Stupid things the religious say

[Vera]

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

Reworked and passed as his own by that earlier (and equally sanctimonious and annoying) C.S. Lewis - C. H. Spurgeon as:

"Praying will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying."

How can anyone with more than three brain cells actually find this profound and inspiring is beyond me. What is more, it would have been beyond even my religious me.


More from the same genius:

"As for our great King, when we venture into His presence, let us have a purpose there. Let us beware of playing at praying; it is insolence toward God."






Truly pathetic. And this is some of the "best" they have to offer. None as dumb as a religious person in this day and age...

[Dancefortwo]

Why is this thread only 7 pages long?  Religious people say stupid things every day. This thread should be 207 pages long. LOLOLOL!

[SYZ]

How embarrassing is this?  It's hard to believe that Antonin Scalia was an Associate Justice of
the US Supreme Court. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state in America?

[no one]

If their mouths are open stupid shit is flying out.

[Gwaithmir]

How embarrassing is this?  It's hard to believe that Antonin Scalia was an Associate Justice of
the US Supreme Court. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state in America?

Back in the 1980's I was confronted by a couple of evangelicals who tried to convert me. Never before had I encountered such theists who were so stupid and brainwashed. Every pointed question I put to them was answered with silence and mute stares. They were indeed fools for Christ, although they vehemently denied being brainwashed. 

[Gwaithmir]

 "All we do is present seminars and answer people's questions. I still for the life of me can't quite understand where the cult thing has come from. There were lots of people in the first century who didn't believe I was the Messiah and were offended by what I said - and in fact I died at the hands of some of them." (A.J. Miller, cult leader and former Jehovah's Witness who, in 2007, declared himself to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ) 

[Vera]

"Light is the shadow of God." Thomas Browne

I don't care how much of a genius he might have been otherwise. This is meaningless, pseudo-profound bunk.

[Dānu]

I received a hand-addressed letter from an unfamiliar address in my neighborhood yesterday. Upon opening it, I found a handwritten letter from a Jehovah's Witness telling me about the bright future God has planned for mankind. I was amused that even the Witnesses are practicing social distancing in their door-knocking now. Though I'm a bit puzzled as to how they got my name and address.

[Fireball]

I received a hand-addressed letter from an unfamiliar address in my neighborhood yesterday.  Upon opening it, I found a handwritten letter from a Jehovah's Witness telling me about the bright future God has planned for mankind.  I was amused that even the Witnesses are practicing social distancing in their door-knocking now.  Though I'm a bit puzzled as to how they got my name and address.

That information is a matter of public record, though I'm not sure where one should look. The selling realtor for my current house got the names and addresses of everyone in our HOA and sent out flyers for an Association-wide garage sale event. Many people were up in arms and blaming the HOA staff for that information going out. He sent out another flyer explaining what he had done, without using the HOA resources.

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Consider how precious a horcrux must be, when both Harry and Voldemort are after it

[Reltzik]

I'm surprised no one's posted this one yet.  Everyone's heard of it, we all knows it's idiotic, and yet they keep chanting it like a mantra.

"Faith is a virtue."

[airportkid]

... Faith is a virtue ...

Best retort to that, from "Flight of the Phoenix", Heinrich Dorfmann in frustrated disbelief at Capt. Towns:  "Why do you behave as if stupidity were a virtue?"

[Cheerful Charlie]

I received a hand-addressed letter from an unfamiliar address in my neighborhood yesterday.  Upon opening it, I found a handwritten letter from a Jehovah's Witness telling me about the bright future God has planned for mankind.  I was amused that even the Witnesses are practicing social distancing in their door-knocking now.  Though I'm a bit puzzled as to how they got my name and address.

I hope you handled the virus infested thing with rubber gloves.

[Cheerful Charlie]

I'm surprised no one's posted this one yet.  Everyone's heard of it, we all knows it's idiotic, and yet they keep chanting it like a mantra.

"Faith is a virtue."

If one has faith in Santa Muerte, is that a virtue?

[Cheerful Charlie]

"Light is the shadow of God." Thomas Browne

I don't care how much of a genius he might have been otherwise. This is meaningless, pseudo-profound bunk.

Jabberwocky
Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather
hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself,
that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head
with ideas——only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody
killed something: that's clear, at any rate——"  


This is what I call a Jabberwocky argument.  It has no real meaning, but is designed
to fill our heads with bad ideas.

[Dānu]

"Light is the shadow of God." Thomas Browne

I don't care how much of a genius he might have been otherwise. This is meaningless, pseudo-profound bunk.

True, but it's certainly an evocative phrase. It reminds me of Augustine's thoughts on evil being the absence of good, i.e. the absence of God, and the Platonistic elements of Christianity.

[Vera]

True, but it's certainly an evocative phrase.  It reminds me of Augustine's thoughts on evil being the absence of good, i.e. the absence of God, and the Platonistic elements of Christianity.

As a translator (and as a fairly rational person) I loathe phrases that, on the face it, appear “beautiful” or “evocative” but when you actually think about them, you realise they mean nothing. I actually find them more offensive than something stupid that still makes some sort of sense. And I don’t mean a jabberwacky kind of nonsense that doesn’t hide its nonsensicality under a veneer of empty deepity-ness. Nothing offends me more than a supposed profundity that is all style and no substance or sense, it’s intellectually dishonest and an affront to reason.

