Interview with ArghMonkey

Anyway in the spirt of the Thread.

ArghMonkey clearly politics is an important part of what you are, what political Party do you support ? and why ?

This about summs up every argument Monkey ever has.

Thats an easy and a tough question ...

Im a populist, socialist and secular humanist, however I am not staunch in any ideology, I try to remain flexible where it makes the most sense.

In Canada, unlike the yank country, we have several vital political parties, the big ones are the liberals, the greens, the NDP and the conservatives.

The liberals are the most popular party overall but the party I vote for quite regularly is the NDP ...

Heres a snippet from their website ...

To give you another angle, Stephen Lewis is a member of the NDP, this is the kind of thing politicians with the NDP do ...

The Stephen Lewis Foundation funds community-based initiatives in Africa. Our funding works in four areas:

Check out their list of issues and their approachs here ... http://www.ndp.ca/workingfamiliesfirst

Its a wonderful, intelligent party, full of teachers, professors, doctors, people that care, the modern apathy and extreme greed fueled by the u.s. will pass and people will shake their heads wondering why they were led so far away from the things that really matter ...

The short answer is I vote NDP almost exclusively ...

That I am less stupid then the ppl I argue with ? *LMAO*

YES ! that is right! *L*

Secular humanism can be quite an inflexible dogma, I have heard it described as intolerant. Despite its liberal side and often good aims it doesn't tolerate dissent very well. Would you agree with that assessment ?and if so how do you square some of its more liberal overtones with some of its demands ? Unlike more traditional forms of Liberalism it is certainly prepared to be quite militant it its tactics.

Well it depends on the idea ...

I am not the kind of liberal that says "over here we have creationism and over here we have evolution, both sides deserve to be heard and are equally important", because that is bullshit, one is based on reality and facts and research and one is based on superstition and stupid religious ideas.

I do think religion just holds humanity back, its full of outdated, small minded, ignorant and stupid ideas, religion itself is a real joke and thats a fact, I know religious ppl are sure they are right, all of them *L* in every religion *L* with the exception of asian religions.

Just like science is exacting and works with proof, the same thing applies here

You really are ignorant.

Did your mother have any children that lived?

Oh my the bugs on the warpath....be warned Monkey this one bites.

Agrggh Monkey, I get the impression that you ideas about religion are based on an opposition to the far right of the Christian and other Judeo/Christian religious leaders and the BS they quote as Holy writ. Would you except that these people only represent a very small number of all of those who draw some part of their philosophy from what you might term Religion. Such groups as the Society of Friends as an example make no such claims about their personal beliefs. Regardless of religion there will always be a moral and ethical dimension to the human experience. Would you wish to see some people silenced and if so where do you draw the line ?

The radical right are the worst of the pack but religion itself is just foolish, the idea of some uber parent is insulting to human intelligence.

Now, there are varying degrees of rotten religions and I do like the more philosophical ones like taoism and buddhism but the world religions, christianity and islam are really the worst of the bunch.

Its ancient superstitions created by early man before we had an understanding of science, along with believing the world was flat and that god punished ppl by sending storms, mankind managed to get rid of a lot of the stupidity of religion but we still cling to it because of the stupidity of the masses.

I dont even know where to start, stories from the bibles mirror earlier stories from pagan religions and those come from even older stories made up about the sun etc, religion is mass delusion and honestly religion itself is terrible, it teachs ppl to throw their brain into the garbage and accept whatever is told to them, that alone is reason to destroy it, if someone came along tomorrow and told my friends and family that they needed to do whatever he said, whenever he said it, without question I would have to step in, so instead in our society I have to hear religious asswipes talk about how gays are immoral or that women are lesser because they were taken from adams rib or that to "spare the rod spoils the child" or the idea that we dont have to worry about the future because god has some predestined plan for us, its all nonsense, NONSENSE, what about religious teaching creationism? what about jewish thinking their religion makes it acceptable for them to butcher tens of thousands of innocent palestinians and steal their land or how muslims think they will recieve 40 virgins for doing whatever they think allah wants them to.

