How common is this? Texas lady, when asked about their drought by NPR,

[patrice]

says "Some people talk about Global Warming, but I believe in God, so I don't ask why."

Religious people are what percentage of the population, 50%? What percentage of those religious people "think" this way? This is so maladaptive it makes you doubt the ability of our species to survive.

Religion is quite successful as a business, but as a form of spirituality it is a total failure.

[blue cat]

1. Friggin scary common

here in TX.

[Monk06]

17. When her sprinkler system dries up she'll change her tune. "Where's

the water?"

Ernest Ainsley: "God did it! Yes he did!"

[Canuckistanian]

37. Ah, yes, Ernest Ainsley

The man who put the 'jelly' in Evangelical.

[Monk06]

49. Ernest Ainsley: The man that put Fun into Fundamentalism

[Solly Mack]

52. the man who put the heel in heal?

Heal! Demon Come out!!!

I usta get high and watch him...many many moons ago

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Definition

religion


The biggest lie in human history. It has been responsible for more deaths throughout human history than all other unnatural causes combined. For a thousand years the Church was a tyrannical dictatorship that used religion to control the uneducated masses. Free your minds and come into the 21st century

"Religion is the child of Ignorance and Fear"

[SoyCat]

6. I couldn't agree more.

[patrice]

8. I'm thinking all of us should say this as often as possible

as publicly as possible to anyone who will listen, "Religion is a failure."

[HysteryDiagnosis]

51. Religion is a tool for the creation of self righteousness and the

disrespect of other coultures (spelling intended) and other children of the universe.

[TomInTib]

9. Religion is a tool to keep the poor from gutting the rich.

I cannot remember who said it (Cromwell?), but I have remembered the quote since my Southern Baptist childhood.

[4morewars]

12. Napolean ?

Oui ?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

50. Cute name.... wee wee.... :)

[Jcrowley]

19. Don't know

if that's precisely true we could argue and quibble about power, money and maybe a few others but it sure is mostly accurate, certainly doctrinal religion is as wicked as it gets and a definite blockade to any profoundly religious/spiritual experience (such as an exquisite omelet).

[HysteryDiagnosis]

55. Have some..... but don't sin too much!!

[AussieDave]

3. These are the same people who, if they were Muslim,

believe there are 72 virgins waiting for them in Heaven if they kill non-Muslims.

Welcome to The Alternative Reality of Fundamentalism.

[Subdivisions]

23. If those same people were Muslim, they would be

considered terr-ists by shrubco, rather than his political base.

[WinkyDink]

53. And nobody ever asks the virgins. What happens to them afterwards,

anyway? And isn't this "reward" kind of, I don't know, SLEAZY?

[OnyxCollie]

4. What the hell kind of answer is that?

Thinkin's hard work.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. She probably thought Katrina was just a much-needed rainstorm.

Those people are scary..............

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. So why doesn't she tell her God to send some rain before we dry

up and blow away? :silly:

[patrice]

13. I guess I'm always trying to figure out what "time it is", have we

reached some kind of critical mass yet? How many people are there who are incapable of responding to our situation functionally compared to how many there are who can and will work for what's next.

[GeorgeGist]

10. She's so disengaged...

she doesn't even ask God? She might as well be a lump of fossil fuel.

[msongs]

11. a good wet hurricane could end that drought, maybe a nice weak one as

a gift from oh heavenly grid. then again these people would complain about that too.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[ruiner4u]

14. And remember kids, Jesus Saves....

....But Ghulu invests...

[mikeargo]

18. Jesus saves...

But Esposito scores on the rebound.

You gotta be a long-time Bruins fan to remember that one.

[newyawker99]

56. Hi ruiner4u!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[seabeyond]

15. i live in red panhandle. my son told me last year in class he was the

only one that did NOT got to church. i said no way.... they are lyin. some of those kids dont. really i promise.

they go in the morning, in the evening on sundays and then again on wed and i even have some friends that will go a couple more times a week. i dont know what they are huntin so hard and heavy. to me god is..... no searchin, learnin. once god is accepted it is.

a very high percentage go to church every sunday. i am surprised. i heard like 85% (i cannot believe). and they do talk that way too.

also i will say before my kids went to a public school, they went to a private christian for 6 years. i learned a lot. and one of the reasons i pulled kids out the bullying was so bad, i just knew a public school could not be any worse. ublic school was much much better. and my children took it to heart in private because they thought they ought to live up to school mission. they would take the blows and meaness and literally turn the other cheek.

at least at the public school the kids don't have any expectation from peers.

[patrice]

24. I taught high school for 10 years, the last four near Tulsa, Ok., in

a town with an internationally recognized BIG Bible college. The kids tormented certain scapegoats unmercifully.

It appears that many many churches are little more than mutual admiration societies that provide people with various social services, including the opportunity to play show-biz for Jesus.

