Fuego Valiente

Why I Don't Hate Religion

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:31:10 +0100

I wanted to spend some time fleshing out some thoughts regarding religion, I’ve recently encountered a lot of negativity from both Christians and anti-theists towards that word and I think both sides are misinformed.

It’s foolishness for Christians to try and somehow cleave their beliefs from the title of religion. While the anti-theistic opinion that religion is an outmoded, antiquated, irrelevant societal construct in today’s modern enlightened society that needs to be evolved out of the human fabric is an equally narrow and revisionist version of the facts. It’s true what they say, that religion doesn’t have a perfect track record and will have to answer for things like the crusades, the inquisition, and even current atrocities committed in its name. But the anti-theistic camp seems to forget notable historical figures from it’s past, people like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin who were sadistic and exploitative of people in an effort to irradicate religion and other undesirables from their realm.

However, rather than ad-homenum attacks and unproductive criticism of anti-religious thinking, I would like to share some of the positive realities of religion.

Arts and Culture

In times past it was the religious institutions that sponsored the creation some of our most memorable works of art. A tour through the Prado museum in Madrid, or the Louvre in Paris easily confirms this.
Community

We need community, and religion has traditionally provided the protocols necessary knit a people together into functioning society. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that every current legal system has its origins in the protection of religious ideals.
Social Responsibility

You can thank Christianity for things like woman suffrage and the end of slavery.
Critical Thinking

I think this one is what would surprise most people, it was the one that most shocked me. I can’t speak for all cultures, but in both Islamic and Christian background countries, the most reknowned universities were originally established for pursuing theological training.

Many Christians don’t like the word ‘religion’, firstly because they’re ashamed of the atrocities committed in it’s name. However, given the positive realities of religion, and the sketchy track record of any main stream school of thought, I don’t think a Christian needs be ashamed of forming part of a religious collective. Secondly because it’s about Jesus, not religion, and on a certain level they’re right. For a Christian, the most important thing is Jesus, but that doesn’t impede religion from still being an important biblical concept.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

—James 1:27 NIV

The above statement comes from the bible and the words there imply that God accpets religion but that it has its place. Religion is a tool to help us, the local body, better care for those marginalized by society and to not lose focus on the bigger picture; Jesus.

Webster defines religion as ‘scrupulous conformity’ or ‘a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith’. Religion, for all it’s faults, for the suffering it’s caused myself and loved ones, has profoundly and positively impacted my existence in ways that I haven’t even’t realized yet. There is only one world without religion and it’s animal.

"People complain about the cost of software, then act surprised when companies use free products to..."

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:15:22 +0100

“People complain about the cost of software, then act surprised when companies use free products to collect and sell personal data.”

- Marco Tabini

Or this.

(via chartier)

Wannaburger - Edinburgh's Quality Fast Food Restaurant

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:01:47 +0100

Wannaburger - Edinburgh's Quality Fast Food Restaurant:

I’ve had this site open on my browser for almost a year now meaning to share it with the world. I was in Edinburgh last march and ate here every day for a week, it was amazing. Check it out.

I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened - The Oatmeal

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:23:02 +0100

I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened - The Oatmeal:

This. This is what I hate about studios.

"Here is a list of sites you can steal images from."

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:59:32 +0100

“Here is a list of sites you can steal images from.”

- (via clientsfromhell)

March 26, 2010

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:27:50 +0100

‘A whole hour till the next bus!’ The reality was just starting to sink in. I needed to go to the airport, not immediately, I still had 12 hours to my flight, but I didn’t have the money to spend the night in a hotel, and when you don’t have any other option, an airport isn’t so bad. They usually get pretty quiet at night and put a roof over your head, though you do miss out on a bed and a shower so it’s not all roses.

At any rate I had just found an empty bench in the park in front of the bus station to pass the time on. There were a lot of youth around celebrating the start of a week off school and I was what to do with my time. I hadn’t brought any reading, limits on cabin baggage dashed any hopes of that. But I did have a pen and some paper which I pulled out of my small, black, backpack. And I began to write an account of recent events, much like this one. Becoming quite engrossed in my tale I was startled to find a heavy green bundle suddenly occupied the vacant spot on the bench. A quick glance up revealed it belonged to a determined young man fiddling through his pockets looking for cigarettes. He found one and looked at me. Then without a word he lit it and walked away, leaving his bundle on the bench with me.

‘What should I do?’ I wondered to myself but before I could act he stopped and turned around but he didn’t come back and he still didn’t say anything just continuing to smoke his cigarette.

—A Journal entry recording an evening spent in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain while enroute to the Sahara.

Pole To Pole Run - The Greatest Run in History

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:44:40 +0100

Pole To Pole Run - The Greatest Run in History:

An incredible trek from the North Pole to the South Pole. Pat >Farmer will run two marathons every day, no days off, for almost a year, over 13,000 miles through 14 countries in a race to raise $100 million for the International Red Cross.

