: : That, more than anything else, is the reason why I can't take fundamentalism seriously. Catholicism at least requires good works and regular confession throughout one's lifetime. None of this deathbed conversion nonsense. It's this mindset that convinces the fundies that people are basically horrid, I'll bet, since the only reason they see for being nice to each other is to keep Sky Daddy from giving them a thrashing when he gets home. If that's really the nature of god, I want nothing to do with the petty little jerk, frankly! Fortunately it's possible to believe in a god who isn't a playground bully or a small-minded thug. : Absolutely damn straight comrade (I am right, you are a comrade arent you?),
Matter of definition, I guess. Mum was a Catholic, but I don't practice, so I don't expect any of the benefits. I'm a committed anti-statist, and if I've interpreted your other posts correctly, we "share the same rooms" on that issue (O. Fr. camarade: room mate), so yeah, "comrade" will do fine. :-)
:this has always been my problem with people attempting to evangelise me, they tell me God's so great and merciful because he hasnt roasted me yet for sins I didnt commit!!!
Snort! "Oh Lord, please don't burn us, don't boil us in a vat, don't parch or roast or broil us, or fry us in deep fat..."
-Monty Python
Yeah, I have no room for people who tell me I've already screwed up, even when I haven't, and deserve eternal punnishment. That's what I have ex-girlfriends for! ;-D
: How can you believe that? What kind of mentality tries to suggest being bullied, threatened and oppressed is a good and fine existence and that enduring it may mean you can stand behind the bully when he picks on someone else? I dont think it's an ethical one anyway.
Agreed. In fact, it's the exact opposite of an ethical mindset, IMHO. Did you ever read A Clockwork Orange? The main character, Alex, was programmed to be incapable of committing "evil" acts because he'd suffer immediate physical pain when he considered it. Although he didn't "sin," he was not behaving "good" for ethical reasons, but merely to avoid pain. The "punative" versions of Christianity strike me as much the same.
: No I believe in the just, kind, compassionate and merciful variety of God who's isnt as humanistic and impulsive, at least in his spiritual incarnation, to get angry and bitter even if it's a myth.
A good myth may be true, even if it's not. Somebody, I can't remember who right now, but I think it was a physicist, once said "the opposite of a little truth is false. The opposite of a great truth is also true." That's the best decription of the divine I've heard so far. The mythic aspects of religions may be true, even if they are factually incorrect. Although I remain a devout agnostic, ;-) I can understand the validity of faith. I can't, however, understand the bigotry involved in the belief that one specific denomination has ALL the answers and everyone else is doomed. If that's the case, then I'll take doom, thank you. I couldn't bring myself to worship a god who was that petty, even if I were to be convinced that he existed.
:The kind of guy who would let you scare the bajesus out of the pious, in a bar well stocked with Jameson and stout, if that's really your kind of thing ;-)
Which, of course, it is. You found my weakness, I'm on a strict regimen of "vitamin J." It's a tough diet, let me tell you! ;-)
-Floyd
None.
