benefit of having a lot of people's collective wisdom in it already if you know how to look, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Religion is certainly not nessisary, but I don't begrudge anyone theirs. I love religion. I just ask that they give me the same courtesty and don't begrudge me my religion or lack thereof.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

The commentor is a coward, which is obvious from the fact that they posted anonymously.

We ought to start teaching philosophy as soon as possible; both the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children and the The International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children concur, going so far as to have recommended reading for preschoolers, and there's apparently evidence to back up children being able to enjoy it and get something out of it.

Formal logic (with the caveat that classical logic is not accepted by all logicians, perhaps offering courses in advanced and non-classical logics after one has completed the introductory course) could be taught whenever we now start teaching algebra (since it's really just applying the notion of "operator" and "variable" to whole statements).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

anonymous posting is not, itself, cowardly. Commenting on a post without having a livejournal account is fine. This is why I allow anonymous posting.

Making a truly anonymous post, without any identifiers, however, tends to be.