Comments on: The real lesson of the Westboro Baptist Church http://www.lolife.com/2008/08/the-real-lesson-of-the-westboro-baptist-church/ blunt observations Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:19:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: mnphenow http://www.lolife.com/2008/08/the-real-lesson-of-the-westboro-baptist-church/comment-page-1/#comment-1150 mnphenow Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:20:46 +0000 http://www.lolife.com/blog/?p=658#comment-1150 I wouldn't even say that "many" and certainly /not/ "the overwhelming majority" of religious people are good. I don't think you could draw any meaningful correlation, much less causal relationship, between Religious People and Good People. And even if you could draw a direct correlation, I would posit that most of these "good" people are good for the wrong reasons or at least only superficially. If there is any kind of relationship, I would wager everything I own (which, happily, isn't much), that it's an inverse relationship. Religion is so ubiquitous in our society that to be non-religious, it has to be not only a conscious decision, but a perpetual conscious decision. For anyone to bother with all of the hassle people will dump on you when they know you're non-religious, you have to do it for a good reason--you have to think about it. And when you actually have to deal with the reality of the world in its own terms and decide that you do want to be a good person, you tend to be genuinely much better at it than those that are "good" because of some noxious combination of guilt, shame, rote, decree, tradition, pride, vanity, and group identification. When you cut all of that bullshit out of the equation, you have to actually learn to deal with real people and real emotions--you have to master yourself and master empathy. Therein lies true goodness. I wouldn’t even say that “many” and certainly /not/ “the overwhelming majority” of religious people are good. I don’t think you could draw any meaningful correlation, much less causal relationship, between Religious People and Good People. And even if you could draw a direct correlation, I would posit that most of these “good” people are good for the wrong reasons or at least only superficially.

If there is any kind of relationship, I would wager everything I own (which, happily, isn’t much), that it’s an inverse relationship. Religion is so ubiquitous in our society that to be non-religious, it has to be not only a conscious decision, but a perpetual conscious decision. For anyone to bother with all of the hassle people will dump on you when they know you’re non-religious, you have to do it for a good reason–you have to think about it. And when you actually have to deal with the reality of the world in its own terms and decide that you do want to be a good person, you tend to be genuinely much better at it than those that are “good” because of some noxious combination of guilt, shame, rote, decree, tradition, pride, vanity, and group identification. When you cut all of that bullshit out of the equation, you have to actually learn to deal with real people and real emotions–you have to master yourself and master empathy. Therein lies true goodness.

]]> By: imagine http://www.lolife.com/2008/08/the-real-lesson-of-the-westboro-baptist-church/comment-page-1/#comment-1139 imagine Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:45:08 +0000 http://www.lolife.com/blog/?p=658#comment-1139 Agree with everything except I would re-write your penultimate sentence to "The overwhelming majority of religious people are good...... and of course who is to decide between fiction and fact in dealing with faith and belief systems?? you should decide for you and I should decide for me and the Westboro Baptists should eat a cold lizard in hell. Agree with everything except I would re-write your penultimate sentence to “The overwhelming majority of religious people are good……

and of course who is to decide between fiction and fact in dealing with faith and belief systems?? you should decide for you and I should decide for me and the Westboro Baptists should eat a cold lizard in hell.

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