Wow… Couldn’t have said it better myself.

http://www.dearcoketalk.com/post/407638687/on-christian-close-mindedness

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Hello Dear Coke Talk, I have been following you since before you created a seperate tumblr, and I enjoy the cut-throat advice and wisdom you provide, and the aid you have given me indirectly through this blog.

But, I have a question/comment for you. In some of your posts you speak very negatively of religion. You’ve touched on the close mindedness of Christians.

My question for you is this, isn’t kind of close minded to lump and entire group of people like that? I am a Christian, but I don’t think less of people based on their own religious beliefs or who they go to bed with at night.

I’m not trying to show you that every Christian has an open mind. You and I both know that a majority of people in the Christian faith are what you assume them to be. Heck, I even assume them to be close minded.

What I am getting at is that there are Christians out there who are open-minded. Not all of us are alike.

Sure. Not all of you are alike, but what every practicing Christian has in common is enough for me to lump you all together and think less of you.

I don’t have to respect your beliefs. Respect is earned, sweetie.

That’s not close minded of me, by the way. I’m educated in comparative religion. I have the Bible, the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Tao Te Ching all next to one another on one of my bookshelves. Can you say that?

I doubt you’ve even taken the time to critically examine your own religion’s sacred texts beyond whatever Sunday school fantasy-adventure ride you were strapped down for as a child. Even if you have, you still identify as a believer, and all that tells me is that you aren’t enough of a rational thinker to separate myth from reality.

Listen, I get that you’re asking me for a Christian hall pass. You want me to wink and nod and tell you that you’re one of the good ones because you don’t think less of me for my lifestyle. Well, no. It doesn’t work like that.

You’re not doing me any favors by not condemning me. That sentiment isn’t an expression of open-mindedness. It’s an expression of tolerance, and you know what? Fuck your tolerance. I don’t need it.

You have a holier-than-thou attitude. Literally. Do you understand how condescending it is to be tolerated by someone like you? I don’t owe you respect just because you smile and pretend to show me some.

Part of the problem here is that you’re missing the point about what it means to be open minded. As a Christian, you’ve co-opted a set of canned answers to life’s greatest mysteries. It’s bullshit.

You don’t know any more about the nature of the universe than I do. All you’ve done is surrendered your rational thought to an ancient cult in exchange for peace of mind. That is inherently close minded.

Right now, all you’ve got is the potential for an open mind. Start asking questions. Examine your religion with a critical mind. Stop fearing the unknowable. Open yourself up to all possibilities and never surrender your rational thought.

Hopefully, you’ll stop being afraid of the insignificance of your life and the inevitability of your death, and you won’t need an imaginary friend in the sky to tell you everything will be all right.

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I remember, when i was 9-ish, that i had asked my mother what happened to babies that died… She responded that they automatically went to Heaven… within a day, i had reasoned out that the most moral thing a parent could do was to kill their babies as soon as possible, in order to assure their place in eternal Heaven, rather that let them grow up and, possibly, do things that would make them go to Hell. It would be irresponsible of a loving parent to take that kind of gamble with their child’s eternity.

The logic is as sound to me today as it was when i was a kid when i first thought of it. Its no big wonder that i made the conscious decision to be an atheist not much longer after that.

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http://www.archive.org/details/DontBeaS1947

It is sad that this film, released 63 years ago, still has a message that needs to be repeated.

This is the United States of America. It is not about WE and THEY… its about US. We are ALL  minorities here.

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A nice little parable…

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~leonghw/Courses/cattywampus.html

Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science. On the first day of class, he gave us a lecture about a creature called the cattywampus, an ill-adapted nocturnal animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age. He passed around a skull as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned my paper, I was shocked. There was a big red X through each of my answers. I had failed. There had to be some mistake! I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said. Then I realized that everyone in the class had failed. What had happened?

Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained. He had made up all the stuff about the cattywampus. There had never been any such animal. The information in our notes was, therefore, incorrect. Did we expect credit for incorrect answers?

Needless to say, we were outraged. What kind of test was this? And what kind of teacher?

We should have figured it out, Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the every moment he was passing around the cattywampus skull (in truth, a cat’s), hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained? He had described its amazing night vision, the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known. He had given the animal a ridiculous name, and we still hadn’t been suspicious. The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book, he said. And they were.

