#half of my brain agrees with Judaism about Jesus but then the other half of my brain keeps going but what if and I can't figure it out

[crispyflowerblaze]

my favorite things about each falsettos song (because i’m TOTALLY not making enough falsettos posts already *sarcasm*): warning, this is long and i don’t know how to put a read more

Four Jews in a Room Bitching

all of the “i’m (something), he’s (something), they’re (something), we’re (something)”s those are hILARIOUS

“BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH” (bitch doesn’t look like a real word after typing it that much)

“we got our-” “we got our-” “we got our-” “we got our MIRACLE!”

“we’re good in bed” “excel in bed” “we smell in bed” “where is the bed” “i love the bed” “i want the bed” “who stole the bed?” “who stole the bed?” “i lost it twice” “the bed is mine” “the bed is nice” “the bed is FOUR JEWS IN A ROOM BITCHING”

“one” “two” “three” “four” “five!”

Tight Knit Family/Love is Blind

“i want a group that harmonizes!”

the last (i think) “i want it all!”

“love. isn’t. sex. that’s a thing my husband told me- marvin, my ex!”

“do you only treat queers?” “-laughter- no”

“i’m everything he wanted. it’s time i put it all together”

“i have” “what?” “syphilis” “he said” “good” “i have” “yes?” “syphilis” “it’s true” “good” this part is like that one part of be more chill part 1

“maybe darling so do you!”

“hepa hepa hepatitis hepatitis hepatitis”

“you’re a damaged girl!”

“but daddy’s kissing... boys!!!”

“or perhaps that’s an alibi”

“his name is mendel!” “AHH”

“i admit, i admire you”

Thrill of First Love

-lots of fighting- “we’ve been together”

“we’ve been together for nine months” “ten months” “nine months!” “ten months!” “nine months!” “ten months!”

“don’t” “won’t” “don’t”

“my devotion to    style”

“i was rich, he was horny” “we fit like a glove”

all of the “but i’d kill for that thrill of first   love”

“we like fighting most”

“isn’t that right whizzer? let’s both fight whizzer!”

“i was trained in karate”

“PASSION DIES!” “PASSION DIES!”

when they do the “i would kill for that thrill of first love” overlaps

the last “love”s

Marvin at the Psychiatrist

“sorta kinda”

“sorta... kinda”

“when he’s naked-” “yes” “does he thrill you?” “yes”

“would he kill you?” “...yes”

“i think he’s sorta kinda... mean”

“explore mr. marvin! your core mr. marvin!”

“mOOOOVE me”

“but impress her... i did not!”

“does she sleep in the nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude???”

why is mendel so horny

My Father’s a Homo/Everyone Tells Jason to See a Psychiatrist

“my father’s a homo, my mother’s not thrilled AT ALL! father homo, what about chromosomes, do they carry, will they carr? who’s the HOMO now?”

“i don’t live the life of a normal child!”

“cause i’m too smart for my own good, and i’m too good for my sorry little life!”

“what a mess this is, this family!”

“just because you FAILED AS PARENTS”

“i don’t need-” “he needs a psychiatrist” “i want-” “a psychiatrist?”

“i’m not sure, jason -marvin flicks him- jason, maybe so -trina clears her throat- absolutely jason!”

This Has Better Come to a Stop

the beginning WHOA with the whole “late for dinner late again!”

“life can be wonderful ISN’T THIS WONDERFUL”

mendel can run me over with his “don’t feel responsible, after all it’s through” and i’d thank him

“i’m frightened of questions”

“AND STILL THE BASTARD DIVORCED ME” trina can run me over with this too pLEASE

all of it this is a great song

I’m Breaking Down

“who’s lusty and requires a fling with a female thing!”

“let me turn on the GAS”

“oh sure, i’m sure, he’s sure”

“where is my crown? i’m breaking down, i’m breaking down”

“my life is shitty”

“it’s me who is the matter talking madder than the maddest hatter!” poor thing

“you ask me is it fun to cry over nothing? it is”

“as en-e-mies go, whizzer is not so bad”

“i only want to love a man who can love me... or like me... or help me? help me!!”

“i’d rather die than dry clean mARVIN’S WEDDING GOWN”

“and me, i’m just a freak who needs it maybe every other week... i don’t know”

“the only thing that’s breaking up is my family! but me, I’M BREAKING DOWN”

Please Come to Our House/Jason’s Therapy

“weisenbachfeld”

“you must exorcise a devil cus it inhabits marvin’s son!”

“i’m sure he’s mARVIN’S CHILD!”