The other quote reminds me of a story by one of my most favourite writers (together with Greg Egan) – Ted Chiang’s Hell Is the Absence of God, which is about a world where God is pretty manifest, but regularly causes suffering and death and yet, people still love and worship him. It’s a fascinating story and here’s what he says about in an interview I came across recently:

"I wasn't raised in any religion, so I don't have the love/hate relationship with it that many people do. When I was younger I had a vague belief in God that I'd acquired through cultural osmosis, but I'm currently an atheist. I think religion is interesting, but primarily in an abstract way. I haven't encountered a solution to the question of innocent suffering that I find satisfactory, and perhaps that prevents me from finding religion really compelling. I wonder if I'm fortunate, in a way; there are people who are also frustrated by the problem of innocent suffering, while still feeling a strong belief in God. That seems to me to be a difficult position to be in. Which is what "Hell is the Absence of God" is all about."

[mordant]

"Light is the shadow of God." Thomas Browne

I don't care how much of a genius he might have been otherwise. This is meaningless, pseudo-profound bunk.

Jabberwocky
Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather
hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself,
that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head
with ideas——only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody
killed something: that's clear, at any rate——"  


This is what I call a Jabberwocky argument.  It has no real meaning, but is designed
to fill our heads with bad ideas.

If there's ever been a handle I wish I'd thought of it was one I saw (and it might have even been here or back on TTA) called "Slithy Toves".

[mordant]

True, but it's certainly an evocative phrase.  It reminds me of Augustine's thoughts on evil being the absence of good, i.e. the absence of God, and the Platonistic elements of Christianity.

As a translator (and as a fairly rational person) I loathe phrases that, on the face it, appear “beautiful” or “evocative” but when you actually think about them, you realise they mean nothing. I actually find them more offensive than something stupid that still makes some sort of sense. And I don’t mean a jabberwacky kind of nonsense that doesn’t hide its nonsensicality under a veneer of empty deepity-ness. Nothing offends me more than a supposed profundity that is all style and no substance or sense, it’s intellectually dishonest and an affront to reason.

The other quote reminds me of a story by one of my most favourite writers (together with Greg Egan) – Ted Chiang’s Hell Is the Absence of God, which is about a world where God is pretty manifest, but regularly causes suffering and death and yet, people still love and worship him. It’s a fascinating story and here’s what he says about in an interview I came across recently:

"I wasn't raised in any religion, so I don't have the love/hate relationship with it that many people do. When I was younger I had a vague belief in God that I'd acquired through cultural osmosis, but I'm currently an atheist. I think religion is interesting, but primarily in an abstract way. I haven't encountered a solution to the question of innocent suffering that I find satisfactory, and perhaps that prevents me from finding religion really compelling. I wonder if I'm fortunate, in a way; there are people who are also frustrated by the problem of innocent suffering, while still feeling a strong belief in God. That seems to me to be a difficult position to be in. Which is what "Hell is the Absence of God" is all about."

Yeah I can tell you from personal experience, it's an awful place to be in. You end up making excuses for why god is such a dick, if so be it that god exists and is actually "in charge" of or "cares about" any aspect of your life.

I'm not necessarily opposed to "evocative" but essentially meaningless prose when used in the service of art. The song "Send In The Clowns" would be an example. Beautiful song, intended to elicit wistful feelings common to the human condition without a lot of specifics (although in the context of the musical it was originally set in, it is in fact far less abstract).

There's nothing wrong with processing feelings without a lot of orderly rational thought. Sometimes in life you are obliged to. Where religious ideation and alleged holy writ go off the rails is that they serve at least in the case of literalist / fundamentalist types as a substitute for actual reality, or at the very least as an alternate reality, which uses "evocative" but essentially meaningless high-sounding prose as an urtext -- making it a failed epistemology by which people then attempt to order their life decisions, thereby generating nearly endless varieties of suffering and angst.

[GenesisNemesis]

Pompeo tells megachurch pastor he likes to ‘synthesize’ reading the Bible with his daily intelligence reports

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/pompeo-...e-reports/[/url]

In [url=https://harvest.org/resources/radio/the-faith-of-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo/]an interview with megachurch pastor Pastor Greg Laurie, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he reads two things during his mornings: the day’s intelligence report and the Bible.

“I manage to synthesize them … knowing that the Lord gives me the capacity to work, to be diligent,” Pompeo said. “I hope He’ll give me the wisdom and the perseverance to meet these challenges head-on in a way that protects the American people.”

[Dānu]

Meh. I found meaning in the quote, Vera. Maybe it's just you.

[brunumb]

"Light is the shadow of God." Thomas Browne

I don't care how much of a genius he might have been otherwise. This is meaningless, pseudo-profound bunk.

It's not even pseudo-profound.  It's pretentious nonsense.  It doesn't even qualify as a deepity.

[Cavebear]

Pompeo tells megachurch pastor he likes to ‘synthesize’ reading the Bible with his daily intelligence reports

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/pompeo-...e-reports/[/url]

In [url=https://harvest.org/resources/radio/the-faith-of-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo/]an interview with megachurch pastor Pastor Greg Laurie, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he reads two things during his mornings: the day’s intelligence report and the Bible.

“I manage to synthesize them … knowing that the Lord gives me the capacity to work, to be diligent,” Pompeo said. “I hope He’ll give me the wisdom and the perseverance to meet these challenges head-on in a way that protects the American people.”

Hey Pompeo - If you don't have wisdom, the bible/religion sure isn't going to magically give it to you...

[Gwaithmir]

"Light is the shadow of God." (Thomas Browne) 

Yeah, and I'm King Isildur!

[Cavebear]

"Light is the shadow of God." (Thomas Browne) 

Yeah, and I'm King Isildur!

You can't be Gwaithmir and Isildur at the same time!