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Comment by BugBrother | Hacker News Reader

The article is about the pseudo scientifical life advice that is popular. There is not much about religion. After a spammy first half a book is discussed which sounded interesting.

Religion is generally just not discussed in Sweden, which is the most non-religious country on the planet. It is considered a bit embarrassing to discuss faith, like your toilet problems or something. (At least Sweden used to be the leader. The statistics might be different after the large immigration wave.)

(This service provided for anyone trying to use translate.google.com :-) )

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I like that attitude. Someone wrote religion is like genitals - its ok to have it, be proud of it, use it, but just don't go waving it around in public.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Religion is fascinating, if nothing else it tells you how people throughout history thought about the universe and their role in it.

So... you think folks should definitely go preaching everywhere they go? Is that the stupid part? Confused.

I believe dominotw is not talking about what you wrote.

I think he is making an obfuscated argument that since religion was a big force culturally and is interesting from a historical viewpoint, it should get some respect.

Preaching? No.

I'd find it very disturbing if someone started discussing their genitals over dinner, though, whilst a discussion about faith and religion can be interesting and fun.

I imagine; yet its a notorious avoid-at-all-costs issue around many groups of friends.

Sorry, I was referring to quote in your comment.

I find it frustrating the religion has become such a taboo subject because few people decided to misinterpret it and use it for their selfish purposes.

Other than being fascinating in its own right. It can be a perfect antidote to our modern anxiety filled lives that we live in constant conflict both with ourselves and with the external world. We NEED religion now more than ever. We need religion that questions our view self [1], questions nature of our consciousness, questions nature of the world we live in [2]. I see it as a tool which lets us explore the things that are unsuitable for exploration through the scientific method.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion)

The same is true of any advice, generally. Giving people diatribes on all that's wrong with Windows and all that's right with Ubuntu doesn't produce many converts, and probably gives Ubuntu a bad name. But if someone says "I hate Windows, because it's expensive and made by Microsoft" then it would be entirely appropriate for me to talk about Ubuntu.

I'm that way with religion. I don't walk up to people outside the station telling them to repent, but if someone told me they were having a hard time in life right now, I might suggest coming to church with me one Sunday.

You caused me some cognitive dissonance. Why does the latter strike me as offensive, but the former doesn't? My reaction to the latter is "preying on the vulnerable". The former is also, so is the reason that only the latter offends me is that I'm an Ubuntu using atheist?

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