Comments on We Are Voting Yes: Religion and The Left - Halting Progress

Thank you Heidi. I'm glad you took the time to app...

2009-01-29T22:28:00.000-05:00

Thank you Heidi. I'm glad you took the time to appreciate the ramblings of two friends trying to solve the world's problems. :)

I would like to express my deep felt gratitude for...

2009-01-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

I would like to express my deep felt gratitude for both the original posting and Max’s response. In a world baron of role models (current president excluded) and flooded with the delusional fantasy of celebrities, being young and impressionable can be a rather flat experience. Often times I have found the postings and responses on your page to be the only thought provoking material in my day. Some of this may be a result of my ignorance in finding it, nevertheless, I am thankful

2009-01-29T14:34:00.000-05:00

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I agree - I left my final point hanging, but this ...

2008-12-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

I agree - I left my final point hanging, but this was mostly because it was not the subject of this post. The short form of that argument is that I have yet to hear anything resembling a compelling argument for restricting gay marriage rights that does not reek of outright intolerance and ignorance. I plan to explore this further later on, but I wanted to make one point at a time.

And I think this point is an important one. The leftist movement to reclaim religion for political gain is counter-productive. I did not attack religion itself, just the futility of debating it.

I find it most humorous that you spend an entire p...

2008-12-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

I find it most humorous that you spend an entire post ridiculing the cycular logic and rigidity of religious and/or faith-based arguments, yet end with a definitive proclamation, supported by no logical argument or reason of your own, that "gay marriage in no way infringes upon the rights of straight members of society."

If you are going to conclude with such a generalized decree, supported seemingly by nothing else than "my opinion is couched in reason," you should probably pause before lambasting those who make their own conclusions "couched in belief." Or at the very least, lay out some of those reasons upon which you rest your final conclusion. Otherwise, you are no better than those "manicured televangelists," who spend 90% of their diatribes damning those who would disagree with them, and 10% dictating their final message.

I am not saying I disagree with what it is you have written. I just think it's very easy, and far too kitsch, to write off religious thinkers as artifacts of an antiquated way of viewing the world, and support contrasting points of view with, "well, I employ reason."

If you are such a firm believer in reason and empiricism, instead of hammering home the tired, albeit well documented, argument that religion has caused countless problems in human history, articulate an argument for why gay marriage does not infringe upon straight members of society and use that as a basis for your post. It would be much more thought-provoking and much less prone to be written off as another rant by an angry atheist, striking out against a sub-culture that just won't come around to see his inerrant point of view.

Choose your words carefully. When you refer to the "religious right," you are referring to a group of people that encompasses a wide spectrum of beliefs, opinions, and social mores. It may not come off as wildly intelligent (or tolerant) to claim that "the wont" of the religious right is to claim they are being victimized. It is akin to saying that Jews are stingy, or Muslims are violent. (Which we all know does not fly among more "progressive" circles.) Such generalizations certainly do not comport with liberal thought. Considering you are a champion of such, you may want think twice before employing such a tactic.

In closing, I find it quite amusing that members of the religious right are the true martyrs; especially as we approach Christmas time. A time when Christmas trees and nativity scenes are plucked from the public eye because......(drum roll) ..........agnostics/atheists are so deeply offended by their presence. How one group can so vehemently insist their beliefs are being offended by the mere presence of a Christmas tree, and then turn around and call others martyrs, boggles my mind.

But maybe I'm using cyclical logic.