Could people really be this gullible?

[DSE 3]

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Why is it that I detect on this thread a sense of contempt/hostility toward christians? I personally don't care because I am one of those who are not sure about religion (I think we are called agnostics but I am not sure). If you don't beleive, then don't beleive. Why force non-beleif down the throats of beleivers, or try to frustrate them in thier beleifs (unless they are knocking on your door trying to shove their beleifs down your throat)?

Since there are previous posts that echo my personal sentiments, I'll simply add that I'm constantly seeing various evangelicals at my door. In the past, I'd have humor and ask them questions I knew they couldn't answer. Mormons are especially fun because as a general statement, I'm far more educated on their religion than they are. Christians in general that evangelize on my doorstep were fun too, but as of late, I've lost interest in the game and simply dismiss them as quickly as possible. I've gotten tired of being preached at in the media, on the roadside, and now at my door, yeah...there is a little hostility there.

[Royd 0]

Why is it that I detect on this thread a sense of contempt/hostility toward christians?

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Not Christians

Pardon me. Haven't you shown disgust for anyone who has faith in Christ?

Just another character in a huge fairytale.

[jakee 1,262]

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Pardon me. Haven't you shown disgust for anyone who has faith in Christ?

Disgust is neither contempt nor hostility, that's why they are different words. But anyway no, I haven't. In fact, I have stated here that I have respect for some christians, Steveorino for instance.

I do think that the story of a divine jesus (or any other religious story) is completely ridiculous and no more credible than a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but that does not mean I'm disgusted by anyone that happens to believe it.

Baffled and bemused perhaps, but not neccesarily disgusted.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Royd 0]

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Baffled and bemused perhaps, but not neccesarily disgusted.

Does condecension fit the bill?

[jakee 1,262]

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Baffled and bemused perhaps, but not neccesarily disgusted.

Does condecension fit the bill?

Still a different word.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[NCclimber 0]

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Baffled and bemused perhaps, but not neccesarily disgusted.

Does condecension fit the bill?

Still a different word.

Semantic wordplay... oh boy.

The point that several have been trying to address is there are a number of Christian bashers around here, who jump at the chance to to paint with a broad brush, directly or indirectly attacking Christians in general, whenever one of these Westboro Baptist, "assassinate Hugo Chavez", creationist musuem stories comes up.

A few on the usual suspects have already chimed in on this thread.

[jakee 1,262]

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The point that several have been trying to address is there are a number of Christian bashers around here, who jump at the chance to to paint with a broad brush, directly or indirectly attacking Christians in general, whenever one of these Westboro Baptist, "assassinate Hugo Chavez", creationist musuem stories comes up.

Have I, on this thread or anywhere else, attempted to equate normal christians with YEC fundamentalist fraudsters?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Guest]

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The fact is that dinosaurs were created no more than one day before mankind, not many millions of years earlier—and we have evidence to support that statement.

I'm guessing their spokesman will be Fred Flintstone.

I wonder what Dr. Mary Schweitzer's reaction to these nutjobs will be? You may recall Dr. Schweitzer - she's the one who found soft tissue in fossilized T. Rex bones in 2005.

Oh, and for the record, she's an evangelical Christian, according to Discovery Magazine.

mh
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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[NCclimber 0]

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The point that several have been trying to address is there are a number of Christian bashers around here, who jump at the chance to to paint with a broad brush, directly or indirectly attacking Christians in general, whenever one of these Westboro Baptist, "assassinate Hugo Chavez", creationist musuem stories comes up.

Have I, on this thread or anywhere else, attempted to equate normal christians with YEC fundamentalist fraudsters?

I don't know. Have you? What's your definition of "normal" Christian?

[rhys 0]

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The point that several have been trying to address is there are a number of Christian bashers around here, who jump at the chance to to paint with a broad brush, directly or indirectly attacking Christians in general

I have just been to a small museum in the middle of the Serengeti plain here in Tanzania africa.

There is concrete evidence that a primitive form of human walked there, actually the oldest known form of human.

A volcano erupted 3.5 million years ago and on the ash walked 3 primitive humans. Also a large cat (a leopard if i remember correctly) an elephant and an extinct horse type creature with 3 claws instead of hoofs. As well as the fosslised footprint of the creatures there are bones and all sorts. Another layer of ash covered these footprints and preserved them until the 1950's when archaeologists discovered them.

Now these type of findings are contradictory to the teachings of the Bible are they not?

If Christian bashing is defined by not believing Christian beliefs and asking Christians to explain the reason their teachings do not coincide with actual discoveries then yes I am a Christian basher.

I believe everyone has the right to believe what they want. To preach creationism and not evolution is 'IGNORANT'.Everything was created yes..........at the hands of god for the benefit of human beings................NO WAY.

I'll post the awesome pictures from the place in the next day or so.

For all you Christians out there that donate money to the church.... I suggest you donate it to the people that are trying to save all the amazing creatures that are very close to extinction due to the arrogant belief that this planet is here to be exploited by Human beings.

Cheetahs are in real trouble, rhinos are very hard to see. but I saw 1 :) and many others run the risk of being extinct.

you vicar does not need a new BMW but these creatures really need help right now!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[mr2mk1g 10]

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A volcano erupted 3.5 million years ago

Piffle - everyone knows the earth is only 6,000 years old. The Bible says so.

[Butters 0]

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Here sheepie sheepie sheepie...

"The Lord is my Shephard" Psalm 23:1

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[jakee 1,262]

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Here sheepie sheepie sheepie...

"Listen to me, you are all individuals!"

"Yes, we're all individuals!"

"I'm not."

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[jakee 1,262]

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I have just been to a small museum in the middle of the Serengeti plain here in Tanzania africa.

