Posted on 12/19/2007 9:38:52 AM PST by Names Ash Housewares
That can be fixed.....
Awesome!
Athiests who run around feeling demonized are all going to vote for dems anyway. So who cares?
A brief moment of history. Up until 313 AD...Christians hid their relgion, their beliefs, and silently carried out their life’s passion with no fanfare. Your entire destiny today, the openess of the Bible, and the commericalized growth of Christanity today....is owed to one man....the Emperior Constantine of Rome.
Once Constantine wrote the Edict of Milan...the “cult” status of Christianity was gone. You could openly practice your faith, preach your faith, build churches, and then an amazing thing happen. Christians then started to forsake the standard rules of not fighting wars or condemning folks for their beliefs (in whatever). The religion became a tool for politics....from Kings to Popes, and now today for congress and the office of the president.
So, the truth be known...none of the Psalms you quote....seventeen centuries ago...were discussed in public forums or mass events. A Christian lived his religion and his beliefs....unto himself and a very small group of similar minded individuals. This commercialized version of religion we see today....is kinda like baseball today....pumped up on steroids, and the players don’t compare to players of old....in this case....Christians prior 313AD.
Who is talking about being “ashamed”?
That little fish on a Yellow Page ad means they want to sell you on how “good” they are, and are using a Christian symbol to do it.
If he were a Diest, why would he care if he took communion or not? Certainly a Diest God would not have.
“You call tell all that from the little fish?”
On an yellow page ad, yes.
Used to seek them out -— then I realized they were often preying on people seeking “fellow” Christians.
They can dish it out but they can’t take it. What a bunch of babies.
“Atheism is a terribly sad doctrine that offers zero hope.”
It depends on how you look at it. Shakespeare thought that it is fear of what comes after death that keeps us alive!
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.”
In this time of the year, it is good to consider the following:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
You got a problem with that?
“I’m not religious at all. I am at least agnostic, possibly atheist, depending on which definition you use. I do feel demonized sometimes on this forum, based on the comments I read about atheists - and not just activisist anti-religion atheists, but all atheists. Apparently we’re all potential mass-murdering commies with no basis for or claim to morality. I’d just like to be judged on my behaviour, not my beliefs - just like I do for other people.”
I know what your saying, but I fully expect that kind of thing on the internet though, just doesn’t bother me much.
Having debated with liberals on everything under the sun, I am used to that kind of stuff just for being politically conservative.
The only thing that gets me bent is the convert or kill all Muslims on earth type kooks. They sound as bad as the islamo facists sometimes.
The few theological zealotous types here are over the top, very vocal and amusing more then anything, by no means are the majority here are like that at all. I respect most people of faith. I simply do not share their faiths. It is a deeply personal choice of course. That does not mean I do not value ethics and morality as you too have said. Simply I view it as a construct of humanity and not the supernatural. We are free to believe that in the United States if we so choose. Doesnt mean we want In God We Trust taken off the money or not say Merry Christmas or anything else changed. I can still value those things in a different way from supernatural beliefs.
I guess that is why I posted this story,
I do not want this professor or anyone else drawing battle lines for people like us and creating polarization.
Yes Free Republic, you DO have members that hold no religious views, respect those that do, and we vote for republicans and are convervative in all the ways that matter most in a nation that seperates church from state.
“In this time of the year, it is good to consider the following:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
You got a problem with that?”
I don’t know, you tell me.
Many who cry ‘Lord, Lord’ will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Religiousity is not the key to salvation. Rather, doing the will of God is the evidence that you have repented and put your trust in His Mercy.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us that all who treat us as brothers, we should treat them as brothers; indeed, we should take the initiative to treat others this way.
I’m not saying all Christians fully embrace this teaching. Bear in mind that we’re just as human as everybody else.
The apostles certainly did not hide their religion. Certain Roman Governors, although not all, persecuted monotheists as atheists forcing some underground. But, Polycarp did not hide his religion, neither did Blandina, nor Justin Martyr, nor Ignatius, nor Origen, nor Clement of Alexandria, nor Tertullian, nor Irenaeus, nor Cyprian.
I see your point! /sarc>
I think your blanket condemnation is extravagantly unfair: applying the most negative possible moral assessment to a large group of people you don’t even know, based on the behavior of the worst.
Probably true it’s unfair, but it’s a rule-of-thumb I use with Yellow Page ads.
I would love to be mistaken.
I like Hunter and Thompson because they are PRINCIPLED and those principles line up with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I'm not voting to elect a Pastor, Guru, or a Pope... I'm voting to elect someone who will help restore the Republic and the Constitution.
Religion has NOTHING to do with my decision.
No churches will be given permits to build in your town? You are free to trade with whom you please. Why call people names?
Religion alone does not a conservative make.
Ummmmm...huh?
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