# Making Fun of Religion Again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 2, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545 "2001-04-02T21:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/21 "2001-04-03T08:06:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by particlewill \* > Someone pu-lllleeeazzzze tell me MandaJo was kidding… Nope. Just wait 'til she gets going on that “Phyllis Schlafly speaks God’s Own Truth” kick of hers. And we won’t even discuss her JESUS HELPED ME WIN MY BEAUTY PAGEANT!!! thread. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/22 "2001-04-03T13:18:27Z")
Wise man, to the other wise men: “We’d better hurry. It’s almost 20 minutes BC.” ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/23 "2001-04-03T14:29:35Z")
Sweet Jesus, i’ve never seen anything like that. It quite literally boggles my mind to try to accept that there genuinely are people who believe this. _ **boggled** _ I think we should get **Fenris** in here to have a go at that one. Fran PS Lux Fiat - your link doesn’t work. And **matt\_mcl** - you cracked me up with that one. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/24 "2001-04-03T17:20:23Z")
I have apparently made no impact at all if anyone could possibly think that I meant that seriously . . . But I’m not bitter-once I win that beauty contest no one will be able to deny that god exists. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/25 "2001-04-03T18:06:09Z")
Is it just me, or does this kinda stuff remind anybody else of a bunch of sci-fi stories in which North America is taken over by fundies and ruled with an iron fist afterwards? This kinda stuff doesn’t entertain me as much as it scares me. When I think that there are more people every day who take stuff like this as the gospel truth, and are pressuring politicians to make everything match their ideas of how the world should be (see: Polical Correctness, Moral Majority, etc.), I fear for the future. ---
**Author:** ![Pariah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/41988e/32.png) [@Pariah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pariah)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/26 "2001-04-03T19:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > What about the Apocrypha? Was the Catholic Church guided by the hand of God to remove just the perfect amount of works from the Bible? I always thought the 'pocrypha was yanked by that upstart _Luther_… Or was it…_Uther_…? …_father?!?_ ---
**Author:** ![Doubleclick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Doubleclick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubleclick)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/27 "2001-04-03T20:25:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Manda JO \* > \*\*The original comes **close** to getting the date thing right, but not quite–what is really neat about God’s dating system is that the anchients must have known when Jesus would be born! Obviouls,y they were counting down to something, and when they reached 0, Jesus was born. Are you gonna call that a coincidence? Pu–lezzzze. \*\* Umm…the Julian Calender was (obviously) made long after Jesus ‘died’. It was made while Rome was under Christian influence but Julius Ceaser. They needed a date to start…so, being Christians, used Jesus’ birth as a ‘start date’. (They needed to pick some where.) Pope Gregory altered it to the one we use today. So, if you believe that the people in 4000BC where ‘counting down’ AT THAT TIME, then your a frecking idiot. (BTW: BC and AD are no longer used, IIRC. It is now BCE and CE. Before Christian Era and Christian Era) ---
**Author:** ![nikjohns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/53a042/32.png) [@nikjohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikjohns)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/28 "2001-04-03T21:00:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny Angel \* > \*\*God (just like a great lawyer) found a loop-hole in the system. God != Lawyer, or anything slightly resembling one! Although you do spend time praying to both for help. Hmm… _ducks and runs_ ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/29 "2001-04-03T21:40:48Z")
Doubleclick: Um, actualy, no. The Julian Calender is the set of months that add up to 365; it is not a numbering system for years. The Romans kept track of which particular year was which by saying “In the 7th year of So-and-so’s reign”. This continues to drive classists crazy, especialy for a really bad streach in the third century when the average reign was like 18 months. Our modern numbering system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Little or Dennis the Slight) at the request of Pope John the first. This was 150 years or so after the Roman empire has ceased to have any meaningful existance whatsoever in the west. Dennis got it almost right, which was a hell of a feat, considering what little he had to work with. B.C.E is usually read as Before **common** Era and you aren’t supposed to to put anything at all for “A.D” --that is the assumed default. Although people sometimes do when the dates are all clustered around 0. Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C.E–If you do the math you’ll see that Rome couldn’t have been Christian then. In fact, the Romans didn’t officially convert 'til 312. Finally, while I wouldn’t call some one a “frecking idiot” because they couldn’t recognize sarcasm when hit with it on the back of the head, I am tempted to use the phrase to describe someone who submits an arrogant post without reading the remander of their thread, where it was made quite clear that I was being facitious. ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/30 "2001-04-03T21:51:33Z")
