We’re at yet-another-sci-fi-convention this weekend, and my daughter has found a new fun thing to do in the hotel room — find dirty stuff in the bible! She looks on-line, finds entries with poop or sex or death penalties, and marks them. It’s analogous to what I do with the buy-bull, except I find inconsistencies, and she just finds, well, stuff that’s funny to 11-year-olds.She has her own buy-bull now (courtesy of Marriott and the Gideons) and she’s got it all marked up with sticky-notes and highlighter. I’ve made it clear that she can and should read the book when she wants to, but she has made it clear that she’d rather just skip to the good parts.Ahh. I sense a new father-daughter activity.
Comment from DD:
Sorry I screwd up my blockquotes again. Guess I should look that stuff up on the internet
Haha, loving it! It’s awesome your daughter is a healthy, logical-thinking member of society.
Respecting beliefs? Well, I think I respect their beliefs to a certain extent…at one point I had some atheist images on my bebo, like “Thank you for not littering your mind”, and one from exchristian.net. Well, it was kind of a response to people who had Jesus skins on their pages. A soon as I uploaded, people basically started questioning me. “Is there really a need?! Soz, being Christian and all…” Seriously! A Christian can express their views openly, no questions asked, but Atheists get endlessly questioned. I don’t think that’s respect. So rather than have half my friends hate me, I deleted the pictures. I’m trying to be religiously tolerant. http://www.religioustolerance.com. I need to stop telling people I’m an atheist. It’s way too controversial. And I’m 14. I can’t imagine what the world will be like when I’m older.
I forgot to mention the Christians in my cultural groups like choir and barbershop. Singing their worship songs on the bus on trips. Drives me insane. I feel sad for some people. They’re so smart and talented, yet one of them wastes her songwriting and composition talent on worship songs. Grr.
Does anyone know if there is a hotel chain which does not put Bibles in the rooms?
I would patronize that one.
Bible-free Hotels
Accor Hotels decided to replace the Gideon Bibles with “intimacy kits.” For Accor, providing travelers with sexual paraphernalia is more important than the Bible. Accor Hotels owns several chains including: Motel 6, Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap, Formule 1. While these chains are mostly located in Europe, Accor is expanding to many U.S. markets.
http://www.afa.net/emails/transform.asp?x=hotels_111407&m=11&y=2007&s=browser
sunshine
I have been telling people I was an atheist since I was your age and have not lost a single friend that I wanted to keep.
Here’s a thought: When you encounter a hotel room with no bible, leave $1 on the table with a note telling housekeeping that you appreciate the lack of religious propaganda. If 5% of hotel patrons did this, you’d see a lot less bibles!
Better thought: Leave a printout devastating every argument for the existence of God folded up inside each bible.
You mean like the author of this blog has stated that he’s done? What’s your point?
So you’re willing to break the law in attempt to subdue a view inconsistent with yours?
What I don’t understand is why you all are so insulted by the presence of a bible. I don’t feel the need to throw away the Koran, Book of Mormon, Talmud when I see one. Why does it bother you so much? They aren’t assuming *anyone* is Christian, it’s just that a large percentage of people checking into hotels are Chrisitan, and many would like a Bible available. It’s easier for the hotel to just have a Bible in every room than have every resident who wants one to come down to the desk. This would probably just annoy guests and cause them to want to stay at hotels who did have Bibles.
sunshine:
Yet again I don’t understand why this would make you mad. If you’re an atheist, life in general is pointless. I’ve never understood the use of the word “waste” in an atheists’ vocabulary, outside of temporal happiness. And so if the girl’s singing and songwriting makes her happy, what does it matter to you if she’s writing about Jesus, doo-wop, bling, drugs, sex, trees, apricots or something completely abstract?
I’m curious what you guys think of the other side of the “inconsistencies” claim, which is taking every verse in the bible in context? The Bible is the most unfairly, hastily criticized book in history.
Anyone who truly takes the Bible seriously and studies it, and interprets it without rigid fundamentalism (“Jesus says that his word is a mustard seed. ERROR #146! Words cannot be seeds!”), whether or not you believe it is true, you will realize that it truly does tell one unified story. But if you approach it with a hardened heart, as the author of this blog does when he spends time with his “buy-bull”, the result will be whatever you want it to be.
uoflcard:
“Yet again I don’t understand why this would make you mad. If you’re an atheist, life in general is pointless. I’ve never understood the use of the word “waste” in an atheists’ vocabulary, outside of temporal happiness. And so if the girl’s singing and songwriting makes her happy, what does it matter to you if she’s writing about Jesus, doo-wop, bling, drugs, sex, trees, apricots or something completely abstract?”
What, why does being an atheist make life pointless? Please enlighten me. I see a lot of point in my life. Just because someone’s an atheist doesn’t mean they can’t have a family, study in uni and get a degree get a job helping others, doing good in this world. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of point to this life.
But I will have to agree with you, if it makes her happy, she can go write about trees, apricots, or abstract.