Atheist Book Review

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by GodSlayer, Oct 10, 2002.

  1. GodSlayer Registered Member

    Messages:
    7
    The Atheist Book Review:

    The world is becoming a bizarre place. nations are at war over god, religion in free countries struggle for socipolitical dominoes. And since we atheists need to start organizing both socially and politically, maybe some litrary criticism is a good way to break the ice. Some books I've seen people interested in:

    - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury--This is an irresponsible, paranoid book. These conditions don't actually exist. And making such assertions without any support at all is almost religious. People tell me it's a good book, but its not about anything real. I don't know why anyone bothers to read this kind of crap. And firemen--what a horrible way to disparage these daily heroes. Bradbury should be ashamed of himself, and so should anyone reading his work.

    - The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust--I saw that we have a Brust fan or two in attendance here. And I don't know why. This book starts out better than his other stuff, but by the end there's all sorts of magic to make excuses for what could more easily be written in the real world. "Flash-stones"? Hey, buddy, have you ever heard of a grenade? My pineapple goes boom, ya stupid git! Why an author has to ruin any story with magic excuses for reality is beyond me.

    - Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong: Allegedly one of the world's premere thelogians. But I don't get what the point of reading this kind of crap is, anyway. Everybody knows there is no god, and religions are just out to steal from people. Why anybody would waste their time on this kind of propaganda is ridiculous. I could write that book a lot shorter: The first and only things you need to know about Islam is that it's cracked and it needs to be exterminated. See? And you don't have to spend ten bucks to find out the punchline. Its a lot better that way.

    - Imajica by Clive Barker: This book starts ridiculous and goes downhill from there. Barker cites some imaginary philosopher and begins creating alternate universes before the first page is even out. How is anyone supposed to get through 825 pages of this shit? I tried flipping through the pages just to see if I could get a grasp on the story (there isn't one), and found a scene with a guy having sex with God. Now really. This kind of fancy writing is just a sign of stupid people with stupid beliefs willing to accept anything glorious you tell them.

    - The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein: A talking tree? A talking tree? Is this the kind of crap the Zionist conspiracy is trying to make our children believe? Abuse of the First Amendment should not be allowed to this scale. Such books should get the author thrown in prison. And it's not realistic, either. I mean, think about it: even if we accept the talking tree, and even if we accept that a young boy can grow up without any gainful employment skills, when ever are we going to find anybody who is that nice? I mean, this kind of propaganda describes unreal people and wants to turn your children into oversensitive, indesisive hippies who want the government to just give away your hard-earned tax dollars. Protect your children, and your future, against this book.

    - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle--I saw this book was still one of the most protested in the U.S.A. I read it a long time ago, and it sucked. The complainers, it seems, think of the book as pro-lesbian, and pro-witchcraft, and while I agree that there's something wrong with this book, I laugh when I hear that it has offended Xtans. There's nothing wrong with being pro-lesbian, but I don't see how being pro-witch is any better than pro-Xtan. And I think the book's horrible bent against capitalism, villanizing technology and corporations, is a calculated blow against freedom. Your best friend is in IT, well, if you have a real job. But this stuffy old bitch needs to get off her broomstick.

    - A Tale of Two Cities--I saw Tiassa make a crack about this the other day and that's what made me think of this reading list. But instead of picking on the opening sentences like she did (it was a little to sarcastic) I thought about the end: "'Tis a far far better thing that I do now than I have ever done. 'Tis a far better sleep I go to now than I have ever slept." Or something like that. But look at it ... full of "afterllife" and "holy justice" thought. A perfect example of the stupid things people will do if they believe in unproven ideas like an afterlife. (thanks, babe!)

    I mean, stop and think about it: do we have to hear someone say, "God is" before we atheists take a stance? Can we really allow the religious to subvert the whole of litterature unchallenged?

    Just because an idea isn't labeled with God doesn't mean its not the same thing. Like fantasy novels: just because it's not heaven and hell doesn't mean they're not promoting an afterlife. Just because it's not a "miracle" doesn't mean they're not promoting magic. And in the end, it's just a pain in the ass. All these stupid people believing in all these stupid things. We must, in the end, figure out how to fight the benign-seeming "Harry Potter" pseudo-religion that keeps religious ideas alive and targets young children to start making them believe in things that they won't ever be able to prove.

