Religious Activity Does Not Lower Blood Pressure.

really?

i mean usually i don't go after this stuff, but from mr. grammar himself?

you had to be there

He was specifically calling out atheists, most other non theists (agnostics etc) don't share this trait of feeling superior to other people. Your point is moot.
Look who's late to the party. Hey Sev

Bolded is just untrue...

Italic is somewhat true but I love to see how people slap the blame on this for religion and tend to leave out the other causes for the hatred, violence, murders, and civil unrest.... People tend to forget all the other things that lead to this like money/greed, power, racism, among many others....

I just don't get how people come up and try to say that religion is the cause for all this ugliness, or at least the majority, in history dating back centuries... I would wager to say people use take their own preudjudices and use other things as an excuse to act on them...

I'm not saying religion or those who practice are innocent but its definitely not the only reason evil is committed in this world... In the last century alone we've had many wars in which all together tens of millions have died and I'm failry sure they weren't religiously motivated...

I'm bored and hungover from my bout of drinking 151 yesterday so I feel the need to provide some further insight on this.

albeit elana was correct in getting miffed over the whole aetheist cult deal past that he just illustrated what utter egoism he tends to purport every time he makes a post on this form.
so in light of that i'm going to re-illustrate some of the "facts" provided, though most of you should be able to identify some of the BS he pushes on a daily basis.
so the play by play is going now:
first paragraph is fine...i think i've started to recognize a bit of a pattern with this, most of the time elana is agreeable...completely. he can make a valid argument and wrap it up properly.
the problem is that ONCE he makes the valid argument he tends to draw it out further and add unnecessary facts to further illustrate such egoism.
it starts when he "goes back to his original point", i'll boil it down with this.

"You can say i'm stereotyping but i'm not"---- sounds fine so far.
Then past that he is like.
My opinion is TIME TESTED. TIME TESTED he says.
you know what else is time tested?
the bible man.
seriously.
you can't really make an argument about facts mulled from centuries of "higher knowledge" without identifying that the other camp has that exact same argument.
and in light of that you shouldn't even make this a basis or point in your argument in the first place.
rather than attesting the duration of a belief to the argument why don't you just work solely with the factual content?
i feel that's the big problem with both sides of the spectrum.
they get side-tracked by wanting to prove that their beliefs are as "firm" as the opposing side and when they are accused of something rather than refuting the direct accusation they refer to something completely irrelevant.
it's a poor discussion tactic and it doesn't express your actual position but more what you want your position to....look like from what i take it.
that's all i really have to say on that. so in closing.
when you want to make an argument about something.
try not to support your facts with the point that your beliefs have existed for centuries.
argue it with factual content, you will illustrate your points better and people will actually understand the points you are trying to make.

"I'm not close-minded but more non-religious people are smarter and also religion is the source of all bad stuffs."

Also, I'm sorry that I didn't make it clear that not all of that paragraph was directed at you in particular. Your close-minded comment struck a nerve because I found it dripping with hypocrisy (I mean that with as matter-of-fact, and not so much as an insult for what it's worth) and I can understand how it seems like my whole comment was personal.

I think that any point you brought up that wasn't worth completely dismissing, has been covered with my opinion somewhere else in the thread. The only comment I do want to reiterate: saying that religion being in the world causes so much strife is grossly ignorant and biased. If I said "Think of World Wars 1 and 2. Weren't they horrible? If Germans didn't exist the world would be a better place." I would be verbally raped for the next 3 pages. Somehow modern society has made it ok, however, to blast religion for some reason. Don't get me wrong.... If i had it my way there would be complete freedom of speech (I think it's the only way to dissolve sterotypes and connotations of words - by taking away the taboo of saying them), but you are making some LARGE assumptions about an infinitely varied group of people. That's like the definition of close-minded lol.

my liver is crying from empathy. We used to use a fork to pop out the flame retardant cap. Ugh....... worst hangovers ever


I chortled (yes chortled) and my boss looked over at me funny

it's one of those what-if kind of facts.
"religion causes the world such strife and grief", but they really can't identify a world without religion so it becomes a more opinion related point than a factual one.

it's easy to say A would be better without B, but unless you live in a world where A and B dont' coexist you shouldn't really make that as a point in the first place.

i think i'll use elana(and probably many others) for one of my little experiments.
i'll just look at his points and sift between the driftwood used to incite argument and the actual content and illustrate what is what thusly.

chortlin' is great, though not good if you have food or beverage in the mouth lol..then it's a mess.
man this is one of those times that my brain actually functions on a level that i enjoy because.....i dunno..just not motivated enough to get emotionally vested in much of anything at the moment which makes for a pretty fun time.
wish i remembered what all happened when i blacked out last night though.
didn't do anything on the net but did send one crazy text out lol

it's easy to just jeer at those who take the bible literally...but i dunno facetious and malicious proofing methods don't really seem to be the best way to go when you want to actually change thinking, it just further solidifies their intentions in the eyes of the public.
you'll always have people believing silly things, but belittling othres in all intents and purposes is not even really about them and what they believe, it's more about padding your own ego than anything.
humans and by humans i really can only speak for myself behavior-wise tend to defend what they try to represent by nature.
so when you put a negative light on their belief, a person that doesn't necessarily have the knowledge of that tendency can behave in a peculiar...but normal way.
they try to go down with the ship so to speak, defending their positions to the bitter end regardless if what proof provided can debase what they are defending.
and especially with religious and philosophical discussions you see this just due to the fact that most of what is discussed is based more solely on the interpretation of written word meaning for every fact militantly disproven, you can be sure there are 50 methods pushed after that that debase what was proven previously.
it's mainly because when it comes to religion a lot of the conversation isn't based on concrete facts but interpretations of written word.
that being said it is highly pervasive to the act of changing how someone thinks to put what they believe in a negative context.

you gotta be more self-aware if you want to change the hearts and minds of others

It seems like it was a jolly old time! LOL!


Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! You must have proof of an after-life after drinking that! LOL!

It's weird.
I'm still a bit hungover right now and I've found out that being hungover....makes me a badass at my job.
i knew those damn brain-cells were causing me problems.
i identify the main reasoning for it is that my behavior becomes a bit different because i'm just a bit emotionally dull right now.
must've washed away a good deal of inhibitions last night, or i might just be brain damaged...but to that i say...who isn't in some way lol.
so killing brain cells made me slower but smarter in the means that i haven't really let myself get stressed out so far.
But with that, i'll tell you it's gonna be another year before I drink again lol.
it was just the thing i needed though.
i've been reborn through many different substances but this is a first with alchohol, or maybe it isn't and i just wasn't at the place in my life to attribute such things to it.

it functioned as a sort of point of view reset.
hell yeah time for the fun part of being bipolar since i'm past the depression stage and me becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and all that!!