A reply to a friend

[The Green Manalishi]

a buddy, usually rational and a constant source of funny postings, forwarded on some rant about muslims, yada, yada, yada... First time he'd sent anything similar.

I replied thusly to him, and I think that the following can well serve as my introduction of myself to this group; I have lurked here for a bit over a year and enjoyed myself immensely.

>>Frank,
All religious beliefs automatically label the holder as a mentally unstable, cognitively defective immoral sociopath as far as I am concerned.

As soon as someone thinks they have an invisible friend in the sky, or is so arrogant as to believe that anything other than decomposition is going to go on after death,
they are a fucking nutcase; from there my only concern or interest is if their particular delusional paradigm impacts on me and my life, the specifics of their insanity are of little interest.

Dan

[immoderate]

1. If so, religion would not be the problem that it is.

If they were certifiably insane, it would be easy to commit them and give them the drugs that would snap them out of it.

Religion is an institution that is tailored to human frailties. There are parts of our personality and psychic makeup that make it practically inevitable. This is much more of a challenge.

--imm

[salvorhardin]

2. I agree with immoderate

Painting with such a broad brush is unhelpful. If you truly believe this, then you must also believe that some of the greatest scientists, thinkers and humanitarians throughout all history were clinically insane. To label all religious believers as mentally deficient at once calls into question our own rationality and betrays us as bigots.

[roody]

3. I love your response to him

but could never share it except to my very best friend who feels the same way. Its charm is in being rude, exaggerated and overly broad.