Caltrops - Tales of the Sword Coast





	[quote name="Mischief Maker"][quote name="Noi Dau Don"]I am constantly reminded of this passage [in screwtape letters] whenever QB discusses anything but beautiful scenery.[/quote] My crazy-religious aunt gave me a copy of that book for christmas once in one of her many passive-aggressive attempts to tell me that I'm going to hell for my liberal ways. I read the very beginning where a stereotypical ivory tower intellectual agnostic is sitting around when suddenly a pink beam of light shoots down from the heavens into his mind and awakens him to the possibility that maybe God exists, only for screwtape the demon to distract him from this important revelation with food. It told me two things. One, that religion was just as hostile to free-thinkers in C.S. Lewis' time as it is today. Two, it reflected that weird fantasy among religious types of what it must be like for people who weren't born into the flock to convert. The whole clouds opening and god thundering down at the sinner, "knock it off!" at which point the sinner becomes super-duper religious. That never seems to happen to people who were raised that way by their parents. In fact, God never seems to talk to them. In my own (admittedly limited) experience, the only people I've seen go from agnostic to religious, or hop the fence between religions, is usually because of social pressures. Either it's for the sake of pleasing their spouse, or because they didn't have many friends and wanted in on the instant social scene that comes from giving ten percent of their income to a child molester/closet case. Rest assured, they will <I>tell</I> stories to their new circle of friends that they were hit by some thunderbolt from heaven upon stepping into their church. For the pussy. [quote]<font size=-2>I'm much moved by MM's constant rage on the topic of QB. It speaks well of her - all the more fitting to be my lovely bride - but I think she'll be happier when she realizes that anyone who does anything nice for or with QB more than once is literally too stupid to live. Nature is trying her level best to eliminate this threat, MM. Don't interrupt.</font>[/quote] My dear, my motive is exactly what I said it is. My undergraduate degrees are in Bacteriology and Genetics and I know for a fact how easily microorganisms can spread out of control from world travelers who don't take precautions. At first I thought QB was joking about going to Syria to infect some refugees with the drip, but once he put up photographic evidence of the trip he set me off. Besides, after a long day of listening to tales of mind-boggling dumb-fuckery and having to remain poised and professional, it's incredibly fun and cathartic to stomp through QB's moral house of cards like Godzilla.[/quote]