We here at Topic Agnostic shoot off our mouths quite a bit about ‘proof’ and ‘evidence’. Show yourself, God, if you want a chance with us. Well, our skeptical asses have just been handed to us….a demon has washed ashore in Montauk, NY. It’s laying right there on the beach in all it’s disturbing, unholy, verifiable glory. Some have suggested it’s a de-shelled turtle, but I think I know the denizens of the flaming pits of ooze when I sees ‘em.
I’d like to announce my immediate conversion to Christianity, based on this terrifying example of Satan’s works. I’m happy it’s in advance of Sunday, so I can get a jump start tomorrow worshipping the Lord.
My only compunction is that this seems more to be evidence of the existence of the devil…I can’t really conclude that God exists just because his archnemesis clearly does. Hmm.
I’d like to announce my immediate resignation from Christianity, subsequent to which I’ll be checking out the Church of Satan. God, if you’re feeling competitive, see if you can wash up a dead cherub on Long Island.
I bet when they sent all those ladies and their unibrows home a few months ago, you thought the state had screwed up and their was no case against the gentlemen of the FLDS. I bet you thought that because it kind of sounded that way: first the girls weren’t underage, then they weren’t pregnant, then they weren’t even girls but golden plates (what?).
Based on the unibrows and the aprons and all that, I’m worried these hillbillies are in for a bit of a rude awakening where felony sexual assault of a child is concerned. I gotta applaud the state of Texas for their position that whether God (or your wiener) told you to sleep with children or not, that’s not going to fly in the society in which Texans choose to live.
Ok! Here’s 5 ghoulish funeral practices from Cracked.com.
Religious / superstitious rites are can be quite bizarre, and, um, stinky. But it’s all up to what you figure pleases your God.
Personally I’ve always been down with with the underpinnings of jhator, the Tibetan practice ‘giving alms to the birds’ (letting them feast on your carcass). Do you know what cremation costs? Plenty! Why not feed the birds and, subsequently, the landscape at large with your no-longer-necessary remains?
This will cause one of our anonymous commenters to roll his eyes, but here’s journalist/author/philosopher/goof AJ Jacobs on the year he spent trying to adhere to all the rules in the Bible. If only someone had to told him Jesus’ crucifixion negated those rules! Or something like that!
Lol. From the fabulous irReligion.org, a site who’s mission statement offers: “Here we expose the religions of the world for the frauds they really are. Preying on the gullible and lost, giving them all the answers they want to hear, and in turn leading them into a world of ignorance and disinformation; religion has got to go.” Word up!
The Dark Knight is a story of archetypes, like all superhero tales. This one gets it right, however, and is sophisticated enough to reflect the moral greys of reality.
Instead of good vs ‘evil’, it’s good vs chaos. The destruction in life is not painted with the superstitious brush of ‘evil’, but rather etched with the realistic shades of disorder,anarchy and
chaos – the choice to be or not to be good.
This high-level view of society appeals to the agnostic, as it doesn’t couch morality in terms of God. It presents the choice to be good as just that, a choice, one made regardless of affinity
for the supernatural or the natural.
The ferry-bound Gotham fleers are only the most literal example of a choice for good; the Dark Knight abounds with moments of choice versus the negativity of chance. Bruce Wayne’s socialite
friends represent the order of will over chaos: the good in theworld are those who opt to be kind, philanthropic, civil and generous, and the more of us elect to be so, the better our world is.
The Dark Knight doesn’t omit religion, but addresses it on the ‘popular’ level on which it really exists. ‘Evil’ is easy to understand. The truth about Dent – that he’s no hero, that he fell from grace – is kept from the populace in order to create an icon, a perfect goodness for the masses to worship. It’s more important, socially, that the common man think perfect good is attainable than for him to know the truth. Even Bruce Wayne is lied to in this manner, with the burning of the letter, in order that he keep having something to believe in. This attachment to good is beneficial in itself; the sentiment more important than the fact. People who weren’t there when the story unfolded, to whom the complexity of the choices made can’t easily be conveyed, need a simpler version to adhere to, that they may have an example of good to aspire to. The simplicity of religious belief has its’ place.
The Dark Knight’s thesis is that there is no evil, supernaturally speaking, in the world – only chaotic occurrences of poor personal decisions. People are bad for a variety of reasons, but none of them are devilish in origin. The devil himself is but a metaphor for misfortune, hate, and contempt for the beauty of life.
Just happened upon these groovy pixel icons from Lifeteen, a site who’s mission is to ‘lead teens closer to Christ’. In a Catholic sense. They also have a bunch of less cool, but still Pope-related desktops you can download and install so you can always be reminded of virgins.
Do you think icons are really false idols? They are when you dig them as much as I do!
The file names are suggestions of where you might use such an icon…for instance, an occupied confessional is ‘trash’, and a little person exiting a confessional is ‘empty trash’. Not kidding.
An intersection of forces – low birth rates in rural areas, historically family-run temples with no sons willing to take over the business, and a trend away from $20k+ Buddhist funerals (and towards the pernicious, pervasive & persistent funeral industry’s rent-a-monks) combine to oust the peaceful path from modern Japanese life. Truly, “funeral Buddhism”, so-called because the funeral was the last real bastion of the practice, lost it’s spiritual power after WWII, when close ties with the Japanese military exposed a certain hypocrisy. Honourable Buddhist names were bestowed on dead soldiers, and soon the selling of such names became a mere transaction.
You can see on this map the current distribution of Buddhism. I wonder if the complexity of the philosophy is also contributing to it’s demise in Japan; if this most industrialized, computerized, and futuristic of the Asian Buddhist nations has an attention span anything like ours in North America, there may not be time to work towards satori in between text messaging and reading novels on your cell phone.
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