Welcome,
Good luck, have fun, and be safe.

Literate and promote free thought? Admirable goal. Welcome to TextFugu, and good luck learning Japanese!

loooooolllllll

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/msbrackenridge/2007/05/18/i_love_this_thread.jpg?maxWidth=800&maxHeight=600

BBB:

For the record, since starting on the kanji, I do think I couldn’t possibly disagree more with the following statements unless this were sarcasm, Koichi:
(Under the page for 才)
“You have a cross. Why is there a slide / stroke going through the cross? Why, because religion
really was a ‘stroke of genius.’
When you think about crosses and religion, it’s hard to help but think of how it’s changed and affected history. So genius.”

Obviously a remark about Christianity, which bears the cross of their savoir as their symbol. I find my opinion remarkably opposing this, as I find Christianity to be the mark of ignorance, gullibility and thoughtless subservience. I would have probably left with no remark if it wasn’t stating something as ridiculous as basically ‘you should remember the kanji meaning genius by remembering how genius religion is’. That only makes it harder to remember, quite honestly. It goes against everything I’ve come to know, which is going against mnemonics.

Note: Before I begin, I would like to say that I hope I do not offend anyone with my statements; I am not disrespecting anyone’s beliefs or values.

I am not a “religious” person, but I think it is easy to consider religion “genius.” For example, even if one considers religion a completely man-made creation without any truth to the supernatural elements, such elements cannot be disproved by scientific methods (at least, when it comes to the question of the existence of a supreme being). Although recent discoveries have suggested that there was no need for divine intervention for the universe to be created, that does not prove there wasn’t, and we lack the experimental and analytic abilities to do so. Now, regardless of how one feels towards any religion’s doctrine or adherents, that is pretty genius. I would call an argument that cannot be disproved and explicitly requires and promotes faith as a major tenet (in response to the lack of undeniable proof) “genius.” Any complaints against a religion can really be dismissed based off those two qualities, and, if one considers them entirely human creations, than that is a really impressive creation. Also, the point that religion has had such a huge impact on human history is completely valid. Since genius does not imply “correct,” “moral,” or “right,” I think it works quite well.

Like I said, I don’t mean to “debate” religion here (open online debates on religion or politics are rarely smart ideas), but I hope this has perhaps helped in seeing how religion could be considered genius regardless of one’s beliefs and feelings towards it.

(I also wrote that with Christianity mainly in mind, but I am aware that there are many religions to which my points might not fit as well. I am sure there can be considered genius in their own right, in some way or another.)

Good luck with your studies!

Well think of it this way, what’s a genius way to scam people out of money?

Scientology.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by  Luke.