h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Easy. Show up. Somebody will be scalping tickets. Find them. Buy them. Enjoy them. Eliminate them. Forget them.

Coincidentally, what the heck is GLastonbury?

> the idea of Athiesm in this country is almost analogous to that of all those baby sacrificing satanists we're always hearing about!

> What's strange is that we never actually ~see~ them.

Yeah, weird, isn't it? I've heard a lot about Satanists, but I've never really understood what they were about. I know that they don't advocate child sacrifice, and anybody who's commited a major crime is kicked out of the church. As far as I can tell, they don't actually worship Satan at all. They're all about enlightened self-interest.

> They argue that the ten commandments is nondenominational and could be interpreted to be the ideals that any god would set forth for his people, or that 'under god' can be interpreted for anyone's god. (They really have even less understanding of Kali than I do).

I know what you mean, Count. Religion for many people becomes something to do on Sunday, and there's very little thought put into what it actually represents. The Ten Commandments were the basis of Jewish life under a monotheistic deity. They're good commandments, and make for a good society - but telling a bunch of Hindu or Buddhist folk that this particular philosophy is more 'right' than the one they grew up with, is just plain wrong. The 'You shall have no other gods before me' for instance. The Hindu culture worships many gods, including Kali, the goddess of death, Ganesha, the creator, Shiva the destroyer... The list goes on and on. Which god is the Hindu supposed to worship over the other gods? Then there's Shinto, which is the ancestor worship practiced by many Japanese. Buddhism doesn't worship any god in particular, but seeks to join the eternal 'all.' Worship of that god with ritual would inhibit the achieving of enlightenment.

Atheists and agnostics are treated with the same disdain as gay clergymen or Boy Scout troop leaders. Discarding the Christian belief system, or at least reinterpreting some of its tenets, seems to set off all sorts of alarms - as if a homosexual, atheist or agnostic is more likely to commit a crime than a conservative, heterosexual Christian. I think it's ridiculous. You don't have to be Christian to do good works. You don't have to believe in any deity to be a good person - and I mistrust anyone who does good deeds in the hopes of 'getting in good' with their god.

One of my favorite novels is 'Small Gods' by Terry Pratchett. It's worth a read - only Pratchett can combine religion and philosophy with humor and pull it off.

glastonbury is the english equivilant of woodstock

Lentilla - it is difficult to get by without a religion, unfortunately. There's something about not needing the associated guilt and bad self-esteem that makes people nervous I guess .

Has to be said - your name is really..not all that nice.

i think the 10 commandments are really the basis of law and really have little or nothing to do with religion

have you *read* the 10 commandments?

> Has to be said - your name is really..not all that nice.

You speak of my Creationism quote? It's from Bill Hicks - I changed it on the anniversary of his death. I like it... it goes along with the notion of (and excuse me, please, if I ruffle some feathers) anti-abortionists who look like they've never had (whisper it) sex.

Religion isn't the opiate of the masses. We need religion, or some form of spirituality, in our lives to make us complete. I have plenty of guilt and bad self-esteem; I don't need a religion to dish it out to me! I make up for my agnosticism in other ways; I try to build my spirituality with education, learning, and objective thinking.

i read the commandments but i couldn't quote them somehow like the 50 states i never see seem to get them all..but they are the basis of english law in fact the code of hammurabi preceded them by a long chalk but really most of law comes from the commandments one way or another

That being the case, why don't we spatter lamb's blood over the doorways of federal buildings as well?

Lentilla

<>
(Whisper it) I am coming out as an anti abortionist (we prefer to be called pro-life) and I don't know what I look like, but I have certainly had sex, as my children can testify by their existence. There are even some exes around who could likewise verify that I am no virtuoso...

are you sure they don't

I was told by an RE teacher that Hinus don't worship several gods, but merely have several names for the different facets of one God, kind of like the Christian trinity. I'm not entirely sure how acurate this is though

Lentilla I like the creationism quote and before anyone says anything I'm a Christian. People like that often fail to understand the reasons why certain books of the Bible were written. They also tend to be the ones who pick and choose which bits of scripture to quote without looking at the context. I guess due to the freedom of religious expression that exists in the US you seem to get more of these people on TV. It's like they say about democracy, it's good because everyone gets a vote, unfortunatly that includes the morons.

One thing I find funny is that when GW whent on his Bible Boot Camp thing one of the books of the Bible he suposedly read and looked at was Acts, which has a lot of stuff in it about the redistribution of wealth and helping your fellow men, in fact the Motto of the Soviet Union and Communism, "From each according to his ability. To each according to his need." is taken from Acts.

<,From each according to his ability. To each according to his need." is taken from Acts.>>
I thought as much - I had a Communist/Christian society in one of science fiction future Univi (plural of universe..)

I heard the same thing you did about the Hindus, TB.

Lentilla said .....*look* like they never had sex"

Della if you want help with the difficult bits just ask dear

Go on then, goad him. I'd be much interested for Blicky to start going on about sex

Count Zero - "But even with their limited understanding of world religions, the idea of Athiesm in this country is almost analogous to that of all those baby sacrificing satanists we're always hearing about!"

Mr. X - "What's strange is that we never actually ~see~ them. To my knowledge there are none in prison, nor have any been given capital punishment, nor have any gone fugitive to other countries, nor have any been identified, nor have any..."

Lentilla - "I've heard a lot about Satanists, but I've never really understood what they were about. I know that they don't advocate child sacrifice, and anybody who's commited a major crime is kicked out of the church. As far as I can tell, they don't actually worship Satan at all. They're all about enlightened self-interest."

*cough cough*

Me. Satanist. Ug. Google helps. Ug. Try churchofsatan.com. *scratches butt*

And you make it so appealing, my dear!

Sorry. I was feeling particularly primitive. Had something to do with not having showered.