Post #283,265
4/27/07 7:34:08 PM
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Oh, come now, static
Your "feelings" really don't count for much. I, personally, have been in a situation where I felt I knew what God was telling me. You cannot deny that because it is my personal experience. By listening to what He was telling me and following it, I achieved significant personal growth as a human being. Again, this happened to me and to my benefit. Certainly box is in no position to say what you did or did not feel, but he's in an excellent position to judge that, to the extent you "felt" that you were actually in personal communication with an invisible anthropomorph modelled after a Bronze Age Bedouin chieftain, you were deluded. What's your opinion, looking back, on [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones|the "Reverend" Jim Jones'] claim that he was communing with the Almighty and acting on His instructions? My, that didn't take very long. If I told you that I had composed this post on instructions from Zeus, or Wotan, or Vishnu, or Mithra, or the Thirteenth Imam, you would dismiss this claim on the very sensible grounds that in five years here I have established myself as a "secular humanist," and must accordingly be pulling your chain. If, however, I persisted for years, averring in every post that I was now an acolyte of Apollo—or, to be a little more plausible for this millennium, a believer that [link|http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg|Joseph Smith is the prophet of God]...well, you'd dismiss me as deluded rather than insincere, since you are aware that Mormon doctrine is an ungainly compound of [link|http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/entry/2165039/|delusions and lies], and can't hold a candle to your received truth. In short, you, box and I are almost on the same page, and could, for example, all enjoy a good laugh (assuming, of course, that we found ourselves in a caustic frame of mind after an evening spent carousing from tavern to tavern) at the expense of the deluded adherents of this false religion or that. You would not fluff your feathers menacingly if, for example, boxley made a snarky observation about the devotees of Thoth-Hermes or Anubis. But when he slights your faith and your "personal experience" you become more than a little defensive. I conclude from this that you believe that your Christian faith is entitled to a greater deference than that you or I might extend to the Mormons or to the Norse pantheon. Alternatively we secular humanist types ought, as a matter of good manners, meekly defer to anyone who claims that God is talking to him, whether it be static on IWT or Jim Jones in Guyana. Sorry, but I'm unconvinced. As far as I can see, in matters of disbelief you're just one illusory god away from my stance. Why not kick the fucking thing over and join us? cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #283,272
4/27/07 9:04:55 PM
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well actually I dont doubt his perceived communication from
above since the guy up stairs has a sense of humor and a snarky side as has been personally demonstrated to me over the years. Just pointing out the difference between defference and most organized religion.
As for the beer:30 next time Im on the left coast I'll take you up on that.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep
reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
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Post #283,282
4/28/07 7:44:03 AM
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I think we agree on something...
above since the guy up stairs has a sense of humor and a snarky side ... Quite. I ran across something some years ago that convinced me that God has quite a sense of humour. Unfortunately, I can't remember what it was :-/ but the conviction nonetheless remains. Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
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-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
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Post #283,463
4/30/07 10:37:28 PM
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The Prime Directive, nevertheless remains
(whether in Sanskrit or jive,) like all those other re-re-retranslations of a transliteration by an anonymous army of successive scribes, wannabe-writers, sure-to-be: editors -- all laboring away with their own peculiar flavour of jelloware doing the Creating --
The [Absolute] is without attributes, is beyond being and nonbeing ...
(This little pretty-Big Much - has been around since, long before the year 0-CE, thus many more centuries before The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind [link|http://www.julianjaynes.org/| Julian Jaynes] (merely an indicator that contemplation of the immutable, the immanent and the ephemeral have continued along since.. ook! OOK!! meant duck.)
Now, should I have a few moments to stifle the jelloware, in those final minutes ... I think I'd like to conjure up the Medicine Man to Geronimo - surely He was a sort to have aided Geronimo himself, in seeing the vacuum/vacuous core of the sanctimonious invaders, as they trashed lands, spread disease and slaughtered buffalo - for the sheer perversity of Killing Easy Targets, while manufacturing coin purses from the mammaries hacked off the women, watching children sabered to death.