    And I don't understand how the religious cowards keep finding new places to retreat to and shout their stupid messages. I think it's because they're not smart enough to know they've lost, and while I feel sorry for them we can't let them keep doing it. We have to find a way to fight back, to protect the smart from the stupid.

    So keep it up, GB-GIL Transglobal and others. Keep pushing those guys around until they admit the truth. Don't let them keep lying out their asses all the time. How tough should it be to take a flyswatter to Ekimklaw or The Chosen? And do something about Tiassa. Don't be afraid to hit a girl. What do I have to get up and do it myself?

    I've been reading the debates here for a week or so and I've decided that atheists need to stand up to religious bullies and not let them hide behind their stupid god. Nobody can prove that there is some dude up in heaven judging us right and wrong and punishing us for stupid reasons. I mean, the Inquisitors are forgiven, right? But good people who don't believe in God go to hell? What kind of stupid club is that? What's next? Girls only?

    Anyway, thanks for listening. And I'll write some more reviews in the next few days.

    Remember just because a Xtan talks doesnt mean its true.

    The God Slayer
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2002
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  3. Adam §Þ@ç€ MØnk€¥ Registered Senior Member

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    7,415
    You're funny. Can I borrow $50?

    ----------------

    Adam Webber, DipIT, RANSWS, RANCSO, RANAB, Member of the Ancient Order of Shellbacks.
     
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  5. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    Your understanding of literature is about as low as I can comprehend.

    Your review of Farenheit and Bradbury's work is unbelievable. I would not be surprised if you read Animal Farm came here and said "Dude, animals can't talk! What a stupid book!"
     
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  7. Adam §Þ@ç€ MØnk€¥ Registered Senior Member

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    Tyler

    Can I borrow $50?

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  8. GodSlayer Registered Member

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    7
    No. Why? What?

    No.
    That's meaningful.
    Why?
    Well, if someone has something to say, why bury it in a bunch of stupid fantasy that only confuses the issue?

    The God Slayer
     
  9. Adam §Þ@ç€ MØnk€¥ Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,415
    Analogy, metaphor, adding some characterisation and interest to the tale.

    And I must say, you're mighty stingy with the cash.
     
  10. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    What Adam said. What you've stated ("Well, if someone has something to say, why bury it in a bunch of stupid fantasy that only confuses the issue?") is basically stating you wish to erase all poetry and art from literature and just make it a project of writing facts down. Hell, why write about love using characters? Why not just write about hte chemical actions in our brains? Also, if you're calling it stupid fantasy and confusing the issue...you should go study literature. Maybe then you'll be able to understand the use of metaphors, anallogies, et al...

    I know I sound very arrogant writing this but I truly cannot be bothered explaining this, I'm not a grade 8 English teacher. But believe me, what you are asking for is like asking for a description of how to multiply fractions from a math teacher.
     
  11. GodSlayer Registered Member

    Messages:
    7
    Boring reality

    Okay.
    Okay, let's take a look at it:

    "Analogy" is well and fine, but why make a comparison instead of stating the objective reality of the situation?

    "Metaphor" is a joke. Why water down an idea with foofy images?

    "Characterisation" is well and fine, but what, really, do we need? "Suspect is 24, male, subscribes to Aryan Nations literature, and buys lots of guns." That tells me a lot, what about you? "He strode across his youth, entangled in the thorns of ill-gotten fruit that starves he who eats it ...." What does that really say? It says he's young and caught up in a difficult situation that can drain a person's vitality and intelligence. (And that's only because I wrote it.)

    "Interest" is perhaps a crucial point. What, is reality really that boring? Ever read Foucault's Pendulum? Hundreds of pages of "analogy, metaphor, characterisation, and interest", and in the end it's a fucking laundry list! What was the point of that?

    Couldn't we have done without the hundreds of wasted pages of analogy, metaphor, characterisation, and interest? I mean, so a guy finds a manuscript, thinks it's something important, and it turns out not to be. Why bother with the rest of it? Why take such a stupid chain of events and turn it into several hundred pages? What possible use could that have?

