Let’s start a religion!
I ceased to believe in the central mysteries of Christianity a long time ago. The miraculous bits; all the things that make it a religion rather than merely a philosophy.
Problem is, I see a lot to admire in Christianity, even without the Resurrection. Two thousand years of Western moral thought has been set in the framework of biblical scripture. It runs through our law, our literature, our language. You can’t discard it entirely without throwing away too much of what’s good in our culture.
There are things I dislike about religion and the very religious. There are things I dislike about Christianity in particular. Original Sin always made me crazy, for example. The fact that I’m a dirty bird every day of my life — even the days I don’t do anything particularly evil — because sin is baked into my heritage. It seems so unfair, and fairness is what I would look to a deity to restore.
But there’s an awful lot of value. Fidelity. Humility. The power of the oath. A strict moral code. People like to do difficult things in support of higher causes.
I think there’s probably a measurable physiological benefit to prayer, which is why most religions have such a meditative component. Plus the psychological benefit of putting your troubles into language. And the soothing notion you can be forgiven and wiped clean, if you ask nicely (if only until your next major fuckup).
So, how would you go about building a secular Christianity (or religious mashup)?
Have an awesome Fourth and I’ll see you on Monday!
July 3, 2015 — 9:16 pm
Comments: 15
A couple transgressive thoughts on race
The thing about this flag is, it’s the symbol of an America that is not entirely white. Without the organized slave trade, there would be (virtually) zero black people in America, and this flag became emblematic of that. I’m not sure the right people are swinging it around.
You can thank my slave-owning, plantation-running, lazy-ass louche Southern ancestors for an America that doesn’t look like Scandihoovia. Let this flag be your reminder.
Although…did you know in the 300 years of the slave trade to the colonies, fewer than half a million were sent to the U.S.? Of the ten million that came over in chains, nearly all ended up in the Caribbean and Brazil.
I hate to send you to Slate, but they have a genuinely fascinating animated map that demonstrates the flow of peoples.
There. I don’t know why I ever post about race. Nothing good can come of it.
July 2, 2015 — 8:52 pm
Comments: 14
Big brother is gay
I’ve been avoiding politics. I like to see myself as a happy warrior, so when I’m pissed, I post about freaking carrot sticks and mothereffing roses. It’s not one thing, it’s all kinds of things lurching in bad directions at the moment, but the gay marriage thing is the one that really got up my nose.
Not so much gay marriage itself (or, as I like to think of it, gay “marriage”), but the arrogance and mediocrity of the Supremes. Another 5/4 decision where the opinion of the five are completely incompatible with the opinion of the four. If that’s not a metaphor…
…happy thoughts…happy thoughts…
Anyway. I wanted to make sure you saw this. Those of you on FaceBook will know that FB provided a little app that would overlay your avatar with a rainbow in honor of the SCOTUS ass-reaming we all got. The Daily Mail is claiming this was a data mining tool to gauge (and possibly manipulate) popular opinion on the subject.
FaceBook denies it, but it’s plausible. They did something similar a few years ago, where you could overlay your avatar with an equals sign (for “marriage equality” natch). They then tapped that data to track attitudes. I find this all very creepy, but I am comfortable in the knowledge I put an absolute minimum amount of data into my FaceBook (either of them; the weasel has an account, too).
What surprised me is how few of my friends did the rainbow thing. I mean, not YOU guys. I knew YOU wouldn’t have any part of it. But most of my friends from back home (I’m sorry to say) are liberals of one kind or another. Yes, even the Southern ones (sometimes especially the Southern ones). I saw maybe three avatars with the rainbow.
Maybe things aren’t quite as bad as they look.
July 1, 2015 — 9:51 pm
Comments: 17