Geronimo Knew.. the soullessness of the entrepreneur and what was to Come: the nothingness inside a Shrub, that long before any of the present ones were spawned. It would Be Good to die in such company, and -- such may be conjured-up as readily, on-the-occasion: as any of the Brand-names. No need to die first, to find This out, y'know?
But I digress: *Without* [any!] *Attributes*
such as, [but not limited to]
"He", "Father", "Likes jokes" / hates-queers-S/He-'made' / will 'Save' assholes like Robertson and Foulwell / gives virgins to hot/horny new bomber-boy arrivals ...
as in, C'monnnn, Mon :-0
Ummm... never mind;
Sweet Reason has long been discredited by the cloaked ones: for that little stain on her dress. Now, if only we had a fairwitness. With a larynx.
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Post #283,468
4/30/07 10:52:52 PM
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In other words...
God is not just beyond what we imagine but beyond what we can imagine. :-)
Even in the Christian church it is instructive to remind ourselves of this from time to time.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
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-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
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Post #283,474
5/1/07 12:20:04 AM
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Sounds about right -
I think you've Got It, about as far as word-things manage.
Pity that so many folks skipped that crucial clue, eh?
We could skip the warz! everybody's Right-enough, and the only blasphemy is claiming a Certainty of this or that sort. As with quantum mechanics and any other statistical crap-shoot: let the Casino serve as our Basilica.
;-j
PS - PBS is doing tonight, The Mormons @ 2 x 2 hour-sessions. I'll try.. for,
as Lao-TzuHeinlein said, best to grok thine enemy to fullness, in the battles for preservation of one's bedroom from the armies of the Righteous enforcers.
(Hey.. they're all set-up to cover the er, food shortages during the tribulatin times n'stuff - by dictat: ya wanna be a Mormon? Learn how to make fire from twigs - at least they believe in thermodynamics, however grudgingly.)
My deal:
Aces, deuces, treys wild and 5 Jokers in a deck
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Post #283,509
5/1/07 10:07:44 AM
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look here brother, who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep
reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
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Post #283,512
5/1/07 10:18:23 AM
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Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
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Post #284,636
5/14/07 4:20:31 PM
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"The name that can be named is not the eternal name."
And, "Those who know do not speak. Those who do not know, speak freely."
Two gems from the East. Pity the Western religions never learned them.
bcnu,
Mikem
It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell
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Post #283,281
4/28/07 7:35:07 AM
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I think you might have missed it, too.
Your "feelings" really don't count for much. I presented my own experiences as justification for what I posted to Nightowl as pertinent advice. Box claimed to know better than I about how my faith works so of course I responded: I was defending his contradiction of my own experiences within my faith. And they were words lacking in authority within that context, too, until his most recent. Would I do the same if he slighted Zoroastrianism? No: I am not a Zoroastrianist. Certainly box is in no position to say what you did or did not feel, but he's in an excellent position to judge that, to the extent you "felt" that you were actually in personal communication with an invisible anthropomorph modelled after a Bronze Age Bedouin chieftain, you were deluded.
Neither is he in any position to say what I did or did not experience. And, really, neither are you in any position to state your concept of God is correct and mine is not within a faith system you clearly do not adhere to. :-) You could argue quite legitimately that the concept of 'God' is a delusion based on a Bronze Age Beduoin cheftain, but that is a point-of-view from outside Christian theology. Within Christian theology, there are viewpoints as to whether God cares whether we get along in worship, or just wants attention from us. Box's original assertion was that he knows this is the latter and I attempted to dispute his knowledge of this on Christian theological grounds including challenging his authority to dispute such. Ironic that it gets clearer when I reply to someone else... :-? Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
|
-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. | · my ·
· [link|http://staticsan.livejournal.com/|blog] ·
· [link|http://yceran.org/|website] · |
|
