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Re: Counting Gaps Send a noteboard - 15/03/2011 01:26:37 AM
I dislike it when people from a particular point of view (e.g. here, you and religion) say something like "I only counted X" as a means of weakening a point. Well, you didn't count well. There are six that specifically mention God or Lord, so 100% more than what you counted. Additionally, there are many more that are referential in that respect. No big deal, but you could have at least counted them all and then said "I counted six".

You'll note all I said was "the bad side of religion". In reality, I think this is all a little over dramatized; many of those people appear to be fourteen year old boys who probably don't even know if they believe in God or not, and probably won't spend more than two hours, combined, over the course of their lives, really considering the implications of divinity or of an empty universe. I don't think any intelligent religious person would have a perspective like this; I've just always found the idea of "divine retribution" to be oddly masochistic, as though there's some satisfaction derived from the punishment handed out for some long ago transgression (whether banging your secretary on your wife's birthday, or starting a war). Ian McEwan mentions something similar, when he talks about how odd it is for people to pray to God to save a family member's life, and then -- once they've died -- people pray to God to accept their family member into heaven. There's an odd dichotomy in religion, to me: God should forgive me for my sins; God should punish that other guy for his sins. I'm not saying this is the case among those people who are really well read and thoughtful about religion, just among the great mass of the world.
I cannot even copy his manner because the manner of his prose was the manner of his thinking and that was a dazzling succession of gaps; and you cannot ape a gap because you are bound to fill it in somehow or other -- and blot it out in the process. -- Nabokov
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This makes me feel sick, and very angry. - 12/03/2011 11:00:10 PM 1790 Views
Yeah, that's pretty messed up - 12/03/2011 11:07:31 PM 902 Views
People think the Earthquake is the payback for Pearl Harbor? - 12/03/2011 11:24:29 PM 994 Views
At first I thought it was just really dark humor, which I admittedly have a taste for. - 12/03/2011 11:31:51 PM 891 Views
Re: At first I thought it was just really dark humor, which I admittedly have a taste for. - 12/03/2011 11:51:36 PM 1029 Views
Makes sense. - 13/03/2011 07:17:46 AM 886 Views
I'd hate to be the one who started that as a joke - 13/03/2011 05:16:38 AM 997 Views
Wow *NM* - 12/03/2011 11:50:56 PM 456 Views
this does as well, and it's also related to people's ignorance - 13/03/2011 01:26:29 AM 1126 Views
that video deserves it own thread - 13/03/2011 01:57:24 AM 995 Views
done - 13/03/2011 07:06:01 AM 898 Views
That video disturbed me enough that I tried to figure out why anyone would do that. - 13/03/2011 05:39:20 AM 954 Views
I agree with you - 13/03/2011 06:07:18 AM 840 Views
It's the hypocrisy of people who don't recognize their ancestors also moved here. - 13/03/2011 06:21:41 AM 979 Views
except that they had a town supervisor and two congressmen, that's hardly uneducated - 13/03/2011 06:55:49 AM 1002 Views
Hah. If only. - 13/03/2011 07:19:18 AM 936 Views
I think all us brownish minorities - 13/03/2011 08:39:16 AM 1104 Views
america: love it or give it back! - 15/03/2011 01:24:57 AM 935 Views
*NM* - 13/03/2011 03:07:25 AM 366 Views
Wow, what idiots. *NM* - 13/03/2011 03:33:05 AM 372 Views
I would collect money to have them sterilized. *NM* - 13/03/2011 03:56:15 AM 552 Views
Where can I donate? *NM* - 13/03/2011 09:04:46 PM 387 Views
Ah, I get it now: - 13/03/2011 04:03:33 AM 1053 Views
How the hell can you even read this? - 13/03/2011 05:08:47 AM 871 Views
I posted that I donated $10.. and was AMBUSHED by one of my fb friends. - 13/03/2011 05:23:14 AM 963 Views
did you unfriend him? *NM* - 13/03/2011 01:18:58 PM 428 Views
I have a "friend" who is always posting religious quotes... - 13/03/2011 07:59:21 PM 1097 Views
I lack your restraint. - 14/03/2011 12:58:20 AM 874 Views
I have one of those, too. - 14/03/2011 02:11:45 AM 894 Views
I have a friend who posted something like that after the Haiti Quake - 14/03/2011 03:33:34 AM 1001 Views
that is what the hide feature is for - 14/03/2011 04:11:26 AM 856 Views
Yeah, I'm about there with her. *NM* - 15/03/2011 12:29:14 AM 423 Views
I wouldn't have been able not to reply - 14/03/2011 12:04:00 PM 1199 Views
I doubt many of those people even remember Pearl Harbor - 13/03/2011 01:17:41 PM 1047 Views
Too true. - 14/03/2011 12:30:32 AM 911 Views
Yup. Unfortunately, some people are just assholes. *NM* - 14/03/2011 03:30:54 AM 384 Views
It annoys me, but - 13/03/2011 03:08:51 PM 1045 Views
And I always thought the atomic bombs were related to PH. - 13/03/2011 09:53:28 PM 897 Views
Nah, we just really hate sushi. *NM* - 14/03/2011 07:29:40 AM 351 Views
Re: Any society. - 14/03/2011 02:48:03 AM 1101 Views
Atheists don't ever have twisted senses of justice? I must know quite a few believers in denial. - 14/03/2011 07:35:13 AM 882 Views
I think the point was that atheists don't tend to believe in divine retribution. *NM* - 14/03/2011 08:22:00 AM 389 Views
This is true. - 14/03/2011 05:50:11 PM 937 Views
Re: This is true. - 14/03/2011 05:51:45 PM 1061 Views
Re: Counting - 15/03/2011 01:26:37 AM 1064 Views
Religion throwdown? In this thread? Was not expecting it, but okay. - 15/03/2011 06:33:32 AM 1112 Views
Unreal. - 15/03/2011 03:02:05 PM 935 Views

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