Thanks for the comments unbob. I would have to say that, although in principle I agree with a lot of what Dawkins says, I think his "religion as a virus-like meme" ideas are probably off the mark. The best book I have read about the subject of religion is "How we Believe" by Michael Shermer. In fact, I can highly recommend anything by Shermer. He's an excellent and thoughtful writer, and unlike a lot of polemical writing on both sides of the debate, he's usually got some good hard statistics on his side.
For those of you too lazy to cut and paste, here's a link to the article unbob was talking about in his comment.
Hi Lazy Atheist, it's your friend, Jennifer, here. Sorry to see about your troubles. As you know, I'm a Christian, and like to think of myself as a reasonable person, and also that I was raised by two reasonable (and well-educated) people who are also Christians. So I am always disconcerted to see claims like the one that you responded to originally thrown about. I know that my dad, a Lutheran minster for 40 years, spent a lot of his time later in his career responding to emails like that one from parishiners. Always his responses would contain a link to urbanmyth.com or some other site that would set the record straight.
ReplyDeleteI am also irritated by the idea that Christianity is not "in vogue." In what world is that the case? Even if we were to get rid of such holidays as Christmas and Easter, which are both weirdly religious and secular, then we would still be left with a country where the president and a good deal many other elected officials have to be photographed going to church to be elected.
You don't have to publish this comment if you think it will offend your relatives (I totally understand), but I wanted to tell you that I felt terrible for you that you had to be in the situation that you were in. And also I wanted to tell you that I get angry when people pass around such stupid and entirely ignorant email. I also wanted to tell you how much I hate the conservative, Republican, Evangelical god. It is totally not the God I worship. Followers of the conservative, Republican, Evangelical god never wanted the Civil Rights Act passed, have spent years trying to defund Medicare and Medicaid, and do nothing constructive to end poverty here or in the rest of the world. Further, they see our planet as something to be used up and thrown away on their way to Heaven. Oh, fuck. I'm preaching to the choir.
Merry Christmas. See you tonight.
Thanks Jennifer, good to hear from you. And it reminds me that, in my extreme laziness, I have not finished part three of the Flam War. I'll have to get to that real soon....
ReplyDeleteSee you tonight!
Hi. I had to check out the stranger that left a post on my blog. Anyway, I was wondering if you may have a LDS background. I am in a similar boat right now with leaving my childhood religion/culture and getting similar reactions from my family members. Anyway, thanks for the comment and it is nice to meet you. I am a lazy agnostic, too lazy to even mention it.
ReplyDeleteVanessa
Hello Anon,
ReplyDeleteI was not raised LDS - just plain old white-bread Episcopalian. I feel for you, getting flack from your relatives is not fun. I'm lucky in that the relatives I am closest to personally as well as geographically seem to be (more or less) fine with my decisions.
I have been thinking about posting about my spiritual journey from belief to non-belief. It has been an ongoing transition, and markedly different from my Wife's (was wasn't raised with any sort of religious belief). I guess I just have to get over my laziness.
Thanks for the comment, and thanks for writing your charming and wonderful blog!
Bruce