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philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
Oct 25, 2013 - 09:10am PT
ROTAS
OPERA
TENET
AREPO
SATOR
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Oct 27, 2013 - 12:26pm PT
http://www.dw.de/syrias-christians-flee-rebel-crosshairs/a-17178299
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Oct 30, 2013 - 12:44pm PT
re: "the religion of peace"

Stunning. Self-proclaimed 'moderate' Muslims at Islamic Peace Conference in Norway. Watch what happens...

[Click to View YouTube Video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZAxkWzIpk&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV710c1dgpU

.....

So contrast the aforementioned with the Ben Breedlove story (and video) linked above by Sketch and it's easy to see why the subject (including its superstitions) is so involved and hard if not impossible (for many) to overcome.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Oct 31, 2013 - 08:58am PT
News alert:

Alex Honnold on Joe Rogan... a year or so ago.
Sam Harris on Joe Rogan... yesterday!

http://vimeo.com/78223316

"Civilization is a machine... to get us to peacefully collaborate with strangers."
Sam Harris

"The prefrontal cortex of every brain is a machine... that allows for that collaboration."
Sam Harris

The most sustained, dynamic, thought-provoking and spot-on exchange I've heard in a very long time.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 10, 2013 - 05:24pm PT
re: How religions and the US government let children die

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/how-religions-and-the-u-s-government-let-children-die/


Remember, though, it was a hundred times worse even one generation (25 years) ago. Times are changing. The world's much more aware today.
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
Nov 10, 2013 - 08:29pm PT
rSin, so glad I'm not a conservative christian. just a jesus follower here. :) lynne
WBraun

climber
Nov 10, 2013 - 11:45pm PT
In this thread lately you have the soapbox "Preachers" Malemute, Fruity and rSin preaching their religion ......
Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Nov 14, 2013 - 11:06pm PT
was asking the inlaws onces about what jesus had thought important to talk about when he got his largest assemblies together and they all came up blank...

i said surely youve read the gospels; and you wouldnt belive the reply i got... and it was delivered with a snarl

" i dont have to read that book to know whats RIGHT!"


her hand was in her purse and im sure she was fondling her handgun at that point

it was like that old moving when boggie as the navy captain goes off the deep end

cept it wasnt just said
more it was truely frightening


anyone today who self identifies in public as being a christian is decidely NOT a follower of christs example

he or she is just a market driven consumer whos found a place which caters to the bigotries and hatred that SOOTHE their worest character traits


This charicterization, while true is some or even many cases, is sorter like saying all scientists are duffuses with fifty pens in their pockets, walk slightly pidgeon-toed, couldn't get laid with a gold brick in their hand, can't whistle or dance, and wouldn't know culture if it bit them in the wingtips. This applies to many science types, aftger a fashion, but it is no more "true" than your silly portrayal of Christians. You might be surprised by the acumen of some church goers. Theologians, at the top level, are very capible people and excellent schollars, no more succesible to believing foolishness than you or I.

But that muich said, any Christian who doesn't know the Beatitudes is in the dark. It's their loss IMO.

JL
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 14, 2013 - 11:36pm PT
Neil deGrasse Tyson...
[Click to View YouTube Video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBTd9--9VMI

I sure hope it has the substance of the last one, or it's going to disappoint many many.
Wade Icey

Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
Nov 16, 2013 - 12:02pm PT
By Amanda Marcotte

The Gospel of Selfishness in American Christianity

How the philosophers of selfishness came to use Christianity as their cover story.




November 14, 2013 | Like this article?Join our email list:Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.
Anyone who has worked in the restaurant business will be happy to tell you that waiters always fight each other to avoid working Sunday lunch shift. Not because they want to sleep in, but because it’s a widespread belief that the post-church crowd is loud, demanding and unwilling to tip appropriately. In the food service industry, “Christian” is synonymous with “selfish.”

Unfair stereotype? Probably. Big groups, regardless of affiliation, tend to tip poorly. More to the point, waiters probably remember the bad Christian tippers more because the hypocrisy is so stunning. The image of a man piously preening about what a good Christian he is in church only to turn around and refuse the basic act of decency that is paying someone what you owe them perfectly symbolizes a lurking suspicion in American culture that the harder someone thumps the Bible, the more selfish and downright sadistic a person he is. And that perception—that showy piety generally goes hand in hand with very un-Christ-like behavior—is not an urban myth at all. On the contrary, it’s the daily reality of American culture and politics.

Bill Maher recently had a rant on his show that went viral addressing this very issue, bad tippers who leave sermons or notes scolding waiters instead of paying them what they’re owed. His larger point is a much more important one: It’s absolutely disgusting how the politicians who make the biggest show of how much they love Jesus would be the first in line to bash him if he returned with a message of clothing the naked and feeding the poor. The Jesus of the Bible multiplied the loaves and fishes. His loudest followers these day gripe about feeding people, claiming it creates a “culture of dependency.” They may even comb through the Bible to take quotes out of context to justify their selfishness toward the poor, as Rep. Steven Fincher did when he claimed the Bible says, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” The fact that those jobs are unavailable didn’t give him a moment’s pause when suggesting this very un-Christ-like plan to his fellow Americans.