I cant tell u how much I despise religion, it takes otherwise sensible people and tells them to stick a fork in their brain and scramble it up.

Who knows where humanity might be if it wasent for religion, the wars, the current conficts, the ignorance, the racism, sexism, religion is disgusting honestly Burg and I live in Vancouver, there so many ppl here into quasi-new age crap that I can barely sneeze without hitting seven new ager types.

I feel cheated to be born in such a stupid period of human development, with our technology we are like 2 year olds with guns and we still believe in santa claus and the easter bunny.

Im an adult, I have looked at the facts, there is no fucking god, never was, never will be and the religious of the world should grow up or just fuck off ...

Sorry, I dont want to cause a big argument over this, im right, everyone is welcome to their opinion really, i realize i am calling some family members of mine stupid, thats ok, they are if they are religious, like I said i dont want a big argument out of this, I just wish I lived in a world where I didnt need to explain why I think religion is a bad thing.

I cant sugar coat my utter disdain and disgust toward religion, im sorry.

Btw, please, everyone here, check out "The God Delusion" read the book and watch "The Root of all Evil?" ...

You will have to accept that many people will never understand your view.

Even from your own studies you can see that Religion has been with the Human animal since the dawn of recorded History. Even if religion is no more than a crutch it remains a crutch that people have a right to embrace or not according to their own understanding of the fudge that most traditional religions represent. I personally find some parts of the secular Humanists creed disturbing and there is not doubt that many people with religious convictions feel that the Humanists far from being the most enlightened of people are the most blinkered. Secular Humanism is associated with the pro-choice movement and as a result it falls foul of many of us who feel that it is a not only godless but lacking in ethical and moral honesty. How would you counter those who feel that it is nothing more than an aggressive form of atheism.

Not sure what you mean about humanism being disturbing, what specifically is disturbing about it?

I understand ppl will believe in all sorts of stupid things, im ok with someone being religious as long as it ends at their door, i dont want religious ppl trying to change laws, they have no place in my life and I do want to remove as much of their influence as I can from my life.

Well I personally find the Aggressive pro-choice movement as disturbing as the pro-life's more extreme wing. Another example is drawn from my Fathers humanist funeral in which the vast majority of the service seemed to be composed of disillusioning any religious people present, and confirming the finality of death, all very negative and debatable in my book. When people on either side of a debate start throwing objects at the opponents you have to ask "why ?". Its a bit like the inevitable fights that break out between the fascists and the anti-fascists in my humble opinion there are extremists on both sides and sadly the majority of good intentioned people get caught up in the cross fire. I suppose my years on the front line have rather jaded my once clear convictions these days I am rather more inclined to support the center ground and fight to ensure that one side doesn't stop the other from speaking because it has become over zealous in its outlook. I have talked to many Christian people over the last few years who have perhaps understandable come to the conclusion that secular humanism is a atheist creed that seeks to destroy their own freedom of conscious, perhaps these views are over the top but the feeling is there. In the UK the Liberal tradition grew up in the church's and still supports the rights of all people to believe what they will, at the far end of the Humanist movement I feel there is a group who would like to silence even outlaw religions and that is a major assault on freedom IMHO. That's not to say I agree with all of the loonies on the far right of the church but I don't want their rights to speak removed anymore than any other group. Perhaps that is a misunderstanding of secular Humanism and its aims in which case and by all means "say it is not so argghmonkey"

But why? I mean what are your reasons? I dont see any pro-choice people encouraging kids to get pregnant and then abort the fetuses ...

Give me a better understanding of why you say this ...

Ouch, what did they say? If u dont want to talk about this I would understand, it was ur fathers funeral. If the goal of the service was to make people feel bad that seems very weird and I have to say I dont see how that is reflective of humanist ideas on whole. I dont know what was said but at my funeral I dont want ppl pretending that I live on somewhere, I dont believe thats true and I dont want to led ppl on, thats just me personally.