“DON’T BE DISGUSTING be yourself!!”

“on account of my unraveling”

“such a romantic table!” what the fuck

“stop! look around you. no one’s screaming at you”

okay, okay, it’s very impossible advice, but the “WHY DON’T YOU FEEL ALRIGHT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE” part is one of my favorite parts of the whole musicals

IT’S SO CATCHY

“is this therapy”

“mr. mendel, as regarding your intentions to my mother, are they everything a woman would desire?”

“and... sing”

“watching your... socks!”

“jesus christ! WHY DON’T YOU FEEL ALRIGHT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE???”

then all of the rest of it because it’s SUCH a great chorus

A Marriage Proposal/Tight Knit Family (Reprise)

honestly all of a marriage proposal it’s such a sweet song

“i love you, dear. i think you’re swell. you’re never close enough to me to tell if i’m delightful or not”

“there’s not a guy... there’s not a... piece of paper”

i’ve said this before but “there’s not a man in pants who could love you the same as i” is SUCH a line

“just like a biblical brother did to his biblical brother... back in... biblical times”

“OH, THOSE BIBLICAL TIMES” like good save buddy

“if i get sick or detained” good reasons to marry someone buddy

“don’t touch your hair you’re perfect! don’t start to cry”

“there’s not a horse or... zebra” what the fuck

“there’s not a giant man” and “forget that giant man” and “i’m not a giant man”

“i’m sure she cannot love you!” you jerk

“but nothing’s impossible”

“i got/want it all!”

Trina’s Song/March of the Falsettos/Trina’s Song (Reprise)

“i’m tired of all the happy men who rule the world”

“they grow- but don’t mature”

“it’s crazy how they’re acting, it’s crazy my response”

“stupid, charming men... silly, childish jerks!”

the voices in march of the falsettos are so funny XD

“c’mere”

“it’s a gODDAMN SURETY WE’RE LACKING IN MATURITY”

“WHAT A STUPID THEORY”

“hi”

“uh-oh”

“please forgive my former shpieling” as if what just happened would convince her that she was wrong

“no, i’ll laugh!”

“i’ll fight the gods, i’ll... fight my ex! i’ll beat the odds, i’ll hAVE GOOD SEX”

The Chess Game

“use some brains, now protect him”

“LIFE’S A SHAM AND EVERY MOVE IS WRONG”

“nothing is everything to me... except sex... and money”

“god you’re pretty”

“cHECKMAAAATE”

whizzer’s this had better come to a stop reprise of what marvin sang like WHOA

“marvin” and “whizzer” overlap to create “marzzer”

Making a Home

“men and women talking!”

“we’ll buy the cheese”

“i hope it runs away” “so do i” “so do i” XD

“could he love me?”

at the end the music starts sounding like the games i play

The Games I Play

“i don’t look for trouble, i don’t accept blame”

“but they’re one and the same”

“i’ve been playing canasta disastrously”

“a tribute to me”

“ask me if i love him, it depends on the day”

“years, YEARS TOO LONG”

“it hurts not to love him, it hurts when love fades”

“GET HIM OUT MY WAAAAAY”

the END THO “THESE ARE THE OOOOONLY GAMES I PLAAAAAY”

Marvin Hits Trina

first of all, hOW DARE HE

i love how FAST the rhythm (or music??) is

“they are” “PSEUDO-ROMANTIC AND SICK” “you say you’ll” “LOVE HIM UNTIL YOU BOTH DIE” “you die on” “MAY 27TH AT 8"

“mendel’s not a maniac!”

marvin is good at saying trina’s name a bunch of times

“YOUR NEED FOR STUPID CONVERSATION”

“you are” “TRYING TO RUIN MY SLEEP” “i’m sure you” “CHOSE HIM TO LOOK ME LOOK BAD” “how could you” “EVER DENY WHAT WE HAD”

“marvin called us funny names”

“do i love him? no” :(

“i am so dumb”

and the end where he hits her OH MY GOD

I Never Wanted to Love You

i am never sure who is talking to who in this song

“i hate the world!”

“i love my dad!”... “i love the things i’ve never had!” savage

“i never wanted to love you. i never wanted ‘til death do we to part’ condescend, stay my friend. how do i start not to love you?”

“i’m everything he wanted, it’s time i put it all together! our hands were tied, my father cried ‘you’ll marry!’ we married!”

“i never wanted, i wanted, i never never never never never never wanted to love you!”

