mjmooney Posted May 3, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 3, 2014 Very good article in New Scientist this week about the decline of religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Angels can't fly BS, I've seen plenty flying about... First chickens now angels, you think everything can fly don't you? I have heard that pigs fly every now and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 17, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 17, 2014 I was in Leeds city centre today and encountered couple of Christian evangelists engaged in a heated debate with a couple of Muslims about which of them was in sole possession of The Truth. Each quoting scripture at each other like it was some sort of evidence. I was SO tempted to join in, but I had to go and meet the missus and didn't have time. Which was probably just as well, but even so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted June 17, 2014 Administrator Share Posted June 17, 2014 If your point of view was atheistic, they'd both quote fairy stories at you, you'd laugh in their faces, especially when they threatened you with hell. I got asked recently in the street how my relationship with god was. I was actually wearing a tshirt saying "There is no God or Gods" in a large sans typeface on the front. When you talk to them it's usually clear they've never actually read anything, particularly their bible. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I was in Leeds city centre today and encountered couple of Christian evangelists engaged in a heated debate with a couple of Muslims about which of them was in sole possession of The Truth. Each quoting scripture at each other like it was some sort of evidence. I was SO tempted to join in, but I had to go and meet the missus and didn't have time. Which was probably just as well, but even so... But as a man of the Sixties couldn't you argue that religion is just the kind critical thinking which Marcuse described as the 'great refusal' and that rather than disagreeing with religion, it should be praised as an essential contribution to the criticism of consumerism as a means of control? The whole counter-culture thing of the sixties and seventies was given intellectual credibility by Marcuse's book One-Dimensional Man (1964). Here Rick Roderick: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 17, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 17, 2014 I've never read Marcuse. Not really interested in all that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I was in Leeds city centre today and encountered couple of Christian evangelists engaged in a heated debate with a couple of Muslims about which of them was in sole possession of The Truth. Each quoting scripture at each other like it was some sort of evidence. I was SO tempted to join in, but I had to go and meet the missus and didn't have time. Which was probably just as well, but even so... But as a man of the Sixties couldn't you argue that religion is just the kind critical thinking which Marcuse described as the 'great refusal' and that rather than disagreeing with religion, it should be praised as an essential contribution to the criticism of consumerism as a means of control? The whole counter-culture thing of the sixties and seventies was given intellectual credibility by Marcuse's book One-Dimensional Man (1964). Here Rick Roderick: You took philosophy at uni or something? I know next to nothing about all this mamby-pamby Enlightenment stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I was in Leeds city centre today and encountered couple of Christian evangelists engaged in a heated debate with a couple of Muslims about which of them was in sole possession of The Truth. Each quoting scripture at each other like it was some sort of evidence. I was SO tempted to join in, but I had to go and meet the missus and didn't have time. Which was probably just as well, but even so... But as a man of the Sixties couldn't you argue that religion is just the kind critical thinking which Marcuse described as the 'great refusal' and that rather than disagreeing with religion, it should be praised as an essential contribution to the criticism of consumerism as a means of control? The whole counter-culture thing of the sixties and seventies was given intellectual credibility by Marcuse's book One-Dimensional Man (1964). Here Rick Roderick: You took philosophy at uni or something? I know next to nothing about all this mamby-pamby Enlightenment stuff. http://youtu.be/qJkO-EKRVd0 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 20, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 20, 2014 I once met a genuine, bona fide Australian philosophy professor, and he was as close to that sketch as makes no difference. Sample quote: "I've just had a triple heart bypass, and the docs have told me to lay off from drinking. **** that for a game of soldiers"... and he downed his sixth pint of lager. Classic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I once met a genuine, bona fide Australian philosophy professor, and he was as close to that sketch as makes no difference. Sample quote: "I've just had a triple heart bypass, and the docs have told me to lay off from drinking. **** that for a game of soldiers"... and he downed his sixth pint of lager. Classic. I always thought of Robert Hughes, the author of The Fatal Shore and presenter of Shock of the New, as very much the clichéd Australian intellectual, where any discussion on art might end in a punch up. Fact: Robert Hughes's wife caught the clap of Jimi Hendrix and gave it to Hughes (according to his biography). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I dont understand these relegious dipsticks that knock on your door trying to spread the word of god.I mean if people changed their minds that easily about relegion you could be Baptist one week,7th day adventist the next week etc etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer1 Posted June 21, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2014 I dont understand these relegious dipsticks That would have been sufficient. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2014 I once met a genuine, bona fide Australian philosophy professor, and he was as close to that sketch as makes no difference. Sample quote: "I've just had a triple heart bypass, and the docs have told me to lay off from drinking. **** that for a game of soldiers"... and he downed his sixth pint of lager. Classic. I always thought of Robert Hughes, the author of The Fatal Shore and presenter of Shock of the New, as very much the clichéd Australian intellectual, where any discussion on art might end in a punch up. Fact: Robert Hughes's wife caught the clap of Jimi Hendrix and gave it to Hughes (according to his biography). Hughes was a mate of Clive James (another Aussie intellectual that didn't conform to the European ascetic stereotype) and Germaine Greer. Speaking of which, CJ must be due for the Deadpool soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Hughes was a mate of Clive James (another Aussie intellectual that didn't conform to the European ascetic stereotype) and Germaine Greer. Speaking of which, CJ must be due for the Deadpool soon. Two people I very much admire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2014 Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Slightly OT but this is worth a look for Clive James fans While we spoke, James’s sentences were punctuated by a violent, rattling cough. “This has exhausted me,” he said as we drew to a close. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.” 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 These isis dudes seem very bad news. The frightening thing is, I myself can even see the appeal that they have. I don't mean I agree with what there doing, but they portray a very fasionable modern image. How can I put this? They come across as a very trendy/cool organisation which will appeal to disgrunted muslims all over the world to join them. They are definitely on to something, the appeal they have to the muslim world to join the revolution is big. Its the first muslim terrorist organisation which I can actually see the appeal in. Not that it appeals to me but there is something there for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 22, 2014 I'm not clear about ISIS and the whole British Muslim volunteers thing. I could have the wrong end of the stick, but this seems to me to be less of an 'anti-US/UK' thing than an analogue to the surge of idealistic volunteering for the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. More to do with middle eastern power struggles and intra Muslim (Sunnis v Shiites) than Muslims v the west. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 It's just another militant organisation that attracts angry young men. They'll promise the world, get thousands killed, and eventually give up the armed struggle and enter politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted June 23, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 23, 2014 Has anyone watched Louis Theroux's documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church? Those people are absolutely insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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