comments of the month
Given that I have nothing of any interest to say these days, I thought it would be nice to share three of my favourite comments from this month. (They’re all actually from today, but it didn’t sound so grand that way)
Let’s start with a delectable delight of curiously formal language from Cogitating Duck on Fide’s post, attempting to make the Christian god God as depicted in the Bible sound not so monstrous by using lots of big, unnecessary words:
I doubt the epistemic reliability of your “natural” reading strategy. I am supposing you read the Noah account in Genesis to conclude that God is monstrous and/or silly. But nowhere is it clear that God is commiting “murder,” the taking of innocent life, to start over again.
A reading that doesn’t even aim to have clear definitions of God, moral culpability, monstrosity, and historical context is on epistemic par with fundamentalist, literal, “plain meaning” interpretations. It may be you are relying on a faculty of knowledge that does not consist in evaluating context and situating a conclusion in a commensurable critical framework. But that will not do the legwork to claim knowledge as to what a biblical text means, let alone what actually classical or orthodox Christian views are.
Though you do not think so, a monstrous and silly God is the kind of charicature I think Debilis is talking about, and I am in accord with him that that is inconsistent with what the biblical text means, and what Christians classically have believed. I can supply some arguments on request, but it suffices for me for now to just lodge the critique of your natural reading.
Next up is a surprisingly sane comment from my blogging buddy InsanityBytes. Although why she chose to have a sane moment on Silenceofmind’s post is beyond me. Something to ponder for us atheists:
What surprises me is the cruelty of atheists and their cognitive dissonance about it. People clearly state over and over again that religion has meant the difference between life and death for them and then atheists come along and say, “no, religion is bad, you’re using it as a crutch.” That’s not true at all, but supposing it was? What kind of human being runs around trying to kick people’s crutches out from under them?
And the final piece of literary genius comes from the Ark himself. No context required.
I match your mangled pigeon and raise you two slightly out of focus doves.
If you choose to comment on this post, you may be lucky enough to be winner of my 10,000th comment prize. Details to be announced.
“It may be you are relying on a faculty of knowledge that does not consist in evaluating context and situating a conclusion in a commensurable critical framework. ”
Yes, of course.
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I’m glad it struck someone else like that. I did say ‘commensurable critical framework’ back to him in my reply though, it’s quite catchy.
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You still pay attention to Debilis? Does he have anything new or interesting to say? I got bored.
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Oh I quite like him. I guess his posts have a bit of a theme. I’m amused that he thinks he’s defending ‘Christianity’ but when he gives a rare glimpse into what he personally believes, it doesn’t sound like the Christianity that most Christians follow.
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It’s not… and he hates that being pointed out.
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Yeah, he’s just got a bit stroppy with me for the first time. He wouldn’t answer if women should be submissive to their husbands with a straight yes/no but rambled about helping his wife from being self-destructive. So, he’s another that rationalised being submissive to men with equality because it’s all about the correct interpretation of the Bible …
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He’s married? For some reason i figured him in his early 20’s, straight from homeschooling and really uncomfortable in the world.
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John, I’ve yet to meet an evangelical who’s comfortable in the world because they are constantly told that they are not of this world and that they should be vigilant, as Satan is as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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Still possible …
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“He wouldn’t answer if women should be submissive to their husbands with a straight yes/no ”
Is that ever so common. What’s even worse is they have the gull to say that the bible, Jesus and Paul liberated women. But then they go on about “roles”. Well, guess what — I can to YOUR role with no problem. But it would be beneath these ‘godly’ men to do what they deem as a woman’s role.
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Yeah, it’s a weird one. He told me I don’t understand what the Bible means by it and I’m obviously thinking of the wrong interpretation. Yawn.
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Typical. This is why I usually reverse he/she in these “submissive, obey, rule over you” scriptures when dealing with these male dweebs because I get an immediate reaction from them when they see the command for them to obey and submit to women, and that they shall have the rule over them. Some have gotten incredibly irate with me. They lack empathy, and that is telling.
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Ooops, I better correct my misspelling of “gall”. Arch will be me on me like white on rice. Effing spelling Nazis.
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It may surprise you to learn that I saw it, and until your comment above, chose to say nothing about it, believing it to be just part of yoah charmin’ Suthun accent.
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Actually, Arch, I have scarring in the language centers of my brain due to high fevers as a child. The areas associated with spelling and grammar were the areas affected. My parents and teachers didn’t know about this, as the neurotechnology that finds this scarring didn’t exist when I was a kid. Needless to say, I was punished for failing spelling and grammar tests. I’ve spent years rewiring my brain to compensate for that scarring. So, sometimes I get triggers when people point out my spelling and/or grammar errors. My apologies if I offended you.