Father to Son

“i think girls are the most beautiful thing” i agree

“what i’ve done to you is rotten”

“i for one, would take love much slower”

“how your voice gets much lower”

“you’ll be, kid, a man, kid”

“if nothing goes wrong”

“a man, kid, you’ll be, kid”

“whatever your song”

such a nice song!!!

Falsettoland/About Time

the music at the beginning is spooky

“homosexuals, women with children, short insomniacs, and a teeny tiny band”

“this story needs an ending” this line fucks me up for some reason

“a homosexual father with children” lol

“one bar mitzvah that is -laugh- scrupulously planned”

“give these handsome boys a hand, welcome to falsettoland!”

“nancy reagan, meanest and thinnest of the first ladies, moves into the white house”

“YABADABAH” “IT’S THE 80S” “YABADABAH” “OOH THE 80S”

“spiky lesbians” YES

“she’s still with the psychiatrist... so i don’t have a psychiatrist”

“just on the weekends” :(

“WHEN AM I GONNA GET OVER THIS”

“homosexuals!” “women with children!” “ex-ex lovers!” “and the teeny tiny band” “welcome to falsettoland!”

the really fast part WHOA

“one day i’d like to be as mature as my son, who is twelve and a half, and this tall... that’s all”

Year of the Child

the prayer he sings at the beginning is cute

“how can you stop with the prayers at a bar mitzvah???”

“this is the year of jason’s bar mitzvah!”

“his body’s going wild!” too much information

“childen, please” savage

“i’ll bring women from the wrong side of the tracks”

“i guess i’ll have to raise this jason myself” sAVAGE

“look, look, look, look, look, it’s a lesbian from next door!” YAY

“followed by her lover who’s a lesbian from next door too” XD

“yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy yum!” apparently she’s not a good cook? i couldn’t tell from the music, but okay....

“we’ll spend billions of dollars!” really

Miracle of Judaism

jason STOP this

“ellie mazie rosenthal” XD

“and not- laugh at my Hebrew and not- laugh at my father and his friends?”

The Baseball Game

“we’re watching Jewish boys who cannot play baseball play baseball!”

“what is he doing here?”

“jason asked me to come. since he asked me to come i came”

“just what i wanted at a little league game! my ex-husband’s ex-lover, isn’t that what every mother dreams about having at a little league game?” like he’s his own person, not just your ex’s ex!

“i love baseball, i love jason, that’s what i’m doing here”

“where’d the hell they get that umpire? oh, sorry. sorry!”

“you’re looking sweeter than a donut” he’s channeling his inner mendel

“am i queer?”

“it’s been so long since i could tell...”

“since it’s the only physical imperfection that you’ve got!” now this is a good one (and i think he’s still queer XD)

“we’re watching marvin throw kisses”

“keep your head in the box, don’t think of a thing”

“even maniacs can charm, which he does”

“i love jason, but this is not his venue”

“would it be possible to see you, or to kiss you, or to give you a call?” “anything’s possible, jason hits the ball!”

A Day in Falsettoland

mendel can kill me with every “i don’t get it!” and i’d thank him

“in the 60s we had a new world to start!”

“yes, my name is caroline” “i don’t get it!” it’s not that hard to understand mendel

“AND I DON’T GET IT AT ALL!”

“dropit,sweetheart,giveitupyouknowiloveyou” yes it’s this fast trust me i measured

“isn’t it enough i want you every night?” “who?” “every other night?” “me?”

trina’s laugh and her “everything will be alright” kILLS ME

“for the first time in months, nobody DIED” “yay!!”

“yes i do” did i mention this KILLS ME

“saving lives and loving you”

the “and loving you” they do together, AWW

“that’s not nice” “no it isn’t”

“don’t you think it’s a blessing i’m so pathetically bad?”

the “do you know, all i want is you, anything you do is alright, yes it’s alright!” is so nice

and whizzer’s talking during that up there is SO CUTE

“no it didn’t!”

the end and all the melodies (is that the right word) and mixing whizzer and marvin’s thing and charlotte and cordelia’s and trina and mendel’s thing is WHOA

Everyone Hates His Parents

“travel travel travel”

“it’s not a wrestling match, why are they sweating? it’s not a funeral, what’s so upsetting?”

jason’s notes break the sound barrier, open portals, and make dogs’ ears bleed

“you have paintings of dicks! don’t talk to me about taste!”

