I'm extremely proud of you, digg. Your general population has recognized that there's a difference between creationism and religion, and even creationism and Christianity. You get two thumbs up.
Woo!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Religion or Awesome? Your Choice.
This comment thread has renewed my respect for the general population of digg.
I say this because there are comments with positive diggs that were posted by Christians. They argue that saying that atheists are immune to doing "dumb shit" is idiotic. ColonelJessup made an excellent point: atheists, if trying to shove their ideology down the throats of the religious, are being just as bad as their opponents. I absolutely agree with this. We're all arguing about God, aren't we? Atheists argue that there is no empirical data that supports the theory of the existence of God. The religious argue that there is evidence all around us, it is just seen by us as something different. Neither argument will ever actually get anywhere.
The counterargument to the "do unto others" rule was that a large part of being religious is the spreading of one's religion. One can't be a true Christian if he doesn't spread the teachings of Jesus. I see it this way- Christianity wants its followers to be like Jesus. Jesus was awesome. So, by the transitive property of awesomeness, Christians want to be awesome. I think that last part is what most Christians tend to forget. We tend too often to focus on the "Jesus or hell" aspect of Christianity, without remembering why we're promoting Jesus.
Question- why exactly are non-followers going to hell? Because they aren't like Jesus, or because they don't follow Jesus? What if a non-follower is just turned off by organized religion, but is still a good person? I think that person doesn't have much to worry about, regardless of ideology.
Perhaps we should remember that when we die and are judged, we are judged by how much good we did in our life. Who is more likely to get into heaven (even assuming that christianity is %100 correct)- the Christian preacher who did nothing but fight atheists all his life, the monk who sat at the mountaintop and praised God all his life, or the atheist who volunteered at a soup kitchen every weekend of his life? I believe that the atheist would easily get into a Christian heaven, because the other two never really acted like Jesus.
I don't try to convert people. Atheists generally don't like having Jesus shoved down their throat. I think the ultimate goal of becoming a Christian is becoming happier. When "converting" someone, I skip the Christian bit, and just do my best to make them happy. The wisdom in the Bible gives me a few good ideas about how to make myself and others happy. That's where I draw my wisdom, and I'm willing to share it whenever it's wanted.
If they choose not to accept it, that's fine. Maybe they have their own methods. As long as they're making people happier, they're being like Jesus. They're being Christian. As long as they're enabling love, they're familiarizing themselves with God.
In a nutshell- whether or not you're worried about heaven, don't be an ass.
I say this because there are comments with positive diggs that were posted by Christians. They argue that saying that atheists are immune to doing "dumb shit" is idiotic. ColonelJessup made an excellent point: atheists, if trying to shove their ideology down the throats of the religious, are being just as bad as their opponents. I absolutely agree with this. We're all arguing about God, aren't we? Atheists argue that there is no empirical data that supports the theory of the existence of God. The religious argue that there is evidence all around us, it is just seen by us as something different. Neither argument will ever actually get anywhere.
The counterargument to the "do unto others" rule was that a large part of being religious is the spreading of one's religion. One can't be a true Christian if he doesn't spread the teachings of Jesus. I see it this way- Christianity wants its followers to be like Jesus. Jesus was awesome. So, by the transitive property of awesomeness, Christians want to be awesome. I think that last part is what most Christians tend to forget. We tend too often to focus on the "Jesus or hell" aspect of Christianity, without remembering why we're promoting Jesus.
Question- why exactly are non-followers going to hell? Because they aren't like Jesus, or because they don't follow Jesus? What if a non-follower is just turned off by organized religion, but is still a good person? I think that person doesn't have much to worry about, regardless of ideology.
Perhaps we should remember that when we die and are judged, we are judged by how much good we did in our life. Who is more likely to get into heaven (even assuming that christianity is %100 correct)- the Christian preacher who did nothing but fight atheists all his life, the monk who sat at the mountaintop and praised God all his life, or the atheist who volunteered at a soup kitchen every weekend of his life? I believe that the atheist would easily get into a Christian heaven, because the other two never really acted like Jesus.
I don't try to convert people. Atheists generally don't like having Jesus shoved down their throat. I think the ultimate goal of becoming a Christian is becoming happier. When "converting" someone, I skip the Christian bit, and just do my best to make them happy. The wisdom in the Bible gives me a few good ideas about how to make myself and others happy. That's where I draw my wisdom, and I'm willing to share it whenever it's wanted.
If they choose not to accept it, that's fine. Maybe they have their own methods. As long as they're making people happier, they're being like Jesus. They're being Christian. As long as they're enabling love, they're familiarizing themselves with God.
