The other day I did a post called Here We Go Again…. A christian had come by HDC and offered to have a bit of discourse so I posted what he had said and replied accordingly. Apparently there were quite a few comments, some of which got a bit heated and unpleasant. But a few questions were asked in amongst all the angry exchanges that I thought I’d address directly.

Sometimes I know I can be a bit vague about where I stand on issues, mainly because I don’t want to offend anyone. I like to be happy and make others happy. But I think at a certain point, honesty really is more important than a bit of bruised ego. So let’s stop pussyfooting around and I’ll lay my cards on the table. I am not trying to offend anyone. I’m just being honest.

It was noticed that I don’t ever capitalize god. Why should I when there is no such thing? I capitalize Jesus when I feel we’re talking about a person, even though I don’t believe Jesus existed. I capitalize Rome because it’s a place. But I don’t capitalize god because it’s a concept, not a reality. There is no god, hence no need to make it a pronoun. When referring to yahweh or jehovah, also not real… no reason to make them pronouns either.

The Invisible Pink Unicorn, on the other hand, is completely real, bless her holy hooves. LOL… sorry.. trying to lighten the mood.

In that vein, Michael Mock in the comments referred to god as G-d.  I find the whole g-d thing irritating because it is done out of deference for the christian god, even fear. That’s why it bothers me. Because it’s silly. Your god can spell, after all. So whether you stick that “o” in there or not means nothing. It’s simply a sign of fear for a god who seems cruel and arbitrary if something like writing out the word god, all three letters, is bad.

There was also a good discussion about indoctrination. I agreed with Steve that people adopt the detergent/ political party/ religion and eating habits of their parents and community.

Religion by its nature is done through indoctrination. And here I’ll say it. I think religion is inherently evil. I think indoctrination of any sort, whether for religious reasons or for simple manipulation is also evil. It assumes that the person being indoctrinated has no free will and gets no say in what they are forced to learn to believe. It’s evil. Read the rest of this entry »