“what do you mean you don’t want a bar mitzvah?”

mendel’s greetings to jason, lol

“‘Moses, everyone hates his parents, that’s how it is!’“

“and God knew, because God hated his” XD

“you are gonna kill your mother, don’t feel guilty kill your mother, rather than humiliate her, killing your mother is the merciful thing to do”

“oh my God”

“everyone hates his parents, now i see why”

“jason, please see a psychiatrist” “i’m a psychiatrist! get lost!”

jason and mendel have such a great friendship

“flip me!” this is so cute

What More Can I Say

this is such a nice song!

“but when he sparkles, the earth begins to sway”

“i can’t eat breakfast, i barely tie my shoes”

“i halt, i stammer, i sing a roundelay”

“we laugh, we fumble, we take it daaay by daaay, what more can i say?”

aww

Something Bad is Happening/More Racquetball

“people might think i’m very dyke-ish”

“if i’m a bitch, well, i am what i am!”

“just call me doc, don’t call me lady!”

“we see a trend, but the trend has no name”

“something stinks, something immoral, something so bad that words have lost their meaning!”

“rumors fly and tales abound, stories echo underground!”

“she’s  my   doctor and i love her! she’s got passion! she’s intelligent, and jesus christ, a doctor!!! <3 very wealthy, and i love her!” AWW

“doctor of internal medicine” sounds like “doctor oven turtle medicine”

“and you always see the glass half full -_-”

“she’s got HEART” sounds like “she’s... HOT!”

“men dressed in drag, next to their moms”

“i like the ballgowns, but Jesus Christ!”

the next chorus

“look a virus has been found! stories echo underground!”

“please forgive me for winning one game”

“something’s gone out of wack!”

“aw shit!”

“try to be a decent loser!” do you really want to have this conversation marvin

“excuse me!”

the soft “do you know, all i want is you, anything you do is alright, yes it’s alright” WHOA

“everything will be alright, everything will be alright”

Holding to the Ground

“very Jewish, very middle class, and very straight”

“life is never what you planned, life is moments you can’t understand, and that is life!”

“but that’s my life. he’s shared my life! yes, that’s my life!” and the beat at the beginning is AMAZING

“everything will be alright, everything will be alright” AHH

this is a really nice song with great melodies!!!

Days Like This

“but today, you seem to be on the way to recovery!” is one of the catchiest parts of the whole musical

“it’s days like this i... almost believe in God”

cordelia is so wonderful did i mention that

“gefilte fish!”

“also a soup made from chicken that, though unexotic, is antibiotic!”

“why, i’m up to my ass in a kosher morass!”

the harmonies in this song are GREAT

“days like this we almost believe in...” “gefilte fish!” “GOD!” XD

trina and whizzer saying hi to each other is cute, i want a trina and whizzer friendship

“or else the hydrants moved!” -cordelia laughs- then everyone is like “no, no” and she’s like “nobody? okay”

“how can i help, says the wiry psychiatrist!”

“he’ll make you well!” “right...”

“gee you look awful!”

“i’ll let you win, whizzer” “don’t let me win” “i’ll let you win!”

Cancelling the Bar Mitzvah

“here’s your chance to give me hell”

“can’t we wait til whizzer gets better?”

“finally now it’s my decision! like it’s my Bar Mitzvah! just like nothing happened! hell, let’s have a party! just like nothing happened! why don’t you make this dumb decision yourselves, okay, why don’t you make this dumb decision yourselves?”

“we’ll have the Bar Mitzvah?” “no” “we’ll cancel the Bar Mitzvah?” “no!”

“tell him things happen for no damn good reason!”

“holding to the ground as the ground keeps shifting” GOSH this describes this well

“everything will be alright”

Unlikely Lovers

first of all, this song the THE. PINNACLE. of gay/lesbian solidarity

whizzer’s “do you want me to reply?” kills me

“right” “it’s just-” “don’t fight!” “that i haven’t died yet” “just stop it” “i’m sick, but kicking (i always imagine this with finger guns)” “geez” “alright” “louise”

“i’m staying here in this spot whether you want me to or not”

“please go home and don’t be scared” andrew rannell’s voice is... so... BEAUTIFUL (and i’m also listening to book of mormon a lot lately so yknow i’m getting a lot of it, yay)

“oh baby, please do. i love you, too” aww

“drink a little something til you’re dead!” too soon whizzer

“shh” ... “SHH” ... “SHH”

“WE’LL COME IN” this is so hilarious for some reason

“look at us, four old friends, four unlikely lovers!”

“let’s look like we haven’t!”

“i love bad weather” XD

“and we vow that we will buy the farm, arm in arm, four unlikely lovers!”

such a sweet song :D

Another Miracle of Judaism

“i can’t hear your fingers snappin!”

