Anne Rice turns to Jesus

[Steven]

hummmm, I see that my own words for the topic title and topic description is being used on this post. Good choice if I do say so myself.

Anyway in related news to this topic, I was reading an article about The Cure where their new upcoming album which looks to be their final album ever is going to have a new "religious" sound to it as "Robert Smith has refound faith". I am not a huge Cure fan, but they do have some songs that I enjoy. It seams that many bands are now going in this direction. A trend that I personaly do not enjoy.

- Bloodied

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

this trend you might be seeing here is very probably a trend that many people go thru as they reach a certain age, or have allready accquired certain thigns in their lives. They begin to desire a much deeper search, which leads them down this past. Its only natural that it would show up in the music, our most personal reflection. I for one, appreciate the honesty in those reflections.

[cptdeath]

i like it cause it shows me a true artist. someone who forms what she feels into a product we can enjoy and mass produce. her true feelings. imagine if she felt this way but kept up the illusion and lived off the ghost of the past. her work would not be real and every book would be another edjucated horses. not a reflection of feelings but some crap made to push volume off shelves all sold out. i bet shes also a republican and she votes. some one else tells me she moved to texas. i respect her for her art

[Miranda]

I never cared for Anne Rice's work, period. She has had many health problems, her husband just passed away. These type of events make you re-evaluate your entire existence. A person should be constantly evolving, who is to say she won't find comfort in something else at some point? People change according to what they need. It's her right. It's fine to have an opinion about personal behaviors but judging/discriminating is another story.

[Hellheart]

Stereotypes make decision making much easier. The human mind prefers to make easy distinctions for snap decisions. It's easier to sort people into largely-defined groups instead of considering them as individuals. This is where racism really creates problems, as the first thing you notice about a person is the color of their skin.

Either simple probability or a very positive/negative experience will establish a stereotype. Should the next few interactions with those who meet the stereotype support it, the stereotype's there pretty much for good. The only way to beat it is to train yourself to view each person as an individual, or to create a new stereotype for a subgroup of the initial that better defines that group.

Let's face it, there are a lot of very pushy Christians out there. And the only Christians you hear from are the pushy ones, because the ones who aren't pushy keep to themselves. That's why they're not pushy. It's perfectly understandable that people who are not good friends with non-pushy Christians and who are not themselves Christian would create a negative stereotype.

Want a good litmus test for a "good" or "bad" Christian? Ask them about abortion, contraception, gay marriage. Ask them for reasons *why* they support or are against it. If they don't give you good, rational, well-thought out reasons, and you're not Christian, you'll probably not want to deal with them. The same for other beliefs, or believing in the nonexistance of belief. Beliefs are good, but rationality is far, far better, and beliefs are there to supplement rationality at best. Many exceptions to this exist, particularly dysfunctions resulting from traumatic experiences, but these don't bother me unless forced upon me against my will.

[rant]

I'm a pragmatist, so I tend to base my reasons on something objective. I dislike irrational people. Just because a group you stereotype is mostly irrational does not give you license to irrationally lash out at a comment that is not obviously irrational, even if it does come from somebody in that group. Sometimes you have to step back and get out of the mindset you're viewing a person or argument in; maybe ask someone else what they think, somebody with different biases, or talk (not argue) it out with the individual in question.

Nobody should have to clarify what they mean every time they talk. If we'd work some to understand, we might need clarification at first, but we'd understand each other enough that we'd know where we disagree ;x

Course that takes work, and viewing people as people, and hell if that's going to happen anytime soon. I am a practicing Catholic, myself, yet I'm too much of a realist to be easily accepted by either side

[/rant]