Atheist's Guide To The 2012 Elections

[brandelynmarie]

Coppery posser?

[Basilisa Marie]

[quote name='dominicansoul' timestamp='1323261608' post='2346353']
the fil.ters don't do my complaint justice...


They used the "F" and "C" words...

iono, guys who refer to holy women that way are coppery possers in my opinion, so... i really don't pay much attention to them.....
[/quote]

That's absolutely terrible. There's never any situation that anyone deserves that kind of language, especially when holy women are in question.

Haven't watched the video. Doing so now.

[Basilisa Marie]

Thoughts as I watch this:

I agree with pretty much everything he says in the first ten minutes, at least from a historical/political standpoint.

His points about the subsects of religious groups falling away in American culture is fairly true - I mean, the Catholic subculture (as the immigrant, "ghetto" subculture) has all but disappeared, and has been replaced by Evangelical Catholics. Young Catholics that are out to evangelize with their faith, not like the Protestant evangelical. I'd probably count Phatmass ministries as a machine of this Evangelical Catholicism (I didn't make this up - one of my church history professors came up with it). But I would not agree when he says that individual religious groups are within their "death throws" - rather, many are adapting their techniques and perspective of living in the modern world and trying to understand what that means (again - Evangelical Catholics). Protestant groups, on the other hand, may be reacting differently.

I really don't like his giant treatment of Romney's Mormon beliefs. I though he redeemed himself for a bit, but he just went back to hating on Mormons. Yes, I think their theology is incredibly screwed up...but that's because I'm Catholic and not a Mormon. That doesn't mean I have the right to call them crazy. He basically implies that religious politicians can't really believe what their religion teaches.

Ha. Taking the Bible literally. That makes me laugh and my head hurt. And makes me sad that this guy doesn't talk to people that employ some level of historical analysis when approaching the Bible. I imagine they'd have a good conversation.

But I also just watched jaime's video, and I have a lot of respect for what he says there.

[southern california guy]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1323031930' post='2344498']
from the viewpoint of one atheist, Penn Jillette:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJGxVeQw3SE[/media]

[b][color=#ff0000]There is some bad language in the video, so be warned.[/color][/b]

What do you think?
[/quote]

It's interesting for a little bit there I thought that he was attempting to defend Mitt Romney. He started out by saying that he likes to imagine that Obama isn't really religious and then he progressed to discussing Mitt Romney and his "Temple underwear".

I guess that it was implied that Romney doesn't really believe in Mormonism but he didn't explicitly say it. If you consider that possibility you're forced to ask why Romney would pretend to believe in LDS theology. Is it because he was born and raised in that culture -- and he feels that even if it is all a bunch of nonsense that it is a system which promotes better behavior, a degree of security for his family, and supportive network of friends and "associates"? Honestly I personally was attracted to if for those reasons. What I found disturbing about Mormonism was the very controlling -- almost cult-like aspect of the religion. Within Mormonism you do what you're told! Especially if you want to get anywhere.... And once you've worked your way up in to one of the higher positions within the "Church" you can tell other people what to do. I didn't like the power trips in that religion. I didn't like other people trying to lord it over me. Crimes like rape are a power trip and not surprisingly there's a lot of rape in Utah. Porn can be a sort of fantasy power trip over women and not surprisingly there is a lot of porn in Utah. More porn is sold per capita in Utah than any other state in the US. So I'm very uncomfortable with Romney being a Mormon. I imagine that he would be an extremely "controlling" President.

So while I agree with Penn that Mormonism is a wack job religion I think that there is more to consider than merely a nutty religious belief. It's interesting how he worked up to mentioning Romney. Does he support him? His arguments at the end of the video only are a criticism of a "true believer" and not somebody who was part of a religion for another reason -- which I think can be equally frightening...

Edited December 11, 2011 by southern california guy