Inspiration Comes from Only One Source? March 20, 2010

Inspiration Comes from Only One Source?

By Guest Contributor
March 20, 2010

The backstory from PassiveAggressiveNotes:

A college RA puts inspiration quotes on the bathroom wall.

Someone writes on one of the posts, asking why the quotes are always from the Bible.

The RA doesn’t like the tone of that question and issues a response as follows:

Damn… someone took that criticism a little too hard.

I think the critic could’ve achieved the same result by cherry-picking a less-than-inspirational Bible quote and posting it right next to this one 🙂

(Thanks to Pippin for the link!)

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  • Richard Wade

    I think the critic could’ve achieved the same result by cherry-picking a less-than-inspirational Bible quote and posting it right next to this one

    Or better yet, If the critic had offered a very inspirational quote from a secular source.

    After all, we ought to provide the evidence for the claims we make.

  • james

    That… is one awesome comeback.

    Score one for the theists!

  • GaR

    Well the bible is monstrous and evil, and Hannibal Lecter is monstrous and evil.

    Of course, the bible is stupid, and Lecter is smart.

  • fritzy

    …Or the RA who likes to wear his/her faith on their sleeve could learn to take constructive criticism and attempt to employ some of that empathy that many xtians claim to be so famous for. For those who don’t send telepathic petitions to the invisible monster in the sky, such quotes are obnoxious and frankly rather depressing. At least the RA’s response was a little more original and inspired.

    I do agree with Richard–that probably would have been more effective and certainly would have made the woo-smitten RA look like even more of a douche-bag had he/she made a snide come-back.

    The response is not only passive-aggressive, but ironic as well, so score for killing two birds with one stone.

    BTW, I love the passive-aggressive notes website. Great stuff.

  • Richard Wade

    james,

    That’s a “win” according to you? You have very low standards. The “awesome comeback” was a line from a horror movie about a nonexistent murderer. It implies that asking for more breadth of sources of inspiration is somehow “rude.”

    Apparently wanting to hear any notes other than middle C is considered rude by the middle C devotees.

  • Richard P.

    Just what you would have to expect from a christian. Take something secular find a horrible extreme example and proclaim it to the world. God forbid we bring up an extreme example of religion. What a bunch of hypocrites.

    Just another good reason to work towards eradicating all religion.

  • Dave B.

    An RA is supposed to be there to look out for the safety and well-being of the students. Putting up biblical quotes seems like a good way to alienate any non-Christian students who might need his help.

    I’d love to see a demonstration of people flying about like eagles on faith alone, though. Now that would be inspiring. Even a simple marathon at full sprint would do the trick for me.

  • Epistaxis

    That’s not even an inspirational quote. Those do exist in the Bible, but this is pure proselytizing.

  • And Hannibal was oh so right about rudeness — I’ll even go one further: rudeness to non-believers is a REQUIREMENT if you’re religious.

  • james

    What can I say, I’m a big fan of ol’ doc Hannibal 😛

    As Hemant suggested, the person could have cherry-picked a less inspirational Bible quote and put it there… but he sort of left an opening when he wrote what he wrote.

    Theist pick a quote from outside the Bible and calls him rude with it. The exchange standing as it is now – it’s a win for the theists, but hey, opinions 🙂

  • So what if the source of the second quote is a fictional mass murderer, it is still true on its own.

    However I didn’t find the hand written comment to be rude. It is a good suggestion to vary your sources when it comes to inspiration. a point seemingly lost on the angry theist. *sigh*

  • mikespeir

    My first thought was that the Lector quote was posted by the same guy who did the scribbling. It just goes to show that a good thought doesn’t require a good source.

  • Greg

    You mean it wasn’t an apology?

    There was I thinking that the RA must have taken the criticism on board… :-/

    😉

  • Marcel

    Leave it the followers of a work of fiction to retort with a quote by a fictional character.

  • Adrian

    As a non-American, what the hell is an RA?

  • Claudia

    Well, I disagree with the sentiment for sure, but I gotta give props for the sharp come-back.

  • Is life just one long competition? Why isn’t cooperation an option? Generosity is a good thing not a weakness. Sarcasm and complaint are way too easy and lack the intellectual challenge of finding a positive comment to actually encourage one another instead of playing the “my way or the highway” counter offensive card all the time. Non theism is not a battleground against God. This “he said she said” quarreling is childish. One upmanship is a life goal? It’s not mine. This quote by stephen Bachelor from his book CONFESSIONS OF A BUDDHIST ATHEIST is awesome -“I find it immoral to relegate the demands of this life to the ‘higher’ task of preparing oneself for a postmortem existence (or non-existence). I think of myself as a secular Buddhist who is concerned entirely with the demands of this age (saeculum) no matter how inadequate and insignificant my responses to these demands might be. And if in the end there does turn out to be a heaven or nirvana somewhere else, I can see no better way to prepare for it.” It’s you and me together regardless of who you may think you are – we share everything on this small planet earth. Love it or hate it, I guess different strokes for different folks.

  • If we’re going for movie quotes, I suggest the following:

    “Be excellent to each other.” — Bill S. Preston, Esq.

  • The Bible quote there resembles the inspirational message in the letters that the 9/11 attackers had in their possession.

  • Sharon Resident

    Having been an RA for a year and a half and now a plain-jane resident, this PA note makes me angry. RA’s can be religious–nothing’s preventing them from wearing a cross or having a picture of Mary in their room, because that speaks of them personally.

    But this sign is in a common area and therefore speaks for the entire floor. This infringes on Resident rights–residents have the right of freedom from religion. Nothing that respects one religion over another can be in a common area in a residence hall–prayer meetings(it’s happened before), cross posters(except on resident’s doors), muslims on prayer rugs, etc. This was a pattern of behavior if I understand the PA note site right, and that is inexcusable for an RA to do. The resident should have talked to someone higher and gotten that RA talked to seriously. If it were on my campus, the RA would be disciplined and would issue a formal apology.

  • I’d prepare several quotes from the Koran, Torah and other religious texts and post them next to his inspirational messages each week.

  • Becky
  • Adrian

    Thanks Becky, Google just gives dance and electronic music magazine. I didn’t think that sounded like a “Christian” thing.

  • muggle

    I’d have just tore it down. That’s what I generally do when I happen across some scantimonious bullshit.

    I’m totally on the side of the student who scribbled the note and I don’t think the theist won this one. I think the student did. Hell, we don’t even know if it was the RA put the third but probably. All it does is make them look as scantimonious and petty as they probably are.

    Why does an RA feel it necessary to give little be wise, grasshopper, type memos to students any way? That’s rather belittling even if not religious. Thought/encouragement of the week. Does the RA think the rest of the dorm is going to jump off the roof without his little pearls?

    Does it show I never went to college? Mostly I wish I had but stuff like this makes me feel that I didn’t miss a damned thing.

  • Off topic:

    I just realized that some of the lyrics from U2’s “Drowning Man” off of the “War” album seem to be inspired quite directly from the Isaiah verse 40:31

    I know Bono writes the lyrics, and he is definitely a Jesus believer. But he practically stole the lyrics from Joshua, it would appear!

    …
    Rise up, rise up, with wings like eagles
    You run, you run and not grow weary…

    Anyway, when I read the verse, I was immediately reminded of the U2 song.

  • nankay

    To the non-American who asked what an “RA” was:

    An RA is a resident assitant–an upper classman who lives in the dorm (or sometimes a specific floor/wing) who is the “go to” person if there is a problem/conflict.

  • keddaw

    Christians are the one’s who have institutionalised cannibalism…

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