Incredible response to that situation Rad, Acts 16 for sure. Being able to draw near to God in times of hardship is an amazing thing, He's been teaching me to do it more and more lately, and it's been really uplifting to see what He's been doing because of it.
I'll praise him tonight in my prayers for those 18, that's the best part about it.
So now that you're out of jail, maybe you can get back in the chair some more :D?
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acts 16! thats exactly what i was thinking of!
good spot lred
...It's my feeling that if I can deal with it everyday, and respect those who say them for who they are...
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For this, Rad, I respect you a great deal, and always have.
Well, I'm sorry, it's never my intention to harm. But, I feel that I daily deal with people in the LM community making a complete mockery of the God whom I hold above all else, use His name as a cuss word, poke fun at Who He is, and disrespect everything about Him. It's my feeling that if I can deal with it everyday, and respect those who say them for who they are, then I should be able to share the truth I have within me without fear or shame. It's not my intentions to make anyone uncomfortable, but it is hard to hold myself back, yet be bombarded with snide comments about God.
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Please, by all means, it was not my intention to be snide. I simply wished to share my viewpoint. I took extra special care to make it as inoffensive as possible. I'm truly sorry if I have caused you grief.
I believe you refer to expressions such as "Goddammit" or "for God's sake." There I go again. Yes, I use them. I do not intend any disrespect by saying so. None of those expressions are somehow disrespectful as far as I can see. One is a wish for God to "damn it" (whatever "it" may be), the other is a plea: For God's sake, as substituted for all of humanity, or for me, or for you, or for the assembled group, etc. Never do I intend disrepsect. If God is all-knowing, he knows this too.
Above all else, I can only imagine God as *ahem* "a cool dude." But a cool dude does not lose his cool over something as simple as this.
I only want to get along with people, and especially with you. I respect you very much for how you have deeply held beliefs, yet manage to stay away from the fanaticism I am so often confronted with and pestered by.
If you cannot share my views on God, then be comforted knowing this: We do not believe in the same God. Maybe my God is false. I cannot tell. But when I say "for God's sake," I mean the God that I believe in. If that is not your God, you have no need to be offended.
LF, you're right, God isn' up in heaven smiting people down when they say it, but at the same time, when you tell God to "damn it" when refering to the fact your food is cold, you're are asking the Creator of everything, the Master of nature, the King of Kings, to damn your food because it's not suitable to you. Seems a little much for cold food, eh? I know that's not the best example, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say.
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Well, I think it's His choice to damn the food or not. Maybe it's thought of as a suggestion, look, here's some food that should be damned, and whether you damn it or not is your choice. Damn, I haven't said damn that many times in one sentence, ever.
And it has always been my opinion that God understands perfectly whatever anyone means to say or anything they think, and if someone doesn't use GD and the likes in a derogatory manner, then He will not receive it as so.
It is humorous though, you never hear people shout "Muhammad, that HURT!" when they hit their toe, or "Buddha curse it all!" It's odd, when you think about it, for a culture so devoid of Jesus in their daily lives, His name is always being misused.
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In part, it has to do with the dominant religion in the States, as well as the pervasive Hollywood use of the term in an expletive. matter. However! You are not all on the money there raddy
*ahem*
http://www.lunixmonster.org/forums/index.p...highlite=buddha (http://www.lunixmonster.org/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=8b896fe435274a5cced60eea96852d20&search_in=posts&result_type=topics&highlite=buddha)
And in other notes, Buddha is not god, or a god, he wouldn't give a bouncing buddha's buggernauts if you used his name. In fact, any attachment to his name or his ego would lead him from enlightenment.
Exactly, we should just all be running around killing people, free from morality. Just like other animals.
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I'm not sure if you're familiar with history, but do you recall the Crusades? If there was ever a time where people ran around, killing each other, freed from undesirable morals yeah that was definitely it.
We are nothing more than what we are: Human. Fortunately for us, we humans have the power to create our own damn future so that's not a problem. The Hand of God did not incite the mass protests in Lebanon - people did. Humans did.
People are worth more than they know - nobody is a pawn in some cosmic game and that's the only fact.
Owl's poll needs an "other" option.
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I think every poll needs that basically.
Exactly, we should just all be running around killing people, free from morality. Just like other animals.
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ESPECIALLY THE MEECES!!!!
[...]LF, you're right, God isn' up in heaven smiting people down when they say it, but at the same time, when you tell God to "damn it" when refering to the fact your food is cold, you're are asking the Creator of everything, the Master of nature, the King of Kings, to damn your food because it's not suitable to you. Seems a little much for cold food, eh? I know that's not the best example, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say.
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Oh, I get what you say. But I do not agree. The following situation is only all too common: I'm hungry or something, so I tell my buddy Jesper (or whoever's nearby) to "Go make me a sammich you lazy git," to which his inevitable reply is to laugh and tell me to "Go make it yourself you useless bastard." I consider my "request for damnation" to be nothing more than that.
By the way, I hope you don't mind this turning into a (remarkably civil) religious debate, since that seems to be what's happened. But if any of the readers have any "freak circumstances got me into jail for a while"-stories to tell, by all means, go ahead. Those tend to be entertaining.
You're a pawn on a universal scale, you're a slave to your past and doomed to a predictable future.
The Crusades might have been a barrel of laughs, but so were the Punic Wars, WW1, WW2, The Gulf War, the War on Terror, English Civil War, American Civil War, etc etc etc etc etc.
Fact, people will find whatever reason is most convenient at the time. Be it God, voices in their head, what their Leader says, or they just had a bad day.
