EMPIRE PT

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Comments to EMPIRE

BoneRemake says...

Or posting it on videosift for that matter.

In reply to this comment by EMPIRE:
wait... wait.... this is being shot from a helicopter? wtf? Who in their right mind thinks this story is interesting or relevant enough to justify having aerial shots?

Here's everything that should have been said or done with this story (maybe with a single picture to go along with the story):

"A cat was stuck on top of a cactus for 3 days, and finally came down on his own".

Barseps says...

Fair comment Empire, it's definitely one of those "two way street" situations, ain't it? She had the choice of risking the child's life with chemo, or refusing it so the child would have a better chance of survival, I guess she figured the latter being the better choice. Either which way, it can't have been an easy one to make.

In reply to this comment by EMPIRE:
I feel somewhat divided about this...

Now not only does her daughter have to go through life as an orphan (i'm sure her uncle and aunt are nice people, but i doubt that it's the exact same thing), she will also go through life knowing her mother died to try and avoid hurting her.

I dunno.. it's just sad.

bareboards2 says...

Something else we can agree on ....

Much bad is done in the name of religion.

Drives me crazy.

In reply to this comment by EMPIRE:
Yeah. I think we can both agree that's just insane. But I'll bet you all it takes is 1 single born-again christian up the organization ladder to see the word "atheist" and freak the fuck out.





In reply to this comment by bareboards2:
Here's something we can agree on...

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/10/17/dont-believe-in-g
od

This sucks. Like, big time.

This is where religion and the fear of backlash from religious people is strangling good sense and actually creates harm.

Frosts my ass.


bareboards2 says...

People do good things in the name of religion all the time.

It doesn't matter if they do the good things because they wrap themselves religion or wrap themselves in any moral code. In their minds, they are doing good because of their religion. They have a banner to gather around, creating community. And from that sense of not feeling alone, they do bigger and better things.

THEY need the religion to gather. They don't get it from other means. It is their choice.

It doesn't matter that you don't need that artificial structure to feel connected. They need that artificial structure. And from that artificial structure, good things flow.

Deny it all you want. People do good things in the name of religion all the time.

That is my sole and only point. And yes, I am 100% correct.

Here's an example.

My Baptist cousin had a bad relationship with her mother. Bad. It took decades for her to deal with it. But she suffered from that relationship the vast majority of her life. Finally, she got some psychological relief through Bible study. Nothing else worked for her. She is now a happier and more content person.

So some good came from religion. My cousin feels better.

I am 100% correct.

That is an easy thing to "win" though. No good, ever, at all, ever in the history of the world? You can't possibly be correct.

This all doesn't matter. You believe what you believe. Just as dogmatically as any religion. My other main point.

EMPIRE says...

You can think whatever you like. I know what I said.

And calling people's name is not normally productive, I would agree on that. But i think a time should come where stupidity should be called out. just that!

And as I said, nothing good comes from religion, because of the point I said before. Would your brother stop being a good person if he wasn't a mormon? If he would, then you're right, and you win.

"I am 100% correct" .... WOW. seriously? And I'm the fundamentalist who is absolutely right?
Man, spare me. I have better things to do.


>> ^bareboards2:

Oh, I read every thing you wrote.
And I think you do want to reach into other people's minds and edit what they think. You repeat it over and over. (And calling people names is not productive nor particularly intellectually rigorous.)
You also speculated and made up a lot of stories about a lot of things that I never said, and certainly do not believe. You might consider sticking to what I actually say. It makes any debate stay on track.
You say nothing good comes from religion. I say some good comes from religion. That is where I started in this conversation, and I have never wavered from my main point.
I am pretty good at seeing two sides, or three sides to any situation. However, in this case, I am 100% correct. I see evidence of some good coming from religion all the time.
If you don't, then I repeat my conclusion that you are indistinguishable from die-hard fundamentalists who see the world only through the prism of their own belief.
I love atheism, I love the rigorous intelligent analysis it represents.
I do not like atheism when it becomes indistinguishable from fundamentalist religion.
Don't know what else there is to say about this. I can keep repeating myself, if you want.

bareboards2 says...

Oh, I read every thing you wrote.

And I think you do want to reach into other people's minds and edit what they think. You repeat it over and over. (And calling people names is not productive nor particularly intellectually rigorous.)

You also speculated and made up a lot of stories about a lot of things that I never said, and certainly do not believe. You might consider sticking to what I actually say. It makes any debate stay on track.

You say nothing good comes from religion. I say some good comes from religion. That is where I started in this conversation, and I have never wavered from my main point.

