Proselytizing

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars relates a Ray Comfort proselytizing story worth having a giggle at.

It reminds me of the ever-diminishing stream of proselytizers that have accosted me on the street or at my door over the years. The most memorable - and scary - was when I was 17 and mowing my Dad's front lawn. Two old, I mean OLD men in black suits and armed with bibles stopped me in mid-mow. That's a gardening term - "mid-mow". They asked me if I thought it would be wonderful when the lion lies down with the lamb, yada, blah, yada. I was weirded out. I think my dad looked out the window, called me inside as if he had another chore for me, and rescued my shiftless ass.

Fast forward twenty years. I'm pretty hard boiled about it now. People attempting to witness to me at the front door get a curt "No thanks - 'preciate it!" from me before I firmly close the door. Not quite a slam - a firm closing.

I just really don't care what people think about their religion.

I don't care if people are concerned about my "soul", although, if they'd expressed concern about my soles, I might be interested.

It would be fun to converse with Ray Comfort, though. When he gets to his "do you think you're a good person" shtick, I'd answer with an unequivocal "no" and proceed with a totally fabricated rap about how I like to use Black & Decker power tools on people to see whether they find it pleasurable or painful, and how I like Black & Decker better than Stanley or Craftsman, and why. I could have a lot of fun with that!

Everybody knows what God is!

"...everybody knows that God is a deranged shapeshifting hunchback with a unicorn fetish."

Iain Walker, in a reply to P.Z. Myers on Pharyngula -
October 22, 2007, 10:55 am

Shit happens - and Lrrr did it.

Shit happens.

It is what it is.

Zenner words were never spoken (is "Zenner" even a word? Probably not - but you get the point).

We hear people say these things a lot in America. It *is* kinda Zen - this acceptance of what is.

Why isn't that the most effective world view for a sentient being to have? What value does imagining the supernatural have that offsets the costs that the belief imposes? That may, indeed, be the reason that people have beliefs in (so far...) imaginary entities, and the doctrines and rituals and communities built up around them.

Sure, belief in Lrrr, Ruler of Omicron Persei 8, may have a comforting effect on the believer, and may socially bind believers together in a network of mutual benefit, but strictly speaking, Lrrr doesn't exist. Lrrr can't be found in reality. Arguing that Lrrr will destroy you shouldn't scare the non-believer, and shouldn't make the believer feel that this threat has real value, that the believer can summon Lrrr to wreak havoc on you and your collection of Star Trek memorabilia.

Why, then, does belief in Lrrr continue to gain adherents?

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Author's note: Lrrr, I beseech you, please do not destroy me. I have never doubted your existence, even though there has never been physical evidence of your existence, nor evidence of evidence of your existence. Notwithstanding Futurama. Amen.

Church is cancelled

Via the Onion: Church is Cancelled due to a lack of God

Everyone is crazy

I'm beginning to suspect that everyone is crazy