Interesting Links for 10-09-2015
Sep. 10th, 2015 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewducker- If trends continue, Christianity will be gone from Britain by 2067 (Yay!)
- Moore’s Law ended in 2005
- Mindfulness may make memories less accurate
- Elderly? Planning to be elderly some day? Elderly relatives/friends? This advice could save a life.
- The evolution of "two".
- How a negative review of Legend was spun into movie marketing gold
- Humble Books Bundle: Neil Gaiman Rarities (pay what you want and help charity)
- George Osborne's higher minimum wage won't make up for his tax credit cuts, IFS confirms
- The fury over 'hand luggage' plane evacuees
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no subject
Date: 2015-09-11 02:06 am (UTC)I simply don't see how you take a line that would offend Muslims or Hindus or Jews or people of any other faith if you simply changed the name to one of theirs and use it to celebrate the death of someone's religion and feel OK about that. Am I the only Christian on your entire RL? I can always change that if it's a problem.
Also, you word your title as a prediction when it is not. The real title is:
"2067: the end of British Christianity
Projections aren't predictions. But there's no denying that churches are in deep trouble"
I follow you for your link lists, not your commentary, especially when it veers off into offending an entire faith base because you favor the Spaghetti Monster or nothing at all or whatever. I don't even care what you favor. The way you worded that is just...not cool.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-11 07:11 am (UTC)That doesn't change the fact that I loathe religion with a fiery passion. That's going to come out in my commentary occasionally. My actual feelings are far, far, stronger than "Yay!", and frankly, if you can't cope with the fact that I feel differently, and would be happy if the major force that's arrayed in my country against equality, freedom of speech, and liberal values over the last couple of thousand years, was to vanish forever, then I would entirely understand.
(I do also similarly hope for the end of Buddhism, Islam, and every other religion, obviously. But those don't get automatic voting rights in the laws of my country, and their representatives weren't the ones on TV arguing against marriage equality.)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 07:41 am (UTC)_My_ belief is that religion is a bunch of nonsense used to socially control people, and as an excuse for awful behaviour by many many people across history. And I believe that I should be allowed to think that, and believe that, and express that, and that other people should tolerate me doing so.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 02:24 am (UTC)I know, I know, and that's why when people come into my online spaces and tell me what to say/write/think/or what not to, I tend to get cranky and tell them to GTFO because "my journal/I'll do/say/think what I want". That's why I stopped short of actually telling you what to write/what not to because duh, I have no right to do that to anyone and would not blame you or anyone else who blasted me for it.
I guess it's one thing to say that even that one single Yay! used in the context it was used in is like hate speech to me and that asking you to not do that again and you obliging would make me happy, but it's another thing to carry that out in practice: asking you not to write in a certain way is arrogant and frankly, quite preposterous, and expecting anyone to be amenable to that even more so. Yes, some people are quick not to re-offend those who are offended but not everyone is, and no one is obliged to change their posts for another (see my friends-locked Sticky at the top of my DW in which I ask people to tell me what offends them so I can either put them on a filter for those topics or just not write on those topics - except under a huge, blatantly obvious/fairly informative trigger warning - at all).
I guess I wish there was a way to formally filter out when you're going to do the anti-Christianity or anti-any religion thing in the middle of a link list (and/or as a separate post, but the link list thing is like, impossible for me to avoid, for patently obvious reasons). I'm all about accepting religions even if I don't like and don't agree with most of them, and to read anything against just stirs that pot inside of me that _does not_ want to be stirred, especially when I'm just casually browsing my RL. Short of not reading your posts anymore, I don't have a better solution to what is admittedly my problem, not yours, here.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 07:24 am (UTC)I can understand that, and I appreciate that me saying negative things about Christianity upsets you.
Thinking about this further - there are two kinds of groups:
1) Things people do that are ingrained - being biased against these are clearly wrong. We shouldn't say negative things about groups that people have no choice about their membership in (race, gender, sexuality), because we're being mean to people for things they can do nothing about. If I'd said "By 2067 there will be no more black people in the UK. Yay!" then that would be clearly unfair, and unreasonable.
