is THIS why the 6.2 release seems stalled ?

[Nikolas Britton]

On 1/10/07, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog at freebsd.org> wrote:
> [irrelevant cruft removed]
>
> On Tuesday,  9 January 2007 at 23:54:02 -0600, Nikolas Britton wrote:
> > On 1/9/07, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog at freebsd.org> wrote:
> >> On Tuesday,  9 January 2007 at 17:08:45 -0600, Nikolas Britton wrote:
> >>> Why should I continue using FreeBSD when the project never delivers
> >>> on it promises?
> >>
> >> You shouldn't.  You obviously don't understand the issues.  We don't
> >> owe you anything.  Play an active part or go away.
> >
> > Fuck off Greg,
>
> You've proved my assumptions.  Clearly you don't want to play an
> active part.  Go away.  You may learn to grow up elsewhere, though I
> wouldn't bet on it.
>
> > Sincerely.
>
> You've got to be joking.
>

I'm going to answer why I said what I said above with a parallel
example that hopefully points out one of the problems with some,
conservative, members of the FreeBSD community...

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

It's a simple question, isn't it? We all know that amputated legs do
not spontaneously regenerate in response to prayer. Amputees get no
miracles from God. If you are an intelligent person, you have to admit
that it's an interesting question:

- On the one hand, you believe that God answers prayers and performs miracles.

- On the other hand, you know that God completely ignores amputees
when they pray for miracles.

How do you deal with this discrepancy? As an intelligent Christian,
you have to deal with it, because it makes no sense. In order to
handle it, notice that you have to create some kind of
rationalization. You have to invent an excuse on God's behalf to
explain this strange fact of life. You might say: "Well God must have
some kind of special plan for amputees." So you invent your excuse,
whatever it is, and then you stop thinking about it because it is
uncomfortable.

Here's another example. As a Christian, you believe that God cares
about you and answers your prayers. So the second question is: Why are
there so many starving people in our world?

Look out at are world and notice that millions of children are dieing
of starvation, It really is horrific. Why would God be worried about
you getting a raise, while at the same time ignoring the prayers of
these desperate, innocent little children? It really doesn't make any
sense, does it? Why would a loving god do this? To explain it, you
have to come up with some sort of very strange excuse for God. Like:
"God wants these children to suffer and die for some divine,
mysterious reason". Then you push it out of your mind because it
absolutely does not fit with your view of a loving, caring God.

Do you see what has happened here? When we assume that God exist, the
answers to these questions make absolutely no sense. But if we assume
that God is imaginary, our world makes complete sense. It's
interesting, isn't it? Actually, it's more than interesting. It is
incredibly important. Our world only makes sense when we understand
that God is imaginary. This is how intelligent, rational people know
that God is imaginary. When you use your brain, and when you think
logically about your religious faith, you can reach only one possible
conclusion... The "god" that you have heard about since you were an
infant is completely imaginary. You have to willfully discard
rationality, and accept hundreds of bizarre rationalizations to
believe in your "god."

Why should you care? What difference does it make if people want to
believe in a "god", even if he is imaginary? It matters because people
who believe in imaginary beings are delusional. It matters because
people who talk to imaginary beings are delusional. It matters because
people who believe in imaginary superstitions like prayer are
delusional. It's that simple, and that obvious. Your religious beliefs
hurt you personally and hurt us as a species because they are
delusional.

As Carl Sagan once said: "It is far better to grasp the Universe as it
really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and
reassuring."