    Aside, of course, from "interest". If reality is too boring, we stop paying attention? If reality is too boring, we turn to fantasy and metaphor and analogy?
    You're putting words in my mouth.
    Aside from the fact that it's boring to read about the chemical actions in our brains?

    In other words, because it's stupid.

    It would be better, indeed, if people understood the chemical actions of love instead of imagining all these silly fantasies. You want religious people? Take a look at love.
    On the one hand, I used to read a lot of fiction. And then one day it just didn't do enough for me. It was foofy and full of shit and all of the stories tried to have happy endings.

    On the other hand, if you can't find a better way to express your opinion, perhaps you should go study writing skills.
    So I'll just trust your superior intellect.

    Whatever.
    Well, that's better than asking for a story about how four became happy again after he found three and five.

    The God Slayer
     
  12. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    "Couldn't we have done without the hundreds of wasted pages of analogy, metaphor, characterisation, and interest? I mean, so a guy finds a manuscript, thinks it's something important, and it turns out not to be. Why bother with the rest of it? Why take such a stupid chain of events and turn it into several hundred pages? What possible use could that have?"

    It's art. Why bother making anything other than exactly what it is? To create beauty.

    Actually, that's not even the reason. Allow me to give an anallogy. Beginning actors are told that when they read a script they should look at their character and, after figuring out his or her objective and reasoning, try and relate it to a circumstance in their own life. Do you know why? The more ways we look at something the more we understand it.
     
  13. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Would "Never Mind" suffice as a title?

    Oh, get off it, Teldra. You wouldn't call yourself GodSlayer if you weren't a Brust fan.
    I'm ... honored. I cannot tell you how it warms my heart to know that I have inspired this kind of idiocy.
    Um ...

    No, wait ...

    Okay, try ... no.

    Alright:

    Count 1: Never mind
    •_Count 2: Seriously, never mind.
    Try reading the books first, Teldra.
    Get used to it.

    Remember who bears Godslayer and why.

    --Tiassa

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  14. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    "In other words, because it's stupid"

    And so is asking every author to forget every tool of artistic writing. But that doesn't appear to stop you from believing it to be a good idea.

    "On the one hand, I used to read a lot of fiction. And then one day it just didn't do enough for me. It was foofy and full of shit and all of the stories tried to have happy endings."

    I haven't read fiction in a good 3 years. I would not consider Farenheit, Animal Farm, 1984 or any similar book to be fiction. To me these fall under a totally different heading. They're not about hte story written on the page so much as the message within it.


    "So I'll just trust your superior intellect."

    It takes no superior intellect. However, your view is extremely unartistic and seemingly uneducated.


    "Well, that's better than asking for a story about how four became happy again after he found three and five"

    That makes no sense what so ever.
    However, you seem to have perfectly understood my point. A point I made by using an analogy.
     
  15. GodSlayer Registered Member

    Messages:
    7
    Tiassa

    Keep it up, little woman. I will hit a woman.

    Bitch.

    The God Slayer
     
  16. static76 The Man, The Myth, The Legend Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    936
    Re: Stuff those words in me 'til I choke, ya bastard!


    Err......Tiassa....if your going to post under your *alter ego*, then I suggest you not post his name on your posts.

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  17. static76 The Man, The Myth, The Legend Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    936
    Why did you delete your post God Slayer....er....Tiassa.

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  18. GodSlayer Registered Member

    Messages:
    7
    Ah, Static

    I noticed you were sweating for the chance to bust me. That was a good reflex time; the post was up less than thirty seconds.

    It's okay, though, I was actually getting around to you, anyway (did you catch my response to my response to myself?).

    In the meantime, your jealous pursuit of me has spoiled what could have been a wonderful experiment. I mean, look at what I got Tyler to cop to.

    Now if he just takes his little bits of wisdom and applies them to religions. Adam, could stand a little bit of the same, too.

    And, in the meantime, I'm quite happy that your personal triumph is worth that much to you.

    Ah, Static, if only you had been patient, we could have had a definitive finish to about three separate arguments.

    But I'm busted by your shallow, selfish ambition. Congratulations.

    I shall always remember this day when I slipped up and got busted by someone with an ego as gigantic as yours.

    Next time, know what you're walking into before you open your mouth.

    I mean, I know you think you're just that important, but the simple fact is that you're not.

