Meanwhile, over at PuffHo’s “Religion” page

May 13, 2016 • 2:45 pm

Lord (that’s a metaphor), what a dog’s breakfast of pandering, religious apologetics, and feel-good spirituality that site contains! It’s times like these that I’m really glad I’m an atheist.

If you must read the article, click on its screenshot.

Runner up in the “Who cares?” category:

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How can a reason be beautiful? Anyway, this is one in PuffHo’s continuing series of profiles of women who love to wear the hijab. They never say anything about women who are forced to wear the hijab (or niqab or burqua, etc.)Screen Shot 2016-05-13 at 11.50.09 AMThis one is meant to soothe those atheists who yearn for God—it’s okay to go back!Screen Shot 2016-05-13 at 11.52.04 AM

Seriously, PuffHo? MIRACLES?

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A failed attempt at accommodationism:

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This is my favorite in the “Who cares?” category:

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Hint: they aren’t real mothers, just fictional ones:

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38 thoughts on “Meanwhile, over at PuffHo’s “Religion” page”

    1. Bono doesn’t mean love, he means god. I heard an interview years ago where another band member (or another band) said he was really into all that god stuff.

      And, yes, he should stop, as you say.

    2. Bono doesn’t mean love, he means god. I heard an interview years ago where another band member (or another band) said he was really into all that ‘god’ stuff.
      John Lennon meant love, not Bono.

      And. as you say, he should stop it.

    3. Agreed. Cringe making though I do really love his music – at least till the mid 90s.

  2. They are all top-notch narcissists!!! They want to be noticed and listened to and accepted as deserving. Isn’t that a big part of the need for religion? Neediness!

    Bah humbug

    1. Reading that article I thought that that the feminist idea of consciousness raising, for men, may be useful in the emancipation of women in Islam.
      Then I realized, feminism in the west succeeded because it was largely a middle class secular movement. And the male component was secular.

      For such a totally religious atmosphere as Islam, something else will be needed.

      I don’t know what that might be. Except to continue to push reform.

      Atheism is a step too far for most of them.

  4. If I ever swallow anything evil, now I know where to go for a ready emetic.

    3. I’ve have never seen her before…but if she ever spoke to me about spirituality I wouldn’t be able to focus on a thing she said.

  9. “It’s impossible to meet God…without exposing yourself” — Bono

    A practice performed by many priests.

  10. I never pay much attention to most musicians’ or celebrities’ philosophical offerings.

  11. there is so much rationalization in religion, it’s amazing how much energy, money and virgins into volcanoes were wasted

  12. I wonder what is this “came back” stuff. Some of us Atheists have always been here. They need to stop with the assumption that you were something before you were nothing.

  13. Okay Bono, now go and play somewhere where I can’t hear you, because you still haven’t found what your looking for…
    WEiT?

  15. One of my pet hates is the word ‘spirituality’ – nauseating. All we have are frameworks for understanding our cognitive and emotive reactions and responses to the world. These are psychological and filtered through our culture. So many people want to use the meaningless word, g*d to give themselves some sort of mystical, special connection. I walk in the forest and feel connected to the forest – it’s my psychological way of saying that I’m more mindful in a forest than walking along the highway. Atheism is just so freeing – the world is enough, especially when you add poetry, prose, logic, kindness, cats ‘n fine coffee. Sheeeesh!!

  16. I have an issue with the highly conflicting and contradictory set of virtues embodied by the multiplicity of images of the Virgin Mary throughout history. How can someone who is both a virgin and a mother be a role-model to women??? (This has been well-discussed in a book entitled “Alone of All Her Sex” by Marina Warner).

    Bono finds his religious sensibility more through art than dogma or theology. While folks like this are often more palatable than know-it-all-ish theologians, but Bono’s vagueness is really frustrating.

    SOME of the more progressive religious types also reflect on bad and toxic religion, but in the current liberal religion climate, the call for tolerance extends to even the most retro forms of religion, as long its toxic effects can be simply contained or ignored. So on the religion page of PuffHo, the obvious toxicity of at least SOME forms of religion is politely ignored while ANY nice-sounding religiosity is affirmed, even if it’s incredibly mushy and bland.
    (My snarky side wants to say these folks confuse the numinous with the nebulous.)

    I’m a fan of the Dalai Lama, not at all one of Deepak Chopra, grudgingly respect Pope Francis (as Cenk Uygar said on the Turks for a pope he’s pretty good), but no differentiation or criticism is allowed on the pages of HuffPo. It’s all one big stew.

    Not featured in JAC’s post is Ewan MacGregor playing Jesus and Satan in a play. Now that intrigues me!!

    And the most ridiculous (or religilous) post here is Jesus predicting Mohammed.

  18. I cut my own hair I need a hijab.Really some look pretty but only if you want to wear one.

    1. I don’t think you need. I have no idea how your hair is looking now, but I think even the most awful hair is preferable to being mistaken for an Islamist.

  20. Bono?..oh dear, what a dipstick! Luckily I’e learnt not to get the artist confused with the artistry, a lesson with came hard with Van Morrison. The music still rocks despite the pathos thank goodness.

  21. So,

    “I missed the experience of the sacred. I missed the sense of communicating with a higher power. I missed the experience of the Divine, the thing lrger and greater than we are.
    Mette Ivie Harrison

    OK, OK, enough already. I’ll go and score another wrap of meth. Will that satisfy you?

  22. Always thought “Bono” was a pretentious Prick, a “great charity worker” who lives in a Tax Haven,I love the story of the time he was playing a gig in Glasgow , in between Songs he started clicking his fingers ,saying “everytime I click my fingers a Child dies ” to which a voice from the “gods” shouted, “well stop clicking your fucking fingers then “.

  23. The heady mix of Christo-Muslim religious accommodationism and the hijab accommodationism is noxious

  24. I am deeply skeptical of this campaign in the west about how kicky and fun and feminine the hijab is (lately seen also in some kind of world hijab day, where non-muslim women are induced to try one on for a day in some kind of sticky amalgam of fashion and solidarity).

    People who work in communications understand how this process works. Companies that spend billions on marketing also understand that the investment is worth it because it is effective.

    These stories and events may look like isolated idiocy, or even well-meaning attempts at inclusiveness, but from my perspective it’s the end of a spectrum of strategies: where the ideology and its structures can use force, they do. Where they can’t, they use other forms of persuasion which include guilt and shame (put on the hijab or you’re a racist who has no empathy for muslim women) and marketing, including community management and digital influencers (look how hot the hijab is, it’s sexy and diverse!).

    Those who want to enforce this rule for ALL women will use any and all means of persuasion available to them. The only difference between this an attempt to get people around the world to drink coke is the absence of force in the latter campaign. If force were available in free societies, it would be used here as well. People who are worried about free choice should look at how easy it is to buy the world a coke today.

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