A Valentine From An Atheist To A Religious Scholar

Sometimes the debate between atheism and religion can be enlightening, showing us how both of these different approaches dive deeply into the currents of human experience.

[Benjamin Frankly]

"Many strident atheists dismiss the domains of spiritual endeavor without digging deeper. In their ranks, you will often find folks who have never read William James, Rudolf Otto, Emile Durkheim, Mircea Eliade or Wendy Doniger. Failing to explore these domains is like rejecting all of physics after spending 20 minutes in an intro class. Religion is more than fundamentalism and what Karen Armstrong provides is an engaged account of the long view, the long history of humanity's sometimes stumbling, sometimes horrific, sometimes transcendent attempt to engage with this persistent sense that there is more to life than day-to-day survival."
Those of us how are "strident" can be strident because we have looked deeper and just find the same c*** if a different package.

[Siro]

A Valentine From An Atheist To A Religious Scholar.....it goes like this.......

"We will kill your kids and pets and poison your lawn and plants and we'll kill God too, even though he doesnt exist (because Skeptic said so!) we'll kill him anyway!!!!!!!!!! I'll f*cking kill you too! I know what I'm doing and this is my choice because Skeptic told me so! I mean it! Listen up you black pig I'm going to kill you cause youre a racist and a misogynist you b!tch!!!!!!!!!"

[-Skeptic-]

Siro wrote:

A Valentine From An Atheist To A Religious Scholar.....it goes like this.......
"We will kill your kids and pets and poison your lawn and plants and we'll kill God too, even though he doesnt exist (because Skeptic said so!) we'll kill him anyway!!!!!!!!!! I'll f*cking kill you too! I know what I'm doing and this is my choice because Skeptic told me so! I mean it! Listen up you black pig I'm going to kill you cause youre a racist and a misogynist you b!tch!!!!!!!!!"

I'm sorry that your faith based mental illness requires that you post hateful nonsense about atheists.

[Benjamin Frankly]

Siro wrote:

A Valentine From An Atheist To A Religious Scholar.....it goes like this.......
"We will kill your kids and pets and poison your lawn and plants and we'll kill God too, even though he doesnt exist (because Skeptic said so!) we'll kill him anyway!!!!!!!!!! I'll f*cking kill you too! I know what I'm doing and this is my choice because Skeptic told me so! I mean it! Listen up you black pig I'm going to kill you cause youre a racist and a misogynist you b!tch!!!!!!!!!"

Find all that in the link up top... oh right you wont! Before you say how a discussion on a topic goes make sure you have had it.

[Bob of Quantum-Faith]

Benjamin Frankly wrote:

"Many strident atheists dismiss the domains of spiritual endeavor without digging deeper. In their ranks, you will often find folks who have never read William James, Rudolf Otto, Emile Durkheim, Mircea Eliade or Wendy Doniger. Failing to explore these domains is like rejecting all of physics after spending 20 minutes in an intro class. Religion is more than fundamentalism and what Karen Armstrong provides is an engaged account of the long view, the long history of humanity's sometimes stumbling, sometimes horrific, sometimes transcendent attempt to engage with this persistent sense that there is more to life than day-to-day survival."
Those of us how are "strident" can be strident because we have looked deeper and just find the same c*** if a different package.

Interesting. I've read some of Karan Armstrong's works-- she is a scholar without merit.

I also found it quite interesting that in her quest for scholarship, she lost all of her faith in her original religion.

I have not looked into her current positions in several years, but I have fairly frequently given or recommended her early books to anyone who was interested in exploring the origins and roots of the ideas surrounding religion.

It is a fascinating subject, to be sure, but one I've exhausted my curiosity about long-since.

I suppose that stems in part, from being raised fully immersed in Genuine Fundamentalist Christianity™ for so very long, and also being an extremely curious person too.

Curiosity and True Believers™ do not mix very well-- if a person manages to hang on to their curiosity? They will eventually become an atheist.

If they live long enough, and if they do not succumb to the beating-down that all curious people receive at the hands of True Believers™.

My all-time favorite "reply" to me, as a kid growing up in this mess, was "it is the mystery of god".

I soon learned what that phrase >>really<< means: "stop embarrassing us, and stop asking questions that remind us it's all bullshyt, and if you keep it up, you'll get such a BEATING...."

Yeah. I all too often got "such a BEATING"....

... but then I'm stubborn I have this honest streak: I refuse to let dogma get in the way of the truth.

[Bob of Quantum-Faith]

Shyt: my first line reads rather badly.

A better expression of what I meant would be:

"I've read some of Karan Armstrong's works-- she is a scholar without many peers."

In that Ms Armstrong is very, very good at what she does.