- Here are the things I don't care about:
I don't care what the name of your religion is.
I don't care what the names of your gods are.
I don't care how old your religion is.
I don't care if your great-great-whatever grandmother passed down your famtrad Book of Shadows under the watchful eye of the Inquisition.
I don't care if an entire civilization worshipped your Goddess for ten thousand years.
I don't care if you made Her up based on manga or Tolkien or a dream you had...
What do I care about?
I care that your religion has made you a kinder, more compassionate person.
I care that you can hold down a job.
I care that you're growing past whatever happened to you as a child or last year.
I care that your gods help you become stronger without coddling you.
I care that you are willing and able to adapt and change as your life does.
I care that you care about the Earth.
I care that you care about someone and something outside yourself...
Go read the whole thing
3 comments:
Interesting. I'll be interested to see if this comment passes the moderation.
Why is it, Jordan, that you declare "I care that your religion has made you a kinder, more compassionate person," and then you seem to spend so much time mocking others that don't agree with your opinion.
Isn't that called hypocrisy?
First, I haven't "declared" this, I've quoted a comment from another blog. Secondly, "so much time" is rather a shallow summation. Thirdly, I don't "mock others", but I am free to express my concern and even mock the *positions* of others. As a rule, editorially, I don't employ ad hominem. Sometimes I make a mistake and don't live up to my own standards. Is that hypocrisy? Possibly. I am human, and that's sometimes part of the package.
You also curiously tie in those whose "religion has made them kinder" with those I "mock". Logical fallacy, although I rarely expect more from anonymous commenters. I'm certainly open to seeing where I've criticized a person whose religion has made them kinder and more compassionate.
Interesting that of all the posts to criticize, you pick one that a) I didn't write and b) holds to a higher ideal than I sometimes live up to. I think aiming higher is a good thing, which is why I posted this.
I agree that aiming high is a good thing. Reach exceeding grasp and all that, wot?
First: yes, I assumed that it was your position, as you titled that post "Dianne Sylvan Gets it Right". I assumed that your headline about "getting it right" inferred that she had stated values with which you agree. Did I assume falsely?
Second, I don't believe that I tied "those whose 'religion has made them kinder' with those [you] 'mock'." Rather, I observed that your religion (which I understand is gnosticism) appears to have not made you kinder, as evidenced by the mockery of those different than you (who may or may not be either religious or kinder themselves).
Mocking their position? I see some of that, but I see you mocking people perhaps more fiercely. Admittedly, I haven't seen your whole blog; a friend referred me to a couple of interesting posts (and they were!), where I found epithets such as "Vatican half-wit", "Mr. Dumb Vatican Secretary To Whom They Always Pass The Microphone", or the always popular "slack-jawed inbred yokels."
I'll admit that those whom you are mocking are foolishly easy targets; perhaps they're even mock-worthy, but the epithets in question are certainly not addressed at the positions they espouse. In fact, it does look like ad hominem. I describe them only to question whether your religion has made you a "kinder, more compassionate person," not to suggest that theirs has or has not done the same for them.
Ad hominem, by the by, is certainly within your right; your praise for Dianne Sylvan merely suggested that you had set a higher standard for yourself.
In the larger picture, I enjoy reading your "This is what I'm for" articles better than your "This is who I'm against" ones; I particularly liked Reason 4,387.
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