The last time I ever attended Mass, if I'm not mistaken, was in 1997. At that point, I wasn't comfortable with the ideas being presented to me by religion anymore. Anyway, been surfing and found some interesting lists of disbelievers and doubters here, here, here and here. Hmm... Joss Whedon and Kurt Busiek are in there.
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Some celebrities on organized religion:
"I do occasionally envy the person who is religious naturally, without being brainwashed into it or suckered into it by all the organized hustles.” -- Woody Allen, Rolling Stone, 1987
“Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.” --Isaac Asimov, "On Religiosity," Free Inquiry
"I'm glad some people have that faith. I don't have that faith. If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure he's done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world."
--Dave Matthews, US Magazine, June 1998
“I don't think there's anybody sitting in the sky watching you. You're on your own. All you have is other people around you, and how you treat them. I actually think that not having a focus on God would make life better, because there would be more of an imperative to be nice to each other. There would be no more brand-name wars over stuff, and pointless arguments over east side/west side, go-fight-win.” --Andy Richter, The Onion, Oct. 9, 2002
“The problem with Christianity is, they think everything is about outside forces, good and evil. With Christianity, there’s not a lot of inner work encouraged. I don’t like it that people don’t own up to the fact that every thought that we could possibly have, we’ve all had.”
--Tori Amos , Rolling Stone, June 25, 1998
9 comments:
interesting post..and an interesting blog.
keep up the good work..and please, if you check mine, even if you dont comment..at least use the map and place a pin where you are located!
thanks!
Hello Josh! Thank you for dropping by. Will visit your blog soon. :)
I consider my self spiritual, but not necessarily religious. I think having a spiritual center does help keep me grounded AND in fact compels me to maintain grace over karma.
But with organized religion?.... all you have to do is read the paper to get dismayed. Religious leaders openly trying to influence state policy. The freaking Pope declaring his enmity for gays.
Like the band DC Talk said: "The biggest threat to Christianity is other Christians."
I agree, Ian.
I believe that anyone can be spiritual without having to belong to any specific denomination. And while I believe that we are just tiny specks of dust in the vast, multi-layered universe, I believe that we have no one to depend on but ourselves.
I might be imperfect, and know just a fraction of what life has to offer, but one of the most important things I've been learning so far is to believe in myself.
And I really don't find the previous interpretations of "God"-- the judgmental, angry, and sometimes bullying creator we owe--very appealing and motivating, at all.
I don't buy into "Original Sin".
I also have nothing to do with one man's death 2,000 years ago, and I don't believe that he'll save me from spiritual damnation.
Interpretations of that person and God continue to divide the planet.
No offense to anyone.
Hm, comments section has been going wonky... testing if this works...
It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science.
-- Charles Darwin, quoted from Michael Shermer, "The Gradual Illumination of the Mind: Reconsiderations and Recapitulations on the God Question," Introduction to the paperback edition of How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science (2000)
> lists of disbelievers
http://www.philippineatheists.org/
.. the current polls seems to be at this threads ballpark
Thanks for the link, Max! Will check it out.
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