“are you just a big psychiatrist??”

“in exchange for... could you please make my friend stop dying? i’m not naive, it won’t be easy”

this song is sad :(

“God... that’d be the miracle of Judaism!”

Something Bad Is Happening (Reprise)

this is pretty obvious, but slowing this down makes it SO MUCH SADDER AHH

“something very bad is... happening”

“something that kills, something infectious:

You Gotta Die Sometime

this. is. SUCH. an. AMAZING. song. WHOA.

his voice in the beginning is so SAD and he’s so SAD

“okay, when the doctor started using phrases like ‘you’ll pass away’ what could i say?”

“doctor, here’s the good part. at least death means i’ll never be afraid again!” :(

“death’s gonna come, and when it does, screw the nerves, i’ll be eating hors d’oeuvres!” i love that line but “hors d’oeuvres” is a STUPIDLY SPELLED WORD

“it’s the roll of the dice and no crime, you gotta die sometime”

“then the scene turns to black” he sounds so discouraged

“life. sucks.”

“i would cry if i could but it does no damn good to explain i’m a man in my prime! you gotta die sometime”

“give me the balls to orchestrate a graceful leave, that’s my reprieve”

“it’s the last little mountain i’ll climb! I’LL CLIMB!” i LOVE that part

“you gotta die sometime! you gotta die sometime! you gotta die sometime! you gotta die sometime, sometime, sometime! sometime! sometime! sometime! sometime! sometime!” the first time i heard this i thought whizzer died here :0

Jason’s Bar Mitzvah

“i said, let’s have my bar mitzvah HERE!”

“this was jason’s brilliant idea, and i brought the prayer shawl!”

every “OOH, IT’S JASON’S BAR MITZVAH” is great

“i’ll unwrap the billion hors d’oeuvres, and someone please eat them!”

“i feel more helpless than i have in years”

when marvin says “mendel!” it sounds like they’re actually friends now, and that’s very important to me

“but i feel that, since i’m the host, it’s me who should toast him!”

“actually... we’re seven”

“the food tastes really yummy!”

marvin’s verse to jason is really the sweetest thing

“son of marvin, son of trina, son of whizzer, son of mendel, AND GODCHILD TO THE LESBIANS FROM NEXT DOOR”

What Would I Do

the second saddest song in the musical

“what would i do if i had not met you? who would i blame my life on?”

“if you had not been my friend?” all of these are so sweet

“only one my child would allow!”

“when i’m having fun, you’re the one i want to talk to!”

the music before whizzer shows up and his lines are GREAT

“do you regret?” “i’d do it again! i’d like to believe i would do it again and again and again!”

their harmonies are AMAZING

when i first listened to this, i thought it was just before whizzer died, but the fact that he’s already dead makes it so much sadder, and gosh, he can hit such good notes, even from beyond the grave

whizzer’s last “doo” is SO AMAZING LIKE WHAT THE FUCK

Falsettoland (Reprise)

the saddest song in the musical HANDS. DOWN.

“homosexuals... women with children... short insomniacs...”

“we’re a teeny tiny band” this is SAD

“this is where we take a stand”

“welcome to falsettoland”

when i listened to falsettos while looking at the lyrics on genius.com and i was caught up i cried during what would i do and i REALLY cried during this, i’m sure i’ve cried other times listening to this song

but the thing is, for some reason i barely cry during musicals, i’ve cried like once listening to hamilton (during Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story), definitely during Words Fail (but probably only because i listened to it after having a panic attack/breakdown thing and it hit really close to that experience) and maybe not during much else? but this? THIS is sad af

that’s all, i just love this musical so much it’s amazing!!!

[deythbanger]

