The Obama Presidency

[A Robot Bit Me]

That's all new testament stuff, cheeks. Please understand. The old testament is all figurative EXCEPT the parts about punishing people for having sex. That stuff trumps everything Jesus ever said because sluts aren't going to shame themselves.

Why can't people do these good things without the religion, though? …

Why do so many alcoholics need AA to stop drinking? Why can't they just stop buying booze? Because sometimes ritual is the only way to maintain a practice or behavior.

Ritual is a powerful thing. It's a lot easier to stick to your values when you're doing something that reminds you of them every day or multiple times a day. I wish more atheists would get on board with it instead of mocking it.

[Fe 26]

More times than not, the only retrial is going to church, talking about the same stories, and feeling bad about things you are in the habit of doing, but the stories say are bad. You don't see a lot of people that are in the habit of making the world better. Not because of skyman anyway. Or church.

[A Robot Bit Me]

That hardly constitutes ritual. People who have weak rituals have weak faiths and don't get much done in their name, yes. Thank you for making my point.

The people who are making the world better in the name of the Lorb Gob do more than go to church for an hour a week.

[Yoshi]

Why should anyone be forced to pay for a Plan B pill? It shouldn't be a religious exemption. It should be a common sense or cost one.

That said, I'd like to see people wishing away the first or second amendment rights of others give up another of their own. For example, if you want to take away someone's right to own a gun, your house can be searched at any time for any reason, since you really don't care about civil liberties or the Constitution anyway.

[Calliander]

If religion didn't exist then something exactly like it would. It's hard-wired into the human mind.

Penn said something like that - If we erased every religion from the planet it would come back. Different bullshit, but it would still come back.

It's a lot easier to stick to your values when you're doing something that reminds you of them every day or multiple times a day.

Frankly, that's scary to me. I get your reasoning, but isn't the implication then that they will somehow forget their values? And in that instance, can they truly claim them as their values?

Why should anyone be forced to pay for a Plan B pill?

If only it were that nascent an idea.

[A Robot Bit Me]

If HL were concerned with common sense or cost, they'd buy the damn pill. What is it, a fifty bucks? Compared to the cost of check ups and hospital stays and maternity leave and continued care for the kid?

[GohanX]

Or dusted the sand off their feet and took their religion and beliefs to another land.

Or just loved their neighbor and left judgment to God.

But that wasn't their culture so funk all those other nicer ways to read the bible.

Fuck that shit, my god is all about eye for an eye and stoning people for speeding tickets. Also, I'm a busy man and never read past Leviticus.

[Calliander]

If HL were concerned with common sense or cost, they'd buy the damn pill. What is it, a fifty bucks? Compared to the cost of check ups and hospital stays and maternity leave and continued care for the kid?

Right, but that's not how the people who are happy about the ruling are viewing it. This was a victory for religious freedom and people who don't like Obama, vis-à-vis, Obamacare. The short-term is more important than whatever the consequences down the line may be for them, as they are so focused on getting him out of office.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Frankly, that's scary to me. I get your reasoning, but isn't the implication then that they will somehow forget their values? And in that instance, can they truly claim them as their values?

Yes, that is the implication. Plenty of our values suck. An alcoholic behaves in a way that values drinking over its consequences. Everyone inherently values hoarding wealth. Some values are good to forget and ritual is a great way to wring oneself of them.

Go take a look through the workout thread to see what ritual can do for people. I don't see a lot of posts worried about the inauthenticity of fitness rituals or new health-related values supplanting long-held Häagen Dazs-related values. We all know improving your doughy-ass ass takes ritual. Why are we "scared" to recognize improving your doughy-ass brain and doughy-ass soul does, too?

[Anthony]

Go take a look through the workout thread to see what ritual can do for people. I don't see a lot of posts worried about the inauthenticity of fitness rituals or new health-related values supplanting long-held Häagen Dazs-related values. We all know improving your doughy-ass ass takes ritual. Why are we "scared" to recognize improving your doughy-ass brain and doughy-ass soul does, too?

Because it doesn't have to? I don't disagree with your fundamental point although you seem to be reaching towards the necessity to facilitate motivation and thought, or even a definitive superiority of the practice, to which I would ardently disagree. For some people though I'm sure it has it's place and power.