use Perl

• Larry's beliefs (Score:2)

  by Damian (784)

  Hmmmmm. I'm probably the atheist who has worked most closely with Larry over the past half a decade. I have never once been preached at, nor felt in any way oppressed by his occasional quiet references to his faith. In my observation, if Larry seeks to convert at all, it's by example rather than by evangelism. I only wish that more Christians were like him (i.e. actually tried to live according to the beliefs they profess).
  • Re:Larry's beliefs (Score:2)

    by hfb (74)

    I don't know that they are quiet references, Damian and I can understand how they might scare people off, especially now with the US being rather divided over such things as "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays."
    • Re:Larry's beliefs (Score:2)

      by Damian (784)

      I guess my main point is that I've never heard Larry say to anyone: "You must believe what I believe". Only ever: "This is what I believe". And that's the defining difference for me between preaching and exemplifying.

      And, yes, I can well understand the trepidation that non-believers and believers-in-other-gods experience in the U.S., given the coercive perversions of Christian faith that seem to dominate there. But if our reaction is thereafter to fear or censor mere statements of personal religious belie
      • Re:Larry's beliefs (Score:1)

        by n1vux (1492) on 2006.01.02 0:48 (#45453) Homepage Journal

        Bravo, thank you Damian. Belief should not threaten us, nor Statement of Belief. To condemn someone for Belief is as bad as would be for them to condemn us for non-belief or wrong-belief. To assume that all fervent believers condemn the differently-believing is itself a harmful mistaken prejudice. (Although with the politically active portion of the US Religious Right, it may be the safe way to bet -- we can not extrapolate safely to the equally religious folks who have better things to do than persecute heathen democrats.)

        Odd that the "Ancient Languages" blogger "Stevey" quoted above accuses Larry in his Onion speech of hating ... the only hits for /hat(e|ing)/i were "Whatever", repeatedly. Larry doesn't hate. This is just a weird piece.

        The critical blogger "Stevey" should have listened to the wisdom "judge not lest ye be judged" ... he says "Ot-Nay Oo-Tay Ight-Bray (if you catch my meaning)", which I think sums up this blog posting. If he can't understand why references (in Java or Perl) are safer than pointer arithmetic (in C, C++), well, his opinions are just another waste of a webserver.

        Also note that the posting is a year old. He's no longer at Amazon. I guess if Google hired him since he wrote this he can't be as clueless as this piece lets on, but wow ... he just doesn't get Perl.

        We Militant Agnostics must tread carefully. Not all fervent believers are dangerous, only the ones who try to tell you how to live your life according to their reading of certain scripture while ignoring other scripture. I had hopes the WWJD fad would help Christians be more like their Christ, but it seems they take the Preacher's word for what Jesus would have them do instead of considering what Jesus did and would do. Paulinist witch-hunting dogmatists are much more dangerous than gentle creative Christians like Larry and C.S.Lewis and JRRTolkein. Lincoln was asked if he was going to relieve General U.S.Grant of his command due to his drinking problem. Lincoln replied that Grant was his only winning general, so he suggested the questioner find out what Grant was drinking and give a case of it to each other general. In like view, I wish more Christians were like Larry -- more like their Christ and less like my Puritan ancestors who came here to escape religious oppression of them and impose it on others.

        --
        Bill
        # I had a sig when sigs were cool
        use Sig;

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