I was originally asking for permission from people to put these up, but it's a pain in the ass, and I figure anything you say on a blog or podcast is public and should be fair game for this kind of thing (especially since I'm finding things I like, portraying them in a positive light, and putting a link back to the source). If you want me to take something of you down please just let me know.
This was from the
Stain Glass Masquerade post on Sheldon's blog. It was about how as a fundamentalist you always have to be very careful about what impression you give off all the time. The post really spoke to me, I never realized how exhausting that whole process was until I left the church and didn't have to do it anymore.
This is from a post about
self-esteem on the blog Godless in Dixie. The basic point was that low self-esteem helps keep the congregation in line. This post also spoke to me quite loudly.
This is from a post on
Atheism and the City. I've had vague thoughts along these lines in the past, but The Thinker put it better than I ever have.
I stumbled across these guys on
youtube thanks to the
Lady Atheist. They are a bit like the atheist experience, taking calls and such. Good stuff. Here they were discussing when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and asked an obvious question that Christians seem to rarely ask.
Great post with great links. Thanks. I read Atheism and the City as often as I can find time, and have been trying to get back to a discussion there about the basis for a naturalistic morality. I had not stumbled onto Godless in Dixie so Neil's blog is new to me. I followed through to his interview at a local church - raising a host of interesting topics in the social dynamics of debating any points between competing world views (not just atheist to theist, but theist to theist, as well as atheist to atheist). I am presently re-reading John Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct, An Introduction to Social Psychology (1922). It is interesting how theories about the transference of ideas come into and out of favor (as do the particular ideas themselves). Dewey felt that diversity of ideas was itself an essential element of what makes human 'human'. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
DeleteI found atheism and the city pretty recently (maybe a month ago I want to say) and Godless in Dixie extremely recently (a few weeks at most). I've enjoyed both quite a lot.
That sounds very interesting about theories about transference of ideas. You're making want to read Dewey now
This is a comment from Sheldon that got lost in the cracks of the internet
ReplyDeleteThe Godless in Dixie post was good. Yes, fundamentalism is built on destroying self-esteem. It teaches that we are worthless, and undeserving of god's love.
Just look at the evangelism tactics with Kirk Cameron in the Way of the Master series. Many evangelicals have been directly or indirectly taught those tactics, either through the materials, or it's passed from person to person.
The first thing they ask is do you think you are a good person? Inevitably, most people will say yes. Then you go through the Ten Commandments, have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever hated someone? (Jesus says that hating your brother is the same as murder).
Then they usually go through quoting Isiah (all our unrighteousness is as filthy rags to god, unacceptable, repulsive). But wait, god can forgive, he loves you, he sent his son to die for you!
Make the person feel worthless, and evil, then build them back up with promises of forgiveness, and a special relationship with god.
Yeah, I find all of that really disgusting. If you try to fight back and claim you are a good person they will typically shoot right back with "we are all sinners, even me!" type of stuff. What really makes me sad is I think they completely believe it. Disgusting.
DeleteBtw, I am on a mobile app, but I noticed that if I switch to Full Web View I am getting funny behavior in the ComBox- so I switched back to Mobile View. Specifically when I wrote my first comment on this post it said "No Comments" had been posted, but I then shifted to Full Web View and presto, their was Sheldon's comment already posted (but which apparently must have disappeared). Just letting your readers know ... instability problem might be occurring either in the Full View Display on Mobile Devices or in the full web application regardless of device. Anyway it ain't anything you are doing. Blogger ... grrr.
ReplyDeleteActually that makes sense. It's not blogger, but the intense debate addon I was using. I went ahead and nixed it and went back to just using the blogger comments. If the ID comment system can't handle both full web and mobile than I consider it broken and useless.
DeleteThanks for the info. Also, I'm glad it happened sooner rather than later, some comments will be lost in the transition back which is a bummer, but at least it's not too many.
"Low self esteem is crucial to the whole evangelical narrative."
ReplyDeleteI cant even begin to explain how true this is when I see fellow family members so involved in the church and getting misled into believing something is gods will. If your boss is an idiot, he/she is an idiot its not god testing you and making you humble. Its sick that this rhetoric gets so much air time.
Yup, and as I was just posting on sheldon's blog, the really crazy thing is when you are in the thick of it, you have no idea how much this type of thinking permeates your life, and how much work it is to maintain.
Delete