Yeah but Monk the thing is I am "part of" a community that has gained a very bad name amongst those who are not "part of". Many people choose not to accept Christianity because they hear talk of the Crusades, the hypocrisy, and the whole Western mindset being as it is.... its hard to take the fact that your own "brethren" dont truly believe what they profess to.
I was just venting. I had too many energy drinks last night and its 10:30 am and Im still going....
Im pretty passionate about a few things. Spirituality and archaeology being two of them. So I blew off some steam - I'm sure you understand.
Here's to wisdom anyhow, and the seeking of it in all we do (or something like that)
Christianity, islam, buddhism, shinto, muslim, shi'ite, hindu, etc, etc, for goodness sake folks, how many pseudogods can one revere?, perhaps now you can see where I come from, good luck to anyone out there who finds comfort and ANSWERS from any of the above, everyone has their own God inside themselves, and as long as you believe in yourself, you have then filled yourself with your own salvation, at the end of the day, whatever "God" you make yourself inferior to, he/her won't be paying the bills.
There are as many evil bastards in the world claiming the shield of Christianity as in any other religion, unfortunately.
But having read many religious tracts I prefer this from the Bible, 'by their fruits shall ye know them.' Matthew 7-15
Lots of religions encourage their members to be charitable....the institutions themselves seem to mainly benefit the perpetrators. As H. L. Mencken said:
It is one of the Christian delusions that Christianity brought charity into the world. It did not such thing. There were plenty of agencies for taking care of the poor and helpless long before Christianity was heard of, and even before Judaism. Both Christianity and Judaism have converted charity into a sort of pious racket. The alms-giver, in return for a trifling expenditure on this earth, will be rewarded with an infinity of bliss post-mortem. This purely selfish note is struck with great clarity by Judaism, and only less clearly by Christianity. It appears also in the other religions of the East. Thus religion has not really promoted charity, but debased it.
NEWARK, Texas - Here in the gentle hills of northern Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
Over the years, a circle of Copeland's relatives and friends has done just that, the Associated Press has found. They include the brother-in-law with a lucrative deal to broker Copeland's television time, the son who acquired church-owned land for his ranching business and saw it more than quadruple in value, and board members who together have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking at church events.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
popelane24 wrote:Being a believer in Jesus myself, (youre gonna love this first bit),
I gotta say I am PISSED OFF (yeah I swear! - part of who I am. I can only express myself certain ways sometimes - this is me, NOT hiding behind my religion like many do.) at many christians in general - how many have $300,000 houses and yet ignore the poor man on the street asking for two bucks for a sandwich?
I study the human race to find the answers to these problems. I want to find out why people are greedy, ignorant and sometimes just plain assholes.... so I feel this discussion is relevant. I study archaeology and anthropology to figure out WHY we are the way we are - in particular, the religous aspects of life then and now because there is no greater motivation than the human spirit....
And, I believe the path of Love is where we have to go. Learn to have compassion - but how many christians, all they can talk about is the sin of the person in the next pew, and not try to help them?
Hypocrites, whom Jesus did not tolerate, will be punished in the end. You reap what you sow.
Just so you know I thought this was a great thread for you guys to get to know me on as the beginning involves those who I dislike very much and have less respect for -
HYPOCRITES.
Have a great day. Looking forward to our discussions and learning from you all.
BTW, "Pope" is just my last name. "Lane" is my first... it has nothing to do with Cat'licks Y'all can call me Lane if you like.....
Talk soon. Peace.
-L.
Well, er... 24, I'll confess I'm a big fan of Dawkins and I agree with a lot of what he has said concerning religious belief, but nevertheless I feel a greater sympathy with the line Carl Sagan gave to one of his characters in Contact, addressing the fervently atheist heroin, her boyfriend comments "I don't know how you can just write off 95% of the human race as delusional" or words to that effect.
Not quite sure what I'm saying here, except from what you've written I'd say the world would be a better place if more professed Christians lived by the creed you describe.
Also, I have to say, it's a very pleasant change to come across a Christian who isn't online for the purposes of telling other's they're going to hell (there've been a few around here over the years - and I'm thinking of Genesis Veracity before anyone starts offering up names!)
Ken Humphreys at Jesus Never Existed has a page in which he reproduces some of the hate mail he gets from "christians" who not only don't seem to know how to spell or punctuate but have an apparently limited knowledge of the teachings of the "jesus" they supposedly worship. Ken also includes supportive e-mails but those are nowhere near as amusing.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
All your studies and all this years have teach you nothing.
Wow!
The thing is, with fuckers like this it doesn't really matter whose name is in the frame so long as it gives them a license to burn witches and organise lynchings.
I am a simple mechanical engineer who has offered up a view on the religous bodies in general, as far as I can make out I have only recieved 4 coherent replies from, (in order),
Michelle,
Minimalist,
Forum monk,
Digit,
I can't make head nor tail of the others, or maybe I'm just dense?
On my 'other' forum Cap'n someone described the 'off topic' debates as like a pub argument with people dropping in on it and then out again and often incoherent whilst in.
A pretty fair description I think.
We enjoy the debate, we don't promise to make much sense!
and its 10:30 am and Im still going....Y'all can call me Lane if you like.....