Bible Arguments 13

By DeYtH Banger "As comedian Bill Maher pointed out in one of his hilarious monologues,1 you can freeze a stem cell indefinitely, which is something you definitely cannot do with a baby. Even the bible, which equates life with breath, actually seems to agree with modern American law, which acknowledges that a human life begins at viability. I don’t know of any fundamentalists who add nine months to their age. But many believers, being religiously colorblind, can only conceive of “life” (a full person) as black or white, red or blue, all or nothing. Those of us who affirm a woman’s freedom to decide her own reproductive future equate a human life with personhood, seeing the earlier stages of development within a spectrum leading up to a precious baby whose arrival and existence we do cherish. Personhood is blue, while a zygote is red, with a prism in the middle." - Dan Baker "In the beginning was the Turtle. The Turtle was swimming across an endless body of water. One day it dove to the bottom and brought up a lump of mud. When the mud baked in the sun, it became dry land. The land expanded into a vast area where trees grew. One day the Rabbit started kicking a blood clot by one of the trees until it formed into a human being." - Dan Baker "Then I asked how many believed the creation myth of a later group of people, the Bronze Age Israelites, including the earth being created from a watery void, Adam being formed from the mud, Eve being taken from his rib, a talking snake, a talking donkey, a jealous genocidal war god named Yahweh (“my name is Jealous”), the Nile River turning to blood, and food falling from the sky. Most of the hands went up in that audience. They think the Turtle is false but the talking snake is true. They are polarized. They can’t see outside their own color. All human groups have invented meaningful fables, but their fable is actual truth, they proclaim. The vast array of colorful creation myths collapses into “us versus them.” Truth versus lies. Some believers do appreciate the varieties of religious belief in anthropology; they just see them all as quaint but false, “out there,” while their belief is the one true faith. They can’t see themselves as part of the fabric, or their color as part of a spectrum, or their religion as having evolved from earlier antecedents. In the previous chapter, I talked about how law has ancestors, but the same is true with religion. If you can step back and see that your religion is just one cousin from a grandparent (as Christianity and Islam are descended mainly from Judaism), and also realize that the grandparent is a cousin to other religions descended from even earlier ancestors, you can perceive your faith not as a blunt stand-alone creation, but as a small part of a larger array. Your worldview becomes enriched. Gregory Riley does a nice job of illustrating the family tree (or branching river system) of world faiths in his book The River of God." - Dan Baker "Look at your own beliefs the same way you look at the beliefs of others: from a distance. If you can’t do that, you are religiously colorblind. Think about ethics. Most of us, including believers, act as if we embrace situational ethics in our daily lives, but most religions teach that there are absolute moral laws that must be followed no matter what, by command of a dictator. For example, since the Ten Commandments prohibit bearing “false witness” against a neighbor, most Christians think it is always wrong to tell a lie. Not just wrong, but sinful—a character flaw. However, while it is true that honesty is generally a good principle for social harmony, telling a lie is not always immoral. We do have laws against perjury, false advertising, contractual misrepresentation, impersonating an officer, identity theft, and so on, but it is generally not illegal to tell a lie. Suppose a woman came to your front door, bruised and bleeding, saying that her husband is trying to kill her. You take her into your home, tend to her wounds, give her a place to stay for a while. Later, her husband comes banging on your door, shouting, “Do you know where my wife is?!” What do you do? As a good moral person, do you tell him the truth? I think all of us know that in that particular situation, the most moral thing to do is lie to that man. Otherwise, we risk greater harm to the woman. Telling that lie is not a sin: it is a good act of which you should be proud. But some Christians have told me that although they would indeed lie to the husband, they would feel bad about it and would later ask God for forgiveness. In their polarized brains, telling a lie is always sinful. Morality is absolute. Such colorblind moral thinking influences all ethical issues