In a nutshell- whether or not you're worried about heaven, don't be an ass.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Aperture Science
In the comments on every story on the front page for the last several weeks:
mindless.unoriginal.troll:
this was a triumph
pleasegivemeattention:
Im making a note here : HUGE SUCCESS
etc
/annoying
Imagine this. A bunch of people are gathered around, watching a guy who can eat fire or something. Then, a moose comes and tramples the guy, and he has to be taken to the hospital. An ambulance arrives and takes him, as as he's being loaded into the back, someone in the crowd says "'tis but a flesh wound". You realize that the comment wasn't really appropriate, but it was funny, so you chuckle a bit. Then, another person says "Your arms chopped off!" Then another, "I've had worse!". Before you know it, the entire Monty Python and the Holy Grail script is being recited, even though it really stopped being remotely funny or original after the first comment.
Still Alive by Jonathon Coulton is a brilliant piece of music. Lyrically and musically, it is perfect for Portal, an excellent game. I have learned to play it on guitar. However, stating lyrics is not noteworthy. "This was a triumph" has become more annoying than "THIS IS SPARTA" to me, only because no one recants the rest of the dialogue in 300 whenever someone says the latter.
So, quote portal when appropriate. Quote anything you want when appropriate. Just stop talking when you stop being original or funny.
mindless.unoriginal.troll:
this was a triumph
pleasegivemeattention:
Im making a note here : HUGE SUCCESS
etc
/annoying
Imagine this. A bunch of people are gathered around, watching a guy who can eat fire or something. Then, a moose comes and tramples the guy, and he has to be taken to the hospital. An ambulance arrives and takes him, as as he's being loaded into the back, someone in the crowd says "'tis but a flesh wound". You realize that the comment wasn't really appropriate, but it was funny, so you chuckle a bit. Then, another person says "Your arms chopped off!" Then another, "I've had worse!". Before you know it, the entire Monty Python and the Holy Grail script is being recited, even though it really stopped being remotely funny or original after the first comment.
Still Alive by Jonathon Coulton is a brilliant piece of music. Lyrically and musically, it is perfect for Portal, an excellent game. I have learned to play it on guitar. However, stating lyrics is not noteworthy. "This was a triumph" has become more annoying than "THIS IS SPARTA" to me, only because no one recants the rest of the dialogue in 300 whenever someone says the latter.
So, quote portal when appropriate. Quote anything you want when appropriate. Just stop talking when you stop being original or funny.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
On Religion
Anyone who's been on digg for the past two weeks knows about the battle "anonymous" has declared on scientology.
My stance on scientology is that it is a joke. It is so much of a joke that I go against the will of firefox spellcheck and refuse to capitalize it. It is not a religion. It is a cult, plain and simple. It blackmails, tortures, and harasses its members. I don't need to list every single reason to hate scientology because you probably browse digg and hate scientology as much as I do.
You may be wondering, then, why this post is entitled "on religion". This is because on nearly every scientology story, there is a comment akin to
"While we're at it, why don't we just kill all religions? What separates Christianity from Scientology except that it's more popular and its been around longer?"
Now, I'm not a terribly religious person. However, comparing scientology to Christianity is, in my humble opinion, completely ridiculous.
Scientology was invented by a lunatic comic book writer who was quoted as saying that "if you want to make a million dollars, start a religion". It does virtually nothing that actually contributes to society. It charges its followers thousands of dollars (each) for "auditing", a sort of spiritual cleansing. It has yet to be scientifically proven that auditing actually does anything, but scientologists claim that it both increases IQ and "improves personality". Scientologists believe that a woman should not make any noise whatsoever while giving birth. etc,etc,etc.
People who compare scientology to Christianity, or indeed discredit the bible (stay with me), or say that all Christians are evil seem to forget the fact that it is called "Christ"ianity for a reason. Those who have read the new testament would know that Jesus taught only love, peace, and tolerance. He promoted feeding the sick, giving to the poor, and loving all of mankind. He seems like a pretty good role model.
I believe Gandhi puts it best, however: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
The members of the Westboro Baptist church are the most hated people in the world. They picket the funerals of fallen soldiers because they claim that the war in Iraq is God's punishment for America's tolerance of the gay community (a topic for another post). This is because they are idiots, not because they are Christians. People like them would be assholes even if they weren't Christians. People like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jean Paul II would still be awesome people if Christ had never been part of their life. Religion is just a platform on which people base their opinions and actions. Whether one chooses to use it for good or bad is unaffected by the fact that it exists.
This is why I believe that scientology is not a religion. Scientology doesn't inspire anyone to do anything. Good people who are/become Christians generally do good things. Good people who become scientologists either become corrupt, or try to get out and are killed. The CoS stifles dissent and encourages people to disassociate themselves from their non-scientologist families. These and other actions are those that one can only associate with an extremist cult. No church of Christ does any of these things (presently, I should say- ie the spanish inquisition, crusades, etc. They used to be pretty screwed up).
