call her a "scholar," which she isn't. She's a former nun who failed to get a university degree
- I don't assume that an ex-nun (horrors!) couldn't be considered a scholar. One does not need a university degree to be scholar except in the mind of close-minded bigot.
Her M.O. is to pick a Deity-Of-The-Day
-Belittling an attempt to explain the origins and thought of the major religions of the world. Nice.
Armstrong hasn't yet met a deity she doesn't like
- What is the point here except to scornfully put down the process I described above
She vacuums up the research done by real scholars
-Do scholars vacuum up their study of original texts? Is the task of distilling and making sense of an entire religion in a clear and accurate way not scholarly?
then pukes it back up in a pile of her own bland metaphysical noodling.
- The use of the word "pukes" in this context is disgusting, and would only be used by someone who has a very angry axe to grind. "bland metaphysical doodling" is condescending and gratuitous description of what Armstrong does - unless you have a particular theistic or atheistic axe to grind.
Her brown-nosing of Islam was especially egregious.
- Getting inside a system of thought and moral behavior requires empathy and an open mind. Clearly onager has neither.
If she started mouthing off about how "we all worship the same God," she'd discover that's called apostasy. And carries the death penalty.
- Islam lived peacefully side-by-side other religions and systems of thought in their societies when the west was burning witches at the stake. Yes, there are some radically conservative aspects to some Islamic societies today. Let us not forget that Christianity committed crimes during the Inquisition and the "conquest" of Latin America. Every religion has been used by people to do good works and commit terrible crimes. Religions reflect the minds of the people who believe in them.
Armstrong and her buddies in the Sophisticated Theology racket
- Another "sophisticated" put down of anyone who studies theological topics.
I can explain the Trinity without a lifetime of meditation - it was an attempt by the early Xian Church to explain some unexplainable doctrines the Church itself had created. The Church failed utterly to rationalize a basically irrational idea, and declared the whole thing a Great Mystery.
-And so, at last, we come down to the truth behind onagers scathing attack on Armstrong. He believes religion is just a racket hidden in pseudo-mystery. He can't understand why anyone would want to try to understand the origins and beliefs that started major religion. I can't explain the anger and scorn, but I suspect there is a personal history that explains the depth of anger's revulsion.
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