The Only Thing Stupider than Politics is Religion

[flatlander13]

For all of you out there who believe in Politics or God; you are all stupid.

It’s your turn…………

[daratheresa]

first, my friend, you have to define what you mean by god...

(in case anyone missed it that's sarcasm...)

[neon tetra]

Best political speech I've seen in years:

[youtube][/youtube]




Best one on religion:

[youtube][/youtube]

[flatlander13]

I believe that PIL said it best when they said, “The Christian religion made them blind.â€

[daratheresa]

[quote="flatlander13"]I believe that PIL said it best when they said, “The Christian religion made them blind.â€

[Simon of the Playa]

[youtube][/youtube]


brought to you via the hive-mind(tm) / silverorange.

[TomServo]

For all of you out there who believe in Politics or God; you are all stupid.

It’s your turn………… :D

Politics happen...do i believe in politicians? fuck no! And, me being an agnostic...are you certain their is no god? if yes. then your just as stupid as the religious nutjobs.

[neon tetra]

Belief is stupid. Faith is smart.

Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

[flatlander13]

I didn’t say I was sure about anything……..I just said that if you believe in politics or god you were stupid……….

[daratheresa]

I didn’t say I was sure about anything……..I just said that if you believe in politics or god you were stupid……….

amen.
inshahallah.
namaste.

[neon tetra]

Also important to note that, for all intents & purposes, religion IS politics.

They are also both masters of manipulation through fear.

[TomServo]

I didn’t say I was sure about anything……..I just said that if you believe in politics or god you were stupid………. :D

thats a pretty general assumption. If you deny you ever get emotionally charged by politics...your a fool. If you claim to know what god is...or isnt...your a fucking retard. Religion and poitics are two things, that should never be discussed in friendly discussion..like i said, politics happen...theirs nothing to believe in, other than politcal opinion...which you apparently have. As far as religion goes...I dont attack, unless they attack me. But honestly..I dont care for any religion.

[geekster]

My favorite political speech:

[youtube][/youtube]

[neon tetra]

Too bad Reagan ended up being a lousy president. 'Just say no' was a joke, his trickle-down economics helped start this current collapse, he reduced aid for mental health & other social programs, he let a bunch of neo-cons into his cabinet (which he later regretted), and he created the 'enemy' that we're fighting right now in Afghanistan.

[flatlander13]

In my house I have only one rule: No Politics No Religion.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had to tell my Father-in-Law to go outside if he was going to talk about politics……..or religion……….I don’t want either in the house………

[JStep]

Oh geez. Well, I guess I'll happily wade in to this inevitably circular debate which will end up being based entirely on semantics...

I'm fairly certain there is no god, at least as certain as I am that there are no flying pink unicorns or tiny orbiting teapots.... Now let me hear why my relative certainty makes me just as dumb as if I believed in any of these things...

[TomServo]

In my house I have only one rule: No Politics No Religion.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had to tell my Father-in-Law to go outside if he was going to talk about politics……..or religion……….I don’t want either in the house……… :D

fair enough, but would you tell your father in law hes stupid, for having beliefs? eplaya is open game for politics....even if you dont agree with them. Religion is just fun to thrash...and now, anti-religion!

[neon tetra]

To each their own, but I feel like the whole 'not talking politics & religion' among friends & family is partly why our country is so fucked.
In European countries, these issues are discussed openly, even with strangers.
In America, they're considered taboo much of the time, and I think that just allows ignorance to continue.

[geekster]

I don't belittle people's religions. Religions serve many useful purposes. First of all, practically all of them convey the notion of right and wrong and consequences of your actions. They also give the believer something to cling to when all hope is lost. People have managed through some absolutely hellish situations where giving up would mean certain death, either their own or deaths of others or both, had they not held on or had faith that they were doing the right thing. One holding a position based solely on logic would have given up as surviving was statistically impossible.

Now over the course of time there were probably a bazillion different religions. Some succeeded while others failed. The ones that succeed are the ones that incorporate something that gives its adherents some advantage in its environment. If you look, for example, at Halal and Kosher, they are very close and share a lot. It is quite possible that communities that adhered to these (which was a greater portion of the population, say, 1000 years ago than now) might have one additional child live to adulthood per generation. Over time, that difference increases exponentially and eventually one group out-populates another.

Today we have a pill or a treatment for practically everything. Get a bad bug from eating contaminated shellfish? No problem, there's a treatment for that. For humans living pretty much in the wild, eating that shellfish might, during certain times of the year, result in many of your tribe getting sick or a baby possibly dying. It might simply result in being sick enough to reduce the hunting or gathering for a period of time which might result in lower fertility among the females. There could be any number of consequences but people who don't eat it will never suffer from them.

"Religion" will rebound when antibiotics don't work anymore or when people need to again live off the land and there is no "EPA" to be their mommy and make sure they can't get bad food.

Politics is about policy. We wouldn't need politics if everyone always agreed on exactly the same policy to be followed for every situation. Since that is never going to happen, bitching about the existence of politics is idiotic. The simple fact is that we all have our own opinions about what various policies should be for different things. Nobody is ever going to agree with all of yours. What we seem to have lost, particularly on the political left, is any sense of debate or willingness to take a portion of what you want. It has become "all or nothing" or "the end justifies the means". The people preaching "tolerance" are absolutely the most intolerant of anyone who sees things from a different perspective. The people who would preach "peace" would not hesitate to destroy a downtown in a violent "demonstration".