Mr. Whitson said he hoped we would learn something from this experience. Teachers and textbooks are not infallable. In fact, no one is. He told us not to let our minds go to sleep, and to speak up if we ever thought he or the textbook was wrong.

Every class was an adventure with Mr. Whitson. I can still remember some science periods almost from beginning to end. On day he told us that his Volkswagon was a living organism. It took us two full days to put together a refutation he would accept. He didn’t let us off the hook until we had proved not only that we knew what an organism was but also that we had the fortitude to stand up for the truth.

We carried our brand-new skepticism into all our classes. This caused problems for the other teachers, who weren’t used to being challenged. Our history teacher would be lecturing about something, and then there would be clearings of the throat and someone would say “cattywampus.”

If I’m ever asked to propose a solution to the problems in our schools, it will be Mr. Whitson. I haven’t made any great scientific discoveries, but Mr. Whitson’s class gave me and my classmates something just as important: the courage to look people in the eye and tell them they are wrong. He also showed us that you can have fun doing it.

Not everyone sees the value in this. I once told an elementary school teacher about Mr. Whitson. The teacher was appalled. “He shouldn’t have tricked you like that,” he said. I looked that teacher right in the eye and told him that he was wrong.

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Mmmm… delicious freedom of expression!

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This is my response to “a 25 y/o Muslim man”.
reddit_i_am_a_25_yo_muslim_man_here_is_my_opinion

I think it would be fair to have my voice heard, so I will make a few points on this issue.
1) I would like to start by saying this. I feel insulted by these pictures that people are posting, but I don’t think anyone should lose their life over this, that is extreme and ridiculous.
2) Please understand free speech. You absolutely have the right to say whatever you want, no one is stopping you. But, would you call a black person a n*gger to their face? Would you insult someone’s mother if you knew that she had just passed away? You have every right to do so, but you should have enough respect and class as a person not to. And if free speech really is the issue, then why aren’t you in an uproar that the word “fuck” is not allowed on TV. It’s the same principle right?
3) This is not satire, this is an insult. Muslims have been made fun of before. Even on South Park and team america ( remember “burka burka muhammad jihad” http://www.viddler.com/explore/thepurplepixel/videos/1/ ). No one was in an uproar over that stuff. This is a different level of insult.
4) The worst sin in Islam is to believe in idols, or associating partners with God. The reason we don’t have pictures of Muhammad is because the fear is that we would begin to worship him, or associate him as a partner with God (as the Christians did with Jesus).
5) Whether or not you believe in religion or God is not the point, the point is that you should not insult someone’s beliefs. If something means so much to so many people then it is a pretty douchey thing to just shit on it because you can.
6) I despise radicals and extremists as much as you.
7) Thanks for your time and consideration, sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors.

What is better… to be offended or to not be offended?
It is my opinion that it is better to not be offended.

How does one be not offended? One way is to never hear or see that which offends you. Unfortunately, this requires that the entire world beyond your head conform to what you happen to be concerned with. This is the most difficult, arrogant, selfish and freedom-destroying way to succeed at your goal.

Another way to not be offended is to no longer BE offended by what once offended you. Do you know that some black people, as a term of familiarity, call each other nigger (or ‘nigga’)? Or that some Christians say “God damn it!” as an expletive? This is taking what once offended you and forcing ownership of it.

If you are unable to see an image of Mohammad without worshiping it, then the fault lies not with the image (or the person who created it) but with YOURSELF for not being mature enough to handle such a mundane circumstance.

Of course, the same argument can, and should, be used for the burka. If you (as a Muslim man) cannot control your base, animalistic sexual nature on the mere viewing of a woman’s skin or hair, the fault lies not with the nature of the woman for having skin and hair, but with YOU for being unable to control yourself.

We KNOW that it is possible (and perhaps common) to not be offended when seeing an image of what one believes the Savior to be: Christians, Jews, etc do it all the time, all over the world.
We KNOW that it is possible to view a scantily-clad woman (or even a nude one) without being overcome by the urge to rape her: Billions of men do it all day, every day, all over the world.

The fault of your offended-ness is your own. You’re CHOOSING to be offended. Your actions, your beliefs, and your emotional state are largely under your own, sovereign control. With freedom comes responsibility. The Freedom of Speech has no corollary that you are Free from Being Offended.

