Letters to the Editor
I read the NJ so you don’t have to and occasionally the letters to the editor are quite insightful. If you don’t watch the show Big Love and haven’t been following it, then you may not know the Mormons are in a tizzy over it. Well, as I read this letter to editor, I can’t agree more to the “kid gloves” treatment that religion gets...
I am writing in regards to Jennifer Dobner’s recent article describing HBO’s plans to air a dramatic version of a Mormon ritual during an upcoming episode of “Big Love.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.
Like all religions, it is a fictitious narrative conceived for multiple secular reasons. Some of these are admirable, such as assisting humans in understanding a complex world, while other motives are more nefarious, including mind control and profitmaking. All religions (even the Abrahamic ones) fit this broad description in one way or another.
The fact that Mormons are offended by a theatrical account of an artificial ritual invented less than 180 years ago seems quite ironic indeed. When will we begin to see religion for what it is and stop treating it so delicately? How did organized religion acquire the kid-glove treatment? The fact that individuals hold certain superstitions sacred does not mean these are untouchable in secular society.
It is amazing how the right wing will attack earmarks. Let’s use some examples of earmarks that Republicans have used in the past: Iraq War, $900 billion; Star Wars, $100 billion; tax breaks for wealthy, one failed predatory capitalist economy.
It’s amazing how some on the right still are trying to lay the economic mess at the feet of ACORN. Well guess what? This mess and so-called earmarks go to help out local communities. I am glad that ACORN got money to help people buy homes. It sure is a lot better than going into debt of $1 trillion and spending on earmark programs based on fear and a lie.
If they are getting it in Elkton….you know your party has got problems
Love the first letter, and I completely agree. It’s time to take off the gloves when it comes to organized religion.
The second letter is correct. Earmarks are in the eye of the beholder, or one state’s train is another man’s pork.
Not to mention that Lou Dobbs and Fox News are now harping on about a promise Obama never made.
They really are idiots.
Dear DL Editors,
When are we having another service day?
Sincerely,
Unstable Isotope
Service day. How about helping clean up Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge?
Who is up for that?
RE Letters:
Everyday wingnut letters outnumber letters from sane people by 5 to 1. What is up w/ that?
I was going to argue against “my girl” Pandora, but then realized that… since organized religions were dying because they were losing touch with their constituents, that this introspection would instead, be beneficial for them and not detrimenta! This viewing is an opportunity for their church to grow, enabling them to see themselves through the public’s eye and adapt, grow and change accordingly.
The argument that Mormonism is a sham, simply because it was created only 180 years ago, falls flat if one falls back through time to hear the majority of Romans dismiss Christianity as such back in the year 213…
Funny thing, based on where Christianity was then… you could have, and probably logically should have, dismissed it.
One never knows… lol….
The whole PR argument in favor of organized religion (pick any), is that it is non-adaptive.
Obviously it is a lie because they are (at best) only in part divine. They are mostly (or totally) human constructs so they are either adaptive or dying out.
Anyway, it creates a kind of paradox. Any religion that is not adapting is dying out and any religion that admits that it is adapting is dying out. Your could probably plot religions along two axis; one being stridency of claims to be non-adapting and the other being ability to adapt – and thereby easily figure out which religions are thriving and which are failing.
I would put non-denominational American protestantism on the extreme upper-right hand side of that graph.
The LTE this week that made my blood pressure rise was the one that equated stem cell research with “killing innocent living humans.”
I CAN’T STAND IT !!
Kavips wrote:
organized religions were dying because they were losing touch with their constituents
Religions are dying because their fundamental beliefs are lies.
Religions are dying for the same reason the Republican Party is dying – they keep kicking people out.
Some religions are inherently flexible. Unitarian Universalism, Quakerism, Reform Judaism, Buddhism, and neopaganism come to mind.
xstryker,
True, and Buddhism isn’t a theistic religion, and the majority of Unitarian Universalists are humanists.