Fair enough, extremism inherently carries problems with it, I dont see humanism as extreme though.

I totally agree but we are not talking about two valid viewpoints, if someone wants to debate ethics or morality or which soup is the best the middle ground is where its at and theres lots to learn from both sides, but when we are talking about religion it is, at its core, a LIE, the idea that god exists and expects something from us in order for us to be rewarded or punished. Its ancient nonsense, right up there with the aztecs believing that blood letting made sure the sun would rise, as richard dawkins points out that we are atheist about every god that humanity has ever believed in, some of us just go one god further.

An anti-abortionist who brings ideas like a childs soul into the debate over abortion should be politely escorted out of the discussion as much as a man who swears that he talks to god through his toaster.

My favourite example is the creationist agenda, one side believes in FACTS (evolution) and another side believes in faith (creationism), one side is correct and one side is incorrect, there is a very clear winner in that debate and creationism has no place what-so-ever in any intelligent discussion about human development, no middle ground AT ALL, NONE, not even the slightest bit of middle ground in this argument, creationists are stupid, period and this stretchs to all beliefs of all religious everywhere, some religions are more open minded then other but all have a basic flaw.

Oh im well aware of how scared christians are of secular humanism, from their perspective I dont see why they should worry about it, I dont see god being ok with allowing himself to be forgotten. That said im ok with the religious praying to the air as much as they like, its the christians and some other religions that are actively seeking to change our society to fit their narrow, stupid faith based ideas, I dont see humanists crying over souls or going on about sin or asking for money on tv hours or calling gays immoral, generally all humanists I know love being human, they are fascinated and concerned with our development as a species and they take full responsibility for everything in our lives, they realize we have to THINK and debate and be critical and skeptical about what we do and what we think, they are the future of our species, not any superstition driven belief system.

Like I mentioned thats why I expect the religious to keep their faith within their churchs and homes, the SECOND they overstep that and infringe on my rights based on their stupidity, thats the second they cross that line. We need to do things for intelligent reasons, not for faith.

Well I have to add humanism is a concept, there are groups all around the world calling themselves humanists but they arent a single movement anymore then the green parties all around the world are, or even within small areas in a single country.

Here are the basics of humanism ...

If you believe these things too then your a humanist and you didnt even know it !

....yeah -- i agree, people are basically getting sick of the same old rock/hip-hop/r&b bullsh*t..... and there is just this big upsurge from a new style coming out of Europe -- best place i've found it so far is a compilation series called 'euro club hits' on itunes -- or check this link:

http://electricfilebox.com/tracks

I want Monkey to answer this honestly.

How can YOU as an individual go on this forum preaching(pardon the pun)about how Christians and any otehr major religion can not go tell others how they believe or even force others, YET support Humanist type of institutions like this:

Unitarian Universalist Association/church.

This is considered a humanist place of worship.

How can you as a poster on here push others to admit that their faith is in error, but yet can tell others on here they have to follow what you consider to be moral or ethical?

I am asking this in a serious way to get to the bottom of this. Seen you shout out how Christians do it is wrong, yet you turn around and do the same thing, essentially.

Well ur talking about one part of humanism, its not one specific group.

Humanists recognize that humans crave that sense of something bigger, we want to believe theres a bigger purpose, religion has been pursued since pre history because humans wanted to make sense of their existence and they did it through nature and supernatural means, just like the aztecs though the sun rose by their command so too do modern humans want to believe that the universe cares about us, it doesnt of course but we are feeling beings and its hard to be human.

So, humanists, knowing that humanity needs this crutch, have come up with traditions of their own, things meant to signify and reinforce the great thing we already have, without the need for superstition and religion.

Thats why humanists have come up with alternative wedding ceremonies or parties for kids, its designed to give that larger sense of the world without the stupid nonsense of religion.

Humanism isent a religion though, it has no faith in any god ...

Does this help? I doubt it will for u ...