Comments on: The Obligatory Hendrix Perm

By: garubeach

garubeach — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:10:40 +0000

I, too, am sorry that this religious holiday in December is consumed with the message that “you need more stuff from the store”. It makes me feel like I need more stuff when I don’t, and hides the deeper message of giving.

By: sgrill

sgrill — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:12:02 +0000

At Thanksgiving, we should also give thanks for the food on our tables. We give thanks to our ancestors, who over tens of thousands of years practiced artificial selection on their crops.

By: Chris B

Chris B — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:24:08 +0000

Humans are not very good at being amateur philosophers. Rather, our minds are adapted towards tangible goals, e.g. avoid that lion, find food, try to mate, form alliances with other humans. The capacity to determine the nature of the universe does not increase our chance of reproduction, therefore this capacity is undeveloped in humans, except perhaps as a low-functioning artifact of other capabilities that are tangibly helpful. That’s why thousands of years of academic philosophy has produced so little in terms of findings that everybody can agree upon. That’s why religious fables became the dominant world view. When it comes to intangible theories, humans obviously do a horrible job of determining truth.

I’d go so far as to say most people are not concerned about the possibility of being factually incorrect. They enjoy the benefits of their group membership, so they’ll continue believing what it takes to maintain that, discounting all counterarguments, no matter how logical they are.

My conclusion is that your philosophical argument may intrigue a handful of academics, but will change zero minds – not even among the academics. I’d say this opinion is well supported by observation.

By: Chris B

Chris B — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:11:23 +0000

I’d say thanksgiving is a holiday that atheists can and should co-opt. The annual act of looking around you and realizing the ways you are fortunate is uplifting in an otherwise gray time of year. We should be reminded to give THANKS to those around us who make our lives better and to try to feel SATISFIED if we can say that we are well, safe, warm, loved, or wealthy enough not to go hungry or drink dirty water like over a billion other people at this moment.

This is quite a wholesome contrast with the “you need more stuff from the store” message of that religious holiday in December. Or the fear and threat-based message of the hyper-religious that “god expects to be lavished with praise or he will do bad things to you.”

I’m glad that my winter mentality is about contemplating what is going right in my life and who deserves – and will get – thanks for that, rather than lining up at Macy’s for a 5 a.m. orgy of greed or at the church for an 8 a.m. expression of fear and self-loathing.

By: Krystalline Apostate

Krystalline Apostate — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:10:54 +0000

Hey, thanks reason. Obliged & appreciated.