Why do fundamentalists hate America?

[gowlerk 1,903]

On 1/2/2022 at 3:38 PM, Coreece said:

even the OT references ideas like the Spirit of God

Is God composed of elemental particles? And if not how can She manipulate them to form objects? Does Her Spirt have mass?

Edited January 3, 2022 by gowlerk

[BIGUN 1,050]

6 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

God composed of elemental particles

https://answersingenesis.org/physics/higgs-boson-god-particle/the-god-particle-and-the-god-of-particles/

[JoeWeber 2,294]

7 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

Does Her Spirt have mass?

Sure, every Sunday on the hour starting at 9:00AM. 

[JoeWeber 2,294]

2 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

https://answersingenesis.org/physics/higgs-boson-god-particle/the-god-particle-and-the-god-of-particles/

The real "God Particle" will explain how gravity works. On that happy day they'll change the name of the Large Hadron Collider to the Large Hardon Collider and all believers on both sides will go home happy.

[gowlerk 1,903]

4 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

https://answersingenesis.org/physics/higgs-boson-god-particle/the-god-particle-and-the-god-of-particles/

Yeah, the "god particle" thing is pretty embarrassing to particle physicists. They don't call it that, it is a popular media thing. Much like calling the extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker the "god bird".

 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/the-lord-god-bird-is-gone-an-elegy-for-the-ivory-billed-woodpecker

[gowlerk 1,903]

3 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

The real "God Particle" will explain how gravity works.

I would have thought you had a pretty good handle on how gravity works by now. 

[JoeWeber 2,294]

13 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

I would have thought you had a pretty good handle on how gravity works by now. 

Nope. I've just been along for the ride all these years.

[gowlerk 1,903]

18 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Nope. I've just been along for the ride all these years.

At least we understand the rules. I guess gravity is god after all. They are both unforgiving.

Edited January 3, 2022 by gowlerk

[BIGUN 1,050]

1 hour ago, JoeWeber said:

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

Does Her Spirt have mass?

Sure, every Sunday on the hour starting at 9:00AM. 

OK. That was funny

[BIGUN 1,050]

On 1/1/2022 at 3:51 PM, gowlerk said:

America, love it or leave it?

  Congrats

[gowlerk 1,903]

9 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

  Congrats

Thank you. I couldn't have done it without all the little people helping along the way! I'm going to celebrate by drinking my last two ounces of Oban tonight.

Edited January 4, 2022 by gowlerk

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

2 hours ago, gowlerk said:

I would have thought you had a pretty good handle on how gravity works by now. 

 

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

At least we understand the rules. I guess gravity is god after all. They are both unforgiving.

We understand what gravity does.
We understand it's 'rules'.
We can quantify it quite well.

But understand how it works?

Nope. 
There have been lots of attempts at explanations.
None have succeeded.
Yet.

That's why they still call it a 'theory'.

[JerryBaumchen 1,047]

51 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

Thank you. I couldn't have done it without all the little people helping along the way! I'm going to celebrate by drinking my last two ounces of Oban tonight.

Hi Ken,

A well-deserved benchmark.

Jerry Baumchen

 

[gowlerk 1,903]

10 minutes ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Ken,

A well-deserved benchmark.

Jerry Baumchen

 

Thank you Jerry,

  And thanks for your many likes. I just drank that whiskey and I now have the warm glow that lasts for half an hour or so. Bill, Wendy, and even Joe W. are fast catching up with me and will pass me soon enough! 

[gowlerk 1,903]

33 minutes ago, wolfriverjoe said:

But understand how it works?

There may be a massless particle they would call a graviton. But you pretty much lose me with the term "massless particle". I like to read the Wikipedia entries for this stuff. It makes my head spin and reminds me of my younger days consuming various recreational street chemicals. Shit like this is why I don't laugh too hard at believers. There is room for just about anything to be the truth at some level.

[Coreece 189]

 3 hours ago, billvon said:

Going to a three-God structure would have alienated the Jews - and for centuries Christians hoped that Jews would see Christ as "the Lord our righteous savior" as foretold in Jeremiah (very much central to Judaism.)

Likewise, going to a simple monotheistic approach would have made the existing polytheists less likely to accept conversion

But again, the Jews were already familiar with the 3 distinct concepts of God's Word, Spirit and Wisdom from the OT which was reflected in the first uses/definitions of the word Trinity.   If polytheists took that as 3 different gods then that's on them, right?  I never heard/read it being taught/ explained that way, and to do so would've been viewed as heresy. 

But like you said this is already around 200 AD and it just gets more complicated from there.

4 hours ago, billvon said:

an early Christian sect that taught that Jesus was effectively separate from God.  That wasn't reconciled until the First Council of Nicaea.  And since _then_ there have been offshoots of Christianity that have changed it yet again

Ya, and by the Council of Trent they turned Jesus into a waffer/cup of wine and condemned anyone that didn't take it literally.

