Religion as a story?

Whisper · 12-13-2009, 01:46 PM

Don't know if anyone saw this, but it's an article by Greta Christina that I just read and found rather interesting.

An excerpt:

Quote:

If you say to a "Religion is a useful metaphor" believer, "Your religion is a story, it isn't factually true, a lot of the history is mangled and some of it's flatly wrong, and all the God stuff is totally made up"... chances are they're going to get seriously defensive. They'll tell you how intolerant you are, how you're just as dogmatic and proselytizing as religious fundamentalists, how disrespectful you are to point out the flaws in religion and try to persuade people that it's mistaken, how close-minded you are to reject ideas just because they're not supported by dumb old evidence.

If you say to a secular Jew -- a genuinely secular, non-believing, atheist Jew -- "Your religion is a story, it isn't factually true, a lot of the history is mangled and some of it's flatly wrong, and all the God stuff is totally made up"... they'll say, "Yeah, I know. So what? So are you coming to Passover or not?"

What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?

It's an interesting read and I'm with her - if other religious folk treated their religion like this, I really would have absolutely no problem with it, I'd even happily join in with some of it (my best friend's UK-Baptist church is quite fun, when all told and they do some great work, I've attended it with her a few times, mostly on her personally important occasions, like her baptism/confirmation when we were sixteen) and probably thoroughly enjoy it. I already thoroughly enjoy looking at the trappings of the Catholic church, and listening to the music of the US-Baptist's.

So - what do you guy's think?

calpurnpiso · 12-13-2009, 01:58 PM

Religion is simply the accepted utterances of ancient drug addicted schizophrenics which have been recorded & are deemed today as teachings with supernatural moral values.

Philboid Studge · 12-13-2009, 02:09 PM

I think it was wrong to compare religious beliefs to Star Trek. Star Trek makes sense.

psychodiva · 12-13-2009, 02:22 PM

Star Trek never made sense! Serenity (oops I meant Firefly) did tho

and Farscape

dogpet · 12-13-2009, 02:22 PM

I think the true religiots would like that very much.
More twatish enablers would suit them very well.

ubs · 12-13-2009, 02:29 PM

Two major flaws with Star Trek

1. Their principle of non interference juxtaposed with boldly going
2. The transporters. Every time they beamed, they were in effect dying with their position being assumed by their clone.

Though, I did think we would all be wearing sweats to work by now.

ghoulslime · 12-13-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

Two major flaws with Star Trek

1. Their principle of non interference juxtaposed with boldly going
2. The transporters. Every time they beamed, they were in effect dying with their position being assumed by their clone.

Though, I did think we would all be wearing sweats to work by now.

Also, Lieutenant Uhura should have had a low cut uniform to showcase that bold cleavage. That uniform was just wrong.

ubs · 12-13-2009, 03:34 PM

Plus, with all the sexual tension you would have thought there would be more wood visible.

Choobus · 12-13-2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

Two major flaws with Star Trek

1. Their principle of non interference juxtaposed with boldly going
2. The transporters. Every time they beamed, they were in effect dying with their position being assumed by their clone.

Though, I did think we would all be wearing sweats to work by now.

1) Since they pretty much ignored that principle and nothing but interfere you can let them off (at least the original crew)

2) what's wrong with that? One meat robot is as good as another identical meat robot.

Philboid Studge · 12-13-2009, 04:50 PM

Prime directive is a lot like just war theory. Sounds like a noble guideline but easy to ignore with impunity.

Sternwallow · 12-13-2009, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Whisper wrote

Don't know if anyone saw this, but it's an article by Greta Christina that I just read and found rather interesting.

An excerpt:

What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?

It's an interesting read and I'm with her - if other religious folk treated their religion like this, I really would have absolutely no problem with it, I'd even happily join in with some of it (my best friend's UK-Baptist church is quite fun, when all told and they do some great work, I've attended it with her a few times, mostly on her personally important occasions, like her baptism/confirmation when we were sixteen) and probably thoroughly enjoy it. I already thoroughly enjoy looking at the trappings of the Catholic church, and listening to the music of the US-Baptist's.

So - what do you guy's think?

Well, for starters, I think that Christians in particular believe that they have been commanded by a very real creator God to spread the good news. They cannot be content to stay at home and worship in their closet; they MUST impress their religion on everyone else. Muslims are also under orders to export their religion by overt force, differing only slightly from the Christians. People who fail as Christians to carry out this duty are generally thought of as "moderate". So we have the curious situation that

The Best Christians are poor Christians Because They Fail to Inflict it on Others.

The same applies to Muslims who are not as violent as their religion demands.

Private belief and worship are fine (as long as they do no harm to children), but public religion is an open invitation to, and a striving for, government imposed evil on people of different beliefs. (See "Prohibition", "Blue Laws", "Biblical oaths")

Sternwallow · 12-13-2009, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Philboid Studge wrote

I think it was wrong to compare religious beliefs to Star Trek. Star Trek makes sense.

"Twilight Zone" made more sense than any of the main religions and it had much better moral lessons.

We may have material here for a new thread showing the superiority of TV shows over religion. "Lost in Space", for example, had many lessons on living with and surviving a villain.

Any opinions on "Mr. Ed" or "Howdy Doody", "My Mother the Car" (a very spiritual show)?

I'm thinking that even "American Bandstand" had it all over religion as a model for achieving the "Good Life".

Sternwallow · 12-13-2009, 06:21 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

Two major flaws with Star Trek

1. Their principle of non interference juxtaposed with boldly going
2. The transporters. Every time they beamed, they were in effect dying with their position being assumed by their clone.

Though, I did think we would all be wearing sweats to work by now.

And miniskirts, don't forget the miniskirts!

ghoulslime · 12-13-2009, 06:29 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

Plus, with all the sexual tension you would have thought there would be more wood visible.

Were you looking for bulges in Mr. Spocks pants? Cheeky monkey! Bulge looker!

ghoulslime · 12-13-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Sternwallow wrote

"Twilight Zone" made more sense than any of the main religions and it had much better moral lessons.

We may have material here for a new thread showing the superiority of TV shows over religion. "Lost in Space", for example, had many lessons on living with and surviving a villain.

Any opinions on "Mr. Ed" or "Howdy Doody", "My Mother the Car" (a very spiritual show)?

I'm thinking that even "American Bandstand" had it all over religion as a model for achieving the "Good Life".

Mr. Ed would be a god I could run with. At least one would expect horse shit from the religion.