Actually your totem should be the panda: very little interest in sex. I’ve begun to think that pandas might be on a higher spiritual plane: they spend almost all their time eating bamboo, sleeping, and (i would guess) defecating.
memetic parasitism afflicting vulnerable minds and exacerbating their previously existing state of psychosis. That’s my best guess.
But, you know… “prove them wrong.” (which you can’t…)
Xians believe they are entitled to their own personal crusades, and that the only “rules” they are required to obey and abide, are the ten commandments.
So, the rule on the site doesn’t matter to them, because they’re “doing god’s work.”
And you can’t reason with them, because of the nature of cognitive dissonance and “faith.” They’re faith prevents any contradictory information from being valid (even when only the contradictory information IS valid).
At this point i kinda feel like “let them ruin it.” At least then i will be forced to find something else to do with my time. Let them ruin something that has made me feel better these last many months, since that’s what makes them feel better. I’m tired of talking to people who don’t listen, anyway… and we all know just how well Xians and other religious folk typically listen (ie: not at all, unless you’re saying what they want you to say).
To be quite honest, I wrote this post because this site has been a refuge for me, when I experience extreme emotional distress. I say that in all honesty. For the moment, I need this site, and I don’t want it to be taken away from me.
same here… but you have two options: fight an endless war that’s impossible to win (which will consume all your time and energy and still not produce your desired result), or just give up and try to find something else to replace what others insist on destroying.
@lorax What about cheetahs or jaguars ? They’re pretty cool. The jaguar is a sacred animal for many of the indigenous peoples of the jungles of Central and South America.
@cn This is like some Rodney Dangerfield joke: can’t even find respite on a suicide board.
Cheetahs are the most awesome feline – they’re so cute and they CHIRP! They don’t meow or growl or roar, they go, “Chirp! Chirp!” Like birds or something. It’d be a wonder if some indigenous people didn’t associate that sound with some myth about how a cheetah ate some sacred bird or something, and now the cheetah and the bird are one.
We secular folks have our own myth-spinning about why the Cheetah chirps. We say cheetahs chirp to imitate birds, so as not to attract lions or other predators to their dens. Or perhaps the high pitch in their calls carry over longer distances than some other call might. Or perhaps they’re trying to attract birds to eat.
Personally, I think the cheetah swam across the Atlantic and landed in the Amazon and promptly ate a Quetzalcoatl. Then he swam back to Africa, and there he lives today.
Believe me, you don’t want to know what Xtianity means for my family. I’ll give you a hint: being sadistically physically tortured, LITERALLY, for not kissing the cross. Do you understand now ?
well, see, “Xians” includes both “real christians” and “pseudo-christians.” (though i think we need a better word which applies to all theists of any religion or denomination… “theists” works, but it’s slightly too broad…)
We “secular” folk tend to regard both “real” and “fake” christians quite similarly… except that we at least try to respect those who “walk their talk,” even if we disagree with what they’re saying.
People who are just completely full of shit, don’t really deserve for me to make the effort to call them an appropriate name… but because i like names, and have a philosophical interest in “naming theory,” i tend to give that effort anyway… but not always. Sometimes i don’t care enough to differentiate between two mostly similar things, if the difference doesn’t seem relevant in the context.
I don’t believe that any god exists, so whether someone else is a “real christian,” i still think the whole thing is absurd. But i tend to agree and will admit that “real christians” are at least less hypocritical, and tend to at least care about being good people, and usually for the right reasons.
Who’s running? Hey, if all we need is god’s love, I’m all for that, man. But you sound like you’re saying running from God is a bad thing – didn’t Jonah, consistently, through the entire book of Jonah, run away from God, all the while preaching doom and gloom to everyone he encountered? And then get pissed when God didn’t rain doom and gloom on those people? Jonah must have lived a very lonely life.
I’m afraid you can’t just start believing in a god even if you’d want to. You can’t show the existence of a god the same way you can point out a country from the map. You need to get faith and that’s not simple. I have never been very religious myself, but I’d guess faith is a rather personal, emotional and intuitive experience. Emotions aren’t easy to control, and I guess that’s why some people are very religious and some are not. It also explains why some scientists can be very religious even when their own work is in an obvious contradiction with their beliefs.
On a site like this, I don’t think you can really avoid religious controversy. Christians who are just as miserable as everyone else will gravitate here and suggest that the reason other people are miserable is because they haven’t found faith, or are missing God in their lives. It might strike one as very strange, but it is what it is. I think the words are one thing, but the people beneath the words are another entirely, and we’re all human when it comes down to it.
I lean towards Clevername’s observations. Once someone expresses their belief in God I find myself primarily questioning the belief in rather than the existence of God. I’m as certain as a person can be about anything that God does not exist. It’s his army that I’m most afraid of.
20 comments
I don’t preach no gospel jive. The only gospel I preach is the superiority of cats over dogs.
Actually your totem should be the panda: very little interest in sex. I’ve begun to think that pandas might be on a higher spiritual plane: they spend almost all their time eating bamboo, sleeping, and (i would guess) defecating.
or as the dude said, ‘nice marmot’
memetic parasitism afflicting vulnerable minds and exacerbating their previously existing state of psychosis. That’s my best guess.