First off I'd just like to say - you lucky bastard! I'm looking to head out to Africa for a while in a year or two, hope things are working out for you over there

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A volcano erupted 3.5 million years ago and on the ash walked 3 primitive humans. Also a large cat (a leopard if i remember correctly) an elephant and an extinct horse type creature with 3 claws instead of hoofs. As well as the fosslised footprint of the creatures there are bones and all sorts. Another layer of ash covered these footprints and preserved them until the 1950's when archaeologists discovered them.

Now these type of findings are contradictory to the teachings of the Bible are they not?

Indeed they are (to the deluded fundamentalists anyway).

In fact, just on your doorstep (relatively speaking) in Nairobi there's a big controversy going on with the refurbished National Kenyan Museum putting incredibly important prehistoric-human fossils such as Turkana Boy on public display for the first time as part of a shocase of evolutionary history (links here and here). The local churches vehemently oppose the exhibition and want the museum to declare that evolution is not a fact and to put the skeletons back into storage.

And that's the thing I don't understand - the creationists don't want to just dispute the theory, they want to actually hide away the evidence itself! Surely they should realise just how wrong they are when they don't even have alternate explanations for the evidence and instead need to spirit it away in the dead of night!

The intellectual dishonesty of these people is really, really scary. No wonder the era of christian domination of Europe was known as the dark ages.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[NCclimber 0]

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Now these type of findings are contradictory to the teachings of the Bible are they not?

Indeed they are (to the deluded fundamentalists anyway).

In fact, just on your doorstep (relatively speaking) in Nairobi there's a big controversy going on.... The local churches vehemently oppose the exhibition and want the museum to declare that evolution is not a fact and to put the skeletons back into storage.

And that's the thing I don't understand - the creationists don't want to just dispute the theory, they want to actually hide away the evidence itself! Surely they should realise just how wrong they are when they don't even have alternate explanations for the evidence and instead need to spirit it away in the dead of night!

The intellectual dishonesty of these people is really, really scary. No wonder the era of christian domination of Europe was known as the dark ages.

I'm still waiting for your definition of "normal" Christian.

[jakee 1,262]

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I'm still waiting for your definition of "normal" Christian.

A normal person who is a christian.

Literal fundamentalism is not normal. Disregarding all physical evidence about the origins of life (and indeed the entire universe) is not normal. Thinking God is going to beam up all the nice people and leave everyone else to fire and brimstone is not normal. In fact, lets just make it easy and say that taking any part of the old testament at face value would seriously count against you in the sanity stakes.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[NCclimber 0]

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I'm still waiting for your definition of "normal" Christian.

A normal person who is a christian.

Literal fundamentalism is not normal. Disregarding all physical evidence about the origins of life (and indeed the entire universe) is not normal. Thinking God is going to beam up all the nice people and leave everyone else to fire and brimstone is not normal. In fact, lets just make it easy and say that taking any part of the old testament at face value would seriously count against you in the sanity stakes.

How about the Resurrection of Christ?

[billvon 2,442]

>How about the Resurrection of Christ?

I think the central message of the New Testament is what Christ taught. The rest are details. How many days he was dead, how dead he was, what holes he had in him, how much water was turned into what sort of wine - details that have been handed down by oral tradition until they were put on paper. And if even the paper translations have introduced some error, imagine how much error was introduced in the oral translations.

Arguing over these details seems pointless to me. Everyone thinks the details are a little different, and that's fine. The important part is to try to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

[jakee 1,262]

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How about the Resurrection of Christ?

Personally I think that's just as mad as the rest of it, but if I excluded people that believe it from the list of normal christians then I would not have very many left.

In my view the resurrection is one of those things so widely believed and accepted by society as a whole that most people just go along with it without really ever thinking about it. also, the resurrection and most of the other stuff jesus was said to have done were very small scale, personal type miracles, things that can (I guess) be accepted without having to throw away entire fields of human knowledge, like for instance physics and biology, as you have to in order to believe the OT.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[DSE 3]

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>

The important part is to try to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

I'd rather not. Like Madonna and other pop stars, he generates controversy and mayhem in his wake.
Fortunately, I don't believe anyone has ever killed someone else as a result of listening to Madonna or Elvis. If they have, the numbers would be inconsequential by comparison anyway.

[idrankwhat 0]

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"Listen to me, you are all individuals!"

"Yes, we're all individuals!"

"I'm not."

"Shhhhhh"

[NCclimber 0]

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>How about the Resurrection of Christ?

I think the central message of the New Testament is what Christ taught. The rest are details. How many days he was dead, how dead he was, what holes he had in him, how much water was turned into what sort of wine - details that have been handed down by oral tradition until they were put on paper. And if even the paper translations have introduced some error, imagine how much error was introduced in the oral translations.

Arguing over these details seems pointless to me. Everyone thinks the details are a little different, and that's fine. The important part is to try to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

Yeah. That whole Easter business is nothing more than a trivial footnote. Irrelevant, really.

[jakee 1,262]

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Yeah. That whole Easter business is nothing more than a trivial footnote. Irrelevant, really.

To what?

To how to be a good person? Well, yeah it is completely irrelevant.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[DSE 3]

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Yeah. That whole Easter business is nothing more than a trivial footnote. Irrelevant, really.

It really is. At least on Xmas, we get gifts n' stuff. Easter,we just see some bunny hopping around. Xmas, 4th of July, Presidents Day...they're all holidays I can sink my teeth into. Great sales, friends not working...Easter always on Sunday, no great sales, and it's mascot is pretty lame.

[narcimund 0]

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It really is.

Without looking it up I can never remember what month easter is in. February is valentine's day so that's not it. It's March or April but which one?

First Class Citizen Twice Over