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Mysterious Ways.

Honestly, I don't mind people opposing God (or, to be more precise, refusing to believe in God). I have more of a problem with people who oppose God and religious people by hiding behind science (when science can't prove the existence or non-existence of God), instead of using philosophical arguments.

I just use either that term or the term Eldritch deity when I'm discussing with folks who don't believe in God in an informal manner. It's also a good way to not take myself too seriously, unlike the fundamentalist fuckers who are ruining our belief.

(Btw, if anyone here don't want me to show these terms here, I'll put it under spoilers or stop using them)

edited 29th May '15 8:33:15 AM by Quag15

Er... Yes, some restraint would be appreciated. :/

Indeed, restraint would be nice. On a different note, what is the goofiest eisigesis(reading your own interpretation into the text instead of using the context to find the correct meaning) you have seen?

/ Allright, I won't use the term here, rest assured. It was also not meant to insult God, just so you know. Carry on.

I've read some of the Left Behind series. They're pretty weird...

I've also seen the LOL Cat Bible online... But that reinterpretation of Scripture was deliberate, for humor purposes.

Left Behind is to Christian fiction what the Syfy channel is to disaster movies. Hell, most of the things that happened didn't even need to be overtly supernatural and probably would have been more dramatic had they not been. While we're on the subject of apocalyptic fiction, I've been meaning to read the Christ Clone Trilogy when I get the chance. How good is it?

edited 30th May '15 4:32:52 AM by Ghostninja109

The Gift of Tears.

The Blame Game.

Feeling Insignificant?

Something New.

I'm sick of concern trolls.

I don't know why I am as attracted as I am to reading comments boards on blogs I read and to looking in on the controversies and the back and forthing. Maybe I just like watching arguments. I don't know. I am finding myself, in reading anything about Christianity, getting really tired of same poop, different day I see in comments boards all the time. I am wondering if anyone is with me.

Some of my pet peeves are people who are all "I will leave you this quote out of context and act like I expect you to hop-to without expounding on my own take." - I've come to see this as a "cardinal sin" of sorts when I see people claiming to be Christian doing it with stray verses in the Bible. I also see anti-theists doing the exact same thing with the darker verses - all out of context, of course, the message being either, depending upon the person "You must hop to on my interpreation/the KJV/whatever" or "you must abandon all belief in anything forthwith!"

People also do this with other sources - quotes by the Founding Fathers are popular with American-trolls, as are quotes by famous authors. (I will admit that there is a particular C.S. Lewis quote I like that I'm tempted to use to settle arguments, but it's not, surprisingly, specifically religious and I can use it to defend my love of videogames if I want to). People just throwing out a quote FROM ANYTHING and acting like IT IS THE LAW, SNAP TO! Is a good way to lose my attention in an argument, even one I'm observing and not in.

Another thing I'm sick of that was brought fresh into my attention today are people who come in acting like they are here to convert you, when they actually make it clear that they're really only there to call you stupid and evil and to put you down/look down on you by telling you how stupid and evil you are. To... feel good about themselves, I guess? To feel like they're "fighting the good fight" without actually expecting to win any of the battles? I was just reading a blog regarding the topic of homosexuality and it just got swarmed with trolls arguing with each other - and I do mean trolls... at least one of the people was a well known troll on the system who'd been banned by several bloggers on the collective for being a nuisance. (I think he's the reason why one blog I visit every once in a while has a tradition of "let's share random recipes!" when a troll shows up). There were a couple o guys how were just expounding upon sin and depravity while a couple of anti-theists (one whom I've seen everywhere bothering even the kindest and most vanilla of bloggers to promote a book) got on them and it was rather interesting fireworks between two groups of people who were condemning each other and everyone else all black and white without any semblance I saw of even trying to realistically convince each other. It was more like "You're subhuman! No, you're subhuman!" and "You're going to Hell!" and "All religion is organized schitzophrenia and if you believe the Bible has any value at literature you're pure evil!"

Am I weird to be sick of these attitudes? If someone wants to convert me to one way or another (either someone wanting me to become back into tradtional/more fundamental or the atheist who wants to "save my mind" —- not that it's worth saving) or anyone else... Charging in to call everyone on a blog / comments stupid-evil and keeping hashing on that... I think only has the appearance of trying. It's not even trying. Which is sad with people who might like to think they are trying to make the world a better place.

Anyway... I think I'm going to go take a walk in the cemetery across the street from my apartment. That place reminds me that (whatever you believe happens afterwards) that all humans are equal in the end.

edited 3rd Jun '15 1:06:09 PM by Shadsie

Have a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite hymns:

Nah, that kind of thing annoys me too. It's why I tend to stay as far away from debates about religion as I can. For every polite, rational person on either side, there'll be like five or so idiots ruining things for everyone. I really wish people would just chill. Nobody was ever converted (to either side) by people being jerkfaces to them

@that last part, I'm reminded of my parents. They'd have this thing where they'd approach people who stood out in a crowd (say, teens in your standard Goth attire) and clicked to them as being "unchristian" and say "Have a blessed day" or "I'm praying for you, dear" in the most sickly, syrupy voice they could muster.

