I read. I love to read. I don't actually consider myself well read, but I read.
Theists read, but what they read, what they are allowed to read or watch, what they choose to read is a whole other world.
Things that they are not allowed to read:
The Catcher in the Rye. (language and sexual content)
Harry Potter. (Evil spirits and witchcraft)
The Beauty and the Beast. (gay character)
Dragan Tales (a children's learning animation series). (Dragons?)
Teletubbies.( gay character...supposedly)
Etc and so on...!
Can you list any movies shows or books that theist are generally not allowed to experience and maybe shed some light as to why?
Theist read:
A version of the bible.
Anna Karenina.
Narnia.
This constitutes the sum total of the reading material that they commonly read and approve of. Sure there is the propaganda literature that they all read, but that is too numerous to actually post. This is the general list.
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My brother is a deacon in the Baptist Church. He is a big fan of the Harry Potter series. His kids were raised on it. The only time I have sat through a Harry Potter movie was at his house.
This is a painful and important topic. Religious people deprive themselves of the beauty and wonder of human dialogue and dissertation and novel thought and profound insight and splendid fantasy all in deference to a bronze age philosophy. My A#1 example:
1..Carl Sagan's Cosmos program that use to run on PBS. It directly contradicted religious dogma, so hundreds of millions of Americans have deprived themselves of one of the greatest minds this country has produced. And what was the replacement chosen by those Americans? Billy Graham Ministries. How painful and stupid it is in retrospect, but that was and is the reality of life for a vast number of otherwise intelligent people.
I watched the Cosmos series while I Use my treadmill. I love it! Just finished it, so I won't watch it again for about a year, but I will watch it again. I get more from it every time I watch it.
It's like N.Korea, Theist leaders need to keep other theists from finding a better world. Dedication to God and his "works" are top priority to become a good follower *cough* religious freak *cough*.
IMO, the OP puts everyone of a certain ilk into the same bucket without offering any data to back it up. Have you said data? I think there are likely some theists who are 'not allowed' to read certain things but to say this is the case for theists in general seems rather careless to me.
Ah, a personal attack. Thanks, CyberLN.
I don't have data and why you ask? Because as you well know that such things are not published in the USA. Only school boards keep a "don't read list. This does not belie the fact that christians ban certain movies, TV shows, and books.
Do YOU deny that christians as a general rule forbid certain works?
I guess I should have said "In my experience" but I doubt that that would have changed your mischaracterization of me. And yes it's YOUR opinion. Nothing more.
I could get the Lakeland Baptist Church's list that I know actually exist. But that is just one. Recently I went to the Village Church with a neighbor. The whole "sermon" was not letting their kids be exposed to what they called "the devil experience." The preacher had a bullet point list that he asked people to memorize and NOT write down for "legal purposes."
So nice try CyberLN. You know there can't be a list and why.
Oh, myk, it was no more a personal attack than any disagreement you've had with any posters. I didn't call it stupid and I didn't tell you to go away. I asked for data to back up an assertion. That's it. Really, how is that different from me asking a xtian to back up an assertion that their god exists? I am a sceptic. When someone asserts something, how is asking them to back it up an attack or a mischaracterization?
Myk, I disagree with a great deal that is written in these forums, and have done so openly in some cases. To my recollection, no one else has accused that as an attack...because it's not. It's a freaking disagreement. That's all. It just isn't personal.
Ah if that were only the case. You posted "IMO, the OP puts everyone of a certain ilk into the same bucket ..."
Yes, you asked for data to back up my assertion but you did it by mischaracterizing me. You have chastised me for the exact same thing.
If you had asked "Do you have any data to back up your claim", then I would not have had any problem with that. That is not what you did, however.
If you had made a post and I said "this member tends to make wild claims..." you would not accept that as a reasonable disagreement.
Well, I wrote OP, meaning Original Post, not Original Poster. I would have cleared that up immediately if asked.
@ mykcob4
Not like you to wear a big hat of victim mentality like this. Is it not allowed to disagree with you anymore? Or is this some personal beef with CyberLN?
No Prag I am just being a stinker for the sake of doing so. I am having a laugh. I don't begrudge CyberLN for holding my feet to the fire when I jump the shark, but I thought I would just jab them a bit.
I like CyberLN. I think that they are an excellent moderator. I know at times I take things too far with the people I know are crackpots. I am a mean old son of a bitch. That just who I am. I see a punk post bullshit and I let them have it. CyberLN keeps me in check and I respect them for that. I don't get my feelings hurt. I was just needling, not serious.
I seem to remember a certain liberal democrat second lady who spent much of the 1980's advocating censorship. She caught her daughter listening to Prince's "Darling Nicki". Do gooders come in all flavors.
My favorite part of that is when Dee Snider told Al Gore during the congressional hearing that the reason his wife (Tipper Gore) mis-interpreted his song about surgery as being a song about sadomasochism; is because "Mrs. Gore was looking for sadomasochism and bondage, and she found it".
John Denver was made to defend his song "Rocky Mountain High" before a committee in Washington D.C. due to Tipper Gore's complaints about him and that song.