I am pretty good at seeing two sides, or three sides to any situation. However, in this case, I am 100% correct. I see evidence of some good coming from religion all the time.

If you don't, then I repeat my conclusion that you are indistinguishable from die-hard fundamentalists who see the world only through the prism of their own belief.

I love atheism, I love the rigorous intelligent analysis it represents.

I do not like atheism when it becomes indistinguishable from fundamentalist religion.

Don't know what else there is to say about this. I can keep repeating myself, if you want.

EMPIRE says...

As I said before (I don't know if you actually took the time to read my comment. Not the previous one, the one before that), I said that obviously there are good people in religion (although I disagree about mother theresa). But people who are good, being of a certain religion doesn't make that religion good. The vast majority of the population of the planet is theist in some form or another, so it would be a bleak, bleak world, if out of the vast majority we couldn't find the biggest number of good people. But, it's not the being religious that makes them good people, no matter what they want to project unto their religious beliefs. If your brother wasn't a mormon, would he stop being a good person?
If you're telling me he's a good person simply because he's a "christian" (and I use the term christian as loosely as possible when refering to mormons), then... well, there's something wrong. Unless you're the kind of people who thinks that before any given religion came along, all humans were savage sinners who loved nothing and no one.

And once again, let me make this VERY CLEAR. I'm not trying to dictate what's going on in other people's heads. What I'm saying is, if what they believe in is stupid, then they should be called stupid, because they are stupid.

And you're wrong. It's not just when religion touches the laws of the land that it's important to fight it. It's also when people who, as I said before, believe in completely unrealistic fantasies, want to, for example, run for POTUS. They may not even touch any laws that could somehow cross the separation of church and state, when elected, but their reasoning, is obviously not sound, and that's not the kind of people who should be given that much responsibility. Unless they put their religious beliefs aside and try to work on a different reasoning level. And that takes us into a whole other discussion about just how intellectualy dishonest religious people are.


>> ^bareboards2:

It is demonstrably false. Ask the thousands of poor who have been served by Mother Theresa and her nuns. Do they think her faith led ONLY to bullshit, deception and ignorance and ONLY bullshit, deception and ignorance?
President Carter works hard with Habitat for Humanity because of his Christian faith.
My Mormon brother delivers Christmas baskets to the poor every year for decades, working with a secular organization, because his Christian faith tells him to.
The great good works done in the name of religion are numberless.
But you reject it all with your statement that religion is NOTHING BUT bullshit, deception and ignorance.
I stick by what I said before. Dogmatic. You believe you hold the only truth. Others who believe otherwise are heretics.
And as always, I agree that we need separation of church and state. That is the only place where the battle needs to happen.
Why it is important to you to dictate what is going on inside someone else's head.... that is religious fervor, my friend, just as invasive, insulting, and most definitely to be exposed as inappropriate and unreasonable.
My religious fervor is to get you to see your need to control others is no different than the dogma that you hate.
And here we are. In this dance we have been in before.
What is so funny is I don't really like religion. I dislike it for the very reasons you do. The only difference between us is that I recognize it is none of my damn business what other people think. The only time it matters is when it reaches out into the public realm of the laws of the land.

In reply to this comment by EMPIRE:
I said religion is nothing but bullshit, deception and complete ignorance.


bareboards2 says...

It is demonstrably false. Ask the thousands of poor who have been served by Mother Theresa and her nuns. Do they think her faith led ONLY to bullshit, deception and ignorance and ONLY bullshit, deception and ignorance?

President Carter works hard with Habitat for Humanity because of his Christian faith.

My Mormon brother delivers Christmas baskets to the poor every year for decades, working with a secular organization, because his Christian faith tells him to.

The great good works done in the name of religion are numberless.

But you reject it all with your statement that religion is NOTHING BUT bullshit, deception and ignorance.

I stick by what I said before. Dogmatic. You believe you hold the only truth. Others who believe otherwise are heretics.

And as always, I agree that we need separation of church and state. That is the only place where the battle needs to happen.

Why it is important to you to dictate what is going on inside someone else's head.... that is religious fervor, my friend, just as invasive, insulting, and most definitely to be exposed as inappropriate and unreasonable.

My religious fervor is to get you to see your need to control others is no different than the dogma that you hate.

And here we are. In this dance we have been in before.

What is so funny is I don't really like religion. I dislike it for the very reasons you do. The only difference between us is that I recognize it is none of my damn business what other people think. The only time it matters is when it reaches out into the public realm of the laws of the land.



In reply to this comment by EMPIRE:
I said religion is nothing but bullshit, deception and complete ignorance.

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