Posted on 12/20/2011 9:15:48 AM PST by Paladins Prayer
In writing this piece, I’m reminded of a little exchange between the late William F. Buckley and friend and fellow National Review writer Florence King. Buckley had just penned some less-than-flattering words about a recently deceased person of prominence whose name escapes me, and King chided him, saying something to the effect that he had broken ground in journalism: the “attack-obit.” Buckley’s response was, “Wait till you see the obituary I have planned for you!”
And in writing this critical article about bon vivant Christopher Hitchens in the wake of his death this past Thursday, I expect some ridicule as well. Yet I don’t think Hitchens would demand to be spared the acidic ink he used to eviscerate others — or that he would have any credibility doing so. Remember that this was the man who, before the gentle Jerry Falwell’s body was even cold, said things such as “If he [Falwell] had been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox” and “I wish there was a Hell for Falwell.”
For my part, I wouldn’t wish eternal damnation on Hitchens; I truly hope he rests in peace. But I can’t say the same for his legacy. And when I see the obligatory exaltation of his life’s work — with secular icons, the deader they get, the better they were — I think that legacy needs a little damnation.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
You say you don’t but then you do.
If you don’t then just say “I agree that gravity moves the Earth around the Sun”.
I will not hold my breath.
You can't be serious. Atheist systems destroyed tens of millions of people in the last century. To say that individual liberty does not survive in atheist systems is a truth known to any serious student of history.
In other words, at bottom, atheism has no defense of Life and Liberty.
RE: the jihadi who says his "god" tells him to destroy infidels — what kind of God promotes this kind of irrational hatred? What kind of God promotes such incredible dysfunction in the relations between the sexes that is universal in the Islamic world?
In this case, Burkean Buckleyite, you may be correct that "God is used to justify making up your own rules." But we cease to be speaking of God and authentic religion at that point. We then are speaking only of disordered and disorderly men....
I’ll not be your puppet. Your tripe is often some misrepresentation of any/all for whom you disagree...
I know it is embarrassing to be called out on this - but why try to deny what you believe?
Do you find “God's Holy Word”, as you see it, an embarrassment?
Liberty has thrived best in those cultures which have both (1) a grounding in the Judeo-Christian ethic and (2) a healthy leavening of Enlightenment thinking.
Liberty has existed for a short while in other cultures (for example modern Japan) but the track record is not long enough to determine if it will stick.
I do believe that the founders of the United States considered themselves Christians. But they were Christians heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and I'm not sure that they would recognize contemporary American fundamentalism as quite the same "Christianity" as theirs.
The doctrine that an old universe is heretical and anti-Christian has probably driven hundreds of thousands (if not more) away from Christianity.
It certainly has had a role in my case for one.
bump
The Bible reveals to the reader taht God’s heart is moved by demonstrations of faith (”...for without faith it is impossible to please God”). Prayer is a demonstration of faith. God’s heart can be moved by such demonstrations to intercede in the affairs of men and women.
Of course these things are baffling to those whose intellect prevents them from seeing beyond their own understanding and into “the deep things of God.”
“An omniscient god has no need for prayers.
Such a god would have known what you yearned for, before you prayed.”
Christian prayer isn’t because God needs it in order to function. It is for the believer that his faith might increase.
He sounds suspiciously human.
Yes, the notion that the Earth is young is contradicted by so many independent data points that anyone claiming the Earth is young may as well go around claiming that the Sun goes around the Earth!
Oh! Wait a minute......
LOL!!!!
As I say to my Christian friends, “You disbelieve in hundreds of gods. I just disbelieve in one more than you do. We are closer than you think....”
I don't know of any evidence for a naturalistic non-random universe since, according to science, all the laws of physics and constants were established merely by chance, within just a few seconds after the theorized 'Big Bang'.
I sent you the following private email and it aptly illustrates how you often distort what other FReepers say:
“I merely quote and point to the work of other scientists
esp. that which aligns with God’s Holy Word.
FR is a discussion forum - no science is completed here.
Also when do you ever provide any fresh scientific outlooks?”
Case in point how does one honestly ask:
“Do you find “God’s Holy Word”, as you see it, an embarrassment?”
Esp. in light of all my other remarks as well as my homepage. At least I have the guts to indicate some of my background relevant to the discussions herein.
Sir, you are the embarrassment with your constant drivel, distortions, and disparagement of FReepers you disagree with rather than anything approaching true honest heart-felt debate.
“What a shame, then, that he created so many billions that he didn’t want added to his kingdom. Do you think that they get a break from the eternal hellfire? Say an hour or so every ten thousand years??”
People choose hell. You and the others who are satisfied with your own finite thinking and have concluded there is no God are determining your own eternally reality right now, and are quite happy about it. God, on the other hand is not and, so, moves the hearts of men and women already transformed by the message of the cross (”foolishness to them who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God...”) to share the Gospel message (which He knows many will reject). God’s Son came to die for sinners, those who, by virtue of their human sin-nature, are already living outside of God’s will (and, as Christ said, “condemned already.”) God desires that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
As to the second part, the only sin for which people are cast into hell is the sin of unbelief. These folks will receive not a second of relief from their eternal torment. Such a severe punishment is meted out to underscore the severity of the offense—something that those stuck in their own thinking fail to grasp.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, the end thereof is the way of death.” — Choose life!
Or is it that we are “suspiciously” made in His image?
Krosan - are you serious in lumping Jesus in with these others as a mythical figure?
Try reading: ‘More than a Carpenter” by Josh McDowell.
Jealous, moody, dictatorial, and mercurial?
How do you explain the discrepancy between your pretense that you are not a Geocentrist or not defending Geocentrism and that I am somehow misrepresenting your position when I refer to you as a Geocentrist - when you make the claim that such is “God's Holy Word”?
The only thing I can think of is that you are embarrassed to admit it so you prevaricate.
No problems, I would be embarrassed as well if I believed in something so ludicrous!
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