with which society is struggling, including stem-cell research, birth control, abortion, gay marriage, doctor-assisted suicide, war, state-church seperation…" - Dan Baker "Suppose I break into the home of a loving Christian family. This mother, father, and two children are faithful church attenders who read the bible and pray every day. They are generous, good people who help others and witness for their faith in Jesus. I tie them up and shoot the dog. I drown their cat in the bathtub. Then I set the house on fire and they all die. When the police ask me, “Why did you do it?” I reply: “No reason. The Devil made me do it." - Dan Baker "In the biblical Book of Job we read about a good “blameless and upright” family man who was faithful in worship yet endured horrible torture at the hand of the God he loved. Satan, with God’s explicit permission, caused a huge wind to blow down a wall and kill Job’s ten children. All of his thousands of animals were killed. (The bible doesn’t say if he had a dog or a cat.) In Job 2:3 we find these words: “The LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.’” So the police ask God, “Why did you do it,” and God replies: “No reason. The Devil made me do it. Then I said to the audience, “Raise your hands if you think the God of the bible is a moral monster.” Less than half the hands shot up. That is proof that hundreds of people in that room had eyes to see, but saw not. The same crime by two different actors for the same reason is judged morally wrong when committed by only one of the actors. This is a psychological bias induced by religion. It is “looking the other way,” deliberately excusing the actions of a family member or other person you admire or love. It is what allows ministers and priests to get away with abusing children right under the noses of their parishioners who can’t imagine their beloved leader would." - Dan Baker "Think about truth. Most fundamentalists demand that truth claims be absolute. In true polarized fashion, Jesus reportedly said, “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Christians are required to think that any answer between the extremes comes from Satan!" - Dan Baker "Servetus was murdered because of the misplacement of a preposition. His view of the nature of God was a different hue from Calvin’s. Servetus had discovered that the New Testament does not actually teach the concept of the Trinity. (Hence, the birth of modern Unitarianism where the deity is not “God in three persons” but simply “one God.”) There is only one verse in the bible that explicitly mentions the triune nature of God in three persons: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). This is known as the Johannine Comma, because, as Servetus learned, it did not appear in any preceding Greek manuscripts of the biblical text. That verse had been interpolated into the more recent Latin Vulgate translation by the Catholic Church. Servetus eagerly brought this textual and doctrinal error to Calvin’s attention, naively imagining he would welcome another opportunity to correct the fallacies of Catholicism." - Dan Baker "Fundamentalists have a desperate need to agree with each other 100 percent. To feel confident and unthreatened, the religiously colorblind need to know that all the members of their group are seeing the same color. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,” Paul wrote, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of…" - Dan Baker "Truth is not a thing. Truth is simply a measure of how well a statement matches reality. The only thing that can be true or false is a statement, a proposition. Reality is not truth: reality is reality. If the sky is blue and I say, “The sky is blue,” then there is a strong correspondence between my statement and reality, so my statement would be true. If I say, “The sky is orange with black polka dots,” there is a very low correspondence, so my statement would be false. Of course, the sky is always changing color (it is sometimes orange), and is dark during the night, so “the sky is blue” is a true statement that has to be qualified. It is not absolute…" - Dan Banker "You have magically turned faith into fact, water into wine. Truth is rarely black and white. (I wanted to write “never black and white,” but that statement would be absolute. I need to allow that I might be wrong.) Forcing truth to be absolute is like making the rainbow a solid color, which is no rainbow at all. The next time you talk with a true believer, remember that fundamentalists are religiously colorblind. That’s what it means to be a fundamentalist. That includes the founder of Christianity. Jesus, if he existed, called himself “the Truth,” and said, “He that is not with…" - Dan Baker

