winsor

Then you haven't followed kallend's posts closely enough. i think you're a little bit delusional... Your credibility was shot by the time you claimed "I think."

As long as no nanothermite is found, we should be in pretty good shape.

Not to worry, the Salt Lake City crowd is busily baptizing every human ever born, to the best of their ability. I am not making this up. The Book of Mormon is one of the few religious texts I could not force myself to read in its entirety, as it is a truly awful work. Mein Kampf is another I have yet to finish, for the same reason. However, amongst the things Joseph Smith dreamed up appears to be the transcendent quality of baptism in accordance with his standards. Thus, the nice people of the LDS have given everyone a free pass. BSBD, Winsor

And what is that old skydiver saying? Oh yeah, "Those who dance appear crazy to those who can't hear the music." Your responses in this thread are making you look poor. Generally you baffle the reader with your extensive vocabulary. Now you are resorting to name calling and that with the incorrect use of terms from the mental health profession. Such frustration and exasperation indicates a losing position. One does not have to dance to be crazy as hell. My goal here is not to make a point as such, but to express my profound contempt for adherents of verifiably false sets of beliefs. Religion is a disease of denial, and universal religions are viral in their epidemiology - the more virulent the pathogen, the more prolific its spread. It could be argued that the analogy continues further in that a more benign pathologen can insulate one from more destructive strains. The Cult of the Magic Jewish Zombie is preferable to some to ingestive disorders involving addictive substances, for instance, much as Penicillium fights other bacilli or cowpox immunizes against smallpox. Superstition can be useful in many pursuits; if sailors had traditionally accepted the reality of what a crapshoot it was to get on that leaky bucket and go offshore, most would have stayed on the farm. As it is, the ocean floor is littered with wrecks whose crews drowned while clutching religious artifacts and talismans. Hey, someone 36 years ago survived just such a catastrophe while hanging on to just such a good luck charm as this, so it must be true! (pay no attention to all those who did the exact same thing and did not pull it off, or to the guy who had no talisman and survived as well). What is the winning/losing part of the bargain? That I have not swayed anyone to my standpoint? News flash: if someone needs me to point out the obvious, they are not very skilled at thinking in the first place, and probably can not tell the difference anyway. You want to believe in a lot of claptrap? Knock yourself out. You want me to respect an atavistic commitment to verifiable falsehood? Do not hold your breath. BSBD, Winsor

When people make a point of having two-way conversations with invisible presences on a regular basis (without using electronics), their point of view is generally unworthy of consideration - other than for making preparations for when they turn violent, since they all too often do.

I do get a kick out of all the doom and gloom you conjure up and project on those who have found God in your posts. Look on the bright side, if you are correct we will all be gone in the blink of an eye, geologically speaking. And it won't matter a rats ass what any of us thought. But on the other hand , if you possibly misjudged... well, I won't go there. ... Neurotics build castles in the clouds. Psychotics live in them.

I know it must be in the works and I would like to put in a request for a signed copy. Any one so wise must surely be in the process of or have written a book defining the parameters of reality. So as to enlighten the ignorant superstitious masses lost in their sinful delusions. Hopefully you can see that the world you have created from the few facts you have scraped together, exists only in your head. Just like everybody else in the world. The question is who's world bests mirrors reality. And one of the first clues is, " by its fruit a tree will be known." ... I am not a psychiatrist, nor am I trying to win people over to my standpoint. If one has to explain the obvious, it is a waste of breath. I do reserve the right to hold in contempt those who seek to subject me to the limitations imposed by their profound mental illness and/or deficiencies. You have the right to adhere to a set of psychotic constructs. I do not have to respect your decision to exercise said right with such enthusiasm.

As any scientist can tell you, the unknown complexities of the universe make vitrually anything possible. ... Some of these "possibilities" are, like your understanding of science, vanishingly small. Like the nonzero statistical possibility that a loaf of Wonder Bread will undergo spontaneous nuclear chain reaction, in practice it is so small that it can be treated as zero to any number of significant digits. That people with severe mental illness can assume positions of power is no assurance that their psychosis, however popular, is anything but insanity. The more vociferous the claims to nonsense, the less credible the source. That you espouse rubbish makes you easily discounted as a source for much of anything, since you have demonstrated an inability to distinguish between the valid and the trivial in practice. Which is, of course, characteristic of the profoundly psychotic.

You are getting way to entangled in doctrinal points you don't understand and missing the reality of spirituality. You are more than just a bag of nuts and bolts controlled by physics and chemistry. You also have a soul and a spirit that require information and relationships in order to thrive. And like everything else in the universe, is eternal. ... Standard psychotic gibberish.

