Feb

23

The Devil Went Down To North Carolina

February 23, 2010 by Brandon | 2 Comments

One student in a North Carolina high school is refusing to write an essay on the hypothetical premise of selling your soul to the devil because it “violates her Christian beliefs.” The students in her class were assigned to read “The Devil and Tom Walker,” a classic short story by Washington Irving which explores the same hypothetical idea. Of course, any rational person will tell you that this is a fictional story, and the devil represented within it, too, is fictional.

Still, Tieanna Trough and her parents think it is an inappropriate request. Her mother, who appears in an interview on a video clip on the link above, strikes me as a loudmouth, but I suppose that’s unfair to judge her on that. I will judge her though on her stupid assumption that because we have “removed” God from the classroom, that is, forcing students to pray or creating the appearance that a government funded, public school promotes a specific religion, that we should now remove anything resembling or referencing religion. This is incorrect; as I stated, this is clearly a fictional piece of literature, with fictional characters. One is not meant to believe that the devil portrayed in the story is the literal devil of Christianity, especially when reading it in an academic setting. What now? Should we ban “Paradise Lost”? What about “The Iliad” for its flagrant promotion of the Greek pantheon? Would this student be opposed to an essay which asked the question, “Would you sacrifice your family for fame and fortune?” Or perhaps, “Would you commit murder for a billion dollars?”

These are very valid moral questions which are at the heart of the short story the class was examining, and contrary to popular opinion, morality and religion are not mutually exclusive.

Frankly I think this girl should get pushed back a few grades so she can learn what fiction means, and perhaps what hypothetical means. And to her mommy, if you really think that writing a silly paper like this is going to offend your God so much, then he sounds like a dick.

And you sound fat.



Feb

17

This Is An Outrage!

February 17, 2010 by Brandon | 2 Comments

Rachael Harrington of the Sacramento Area Coalition of Reason probably isn’t very happy today. A billboard which the Coalition of Reason paid to put up on a stretch of road was vandalized; the original message was inoffensive enough, stating, “Are you without God? Millions are.” However, someone felt the need to tag at the end, “ALSO LOST?”

Now, I’m not so much concerned about the actual vandalism. Honestly, I don’t really expect anything less of the moral religious community. I think what really is getting me is the outrage at atheists over their annoyance that their property was vandalized. Yeah. You heard that right. There are people somehow spinning this, making the atheists the bad guys because they’re annoyed that someone ruined their billboard, calling atheists a bunch of whiny hypocrites that can dish it out but can’t take it.

Can’t take what? Destruction of property based on your insecurity about a message that isn’t a criticism of you? A message that isn’t even directed at you? Says a lot, if you ask me.



What is Fractal Wrongness?

The state of being wrong at every conceivable scale of resolution. That is, from a distance, a fractally wrong person's worldview is incorrect; and furthermore, if you zoom in on any small part of that person's worldview, that part is just as wrong as the whole worldview.

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