I know no mercy sdr. :lol:
Words, like windmills, are there to be shied at.
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I know no mercy sdr. :lol:
Words, like windmills, are there to be shied at.
Yeah we know about you and your lack of mercy!
i was not saying faith=religion, but the ideals of, say, a religious person being fervent in their ideas. ( ie {almost slang form of the word}that man is religious in his conversations with people.... that could be interpreted as he makes sure his ideals are the motives for how he talks[what he says]..i try to think like a christian) religious meaning atheism controls your thinking as much as christianity mine. you probably have certain ideals driven by atheism.
anyways this is probably going nowhere and my ideas wont change as much as your's will...continue if you like.
Why is that? Are you not prepared to change? Not prepared to listen to arguments and judge them using your own intellect?Quote:
Originally Posted by SirRupert
That is dogmatism. Blinkered thinking. Is that really how you want to live? Coccooned in your faith and unquestioning? Isn't there a parable about not using your talents? Does this not apply to the talent of reason? The talent of intellect?
Why am I asking these questions? You already know your not going to listen - right?
Live happily in your closed mind; your ivory tower of christianity. If that's what makes you happy, I hope no-one ever kicks the doors in. But you can't blame me for wanting to try a few keys in the lock, can you? :brow:
For the record, I question everything. I admit my doubts, and if they grow bigger than my current beliefs, I change those beliefs. This is how the world progresses. If everyone followed your dogged trust in some millenia-old book, we'd still think the world was flat and we'd fall off the edge if we sailed too far.
Sorry if I've offended you. But you'll find worse than me in the world. :nod:
no offense taken, but, to be frank, i have no problem with you calling me narrow-minded, But very very earnestly believe, that my beliefs are right (christianity) and your's are wrong ( atheism)
good day,
ps. the bible does not say the earth is flat....
*It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: isa. 40:20
Rupert,
I said closed-minded, not narrow-minded. You said your beliefs weren't subject to change. That's what closed-mided means - not influenced by others.
"dogmatism"?? "blinkered thinking" you say??
X, It really surprises me you are familiar with the concept. It is true that it was you who brought plato's thought to the thread and that it was you who said "an unexamined life is not worth living." But your posts here reflect the least amount of "examining"
Perhaps I may infer that since you are "settled" with regards to religious belief, that you are done "examining"
Personally, im not offended by how proud you are to be an athiest. I am largely offended, however, by an attitude im sensing; that you r "already there" and that whoever is not "there" with you deeply demisguided.
I am not an athiest but I do not consider myself to be a believer either. I simply do not know. I "examine my life" and look for clues to help me along the way. Reading your posts makes me promise myself (and repeat the promise) that when I am "there" (wherever that might b) I will not stop "examining" and I will not stop studying clues that may come my way. I know ur probably quite sure of ur beliefs regarding this topic. But r u really sure that ur having the right attitude for the discussion?
I do not wish to offend anyone. Above all, I aim to challenge MY own beliefs.
xc,
my ideas not changing means, Christianity
Being a nihilist sucks.
And doesn't satan?Quote:
Originally Posted by Green Lady
Then there are men who know they are married to the best women, and women who know they are married to the best men, that commit wedacide on a decent person they know to be decent.
There are police that know something about law and order, but undermine both.
And there are business people that know customers want a cheap price, but they give only the opposite, with cheap quality.
Some have seen me give a good example, then have either avoided me and forgotten what they themselves praised in me, or they decided to hate me, in order not to listen to the conscience within themselves that had empathy for me.
Do not masters of Hitler's sort have an amazing skill for murder, regardless of whom they know the goodness of?
Whether he believed in GOD or not, he certainly wanted those that loved HIM dead, whether they were Jew or Catholic or Lutheran. He did romanticize about a Norse "god" or more at times, according to some nazis' statements about him.
I’m not Mary Poppins.Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
Why should I be sorry? For defending my own beliefs against the claim that they make me an incomplete human being? The significant part of the quotation for me was,
“Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
And much offence too.”
A ‘friendly’ tone can hide nasty assumptions as well. It’s not conventionally rude in the way I am but it is both patronising and dishonest:
“When you know as well as me
You'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once
And scream it?”
Another bastard
They make advances on my spirit and my soul.
