John Corrado, the Bard of the SDMB…
I too greatly enjoyed your tale of the Great War between the 'Dopers and the Left Behinders. Without exageration, it had me glued to the seat and actually got my pulse racing.
Now tell the story of Frodo of the Nine Fingers, and the Ring of Doom…
I don’t doubt your sincerity, Wildest Bill, it’s just that we are truly coming at this issue from totally different ends.
I may not make this as clear as I mean to, but try to follow me.
As soon as you start talking about God, in your mind you have a definite idea of what you mean. It seems to me that you are not so much trying to describe it to me, but you seem to assume I already know what you mean, and I just don’t agree with you.
I don’t accept the tenets of Christianity and The Bible as ultimate truths. As I’m sure you do accept those very things as ultimate truths.
And yes I certainly do wonder where all the matter and energy (which can be neither created nor destroyed) came from. I don’t have the answer. But I don’t buy the whole “In the beginning … He created Heaven and Earth” story either.
So like I say, you and I can certainly discuss it, but I refuse to try to change your mind, because I know you’re not going to change mine. So we may as well both just pull up a cinder block and start banging our heads on them in unison. May I suggest a 4/4 beat?
Jack, Too funny but we better not pick cinder blocks they break.
Well what do you believe happens when you die? And be honest are you a little scared to die? And what do you think of life so far?(just threw that one in to lighten up the topic the discussion)
I have no friggin’ idea.
I’m not afraid of dying, but I have no wish to do so. That is I don’t live my life afraid of my shadow, thinking I might die any moment. Life is too short for that.
It’s had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for a kick in the head.
Originally posted by Jack Batty
I am confused now I thought you believed in nothing so shouldn’t nothing happen when you die? In otherwords you just cease to exist.
I agee also. I think life is to short and you should enjoy it to the fullest(even though I do buckel up when I go over a 110mph in my car and wear a helmet when I getting down on a bike I just don’t like people telling me to do it)But what I mean is after you die are you scared about what might happen. Or maybe scared is not a good word how about “concerned”.
It’s had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for a kick in the head. **
[/QUOTE]
I feel like I have been kicked in the head not once but several times but it has been good too. I have to admit the older I get the less excited I get about things. Sometimes I feel like I just exist for what I don’t know.
I exist. Therefore, I have no friggin’ idea what it’s like not to exist. But for lack of a better theory, yes, I more or less think that “nothing” happens when one dies.
I see no reason to be either scared or concerned about that which I have no control over or knowledge of. If it helps, I like the following thought, “At least when one dies, he leaves his troubles behind.”
I’ve read that line a dozen times, and I still don’t know what it means.
*Originally posted by Jack Batty *
They(troubles)might just get worse if that lady is right in you dialog from one of your earlier post.
Like I said the older I get the least excited I get. Maybe I am going through my mid life crisis early.
But to answer your question I wonder what I am suppose to. What is God’s purpose for my life. Even Christians get confused you know.
Every time I hear a Christian go off about creation vs. evolution I can be assured that that Christian has never had a biology class and that he doesn’t know his own religion very well. Let me tell you why I believe you are in error.
1.Science and religion are not incompatible.
The sciences, mathematics, biology, botany, geology, and so on, can only tell us how the universe works, but it can never tell us about whythe universe works. For that, you will have to consult philosophy, theology, or metaphysics. Questions of purpose are inherently untestable propositions. The Bible was meant to be God’s revelation to humanity, but it was never written as a science textbook.
2Fundies speak as if they were God.
The evangleizers like Wildest Bill and FoG speak as if they have the authority of god themselves. That is so blasphemous! I recommend that they re-read Job, chapters 39 through 41, where God reproves Job for doubting Him. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” Job 38:4. Y’all act as if you are as intelligent as God, instead of acting humbly as messengers of grace. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Micah 6:8.
3You do not reflect a Christian attitude of love and forgiveness.
Jesus said,“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44.
Wildest Bill posted,
Do you think Jesus would have posted that? Are you so sure you serve His will?
I admit I’m not a Christian, but I used to be a quite devout one, so I know my Scripture and I know the rules, and Wildest Bill does not have the Holy Spirit reflected in his posts.
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is
in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5
Wildest Bill—You seem to be a nice, intelligent guy with a sense of humor—why not jump into some other threads and post stuff that has nothing to do with religion? Honestly, a lot of us can go DAYS without even MENTIONING atheism! There are so many other earth-shattering topics to hash over, like “Big Brother,” going bald, TV theme songs, bad neighbors . . . You might fit in very well on the SDMB; none of us agree on EVERYTHING.
Just for the record… not all the LBMB people believe Catholics and Mormons are evil. Not all believe in a 6/24 hour day creation. Not all thought that all the Dopers were evil. Heck, SoulFrost is a regular poster at one of the off-shoot boards, and he still pops up at the old LB. (Although it’s usually just to make fun of the admin there.) Satan used to come around, but he’s not been there for a while. Falcon posts pretty often at one of the off-shoots. So does Polycarp.
Not that this post added anything to anything… just thought I’d mention it.
Lauralee- I said that such an archetype was attracted only “sometimes”.
I apologize if I gave the impression that all LBMBers, or even all fundamentalists, hold to those points of view. That is certainly not true.
BTW- weren’t you supposed to wait for Mullinator to post something first?
No problem, John, just wanted to throw that in!
Hee… I’ve been avoiding MPSIMS, so haven’t posted after him for quite a while. Or seen Uncle Beer much either. Ah well… it was fun for a while.
It’s nice to see this thread wander back into something semi Pit-like. I was feeling like Wildest Bill and I ought to get a room.