Of course Christians deny themselves a great number of books, movies, and music due to fears about worldly influence. A common refrain from the pulpit is the verse by Paul that advises that christians "not give the devil a toehold" to corrupt one's faith and seperate them from the love of god. A micro example is the current fallout from Disney's Beauty and the Beast". Franklin Graham is calling for a boycott (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/03/07/christian-evangelical-d...), and the Catholic News Service gave the PG-rated movie an "L" rating for "limited ADULT audience"(http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/beauty-and-the-bea....) Because of one character who displays homosexual tendencies the christian right is calling on the faithful to not view the movie. It is a working example of what Mykcob4 has described.
@Truett: "the christian right is calling on the faithful to not view the movie."
That's the most effective marketing you can get, and it's free!
Try this......
What type of literature can a Jehovah Witness read?
The question is specific to JW's but some of the answers seem to have wider applications....
Check out answer 3......in particular.....
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100630204911AAejAwy
The Catholic list of banned books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) includes works by John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant and everything by Sartre, Gide, Simone de Beauvoir. Strangely, it's ok to read Darwin, Marx, and Hitler.
30 banned books that may surprise you.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/1003/30-banned-books-that-may-surpri...
@Xenoview: "30 banned books that may surprise you"
Censors are the weirdest people. In New Zealand back in the 50s and 60s, the Customs Department wanted to prevent people bringing obscene books into the country, so they told their officers to be on the look out for books with a female name in the title. That policy hit the headlines when someone tried to enter the country with a copy of "Jane Eyre."
Christians can read Narnia. That's a good laugh.
CS Lewis was a die-hard, lifelong atheist until he realized it wasn't a profitable perspective for a writer. Then he "got religion" and became a success story. Funny how that went. He suddenly and contemporaneously found god, talent, notoriety and wealth.
CS Lewis was a fraud who played on the sympathies of apologists with a rather entrepreneurial strategy. I like him for that because he threw theism around like the marketing tool it's always been, giving us yet another hi-profile example of it. His so-called journey back to theism is the usual deflection of conventional definitions to suit the cause. In short, he employed the standard practice of apologist-borne deceptive tactics to reinvent himself in the public eye and fatten his wallet.
The shallow wit and wisdom of the theist crowd has little sense of him, though. His story from atheism to theism is rather holed despite his creativity as a writer to afford his change of heart a more palpable and believable story.
http://www1.cbn.com/cs-lewis-journey-faith
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The religious are simple-minded and must be remembered as such. No one can bestow upon a man secular admiration if he is a stranger within it. And, likewise, no one can award any man equality if wisdom and attendant sensitivity for his world (at large) is something he selectively shuns. Theists choose to display this trait, albeit in their typical oblivious manner, yet sponsor missionaries to end the world's inequalities. Interesting demographic.
To which of Lewis' works are you referring when you state that "His story from atheism to theism is rather holed despite his creativity as a writer to afford his change of heart a more palpable and believable story"? I have heard people criticize Lewis' arguments for the existence of God, but this is the first time I have ever heard of anyone questioning his sincerity, his character, or his ability to articulate his position.
@Freeslave.
Interestingly I watched a documentary on PBS about Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was an openly practicing atheist. Their friendship remained although tested when Lewis started professing himself as a believer. Tolkien stated that Lewis was little more than a showman as a true christian. It is evident that Lewis' career took off after he publicly renounced atheism. Even though Lewis was Irish, he was never a catholic in his adult life. Remember he was trying to sell books to devout protestants.
I get a challenge to read Lee Strobel's book "The Case for Christ" all the time, so I know that they are reading other books of that same stripe. Many of them have read the "left Behind" series also. I have read that crap, and it is bad. It is poorly researched, moving from one unfounded assertion to another, and coming to totally unwarranted conclusions in all of them. It is no wonder that Christians are so poorly informed about the world.
I donate books to the county jail every week. There are always tons of evangelicals pushing their propaganda as well as doing other things. For example, instead of a group discussion with a trained counselor, the group is lead by a religious volunteer. Anyway, the books they push the most are the 'Left Behind' series. I asked an inmate once what was the attraction to those books and he said: "It's the truth". I didn't respond.
I offered the jail my services to lead a group session and they asked if I was qualified to do so. I stated that I am as qualified as any of the religious volunteers, but they denied me. Now I have been banned from the jail altogether. I thought what a great thing permanently banned from jail. I wonder what I can get away with.
Another example of America's failed penal system. This country is hellbent on isolating convicted persons in dangerous environments, forcing them into gang-type relationships for community and protection, afflicting them with religious nonsense instead of functional wage generating skills, and a permanent record that makes those individuals less likely to find employment in the future. Then we wonder why the recidivism rate in the US is among the highest (worst) in the world. I know this is off topic, but what Mykcroft4 just described is tragic. Good literature and a rational life coach = bad. Religious dogma and a credulous deluded life coach = good. We as a nation aren't exactly setting ourselves up for success.
That is Hilarious.....
Apparently playwrites by Shakespeare.(Gathering from what I read from one of Biggus posts)