Slate: 'Is religion good for children?'

Is it a good thing when children are more "well-behaved" because they are fearful of a bullshit concept of eternal damnation based on a work of fantasy?

No, it isn't.

 

Atheists or vegans -- who's more superior and annoying?

 

You'll never read articles in Slate about how to handle your militant organic spouse who tells you what you can post on Facebook.

 

I didn't miss these Slate and Atlantic articles at all while the OP was away on sabbatical.

 

The town that I live in has a major "holier than thou" complex going on, so the time that I've lived here has really soured my views on religion. Way too often people use their church affiliations as country club-type status. Way too often do I hear "I go to church with ____" as a way of justifying how wonderful they are. And when I'm asked (almost weekly) while on assignment "Where do you go to church?"

WTF does where I go to church matter about the story I cover?!?

Also, so not to threadjack, I often do my grocery shopping on Sundays, normally early afternoon, not long after church gets out and some of the worst behaved kids in the store are the ones dressed in their "church clothes."

Church folks are also some of the worst tippers, from my experience waiting tables in college. Bible verses as tips don't pay rent!

I wouldn't go as far as calling myself an atheist, however, the holier than thou crowd can go fuck themselves

 

Click-bait. They should have been more ambitious.

"Do crosses glorify state-sanctioned torture?"

"Does reading the accounts of Jesus in the Gospels discourage students from learning lucrative manual-trade skills like carpentry?"

"Has the doctrine of Transubstantiation turned generation after generation of Catholic children into poorly paid magicians?"

 

For all its faults, Slate isn't Upworthy.

It's not a bad piece at all.

 

Religion certainly has been good for the Burpo child and his family. Very, very good.

http://nathandickey.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/heaven-is-for-suckers-a-review-of-todd-burpos-heaven-is-for-real/

 

I swear to Jesus/G-d/Allah/my fedora that we've had this very discussion here before, possibly even pegged to a Slate article.

 

Substitute any other group of people and this would be as apparently offensive as it actually is. This is exactly the holier than thou attitude you claim to hate, just a secular version of it.

 

I did a Mad Libs and substituted in "blacks". It was brutal.

 

You can also be religious and go to church regularly and not take every single word of the Bible literally. I don't think everybody who is religious is delusional.