I respect your faith, but I respectfully disagree. These issues are a distraction from the real message the Bible is offering. Salvation to a lost world. I agree that we can agree to disagree on this but it does undermine the doctrine of salvation which begins in Genesis. You can choose not to believe what it says, but it is clear. A Gap theory or any other is just an attempt to compromise and harmonize what is told with modern evolutionary ideas. Given that this thread is conclusive evidence that religious conviction is but a socially acceptable form of psychosis, the clear demonstration that its underlying principles are unadulterated nonsense is pointless. If someone is going to devote their life to Baal or Gichimanitou or Bacchus or whatever, the fact that these are all mythical constructs is moot. The myriad gods out there are equally real and have identical claims to legitimacy (depending on who you ask). When believers presume to make their case by "logic," it has a similar quality to a little kid who is trying to prove that there are monsters in his closet - in a much more pathetic manner. The garbled accounts found in the popular religious texts are no more convincing than if belivers were to cite the phone book for support of their position. If I am working in a high-risk environment, knowing that the person upon whom I must rely is an adherent of a delusional phobosophy is frighteneing. I question the mental competence of someone who really believes in leprechauns and so forth, and thinks that failing to properly follow critical safety procedures will simply give them hot and cold running virgins or harp music ad nauseum or whatever. I'll take a cynic any day. Faith is okay, in that I have faith that I can make the best of what comes along if I so choose. Belief in things that are patently, demonstrably false is not so good. I contend that the only limitless resource at our disposal is stupidity, and religion is proof positive of that principle. One whose work is appreciated most by those in the upper echelons of Mensa is likely to remain obscure, but one who can tap into that atavistic facet of the human condition represented by religion is set for life. Getting back to the basis of the thread, it was simply the work of someone who assembled a period chrestomathy that did not not rely on superstition. It was an exercise of duplicating the work of those who prepared the popular religious compendia with an eye toward knowledge, rather than ignorance. Unfortunately, as the advertising rule of thumb goes, once you reach an 8th grade level, you have lost half your audience. Or, as Taylor Caldwell put it, "5% of the population think, 5% think they think, and 90% would rather die than think," and religion is ample proof that she was spot on. BSBD, Winsor

And once again, islam is a death-cult, not a religion. mh . And that differs from the Cult of the Magic Jewish Zombie how, exactly?

The Ten Commandments predate Judaism. They are essentially a rip-off of Chapter 125 of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. As any Rabbi worth their salt will tell you, a great deal of the Torah was incorporated from outside sources. Much of Bereshit/Genesis came from Sumerian/Babylonian tradition, for example. The fact that the Egyptian experience is reflected in the writings is hardly surprising - assuming these documents are evaluated as would any from that era. Bronze Age journalistic standards were slightly different than those in use today. BSBD, Winsor

Okay, maybe not Folk, but this is close enough.

Ah, but religion helps one get through tough times.

I asked about news not truth. Don't think I can point to one specific source. But I like to read (and watch some TV) Canadian, US and European news sources. It helps to understand more than one language. Actually, understanding one language is often too much to ask.

When I heard about that WTF bit of gladhanding pat on the back I was trying to figure out what a BAD safety record might look like. Chernobyl?

I think whoever it was that burnt a copy of Mein Kapmpf should be held accountable for the Holocaust. It is obviously their fault. Okay, okay, Godwin - I know...

Boy, will those greedy corporations be put in their place when the workers start their own corporations and put the greedy corporations out of business. It is really obvious that, faced with the skill and insight possessed by the workers, the Wall Street bloodsuckers won't have a chance. It is an historical inevitability. It will happen any time now. I can't wait. BSBD, Winsor

From what I am reading lately, that is how scientists are describing reality. An illusion. Nah, that's Joe Walsh.

Interesting that you would delve in this area of theology since you don't accept any of it. Had the Jews accepted the Wisdom God offered them instead of the chains of their religion, they may have recognized Jesus for who He is, the Messiah. Their religion blinded them with rage and they crucified Him. God allowed this evil to be used for good. ... Bite me. Cousin Jesus was killed by Romans. He was an observant Jew, whose legacy was usurped by Roman Pagan ringers. The bulk of the difference between Christianity and Messianic Judaism is the overlay of Pagan ideology. Everything you think you know is wrong.

I guess your god hasn't heard of virga. What an ignorant god you worship. You... you... BLASPHEME! HERETIC! BURN HIM!

Marijuana is bad. If you smoke marijuana, your babies will be born naked.

I killed my stupid whore of a wife because she wasn't a virgin. You ain't from around here, are you? You kill your bride if she IS a virgin. "If she ain't good enough for her own family, she ain't good enough for ours."

Do you think the French should have stayed out of the American War of Independence? In America's Civil War international intervention was blocked by Lincoln threatening war (and other political repercussions) while "killing his own people" ... However, I believe there is a difference between killing people to remain in power and killing people to end slavery. Well put. Lincoln's own statements made it crystal clear that his purpose was to maintain power, and that the issue of slavery was but one tool among many to achieve that purpose.

At least they didn't send a shill to tell blatant lies at the the UN in order to get support for their action. I am sure he offered his services.