re: Chick and Scientology: Chick only seems to knock real religions and people who aren’t deserving of hellfire.
Scientology (if I may) is a crock and he isn’t interested in that.
OR…they have “handled” him…:eek:
No, vanilla. If we were truly lucky humans, the Scientologists would have handled him the way they handled the judge’s dog. He’s apparently not moldering in a watery grave, so they obviously haven’t.
Over in the Pit thread that Monty started, I’ve spoken to the issue of your own salvation, His4Ever – but if you want one good reason why you’re not doing His will here, read the above. Put yourself in Atreyu’s place.
Then, as God is my witness, have the common decency towards your fellow man to repent of the sort of attitude and the misguided “preaching” that leads people to feel like Atreyu defined.
If you’re driving people away from God, you’re not following His commandments.
Bear in mind, too, that H4E is, in this thread, getting to see what a “test audience” thinks of Chick’s latest tract. Knowing that the tract turns people off to Christianity, H4E has decided that she will buy a lot of copies of that tract. In fact, she seems to have decided to do so precisely because of the reception she has gotten here.
H4E, I’m going to ask you again: are you really interested in converting people? Because if you are, I can give you some advice on what it will take to get people here listening to you. There’s a movie you can watch, a movie which the unbelievers here generally respect a lot, and that movie encapsulates a lot of their reasons for not being a Christian. If you watch it, you’ll better understand how to preach to people.
So the question is, are you willing to spend two bucks and about two hours getting some insight into what it would take to convert people? Or is that too much to ask of you when an eternity of torment is at stake for so many people?
You’re sending her to Veggie Tales!!! :eek:
(ducks and runs)
Holly dies because she failed to look both ways before crossing a the intersection, also the tanker truck had just loaded up and was about to hit the highways. Next time, Holly should also not stomp on the accelerator pedaL.
Polycarp? Do you know that they have just released a VeggieTales movie based on the Story of Jonah?
anya “Murphy’s Law” marie
Yeah, Anya – the allusion to that made a good opportunity to tease Ben just a trifle – I think it’s obvious that “Jonah: A Veggie Tale” or however they’ve titled it, is not the movie he referred to.
Just out of curiosity, what is the movie?
I was really hoping it was Jonah. I’m going to watch that movie someday.
Perhaps “God’s Army.”
Veggie Tales movie. It’s just called “Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie”.
http://www.jonahmovie.com/html/cast/index.html
So far, out of 29 reviews, it’s gotten 20 fresh and 9 rotten, giving it a cumulative score of 69%. I think it helps if you’re a Veggie Tales fan, or at least can get past the initial shock of seeing Jonah cast as a stalk of asparagus.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie-1116174/
Tip: Take a kid along. Or two or three. It’ll help.
I was wondering if it wass ‘Miracle Maker’
Has anyone actually fallen on their knees and turned into a Chickian because of these tracts?
I admit, I didn’t know who you were talking about until I clicked on the link in the OP, then I remembered seeing something like it when I was a child. Surely scaring people half to death is not the way to bring people to God?
In any event, I don’t believe we as mere mortals can understand the Divine Force. It may be sentient, it may not. But it’s like a watch trying to understand the watchmaker. I believe God is more than what is depicted in the Bible. My Dieties (Male and Female) are so much more than that.
Of course, YMMV. And I respect the right for YM to V.
Guin:
I asked because you appear to be a fairly tolerant sort of person, who respects other people’s beliefs. Since Tarot cards are a belief just as Catholicism is, it surprised me to see you dismiss another’s belief system as “bullshit.”
Maybe it is our differing viewpoint, but I see Tarot cards and organised religion to have just as much validity as each other. Maybe I’m right, or maybe there is a fundamental difference that I am unaware of.
(treading carefully so as not to offend anyone - it’s not my intention.)
I prefer to see Guin as halfway on the road to a rational worldview. Tarot cards, like astrology, reading tea leaves, inspecting the innards of sheep, and all other forms of divination, are indeed bullshit. So also is belief in gods, demons and all other supernatural agencies; the trouble lies in getting people to see that the flaws of one are shared by the other. Belief in an all-powerful, all-knowing god is just as nonsensical as believing that one can tell the future by laying out Tarot cards. The only difference between the two is that God has better publicists.
Because, tarot cards are not a religion, per se-they’re a sort of “fortune telling” type thing. Sorry, but I don’t believe in fortune telling.
I don’t mean, they’re stupid-I’m just saying, I personally don’t believe in fortune telling with palm reading and divination-because it’s all so random. I believe we make our own fate.
Tarot cards are interesting, but I don’t think they can predict the future-since it’s all in how you shuffle the deck. 
gobear, at the risk of doing a hijack, have you ever read any of John Shelby Spong’s work? If so, what did you think of his understanding of God?
If not, I’d be interested in starting a thread with some quotes from his works, and seeing the comments of you, Mars Horizon, and a few of the rational skeptics and humanist Christians here about them.
My husband, the skeptical atheist who doesn’t believe in things like astrology etc, likes tarot cards. He doesn’t think they are worth a rat’s ass for divination - but because they can be interpreted so many ways they can sometimes allow you to see your life from a different direction. Just another ink blot test.
Besides, he likes some of the art.
I always have to reconcile husband number one (who was a kook - and firmly believed in tarot cards and astrology and past lives and all other new age hooey), with husband number two, very rational, but owner of more tarot decks than the first one.
Re-Chick’s God
That sadistic monster on the throne fits the word abomination far better than anything else Chick puts in his tracts.
Re-George
A friend gave me a copy of the ScrewTape Letters. I disagree with Lewis on many issues. However, his Inferno is far more threatening. For the sake of argument. let’s accept Chick’s theology. George sits there like an idiot. Sure, he ends up with Gladys. But, she’d have been much more useful to him as a tool to get more souls. ScrewTape, OTOH, goes after souls with complex strategies after obtaining a dossier on the individual. Lewis presenst evil as a cunning and formidable opponent. Chick’s demons are like cartoon henchmen. If George and his brethren were really the cause of the world’s problems, we’d have achieved a world without war or crime a long time ago.
Re-Moses
" And then Moses did cry out, saying ‘Take thy hands off my person! Thou damned, filthy ape!’ "
And
"The Israelites had had no time to gather provisions. Soon, they were beset by great hunger. The Lord did provide mana. Moses told his people to eat only of this mana. Some of them wished instead to eat Soylent Green. Moses forbade this, saying ‘Thou shalt not eat of the Soylent Green! For it is people! People!’ "
Re-Valhalla
Asgard is a bit of a commute, even for good mead. If you know where I could find good mead in Pennsylvania, however, I would be very greatful.
At Pennsic, I would assume…
Personally, I wouldn’t trust anyone who looks so much like Snidely Whiplash. One minute you’re talking about Isaiah and the next thing you know, you’re tied to the tracks.