According to Larson's Book of Cults (first edition, not the revised one I haven't looked at), Hinduism and Buddhism are both dangerous, occultist cults.

They're probably talking about yoga or something here, though.

Although credit where credit's due, people who say that yoga has no religious connotations are either ignorant or lying, yoga is absolutely a religious practice, denying that is like saying that Catholic confession isn't religious just because it has psychological benefits that endure even if it's removed from its religious context.

So yeah, these people weren't exactly wrong about what was happening (look at how many schools teach a secularized form of Buddhist meditation now, for example).

What they're wrong about is it mattering. Hell, if it weren't for the cultural baggage I think a fully secularized form of Catholic confession could be a really positive thing in schools, since it's essentially a (theoretically) anonymous form of talk therapy. There are reasons why this stuff has endured so long.

Well, yes, but he's referring to children's toys. Which makes it, like, 10 times more ridiculous.

SP- I don't see what's so ridiculous about that; toys and television and music exert a lot of influence on children. What would we say if the vast majority of American children were playing this:
https://youtu.be/4nUKtFTM01o

or watching this
https://youtu.be/0ORAM-usqhQ?t=9s

or listening to this?
https://youtu.be/e82PQyY1djI


OZ- *I* agree that it doesn't matter, and *you* agree that it doesn't matter, but *why* do we agree that it doesn't matter? Most of us here were raised by this type of Hindu-Buddhist-occultist media. To us, Hindu-occultism is normal, it IS our culture, and Christianity is an alien Other. It is unsatisfying, and possibly even circular reasoning, to dismiss Christian criticism of our culture simply because, to us, this stuff is "normal".

Yoga springs from religion, but it's hardly a "religious practice." It's like saying drinking wine and eating bread is Catholicism just because it's a ritual.

I guess I say that because every yoga class I've taken that wasn't at a YMCA was very overtly religious*? I suppose it depends on the type of yoga though, and I don't really know enough about yoga to have a meaningful conversation about it. I'm probably biased because where I live there's a lot of kundalini yoga.




*also the one YMCA yoga class I went to was run by a friend of mine, so I can say with 100% certainty that while the class itself was secular, in her personal life yoga was religious (in the pantheistic, new age "spirituality" sense but still religious). In fact, the overtly religous forms of yoga I've done were run by people who were actually much LESS religious about it in their personal lives than the woman who ran the secular YMCA class, go figure.

Data East's Karnov would make this guy's head explode!

My friend had the original Japanese Super Mario Bros where the goal was to piss on a photo of Jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOiaYTA82us

Literally communicating with demons on the NES.

I forgot how good the music in that game is, it's like the Faxanadu soundtrack but even better.

They're illegal in NY, California, Arizona, the UK and many other places.

They're illegal in NY, California, Arizona, the UK and many other places.

They're illegal in NY, California, Arizona, the UK and many other places.

They're illegal in France, my pants, this big jar of ants, and many other places.

They're illegal in NY, California, Arizona, the UK and many other places.

I think they're illegal in Massachusetts but that didn't stop us from staging a shitty fake kung fu battle for a shitty movie my friends and I made when we were 15, on school grounds during lunch, with nunchucks, a (real but pretty dull) butterfly knife and the drummer in my band just straight up spinning a 12" steak knife tied to a rope while wearing pantyhose on his head. Somehow everyone just ignored us, nobody got hurt, expelled or even told to stop. Different times.