[gowlerk 1,903]

5 minutes ago, Coreece said:

Ya, and by the Council of Trent they turned Jesus into a waffer/cup of wine and condemned anyone that didn't take it literally.

You mean all that was decided in a 16th century conference presided over by men of the cloth and not given by God herself in the earlier times? I'm confused, I thought all truths were contained in the original Holy Books? So many schisms, it's a wonder the church didn't splinter apart into different beliefs! 

[ryoder 1,381]

2 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

You mean all that was decided in a 16th century conference presided over by men of the cloth and not given by God herself in the earlier times? I'm confused, I thought all truths were contained in the original Holy Books? So many schisms, it's a wonder the church didn't splinter apart into different beliefs! 

Do I need to bring out Emo Philips to explain it all again?

[JoeWeber 2,294]

2 hours ago, gowlerk said:

Thank you. I couldn't have done it without all the little people helping along the way! I'm going to celebrate by drinking my last two ounces of Oban tonight.

1000 likes here and 10 bucks gets you a beer most anywhere. 

[gowlerk 1,903]

36 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

1000 likes here and 10 bucks gets you a beer most anywhere. 

I know, it's only Dizzy Dot but I like it.

[billvon 2,384]

1 hour ago, Coreece said:

If polytheists took that as 3 different gods then that's on them, right? 

Exactly.  And if that helped increase converts and support during the Diocletian persecution of Christians, why, that's a nice side benefit.  I mean, no one wants to be "sacrificed."  

Quote

Ya, and by the Council of Trent they turned Jesus into a waffer/cup of wine and condemned anyone that didn't take it literally.

And then there was Vatican II.  My grandmother never got over that one.

[Phil1111 908]

A guest essay in today's NYT Christian Nationalism Is One of Trump’s Most Powerful Weapons

It mentions the religious PAC's that are driving political policy. How activists use clergy, Christian media and congregation members to drive fundraising, political ideals and misinformation. "At Christian nationalist conferences I have been reporting on, I have heard speakers go out of their way to defend and even lionize the Jan. 6 insurrectionists."

"US federal law allows tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organisations, including churches that are registered like this, to engage in nonpartisan voter education and registration activities – but it forbids them from engaging in partisan politics such as endorsing or opposing specific political candidates.

These groups cannot, says the IRS, participate in “activities with evidence of bias that would favour one candidate over another; oppose a candidate in some manner; or have the effect of favouring a candidate or group”.Yet according to open democracy at churches and religious forums any and all attacks on democrats is allowed and encouraged.

The use of these religious and tax exempt organizations to attack public schools, anyone who isn't republican has a political agenda.

"Conservative politicians and lobby groups have long opposed the IRS rules. From 2008-2016, more than 2,000 Evangelical Christian clergy “deliberately violated” them in protest, the Washington Post said. Only one of these people had been audited, it added, and none had been sanctioned.

Any wonder why John gets riled about activist religious groups?

There was also a 10% increase in the number of Protestant pastors who personally endorsed a political candidate in the 2020 election compared to 2016, according to a survey by LifeWay Research, the research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the US."

[Coreece 189]

  

59 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

"Conservative politicians and lobby groups have long opposed the IRS rules. From 2008-2016, more than 2,000 Evangelical Christian clergy “deliberately violated” them in protest, the Washington Post said. Only one of these people had been audited, it added, and none had been sanctioned.

Right, if you don't wanna be taxed you can't do that at church, that's what home study groups are for.

But ok, let's say they get penalized.  You get your money and revenge, but how does that really change anything else?  They still get to keep doing what they're doing and now that they're paying taxes, they'll have even more political clout doing it - legally.   Go Phil!

 

From your article:

Quote

None of the speakers explicitly endorsed specific candidates

 I worked for a predominately democrat, African American church in Detroit and they would actually have candidates giving political speeches right from the pulpit. . .

. . .they probably still do.  I think I even have video evidence on a hard drive somewhere.  Are you still bloodthirsty enough to get you some vengeance? 

 

1 hour ago, Phil1111 said:

There was also a 10% increase in the number of Protestant pastors who personally endorsed a political candidate in the 2020 election compared to 2016

1.  Yes, pastors can personally do that in this country, just not at church unless they pay a fee.

2.  Biden won the 2020 election.

[gowlerk 1,903]

3 minutes ago, Coreece said:

I worked for a predominately democrat, African American church in Detroit and they would actually have candidates giving political speeches right from the pulpit. . .

. . .they probably still do.  I think I even have video evidence on a hard drive somewhere.  Are you still bloodthirsty enough to get you some vengeance? 

Overall the tax from that group would be much smaller than from the mega evangelical ones. So for myself I would make that trade off. 

[Coreece 189]

1 minute ago, gowlerk said:

Overall the tax from that group would be much smaller than from the mega evangelical ones. So for myself I would make that trade off. 

They have also lived with corrupt politicians since forever, house people, build schools and create jobs.  They know what's best for their community.  And that is just one African American family that started all this.