    Seriously: I had Tyler arguing what he wouldn't accept for religion, and you had to make sure that little slip of mine was the end of it. Why are you so afraid to let other posters make their own mistakes?

    And, in the meantime, we could have had an explosion over the "I'll hit a man with glasses" bit and find out just how threatening people really think it is.

    Oh, well. Too bad about that.

    Let me know when you're finally worth the air you breathe. In the meantime, I shan't countenance such a waste of a human being.

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    ,
    Tiassa/aka The God Slayer

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    (PS: The moral of the story is don't try dealing with silly people unless you're well stoned, first. I was sober. My bad.)
     
  19. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    "Seriously: I had Tyler arguing what he wouldn't accept for religion, and you had to make sure that little slip of mine was the end of it. Why are you so afraid to let other posters make their own mistakes?"

    I'd be more than willing to explore this topic. The thing is, I will gladly accept religious texts as a metaphorical guide on how to live life. I personally believe needing a book to live a good life is pretty sad, though.
     
  20. static76 The Man, The Myth, The Legend Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    936
    No offense Tiassa, but it was easy to tell it was you by your posting style. Your posts tend to "stand out" as compared to others.

    I wasn't going to bust you at first, but when you signed "God Slayer" at the end of YOUR post, I had to bust you. If I had known that you were going to delete it, I probably wouldn't have said anything.

    As for the "little" rant you directed at me...I hope it was a joke, if not you sound really paranoid.:bugeye:

    I will say though, that your *alter-ego* was much more comedy for me than the recent trolls Muscleman/Platipus/Futurist.

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  21. muscleman Banned Banned

    Messages:
    306
    Lets talk about human errors and mistakes. I don’t understand why some adult and young people alike generalize. If a black man came into your house and robbed you, would that mean that all blacks are robbers and thieves? If an old overweight white man raped a high school teen, does it mean that all old overweight white man is rapist? Stalin who is atheist enjoyed seeing people getting tortured and died, does it mean all atheist are psychos? If some Christians many years ago slaughtered some people, does it mean all Christians are killers? People regardless of belief and race makes mistakes, the bible states that clearly “all man fall short”.


    HAHAHAHAHAHA ALL THIS ATHEIST PEOPLE SPEND SO MUCH TIME READING BOOKS WITH ONE POINT "FEW WHITE GUYS IN ARIZONDA WERE MOLESTING CHILDREN, THEREFORE ALL WHITE PEOPLE ARE CHILD MOLESTERS" IN OTHER WORDS "PEOPLE WHO WERE CHRISTIANS COMMITED WRONGFULL ACT IN THE PAST, THEREFORE ALL CHRISTIANS ARE KILLERS" HAHAHAHAHA, OR HERES ANOTHER WAY TO PUT IT "THREE GUYS WHO ATTENDS SCHOOL AT COLUMBINE HIGH MASSACRED AND KILLED FEW TEENS, THEREFORE COLUMBINE HIGH STUDENTS ARE KILLERS, WE SHALL REMOVE THAT SCHOOL!!! PUNISH THE TEENS AND REMOVE THE SCHOOL BECAUSE THEY ATTEND THERE, IN FACT LETS PUT ALL STUDENTS IN COLUMBINE TO JAIL BECAUSE 3 OF THEIR STUDENTS ARE KILLERS.


    Stupid atheist...Just because a grounded daughter learned to escape from her room through her window and one day intentionally beat up another girl, it doesn’t mean her father is evil because she is practicing her freewill, nevertheless it doesn’t mean her father is a myth either. Stupid atheist, why do you blame the cat if the dog chewed your homework? Why do you blame the rain if the sun gave you skin cancer? Why do you blame God if your neighbor is a bigot and killed your dog? Why do you say God is a myth because people who are Christians are sinners? Atheist claim to be intelligent, but the truth really is they are liars and need to grow up, (Im not stupid, but men, its really tempting to believe devils exist because a guy cant be as stupid as an atheist)
     
  22. Tyler Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,888
    I'm going to ask an administrator to finally get this bullshit out of here.
     
  23. Squid Vicious Banned Banned

    Messages:
    595
    Fucking hell, Tiassa, I liked godslayer, even if he was an idiot.

    Goddamn nitpickers spoil all my emjoyment....
     

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