bakerstreet

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

To me it is just the height of arrogance to sit and point out all the flawed molds we've tried to put God in throughout history, and in the same breath say He either fits into yours or He doesn't exist. What makes your mold so valid? Do you really pretend your logic is the final, unbeatable definition of what God must be in order to be God? That which we can't define, can't exist is what this seems to say. If it is beyond our comprehension, it can't exist, because our comprehension i

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

Have you read much about quantum mechanics? How does "common sense" fare there? Why do you assume the nature of the universe could be defined by little more than a lofty-sounding limerick?

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

"I think that an omnipotent God could have made a place without any evil and with us having free will if he was all loving and wanted to. If there are no limits to an all loving God then he can do everything, even that. God could find a way to make it so it wasnt a evil totalitarianism. So that leaves a few alternatives in my opinion, that kinda go back to the quote: either he's not all loving or there is no god." You are making the assumption that you u

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

"So in other words....it is not the will of God it is the will of man. Man is one scary son of bitch. " You just figuring that out? Like I said, if we really know what good and evil are all about, why do we screw up when WE play God? Why is "playing God" synonymous with doom? If we can't even emulate God's job without causing disaster, maybe we don't know what it is. Could it be that our concept of what God is, and what God does, is totally b

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

I'm wondering if that was clear. To put a finer point on it, consider the Inquisition example. At the time, people thought that was the will of God. A few thousand years earlier, people thought that the Israelites committing genocide in Palestine was the will of God. Right now, many Muslims think that terrorism is the will of God. Well, we don't apply divinity to terrorism or the Inquisition because we now reject the idea that such was the mandate of God. Well, the same can be appl

Reply to A Dose of Common Sense in Religion JoeUser Forums

I agree with a lot of points here, but they aren't testaments against God, rather our view of God. The morality of human mythology is a judgement on the the people who adhere to it, not the gods or God that we shanghai into service of them. The original lead-in says it all: "“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil

Reply to Revelation 1:4-8 in Religion JoeUser Forums

lula: Your church beatifies people who were antisemites. Do you really believe that an antisemite is a successor to the apostles? Do they remove that status when someone is found to have been antisemitic? Nope. More often they continue to fight for the person. I would point out that you still persist in separating "sin" and the "inquisition". The inquisition WAS a sin. Under no circumstances was the Inquisition a valid Christian practice, and I defy you to prove it was. The Chur

Reply to Revelation 1:4-8 in Religion JoeUser Forums

"Bakerstreet, you seem to think sin operating through the Inquisition or this or that bad Pope somehow proves the Catholic Church false, illegitimate or denies Apostolic succession." It shows gaps in this supposedly perfect chain from Jesus to now. Don't pretend that there were just a few bad eggs in each era's carton. Those eggs ALL followed the misguided and unchristian papal policies during these eras, or they would have been considered heretics and

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

Consider me fucked off. I can't show respect for ideas that I have no respect for.

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

Can you imagine what the response would be if a Muslim here called Palestinian terrorism an "understandable backlash"? Yet somehow we can lower ourselves to the point we can call the Inquisition that? Hells bells...

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

I mean, if you are going to trace Islam back to Mohamed and call it violent because of its conquest, how can you sit in church and praise the walls of Jericho coming down? Isn't religion that was built on conquest wrong by your own admission? What's the difference? It's like the inquisition thing. When we do it, it is "understandable extremism". When they do it, it is a flaw in their "ism". Well, pal, it's a flaw in every ism, we just choose to overlook it in ours. I'm not

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

"The ideology of violent Muslims goes all the way back to Mohammed." And the "Christian" ideology goes all the way back to the early church. You know darn well if you trace Christianity back that far you see the same things. Follow it further to what we call God's Chosen People and see how they achieved what they had. Do you feel rational condemning the conquest of Muhammad, while praising the conquest of Joshua? They're both genocidal con

Reply to Your choices for best U.S. Presidents are? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I think it will always be "least worst" and not best. It's like saying "who is the best janitor?" If a janitor does his job, you really don't ever have to think about the janitor. In the same way, I think the presidents who do the best job are the ones who make it seem like, well, we're in charge. I don't like presidents that are sweeping in their leadership. I also don't like them neglecting us to the point that the crap piles up. So, I guess it is like God tells Bender in

