Comment

Comment by Loren Miller on May 10, 2019 at 5:55am

Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.
-- Thomas Mann

I am in full agreement, whether this phrase is applied to religions which want to dominate the social landscape or political philosophies which want to insist that THEY are the only way to success ... or some schmuck with a bad comb-over who says, "I alone can fix it."

Comment by Loren Miller on May 9, 2019 at 5:38am

I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Because the art and the medicines actually EXIST. Worshiping a non-existent god does nothing because there is no god to act or respond. Belief may give rise to the placebo effect, but disbelief and abhorrence are certainly not going to help matters.

Comment by Joan Denoo on May 9, 2019 at 1:46am

”Don’t bail; the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap!”

~ Randy Pausch, ”Last Lecture!” Carnegie Mellon Professor, Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008. gave his last lecture at the university on Sept. 18, 2007, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams."

Comment by Loren Miller on May 8, 2019 at 5:17am

To a coward, courage always looks like stupidity.
-- Bill Maher

Say what you want about Bill Maher; here, HE NAILS IT. If a coward could face an untoward situation, confront it and take action against it, he wouldn't be a coward. In this case, Maher was referring to the threat of Islam and how too many people shrink away from that threat or use PC excuses to try to justify their attitude.

Islam needs to be confronted, as surely as Christianity, Judaism, or any religion that acts out irrationally against those who don't believe should be. Whether it's jihad, attacks on abortion clinics, or the treatment of Palestinians, those behaviors need to be called out and STOPPED.

Comment by Loren Miller on May 8, 2019 at 5:04am

Ruth, if any such religion ever does assert itself, it should have a simple name:

REALITY.

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on May 7, 2019 at 2:48pm

Great quotes, Loren. Both Saffron Herndon and Nietzsche. Especially, "to stand in the midst of ... this whole marvelous uncertainty and rich ambiguity of existence without questioning, without trembling with the craving and the rapture of such questioning..." Yes, reason can be scary to those craving child-like absolutes and certainty.

image source

Comment by Loren Miller on May 7, 2019 at 5:49am

Knowing what we are, knowing how it is, knowing the worst that may come, Atheists must speak.
-- Madalyn Murray O’Hair

Believers have certainly been vocal in claiming their "persecution" at the hands of the secular state, when what really has been happening is that they are slowly but surely being reduced to equal status in society. Atheists must indeed speak, in order to raise ourselves up to that same level.

Comment by Joan Denoo on May 6, 2019 at 11:31pm

“No wild beasts are so dangerous to men as Christians are to one another.”
―Julian
Source/Notes:
As quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus, as translated in Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History (2006) by Terry Jones, p. 205 ISBN 9780563539162

Comment by Joan Denoo on May 6, 2019 at 4:55pm

The issue is questioning.

What question do I ask matters?

Who do I ask matters?

What is my intention matters?

What difference will my question make?

I can seek agronomists to answer my questions about soil and learn new ways to create healthy land on which I plant my seeds. 

If I learn how to turn sterile, sandy soil into productive loam, I will have healthier, more resilient and better resistance from pests and diseases and improve my crop quality and yield.

I seek answers from astrophysicists about this theory or that and receive one sentence replies, signifying nothing. I don't understand before I ask the questions, I know nothing more after asking. What is the point of wasting his time and mine? Yes, I would like to know if gravity pulled chunks of "stuff" into a ball and the evolutionary process begins, but what if gravity isn't the force that accomplishes that task? Should I become hostile to the astrophysicist for not giving me an 18-year course in astrophysics? I can watch him on the internet giving class lectures, and I still have the question unanswered. So, I can sit back, read my soil journals and raise healthy, nutritious food. 

 

Comment by Loren Miller on May 6, 2019 at 5:21am

Among some pious people I found a hatred of reason and was well disposed to them for that; for this at least betrayed their bad intellectual conscience. But to stand in the midst of this rerum concordia discors and of this whole marvelous uncertainty and rich ambiguity of existence without questioning, without trembling with the craving and the rapture of such questioning, without at least hating the person who questions, perhaps even finding him faintly amusing—that is what I feel to be contemptible...
-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Not to question is not to learn and not to discover. Yet on multiple occasions I've heard of Christians saying their holy book or doctrines or dogma are supposed to be beyond such scrutiny, whereupon I have to ask:

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

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