RIP Jack Chick

[Martinus]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

[Razgovory]

even those that dream of slaughtering you?

Yes, even Marty.

[Razgovory]

If all religious people were like you, maybe I wouldn't be atheist

Imho, public policies should be decided by the level of knowledge we have today.  That's my problem with religion, were all too often, religious people are against advancing our knowledge.  No matter if it's the present, the not so distant past, or the very long forgotten past, it seems we should be stuck in time at some specific point and stop advancing because we already know everything that is important.

Define "knowledge".

[The Brain]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

[Martinus]

All religions are based on some fundamentally absurd and baseless explanations of the nature of the universe. Jack Chick hating Catholics is just part of his unfounded, irrational belief system. When I dismiss religious people, even if they target other religious peoples' ridiculous views, I come from a position of rationality, science and skepticism.

What's fundamentally absurd and baseless about Taoism or Buddhism?

Taoism and Buddhism are like Pret-a-Manger and Whole Foods. It is better than McDonald's but is still a chain.

[Barrister]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

You are so full of shit Marty. Don't ever change.

One of the awesome things about Christianity it is as deep, or as shallow, as you want it to be.  If (in a Polish context) you just want to go to Mass on Sunday, receive communion and then go on your way the rest of the week you can do that.  If you want to be more intellectual you can study the history and interpretation of the texts.  If you want to be more philosophical you can read the generations of Christian philosophers and theologians.  And yes, if you want to be more mystical  there is a lengthy Christian tradition of that as well.

[Martinus]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

I think some sort of a critical, empirical approach to spirituality. Check out what is out there, try everything, see what works for you, always question your assumptions. I think it is a deeply human need to reach for transcendence - without it, life is semi-empty. Just don't be a sheep.

[Martinus]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

You are so full of shit Marty. Don't ever change.

One of the awesome things about Christianity it is as deep, or as shallow, as you want it to be.  If (in a Polish context) you just want to go to Mass on Sunday, receive communion and then go on your way the rest of the week you can do that.  If you want to be more intellectual you can study the history and interpretation of the texts.  If you want to be more philosophical you can read the generations of Christian philosophers and theologians.  And yes, if you want to be more mystical  there is a lengthy Christian tradition of that as well.

Fair enough. I think you can be a Christian mystic - many were. But then for some people (yours truly, for example), Christianity doesn't work as available in the socio-cultural context. So you need to look out for other things. Freemasonry, occultism, Buddhism, mysticism etc. I think we should look out for what works for us rather than settling for the "biggest circus in town".

Edit: Also: some of my best friends are deeply devout Christians.

[The Brain]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

I think some sort of a critical, empirical approach to spirituality. Check out what is out there, try everything, see what works for you, always question your assumptions. I think it is a deeply human need to reach for transcendence - without it, life is semi-empty. Just don't be a sheep.

Transcendence? For adults?

[Martinus]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

I think some sort of a critical, empirical approach to spirituality. Check out what is out there, try everything, see what works for you, always question your assumptions. I think it is a deeply human need to reach for transcendence - without it, life is semi-empty. Just don't be a sheep.

Transcendence? For adults?

Yup. It's the highest level of Maslov's hierarchy. I found it deeply lacking when I hit 35 or so.

I'm now almost 39 and I'm a much happier individual.

[The Brain]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

I think some sort of a critical, empirical approach to spirituality. Check out what is out there, try everything, see what works for you, always question your assumptions. I think it is a deeply human need to reach for transcendence - without it, life is semi-empty. Just don't be a sheep.

Transcendence? For adults?

Yup. It's the highest level of Maslov's hierarchy. I found it deeply lacking when I hit 35 or so.

OK gay hippie!

[Hamilcar]

Christianity in its various flavors is just so obviously man-made and obsesses over truly parochial concerns. Take a step back, and you can see how ridiculous it is.

[Berkut]

You know, Jack Chick felt his views were completely rational as well, and could source just about anything he said to an appropriate Bible quotation.

The real similarity between the two of you is your absolute certainty in the correctness of your world view, and the inability give any credit or sympathy to the views of others.

Oh, stop it with the postmodern drivel. There is zero similarity between Chick's views and mine. Why? My world view is subject to revision given new and better data. Error correction if you will. Chick just has a book he thinks was written by the Creator of the Universe.

But if that book WAS so written, then his absolute faith in it is perfectly rational.

That is the entire problem with beebs insistence that we should just treat this all the same. It is NOT all the same.

If I truly believed that an apostate might possibly damn my child to an eternity of torment, there is no possible action I can take that is rationally beyond the pale to fight that danger. You cannot start with a irrational premise that results in infinite possible harm and NOT end up with radicalism.

Jack Chick's entire world view and actions make perfect, rational sense given one basic irrational assumption and the beliefs that follow from it.

[Martinus]

Personally, I think religion is the junk-food of spirituality. It satisfies an ubiquitous need, is easy to get and does not require much effort but does so in a way that is low nutrition and harmful to your well being. Mysticism and esoterism, on the other hand, is the equivalent of whole-grain home grown slow food. It takes time and effort to properly prepare but the benefits for your well being are much more pronounced. Atheism ls like arguing one should give up on eating because McDonald's is bad for you.

And what kind of food is the thinking man's approach?

I think some sort of a critical, empirical approach to spirituality. Check out what is out there, try everything, see what works for you, always question your assumptions. I think it is a deeply human need to reach for transcendence - without it, life is semi-empty. Just don't be a sheep.

Transcendence? For adults?

Yup. It's the highest level of Maslov's hierarchy. I found it deeply lacking when I hit 35 or so.

OK gay hippie!

I think the camaraderie and spiritual connection aspects of this are quite valuable.

What I protest against is people lazily defaulting to their socio-cultural choice, especially if they then seek to impose their spiritual values on others.

[The Brain]

Now I'm hungry. Thanks Mart.