2) Things people choose/have some control over. Being mean about those seems reasonable to me - saying "By 2067 there will be no more racists in the UK. Yay!" then that's being against a group that people have chosen membership of. Much more reasonable to dislike groups which are a matter of choice.
To me, religion falls into the latter bucket, and is thus fair game. _But_ - religion is a very broad brush. And the fact that there are terrible people who are religious, and in general those are the ones who make the headlines, doesn't prevent there being also nice religious people who don't deserve my wrath. On the other hand, I find the fact that there are people who believe things without any evidence, and then base their moral decisions on them disturbing, and would rather that that kind of thing didn't continue.
I suspect this falls into a "hate the sin, love the sinner" category. I don't tend to, mostly, mind individual religious people (that I know). But that doesn't stop me loathing religion. So I suspect that this will occasionally come through. I understand this is difficult for you, and I'll try to keep it down to minor, and occasional, notes - I have no plans to turn into Richard Dawkins.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-18 12:55 am (UTC)Yeah, there's certain writers I don't read. He's actually disliked by a lot of people but as it's slightly off-topic to get into what the reasons are besides his anti-religion stuff, I won't...
To me, religion falls into the latter bucket, and is thus fair game.
To me, the problem with that is people are often literally born into their religion and thus don't have any choice in the matter until they get old enough to make one. Once old enough to make a decision they often don't know what to decide, how to change the religion they practice, whether to stop practicing religion altogether, and a host of other confusing things. In the meantime while they are still steeped deep within their beliefs, along perhaps with the beliefs of their families and communities, I think it's unfair to expose them to a _hatred_ of their religion that they can't understand because they haven't been educated enough in what's wrong with their religion (and there is something wrong with every religion, without exception) to
agree withunderstand the opinions they're subjected to.I was raised loosely as a Christian by a mostly single mom who really had no known or stated use for God who still didn't mind throwing up a Christmas tree every year and giving us Easter baskets. My own Christianity was inborn and I really don't know where I got it from, especially since my father was Jewish, but without reading the Bible or being raised in or anywhere near a church I was writing poems about Christ when I was 7. I can't explain it, but it's like I was born Christian.
I didn't even begin to educate myself on what was wrong with my religion or anyone else's until I got online, which wasn't until my early 30s. That said, I find strict Christianity the least objectionable of all religions I could participate in, so that's why I stick with it. If I were to decide against Christianity at some point I'd probably go agnostic or atheist; I find all other religions objectionable enough in history, practices, and viewpoints (and even for the deities themselves, even when that deity is the same one I must support within Christianity) that I would not convert to those instead.
On the other hand, I understand people don't usually get to choose which religion they're born into/raised in, nor are they usually taught how to question their or their family's beliefs about those religions, so that's why I never, ever, ever make written comments about any religion that someone else might find critical or objectionable. I think undertaking a reasoned analysis of one's religion when one is ready to beats reading anyone's isolated, subjective opinion, which was why I kind of flailed at the tone of your post (sorry about that, btw; it just hit me the wrong way).
Thanks for understanding as much as you can; I really do appreciate it.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-12 04:33 pm (UTC)It is your assertion that favouring nothing is offensive that is actually offensive.
The idea that atheists by their very existence offends you is mindnumbingly offensive in and of itself.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 11:02 pm (UTC)I am offended by A's apparent lack of tolerance. That is all.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 11:21 pm (UTC)Public comment on a public post in a journal in which discussion between readers is the norm and actively encouraged?
The day the last believer realises the error of their ways will be a good day for the world. The censorious prurience in your tone and your automatic assumption that you should be protected from 'offence' from those that don't share your 'faith' is your problem.
Your religion has large numbers of adherents, today, that think killing in the name of their faith is justified. If you want to stop people who reject such beliefs to stop wishing you'd all just go away, concentrate your fire and your efforts on stopping the extremists instead of complaining that you're offended by words.
I'm offended by death, destruction and slaughter done in the name of faith. I'm offended by world leaders deliberately letting people die in order to protect a "Christian Europe". And I'm offended by a "request" that someone censor their opinions because you dislike them.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 02:39 am (UTC)