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random thoughts. rants. general nonsense.

ssj

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hang in there, zamros. one of christianity's more toxic messages, one that can affect you long after you leave the faith, is that you're a maggot without the faith. 

it's a destructive message, but fortunately it's false.

now go be happy with who you are, dude.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Zamros, read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I find Dawkins to be a bit too abrasive at times, but for someone in your position I think you'll find it a good read.
 

Zamros

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Moe_Syzlak said:
Zamros, read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I find Dawkins to be a bit too abrasive at times, but for someone in your position I think you'll find it a good read.

Already started listening to the audio book, shortly after I wrote that post. He's getting to the child psychology section, which I find particularly interesting. The excessive Dawkinsisms are fewer and further between that I thought they'd be. The only weird line that stood out to me was when he said athiests are more persecuted today than homosexual people were decades ago.

Overall it's awesome, I might give it another listen once I'm done with it.
 

Gaith

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When I was a lad, my parents took me to a local Episcopalian/Anglican church. Whenever I asked whether all the stuff being said was true, however, they'd shrug and tell me to decide for myself. I eventually decided that if Captain Picard and the Enterprise Senior Staff didn't go to church or pray, and they lived centuries in our own future on a freakin' spaceship, then why should I?!

Of course, this was a San Francisco Episcopalian church, about as mild as organized religion gets, but it still left me with the impression that Episcopal/Anglican Christianity is fairly benign as theologies go - though that's obviously easy for a straight cis guy to say. And when I went to a Christmas Eve service last year, all the banging on about how God promised Israel to the Chosen People really made me squirm. A lot of the hymns have nice tunes, though. Not a fan of the lyrics, but nice tunes.

Random thoughts: Religion Edition.  :p
 

ThrowgnCpr

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@"Zamros", I can't echo ssj's words enough:

ssj said:
hang in there, zamros. one of christianity's more toxic messages, one that can affect you long after you leave the faith, is that you're a maggot without the faith. 

it's a destructive message, but fortunately it's false.

now go be happy with who you are, dude.

Religion is toxic. I mean no disrespect to anyone's belief in a higher power, but organized religion has done far more harm in this world than good. Members of my own family will no longer speak to me because I refuse to accept their mythology.

Just try to find ways to be happy with who you are, and look for ways to do good in this world. If you can work on those two things, the rest will fade away.
 

ssj

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sorry that happened to you, brother throw. I hope time brings healing.
_________________

I trust, zamros, that you're already familiar with god is not great by chris hitchens and the end of faith by sam harris.

harris's letter to a christian nation is also an excellent and concise read, about 30-some-odd pages long.

I also recommend these blogs by secular humanists who spent a lot more time in the religion than hitchens and harris did. these writers are totally on point with their observations on the struggle to free oneself of damaging nonsense.

neil carter:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/

captain cassidy:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rolltodisbelieve/
 

Zamros

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I'm sorry that happened Thrown, that sounds awful :(
With luck, they may see the error in their ways. But from the way it sounds, the best I can hope for you is that you move on without them. Who needs someone that would cut you off for not validating their belief in a skyman?

Hitchens and Dawkins were the fellas that originally helped me out of the delusion. God is Not Great was the first piece of Athiest literature I read. I know pesky little about Sam Harris, but given Dawkins' frequent praises of him, I may have to read those pieces you've suggested.

I'll definitely check out those blogs, ta :)
 

ThrowgnCpr

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Thanks guys, though it's fine really. I was never super close with a lot of my extended family, so when things like that happen, I just consider it their loss. Focus on the good relationships you have and value those that care without judgment :)
 

Zamros

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Fanediting is an artform.

I'm having a crisis midway through doing it, like every other piece of art I've ever made.
"What if it's not good enough? It's just gonna turn out shiiiit!"

Nah but srsly, we need to get an Academy of Self-Masturbatory Awards going...
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Judge-Meme-1.jpg
 

maniac

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Same thing here
"Academy of Self-Masturbatory Awards" well, it sounds interesting but i don't know what the hell you talking about :huh:
 

Zamros

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Thiiiiis would have been more appropriate in the "Random thoughts/rants" thread. :')
 

TV's Frink

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Ha, I thought about doing that but also thought it would be more fun to just make fun of Zamros. ;)
 

Zamros

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TVs Frink said:
Ha, I thought about doing that but also thought it would be more fun to just make fun of Zamros. ;)

Why not both?
 

Rogue-theX

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It seems that Medieval Chess variants are a bit hard to find, After a couple weeks I have dug up:
Courier chess
Grant Acedrex (spelling?)
Tamerlane chess
Short Aszize
 

Gaith

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Well, congrats, Facebook. You finally clogged my news feed with so many ads and grime from friends of friends I've never heard of (otherwise known as total freakin' strangers), that, after several instances of considering doing so but backing off, I've finally resorted to installing Firefox add-ons to nuke all that stuff. Since these add-ons (Facebook Friends Feed and FB Purity) almost certainly don't know who my FB Friends are or aren't, this may eliminate instances of Friends commenting/liking stuff other Friends post, but, at this point, that's a more than acceptable loss to get rid of all the noise.

Heck, I remember not too long ago, the news feed was clogged with Friends posting links to outside articles, making it more like Currenteventsbook (amirite?). Maybe it's just me, but it seems as though the deluge of third-hand posts has dissuaded people from doing that, and intentionally lax and shifting privacy settings discouraged people from posting much original content before that phase kicked in. So now, because a large chunk of users aren't sensible enough to take the blindingly obvious step of making their posts visible to friends only by default, the site has resorted to slurping up more and more distant content to make up for the Web 2.0 Sharing bust. FB may have profited in gaining the whole world, making billions and deepening our national socio-political divide by building one of history's most effective echo chambers, but it looks as though the cost was its own soul. :dodgy:
 
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