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Have you been to Pandagon lately? Have you seen the brand new look, design and layout? Cool!
Which reminds me that I have read Amanda's book, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, on my first 2-3 flights in Europe last month. I left it…
Amanda reviews the lies about sex and contraception that are peddled by the Catholic church in their pre-marital classes:
Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar
and
Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar, Pt. II
Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, the quickest draw of the Internets, the master of witty blog titles, and the scourge of mysoginists worldwide (like my regulars could avoid my almost-daily links to Pandagon and don't know who she is...), has just become the Blogmaster of the John Edwards campaign blog…
Here's some Sunday reading for you:
Athenae at First Draft argues that those "taken in by Bush's blather would have to admit they wanted to feel good about themselves more than they wanted 2,500 American soldiers to live." A must read.
Over at mahablog, there's a great post about profilling and…
Before I go read the discussion, let me predict: Sex, Drugs, Rock&Roll.
Most European countries have state-sanctioned religion. Their people have had religion forced on them so much that they grew up sick of it. Churches survive only with state support.
I was told to read the bible when I was 12. It was a horrorshow. I couldn't understand why people didn't burn down their churches.
I read it again in college, and it was like I remembered it. I better appreciated the horror of it.
Years later I read Asimov's Guide to the Bible which enabled me to very much appreciate how evil the bible is.
This is SO true. All of these things influenced me to leave fundamentalism and to, eventually, become an atheist. It took years, though. So we have to learn how to help people who are making the transition out of fundamentalism, but who are still stuck with a lot of fear.
As a child of fundamentalists who also grew up to be an agnostic/atheist, just like writerdd, I too can attest that reading the Bible for myself, reading just about anything else I could get my hands on (thereby exposing myself to new knowledge and alternate worldviews), and witnessing the rampant hypocrisy among so-called Christians was a perfect storm in terms of leading me away from any kind of religions/faith. That sense f a burden being lifted that born-again Christians always talk about when they convert? I felt that when I QUIT going to church and let myself off the obligatory hook. :)
But I disagree with Roy: the Bible isn't evil. The poeple who use its contents to manipulate and control are evil. The Bible is just a text, and taken simply as text -- as stories -- it has some lovely passages, great narratives, memorable characters, and even a bit of wisdom. It's not infallible, it's filled with contradictions, but evil? I think not.
I grew up a United Church agnostic. Then, with the idealism that comes with university life, I became an fervent born-again, under some competent mentors. It lasted two years until I finally asked myself some basic, critical questions. Religion, let alone Christianity, had no adequate answers. At that point, I realized it was just hooey. Now, as an atheist, I feel content and liberated.
"Testify, Brother! Can I hear an amen?"