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Her upbringing sounds a lot like mine, my Mother comments with pride how children are just like dogs etc. She would scream "Come!" and others would marvel at how the children stopped in their tracks to obey. She would scream "Heel!", and others would marvel at how we would instantly form a line behind her and follow her.
When she would discuss children with me she would say things like "The best thing to do is train children like dogs, since they have no brains". And I'd nod and smile in encouragement and agreement as only agreement was allowed. I would thank her for training me, agree I was a stupid dog etc.
I was an expert at playing along, I knew it was wrong all along, but I also knew how to put my hopes, dreams, needs and feelings in a very small box and tend to them in a dark inner place. Once I was out on my own, I was able to open that box up and luckily still exsisted in side. My brother was not so adpet at the game, constantly butted heads with her strict commands. He was just never able to play the shell game with his inner being like I was sadly.
Her upbringing sounds a lot like mine, my Mother comments with pride how children are just like dogs etc. She would scream "Come!" and others would marvel at how the children stopped in their tracks to obey. She would scream "Heel!", and others would marvel at how we would instantly form a line behind her and follow her.
When she would discuss children with me she would say things like "The best thing to do is train children like dogs, since they have no brains". And I'd nod and smile in encouragement and agreement as only agreement was allowed. I would thank her for training me, agree I was a stupid dog etc.
I was an expert at playing along, I knew it was wrong all along, but I also knew how to put my hopes, dreams, needs and feelings in a very small box and tend to them in a dark inner place. Once I was out on my own, I was able to open that box up and luckily still exsisted in side. My brother was not so adpet at the game, constantly butted heads with her strict commands. He was just never able to play the shell game with his inner being like I was sadly.
My late 2nd wife was an avid and accomplished breeder, trainer and shower of a particular breed of dog. Lacking a maternal bone in her body and never having had kids of her own, she tended to regard children as, if not dogs, then sophisticated dogs or proto-humans operating at the level of dogs. She dispensed with the fact that my children had to that point been home-schooled, with the saying, "puppies need puppies". Fortunately for our relationship, I was ready to put them back in the public school system, because they had reached an age where I didn't see home schooling as feasible if the job was to be done properly anyway. At any rate, my essential point is that to her credit she did not take her relating of child-rearing to puppy-rearing so far that she managed to make even an apparent success of it. Parenting unmanned (unwomaned??) her, as it does all parents, and her "pet" theories disintegrated in the light of reality. It is fascinating to me that your mother, and Mr/Mrs Slick, stubbornly carried such notions to their dehumanizing conclusions, and actually believed that they could remake their children into little automatons -- apparently for Mommy in your case, or more overtly for god in the Slick's case.
From what I have seen of the Quiverfull movement, which institutionalizes a similar set of rationalizations about child rearing, it invariably results in just enough empty husks of adult offspring to perpetuate the cycle in the next generation -- but most of them break with the system. It is too bad that most of those are damaged goods, unable to function in the ways that you or Rachel Slick appear able to. And that most parents are far too invested in their "thinking" to take a step back and recoil at what their parenting hath wrought.
You appear to have it bad mordant. Are there any believers that get a half decent ride, or are we all totally full of sh1t?
Of course there are. There are wonderful human beings who are theists, including devout Christians -- and they are often good parents, too. My own parents qualify for that approbation.
People who are "full of it" do not get a free pass, though, merely because they are believers, either.
Just to be clear, I'm talking here primarily about hyperconservative, ultra-literalist, fundamentalist types. In some ways I regard this as Christianity taken to its ultimate conclusion, but I do recognize that many, many Christians don't go to those places.
Anybody see the debate between Rachel and ..Venom strangler or something? As in Nye ham, the Theist had a better initial presentation, but I trust that Rachel will come out on top since atheism has the better case.
I had time to listen to about the first half of this debate but lost interest in it. I felt the theist was using pretty standard and uninteresting arguments, and Rachel, while clearly bright and centered, is far too deferential and cautious and missing one opportunity after another. Also she hasn't honed her debating skills very much as yet; she seems to me to be deferring to her opponent's definitions of terms. Or put another way, she's not as assertive as I'd want to be in such a setting.
That said, she's gutsy and I see nothing but positive potential in her as she matures and gets more distance from the fundamentalist ethos she grew up in, which tends to teach you that you're a d__k if you aren't agreeable to the point of being saccharine -- that you are at fault if the other person reacts badly or is uncomfortable or feels attacked when in fact they are not. It leaves you always walking on eggshells to avoid emotional disturbance in others, as if others have no responsibility for maintaining their own objectivity and equanimity.
I was so conflict-averse that I was almost dysfunctional when I left fundamentalism; I still struggle with it but I've gotten much better. Rachel will, too.
Thanks. I hadn't got round to sitting down with it, but it doesn't surprise me. Venom fang presented a beautifully polished opener of long refuted stock arguments and Rachel could have simply shown them in her opening statement to be so much folderol.
Rather as in the Nye -ham debate, Ham had a well - honed opening presentation but Nye took it to pieces pretty quickly and thereafter, Ham was simply arguing a theory that had already crashed and burned. I was expecting the same in this debate but as you say..it didn't happen.
Atheism is simple, but the debate can get very complex and Rachel slick will get to know the standard arguments and how to shoot them down. In the meantime, she is perfectly stunning to look at.
Venom fang presented a beautifully polished opener of long refuted stock arguments and Rachel could have simply shown them in her opening statement to be so much folderol.
LOL @ Venom Fang. He managed to get himself banned from YouTube a few years ago for trying to slander his atheist opponent. You should watch the excellent 30+ part series by Thunderf00t called "Why people laugh at creationists." It has the full Venom Fang story in it. Fortunately you can watch the whole thing in 10 minute increments - don't watch the "complete" version (which is 3+ hours long) because, well, it's long and it's also missing quite a bit of info that can be found in the 10 minute clips.
*cackle* I thought Venom Fang dried up and blew away after his You Tube scandal.
Atheism is simple, but the debate can get very complex and Rachel Slick will get to know the standard arguments and how to shoot them down. In the meantime, she is perfectly stunning to look at.
Yeah but what is that on her hand, spattered blood? A subliminal message maybe, that she eats theists for breakfast?
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