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Neuro – this would have been more appropriately placed near your comment regarding the in utero puppies, but I couldn’t find it readily, so I’m posting it here, knowing you’ll find it anyway.
I got this in an email this morning, from the Secular Coaolition of America, and knowing you to be the one among us with the vast reservoir of knowledge concerning the brain and all things chemical regarding it, I wanted to run this past you, and see if it was anything you might have an interest in creating a blog post about – like the song says, “Nobody Does It Better” – research, that is —
I’m posting it here, rather than simply emailing it to you, in case anyone else wants to chime in with a viewpoint.
Wikipedia defines this as,
(added emnphasis, mine)
As there are similarities involved, to what we were talking about with the puppies, I thought you might have some insight you could share.
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“Neuro – this would have been more appropriately placed near your comment regarding the in utero puppies, but I couldn’t find it readily, so I’m posting it here, knowing you’ll find it anyway.”
Arch, we’ve been naughty about going OT on Violet’s post (sorry Violet).. The dialog was on Brandon’s post yesterday. I’ll send the info to you via email. 🙂
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THAT why I couldn’t find it! I get such a bad vibe everytime I go over there, I completely blanked it out. Yes, we’ve been bad, but we’re so GOOD at being bad —
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“Arch will be me on me ” —
Effing grammar Nazis, too. I’m sure he will point that error out as well. This is a dweeb who says he won’t have a WordPress blog because a commenter can’t edit his/her comments. 🙄
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His excuses for not going on WordPress are bizarre. His site is impossible to read and impossible to navigate on. He needs to step out his bubble, admit he’s wrong and just get on with it. 😀
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I agree. I get notification when there are comments on his blog. He hardly gets comments there as it is, understandingly so. (Here’s your sign) This is one of the reason why I am not into older men. They are stuck in their ways. Been there, done that. *yawns*
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Aw, you’re so cruel you little puppy dog Arch …
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Are you saying I’m cruel? Arch has a huge heart — but hides it behind an unyielding facade.
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Yes, that should have read “to your little puppy”. He’s not that old, I’m sure he’s not much over 35 … 😉
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LOL
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I get a couple of hundred hits a day – I’m quite satisfied with that. I write to inform, not to initiate a chit-chat session. You may note that of the comments I DO get, it’s obvious my readers are of the discriminating variety.
As far as age is concerned, you ain’t no spring chicken yerself, Ma!
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I wasn’t saying that your blog isn’t interesting. It just lacks the bells and whistles and community that WP has which makes it more discourse friendly.
And there is a reason why I prefer younger men for the most part. They tend to be more hip, flexible, non-dominating, and open-minded — especially certain regions of Europe.
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NOT that there’s anything wrong with that – good wine ages well. On the other hand, bad wine just turns to vinegar – you might want to think about that, your recent comments HAVE be a bit acidic —
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Whooosh.
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What part of my comment and apology did you not get, or do you just enjoy rubbing salt into the wound?
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“What part of my comment and apology did you not get, or do you just enjoy rubbing salt into the wound?”
It may sound strange, but I don’t “navigate” comments, as some apparently do books, I take them in the order in which they come into my email, and I got your apology after I had made my comments up to that point. And no, I don’t rub salt into wounds – it’s just not what I do, I only commented on your comments. Besides, YOU’re the one who commented on your spelling, not I – you assumed I was going to criticize you, whereas I had no such intention.
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You did point out that I had misspelled whittle. I believe you did so twice. Fine. Let’s move on.
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I don’t think I said you misspelled it, I believe I said you used the wrong word, but I’ve slept since then and can’t be sure, and have no intention of going back and finding it, so, moving on now —
I may have an explanation as to why my two comments wound up at the bottom, under Ruth’s, despite the fact that I clicked on “Reply” in your comment email – one of the features of the wonderfulness of WordPress, is that it stacks all of the comments in a given thread, but in order to stack, each new comment is narrower than the last – at some predetermined point, the software just decides, “that’s enough,” and starts a new thread on it’s own. I don’t know if that’s what happened, but it’s one possibility.
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“I take them in the order in which they come into my email, and I got your apology after I had made my comments up to that point.”
Gotcha. Must be a glitch in your email notification, as I made my apology at 3:37 Violet’s time, and your vinegar comment was made at 4:01 Violet’s time.
