The continuing saga of my religions teacher

[lucia_tanaka]

"Thanks for the explanations, but I have to ask if you truly believe your statement that you "have no reason to believe any of these faith-based ideas. . ." It can be argued that showing compassion to another person is a faith based idea."

Yes, I do truly believe it, thank you.

And no, it really can't.

Originally posted at DW. Comment here or

Comments

[lucia_tanaka]

Yeah, the last week of class I am going to send a politely worded email explaining the fact that atheists don't appreciate being treated this way, we have to deal with it all the fucking time, and do you really think we're atheists on a fucking whim? Atheists, the one group of people a sitting president said couldn't be considered citizens of this country.

FFS, more and more I just want to move to another country. Between passive aggressive bullshit like this that I deal with every day to women's rights going down the shitter (yes, let's just pass laws to make killing abortion doctors legal), and the madness going on in Wisconsin.

:starts looking up immigration info:

Re: *delurks briefly*

[lucia_tanaka]

Apparently Bush Senior. :sighs:

[farwing]

Wow, that is super fucked up. The old 'atheists have no morals' argument, yeah? Fun.

[hihotiho]

Wow, that's total bullshit. True compassion is independent of the expectation of reward that Christianity cites as incentive to do good. If you're doing good for the sole reason that you believe in God, then you're doing good just so you can please God, and you're trying to please God so that you can go to Heaven. Which is selfish.

I'm sorry, I'm not in college yet and haven't really taken any classes in theology, so my reasoning might be faulty, but to say that compassion is by definition faith-based sounds idiotic to me.

[lucia_tanaka]

No, you've got it right. That's actually a major argument I've heard in atheist and agnostic circles about why Pascal's Wager is fucking bullshit-- it's predicated on the idea that a "faithful" person is only acting compassionately in belief they will be rewarded later.

[hihotiho]

Yes, I remember reading about Pascal's Wager and how bulletproof it was, and being all Are you kidding me? This is not flawless logic.

[lucia_tanaka]

ffff ahahahaa did someone really call it that? Oh my god, it's up there with Aquinas's Proofs for laughably terrible arguments.

[wintersjuly]

/random butting in with incoherent rage

...having faith in people doesn't mean having faith in a higher power. that's two very different things. faith applies to more than just religion, mr.asshole religious teacher -- the religious faith is just one definition of it (otherwise, he's sort of implying that we do good because of religion faith, which takes all responsibility and autonomy from people generated kindness, or people generated nastiness. apparently it's not possible to be a decent person who donates to causes unless you follow a religion. yeah, fuck you too, asshole).

and isn't the whole point of a religious teacher to introduce people to different religions and ideals? not to exclude them? he's doing a great job, clearly

[lucia_tanaka]

He's a minister in a nearby town.

Contain your shock.

[takoon]

Wait, your teacher is making judgments on your religious views?

That... seems unethical, somehow. It's his job to instruct students, not try and ~save~ them.

[lucia_tanaka]

You must have missed the last post in the saga where he told me, There is so much in this post that needs to be unpacked, but this board isn't the time or place for it and I do respect your beliefs as they are right now at this point in your life.

[takoon]

I've been off in my own world. D: Damn. There's no other teachers for this class that you could transfer into, or it's too late in the term?

Also if you're semi-serious about wanting to move out of the country up there, Iceland is pretty sweet if you don't mind it being dark half the year.

[lucia_tanaka]

I am quite serious. I don't want to live in a country that even entertains the thought of making murder of people you have ideological differences with illegal. I mentioned going northernly to Mum and she pointed out how much I hate the cold. I think that's small potatoes compared to the benefits.