One of the most ambitious feats of athleticism I’ve ever heard of. Pat Farmer has successfully ran from the North Pole to Argentina so far and within a month will arrive at destination at the South Pole. I’m glad he has a cause.

Dubious Assumption Indeed

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:11:46 +0100

Dubious Assumption Indeed:

Regarding SOPA/PIPA:

In the entire discussion, I’ve seen no discussion of credible evidence of this economic harm. There’s no question in my mind that piracy exists, that people around the world are enjoying creative content without paying for it, and even that some criminals are profiting by redistributing it. But is there actual economic harm?

First, I agree with the above cited statement, but I can also affirm that money is being lost to piracy. I haves lived in places where labels/studios make it impossible to legally acquire their media. For example, I live in Spain and I was listening to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Spotify a month back and decided I liked the album so much that I wanted to buy it. Brick and Mortar stores were no help and I couldn’t find it on iTunes but the pirate networks had plenty of availability. In Morocco I have yet to find a store available to Moroccans where they can get non-pirated films. Yes, money is lost to ‘piracy’, but it seems to me more the result of poor business strategy than a problem with existing law.

The Sliver of Perception

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:46:09 +0100

The Sliver of Perception:

In the grand scheme of things, we’re all pretty much blind and deaf.

Goodbye 2011

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:17:13 +0100

All my friends back home in Spain are already celebrating the needle having ticked over to 2012 and as I ready myself for the evenings festivities I feel a slight bit of emotion saying goodbye to a year filled with ups, downs, twists and turns, challenges and growth. I raced up and down mountains, I risked myself emotionally, I faced the past and problems therein, I got help from others, and made some great friends. God has been faithful, it’s been a good year. My only resolution for the next is to not forgot the year that brought me to it’s doorstep. Goodbye 2011, and to the rest of you, Happy New Year!

(via The Year in Pictures: Part I - The Big Picture -...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:00:58 +0100

(via The Year in Pictures: Part I - The Big Picture - Boston.com)

Let's put 'Christ'-mas in its place

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:05:00 +0100

Let's put 'Christ'-mas in its place:

So instead of engaging in a battle to reclaim Christmas, I propose an alternative. Let’s take Christ out of Christmas.

I know what you’re thinking: What about “the reason for the season”? But that’s precisely my point. Do Christians really want to think of the son of God as the reason for reduced-price waffle-makers and winter wonderland scenes at the local mall? That sounds like Ricky Bobby’s baby Jesus from the movie Talladega Nights, not the babe whose arrival is heralded in the Gospel of Luke. The battle for the soul of Christmas ended a long time ago, and cultural forces won. That’s clear when Christmas trees fill homes and apartments in Japan, a country where 2% of the population is Christian.

I had heard long ago that the festivities currently called ‘Christmas’ was an originally pagan celebration that the Christians tried to hijack.

Anti-Santy Ranty (by HourOfRevival)

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:46:05 +0100

Anti-Santy Ranty (by HourOfRevival)

Milk and Cookies Math

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:40:58 +0100

Milk and Cookies Math:

Did you ever want to know how many calories santa would consume eating two cookies and a glass of milk per child in the US? WolframAlfa can help.

That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence. —...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:08:00 +0100

That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.

— Christopher Hitchens, self described antitheist and champion of the ‘New Atheist’ movement.

And what evidence validates such an assertion?

Got the wood stove going. (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:29:10 +0100

Got the wood stove going. (Taken with instagram)

I was speaking with a Dutch friend a few weeks back and she told me that according to Dutch...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:49:29 +0100

I was speaking with a Dutch friend a few weeks back and she told me that according to Dutch Christmas tradition all the bad little boys and girls are kidnapped by Santa and hauled down to his peppernut factories in Spain where they slave away producing Dutch Christmas treats all year.

Did you know?

Pen in GI tract for 25 years, still writes.

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:08:24 +0100

Pen in GI tract for 25 years, still writes.:

…she was standing on her stairs using an uncapped pen to poke a spot on her tonsils. She was also holding a hand mirror to guide the pen to the exact spot. Somehow, while doing this, she lost her balance and stumbled. The fall managed to push the pen down her throat. It glided down her gullet and found a home in her tummy.

She told her husband and her doctor what had happened, but they were skeptical of the story.

I will never tire of the view from my balcony, so long till next...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:16:01 +0100

I will never tire of the view from my balcony, so long till next year. (Taken with instagram)

"The faith that many of us have in progress is quite unique and strange. Degeneracy, as an historical..."

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:45:31 +0100

“The faith that many of us have in progress is quite unique and strange. Degeneracy, as an historical notion, has been much more common than that of progress”

- Alberto Sánchez-Allred, is a lecturer at McGill University. He earned his doctoral degree in anthropology in 2009 from the University of California, Berkeley. (via Quote Vadis)