[AshleyO]

Originally Posted by Saya

I didn't say they HAD proof, I said they FEEL they have proof. People who are anti-vac feel they have proof, 9/11 truthers feel they have proof. When people cling to theories they don't really listen to contradicty evidence.

Yeah well... feelings and all. I feel like imperialism and capitalism are bad things. But most Westerners feel differently. I feel like X-Files is an incredibly amazing show. Why the hell would you or anyone else care? Why SHOULD you? Are we supposed to change our minds about how people feel when that feeling becomes popular? How many people does it take to dispense an amount of respect for someone's feelings? Misogynists feel like there's a proper place for women. Why should I care? Am I not bound to offend that feeling? Shouldn't I?

The burden of proof to who? To people they're proselytizing, sure. To anyone who asks, no.

The burden of proof is ALWAYS on the one who makes the claim. No one even has to god damned say it. The books and scriptures and all the myths are sitting right there on the god damned pages. Anyone who observes them will obviously be saddled with the burden of proof. Mostly because spoiler alert; religious observance isn't as personal as so many wish it were.

Or bad, since it makes religion inescapable. The religion in pop culture is reflective of "real" religion anyway, and religion in turn responds to religion in pop culture.

Not really because your all encompassing definition doesn't necessarily change the fact that it brings us all back to square one and ideas within the zeitgeist are still set against each other. You can't escape doubt and skepticism simply because it's now thrown into some religious arena. By all means, let people try and pray the gay away. We'll see how effective it really is.

Like the Jedi thing, Lucas was pretty open that it was largely based on Buddhism and Taoism, and the prequels were more Christian in narrative and tone. I don't think its surprising that people are responding to it when its repackaged in a more culturally familiar way.

Yeah and Brent made a fucking FABULOUS musical once about religious myths. It turned out way fucking awesome. I honestly don't see what the problem is with appropriating religious myths for some good story telling. Jesus Christ Superstar is fucking badass. They should do one about Muhammad. I'd pay good money to see that.

Maybe one day when we have our liberal foot off their throats and aren't dropping progressive bombs of freedom on their children, they might not cling to extremism as a means of surviving neocolonialism.

Personally, I'd love to see them all unite against the west. I do in fact think that a better world will come from the non-core nations. Unfortunately they will have to do something about the extremism some day. Tit for tat, saya. The west deserves a whole hell heaping amount of the business end of global justice. But what do you want anyone to do about it? Who in the west can really be revolutionary in their name to make the struggle easier? We can't even celebrate the bravery of one cop deciding to eliminate a few corrupt ones without calling him a criminal.

Because Buddhists (and I have to stress I'm generalizing and not speaking for all) according to scripture, view religion as a tool and a means, not the end goal. I don't think that's particularly unique when you look at experiential/mystical religious practice such as in the Orthodox church or Sufi Islam.

I don't mind religion in this context. If you want to move people with myths for doing the right thing; by all means. Irrational beliefs tend to galvanize action far more effectively than a nuanced logical point.

Its odd you kinda say you only care about one, though, because when people tend to do that they ignore intersectionality. Like the Redstockings Manifesto stresses all men oppress all women and women are a class.

If it helps, I freely admit that there are some things I'm fairly absolute about. I don't care about any manifestation of bourgeois feminism. Not like I can stop a bunch of people from being empowered by Ayn Rand; but conflict is absolutely inevitable in that case.

Many mainstream feminists (like the ones that are more likely to be listened to, go on tv, get book deals) are often racist and transphobic and a lot of other things, its really hard to avoid them. Perhaps that's because racist non-feminists are more willing to listen to the racist variety, I dunno.

Of course. I'm really not surprised by this. A lot of people have some bad beliefs that they want to desperately be true and any sort of incident that helps their confirmation bias must be a blessing from the gods for them.

Hey, I don't stay silent. I feel in real life though when I say something people get sulky and shut up, but go ahead and do whatever anyway.

I apologize if I sounded like you stay silent when you see feminism go in a direction that's really not settling any important matters at hand. But I agree that it's a wretched thing.

I'm not sure they're exactly the same thing, but that (pop) culture and religion are entangled and the distinction between the two aren't so clear, is what I'm getting at. Its hard to say one is authentic and the other is not when the spiritual satisfaction may be similar.

All I really have to say on it is that it's incredibly telling that you can actually get the same results from a drug addled rock show than you can at some religious service. Honestly; how can that NOT be good news for skeptics? Typically I get really excited when I hear or read about workers taking over a means of production or scientific advancements that do things such as ACTUALLY curing blindness or what-have-you. Frankly, if someone wants to thank a god for that... I don't see why they shouldn't. They wouldn't be correct about it; but whatever floats their boat.