Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Angela Evangelia on March 10, 2013 at 4:29pm

 "But for me, vandalism is more about my fun than how my viewers feel about it. Their reaction is at best more gratifying (getting it in the paper) and at worst irrelevant-- which is still pretty gratifying."

Thanks for being honest about this Lewal ...

So .. putting it simply ... you just dont care ... Is that right?

Do you not feel that thing in your gut or mind that says to you ... "Hey Lewal ... chill ... this is not right"?

Do you feel invincible?

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Permalink Reply by Lewal on March 11, 2013 at 6:09am

I definitely don't care about the grief of the faithful or the financial loss of the church or group. I do have the thoughts "This is illegal. This equals x dollars, x time in jail," etc. But I certainly don't feel like it's "wrong." If by invincible, you mean I feel like I'm not going to get caught, sure-- but mostly because there really is very little chance of it.

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Permalink Reply by Gallup's Mirror on March 11, 2013 at 7:07pm

My cousin has an 18-year-old son. He and his friend were driving by a church late at night shortly before Christmas. They thought it would be funny to take the baby Jesus statute out of a life-sized nativity scene on the front lawn. The resulting uproar was intense. It actually made the front page of one of the local newspapers. The statue was part of a matching antique set from Italy that was worth several thousand dollars.

It turned out that a neighbor of the church, a retired teacher, happened to be out of bed getting a drink of water at that moment. She looked out a window and recognized one of the boys, who was a former student of hers. She didn't realize what was going on until she read the newspaper story and noted the police were asking for help.

The police knocked on the front door of my cousin's house at 6:00 am the day before Christmas. My cousin's husband (who is a bit of a drip) agreed to let them search his son's bedroom. They found baby Jesus under a pile of dirty laundry at the back of his closet. Game over. Now he has a criminal record. Beyond the impact on his employment prospects and he also a virtual pariah around town.

What were the odds that a lady he knew would be looking out the window at that exact moment? I don't know but he probably had a better chance of getting hit by a falling meteor. Beyond the odds of getting caught, a risk assessment should also consider the (quite ugly) consequences if you actually do get caught.

I appreciate your guts, Lewal. But slapping a sticker on a Bible in a locked hotel room is about as far as I'm willing to go in this area.

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Permalink Reply by RobertPiano on March 11, 2013 at 10:00pm

Lewal, you see how these things can get out of hand....?

The wise-guy cops followed the north star and knocked on the front door of my cousin's house at 6:00 am the day after Christmas. My cousin's husband agreed to let them search his son's manger. They found baby Jesus under a pile of dirty laundry at the back of his closet. Then the town Sheriff, Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise guy cops, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were in the hood

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Permalink Reply by Jorita on March 10, 2013 at 6:18pm

I would never write in someones bible, as I would not like them to write in my books, not even on a blank page. I find it insulting though that I was asked to remove my books of Dawkins from the bookshelve at home as my partner finds it insulting.

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Permalink Reply by Strega on March 10, 2013 at 6:28pm

I wonder how your partner would feel if you put paper covers on your Dawkins books and gave them idiotic names, like "Not For The Squeamish", or "Naughty Book".  I do hope you managed to get any book with a religious reference off the bookshelves too :)

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Permalink Reply by Jorita on March 10, 2013 at 6:55pm

NO NO my books are writen by people and is as I have been told by all family members a lot of bull. The only true book is the bible as it was writen by men under the guidance of the holy spirit. You can not reason with them as they don't have logical reason

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Permalink Reply by Strega on March 10, 2013 at 6:57pm

RUN AWAY!!!

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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 10, 2013 at 8:57pm

I am forced to agree with Strega.

Some of us have found religious partners we can live with, but yours is much too intolerant; he (I am guessing based on statistics you are straight, if not please correct my pronouns) is dictating now what books you may keep and what books you must tolerate him keeping and it's decidedly one-sided in his favor.  What is next?  You must listen to him try to convert you and you aren't allowed to argue back?  You must let him go to church but you cannot go hang out with freethinker friends?  Worse:  you must go to his church with him, but he won't go to your meetings?

Your partner finds Dawkins "insulting"?  Yet you are not allowed to find the Bible to be such ("be silent in church" is the least misogynistic thing it has to say).

That is just... fucked up (pardon my Hungarian).

Get out, right now.

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Permalink Reply by Jorita on March 11, 2013 at 2:48am

No my partner does not tell me to go to church with him. And if and when I am lucky enough to have a friend to talk to he will remove himself from the conversation. The Afrikaans culture is a very conservitive one at best, so chances of meeting another atheist is almost zero to nun. I can have my books in our room.  I personaly think for him it is what is his mom going to say if she comes to visit. She does believe that I will be sending him and his children straight to hell, and was in tears over this. Ignorance is a sad thing and to me it once again shows that people still like in the stone age fear what they do not know. That the fear put into them by their religion is so big that they will not even read Dawkins out of the fear of going to hell.

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Permalink Reply by Strega on March 11, 2013 at 10:13pm

More courage to you, Jorita.  I had not realised where you were :)

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