Posted on 07/24/2008 8:01:47 PM PDT by AHerald
I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus's tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel. My apologies to those who hoped for more, but the worst I can do is show my unconcerned contempt.
By the way, I didn't want to single out just the cracker, so I nailed it to a few ripped-out pages from the Qur'an and The God Delusion. They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanity's knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at scienceblogs.com ...
I am the wretch the song refers to.
Nice post. Agreed.
The nuns taught me, “God helps those that help themselves.”
Perhaps you are saying the same thing.
Many great men have attempted to prove or disprove the idea of God, after St. Thomas - I am not one of them.
I used to lack all faith, for good and rational reasons. For one thing, I understand and admit why the “idea” of God is valuable to the human species - it is a defense mechanism against stress.
The typical human is absolutely terrified by the very idea of entropy.
I don’t mean chaos, I mean entropy.
It scares the hell out of people.
And humans, like all animals, can literally die of stress.
Religion is an immediate resolution to that problem - “If you go to church on sunday, and asteroid won’t fall on your house!”
“Well, one fell on Fred’s house...”
“SEE! Proves my point! He missed church last Sunday!”
“He was in the pew next to you.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t mean it!”
So, yeah, I get it.
But the stress of not believing is still going to kill you.
You ever figure out gavity, ping me to it.
Better yet, go hide - you life won’t be worth a plug nickel.
How can you believe he gave his life for us all, and at the same time, not believe what he said?
Well, the fact that you took the time to look over the article and type a post shows that either you care or you are irrational. Think about it.
Or maybe, just questioning. People have doubts, that is part of the game.
Heck, I spent a couple of hours this week arguing over the translation of just one verse in Genesis. It was very informative.
Should we not? Should we not look to original sources? Should we not question, and ask, why?
I certainly will. So shoot me.
I’m not going to play that game.
I have Catholic friends. I was raised around Catholicism and understand it for the most part. But from my teaching and my study of His Word, I do not agree with some of the very basic beliefs of the RC faith.
Here is the beginning and end of it:
Mulieri quoque dixit: Multiplicabo ærumnas tuas, et conceptus tuos: in dolore paries filios, et sub viri potestate eris, et ipse dominabitur tui.
(To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.)
(Genesis 3:16)
Response: “It is mistranslated. “sorrow” is better translated as “with physical pain”. “shall be under thy husband’s power” is better translated as “your husband will [want to] dominate you [whether you like it or not]”. “shall have dominion over thee” is better rendered as “he shall lord it over you” or “he shall dominate you [by force] regardless of your desires”. All these are mere statements of fact. The real punishment is contained in the next verse: “yet your longing shall be for your husband”, i.e. “and you’ll love him for being such a jerk and want to have babies with him even though it hurts, ‘cause that’s how I made you”. “
Interesting, is’t it?
Cetainly, it is not my job to convert you.
To anything.
Forgive me for asking.
Ooops - I failed to make it clear, we were not arguing the latin/english translation.
It was the Hebrew/latin that was in doubt.
I truly don’t mind your asking, but I just won’t get into that “here”. It would not be respectful to the folks coming to this thread who are Catholic.
While I don’t believe in trans...trans...gosh it is late! You know what I mean, lol. I will not condone this person’s actions, I will pity him and pray for him.
Do not use potty language on the Religion Forum.
(scratches head, looking really confused.)
I’m surprised the jihad hasn’t started already.
You could have read the NIV version and saved some time.
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NIV)
These cases were connnected to Protestant/Catholic warfare. Jews also were subject to mob violence, often on the basis of false rumours. I read this book just recently:
A document written in Lower Bavaria in I338 declares:
The Jews, who deny the Christian faith, have ... conspired together in Germany ... they have also stolen the consecrated Host, throwing it in a fiery oven, striking it with hammers, and afflicting it with other indignities. Upon taking notice of these events, Sir Hartmann of Degenberg, together with his neighbors from Deggendorf, captured the Jews, burned them, and offered up their possessions for plunder. The same [happenings] also took place in Straubing and in other localities in Bavaria, with the exception of Vienna and Regensburg [where] it was against the will of the authorities.
James Obelkevich – ed., Religion and the People, 800-1700. (University of North Carolina Press 1979) 29.
The authorities, in that case, probably realised that this was attacks on innocent people. But one could not always rely upon the authorities, in those days.
MUSLIM pupils at a secondary school in northeastern Nigeria beat a teacher to death today after accusing her of desecrating the Koran.
Oluwatoyin Olusase, a Christian, was adjudicating an Islamic Religious Knowledge exam at the school in Gombe state when the incident occurred.
The students attacked her outside the school compound after the exam and killed her, witnesses said.
It was not clear exactly what Olusase had done that angered the students.
Police confirmed the killing and said their intervention had prevented the incident from turning into a riot.
Savage and peculiar. Many similar incidents have happened in Pakistan, where the victims themselves are usually Muslims, of smaller sects.
A belief contradicted by Christ, the Apostles, St. Paul, the Church Fathers, etc.
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