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“Gotcha. Must be a glitch in your email notification, as I made my apology at 3:37 Violet’s time, and your vinegar comment was made at 4:01 Violet’s time.”
No, no glitch – I just woke up to a ton of emails, and it took that long to get to yours – this isn’t the only site I post on, got emails from others too.
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“this isn’t the only site I post on, got emails from others too.”
I feel your pain. 😉
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“‘this isn’t the only site I post on, got emails from others too.’
I feel your pain. 😉”
More than likely, that’s THEIR pain you’re feeling.
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LOL
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Btw, Violet, have I told you lately how amazing your pictures are? ❤
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You’re doing a great job! Much better than Ark ever was! 😀
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One doesn’t “navigate” a book, one begins at the beginning and reads it through.
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Em … a website’s not a book …(?) Maybe you are as old as Victoria suggests.
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“Em … a website’s not a book …(?)”
Em … if you’ll surf around a little, you may just find that a website is whatever it’s owner wishes it to be – why I even ran across one that had pitchers of nekkid wimmin on it! Of course, I turned my eyes away!
I’m in the process of writing a book, which is going to be quite large, as it will be a critique of the entire Bible, as well as an insight into the times and events BEHIND the Bible – I put it online, 1), to share the work in progress with those interested, and 2), to be able to step back and get a better objective look at it myself.
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You really think about me a lot, don’t you? I think that’s SO sweet.
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That’s because most of the time they realize how degrading it actually is, but still see it in their Babble, so believe it to be true. Then they try to perform some mental gymnastics to not make it taste so bitter – like saying it’s mutual submission, or that it’s for the protection of the womenz(see how much the god God loves them!).
Yet again, there are some in fundamentalist camps who will proudly proclaim that women are to submit to their men. The god God said it and that settles it. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, women folk. The fact that you don’t like it was predicted way back in Genesis and only proves that you are a sinner and you should pray, pray, pray about it. Get with the program.
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Their Babble, love it!
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Well said, Ruth. It’s a major mindfuck. Are you aware of any war throughout history that has been fought by men to liberate women from slavery, femicide, female infanticide, etc. without them being viewed as resources for men?
Adam Lee, a contributing writer for Big Think, wrote:
“It is tragic, but understandable, why so many men throughout history have supported these sexist and patriarchal belief systems.
“The reality is that sincere religious beliefs and legitimate interpretations of scripture can, and very often do, cause immense evil and harm. And when a more enlightened future age arrives to tote up the harms done by religion, I am certain that the systematic oppression and denial of basic rights to one-half of the human race will rank near the top.”
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Pain killers, alcohol, and other things that are bad for you are also used as a crutch. All the “bad crutches” do as much as they can to prevent you from standing on your own two feet. The idea is forcing the thought that you need to be standing on your own rather than relying on a debilitating crutch that will hinder your successes in all other things .. sooner or later. Worse, those crutches help people to not only hinder their own lives but the lives of others. If ever a crutch needed kicking, it’s the crutch of religion.
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Good point. Perhaps she means gentle yet challenging rehabilitation is the way to go, rather than aggressive and angry removal.
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ME, me, me!!! I’m the one who kicks people´s crutches 😀
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I might have known, with your snobbery and whatnot. 😀
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If people only knew all the horrible things I’ve done 😛
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diabolicalpinkagendist 😉
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“I might have known, with your snobbery and whatnot.” Classic!!!
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Crutches are only intended to be temporary unless one is a paraplegic. Then they are considered disabled and require a wheel chair. Crutches are not intended to be used to hit others over the head with. They are not intended to be used to force everyone else to use them when they (everyone else) have perfectly healthy legs to stand on.
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Well said.
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Thanks Mak.
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I know what you mean. This metaphor can go so many ways. I think there are people who don’t have perfectly healthy legs to stand on. Traumatised lives already shaped around the magic of Christianity – a religion that gave them comfort, hope, love, structure and purpose. I know your experiences of religion in the deep south can’t be good but there are much more liberal interpretations out there that merely provide personal spiritual comfort and a (healthy?) dose of delusion.
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“Traumatised lives already shaped around the magic of Christianity – a religion that gave them comfort, hope, love, structure and purpose.”
Violet — this may be hard to believe for some of those Christians reading your blog, and my often terse comments, but I think I can speak for many, including myself, who don’t care if people believe for personal spiritual comfort. But the problem is, they (at least the two largest denominations in America) want to teach children about hell and the genocide flood; tell women they are to submit and obey their husbands; promote the great commission of crutches, and like I mentioned before, create laws requiring everyone to use crutches. Well guess what? We all don’t need crutches, nor do we want them. Keep the damn crutches to yourself. What’s so hard about that?
