CNN's God's Warriors - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

oldschoolcalgary · 08-21-2007, 07:37 PM

Anyone watching?

Pretty darn interesting...the best part, is that each of the major religions will be explored - no punches pulled so far...

For anyone objective, it is pretty disturbing...

Displaced Flames fan · 08-21-2007, 07:39 PM

I watched the preview videos at CNN.com and it was interesting for sure. I hope to catch them all sometime. I am sure cnn will re-air them a few times.

oldschoolcalgary · 08-21-2007, 09:07 PM

yeah, just finished part one...

really worth watching...but all 3 parts in order to get a balanced sense of all three and not just having people saying that a single part was anti-semetic/islam/christian...

the first part was pretty unblinking...i assume the next two will not pull punches either. Makes me want to read "God is not great" by Hitchens...

Slava · 08-21-2007, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

yeah, just finished part one...

really worth watching...but all 3 parts in order to get a balanced sense of all three and not just having people saying that a single part was anti-semetic/islam/christian...

the first part was pretty unblinking...i assume the next two will not pull punches either. Makes me want to read "God is not great" by Hitchens...

I'm about 1/3 of the way through. Its a great read, and really an easy read to.

oldschoolcalgary · 08-21-2007, 09:41 PM

yeah...buddy of mine is reading that right now...

I'm not religious, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that fanaticism of any type, be it in any religion, is not a good thing...

Neeper · 08-21-2007, 10:12 PM

I set my PVR to record these 3 episodes last week. I look forward to sitting down and watching them all.

troutman · 08-22-2007, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

I'm about 1/3 of the way through. Its a great read, and really an easy read to.

His Vanity Fair article about his book tour:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/f...?currentPage=1

You hear all the time that America is an intensely religious nation, but what you don't hear is that there are almost as many religions as there are believers. Moreover, many ostensible believers are quite unsure of what they actually believe. And, to put it mildly, the different faiths don't think that highly of one another. The emerging picture is not at all monolithic.

People seem to be lying to the opinion polls, as well.

Could there be a change in the Zeitgeist coming on? I think it's possible. A 2001 study found that those without religious affiliation are the fastest-growing minority in the United States. A generation ago the words "American atheist" conjured the image of the slightly cultish and loopy Madalyn Murray O'Hair. But in the last two years there have been five atheist best-sellers, one each from Professors Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett and two from the neuroscientist Sam Harris. As the author of the fifth of these books, I asked my publishers to arrange my book tour as a series of challenges to the spokesmen of the faithful, and to send me as far as possible to the South. The following is an account of some of the less expected moments of the trip.

I discover something that I am going to keep on discovering: half the people attending had thought that they were the only atheists in town.

Are atheists ready to come out of the closet? Are their numbers greater than estimated before?

http://outcampaign.org/

TheDragon · 08-22-2007, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

Are atheists ready to come out of the closet? Are their numbers greater than estimated before?

http://outcampaign.org/

Judging by the popularity they get on places like YouTube or LiveLeak, and recent increase in Atheist-related book sales - I would hazard to guess they're a lot higher than estimated.

Maybe those fellers at South Park weren't too far off, eh?

Behold the dawning of the sea otter!

Flash Walken · 08-22-2007, 01:44 PM

American Athiesm/Agnosticism has a strong historical record, dating back through Jefferson and Washington to Paine to the second American president, and father of John Quincy Adams, John Adams, ""This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."

Like most american history though, this all seems to dry up right after reconstruction.

Claeren · 08-22-2007, 01:48 PM

Facebook really opened my eyes too. The majority of responses range from 'i believe in something but i have no idea what' to 'athiest' with a very small minority in an undefined 'christian' category.

Of course that is in Canada versus the Southern States, but still.... i was impressed! I am used to feeling like the minority...

Claeren.

Slava · 08-22-2007, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

His Vanity Fair article about his book tour:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/f...?currentPage=1

You hear all the time that America is an intensely religious nation, but what you don't hear is that there are almost as many religions as there are believers. Moreover, many ostensible believers are quite unsure of what they actually believe. And, to put it mildly, the different faiths don't think that highly of one another. The emerging picture is not at all monolithic.

People seem to be lying to the opinion polls, as well.

Could there be a change in the Zeitgeist coming on? I think it's possible. A 2001 study found that those without religious affiliation are the fastest-growing minority in the United States. A generation ago the words "American atheist" conjured the image of the slightly cultish and loopy Madalyn Murray O'Hair. But in the last two years there have been five atheist best-sellers, one each from Professors Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett and two from the neuroscientist Sam Harris. As the author of the fifth of these books, I asked my publishers to arrange my book tour as a series of challenges to the spokesmen of the faithful, and to send me as far as possible to the South. The following is an account of some of the less expected moments of the trip.

