Religilous...

[Guest]

So there is a "new guy" at work who has been sober for some 20 odd years, and of course, couldn't have done it with out jesus' help. He's not pushy with it, but he's made a few religious comments that have made me bite my tongue as I'm leaving the room.

 

Anyway, I let a friend borrow Bill Maher's Religilous last week and the new guy saw him give it back to me.

 

"Oh, hey! Can I borrow that? I love Bill Maher!"

 

I gave it to him, a little confused why a xtian would be excited to see it. Anyway, he returned it to me yesterday and claimed he loved the movie. He says he TiVo's Bill Maher all the time, just loves the guy.

 

How can you honestly watch that movie and not have anything sink in? I make the comment all the time that that movie lays out pretty much my entire beef with xtianity much better than I can because Maher doesn't get angry and want to punch these stupid fuck tards in the face.

 

I guess this isn't a rant, I'm just surprised that this guy actually liked the movie...or maybe he's just trying to make friends cause he's the new guy...

[LilaMae]

He sounds like an okay guy. Likely he probably is trying to make new friends.

[DarthOkkata]

Well, contrary to what some on the site here seem to believe, there is such a thing as a Moderate Christian. Some people can take getting poked fun at, and even enjoy it. Some people don't take God so seriously. If he does exist, he's bigger than you are, and he can take care of himself.

 

An all powerful omnipotent, omnipresent being doesn't need peons defending his name and character. I also got a lot of 'God has a sense of humor' in my youth.

 

I was a Moderate Christian for a long time myself. I never fell into extremism, though my Family has always been heavily religious. I was never insulted by anyone not sharing my beliefs and voicing it.

 

Part of the reason I got out of Christianity, is that I viewed myself as American/Christian, and you'll note, American is first. My Patriotism and views of tolerance came from being a student in military towns. I knew every race, religion, and color as fellow students and friends at a young age. I escaped Private School once I left Florida because of Dad's military career [and returned when we did until eighth grade, and then went on to public High School. My great aunt is a nun, and was principal at my home town private school.]. I'm also big on Freedom of Speech and was even as a Christian.

 

In an odd way, the Christian Private School's way of saying 'America! Fuck Yeah!' is a big part of what turned me away from the faith in the end. The fact that the all the public schools I attended were in military towns [Navy] didn't hurt either.

 

I view Freedom of Speech as one of the most important rights we have. It makes spotting the crazy and dangerous people much easier.

 

I liked George Carlin, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Monty Python, and numerous other entertainers and writers who I knew to be Atheist and/or disrespectful of Christianity long before I lost my faith. I never felt threatened by them in any way. It's America, and they had as much right to their views as I did. I would have enjoyed Religilous even as a Christian myself, though I wouldn't have agreed with it necessarily.

 

It's not all that uncommon really. The fundies are the minority, they're just a very loud minority. I've never had problems with Moderate Christians at all. If I'm going to talk about god or religion with someone, I'd prefer a moderate on the other side of the issue any day.

[Robbobrob]

...

God. He's bigger than you.

 

sorry, that just cracked me up. Like some industry ad campaign.

[DarthOkkata]

It was supposed to be funny. I always try to post with at least a bit of a humorist's slant.

[Thurisaz]

Well, contrary to what some on the site here seem to believe, there is such a thing as a Moderate Christian. Some people can take getting poked fun at, and even enjoy it. Some people don't take God so seriously. If he does exist, he's bigger than you are, and he can take care of himself.

 

:whs:

 

Pretty much all the christians over here that I know personally are of that kind.

[Mriana]

I found the truck drivers attitude towards Bill a bit disturbing, but other than that, I thought the movie was a riot! So much so, that I bought it on DVD.

 

As for moderate, liberal, and progressive Xians, I find they are not as deluded as Evangelical Fundies. They can see the humour in some beliefs, even take offense to some Xian beliefs. I have an Xian friend, a Church of Christ member, who does not believe in the Rapture, even states it is not in the Bible (it's not), and even sees some Xians as delusional. In many respects, she is very rational and even laughs with me on some of the things I point out concerning religion. In fact, she has even taken into consideration some of the things I have said- such as when I was debating a delusional fundie and told her, "IF you want to see an angel, take a good look at the HUMAN who is helping you. There are no supernatural beings, just humans." My friend, not the one I was debating, came back and said, "I think you are right. Humans are angels." However, she tacked on "sent by God" and included a joke of her own about a man who drowned waiting for a mythical god to rescue him from a flood. In the end, God said, "I sent you two boats and a helicopter" all manned by humans of course, not something supernatural.

 

So, yes, there are some Xians who are not as delusional as others. Not that they don't have their delusions, they do, but they are a little more rational and a little more reachable than Fundamgelicals. These individuals do think for themselves, even though they won't let go of an idea of a deity. HOWEVER, if you sit and talk to these individuals, their concept of a deity is that which is neurological, yet they attribute these feelings of transcendence to a supernatural deity. They do not have the view that God is Zeus and comprehend the idea that one cannot believe in an anthropomorphic deity anymore than they can believe in Zeus.

 

Another example of this thinking is Bishop Spong. He has the concept of God being like the wind, has even stated in the forward of Anthony Freeman's book "God In Us: A Case for Christian Humanism" that he does not describe his god, but experiences his god. His concept is not anthropomorphic either.

 

Bottom line, it all depends on the Xian you are talking to at a given time. As the priest said in the movie, people need their fairy tales. Why? I don't know, but each individual Xian has their own god concept and don't wish to let go of that security blanket, even in the face of science.

[Guest]

I guess that's one of the things that I can't seem to wrap my head around. I love the quote from Sagan, "I don't want to believe; I want to know". It makes no sense to me to cling to things like this, especially when you can sit back and admit how ridiculous it all is. And one of my favorite quotes from the movie is when Maher says, "And it's not just normal corrupt, but fucking little children and burning people alive corrupt".

 

I guess with all the history of bloodshed and abuse in every sect of xtianity I just find it hard to accept that people still need this shit and want to be associated with it. Even though my ancestors were forced xtianity at sword-point, and my brand of xtianity hadn't done anything wrong in centuries (technically) I still feel so ashamed at the history of the religion I was born into.

 

I remember telling a fundie once that even if he is 100% correct, I am so disgusted at the behavior of the church over the last 2000 years that I refuse to have anything to do with any of it, and if his god is real, will understand my position on the bloodshed issue alone.