Alan Watts (an American Zen teacher) used to say the objective or any real church/religion should be to make itself obsolete, meaning its message should be so organically grounded in the Mystical Body of Christ that organizations, priesthood, and buildings and all that goes with that would be un-necessary.

[seabeyond]

30. exactly

"Alan Watts (an American Zen teacher) used to say the objective or any real church/religion should be to make itself obsolete, meaning its message should be so organically grounded in the Mystical Body of Christ that organizations, priesthood, and buildings and all that goes with that would be un-necessary."

that is what i was trying to say. god becomes within, not without. you dont need to go to god. no one can tell you any more than you already have

[Canuckistanian]

16. Evolution generally has a way of weeding these people out

They're usually the ones who die while on their knees in a disaster, praying for a heavenly rescue, while rescue attempts are being offered to them in several different ways.

It's like the old joke.

[gaspee]

20. The only problem

The only problem with that theory is that these are the same people who actaully believe they are here on earth to do no more than breed like rabbits, so they've already had a few kids by the time natural selection gets them.

I was doing some research on fundamentalism one thing that struck me as very strange is that they think they're supposed to multiply like bunnies. As if that's the only thing they are here to do. They're only purpose in life. I think they called it something like bringing waiting souls to life. They're nothing more than hampsters on wheel, bringing lots more hampsters into the world. It's pretty circular thinking.

I can't relate to that mindset at all.

[patrice]

31. Which brings us back to my original question.

How many are there?

If there are more of this anti-common-sense, "we don't have to grow up because Daddy-God will save us" type than of any other cognitive type that would bode ill for our future.

But I guess superior numbers wouldn't necessarily add up to "victory" for them, but it does make it more probable.

[Canuckistanian]

36. There are legions of them

And the numbers are still growing.

But, because they live within a mindset that rejects common truths, they're doomed to ultimate failure.

Ultra-religious societies have never fared well in history if they insist on propagating their cultures to the world at large.

Notice the Mennonite or Amish communities. They thrive because they reject the outside world and look inward. They don't proselytise to the outside world.

This is just part of a cycle, like the evangelical movements of the early 20th Century, a response to a rapidly-changing world. Eventually, people adapt, and look to more practical solutions to everyday life.

The only thing I fear today is that their numbers will grow to a point where they can do real damage before the next 'correction' cycle.

[patrice]

40. That's my concern. This house of cards could come down on

all of our heads. And where some folks will be okay with that, because they're "going to a better place", I'm not looking forward to death that much and I don't want to see the suffering that will attend the fall.

It's the old problem: How much time do we have, before things get out of control? Can we get enough of them moving in the right direction to at least mitigate a few problems, or is that just delaying the inevitable? Can they change? Will they? Should we bother with them (do we need them to make the changes take root)? Or is there some way to do it successfully without them?

[Canuckistanian]

33. Yes, I see your point

The old "go forth and multiply" thing. Yes, that is a problem.

The only thing that mitigates that problem is that they don't all grow up to be fundies.

Some of them DO have enough smarts to realize that fundamentalism is not a sustainable way of life and go off to live in New York, mingle with Jewish people and write books about their horrible childhood.

At least we can take solace in that.

[carpetbagger]

46. But successful religions accommodate for r-type strategies.

They promote excess breeding.

[RB TexLa]

21. Then she doesn't believe what God told us that he gave us the

earth and seas and to take care of them. He also gave us free will and rational thought.

[cigsandcoffee]

22. 80% of americans identify themselves as Christian

...according to Wikipedia, anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Religious_affiliation

That number is shrinking, though.

I'd guess the number of people who are actually religious instead of just identifying with how they were born and raised is a whole bunch lower.

[ContraBass Black]

25. ?

"I believe in God, so science is wrong."

Where do these people come from? I don't think I know any.

[patrice]

26. Kansas.

for one place anyway.

Florida just decided to run Katherine Harris for Congress, so that's another place where God and the mind are considered mutually exclusive.

[RB TexLa]

32. Strict literalism, very strange people

Allow for no humanity of the writers of the Bible, the fact they they were humans and limited in various ways. Allow for no concessions to the fact that different books were written in different styles.


I love when they look for 1,000 year periods because of the line in the Apocalypse Of Saint John, when it meant the same thing it means today, a long period of time. I would love to see someone taking writings 2000 years from now literally, such as "wow that person guessed for a thousand years and never got the answer right," or "that storm was so bad that cat and dogs were falling out of the sky."

[patrice]

35. People forget what words are. They mistake their words for Reality.

There is no necessary relationship between a word and the thing it refers to. Think of what human life would be without words.

Fundamentalists say the Bible is the real mind of God, but I think, even IF they are right, they've forgotten about blasphemy. They assume they can comprehend The Bible/Mind of God perfectly, "The Bible says this _____________ and that means this _______________." I was raised very coservative Catholic and such assumptions are blasphemy. The best you can do is read scripture and then you can say "The Bible says this ______________" and then let that *in* - *form* (form from within) your actions.

