On the idea of religion
[I started this post in January, and duly forgot about it. You'll see the article referenced below is a tad old]:
I am qualified to write a blog post on religion because I, in a fit or boredom, ordained myself online during springs finals week my freshman year of William and Mary. If you have ever been to Williamsburg, you’ll agree that there is quite literally nothing else to do there.
Here is my opinion on The Matter as an online reverend and child of a self-professed wannabe nun: religion is not a Bad Thing. Many intelligent people were or are religious. Many scientists (horrors) are religious. In fact, Francis Collins, the head honcho on the Human Genome project, wrote a book entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief and he has been charged wtih “playing God” by mapping our genes. (He really quotes C.S. Lewis a lot, so you may as well just read Lewis' Mere Christianity while you're at it). Issac Newton, genius and crazy bugger that he was, wrote fairly extensively on religion when he wasn’t inventing calculus or writing laws of motion or jamming needles in his eyes to see what would happen.
Religion can be private and awesome (in the original sense of the word awesome, not in the “whoa, this burger is awesome” sense) and wholly mysterious. Many smart men and women try to take on the topic. But a leap of faith is just not the sort of thing one figures out.
All the same, we continue to hear about repressed lunatics, who don’t “believe” in evolution (as if fossil evidence is something one can choose to put “faith” in) and therefore we can’t teach their children, or anyone’s children about accepted scientific theory. These people are probably the same assholes who kept themselves sex-free until they married at 22 because they were ready to pop and just can’t wait any longer. (Can I get an “Amen” from anyone familiar with Young Life?) The fanatics get all the attention, and we have to suffer through their nonsense press and their weddings at 22, when we are broke and don’t want to spend money on effing china or linens or anything else constituting the Lamest Present Ever Requested.
And they only seem to be getting more fanatical. This [now old] Los Angeles Times discusses “purity balls,” an event at which female religious nutters and their dads are in morning dress (that’s British for formal attire), and conclude the evening by signing a pledge of chastity—literally devoting their virginity to their dads: http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/newsletters/article.cfm?id=7557
As a good and clever friend of mine puts it, “The idea of my dad having pondered my virginity makes me heave a little.”
Read on, and you’ll discover that girls who embrace this bizarre abstinence-pushing gimmick “advertise their chastity by sporting…underwear that says ‘Notice: No Trespassing On This Property. My Father is Watching.’"
If your underwear is big enough to fit that message on it, you probably don’t need to take a vow of chastity. I’m pretty sure chastity would find you and your giant bits with its eyes closed.
Purity Balls (the irony of the name is astounding) and those who espouse such stunts are just putting us one step forward in our quest for self-destruction via complete and utter nonsense. I’m tired of self-righteous nut-cases protesting science classes. Why science? We kind of need that one. How about you make a case for the ungodliness of f*cking PE? I’m pretty sure Jesus never had to run the mile (he probably had asthma).
And I’m sick of the atheists talking down about believers. Believers have some big names in their camp. It’s just the lunatics who make all the noise. Basically, I’m sick of hearing about religion in mass media. Mostly because the media is utter crap, and religion, or spirituality, or faith, or whatever, is personal. If Newton can’t figure it out, and C.S. Lewis can’t figure it out, and Ghandi can’t figure it out, none of us will. And with that, we should all go sing Kum Ba Yah and call it a day.
I am qualified to write a blog post on religion because I, in a fit or boredom, ordained myself online during springs finals week my freshman year of William and Mary. If you have ever been to Williamsburg, you’ll agree that there is quite literally nothing else to do there.
Here is my opinion on The Matter as an online reverend and child of a self-professed wannabe nun: religion is not a Bad Thing. Many intelligent people were or are religious. Many scientists (horrors) are religious. In fact, Francis Collins, the head honcho on the Human Genome project, wrote a book entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief and he has been charged wtih “playing God” by mapping our genes. (He really quotes C.S. Lewis a lot, so you may as well just read Lewis' Mere Christianity while you're at it). Issac Newton, genius and crazy bugger that he was, wrote fairly extensively on religion when he wasn’t inventing calculus or writing laws of motion or jamming needles in his eyes to see what would happen.
Religion can be private and awesome (in the original sense of the word awesome, not in the “whoa, this burger is awesome” sense) and wholly mysterious. Many smart men and women try to take on the topic. But a leap of faith is just not the sort of thing one figures out.
All the same, we continue to hear about repressed lunatics, who don’t “believe” in evolution (as if fossil evidence is something one can choose to put “faith” in) and therefore we can’t teach their children, or anyone’s children about accepted scientific theory. These people are probably the same assholes who kept themselves sex-free until they married at 22 because they were ready to pop and just can’t wait any longer. (Can I get an “Amen” from anyone familiar with Young Life?) The fanatics get all the attention, and we have to suffer through their nonsense press and their weddings at 22, when we are broke and don’t want to spend money on effing china or linens or anything else constituting the Lamest Present Ever Requested.
And they only seem to be getting more fanatical. This [now old] Los Angeles Times discusses “purity balls,” an event at which female religious nutters and their dads are in morning dress (that’s British for formal attire), and conclude the evening by signing a pledge of chastity—literally devoting their virginity to their dads: http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/newsletters/article.cfm?id=7557
As a good and clever friend of mine puts it, “The idea of my dad having pondered my virginity makes me heave a little.”
Read on, and you’ll discover that girls who embrace this bizarre abstinence-pushing gimmick “advertise their chastity by sporting…underwear that says ‘Notice: No Trespassing On This Property. My Father is Watching.’"
If your underwear is big enough to fit that message on it, you probably don’t need to take a vow of chastity. I’m pretty sure chastity would find you and your giant bits with its eyes closed.
Purity Balls (the irony of the name is astounding) and those who espouse such stunts are just putting us one step forward in our quest for self-destruction via complete and utter nonsense. I’m tired of self-righteous nut-cases protesting science classes. Why science? We kind of need that one. How about you make a case for the ungodliness of f*cking PE? I’m pretty sure Jesus never had to run the mile (he probably had asthma).
And I’m sick of the atheists talking down about believers. Believers have some big names in their camp. It’s just the lunatics who make all the noise. Basically, I’m sick of hearing about religion in mass media. Mostly because the media is utter crap, and religion, or spirituality, or faith, or whatever, is personal. If Newton can’t figure it out, and C.S. Lewis can’t figure it out, and Ghandi can’t figure it out, none of us will. And with that, we should all go sing Kum Ba Yah and call it a day.
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