I see this most often from people in the political left who would, upon meeting any disagreement with their position, decide upon a "social death" scenario or some sort of ostracizing of the dissenting viewpoint. There is no sense of using logic and reasoning. It is a fundamentalist approach and they treat dissent just as any other fundamentalist does. In fact, I read an article the other day that said it was "treason" to criticize Obama because he was the "democratically elected President". Now think about that for a moment. The same people saying that were the same people who criticized Reagan, George HW Bush, and George W. Bush.

The point is that here we are, we all live together. We all have our viewpoints. Many seem to hold their points of view in order to be identified with some group of "cool kids" so they adopt the positions of those people by rote without any real reasoning. If you disagree, that is experienced as an attack on themselves or their affinity group and is reacted to with vigor. It's crap. Most people don't even really know why they hold the positions they do but if you ask 10 of them why, they will give you the same spiel, word for word like a parrot.

The notion that individuals might reach their own conclusions through their own analysis and are not attempting to align themselves with some larger group doesn't even occur to them.

[geekster]

Too bad Reagan ended up being a lousy president. 'Just say no' was a joke, his trickle-down economics helped start this current collapse, he reduced aid for mental health & other social programs, he let a bunch of neo-cons into his cabinet (which he later regretted), and he created the 'enemy' that we're fighting right now in Afghanistan.

Are you sure you know what you are talking about? "Just say no" wasn't Ronald Reagan, it was a slogan used by Nancy Reagan as part of an anti drugs campaign. And, in fact, it is quite effective. Just say "no".

Why exactly is that stupid?

Trickle down economics is actually a fact. It is how economics works. It is better than the "trickle up poverty" of this administration's policy. Reagan was the ONLY President we have had with a college degree in economics. We had the absolutely longest period of economic prosperity this country has ever had due to his policies.

"he reduced aid for mental health & other social programs" No, he didn't. He decided that it was not the role of the FEDERAL government to provide these services and instead instituted a system of block grants to the states to allow the states to decide how to allocate those resources. If your state cut mental health services, then blame that on your state government. It is about role of government issues. In fact, there is the argument that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to pay unemployment benefits. The federal government is not responsible for the individual. That is the role of the state government. Reagan said the states should decide how to allocate those resources and the people should be free to vote with their feet. The extreme left and extreme right would both wish to dictate their policy across the entire nation from Washington DC. That's crap.

Reagan was the best President I have seen in my lifetime.

Reagan did NOT create the "enemy" we are fighting in Afghanistan. That would be Jimmy Carter and his national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. It was their idea to fund the Islamists against the Russians. In fact, had Carter not abandoned Iran, Russia would have never invaded Afghanistan to begin with. People are *still* dying from Carter's screwups.

[JStep]

I thought this was going to be a pointless religion thread, not a pointless politics thread...

[TomServo]

I thought this was going to be a pointless religion thread, not a pointless politics thread...

arguing about either is pointless, but if you can respect that people have opinions, it can be fun..in a sick way. I prefer not to, but what the hell!? Its the holidays!

[geekster]

"Evidence suggests drug use and abuse significantly declined during the Reagan presidency. According to research conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, more young people in the 1980s were saying no to drugs. High school seniors using marijuana dropped from 50.1% in 1978 to 36% in 1987, to 12% in 1991 and the percentage of students using other drugs decreased similarly. Psychedelic drug use dropped from 11% to 6%, cocaine from 12% to 10%, and heroin from 1% to 0.5%."

[neon tetra]

Just say "no".

Why exactly is that stupid?

Because it lumped all 'drugs' into one category, because part of that campaign was mandatory minimums, and because the issue is far more complex. Truth be told, if the government really gave 2 shits about addiction, they would legalize ibogaine, which is the only known substance on the planet that can CURE addiction, and eliminate the pains of detox.

Trickle down economics is actually a fact. It is how economics works. It is better than the "trickle up poverty" of this administration's policy.

It actually doesn't work, and tax cuts for the rich give one of the WORST returns on the dollar. It also serves to increase the wealth gap. (right now, the top 1% earn about 23.5% of all the income)
As much as I hate a welfare stare, unemployment $ gives one of the best returns, and truly stimulates the economy.

Reagan was the best President I have seen in my lifetime.

You know what they say about opinions..


Also, are you seriously trying to say that Reagan didn't arm & fund the Mujahideen??

[Simon of the Playa]

Oh geez. Well, I guess I'll happily wade in to this inevitably circular debate which will end up being based entirely on semantics...

I'm fairly certain there is no god, at least as certain as I am that there are no flying pink unicorns or tiny orbiting teapots.... Now let me hear why my relative certainty makes me just as dumb as if I believed in any of these things...

now you've just crossed the fucking line in the glitter, mister...

[oneeyeddick]

Two balls and only one eye?

If there is a god he has one fucked up sense of humor.

[neon tetra]

The extreme left and extreme right would both wish to dictate their policy across the entire nation from Washington DC. That's crap.

. . . yet you didn't mind this in Reagan's drug policy?

[Roberto Dobbisano]

whats that smell?

[H.G.Crosby]

[ygmir]

[youtube][/youtube]