So the extremists of the religious right have set their sights on a new liberal icon. The bible. Wait, the BIBLE?! WTF? no, you heard me right, the wingnuts on the right have decided that the bible, the root of social conservatism and guidebook to all things illogical, was too liberal. They provide 10 goals (or reasons) for this re-write. They are as follows:
1) The Bible is Too Liberal - liberal bias has changed the "thoughts" in the text and we need to return to a "thought for thought" translation of the bible.
2) The Bible Should be Sexist! - liberals have translated the text using "gender neutral" statements, and it is up to the god-fearing conservatives to replace those with their original sexist meanings.
3) The Bible Should be More Complicated - Apparently the current bible is written at a 7th grade reading level and needs to be enhanced with the intellectual force and logic of Christianity. (Does it present a problem that christianity is based on people being too stupid to question and thus, if you made the bible more complicated, people would be too stupid to understand what they are not supposed to question?)
4) The Bible Needs to Include MORE Conservative Terms - Like "volunteer," "peace," and "miracle." (So, lets take out the liberal bias and introduce conservative bias, Yikes! and since when are those conservative terms? wouldn't conservative terms be selfishness, greed, war, and ignorance?)
5) Combat Harmful Addiction - use current political terminology to explain things like using "gambling" instead of "cast lots." (wait wait, so we are selectively correcting words back to their original meaning now? Sexism is ok, but heaven forbid we should call it "casting lots")6) Hell is REAL! - Hell and the Devil are real and we need to say so.
7) Express Free-Market Parables - We need to connect the bible to free market principles. (Even though the church doesn't actually agree with this because capitalism and the free-market are built on the profit motive, i.e. greed *which is a sin if I remember correctly*)9) Credit the Open-Mindedness of the Disciples - Supposedly they were very open-minded.
10) Use Concise Words Rather tha Liberal Wordiness - We are going to switch all references to "Yahweh," "Jahova," and "Lord God" to just plain old lord. Because it's weird talking about the "Lord" by all those other names that make him sound like a bad guy. you know, like when Yahweh said "Jews, I give you this land and you should go out and slaughter (murder) all these tribes in the area, then rape their women to their blood lines will die out (genocide), and then burn down their homes (arsen), then take all the gold and silver and put it in my churches (theft). Yeah I wouldn't want to be associated with that guy either.
Sometimes I wonder where it will end. These people are already so crazy that they SHOULD be completely ostrocized by society, yet we continue a policy of religious "tolerance" when that tolerance has lead to centuries of ignorance, violence, and hate. How insane must they become before someone steps up and says, enough is enough, go back to the caves. What if they tried to indoctrinate your children in schools you pay for? What if they tried to convert you? What if they tried to kill you? What if they flew planes into your office buildings? What if they took over your governments and used it to oppress you? What if they killed everyone like you?
Common Sense
*to all those who have a healthy relationship with "God," you have my respect and admiration for being able to maintain your faith despite all the people around you going crazy. I hope that you will continue to blaze your own personal relationships with whatever "God" you believe in and tune out the hate-mongers. I simply can't intellectually justify being a believer."
I take solice in the belief that God and Jesus think all these people are just as crazy as you do. I mean -- doesn't anyone see the irony of killing people in the name of love? I think that when we get to the gates of heaven (so to speak), possibly they will evaluate us on our ability to tune these idiots out and still manage to be good people.
ReplyDeleteYour not really an atheist just because you don't like religion. I agree that organized religion is probably the most polluted things Humans have ever made (The current controversy about the Nazi past of the current Pope makes him a saint compared to previous Popes...no really, even if he was an active Nazi he would have been better than some Popes), but I don't reject spirituality or faith. Throwing the baby out with the bath water gets rid of a perfectly good baby. Keep the baby and get rid of the yucky water. Don't give up on faith just because stupid people make spirituality stupid - they are dumb, its just what they do.
ReplyDeleteIt's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater because there is no baby. It's just dirty bathwater in which people are telling you there is a baby. I do think Religion is a terrible thing, and I have nothing against spirituality, but it's fruitless. even if there was a god you have to imagine, upon meeting him he would look at you and be like, "why did you waste so much time praying to me? I put you on earth, helped you find friends, satisfaction, love, and prosperity, why on earth would you leave those things every sunday to complain to me? People imagine up God because they think their lives are bad or they need emotional support, not because he actually exists. I will never understand that. There are people all around us every day who offer us inspiration, love, friendship, and support, yet we take them for granted because we have God. I imagine if god put us here, then he did so in order to make us Humanist, not Theist. He gave us 6 Billion other people for us to love and befriend, yet Theism has lead to wars and strife, where a humanist appreciation would all but destroy those concepts. Theism is not a baby in dirty bathwater, it IS the dirty bathwater and humanity is the baby. If we are going to throw something out it should be the concept of God.
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