Reply to Moral Inconsistency ...... in Misc JoeUser Forums

"Yea that’s sanity" Especially considering that the average LIBERAL from 50 years ago would be far too conservative for todays liberal circles. Given the idea that conservatism destroys humanity, I'm shocked that somehow we survived, oh, 100,000 years without the benefit of modern liberalism. Here's a little excercise. Watch the news for riots, caused by political and economic issues. Compare how many "conservative" nations have them as oppos

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

Little Whip: I see where you are coming from, and frankly I don't think you and I could really get into much of an argument about it. I'm not trying to say that Islam is a religion of peace, because I don't think any of the three are religions of peace. they are all founded on the blood of untold numbers of people. I don't, though, believe that the average adherent of any of the three is really a threat to me. I don't pick threats via ideology, I don't need to. I can turn on the ne

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

From Wikipedia on " Left Behind: Eternal Forces" "In the single player missions, the player is required to head up the efforts of the Tribulation Force, with the heroes of Rayford and Chloe Steele, Buck Williams, and Bruce Barnes against the GC, with the heroes of the Engima Leader, Jim Hickman, Steve Plank, Samuel Kline and Hattie Durham. Missions typically consist of attempting t

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

"Baker - I resent the implication that I'm somehow a "bigot" because I view Islam as an ideology as well as religion." If there were a Muslim lulapilgrim here claiming Islam is more peaceful than other religions, I could see how you'd feel ambushed by my post. There isn't, though. This, again, is more like someone in a restaurant popping up in a loud voice and saying "Muslims are more apt to be violent, you know". When I argue with Lula abou

Reply to Understanding ideologies of destruction in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

"That is why I see Islam as a dangerous ideology. That no matter where you go, no matter how materially content they are, they are much more prone (as a percent) than believers in other religions to violence and intolerance. " I really don't see how you can say that, given the almost total lack of "ideological" violence from American Muslims. In th

Reply to The Three Stooges Are Alive & Well in Current Events JoeUser Forums

No, KFC. God gave David a choice of punishment. It wasn't Satan God addressed as the culprit, nor was it Satan who carried it out, but an ANGEL. This is just more Phelps stuff... supposedly it was the sinfulness that made God slaughter 70k people according to what you were saying. Sound familiar? It's the same attitude that sinfulness that is causing out problems here in America. Hurricanes, diseases, terrorist attacks, etc., are described as just God's hedge being removed because o

Reply to The Three Stooges Are Alive & Well in Current Events JoeUser Forums

"I'm not sure where you mean that God intends evil so I can't respond to that because I'm not sure what you are referring to." Good grief, you most certainly do, I've pointed it out in other discussions. It's up there in the scripture I quoted, too. " 15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed,

Reply to The Three Stooges Are Alive & Well in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I would point out that Falwell added to his apology: "I therefore believe that that created an environment which possibly has caused God to lift the veil of protection which has allowed no one to attack America on our soil since 1812" Which to me is basically apologizing by saying the same thing again. Whether you believe God sent the hijackers, or just watched and did nothing is immaterial. In the end you believe in a God that would allow bad

Reply to The Three Stooges Are Alive & Well in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I have no problem with the inerrancy of God, KFC, I don't believe the work of men can be though. You correctly point out that in one spot it says that God loved the world, and in other places derides the world vehemently. That isn't God's confusion, that's ours. I don't believe for a moment that God is apathetic, but I don't believe God is less than we are. We have moved beyond the caveman mentality of liquidating the inhabitants of a place because they choose to worship other gods.

Reply to The Three Stooges Are Alive & Well in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I should have said that the BIBLE says God hates people. I don't believe God does any such thing. Then again, I don't believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, either. KFC does. "And you might as well paint Christ with the same brush you're painting me. He sure as heck believed in the literal OT at least by the way he quoted it so much." Christ was painted by the early Church, not me. They're responsible for that source material, Christ

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

Yeah, now I'm going back and forth. Never mind, break time.

Reply to Religion of peace update: May 2007 in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

"Anyone who cannot look at the photos of the hijackers, hear the propaganda and public confessions (boasting) of their leaders, and come to the conclusion that they were indeed ARABS is a brainless imbecile, and no matter what skin tone they sport or which god they bow to, they're still imbeciles and don't deserve to be taking up space and oxygen among sentient beings." Wait, are we talking about Arabs or Muslims? If you want to talk about the SOCIOLOGY