 Why Was Corkscrew's Post About God Locked?
Easty, my good English brother, I must differ with you on locking Corkscrew's previous post and the reason you gave for it.
This thread is supposed to be about "anything but SLK talk." I don't see it posted anywhere that it is limited to "anything but SLK talk, except for religion and politics." I was intrigued by what Corkscrew had to say and wanted to respond. I think you were too quick on the trigger there Easty. We have a portion of the site like this so we can talk about off-topic subjects with our friends. Why must the site stay "religion and politics free"? I don't see that anywhere in the user agreement. No offense, but your reason for locking the post sounded like a personal preference to me Easty. Let the members decide what is posted in an "off topic" forum. If religion and politics are not wanted on this site, then posts regarding them will go unreplied to and they will fade away. But let the members decide what is put in a forum billed as "Any thing [sic] but SLK talk." What classifies as "religious" and/or "political" is so open to interpretation that you could lock nearly any post. What if I said, "Thank God I have my SLK." That could be construed as religious. Or what if I said, "I hate paying income taxes!" That could be made to sound political.
Let's not make it our game to conduct overbroad and generally arbitrary censorship of any post. That defeats the purpose of an "off-topic" area. I am not trying to be cantankerous or rude. I simply differ with you on this matter. I hope it does not ruffle any of your feathers.
Anyway, Corkscrew said:
"Karl Marx said that "Religion is the opiate of the masses," and he couldn't have been more correct. Religion is a drug that encourages you to not think for yourself, and, in my very humble opinion, is much worse and far more deadly than heroin, pot, cocaine, and alcohol all put together. None of these other drugs breeds contempt for other people, but all religions do in one way or another. Religion is the insidious evil of our planet, and the sooner people start to wake up to that the sooner we can get on to bigger, more important issues like peace and goodwill toward others."
This is the most well-known Marx quote. It is often misquoted and mistranslated in an attempt to support vitriol against religion. I think it is important that we see the whole quote from Marx. It gives a much different impression of what Marx was saying. It reads:
"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions."
-Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
While Marx did say that religion is the "sigh of the oppressed creature," he also said - in nearly the same breath - that religion is "the heart of a heartless world." My point isn't to tout the value of religion as much as it is to shed light on an oft misquoted saying that a lot of religion-haters like to turn to. If all one gets is the famous quote with an ellipses at the end without the rest of what Marx said, people are not getting the whole story.
Religion has played a huge role in my life - for good and bad. I think it is an interesting topic and wouldn't mind exploring it.
Lock this post if you like, but I think it is arbitrary and disappointing if you do. |