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Analyst, you're right. If we would all remember to treat each other as individuals, rather than "one of those (fill in group)" and respond to what people say and do, rather than assuming we already know another person's -- another individual's -- point of view, we might make some progress.
At its best, this blog seems like a good start.

Sir,

Creativity and a love and sense of beauty can come from within us. We need no gods for this.

Hitchens can be cruel in his delivery of the message of atheism. I do not think he is representative of the majority of atheists, in this regard.

Do notice that Hitchens was just as cruel in his condemnations against liberals (including atheist liberals) who disagreed with him that the Iraq WAr was a necesssary, just war.

I won't say all Christians are just like Falwell, if you don't hold all atheists as being just like Hitchens.

I think the real conclusion to draw is that 'faith' is no excuse for things, ...religion's another *thing we make* that we're *responsible for.*

That simple.

The terrorists who took down the WTC on 9/11
were men of faith. Their faith gave them the amazing courage to die horribly while killing thousands.
Yes courage,the mind boggling courage of faith.
We all know...dont we...that their faith was crazy
and misplaced.
We know,don't we that they are NOT in paradise with 72 virgins each. We know that this is outrageous nonsense don't we? We know that they are all just dead,don't we?
But death was not what they bargained for.
They expected life.Life in paradise with 72 virgins each. THEY HAD FAITH that this would be so.
Faith might have been a good idea in the dark ages.
But in the 21st century its ridiculous and dangerous and may kill us all in the end.
Any idiot can have faith. It's no virtue.

Good subtopic, I think. Creativity.

Sometimes when we speak about religion, well, we start falling into the terms people set *about* it, namely, whether or not claims about reality are "True," for instance, or what's 'good or evil,' and maybe forget about the inherent value of creativity *itself,*

...I think in a culture that has become focused on 'good and evil' and other divisions, we can see some of the effects in terms of our art and song, which doesn't seem to be quite what it's been at other times: in part because the creativity is usually the *last* concern of the people who bring us our popular art, for instance.

We find that celebrities who are paid attention to, aren't so much being hailed for actually being *artists and athletes appreciated for their art,* as, well, surrogate 'sinners' and 'maybe occasionally 'virtuous ones,' ...to the point that you have your Paris Hiltons who are mostly famous *for* being professional 'sinners' to revile.

I mean, wow.

Look at the 'American Idol' type shows. Interesting concept, but like so much in this society, it'd seem to be much more a referendum on who *approves of the artist* than the value of what's produced.

No insult to the singers intended, there: for all I know it's a true contest of artists there. I don't actually watch the show: I just hear how it's *talked* about. And I think *that* says something about the media culture that on one hand feeds us test-marketed 'safe' stuff with one hand and tells us how 'decadent' we are with the other.

I have to wonder, in all this religious and cultural 'war,' is inspiration, along with reason, one of the first casualties?

Yep, man's a real piece of work, alright, but that's not necessarily a compliment. All of human history has now brought us to a point where there are millions of people that could not effectively explain nor utilize Occam's Razor in a discussion, who are spoon-fed the politically correct opinion they're supposed to espouse by television, Jesus channel or otherwise, and indeed we are seeing more people drop the cable and keep the DSL, I think, for a more reason-oriented approach to obtaining information.

Martin Luther had many choice words for the Catholic church of his time, he was on their most-hated list, and his major offense was handing out bibles to the masses, so people could read it for themselves. Albore, proclaimed father of the internet, is no Martin Luther, nor is he probably really the father of the internet, but there is a similar phenomenon happening, people rapidly becoming more informed, and hence more in charge of their own lives, and less inclined to drop money in the old collection plate. I would hazard the guess that this probably has some of the staunch organized religion types more than a little concerned for the collective future of their institutions, and rightly so, because when you find out that it isn't Baby Jesus lofting the shuttle into the heavens, and that 32 ft. per second isn't the devil, it's physics, and yes, gravity does suck, well, the whole picture of the world we live in kind of relies on what kind of information and verbiage we have to try and comprehend and describe it with, and both are undergoing a rapid transformation these days.

I'm a heathen, but respect others' right to believe as they see fit, as long as it doesn't involve my wallet, sharp pointy objects, violent mobs, or war. Nuff said.