Actually, this sort of thing makes me VERY insecure. Not spiritually, of course. It would take far more than this lunacy to shake my faith in Christ. No, this makes me intellectually insecure. I mean, obviously this person put a WHOLE lot of thought into their arguments. They were no doubt VERY proud of themselves after they finished writing it. They sent it out into the world CERTAIN that the weight of their intellect would be enough to stanch even the harshest critics. But their arguments collapse like generic toilet paper when confronted with just basic history, or the very Book they are quoting (badly). In the end, the only thing they are argueing for is their own ignorance. But they aren’t aware of that same ignorance! They literally don’t know what they don’t know! And that makes me pause and take stock of my own brain. It makes me further see why I rarely post in GD or GQ (and why this is, IIRC, the only post I’ve made in The Pit that wasn’t a rant). I’m afraid of my own ignorance. To be precise, I’m afraid of broadcasting my own ignorance. I guess I’ll just have to sit back, read all the posts, and be happy with my own low post count. As you were… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@The\_Man\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/31 "2001-04-03T21:55:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mnementh \* > > > [@](#): > > > > 1. NOTE: THIS BOOK OF PSALMS **WAS WRITTEN BEFORE ALL THE BOOKS THAT CAME AFTER IT**. THAT MEANS THAT GOD KNEW THIS WOULD BE THE CENTER BEFORE THE BIBLE WAS COMPLETED. > > Okay, it might be nitpicky, but… > Do I really have to comment? Hey, my Bible’s always in the last place I look. Tell me God isn’t guiding me to look in just the right wrong places for just the right amount of time. I thought not. ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/32 "2001-04-03T22:06:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > PS Lux Fiat - your link doesn’t work. You will note that the document name in my link is “ClickAndBeThwarted.” And so you have been. Ha ha! The reason I linked to a ficticious document is, of course, because there is no thread wherein Manda JO talks about Jesus helping her win her beauty pageant. That’s because she didn’t win, she was runner-up to that bitch, Miss Consolidated Lawn Products of Greater Dogcock County. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/33 "2001-04-03T22:33:37Z")
Oh, Lux, don’t be calling Betty Rae a bitch. The only reason she won is because she’s a better Christian than me. I know this to be true–Perfectly Perky DD breasts don’t happen in nature, so they musta been the good Lord helpin’ her out, and he wouldn’ta done that if she didn’t deserve it. Remeber, humility is a virtue we must practice. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/34 "2001-04-04T01:53:04Z")
Goddammit! I was totally feeling good about myself for having caught the sarcasm in Manda Jo’s post, and got totally blindsided by Lux Fiat’s. Click and be thwarted indeed! Fiat, you magnificent bastard! ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/35 "2001-04-04T07:51:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lux Fiat \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > > PS Lux Fiat - your link doesn’t work. > > You will note that the document name in my link is “ClickAndBeThwarted.” And so you have been. Ha ha! > > The reason I linked to a ficticious document is, of course, because there is no thread wherein Manda JO talks about Jesus helping her win her beauty pageant. That’s because she didn’t win, she was runner-up to that bitch, Miss Consolidated Lawn Products of Greater Dogcock County. 🙂 \*\* [sub]_feels very stupid_ I’ll go now shall i?[/sub] Fran ---
**Author:** ![OneChance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/74df32/32.png) [@OneChance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneChance)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/36 "2001-04-04T08:00:25Z")
Man, all I can say is anyone who took Manda JO’s post seriously is a fucking twit. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/37 "2001-04-04T14:03:59Z")
I found this site which is kinda appropriate for this discussion: [http://www.rectaltronics.com/QC-God.htm](http://www.rectaltronics.com/QC-God.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/38 "2001-04-04T14:33:42Z")
Seeing as I was the First to respond to Manda Jo, I feel pretty silly, but hey, YOU NEVER KNOW! I don’t really remember seeing anything on the boards from her, so I had no basis to judge if she was kidding, or if she was a phenominal twit. (The gods know we’ve had a few of those around here lately…) I am heartly relieved to find that the latter was the case, and was impressed with her Knowledge of calander history. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/39 "2001-04-04T14:50:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jodi \* > \*\*Personally, I _do_ think He’s “It,” spiritually speaking, but I hate stuff like this that makes Christians look stupid. \*\* Me, too. Glurge like this just makes Christians (as a whole) look like gullible idiots. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545/40 "2001-04-04T20:56:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nimune \* > \*\*Also, I like that version of the Lords Prayer with all the big words removed. I plan to clip and save that one, on the off hand chance I suffer massive brain damage in the future and can’t hadle the version that isn’t in all caps. \*\* The 23rd Psalm. Not that I disagree on your point 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-fun-of-religion-again/60545.md?page=3)