I’m aware that what I’m suggesting is ‘unfair’. The fact that it, and the very nature of the world that we live in, is fundamentally ‘unfair’, in no way negates the truth or reality of it. I am suggesting that, instead of the world conforming down to your tastes, that you grow, adapt and evolve. It IS unfair that we must make concessions to the rest of reality… however, it is an inescapable fact that, while i find it unfair, that birds may fly under their own power and i cannot, i do not demand that all birds cease their flying in order to keep me from being offended by their blithe disregard for my predicament.

Instead, I accept truth, I accept reality, and i alter myself in light of it. Instead declaring a fatwa on birds flying (or people drawing pictures that i don’t like or women wearing blue jeans), i construct a hot air balloon to join them in my own way.

Perhaps Islam will mature and will lose the adolescent insecurity that has plagued it for the last few generations. There is room for any belief system that allows for other belief systems.

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You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in  Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You didn’t get mad when the president ignored the clear and timely warning that terrorists were going to hijack planes and fly them into the WTCs.

You didn’t get mad when the weapons inspectors, who said there were no WMDs, were ignored.

You didn’t get mad when hundreds of thousands of people died in Iraq.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.  Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…oh hell no.

Another thing I like to ask when they are spouting Fascism, Communism, Socialism…Explain those three tenets. I haven’t found anyone on the crazy right that even understands what these words represent.

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Speaking of concise lists, holy shit, this guy nails the Conservatives on dozens of points of hypocrisy,  hyperbole and lies from the past several years… AND CITES HIS SOURCES. I would show this to the ignorant Conservatives i know, but, if they cant be bothered to read the Bills they vote against, they certainly wont read a list of facts that make them look bad.

An Open Letter to Conservatives.

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Just a heads up… The first decade of the 21st century is almost over.

It’s almost the year 2010. Let that sink in for a moment. Two-thousand and ten. Twenty-ten. We should be diddling with black obelisks in orbit around Jupiter, but instead, we’re stilling trying to figure out if a modern, progressive, technologically advanced nation should be concerned with the health care and well-being of its own citizens.

We’re unlocking new vistas of science and human knowledge, literally blasting apart the very fabric of reality with the Large Hadron Collider. We also still have entire populations living in dirt huts, wasting away on treatable, curable diseases.

The same people voting against the rights of an oppressed minority were once themselves, a mere generation or two ago, oppressed and unable to vote or marry outside their ‘race’.

Obesity is an epidemic on side of the globe and starvation an epidemic on the other.

Does anyone else feel a weird sense of both pride and guilt when looking at the current state of the human condition? I’m incredibly proud of some of humanity’s accomplishments, yet i am still shocked at our failings. The fact that both can be seen right next to each other, in such a stark comparison, leads me to question the true value of all of our bleeding edge advancement. What good is a particle accelerator when there are still people starving in the world?

Yes, we each have our camps, our teams, nations, groups and tribes… and we’re all getting along as best we can with the cards that circumstance has dealt us, but shouldn’t we be more circumspect in our views? Will we ever see the Earth (or, at least our species) as a unique whole?

I mock the “Mega-Churches” in my Southern town… “wow, how many poor people could they have fed with the millions of dollars it took to build that monstrous alter to ego and ignorance?”. Whereas i do not believe the LHC to be an “alter of ego and ignorance” (quite the opposite, actually), i am still forced to apply the same scrutiny and examination. What other (better?) good could have 3 billion Euros done for the world? How many improvements to the infrastructure of our poorest, our most desolate? Before forging ahead, should we stop and help the others that are lagging behind catch up a bit? Which would be the greater good and will have a greater net effect on humanity, as a whole?

I guess i just expected that ALL of humanity could be as impressed with living in 2010 as I am. I understand that i am in a privileged few… barring some catastrophe, i will not starve to death, be killed violently or die due to a common disease. I have my own climate-controlled living space, internet access, video games, all the food i could ever want and unlimited clean water. Fuck, i have an iPhone.

Deep inside, it bothers me that my lifestyle is not really sustainable and that it is built upon the back of the environment and people lower on the socio-economic food chain than me. But what can i do? Play my part, enjoy what circumstance has given me? To deny that is to throw away a good thing, though, right?

I like to think that all of advancement is for the common good, that the end goal is that ALL of humanity can enjoy the cushy lifestyle that i am accustomed to. Maybe by 3010 EVERYONE can be impressed with the arbitrary number of the date as i am now, of 2010.

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