My Father Is with Me.

It's a shame we can't upvote posts here, because I really want to give you a thumbs-up for that one.

In fact I well

edited 4th Jun '15 6:27:38 AM by chaosconsortium

@Shadsie: I'm with you. I've also posted in the Insecurities thread in regards to some folks calling religious people 'mentally ill' and shit like that. Like it has been said above my post, there are plenty of assholes, and it's best to not engage in a debate with them nor to think too much about it (no matter how hard it is - and it is hard to focus on other stuff).

I should avoid Reddit, but it's hard.

edited 4th Jun '15 10:31:16 AM by Quag15

Let's try this again. The board went wonky on me when I tried to post a reply.

Anyway, what I was saying was that it wasn't on Reddit - (I like reading stuff on Patheos) and I wasn't in the fight, I was just sitting back with cheese doodles. Okay, so I actually ate cheese doodles later when I was playing Nintendo, but whatever. I would have replied if I'd been properly logged into Disqus, which I wasn't, but not to any of the flame warriors. The blogger said some things about obesity that I thought needed some correction. (People aren't always overweight because of gluttony, some have genetic issues and a lot of "poor food" these days is processed stuff that is cheap and stores well. I know this by bitter experience. In this day and age, what people eat to base survive can make 'em fat).

On that note, I have a HUGE pet peeve over people in arguments comparing religion or spiritual sentiment immediately to mental illness as an insult. While I can see where some come from on that, I hate it because it punches down upon victims of diseases they did not ask for. I'm bipolar. I can assure you that it's nothing you want to be, but it's not anything I asked to be born with and/or to be bullied into me by years of being the designated target child in my school days and/or problems with my family. I'm convinced that if I give into one of my suicidal urges one day successfully, most of the world will just see it as "the trash took itself out." This is painful knowledge to live with.

So, whenever I see someone trying to convert someone to their worldview by comparing others to "schitzophrenia" or, indeed, to "bipolar" (which I've seen happen) or even to generalized mental illness, I see less of a call to "become a shiny, glowing sane rational person like myself" and more of a "I HATE people who are RANDOM VICTIMS OF THINGS THEY NEVER ASKED FOR!" - In conclusion "If I'm never going to be fully human in your eyes, anyway, I might as well enjoy the imaginary friends."

What We Do.

So today I went to my grandparents' house and had some tea and generally a jolly old time.

My father and my grandfather are both very devout Christians so naturally we talked a lot about the Bible and such. The topic then shifted to homosexuality. So I couldn't resist myself asked them: what do you think about homosexuality?

Without even a microsecond of hesitation, they both said homosexuality is a sin....but that homophobia is an even bigger sin. They also said that even if it is sinful in God's eye, it is irrelevant to basic human rights so gay marriage should be legal and homophobia be punished.

It was...an interesting perspective, if anything.

Start From Here.

Interesting, indeed.

It's also kinda in line with what Pope Francis said some time ago, the bit about 'who am I to judge them?' The official Catholic stance is that, while not approving of gay sex or gay marriage, it also strongly discourages discrimination and general homophobia, especially things like a father disowning a son and kicking him out of the house just for being gay. Of course, that doesn't stop some Catholics from being intense bigots, but, then again, there are bigots in pretty much every belief and creed in the world.

That's how I think it should be - what I think will really change the world for the better is respecting the "in-between."

Presently (not formerly, but presently) I'm in the camp of "I don't really think what the Bible was talking about is what we think of in terms of gay" or "Perhaps God is revealing something to us in our age, readiness to be accepting" or "Maybe Paul was flat-out wrong about a few things" so I'd rather not say it's a sin - especially since it's a realm of life I just don't understand as an asexual who has only ever been in straight romance.

Calling it sin can be very damaging in its own right... even if that's all people are doing, like the kid raised with being harped on "it's a sin" even if the family is ultimately accepting.

At the same time, however, I don't think that society can force everyone to lockstep, especially older people who were raised and ingrained with particular thoughts right the eff now. So, grandparents just accepting basic rights should be seen as a small victory.

But, you know, if someone finds it "against their way" but thinks the bigotry is even worse... I think that's workable. I think that even if someone thinks it's sinful, they ought to support the right to people exercising their free will on a thing that doesn't harm anyone. It should be a thing like how the Amish don't hang around like I do on the Internet and think of it as incompatible with their way of life and what they think is "right" but aren't about to forbid me from watching all the You Tube videos of videogame parodies and cats that I want. Nor are they going to refuse to sell me chocolate to eat in front of the Internet when I go to the local farmer's market.

(We have actually seen the Amish there using cell phones... what a particular group allows varies, but it all ties back to "usefuless for work" I believe. Posting idly on forums, writing fanfiction and watching Dorkly vids isn't a part of that).

edited 6th Jun '15 10:19:38 AM by Shadsie

The Greatest Thing.