CONFESSION ZERO

Yes, Mr. Dawkins, we should be offended! But let's not just be offended, let's take action to change, go from being offended to being pro-active in our approach to those that do offend the sense and sensibility of humankind and by doing so we can change the channel to one of Love and Peace.  You and I, and many others, agree that religion is repugnant in many ways, especially the wars and piety that can stem from such, yet it is also repugnant to Creation, along with humanki nd's great apathy toward Home and one another. I've always found you to be a rather pragmatic man with a fairly healthy intelligence... and I will soon watch your video in full as this was just an excerpt, but I am not offended by atheism or Christianity, by another's belief, yet I, like you and many others, am offended by the idea of Hell and being told that I shall go there because I do not believe the same as another, who wouldn't be? But I still sense in ALL the story of our reason

Our own "point of view" is not reliant upon another. Another's view can certainly shape our own, yes, but in no way is it reliant upon it to have a view that is open-minded. Acceptance that all have their own mind to shape is what makes one open-minded, but We must be careful not to lop off our own personal view just because we hear another's and agree with it. We should maintain our own, and, if we alone choose, allow it to be shaped by our experience of another's, then that is of our choosing. Our viewpoint is not to be replaced like a damn light-bulb. I maintain my true identity born within, if I alone shape it, add to it, from other viewpoints, fine, but, if I wholly replace mine with another's, I do no favors for what was born within "Me". If I do that, it's nothing more than wholesale surrender of the sovereign self and that is not open-mindedness. We shouldn't give "ourselves" away by another's experience, if history

The media should not be what shapes our opinions on anything. If we believe everything we hear about religion from the media, then surely we believe all other things we hear from the media, but I know that is not the case. The best way to shape our opinions about religion, or anything for that matter, is not to listen to the institution's "spokespersons" or the "media", but by actually getting to know the individual people within the particular institutions. I believe that "religion" (has become) was designed to be a battering ram, but there are many "Christians", "Muslims", "Jews", "etc", that are not what the media portrays them to be anymore than welfare recipients or atheists or Mexicans, or Arabs, or black people or convicts, gun owners, tree-huggers, liberals, Libertarians, conservatives, teenagers, etc. Religious people vary greatly, even within their particular faiths, I know many and have engaged t

Judgment is couched in demeaning those we deem meaninglessness, unsentimental, rigid babblers. We are all babblers, are we not, some more than others? Bird's squawk, we talk. Equals now, but not in the offing, if the collective doesn't begin to see the truth beneath their feet and before each of them, mere worthless babblers. © 2014  Mark Richard Prime