It's time to burn all the books!

Bibles, no matter which versions, religious texts of all kind, the Talmud, the Koran, the book of Mormon, the Bhagavad Gita, the mindless wanderings of L. Ron Hubbard, and every other religious tome in existence!

It's time they see how hate spreads, and how any book with a religious bent is fodder. If you got mad at my first paragraph because I named or implied a religious work should be burned, then welcome to the jungle.

I have become, throughout my life, someone who no longer has any faith nor any desire to learn about other religions because of how those who do believe behave towards others.

Yes, I'm talking mainly about the bigoted fundies who want to use Old Testament style punishments for those who fall outside their religion, but those of any religion that condones death or mayhem on others.

I think many of us have become so frustrated with the many religious "leaders" and their intolerance toward everyone else, that we've become atheists just to counter that segment of the religious world. And there are many others out there who are non-believers but can't say anything about it because of where they live or with whom they live.

But the battle still rages on, and with the way things are now, many of the "good" folk will (hopefully) finally condemn the elements in their own religion who call for the death of others, who spur on those in their religion who might be unbalanced or susceptible to suggestions, or those who take delight in manipulating others.

Do we really want to see people like this in power? Or what would happen if some of us really started burning bibles? These people are severely affecting the way the rest of us live, and we really haven't done anything in a really long time to put them in their place. Perhaps burning a few bibles could be the catalyst to showing that the religious people in our country DON'T run the country, and that if they want representation, they have to be like every other lobbyist in the country and not some group who has a hold on our country's power. If we show the world we're not all bigots, evangelical fundies, or rabid members of the religious right, perhaps our status and place in the world will get better. If we fail in our endeavors, we'll only have ourselves to blame.

about an alien pandemic that was altered to remove only the world's haters instead of the whole population as the aliens had originally intended. The aliens then realized what was left of humanity was worth saving and admitted them to the huge federation of planets.

I didn't find the scenario comforting. Without horrible examples of the worst of humanity, how would we know what to teach our kids to avoid becoming?

I think the world would be rather flat without the screaming idiots, no matter how unpleasant I find them.

We just need to find a way to keep them out of politics.

the capsules to work the way they did. Remember that professor who "reprogrammed" them - he said several times that he did not believe that the aliens had bad intentions.

And then, later last night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was on.

Two movies with apositive message and hope. Too bad they were only movies.

Well, you'd have to buy them, first, so you'd be making a nice cash cow for the publisher, that's what.

and who keeps publishing all those other blasphemies?

The burning could easily be done under the guise of purifying the evil versions.

have you ever played "The Sims"?

Have you ever gotten the urge to wall one of those babbling pixel-blobs into a room with no toilet?

Same thing with god.

about as much sense.

A major difference is that the biblical bullshit has been used to cause much pain and death.

And at least one telepathic dog.

The truth is, these are excuses, not causes. The cause is people being ignorant dicks.

extreme groups, including all those deluded folks who are getting ready for the rapture, are distancing themselves from the KJB because they somehow "found out" that James was likely gay and so they can't honor his "legacy" anymore. How fucked up do you have to be to follow one tome all your life and then need to switch "versions" because of something like gender preference? It hurts my brain to try and understand that.

"In 1966 the Rutles faced the biggest threat to their careers. Nasty in a widely quoted interview had apparently claimed that the Rutles were bigger than God, and was reported to have gone on to say that God had never had a hit record.

The story spread like wildfire in America. Many fans burnt their albums, many more burnt their fingers attempting to burn their albums. Album sales sky-rocketed. People were buying them just to burn them."

Consider how many versions and how many languages each version has been translated in and the fact that it's been on the best seller list ever since that list has been developed.

It would be a major source of air pollution.

Besides, burning books, any books, is just plain icky. Books can instruct you in what not to be as well as inspire you to be better than you are.

and not an actual intent. It fell under rhetoric. I have no intention at all to burn books. I love books--it's the people who are trouble!

