[ExI] Sunday Creationist

[John Clark]

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 8:21 PM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> *I see that few people want to tackle the problem of calling most of
> humanity, those who are religious, idiots.  Maybe we can see this as a
> function of manners. *
>

Everything else being equal one should be polite, but everything else is
not equal. For reasons I don't understand people got it into their head
that it was OK to criticize everything about somebody EXCEPT for their
religion regardless of how stupid it is. And what did all those euphemisms
for idiocy and pampering ofbarbarians get us? Airliners crashing into
civilian skyscrapers.

But even after that criticizing religion was still considered off
limits.  Presidential
candidate Ted Cruz said he was a Christian first and an American second,
and said whenever he had to make an important decision he always heard a
voice in his head from an invisible man in the sky telling him what to do.
When a reporter asked him for more details about this voice it was the
reporter not Ted Cruz who was widely criticized; they said it was rude to
ask the man who wanted the Nuclear Launch Codes what the invisible man in
the sky was whispering in his ear. As for me I think survival is more
important than politeness.

>
> > We are perhaps going to think that they are all morons, but have the
> manners to keep our opinions to ourselves,
>

For about 2 decades the Extropian List was unusual in that one did not feel
the need to keep ones opinion to oneself. But times have changed, this list
certainly has, and political correctness has crept in even here.


> *> In any case, calling someone a moron does no good at all and might do
> some serious harm.  Like start another jihad. *
>

That statement is just as insulting to the religious as anything I said;
speak one word out of line to these moronic barbarians and they'll go into
a murderous rampage. But I don't think your suggestion to just tiptoe
around them as if they're a ticking time bomb is a good long term solution
to the problem of aggressive stupidity.


> > *I believe that anyone who is human deserves at least a small amount of
> respect*
>

I don't believe that at all. I believe if somebody does not act in a
respectable way it would be illogical to treat them the same way you treat
somebody who does act in a respectable way.

 John K Clark
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