[nightcoremoon]

I felt really uncomfortable at pride only because of a tent with a giant sign that said "foreskin feels SO GOOD, stop circumcision today!" the reason for this is, well... that feels really kind of... antisemitic. and also, I feel a bigger issue than male circumcision is female circumcision so it was also kind of buying into the misogyny in certain sects of radical Islam by being silent about that. and also I still have issue with public pride stuff being so overtly sexual when queer kids are present, and it really fucks things over for them when society is already so ready to take anything they can to support their vitriol; same reason why I feel uncomfortable by seeing dildos and shit. I mean, I know that allosexual queer people wanna be proud of their sexuality and stuff but equating gay pride with dildos is not only ace erasure but also buying into the false belief that kids and young teens shouldn't be able to self identify in the queer community because it's directly associated with fucking. which isn't AT ALL the intention, but it makes it so much harder for them because they've got to deal with society's bigotry in a way that adult queer people don't have to deal with. it's kind of ageism in that regard; adulthood privilege, if that's a thing. which I believe it should be since the fat community (if that's what they're called; body positivity movement isn't really linked to that in an intrinsic way, it's just a popular part of it) are tacking fatphobia onto queerphobia & racism & antisemitism & misogyny & ableism (as if they're equatable to systemic oppression (which is a different topic entirely that I'm not gonna get into now)). children aren't able to make the same decisions adults are when it comes to their gender identity and expression and other stuff like that, even though identity as a concept is brought into our psyche way before a lot of other things: before our fucking TEETH come in, for christ's sake. but i digress. [edit- read this passage with a critical eye plz] in the long run, it maybe would be best to stop circumcision. it doesn't affect hygiene, and the Torah/Quran/Bible passages that talked about circumcision are all in the bits that the (alleged in the Jews' (and maybe Muslim's, honestly idk very much about Islam) case) messiah Jesus said were no longer relevant, and even if the books genesis leviticus exodus et cetera old testament stuff were still relevant today, we're all going to hell because tattoos and trimming facial hair and women speaking in churches and being born gay and eating pork and shellfish and wearing clothes of mixed fabrics and being raped or sexually assaulted are all equally bad, which is a bunch of fucking bullshit. this could sound like I'm being an antisemitic piece of shit for saying their belief system is wrong, BUT... those books are 60% translation error and 30% editing by the corrupt as all hell papacy/vatican, at least as far as the western world knows, so western jews and catholics and baptists and a whole host of outdated, broken, and worthless systems of belief are just flat out wrong anyway. but only certain sects of certain parts of certain faiths. circumcision should definitely be a choice that adults can make for themselves, but infants do not consent. I feel you must be at least of legal age to at least vote or get a tattoo or buy lottery tickets to consent to any kind of surgery performed on your body (aside from life altering things like cleft palate, appendicitis, kidney transplants, sexual reassignment surgery for people old enough to have a gender identity strong enough to induce gender dysphoria, etc), the exact same way I feel we should handle any baptisms or things like that. because I fucking hate seeing 5 year olds get baptized when odds are they might not even still be christians in a few years, because I can guaranfuckingtee you that the kind of parents who would let their kids get baptized that young are the kind of parents who coerce their kids into doing so, inducting them into their religion turned cult. and I feel the exact same way when conversation turns to circumcision. do you know why? because I was. and I wish I wasn't. I deeply, deeply wish that I had my foreskin, because as much as I've told myself I should be comfortable with my penis as it is, I wish it was easier to tuck, which it would be if I still had my foreskin. tmi warning, btw. and I get that it's part of Jewish upbringing and culture and heritage to circumcise their babies and have a bris because their God says that it's encouraged to force your kids to being raised in a certain way and take away all of their potential future autonomy and brainwash them into also being Jewish, but god damn it, I disagree with it wholeheartedly and would not choose to follow Jewish belief myself. however if anybody would dare to tell them they can't do it themselves or are less of people and deserve to die because of it, those people can go fuck themselves since you can disagree with a person's lifestyle and not be bigoted against them in some situations. religion is a lifestyle choice, but sexuality is not. [Keep in mind that most of my knowledge of Jewish culture is through my grandmother's Christian lens so I probably talked out her ass for the majority of this whole entire passage.] so I mean. I agree with the sign. I also disagree with the sign. I'm torn in two. I've got points of view that will probably draw the attention of a lot of Discoursers™ who will all call me a nazi and tell me to kill myself again. I'm literally saying that entire systems of belief for a lot of religions are bullshit. I'm criticizing some logical faults in certain fundamental aspects of cultures I don't have the authority to speak about. I said things that can and WILL be taken the wrong way. but do you know what separates me from bigoted assholes? I know that I could be- and more than likely am- wrong about at least one thing I said here in this post. If I am wrong about something, anything: if I misunderstand, and don't have the correct information for anything at all, please let me know. My experiences are NOT universal and I have experienced the world through a very very VERY narrow scope. I'm only human; my brain is only capable of operating on information it has. So if something said here strikes a chord with you, please tell me so that I can unlearn that particular piece of ignorant bigotry. I don't want to be prejudiced against, discriminatory against, or aid the oppression of, any group. But if you know what's good for you don't just attack me because that's not how to talk about shit like adults. Ask for clarification, don't just take all the things I say out of context. Let's have a civil and rational discussion about intersecting bigotry, and how things aren't all just in black and white, and how opposition for one type of perceived bigotry can, in the right lens, be framed as being supportive of another type of perceived bigotry. To summarize: I'm conflicted about a sign. I'm conflicted about sexualization the LGBTQ+ I'm conflicted about fatphobia inclusion I'm conflicted about ageism I'm conflicted about the autonomy of children I'm conflicted about many religions I'm conflicted about religious corruption I'm conflicted about baptizing children I'm conflicted about aspects of Judaism I'm conflicted about my opinions but I'm NOT conflicted about the way to talk about things rationally online also I wrote this coming off of a suicidal depressive low at 4:00 in the morning while hopped up on caffeine after a very emotionally turbulent night and full of shitty non-food, so I may come to regret saying a lot of this later on in the morning, and apologize in advance if I super offend anybody over a misunderstanding of what I said, or a lack of foresight on my part, or having an opinion reinforced by society's love to brainwash us into being really bigoted against minority demographics. this surprise rant is also not even mostly written by me, I dissociated like two minutes into writing half in the middle of the first paragraph hence the probably reason why it went WAY off the tracks and I didn't get back until writing this current sentence you're reading now. [bracketed remarks got written right now]. don't send hate anons, we're all hopefully more mature than that. in all honesty this whole post might get zero attention whatsoever because my followers clearly don't care much about my personal life since I have to guilt trip them into validating me most of the time. I'm gonna wrap this up because it's just so fucking long right now and I'm STILL FUCKING WRITING MORE and it's 5:15 in the morning and I have to be awake in three hours. all because I hate myself.