But, you know… “prove them wrong.” (which you can’t…)
Xians believe they are entitled to their own personal crusades, and that the only “rules” they are required to obey and abide, are the ten commandments.
So, the rule on the site doesn’t matter to them, because they’re “doing god’s work.”
And you can’t reason with them, because of the nature of cognitive dissonance and “faith.” They’re faith prevents any contradictory information from being valid (even when only the contradictory information IS valid).
At this point i kinda feel like “let them ruin it.” At least then i will be forced to find something else to do with my time. Let them ruin something that has made me feel better these last many months, since that’s what makes them feel better. I’m tired of talking to people who don’t listen, anyway… and we all know just how well Xians and other religious folk typically listen (ie: not at all, unless you’re saying what they want you to say).
*their
To be quite honest, I wrote this post because this site has been a refuge for me, when I experience extreme emotional distress. I say that in all honesty. For the moment, I need this site, and I don’t want it to be taken away from me.
I think my totem is probably the coyote. Of all the canine species, the coyote and the wolf are probably the coolest.
same here… but you have two options: fight an endless war that’s impossible to win (which will consume all your time and energy and still not produce your desired result), or just give up and try to find something else to replace what others insist on destroying.
This is the essence of persecution.
@lorax What about cheetahs or jaguars ? They’re pretty cool. The jaguar is a sacred animal for many of the indigenous peoples of the jungles of Central and South America.
@cn This is like some Rodney Dangerfield joke: can’t even find respite on a suicide board.
Cheetahs are the most awesome feline – they’re so cute and they CHIRP! They don’t meow or growl or roar, they go, “Chirp! Chirp!” Like birds or something. It’d be a wonder if some indigenous people didn’t associate that sound with some myth about how a cheetah ate some sacred bird or something, and now the cheetah and the bird are one.
You mean, “Christians”.
Aw comon, you don’t hate Jesus that much that you can’t type CHRIST in the word, can you? 🙂
We secular folks have our own myth-spinning about why the Cheetah chirps. We say cheetahs chirp to imitate birds, so as not to attract lions or other predators to their dens. Or perhaps the high pitch in their calls carry over longer distances than some other call might. Or perhaps they’re trying to attract birds to eat.
Personally, I think the cheetah swam across the Atlantic and landed in the Amazon and promptly ate a Quetzalcoatl. Then he swam back to Africa, and there he lives today.
Did you guys ever think that maybe you need the love of God in you to heal the suffering you/we endure?
Some of you run from it, and then wonder why your life remains a hell.
Maybe it’s not a smart thing to run from God 😉
@wig
Believe me, you don’t want to know what Xtianity means for my family. I’ll give you a hint: being sadistically physically tortured, LITERALLY, for not kissing the cross. Do you understand now ?
@wig
And it wasn’t just to my family, but to countless others of my religion. Hint: we’re called Jews.
well, see, “Xians” includes both “real christians” and “pseudo-christians.” (though i think we need a better word which applies to all theists of any religion or denomination… “theists” works, but it’s slightly too broad…)
We “secular” folk tend to regard both “real” and “fake” christians quite similarly… except that we at least try to respect those who “walk their talk,” even if we disagree with what they’re saying.
People who are just completely full of shit, don’t really deserve for me to make the effort to call them an appropriate name… but because i like names, and have a philosophical interest in “naming theory,” i tend to give that effort anyway… but not always. Sometimes i don’t care enough to differentiate between two mostly similar things, if the difference doesn’t seem relevant in the context.
I don’t believe that any god exists, so whether someone else is a “real christian,” i still think the whole thing is absurd. But i tend to agree and will admit that “real christians” are at least less hypocritical, and tend to at least care about being good people, and usually for the right reasons.
Who’s running? Hey, if all we need is god’s love, I’m all for that, man. But you sound like you’re saying running from God is a bad thing – didn’t Jonah, consistently, through the entire book of Jonah, run away from God, all the while preaching doom and gloom to everyone he encountered? And then get pissed when God didn’t rain doom and gloom on those people? Jonah must have lived a very lonely life.
I’m afraid you can’t just start believing in a god even if you’d want to. You can’t show the existence of a god the same way you can point out a country from the map. You need to get faith and that’s not simple. I have never been very religious myself, but I’d guess faith is a rather personal, emotional and intuitive experience. Emotions aren’t easy to control, and I guess that’s why some people are very religious and some are not. It also explains why some scientists can be very religious even when their own work is in an obvious contradiction with their beliefs.
On a site like this, I don’t think you can really avoid religious controversy. Christians who are just as miserable as everyone else will gravitate here and suggest that the reason other people are miserable is because they haven’t found faith, or are missing God in their lives. It might strike one as very strange, but it is what it is. I think the words are one thing, but the people beneath the words are another entirely, and we’re all human when it comes down to it.
I lean towards Clevername’s observations. Once someone expresses their belief in God I find myself primarily questioning the belief in rather than the existence of God. I’m as certain as a person can be about anything that God does not exist. It’s his army that I’m most afraid of.
Let them say what they want