In Summary
Offline Religion as projection.
“I know I'm worshipping correctly, rather than cherry-picking and exercising personal moral preferences and obeying social norms, because... whoa, hey, American Idol's on!”
Religion as passive-aggression.
“I don't want you to suffer the eternal punishment for apostasy -- but them's the breaks! Hey, don't look at me! I didn't make up the rules.”
Religion as Nike/Prada.
“I have no idea what my religion dictates, but you can pry my meaningless religious label from my cold, dead hands.”
Ignorance is strength.
“Wow, the banana is so neat. Dang, god, you're good! I wonder if I should go to the library to do some research or at least Google 'bananas' before I go on TV... ahh, sod it.”
Religion as an alternative theory.
“Scientists keep updating their theories to account for new evidence. What's up with that? The Bible tells it like it is from the very start -- like how snakes eat dust and everyone descended from two people.”
Religion as a clubhouse.
“You just can't see the truth because it's not for you.”
Religion proven by inference of undetectable superfluous phenomena.
“Hey, look at that tree. Pretty cool, huh? I wonder how that happened. (Eyes drift skyward.)”
God as my punching bag.
“Jesus listens to all my problems and never tells me I'm boring and have bad breath.”
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That is a very, very excellent list. They all bother me immensely, and it is hard to choose one that is the worst. "Religion as Nike/Prada" is up there though.
Some of those were pretty damn (huh) funny. They illustrate how dumb people can be about magicland.
Excellent list!
This one might fall under "Ignorance is Strength", but I heard it again this morning and it still boggles my mind: Don't question your questions
Huh? (Whoops, another question...oh well.)
LOL! Nice list.
Thanks folks. The more explanations from believers I read the less convinced I am of the power of religion in itself. Rather than being influential, it seems more like a shade for the weird attitudes and prejudices people already hold. Each believer has a different unjustified belief they can only defend by removing their own responsibility to defend it. That's why no two believers believe in the same way.