I discover something that I am going to keep on discovering: half the people attending had thought that they were the only atheists in town.

Are atheists ready to come out of the closet? Are their numbers greater than estimated before?

http://outcampaign.org/

That's a great article. I personally think that there are more agnostics than anything else, and a lot more who just couldn't care less. Its a very interesting topic to me though, and always has been!

Zarathustra · 08-22-2007, 03:45 PM

Personally I'm glad to see organized religion becoming less and less popular, but part 1 was pretty scary. I hate how these religious fanatics never take responsibility for their own actions. I'm sure I'll see the same patterns in part 2 and 3.

I have come to really respect the ideal of Nietzsche's "overman". In my reality there is no heaven or hell or afterlife, and this life is all I have. I am going to take advantage of it and have a great time, and continue to overcome myself and grow constantly. Life is an opportunity, don't waste it.

troutman · 08-22-2007, 04:10 PM

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/

Displaced Flames fan · 08-22-2007, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDragon

Judging by the popularity they get on places like YouTube or LiveLeak, and recent increase in Atheist-related book sales - I would hazard to guess they're a lot higher than estimated.

Maybe those fellers at South Park weren't too far off, eh?

Behold the dawning of the sea otter!

Trey Parker is defnitely NOT atheist. Matt Stone leans that way. Not sure if you were speaking to their personal beliefs or just the episode, but I thought it was appropriate to point out.

TheDragon · 08-22-2007, 10:06 PM

No, I was referring to that episode, and how they depicted what the future's gonna be like - with the two warring Atheist factions. Definitely a poke in the eye to those who think that if Religion no longer existed, that there would be no more War. I tend to side with the South Park fellas on that one, though. There's always gonna be War.

oldschoolcalgary · 08-22-2007, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDragon

No, I was referring to that episode, and how they depicted what the future's gonna be like - with the two warring Atheist factions. Definitely a poke in the eye to those who think that if Religion no longer existed, that there would be no more War. I tend to side with the South Park fellas on that one, though. There's always gonna be War.

definitely, there will always be war...i guess the level of the fanaticism is what is scary - you'd like to think that rational people would be able to resist an unjustified war, or at least realize it is unjustified: Religion seems to destroy that objective thinking...

CaptainCrunch · 08-22-2007, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

definitely, there will always be war...i guess the level of the fanaticism is what is scary - you'd like to think that rational people would be able to resist an unjustified war, or at least realize it is unjustified: Religion seems to destroy that objective thinking...

Bottom line, and maybe its because I've had a lot of alone time over the last week or two is that as rational as man wants to think he is there will always be war because its in our nature, and it might not be on a individual basis, but its certainly in our societal fabric.

Man kind is competitive and vindictive, and the reason why diplomacy has never really stopped a war is because man as an animal is an unconcious pack animal who believes that thier pack needs to dominate others.

I firmly believe that our need to wage war is a genetic condition, but some (Hitler, Hussein, Stalin) don't have it buried as deep.

Mankind has this funky killer angel mentallity. We carry a sword in one hand and reach out with compassion with the other.

We've fought over religion, and real estate, and food, and water and sex, and now we're heading back in full circle back to predoninate religious battles.

Wars have gone from a societally accepted practice (WW I), to a neccessity (WWII), to battles that weren't popular but were based on politics (Vietnam, Korea), to worthless regional scrimmages over color and race and beliefs, to what is now almost sure to be a genocidal style of war based on how and who you worship.

The only relief right now is that these battles are not being fought on a national city busting level because somehow for the most case man also has this tendancy to back off from hugely self destructive conflicts when they realize that they will destroy themselves.

But I believe that these religious battles will spill over to national boundries and the style of warfare that we see will be completely without match in our history, and it will be ugly and remorseless and entire religions and cultures are going to be wiped out completely. Have you ever wondered why our technology and science advances faster during times of conflict? Because war and victory motivate the crap out of us and we need it.

Mankind was bred to fight before we learned how to read or write or add two plus two. Its in our nature that the strong survive and the weak get wiped out of the gene pool in wars that rarely change the direction of our species.

How depressing is that.

AC · 08-23-2007, 12:23 AM

Here's an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker where they explain their beliefs a bit better

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/...Nightline.html

FireFly · 08-23-2007, 12:33 AM

Has the athiest episode aired? That's one I'd like to watch.

Save Us Sutter · 08-23-2007, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireFly

Has the athiest episode aired? That's one I'd like to watch.

Yeah it aired a while ago. Should be available as a torrent or on tvlinks.

But, even as an atheist and a huge South Park fan, I didn't find it all that funny.