1. Top 6 Incestuous Relationships In The Bible

Comment #185185 by donmak on May 27, 2008 at 7:01 am

I would love to send this to my extremely religious family members. But as you know, they have this all explained rather easily.

THEY say the reason incest was tolerated then was because there weren't as many people on the earth so the only people they could screw was family members.

THEY also say that it didn't result in weird birth defects and retardation because humans were still so close to perfection. You know, since only a generation or so ago they were supposedly "perfect" and had not sinned.

THEY say the most important thing was to fulfill God's command to "become fruitful and fill the earth", so incest was only a minor quibble, eventually becoming socially unacceptable only after the human population had grown sufficiently to do away with incest.

Haha. I know. Don't shoot the messenger. I only report the news.

dm

2. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #86131 by donmak on November 8, 2007 at 8:06 am

Not that I care if a person is gay or not ... but with the moral pretense of Christianity and Catholicism I must ask:

Is it just me or is that Priest really really gay?

;-)

3. Hebrew Charter School Spurs Dispute in Florida

Comment #65867 by donmak on August 27, 2007 at 7:16 am

This is something that has been worrying me for awhile. The Christian Conservatives have been vehemently against the public school system - blaming it for the secularization of America. Coincidentally, one of the biggest proponents of charter schools is the current Bush Administration. Even one of his daughters is choosing the charter school program as a career choice. I see this as a tool later on (10-15 years) to use public funds for religious education. This Hebrew School is nothing more than a harbinger of things to come.

dm

4. Why I Believe Anti-Evangelism Is Wrong

Comment #57374 by donmak on July 19, 2007 at 3:44 am

As someone who was raised in a religious cult myself, I feel the most important thing for me is helping "believers" overcome their fear of asking questions out loud that they have always had deep inside. As a religious "believer", you are usually trained to believe that asking those questions out loud is a sign that Satan has sowed seeds of doubt in you. This is the awful truth - one that I lived with until my mid-20's when I began to pursue my doubts wholeheartedly.

So I would say it's not as important to say I'm RIGHT and you're WRONG, as much as it is important to help fundamentalists see it is OK to go down the rabbit hole and find the answers to questions that have been nagging them.

After that, the RIGHT and WRONG will take care of itself. ;-)

DM

5. Atheists Take On Religion

Comment #24148 by donmak on March 5, 2007 at 3:25 am

I know I am setting myself up for a flaming, but I think it is good that some might believe in a God of sorts but cast out all the superstition about denegration of all women except some virginal Mother and all the ransom BS.

I think it's good because you are ultimately setting up future generations to be atheists - or at least critical thinkers. -dm

6. Secret Life of Brian

Comment #16686 by donmak on January 8, 2007 at 4:19 am

I like Terry Gilliam's comment at 30:58 -

This is what makes me crazy, is this ability to just close. [They] say, "No don't even look at it. Don't even think about it." It's a way of keeping people ignorant, under control, and not thinking. And I think with Python - one of the things I felt we were all pretty proud of was trying to make people THINK.