Happy New Year Kossacks!
I just wanted to let you know. Yep. Still a Christian. And I'm a little grumpy because I had a nasty stomach-flu for New Year's Eve. So I got kind of annoyed at a bunch of the comments in a Wreck-Listed diary I was just reading. Now I'm no stranger to being on the receiving end of derogatory remarks - I'm also a woman, queer, a socialist and a bitch much of the time. Hell, I'm the youngest of four kids. I grew up on derogatory remarks.
What really pisses me off is sweeping generalizations!
Many (note I didn't write all) of those folks who are so proud of being atheists and "reality based", may well be believers in science (as am I), but they are apparently not practitioners of reasonable discourse.
There are some thoughtful comments, and I don't want to dis the diarist. It wasn't so much the diary as some (not all) of the comments that got my dander up.
On the flip side, a quick sample of the diary and comments finds several of nicest generalizations and just plain weak arguments:
Update: I'd like to stress once more that my annoyance is not at the remarks about religion or Christianity per se. My feelings are not hurt. I'm just annoyed at the generalizations. It's sloppy, and it's not productive discourse.
Update the Second that didn't fit in the intro: Upon reading this again I'd like to apologize to the diarist and the commenters I've quoted. If this comes across as calling out - it is not my intention. There was a lot in that other diary, as well as in the comments, that I found interesting and productive. Perhaps I shouldn't write a diary while I'm so annoyed. In any case, I love DailyKos and I want it to be a place where every progressive can come and have a look around without feeling unwelcome - I think that's how we can get the most done. So I totally understand the need for a vent-hole, but maybe it shouldn't top the rec-list.
the diarist:
But I know that religion feels threatened by science.
Which religion? Buddhism? Christianity? Islam? You "know it". Can you prove it? How scientifically valid is that statement?
Joe Bacon wrote this
You cannot be intelligent and embrace any religion. It's like oil and water, they don't mix. And Religion makes people heartless. I've seen too many people who claim to have a "personal relationship" with "Je$u$" turn their backs on those in need. It's destroying this country.
Wow. That's a nice bunch of generalizations right there. So I'm stupid (just like Pres. Obama, SS Clinton, Martin Luther King Jr. and plenty more) and all of those 160+ Jewish Nobel Laureates must have rejected their faith? Okay.
How about Religion (capitalized) making people heartless? Where exactly is the causality there? Oh, maybe I'm too dumb and heartless to get it. BTW, that's also a gross generalization. Just sayin'...
RockyMtnLib wrote this
Every Christian is a cafeteria Christian
"Every..." Generalization? Ah, yup sure sounds like it.
Sparhawk wrote this:
Non-religious people often see it as a continuum between complete sanity (atheism) and total insanity (fundamentalism). In that sense (for example) as harmless as Unitarians are, they are still not quite at the total sanity end of the scale.
Hey awesome, I'm mentally ill, too. Good thing I live in Germany so I can get some treatment for that.
Since I'm dumb and crazy (and some might argue evil) because I label myself Christian I'm gonna call it quits now - obviously this isn't worth reading anyway, maybe there should be a admissions test for DailyKos to keep the dumb, crazy religious folks like me out of your reality based
way.
Update the Third: it was pointed out a ways down-thread that the following comment (in my diary) is also an excellent example of the kind of gross generalizations I find annoying. I agree, so in the spirit of sharing:
The person you're bitching about was right. (7+ / 9-)
(the religion-is-threatened-by-science person, I mean)
I'm sorry you neither know, nor apparently, care much about the the intellectual history of the (western) world. But you're American, so I knew not to have any such expectations in the first place.
Much as I'm learning from and enjoying this, I have to go to bed - it's just past 2:00 in the morning here and my kids and my stomach flu don't care how much sleep I get. Cheers