So now I am a sadomasochist as well? :D Would it count as one of those beliefs that should be respected? If so, I might subscribe and then place special emphasis on the doctrine “Do unto others…”Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
Some can say what they like. Don’t like such views; don’t read him. I offered it as some kind of explanation of my own sympathies, not as a philosophy for others to adopt.Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
I wasn’t offering an intellectual excuse for my ‘savagery’. Perhaps I have misunderstood.Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
And I’m a bit mystified about why you care. Where do I suggest that I want to convert believers? Is that what you think I’m doing? My early argument on here was with the assumption that faith is logically consistent. To me it isn’t. Believe what you like but don’t tell me that if my beliefs differ it is either because I am too stupid to understand or that my beliefs make me an incomplete human being. If I really were as pessimistic and cynical as you suggest, I would surely want to encourage people in their stupidity? It would justify my sour view and give me all the more to laugh at.Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
Firstly, what do you mean by a ‘lack of literature’ complaint? My complaint was about anti-intellectualism and the offering of religious panaceas. It was not a complaint about this particular thread or the existence of an area for the faithful, but about the site as a whole. I have only posted to six threads in total on the ‘Religious Texts’ section (there are currently 220). On one I made just a single comment and two I started (one as a joke). So your claim that I ‘hang around’ these threads is unfair. I ‘hung around’ this thread simply because of XC. He is (nearly ;) ) always worth reading. I came back to the thread when I was quoted in a contribution that suggested that atheists are lacking something as people.Quote:
Originally Posted by “blp”
As a final thought (not a justification for anything) have a look at WB Yeats’ Meditations In Time Of Civil War - Ancestral Houses:
“What if those things the greatest of mankind
Consider most to magnify, or to bless,
But take our greatness with our bitterness?”
This is getting silly – I guess because we are wary of each other. I think an uneasy alliance is possible, though – perhaps born out of a kind of grudging mutual respect?Quote:
Originally Posted by Whifflingpin
I know you were being funny – that’s why I posted the lol smiley. It did actually make me laugh! I was going to post “not many will get that” but I thought you might take it as a criticism.
Don’t forget that my desire was deleted (not for the first time in my life). I’ve just had a quick look at the thread and I don’t really know what to say. The deleted comments concerned his tussles in the French courts (anyone who wants to know over what will have to find out for themselves).Quote:
Originally Posted by Whifflingpin
I will try to respond, though. Of course, that does mean posting on yet another ‘Religious Texts’ thread. :brow:
a) Well done you.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
b) Film version or book, Mary Poppins wasn't that nice.
c) I said a bit.
No, not for that.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
More for that. Why would you want to be conventionally rude anyway?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
How do you know you don't on theirs?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unnamable
So - the choices are between overt rudeness and false politeness? And is that it?
:nod: :lol: [smilies meant sincerely.]Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
Seriously? I have to like a writer's views in order to read him? All of them? Isn't this just another way of saying, 'if we don't agree we can't talk?'Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
I didn't mean to state categorically that you were. It's more a question. As I say, it's a seductive quote. The idea of being a searing, merciless truthteller and hang the hurt to irrational comforts is seductive in general. After all, what could be wrong with it? Well, it's a bit of a cliché for one. And for two, it's a bit melodramatic - and, here's where the question really is for me - that melodrama could so easily be a ruse - for viciousness.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
Maybe because I'm finding the atheist faction here (of which I count myself a member) a little too cosey, a little too brutally sure of itself in the face of an easy target. Maybe because I care about the 'incomplete human being' jibe too - and its attendant charge of lack of values.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
Oh, mate! You don't have to tell me all that. But you don't have to feel so aggrieved either. Lots of people here agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
Mmm. I suppose. I didn't say you were cynical or a pessimist. I thought I remembered you saying you were a pessimist. Maybe I misunderstood.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
I can see your point, but what to do? This isn't and will never be the Harvard debating society. Anyway, when both sides aren't just repeating pat arguments, though they are most of the time, I find it interesting to have some religious types around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
Oh well - perhaps I misunderstood again and it was my complaint - which I never got around to making. Mods, why are there all these threads that aren't about books in a section of the forum called 'Religious texts'? Couldn't they all be moved to general chat? Or is it that we're supposed to be writing the religious texts ourselves?
If I understand this right, then, well, it's exactly what I was getting at. Awkwardly, admittedly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unnamable
i still can't decide whether or not God exists. either he doesn't exist because there's so much evil and unfairness on the earth, or he's an omniscent and omnipotent creator who made us becasue we're so incredibly complex that we couldn't have come to be any other way. anyone know the science on the creation of life?
I still can't figure out why you all are having these silly discussions.