[leesa]

41. I know many of them. My brother became one. He was a biologist

with a Master's degree, got in with these cultists and starting sending me articles "proving" carbon dating is faked and dinosaurs could not have existed because the earth isn't older than the biblical flood, yada,yada, yada...
My sister-in-law (different brother) got her BS in archeology, believes the same crap now. It's crazy how they brainwash them.
They ALL believe they're going to be Raptured up any day now.

These cultists are a dime a dozen all over the US at these giant generic "Christian" churches.

[1932]

27. Didn't God tell people to be good stewards of the earth and wasn't there

something about letting a field lay fallow every once in a while because less ends up being more.

What do the fundamentalists think of all that?

[Subdivisions]

28. Unfortunately, that's a rather common occurence around

these parts of North Texas. For instance, in the town of 25,000 in which I live, there are 67 churches. In fact, we at one time held the record for the most churches per capita in the United States.

[emdee]

29. Leaving the intentional message....

If you believe in God, you won't question {global warming or whatever 'issue' PNAC is against}.

It's pure Bull.

emdee (A Christian Liberal Democrat who cares about global warming and who questions Bush in every way}

[ktowntennesseedem]

34. I believe in God, and I don't hesitate to ask "why"

Most religious folks I know (here in the bible-belt) think like she does, though; asking God such questions reveals a lack of faith, and they have to prove to God and others and themselves that they don't have any doubt whatsoever.

But for me, God is big enough to have the answers to any question I could ever come up with, especially the "why?" questions. And in fact such questions are not a lacking of faith but rather an expression of faith. Admitting doubts only serves to strengthen faith; denying doubts can only hinder faith.

(By the way, everytime I ask "why" regarding the mess our country has been in these past few years, the answer I keep getting is "Because there are so many religious idiots like this women around.")

[patrice]

38. I'm nearly 60 years old and what you just said about questions

and faith USED to be what Catholic education was about. The Baltimore Catechism was in a question and answer format. We were assigned to memorize them. We kids would then get to asking all kinds of far-fetched questions of our own, especially when the pastor would visit our classes once a week. After Confirmation we were told we'd have to figure our lives out for ourselves and accept the consequences.

You are right; the idea was that asking questions, formulating problems, and seeking answers makes you stronger, not weaker.

[ktowntennesseedem]

44. The older I get, the more I realize I don't have all the answers.

The questions of life pile up much faster than I can ever find answers, and those answers I used to find sufficient seem to be less and less satisfying as the years go by. ("When I was a child, I thought as a child... ")

Seems kinda foolish to think that holding back questions could somehow prove one's faith. Many I know think such questions are dangerous, and might end up destroying one's faith. I say that if a few simple, perfectly normal questions are enough to threaten one's faith, that person doesn't have much faith to begin with.

(Recovering Southern Baptist here, by the way. Raised in a very conservative church; my family still wonders how I ever learned to think for myself. Thank God I did!)

[ikojo]

39. Fairly common among many religious Christians

They believe everything is pre ordained and/or happens for a reason not of their understanding. Totally removes personal choice and responsibility from the equation which is odd given that the Republicans claim to be the party of personal responsibility.

[orleans]

42. to texas/god/water lady: apparently god also makes people who

are dumb as stumps

[mitchum]

43. Well, that bitch is a hypocrite if she seeks medical attention...

rather than letting god "heal" her

[Lindacooks]

45. Sadly, it's very common.

My mother, during the Cold War, told me that 'God wouldn't let us destroy ourselves'.

What can you do about an attitude like that? It's a passive self-fulfilling prophecy, and maddening.

[NuttyFluffers]

47. that's some stinkin' thinkin'. faith in God != acquiescence to evils

if Global Warming is bad, then the only moral course of action, and in fact the only faithful action to your belief in God, is to not acceed to the whims of fate and the evils of man. passive acceptance has its place, particularly in the face of forces wholly beyond our power. but using it to supplant your God given free-will *and* capacity to change your world (i.e. 'toil the field') is directly a sin. it is escapism from your spiritual responsibility while at the same time falling to the sin of pride, as they play the game who is more "religious." even the Dark Ages seem to have a more progressive understanding of spiritual responsibility to great disasters -- well, at least by Jesuits and other theologians (there's always the complaint of auto de feys and inquisitions, y'know).

some people are better off as soilent green...

[Mr_Spock]

48. Thankfully, most ass holes who would say that are kidding

You may have actually heard one that is too stupid to know that even other fundies are laughing at her!

[WinkyDink]

54. Their hypocrisy can be exposed immediately: ask them if they BLAME

CLINTON for anything---including Monica---or if everything they detest about him and his policies was MERELY GOD'S WILL, and that to QUESTION or BLAME would be BLASPHEMY.

Oh, wait. I forgot. Clinton is Satan.