http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/23/god-to-bryan-fischer-youre-not-helping Comments On: God to Bryan Fischer: You're Not Helping! by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by ephena]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2012 08:45:52 -0800 The Stranger
The mormons are at least honest about it. The other christians seem to be in competition with each other to see who can feign humility the loudest.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler]]> Tue, 25 Dec 2012 12:16:54 -0800 The Stranger
And it's not just the people who might've been in the mosque didn't get shot or burned, either. The drunken jerk didn't have an accident when he was drunk driving down the highway.

So....Bryan? Any comments? Does any other "this is proof of God's hate for a thing I'm pissy about" group want to step to the plate?
Posted by EclecticEel]]> Tue, 25 Dec 2012 11:13:19 -0800 The Stranger Posted by gromm]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 20:32:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:57:02 -0800 The Stranger
There, but for the sake of reason, go I.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:36:41 -0800 The Stranger
Not a fence-sitter, this God.
Posted by sloegin]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:35:06 -0800 The Stranger Nihilism today is the nihilism of the right. The gun nuts, the religious right, the self-styled "job creator"s: none of them believe in America any more. While liberals and progressives and centrists are trying to hold civilization together and make the country function, a cancer eats the tissue of society. A cancer called 21st century conservatism.

And @ 37, that's where the "inefable" stuff comes in. (But I probably spelled it wrong.)
Posted by LaSargenta]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:09:42 -0800 The Stranger
What is this, high school English class?
Posted by dirac]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:00:46 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Urgutha Forka]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:13:24 -0800 The Stranger Posted by James6]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:21:00 -0800 The Stranger
I tend to see religion in an existential fashion -- the universe lacks meaning, but the human mind has a need to perceive meaning, and so we invent religions. The need for meaning is constant, so if people are leaving traditional religions, that means either people are getting their meaning elsewhere, or the religions are failing to provide meaning, probably both.

Your analogy of drug addiction puts another spin on it. The presence of hardcore junkies tends to discourage the casual recreational user, and can make it very unpleasant to be part of the scene if you're not a junkie. So it adds motivation to formally leave a religion that isn't providing meaning, rather than just going along with things for the sake of tradition or family.
Posted by McJulie]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:18:47 -0800 The Stranger
As a "none" myself, it is people like you that really get under my skin. You proclaim with absolute certainty shit that you are not qualified to support, shit that is offensive and demeaning to good people.

You think you are being reasonable and a light for truth, but you are just as misguided as any person of faith that uses their belief to feed their ego trip.
Posted by Ophian]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:12:17 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Ophian]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:54:43 -0800 The Stranger Posted by agony]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:22:14 -0800 The Stranger
Anesthesia is a kind of a lie. It tells your nerve endings, and thus your brain, that nothing is wrong when in fact something is very wrong. However objectionable this kind of lie may seem as an abstract concept, in practice it is what keeps us from losing our minds with pain when we are wounded. Surgery without anesthesia would be cruelest torture. So there is a role for anesthesia. Simply because it is a lie does not make it evil.

So too with religion.The truth is that we live in a very random universe, where people die for no reason at all. But what comfort is that when your father dies of cancer? What solace comes from thinking that your child who died in the crib now no longer exists, except as so much decaying flesh and bone? How painful it is to lose a loved one, and believing that they are in a blissful place, that someday you will see them again, and that reunion will be one of unending joy-that is the balm that keeps us from going insane with grief.

So yes, religion is the suspension of critical reasoning. Yes, religion is a lie. it is a noble lie. A lie that makes it possible to mitigate the pain of living.

Like any anesthesia, taken to excess it creates madness. The fundamentalist religious are like addicts caught in a drug-induced psychosis. Like morphine addicts, they will cause others great harm to obtain more of their precious escape. When they roll around on the floor and "speak in tongues" how is this different from a junkie's hallucinations? And like that junkie, who stuffs the vacuum inside with anesthesia that mimnics the feelings of love and affection which they have been deprived of by a society that cares little for people, the religious person imagines himself wedded to the universal mind,

Like every lie, like every drug-religion too must be used in moderation. It is better that it be your servant and not your master. Once you become a slave to it, your life becomes worse by degree.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:14:27 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Rob in Baltimore]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:05:04 -0800 The Stranger Posted by private universe]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 03:33:17 -0800 The Stranger
This does not mean, and 23 was not saying, that all people of faith are bad people.
Posted by Hanoumatoi]]> Mon, 24 Dec 2012 02:14:07 -0800 The Stranger
The assumption that you don't hate everyone else is no longer true. From now on, it is assumed that you would happily fling babies into the fire if it furthered your political ends, to prove a point, or just as a way to demonstrate your loathing of "moran libtards."
Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 23:48:57 -0800 The Stranger Posted by cracked]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 23:14:26 -0800 The Stranger

Posted by Max Solomon]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:02:42 -0800 The Stranger Posted by sarah70]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:00:56 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Chelydra_serpentina]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:57:44 -0800 The Stranger
This lack of independent thought allows the believer to ignore instances when reality does not comport with the belief system in question. If one believes that natural disasters are the result o divine vengeance, one seeks validation when they strike regions where fundamental adherence to the belief system is low, and ignores examples of the same natural disasters striking regions where adherence is particularly high. Disease patterns present in the unfaithful or those hated by the religion are advertised wildly, and patterns present in the faithful themselves are not mentioned.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler]]> Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:31:20 -0800 The Stranger