"It seems to me that to organize on the basis of feeding people or righting social injustice and all that is very valuable. But to rally people around the idea of modernism, modernity, or something is simply silly. I mean, I don't know what kind of a cause that is, to be up to date. I think it ultimately leads to fashion and snobbery and I'm against it."
Jack Levine: January 3, 1915 – November 8, 2010
LEVEL BILLIONAIRES OUT OF EXISTENCE
Friday, October 24, 2014
Cesaria Evora - Tudo Tem Se Limite
This is what I was listening to as my dearest niece was being born a little over eighteen years ago.
I shouldn't use your lovely posts for comments like this, but Salon is on a click-bait spree, posting as many articles related to religion as they can.
The latest is a review of Karen Armstrong's new book which apparently takes down the Dawkins argument that religion is the root of all wars. The writer of the article makes a powerful case, so powerful it's fun to watch the defenders of "Religion is the root of all evil" twist themselves into pretzels trying to disagree with the article and Armstrong.
Reason, rationality, and facts simply fly out the window. The article directly quotes Dawkins that all wars are the fault of religious belief, and commenter after commenter argues that no reasonable person (and certainly no true Scotsman, er, atheist) would ever say such a thing. And then (once or twice) I quoted Dawkins to them, and they fell silent.
And then three more enter the room....(such is the nature of on-line arguments, they are never ending because there's a sucker born every minute).
It's quite entertaining to see them ignore Armstrong's well reasoned arguments and simply insist she is wrong because it's not the precious view of the world they've been told is true (you know, the one where only atheists are human beings, and the rest of us are violent apes). I got tired of pointing out the article proved wrong what had just been posted as a comment, but watching them ignore reality and twist Armstrong's argument (the favorite is that she's set up a straw man. I find myself wanting to say "Takes one to know one") in order to dispel it is really quite entertaining.
I shouldn't use your lovely posts for comments like this, but Salon is on a click-bait spree, posting as many articles related to religion as they can.
ReplyDeleteThe latest is a review of Karen Armstrong's new book which apparently takes down the Dawkins argument that religion is the root of all wars. The writer of the article makes a powerful case, so powerful it's fun to watch the defenders of "Religion is the root of all evil" twist themselves into pretzels trying to disagree with the article and Armstrong.
Reason, rationality, and facts simply fly out the window. The article directly quotes Dawkins that all wars are the fault of religious belief, and commenter after commenter argues that no reasonable person (and certainly no true Scotsman, er, atheist) would ever say such a thing. And then (once or twice) I quoted Dawkins to them, and they fell silent.
And then three more enter the room....(such is the nature of on-line arguments, they are never ending because there's a sucker born every minute).
It's quite entertaining to see them ignore Armstrong's well reasoned arguments and simply insist she is wrong because it's not the precious view of the world they've been told is true (you know, the one where only atheists are human beings, and the rest of us are violent apes). I got tired of pointing out the article proved wrong what had just been posted as a comment, but watching them ignore reality and twist Armstrong's argument (the favorite is that she's set up a straw man. I find myself wanting to say "Takes one to know one") in order to dispel it is really quite entertaining.
I am so going to hell for this.....