• The movie The Avengers has been out on DVD for a week now. What the hell are you waiting for? Go buy a blu-ray player that can handle 3-D and pick up the deluxe 4-disc set. Now. Go on. Go.
• More violence in my church's second neighborhood this week. Now we have a couple of teens shooting at random cars. No reason. No drug-related, no gang-related, just the good clean fun of pumping bullets into random vehicles as they make their way down the street. Harrisburg police maybe caught the right kids. Maybe not.
• Some days I feel like all I do is walk a dog I don't want and go to a church in which I no longer believe. The higher principles of Unitarian-Universalissm? You bet. The way Harrisburg puts them into practice? Not so much. And I truly, honestly believe that they put their -- OUR -- congregation in danger every single week. Every. Single. Week. When the other shoe drops, it's going to be a disaster. You read it here first. (Well, probably third.)
• I was reading some late work by Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame in which he describes his personal beliefs as, not atheism, but antitheism. Not only did Adams not believe in a god, he actively opposed belief in any god. Christopher Hitchens says it more eloquently than I could: "I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful." Yes, this, please.
• In the same vein, Douglas Adams again: "The rights of an individual to practice their taith ends where the rights of another to not be encroached upon begin." I have never understood why this is so difficult for humanity at large to put into practice; that most societies actually find it easier to kill those who disagree with them than to allow them to live in peace. If you believe strongly in something, like, say, marriage being only between a man and a woman, then live your life that way. Only marry the opposite sex. Knock yourself out. Conversely, if you find something hateful, or repugnant to your god, then by all means don't do it. Don't have abortions, don't have sex except for procreation, don't use your left hand for anything that doesn't please your deity or deities. Go nuts. But leave me the hell alone.
• More violence in my church's second neighborhood this week. Now we have a couple of teens shooting at random cars. No reason. No drug-related, no gang-related, just the good clean fun of pumping bullets into random vehicles as they make their way down the street. Harrisburg police maybe caught the right kids. Maybe not.
• Some days I feel like all I do is walk a dog I don't want and go to a church in which I no longer believe. The higher principles of Unitarian-Universalissm? You bet. The way Harrisburg puts them into practice? Not so much. And I truly, honestly believe that they put their -- OUR -- congregation in danger every single week. Every. Single. Week. When the other shoe drops, it's going to be a disaster. You read it here first. (Well, probably third.)
• I was reading some late work by Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame in which he describes his personal beliefs as, not atheism, but antitheism. Not only did Adams not believe in a god, he actively opposed belief in any god. Christopher Hitchens says it more eloquently than I could: "I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful." Yes, this, please.
• In the same vein, Douglas Adams again: "The rights of an individual to practice their taith ends where the rights of another to not be encroached upon begin." I have never understood why this is so difficult for humanity at large to put into practice; that most societies actually find it easier to kill those who disagree with them than to allow them to live in peace. If you believe strongly in something, like, say, marriage being only between a man and a woman, then live your life that way. Only marry the opposite sex. Knock yourself out. Conversely, if you find something hateful, or repugnant to your god, then by all means don't do it. Don't have abortions, don't have sex except for procreation, don't use your left hand for anything that doesn't please your deity or deities. Go nuts. But leave me the hell alone.
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