I will always remember the scenes of burning books in the original Fahrenheit 451, and how horrified I was. It distresses me to think of anything burning, including books that I might otherwise object to. Books have really nothing to do with people--the books are, in an open society, the pulse point of discussion. Once the human element is injected, a book begins to be shaped in whatever way its users see it.

Protecting the world of ideas, though, relies on healthy intellects, and not warped ones. It's when the warped minds preface the conversation and turn a book into something profane that the rest of us need to watch. It's when a book stops being a book, and becomes a perverse symbol of a crazy ideology that we have to be aware of. We can't--and shouldn't--stop free speech or anyone from reading these books, but the development of hate groups across the country should be watched as necessary to prevent the radical hate groups from using legitimate ideals to make inroads into groups totally warped and sinister.

who feel they are "above" using winning tactics to achieve worthwhile results.

They would rather "take the high road" and lose than really fight and possibly win.

In a perfect world, playing by the rules and doing the correct thing would prevail. But we all live in the real world, despite what the "faithful" believe.

A real world where might does make right.

A real world where evil does not play by the rules and wins most of the time.

A real world where the road to hell is paved with good intentions but the highway to success is paved with winning tactics and determination.

nor more disgustingly.

reasoning skills.

I mean the dude was pretty good at making speeches, right? He would have had a point, and he would have delivered it.

T Wolf just sort of rambled about vague stuff there, and never really got to a point.

ergo, Hitler could have said it better.

We are a society of laws or we are not. If we are not then we are a mob. Adopting the methodology of monsters makes us monsters too. You feel comfortable doing that, be my guest. I still want to be able to look in the mirror in the morning.

Quick, let's prevent hate by forcing those who previously read religious literature to instead spend all their time watching Faux News.

We just won't tolerate the intolerant -- nor the tolerant whom we can lump in with the intolerant!



a big unrec!!!

It'll come to that, if bible burning catches on.

I share your exasperation with the deference, esteem, and import accorded texts because they're "holy", but I viscerally reject burning books. The world will know we're not all crazies as long as we loudly resist the fundies. Bible burning wouldn't make it any clearer.

I thought it was sarcasm and that it was going to be thread criticizing a religious group for burning books. But I guess it is a thread that actually advocates the burning of books.

I guess many people are not familiar with the art of oration, a practice long practiced, it seems, only by politicians, professors and personal training coaches. The idea is to get people out of their chairs and infuse them with enthusiasm and a desire to change things.

It's a talent that few people are blessed with, and a talent that even fewer people understand, unless you spent 5 years studying Latin, a "dead" language. In addition, trying to connect to people online with skills honed for an actual live audience is difficult at best.

However, I had thought that more people would understand my comments as being a "call to action" and not a call to book burning.

And you should read this response from above:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=217652&mesg_id=217685

as further proof that some people just aren't getting it.

see this response:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=217652&mesg_id=217685

Where do you stop the burning? Augustine ought to burn too, and Acquinas, and others? Willful ignorance that is anti-religious in nature is as dangerous and stupid as when it comes of religious fundamentalism.

In a way, I agree with you, because I don't think anyone should read any of that garbage/hate speech/fiction posing as myth. But just because I don't think they should read it or especially run their lives by it, that doesn't mean I can stop them. Freedom of Speech and all that...

Plus, the only thing burning a book ever did was make its surviving copies more popular. And burning a bible would a great way to energize the right into trying to legislate EVEN MORE of their own crap into our law books.

And every time an atheist spews out an anti-bible screed like this, the right paraphrases it, stuffs it in envelopes bound for the bible-belt, and makes another cool million. Even if I agreed with your sentiment 100%, I'd still say your methods are flawed.

A pov to treasure along with "Religion is worse than Crystal Meth".

Progressive/critical thinking strides ahead in leaps and bounds.

which consists of mockery and celebrity endorsements.