Hahahahah. Excellent.

Relatable Romney

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One of my own creation.


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Mind you, I still like him better than any other president you've had in my lifetime.

Over 80% of Gen Xers said they believed in God in 1995? I call bullshit.

The thing is, Millenials are currently at The Age where you freely and defiantly admit you don't believe in God. Then you fall in love, and you think you might even wanna get married to this person, but maybe he/she believes, or is less certain than you are at any rate, so okay, everyone makes compromises for love and you still don't believe but you just sort of keep quiet about it because you now realize there are some good people like your sweetheart out there who believe, not just the raving fundamentalists, and you aren't as desperate to offend people and "shake up the status quo" as you were in college. And then you have kids, and you are struck with the terror of having to teach this tiny creature all it will know about morality, and you are filled with guilt over your own immoral decisions in life and don't feel up to the task of being the world's biggest hypocrite, so the two of you kind of drift back to the church together, even though neither of you had gone for a decade except when you were visiting the believing spouse's family. You're trepidatious, but it turns out your spouse is the rule rather than the exception, most of the younger people you come across in these churches you visit are perfectly nice, reasonable people who believe in evolution and don't have strictly predictable politics. And all of a sudden, you're in your 40s and when the pollster calls and asks if you believe in some form of God you find yourself saying, "yes," and you chuckle at what the 20-year-old you would have thought of the person you've become. And then suddenly you're 60 and you find that the world has changed, and what you thought were perfectly progressive beliefs you held are now staunch conservatism, and you find yourself to now be rather sure there's something, some meaning to all this, because you've lived out the idea for so long it's second nature, and your impending mortality is on your mind and you don't want to be terrified about what's coming next, and your 20-something grandson is busy throwing his ragingly "liberal" politics in your face, things you can't even imagine being reasonable today, and rolling his eyes at your spirituality and shaking up that old status quo... and you just sit back and smile and know he'll get his in the end.

Bravo!

I'm glad you didn't delete that post after composing it.

:notworthy

...

Ohhhh... love that one!

This all makes sense, the way you've described it. Doesn't sound so bad...on the surface.

But, something is bothering me, I can't help but notice. Isn't this a list full of crippling compromises? A tale of avoiding hard work and tough decisions, following the path of least resistance, and practicing intellectual weakness as a way of life?

The typical 20 year-old never learned moderation--instead they extinguished their entire value system--throwing out the baby with the bathwater. And instead of developing a workable system preserving their fundamental beliefs, they just bought into the received wisdom of a quick-fix society. The 40 year-old self was too busy to bother wrestling with difficult questions and decisions. The inertia of an object at rest was too overpowering--the complacency of a leisurely lifestyle was too tempting. Shouldn't the 60 year-old, with the wisdom of old age, be ashamed that they helped perpetuate a senseless institution of followers following followers? But, instead of slowly sliding the barrel of a gun into their mouth, they moronically chuckle to themselves and their total lack of human achievement. This story actually makes me sick to my stomach.

I guess you could say I have strong feelings about this.

I am staunchly conservative and fundamentalist about a great deal of things that are wrong with "society today" --so you'd think I'd buy into the value of an established morality superstructure. But I can't do it. It rubs me so hard the wrong way that I can't force myself to swallow that pill.

Yup. Me too. Unless, she was referring to this with the 'he'll get his in the end' .

As an atheist, I dont ever see myself sucking it in and pretending to believe just to be part of the group. Yes I keep my mouth shut when in the company of believers....but thats just to keep the peace. And for one, I dont think they are ready for my world view. If they arent inquisitve enough to question their religion and the history of religion, then theres no point in me discussing it with them anyway.

Funny, my Brother went the other way. he was an atheist from being a teenager, but when he had kids he became much more militant in his atheism. It all mattered much more. My SiL was raised catholic, and it's possible she might harbour some sort of belief, but she's never been a proponent of it with the kids. Both my brother and my SiL were delighted when the eldest did a satirical picture as her project in Religious Education (a compulsory subject in state schools would you believe?)


[eta] there's probably a lot less social pressure over here to be a believer though. Unless you're from a churchgoing family. And that's about slipping back to a belief system which was fairly thoroughly planted in the psyche and even when apparently despatched leaves an imprint.

Actually I misread that to say "he'll get it in the end" i.e. once he has sold out and betrayed his beliefs, coasted along in the comfort zone for a few decades, he'll realize that playing it safe was the right choice. This would be the 'put a gun in your mouth' moment, if it had said what I read it as.

What it actually says, I'm not sure I understand. He'll get his what--his own grandson bothering him with radical ideas in 40 years?

This. In the narrative we are referring to, once marriage is considered--I don't understand how entering into the most vital and central contract of your life would seem to be a great opportunity to make what you know to be an incorrect decision, and for all the wrong reasons. I understand this 1000% less when considering raising children. The only lasting effect you're likely to ever have on human culture and it prompts you to make a completely fear-based decision--play it safe instead of taking a stand for anything you've ever considered to be important. This is cowardly!

This bothers me intensely because I feel that the narrative laid out here is quite commonly accepted by many basically good people.

Flint, I'm with you. Sliding into a make believe game is at best lazy and at worst cowardly. You CAN be moral and good without being bullied into it by an imaginary friend. In fact, reviewing world history, there seems to be very little correlation between religion and goodness.