I hope with all my heart that anonymous destroys scientology. I hope that everyone realizes that not all Christians are crazy. If I were to say some of the things mentioned in this post in a comment on a digg story, I would have as many negative diggs as the guy who bashed christianity would have positive diggs. The problem isn't a lack of people who think reasonably- the problem is the abundance of diggers who bury those who do.
My stance on scientology is that it is a joke. It is so much of a joke that I go against the will of firefox spellcheck and refuse to capitalize it. It is not a religion. It is a cult, plain and simple. It blackmails, tortures, and harasses its members. I don't need to list every single reason to hate scientology because you probably browse digg and hate scientology as much as I do.
You may be wondering, then, why this post is entitled "on religion". This is because on nearly every scientology story, there is a comment akin to
"While we're at it, why don't we just kill all religions? What separates Christianity from Scientology except that it's more popular and its been around longer?"
Now, I'm not a terribly religious person. However, comparing scientology to Christianity is, in my humble opinion, completely ridiculous.
Scientology was invented by a lunatic comic book writer who was quoted as saying that "if you want to make a million dollars, start a religion". It does virtually nothing that actually contributes to society. It charges its followers thousands of dollars (each) for "auditing", a sort of spiritual cleansing. It has yet to be scientifically proven that auditing actually does anything, but scientologists claim that it both increases IQ and "improves personality". Scientologists believe that a woman should not make any noise whatsoever while giving birth. etc,etc,etc.
People who compare scientology to Christianity, or indeed discredit the bible (stay with me), or say that all Christians are evil seem to forget the fact that it is called "Christ"ianity for a reason. Those who have read the new testament would know that Jesus taught only love, peace, and tolerance. He promoted feeding the sick, giving to the poor, and loving all of mankind. He seems like a pretty good role model.
I believe Gandhi puts it best, however: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
The members of the Westboro Baptist church are the most hated people in the world. They picket the funerals of fallen soldiers because they claim that the war in Iraq is God's punishment for America's tolerance of the gay community (a topic for another post). This is because they are idiots, not because they are Christians. People like them would be assholes even if they weren't Christians. People like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jean Paul II would still be awesome people if Christ had never been part of their life. Religion is just a platform on which people base their opinions and actions. Whether one chooses to use it for good or bad is unaffected by the fact that it exists.
This is why I believe that scientology is not a religion. Scientology doesn't inspire anyone to do anything. Good people who are/become Christians generally do good things. Good people who become scientologists either become corrupt, or try to get out and are killed. The CoS stifles dissent and encourages people to disassociate themselves from their non-scientologist families. These and other actions are those that one can only associate with an extremist cult. No church of Christ does any of these things (presently, I should say- ie the spanish inquisition, crusades, etc. They used to be pretty screwed up).
I hope with all my heart that anonymous destroys scientology. I hope that everyone realizes that not all Christians are crazy. If I were to say some of the things mentioned in this post in a comment on a digg story, I would have as many negative diggs as the guy who bashed christianity would have positive diggs. The problem isn't a lack of people who think reasonably- the problem is the abundance of diggers who bury those who do.
An Introduction
Several years ago, I happened across digg.com. I liked what I saw- technology geeks giving me stories about things I was interested in. The comment system seemed like a godsend to me. Without inhibiting free speech, digg was able to weed through the good and the bad, allowing me to skip past the mindless trollspam (thought I hardly ever do). Through the years, it has stayed my favorite social networking site, and it is in fact still my homepage.
It is certainly not without its faults- radical religious views from all sides of the spectrum plague the comment threads. The algorithm sends lolcat pictures to the front page when they have 50 diggs, while stories about families of soldiers are buried into oblivion.
This blog was made to correct the bad and to commend the good. I'm doing it because sometimes a reply to an obscene post isn't enough. Sometimes favoriting a story isn't enough. When it isn't, I'll post here, and maybe you'll laugh and move on, or maybe you'll discover the meaning of life and go on to write a self-help book that brings billions of people out of depression.
I'm just on for the ride.
It is certainly not without its faults- radical religious views from all sides of the spectrum plague the comment threads. The algorithm sends lolcat pictures to the front page when they have 50 diggs, while stories about families of soldiers are buried into oblivion.
This blog was made to correct the bad and to commend the good. I'm doing it because sometimes a reply to an obscene post isn't enough. Sometimes favoriting a story isn't enough. When it isn't, I'll post here, and maybe you'll laugh and move on, or maybe you'll discover the meaning of life and go on to write a self-help book that brings billions of people out of depression.
I'm just on for the ride.
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