There are plenty of progressive Christians who genuinely try to live out Jesus’ command to love your neighbor as yourself, described in the Bible as the root of Jesus’ entire philosophy. That said, statistics bear out the sense that people who are more invested in being perceived as pious also embrace the most selfish policies. Self-identified conservatives and Republicans claim go to church regularly at twice the rate of self-identified liberals. People who go to church more than once a week are far more conservative than the rest of the population. Indeed, the research suggests how often you report being in the pews is the most reliable indicator of how you’re going to vote. (Though it may not be a reliable indicator of how often you actually go to church. In the grand tradition of showy piety, people who claim to be avid church- goers often lie about it to pollsters.)

The attempts to reconcile the correlation between displays of piety and support for selfish policies get complex on the right, with conservatives often arguing that hating your neighbor at the voting booth doesn’t count because church charities supposedly make up for it. ( They don’t.) In reality, the relationship between Christian piety and support for selfish policies is fairly straightforward. It’s not that being Christian makes you conservative. It’s that being conservative makes being a loud and pious Christian extremely attractive.

Without Christianity, the underlying mean-spiritedness of conservative policies is simply easier to spot. Without religion, you’re stuck making libertarian-style arguments that sound like things cackling movie villains would say, like Ayn Rand saying civilization should reject “the morality of altruism.” Since Christianity teaches altruism and generosity, it provides excellent cover for people who want to be selfish, a sheep’s clothing made of Jesus to cover up the child-starving wolf beneath. Since Christians are “supposed” to be good people, people who really aren’t good are lining up to borrow that reputation to advance their agenda.

The fact that conservatism causes obnoxious Christian piety in American culture is most obvious when looking at some of the theological developments that have accrued since the philosophers of selfishness decided to use Christianity as their cover story. The “prosperity gospel” that has developed in recent years is a classic example.

The prosperity gospel teaches, to be blunt, that you can tell how much God favors you by how rich you are. While some on the Christian right reject this idea as a tad crude, it’s still wildly popular and its adherents, like Oral Roberts, are some of the major architects and organizers for the Christian right. It’s a perfect example of how conservative ideology leads to pious Christianity. People want to believe that the rich are better than everyone else and the poor don’t deserve squat, so they find a way to blame God for it rather than own their own greed and selfishness.

Pope Francis may be entirely sincere when he says he wants Catholic clergy to deemphasize the right-wing political pandering in favor of highlighting values that are more in line with liberalism, such as compassion and generosity to the poor, but the odds are slim of this message making inroads with church leaders in the United States. The church needs conservatives who need to believe they’re good and holy people despite their selfish beliefs. Without them, who will show up and tithe? Liberals? Most of them are sleeping in on Sundays, secure that their commitment to social justice makes them good people regardless of how visibly pious they are.

The fact of the matter is that the purposes religion serves in America are shrinking in number. Our cultural identity is increasingly shaped by pop culture, not faith or ethnic identity. Our holidays are more about shopping and having a chance to catch up with far-flung family these days, not showing devotion to a deity. Spiritual needs are often addressed through modern means like psychotherapy and self-help. People build communities through hobbies and interests more than through faith communities bound by geography, ethnicity and family.

Increasingly, the only thing religion has left to justify itself is that it provides cover for people who want to have bigoted, selfish beliefs but want to believe they are good people anyway. As these social trends continue, we can expect the alignment between public piety and grotesquely selfish political beliefs to get worse, not better

edit:previously posted by rsin on one of them healthcare threads
Mark Force

Trad climber
Cave Creek, AZ
Nov 16, 2013 - 12:05pm PT
Wade, thank you.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 16, 2013 - 12:47pm PT
True,

"The fact of the matter is that the purposes religion serves in America are shrinking in number. Our cultural identity is increasingly shaped by pop culture, not faith or ethnic identity. Our holidays are more about shopping and having a chance to catch up with far-flung family these days, not showing devotion to a deity. Spiritual needs are often addressed through modern means like psychotherapy and self-help. People build communities through hobbies and interests more than through faith communities bound by geography, ethnicity and family"

In the world at large, too.

Such radical change underway... sooo unpredictable.

What can you do? Keep your fingers crossed. It's what I do.
Byran

climber
Yosemite
Nov 16, 2013 - 01:03pm PT
The latest cheeseball movie out of hollywood.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

Apparently there's a debate over on IMDB about whether the genre should be listed as "fantasy" or "historical"
go-B

climber
Hebrews 1:3
Nov 16, 2013 - 05:58pm PT
Well doggies!...Cats, Camels, & Cows etc.!!!
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 16, 2013 - 08:01pm PT
more bullshit cornboy!

okay, I give!!!!11

I don't know you but your wise words have convinced me, I've seen the errors of my way and I stop going to church and stop being a believer...

immediately!!!!!1
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 16, 2013 - 08:07pm PT
Turn to God, Jesus saves!!

Open your heart, he will forgive you!!

What's wrong with you?
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 16, 2013 - 08:12pm PT
Jeez they want you to go to church and believe some weird stuff they can't prove. Oh, and yeah, they say that people who don't believe the weird stuff they can't prove will spend eternity consumed in hell fire....whatever that is. Don't sound like nice people to me.
Skeptimistic

Mountain climber
La Mancha
Nov 16, 2013 - 08:14pm PT
Turn to God, Jesus saves!!

Now who you jivin' with that cosmic debris?
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 16, 2013 - 08:19pm PT
No worries, just playing around.

I don't think this rSin guy knows me, kind of funny is all. ;)
go-B

climber
Hebrews 1:3
Nov 16, 2013 - 09:28pm PT
I feel sad for you guys!
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