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Do you honestly think that the Popes didn't believe they were the Hand of God on Earth? It's easy to look at it now, to say that they were exploiting the religious bandwagon for all it was worth, but that's only because hindsight is seldom anything but twenty-twenty.
People can be pretty mean; we all know that. But it's the people themselves that are rotten - The Devil has no hand in it. I never tried to say that people were wonderfully peaceful and thoughtful (of course it would be nice . . .), only that when they make war and do ugly things it is of their own volition rather than any ovearching force.
The religions of the world serve to unite large groups of people and then sink the no-man's-land between them. I trust you know of the terrible divides in, say, India between the Muslim population and the Hindu population? Religion is remarkable that way; that is, it can unite people of a like mind and utterly alienate those of an unlike mind to the point where they bring out the fists and tanks and bullets.
Religion is about conflict by its very nature. People just don't need any more conflict.
rad4Christ,Mar 16 2005, 10:35 AM]Might I recommend? Check out The Case for Christ (http://www.ereader.com/product/detail/17490) by Lee Strobel, a recount of an athiestic journalist who retraced the steps that led him to faith, Mere Christianity (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060652926/104-2957204-2160768) by C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite authors who, while trying to disprove the myth of Christianity, became a believer himself, or read transcripts of William Lane Craig here (http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/debates.html), where he is debating with leading atheists. Ravi Zacharias (http://www.rzim.org/ (http://www.rzim.org/)) is also known as one of the leading apologetics of Christianity today, although I will admit I've yet to read any of it.
I will be willing to mail you a free copy of The Case For Christ if you'll really be interested, and also if you'd actually read it with an open mind. PM me for details.
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Historical Christ is a COMPLETELY different sack of meeces, and I have some fav authors for that. It's kinda old and tired for a topic, for me. I'm more interested in the hardcore theological debates. And I've read my fill of Lewis and Chesterton, but thanks for the offer.
By the by, are you going to be reading your children the Narnia series?
EDIT: I read through some CS Lewis again and some WL Craig. Both were equally unsatisfying and somewhat tangential to the main arguments and issues I have with any religion.
see now, I am OK with the bible, most of it is good teaching. I am cool with christ, as he was a wise man in the midst of innumeral idiocy, but I am against the organizational forming of religion. People use the religion as a crutch. When their life is crap they just lean on the faith rather than think of a way out of their current situation. I take credit for all my accomplishments. No god helped me in my getting to where I am now, only my own inteligence and help from those humans who love me. When I get into a bind and get out of it, I dont thank god for helping me, I thank myself for figuring out the ingenuity to solve any challenge that stands before me.
If there were a god, I would think that this is how he would want me to be, myself, not a mindless sheep of the flock.
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A. Leaning on faith != not solving your problems
B. There isn't always a way out. Leaning on faith just makes the incredibly brutal situations barable.
C. Peace through faith in times of torment > suicide
Historical Christ is a COMPLETELY different sack of meeces, and I have some fav authors for that. It's kinda old and tired for a topic, for me. I'm more interested in the hardcore theological debates. And I've read my fill of Lewis and Chesterton, but thanks for the offer.
By the by, are you going to be reading your children the Narnia series?
EDIT: I read through some CS Lewis again and some WL Craig. Both were equally unsatisfying and somewhat tangential to the main arguments and issues I have with any religion.
I tend to agree with you. Alot of christian religious authors sort of lack dept and beliveablitly, and/or write with a style that seems to prioritize hashed and rehashed bilical stories and methods avoiding the lessons that life today is very much still teaching us.
I still kind of like Naria as a kids book though, it has a neat little story line that is good and safe, even if it lacking in depth.
[edit] <insert 600th post celebration here>
rad4Christ,Mar 15 2005, 06:15 PM]you never hear people shout "Muhammad, that HURT!" when they hit their toe, or "Buddha curse it all!"
Muhammad is God's prophet not a god so a Muslim whould still say "Goddamnit" if they so chose. Christianity and Muslim beliefs stemmed from the same branch.
Buddha is not a God but a Teacher and was only an "Enlightened One." Anyone can be a Buddha all one needs is to rediscover the Dharma by Enlightenment. The most popular Buddha we all know and see is The Buddha Gautama, Siddhartha Gautama, who claimed to be a teacher to guide those who chose to listen rather than a personal saviour.
I have been dableing in Buddhism so I DO know some of what I am talking about here. =P
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I think I have heard people using curses about buddha before... Although Noob is compleatly right here.
Some people treat Jesus as a prophet. I believe certain groups in Judaism treat him as such.
But, at the same time, do you hear anyone say "Moses damn it" or "Elijah damn it"...
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I once heard someone say "Oh my Bhudda!"
Some people treat Jesus as a prophet. I believe certain groups in Judaism treat him as such.
But, at the same time, do you hear anyone say "Moses damn it" or "Elijah damn it"...
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theres seriously no reason at all to put slang into rational terms. It just simply does not make sense, think about it, why do we shout "oh son of a bitch!" or "oh poop" when we stub our toe? sons of bitches or poop has nothing to do with the pain in your foot... if we wanted to make sense we would say "oh damn the fact that i forgot to turn on the lights while walking around barefoot!"
slang- it is what it is... no use analyzing it to death.
So then why do you say swearwords?
Why not "oh sugar"?
For those of us that aren't fussed about taking God's name in vain, why use it? Why not say something else entirely? What makes it so special it has to be used instead of something more polite?
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Why use verbal bleh when you can use verbal awesome?!?