You're promoting the idea that planet Earth become one giant Stepford.
Just because I hate religion, for very good rational reasons, why do you suppose I dislike diversity in general?
People like you are the ones making it progressively difficult to earn a living for all those who don't share your narrow materialistic viewpoint.
That's the second time you've called me a materialist. The first time I refuted your accusation by giving you a fairly good view into my daily life. Since you did not deign to even try to rebut my refutation, to continue this same line of reasoning as though there are no objections is a textbook case of disingenuous argument, which flouts science.
I already told you that I will no longer tolerate your insidious, illogical trolling--which is my duty as a moderator since it's a violation of the forum rules. Consider this your last warning. If you do it again, I guarantee that the moderator of this subforum will be delighted to start you on your journey down the ban cycle.
And yes, making it impossible for someone to earn a living is much like killing them: the difference is only in the speed.
And how have I made it impossible for anyone to earn a living? I vote for candidates who seem most likely to improve the economy, I excoriate our completely out-of-touch Congress who believes that the national debt is our biggest problem, even though A) the vast majority of Americans don't even list it in their top ten and B) Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio is 200% and every banker in the world is still delighted to buy their bonds. I could give you a long lecture on how to put people back to work (I have a degree in business administration, after all), but there's no point since you only scan my postings for tidbits that you can twist slightly and use against me.
Perhaps you assume that because I rant against religion here that I vote for laws that will deny federal jobs and university admissions to churchgoers. Or perhaps that I have formed my own version of George Zimmerman's "Neighborhood Watch" and lie in wait for them as they walk back from the Seven-Eleven. In which case you're doing exactly what you accuse me of: characterizing me wrongly.
I'm not dumb enough not to realize that the vast majority of people who believe in the supernatural manage, nonetheless, to be pleasant, productive citizens. It's a small minority who start the wars and build Creation Science museums. I'm not going to persecute several billion people for the sins of a few. I would like to
re-educate them, but that's a different tactic. And considering that I don't know how, I'll leave that for the next guy.
You calling them "fairytales" doesn't make them so.
Of course not. It's their nature and content that makes them fairytales. They claim to falsify the entire scientific method, yet there is not one shred of respectable evidence to support them. Even you have not been able to pull evidence out of your hat for the six-day creation, the flood that covered the world with three times as much water as there is, or the Resurrection.
Again, you're very narrow-minded to think this.
You're arguing that religion is believable,
in a place of science and scholarship. If that doesn't make you a religionist, then it makes you a troll who simply jumps into an argument and takes the side of the underdog just for fun.
We can all see that, regardless of their truth content, the metaphors that comprise religion have the power to do good. But you never take that approach to the argument. Perhaps because you're not prepared to defend it against the predictable rebuttal that accepting metaphors as truth is a faulty cognitive process, and that, at least in the last several centuries, despite the good that religion may have done it has done far more evil.
It's as if you've defined the categories, and everyone has to be fitted into them, and that's it. As if those categories are objective and absolute.
One definition of "religionist" is "a person with pretended or affected religious zeal." Since you have never actually identified yourself as a Christian or a member of any other religion, which any Christian or member of any other religion would certainly do under these circumstances, that definition seems to fit you. You very carefully tell us nothing about yourself, so you can slip into any persona that will infect our discussions with hostility and argument for the sake of argument.
Your style of communication is an example of greed, anger and delusion at work: Things are either your way, or they're wrong.
No. I only feel that way about a few things like racism and religion.
People are either with you, or they're against you.
Not true. You
always come out against me so I don't have to make that decision in your case. Among others I'm perfectly content with the old adage, "Reasonable people can disagree." You're never reasonable so it doesn't apply to you. You always come here looking for a fight, and you know you can get one from me because I'm at the end of my patience with you.
People are either the way you say they are, or they're pretending.
Uh... you certainly did clothe yourself in the garb of a religionist. So you either are one or you're pretending. Duh?
As usual, I am fascinated by your approach. I'm sure that in the short run, it seems to give good results. Except that you plan to crown it all with a lethal injection or a helium bag.
You, who I would guess are no older than 40, continually rag on me, who will be 70 this year, about my decisions regarding the end-of-life issues which I must face
now. I hope when you have to face them you will be able to do so honestly instead of having to maintain your persona.
As usual, you snark without explanation. You have never once explained why it's wrong for a person to want to end his own life when he's still in possession of his senses, rather than spending another six months in bewilderment, captivity and indignity, losing his mind and everything else he had to live for, not knowing his friends and family, in an institution that is quickly dissipating the estate that his family and favorite charities were hoping to receive.
All you do is insist that I should spend the last few months of my life that way, without explaining why. The only people who will benefit will be the bureaucrats and lawyers who run that institution. Even the people who do the actual work there aren't paid jack shit!