But, hey, I’m a pretty evenly keeled guy. He didn’t do or say anything to piss me off so I was just holding up my end of the conversation.
But …
I’ll agree with that statement about FoG. But I’ll reserve judgement (no pun intended) on Bill. So far he has only spoken on what Christianity means to him. Granted, he still throws Christian cliches out like I’m supposed identify with them, but I addressed that. Just because I know what he’s talking about doesn’t mean I identify with it.
I don’t know, I just find it hard to get mad at Wildest Bill. I picture a big ol’ goofy guy just wanderin’ around looking to yak at people.
FoG on the other hand I picture as Earnest Angely. Remember him? Talk about your quality Sunday morning comedy program.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous …
AMEN!
Originally posted by goboy
You know goboy I knew you were going to call me on this. I am just human and when people say things like you did about my friends and about my God I take offense to it. As you must know from your study of the Bible Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven. After all Peter cut off a guards ear did he not? Sometimes you act before you think. I have been known to do this. It is a weakness of mine.
While you claim to be more intellegent than me and that may well be. I am fighter and not a quitter and I can round and round with you all day long. But as you said is that what Christ would have me do probably not. So I apologize if I offended you, though I did it in jest.
And from what you said later in your post about once being a Christian but not anymore. What happened? And I guess you don’t believe in OSAS.
I don’t have a problem with other’s beliefs in Religion. However, it annoys the hell outta me when they (specifically Christians) try to convert you. I met this one guy a few semesters ago in school. Nice guy, we became friendly, exchanged phone numbers. Then this guy is calling me every other day telling me I need to go to church. I felt like telling the guy to go fuck himself, but I’m a nice guy so I didn’t say that. I just avoided his phone calls, and eventually he went away. That was very annoying. So if you have this bug up your ass to “save” everyone, please stay away from me.
And if anyone out there thinks, “people of this message board need saved, and I’m gonna save them” then you have your head pretty far up your ass.
John Corrado: Thanks for the information. I went over to the LBMB and checked it out. shrug Xian stuff that I really have no interest in. I have no desire to try to talk to them since they’ll attempt to convert once they learn I’m Pagan or start to call me foul names once they learn I’m gay. shrug
Btw, I LOVE your sig! And I’m SO jealous! Ever since I saw Satan’s pic, I’ve been in lust with him. pantpantpant
(clears throat, adjusts clothes) uh, yeah… um… carry on…
To all here- thank you for the compliments. I pride myself on my story-telling skills; combined with my love for history, and, well, it all works together really neatly. Thank you again.
Freyr- in response to your last post, I am changing my sig (the subscripted part, at least). Hope you enjoy.
I claimed no such thing. I do think that you are too uneducated to tell me about much of anything. Here’s an analogy: let’s say you’re trying to sell me a car. You tell me that a Ford model is the only way to go, and it will take care of all my driving needs and beats any other car on the market. Then I tell you I was thinking about getting a Hyundai, and you ask me, “What’s a Hyundai?” How can I take you seriously as a car expert? Same thing here. You clearly don’t read books and you don’t know much, if anything, about other religions besides Christianity, so how can I take you seriously?
That’s no excuse. Jesus never said, to get angry if somebody disagrees with you, did he? He said, But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk. that whole “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven” line is a copout. Did Jesus say, “I’m going to die on the cross, so you can act just the same way that unbelievers do.”? I don’t think so.
I stopped being a Christian because of folks like you who believed in cheap grace and who were more bigoted and less intelligent and less tolerant than non-believers. I’m enough of a snob to think I can do better. If the lives of christians don’t reflect God’s grace, it’s because God does not exist and the Christians are just fooling themselves.
I would recommend you read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, “The Cost of Discipleship”. It will open your eyes about the call for Christians not to insult God by taking His Son’s Atonement for granted.
I would also recommend that you learn grammar, spelling and punctuation. We all make typos(certainly, my posts won’t stand a close inspection), but you are in desperate need of a remedial English class.
C’mon. The poor dears were just upset because The Year of The Big Even Number had come and oops! No Rapture! Can’t blame 'em for lashing out a little bit.
Originally posted by goboy
I claimed no such thing. I do think that you are too uneducated to tell me about much of anything. Here’s an analogy: let’s say you’re trying to sell me a car. You tell me that a Ford model is the only way to go, and it will take care of all my driving needs and beats any other car on the market. Then I tell you I was thinking about getting a Hyundai, and you ask me, “What’s a Hyundai?” How can I take you seriously as a car expert? Same thing here. You clearly don’t read books and you don’t know much, if anything, about other religions besides Christianity, so how can I take you seriously?[/
Kind of a bad analogy or just a misinformed one. When did I ever say I was an expert on religion. I’m mediocre at mine at best. I got saved when I was young but backslid for many years and recentely I am trying harder to serve the Lord. Besides if you think a Hyundai is better than a Ford, your not as intellectual as I thought. BTW you did say you would rather spend eternity in Hell than in Heaven with unintelligent uneducated people than me. Did you not?
He sure did get angry didn’t he? Remeber the peddlers in the temple?
That’s a copout? What about this you said…
You gave up your faith because of other people not living up to the expectation of what you think a Christian ought to be? Now that is a copout.
I don’t take his Christ Son’s Atonement for granted. I can’t believe he did it for me in the first place maybe you should read the book again because it looks like you did.
While we are discussing self help techniques. I would suggest you be stronger in your beliefs and not flounder in them just because everyone is not acting the way you envision them too. I would also appreciate that you stop lecturing me about my faith that you couldn’t handle so you quit. I don’t have much respect for quiters and your a quiter. Because in life your belief in something that you will stand for is more important than English skills anyday.