Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: loantech who wrote (253434)	6/20/2014 12:01:55 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 541761

I'm sorry but you're displaying such poor critical thinking skills, such poor logic, that I have to speak up. Krackauer is a garden variety atheist, hates religion in general and has chosen a murder by two whack jobs, probably mentally ill, who ALSO happen to have been baptised Mormon. Krackauer takes this one murder to malign an entire religious group. He starts with this one factual event and then launches a chain of supposition and speculation clearly intended to attack the Mormon church. It's a beautifully written book and hits such an emotional chord in people (tabloid style) that readers forget his core piece of evidence is ONE murder. I'm not speaking now as a Mormon at all. Believe me. I'm speaking as a former English and speech teacher trying to show you how propaganda works and your lack of critical thinking here. For example, would you malign Judaism because someone wrote a book about David Berkowitz's murders and then wove into the book all the violence in the Old Testament? I seriously doubt it. Also, if you have Mormon family members who are active in their church and trying to be good people, maybe the problem rests with you and not them. Maybe their efforts make you feel guilty and you look for things to find fault with? OTOH, if these family members are inactive, by default they become part of humanity in general with a mix of good and bad behaviors. Logically, you shouldn't draw conclusions about the church they once belonged to, imo. Going back to critical thinking skills, let me ask you this: Would you enter a debate concerning the themes in War and Peace without having read and studied the book for yourself? Would you enter a debate about the character of Leo Tolstoy, the author, without first having read ALL of his books? I think not. Nevertheless, you and others like you have opinions about the Bible without having read and studied the entire book. You let others pull out excerpts and accept THEIR opinions. You probably don't even go back to the book to read the entireity of the chapter the excerpt was taken from. Likewise you probably have opinions (negative) about churches you've never attended and a God you've never talked to (prayer). You probably read anti-religious propaganda ridiculing people of faith without ever having known many of them personally. <<The shooter in OR at Reynolds killed because he thought the other kids were sinners, a good Mormon I guess>> Another generalization from a single event, from which you reach a conclusion about the character of an entire group.