On Religion
Personally I feel that criticism is necessary to validify any concept or theory. I see nothing wrong with a satirical cartoon of Islam. However I know nothing much about that religion. I do know what Baptist think, thanks to my mother who dragged me along with her to church the first 12 years of my life.
Here is what I remember about that. Baptists are simple people. They have very little ornamentation in the church, maybe stain glass windows at the end of their little wooden benches but that's about it. The churches are also simple wooden buildings. There is God's rule, "Do not worship false idols" something like that. That is why Baptists think Catholics are especially crazy with their relics and everything. It is interesting that it is ok to portray Jesus in Christianity but not Muhammad in Islam. I wonder do muslems portray anything? It is very rare for a Christian artist to actually try to portray god, he is supposed to be to brilliant for human eyes.
In my little church they believed that everyone is a sinner and getting baptized washes your sins away. Dancing wasn't allowed but it was ok to use birth control. Gospel music was important and was not uncommon to see an old man slap his thigh in rhythm to the music. Sometimes people would speak out with a personal story and ask you to pray for them. I remember when my teenage cousin cried up in front of everyone because one of her non-Christian friends died and she was afraid they would burn in hell. That was a big threat that preachers loved to talk about, hell fire and damnation. It was ok for preachers to have families. There were other important men in the church called deacons.
When I was a child I remember sitting in a church meeting with my Mama one night. Some man stood up. He was new to the church. He said, "I think my wife here has as many important things to say as I do, I think we should have a vote so that women can speak during these meetings" so they had a vote so that women could speak in meetings. When I got older and more critical I asked my Mama "didn't that piss you off, that you couldn't speak"? She told me that a woman's husband should speak for her. The ironic thing about that is my Daddy never went to church. He always said, "I don't like Baptist." My Dad was raised Methodist. He's told me before that his personal philosophy is "always agree with you mother (aka his wife)" This may be valuable advice for someone who studied anthropology and married a creationist.
Maybe religion is some kind of dated thing that protects family so that the human race doesn't die out. In the industrial and service economies of the world it seems that this is no longer as important as it used to be. I guess that's why the enlightenment started.
The last time I went to church I was an older teenager and I hadn't been in years. I remember the preacher was preaching on tidings and how you should not me a miser and hoard your money away because you can't take it into the afterlife with you. I started joking with my Mama, "you heard what the preacher said, you'd better give me some money"