Yeah the grass to milk, meat and hide pipeline is a great one

Any chemistry we could perform to make it more viable? E.g. cook it with alcohol?

If they’re the sort of people I’ve seen on televangelist shows, then I take it all back. Those guys are terrifying

I think you’re probably mistaking the loudest christians for the majority. Easy mistake to make

Not in my experience. All the christians I’ve known over the last decade have been lovely, welcoming and open. They do have their in-groups too of course, and my interests are particularly bohemian so we don’t socialise all that regularly, but honestly their religion only tends to come up if I ask about it. Otherwise they’re just as content as anyone else to come and see a movie or go for a walk or whatever.

Some of the old biddies at the church I grew up with were pretty judgmental though, but they’re all dead now. Everyone left is just… nice.

I only know Muslim parents through my kids school, because my kids best friend is Muslim, and the parents are perfectly happy with playdates with my secular kid. There are one or two cultural oddities - e.g. the mum won’t come over our house unless my SO is also home (but will meet me in public) but I’m not sure if that’s a Muslim thing or a Turkish thing.

The Jehovah’s Witness are pretty bad for all that… as are Scientologists, a load of cults, Elan Schools, and arguably even the military and manosphere. Many of these don’t necessarily bring religion into things.

Our shared objection is the human capacity for imposing power, subjugation and control of others. Where we differ is that Religion is any more a factor in that than anything else.

I’ll grant you there’s probably quasi-religious elements to more cults across history than not, mind. I guess its an easier path than most to abuse of power, if you can convince people and even more powerful entity is on your side

Bread, wine, communion, annual religious festivities are also all real. Gods may not be real, but neither are a lot of human concepts. Good, evil, justice, aesthetics, mathematics, class, debt, trust, freedom… any number of things we believe exist but do not have any physical presence in the universe, no proof outside of human inference and intuition (and the occasional bit of paperwork) that they exist. They all, however, have their uses, and their effects are made manifest by our actions, for good and ill.

“Those who dance are thought insane by those who cannot hear the music”

I’m not so much defending religion as opposing your point of view that it’s a marker of insanity. In fact, most things that bring people closer together as a cohesive community are positive, whether that’s hobbies, interests or beliefs. Its only when it spills into doing harm to others that it becomes a problem (e.g. in certain aspects of sports, nationalism, and religion) but I still don’t think it’s a greater marker of ill mental health than a lot of other things we take for granted

So celebrating murder is the benchmark for insanity? Public executions used to draw big crowds, nothing to do with religion. Armies still give ceremonial medals for particularly inventive or brave killing, again, nothing to do with religion. Luigi Mangelone is celebrated by many for murder… admittedly the murder of a corporate ‘hands off’ serial killer, but still - its celebrating murder.

Again, I say, people are strange enough already - religion is barely even the icing on the cake.

Religion is just ceremony and doctrine surrounding belief.

A bit like having cake and a party, because you believe the earth completing a lap of the sun dated from the day of your birth is worth celebrating. Or having someone arrested and taken to court and sent to prison for stealing from you, because you and many others in society believe in concepts like personal property, and justice, and morality. You know, all those things you believe in that definitely exist, even though you’ve never seen a photo of morality, or seen a scientific study proving that justice exists. But they must do because old books say so, and so do your peers, and anyway our whole society would fall apart if people stopped believing in them.

Humans, simply put, are weird. We’re a species composed of mental disorders unique to us and nothing else in nature. To single out religion as being especially weird and worthy of contempt is… well… a bit weird and worthy of contempt, IMO

The only person I’ve ever heard say it is Eric Cartman

Ooh, it’s been a good while since I heard that

Vending Machine of Love by The Stupendium. Caters for all sexualities, plus full of silly puns

Tarragon and fennel seeds in fish dishes. Tarragon and lemon in chicken dishes. Plus salt and pepper, obvs.

Sage, garlic and salt in bread, especially focaccia.

I put a pinch of cayenne into almost everything else, just to stay in shape

Racism can include nationalities, as distinct from skin colour/DNA. Maybe there should be a better word for it, but it’s that way in the dictionary

Oh, it’s definitely racist - but what probably matters is “is it cruel or offensive”? If you’re all laughing at it, no big deal. If there’s a brit there who is cringing or feeling uncomfortable, the right thing to do would be to stop and apologise

the quality and proportions of the meat, egg, shallots, capers, mustard, tabasco and worcester sauce make all the difference. I’ve had it DIY style, and I’ve had it pre-made, and one particular time in Bruges it was made to absolute perfection

I do love a good Paella; especially seafood with plenty of lemon juice squeezed on.

A really well made Steak Tartare is great too

Yeah. Even if it turns out everything was consensual, he’s still a wrongun. Pratchett apparently said privately he wished he’d never had anything to do with him.

Oh yeah, and a bunch of his characters were plagiarised too - Sandman was apparently a ripoff of some penniless authors work and he never gave her a shoutout despite her practically begging. Also he’s not paid people for work they’ve done for him, but I forget the details. I think that was more a misunderstanding (he thought they were just doing him a favour as friends)

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