Hello, my Name is Parau, I am 21 and from germany.
Since quite some time I am interested in American culture and seeing how much your country is influenced by religion, I found myself thinking more and more about how it influences our world. I don't think it is a force for good and I do not think that ignorance and the willingness to just blindly believe is what enabled our ancestors to bring us the freedom and prosperity we have today, nor will it help us to overcome the challenges we face today and in the future.
Being convinced that humanism, the scientific method and the enlightenment, not the believe in superficial beings, led us to our greatest achievements, I find myself drawn to this community. To exchange thoughts and learning from one another.
Permalink Reply by Ann G. Enloe on December 9, 2011 at 9:16pm Hello, Parau, and welcome. I agree with everything you said. It's unfortunate how much religion is so deeply a part of the culture of America, some areas more heavily than others. Granted, it could be much, much worse. We're still free (for now).
Permalink Reply by Obrien Sanchez on December 10, 2011 at 3:56am ho Jewelz , how are you
Permalink Reply by No Nick for me on December 10, 2011 at 11:36am Oh sorry, my mistake. I referred to religion, I should have made that more clear. But the foreign and economical policies of the United States are a delicate topic themselves (which I would love to discuss).
Maybe you will find an outside view on that interesting? I am a regular viewer of the Daily Show and I stumble a lot upon interesting topics about what's happening overseas. So I am not completely uninformed about what's going on there. Also, I regularily watch the news and inform myself elsewhere too (our media is just as corrupt as yours). So I have some opinions which might be surprising for someone with your specific, let's say, cultural mindset.
(I hope this does not sound insulting, it is not meant to be. I am just referring to the influences in our ways of thinking as they have been influenced by our cultural background.)
And referring to your claim about how superstition and ignorance might have been a big factor in the growth of unbribled materialism, I haven't thought about it that way yet. More the other way around, how a lack of reflection on ones motives and principles (thus ignorance) and the believe that everything is the way it is meant to be by Karma or a higher power (thus superstition) led to it. Both are basically the same, but I think my approach has more of a " it is because we humans are stupid" ring to it, while yours sounds a little more malicious.
But most likely, I am just interpreting too much into it.
Anyways, thanks for the kind words. I am happy to meet you guys too.
Permalink Reply by No Nick for me on December 10, 2011 at 3:25pm Well, for one thing, I could never ever understand how someone could actually vote for the republican party. Not that the democrats were much better. Many Americans claim to live in the freeest country there is, but you only have to parties. It is kind of a joke, really.
Also, since Reagan powerful people have screwed you in so many ways, becoming increasingly more powerful and collecting more and more wealth, draining your economy dry and buying politics and now finally some people are doing something against it which would be a great example to the rest of the world and your success could spark this in other countrys as well, but you do not support OWS, you don't even seem to take it seriously. What the hell is wrong with you guys?
Permalink Reply by Bill Butler on December 10, 2011 at 11:21am Hi and welcome I think you will find many people here who share your views.
Permalink Reply by Heiko Knipfelberg on December 10, 2011 at 12:33pm Welcome,Parau. I'm first generation American(U.S.) of German descent. Always interested in hearing how people from other countries perceive us Americans.
Permalink Reply by anti_supernaturalist on December 10, 2011 at 12:45pm Welcome from the belly of the beast. To understand America, you must know that --
*** There are no religions only religious institutions.
• Each has two components, one imaginary and one real:
1. faith-based mythological and cultic claims — a fraudulent supernatural component
2. demands to exercise secular power — an illegitimate political component.
In our secular Republic there is no executive privilege for 'God'. Self-anointed god-proxies -- priests, pastors, rabbis, and imams -- need a vacation at the back of an unemployment line.
Faith claims are lies — pretensions to secular power based on them are dangerous. 'God' has been dead since Copernicus. But, 460 years later the US crawls with religious institutions many malign. They do exist, in disgusting abundance. Why?
• "Followest thou the money.” Where else can an uneducated, self-righteous bigot, male supremacist find ready employment? Fundie xianity has proven well-paying for lying anti-intellectuals since Saul of Tarsus. Consider the know-nothing dominionists in the republican line-up for 2012. Xian hate plays well and pays well.
Religious institutions, malign and mild alike, are fund raising ponzi schemes perpetrated by unholy frauds. Pastor and televangelist, Pope and Supreme Ayatollah, bishop and imam -- Liberty “U”, Focus on the Family, the "C" Street Family.
They finance pedophile priests, birth-at-any-price ranters, holy brown-shirts harassing women. fanatics murdering doctors. Their illegal activity receives unlawful tax concessions and taxpayer subsidies. They are aided by complicit judges, prejudiced federal and local police, fundie dominated state and local governments, school boards of the unintelligently designed.
the anti_supernaturalist
Permalink Reply by Evan Meinel on December 10, 2011 at 12:47pm Hello, and welcome. You are correct, america is very religious. Not all of us are though (thanks to the 1st amendment). I hope you fit in here at T/A.
-Evan Meinel Germantown, WI, USA
Permalink Reply by Judith van der Roos on December 10, 2011 at 5:54pm Willkommen bei TA Parau. Ich hoffe, Sie genießen Sie Ihre Zeithier.
Judith vd R
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