And here’s another thing — and it’s personal — I have experienced and know more about trauma than most professing Christians on this site.
What I’ve learn, having spent most of my life as a Christian, is that they teach you that you can’t walk without those crutches. That you will always need them — and then, with trust, you believe them, and the metaphorical muscles in your legs start to atrophy, making you weaker, and even more dependent on those crutches.
I look at it this way — if I can dare to put the crutches down in light of what I’ve been through, then I know most others can, as well. But if they don’t want to, that fine. Just don’t tell everyone that they better use the crutches or they are going to hell.
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I’m struggling to find the picture praise in that comment 😀
I guess I just know Christians I can’t imagine functioning without their beliefs. We all know how traumatic it is leaving it, getting rid of the programming, and a lot of people just don’t have the core strength to face that. Especially if they’re over 60 or 70 and have ‘given their life’ to delusion.
It’s interesting you talk about the top two denominations in the USA – which are they? I’m in a discussion (I think the one above where Cogitating Duck let loose) where there seems to be a claim that most Christians don’t hold discriminatory views about women or gay people, and don’t believe literal interpretations of Old Testament stories. Bizarre. Given that Catholicism is the biggest Christian denomination, I just don’t get that kind of claim.
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The two largest are the RCC and the Southern Baptist Convention. And you are absolutely right about gay acceptance, too, and literal interpretations in the both the OT and NT. So Christianity has over 40,000 denominations who can’t get their chit together on what is literal and what isn’t.
Also, you mentioned programming, and I think that is the biggest factor here. Children’s brainwaves are usually in the alpha/theta brainwave range (suggestible state). This is suppose to be to their benefit, survival wise, to listen and trust their primary caregivers and teachers. But religion takes advantage of this and if children are programmed by religion at specific ages, it is very difficult to prune those synapses in adulthood. VERY difficult.
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Oh Victoria! Congratulations!!!!!!!!! Ding, ding, ding, ding,ding!! You are comment 10,000 and your special prize (odd that no-one enquired) is to be my best blogging buddy for a week! Well done, and enjoy this special relationship where you are free to praise my photos to your heart’s content. (Ask Ark if you need any tips, he used be good at it)
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No freaking way! I won? Woot. And LOL
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As an aside, when I read about you closing in on 10,000 comments yesterday, I thought to myself that you should be congratulated. I’ve said it before and it’s worth saying again — your blog is one of my favorites on WP. I enjoy discourse, and your posts always encourage it.
So with that said — Congratulations!!!!!!! Well deserved.
Oh, and your pictures are always awesome! ❤
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That’s more like it! Loving my new best blogging buddy, hehe.
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LOL — I have a lifetime of Christian indoctrination. I learned well how to kiss a$$. 😀
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“I learned well how to kiss a$$. 😀”
That’s not what you told me, when you offered to kiss my “wowie” (That’s what SHE said! – your word, not mine –). You said, “I don’t kiss ass!” – no dollar signs.
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Huh? Have you been smoking crack? I said boo boo, and that sure as hell ain’t your “wowie”. I shudder to think what that is.
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Maybe he’s been hittin’ the sauce! 🍸
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No doubt. LOL He also thinks I’ve got the hots for him. I’m not into old men. 😈
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To my complete and utter amazement, you’re absolutely right – that’s once in a row!
I remembered you had made a mistake that began with “w“, and I guessed it was in the word, “owie,” which would have had to be, “wowie” – but instead, it was in the word, “whittle,” which should have been “wittle,” so you win this one. That’s what I get for being too lazy to look it up. Next time, Gadget, next time —
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LOL — yeah, when I said “whittle” I was talking baby talk to you in a sarcastic tone.
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Well, yes, I got that, but it should have been, “wittle,” rather than, “whittle,” (meaning to peal layers off of wood), and with the passage of time, I misconstrued that in my memory to have been, “wowie,” for baby-talk, “owie.” Or did you get that all along, and just wanted to hear me repeat that I’d made a mistake?
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http://www.stevemullis.net/2005/08/05/awwww-dont-cry-whittle-bobbie/
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Congratulations, you’ve just established that even baby-talk has regional dialects. Evolution rules!
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Whittle, whittle, whittle, whittle, whittle, whittle.
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You seem to be whittling away at your own argument.
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Fascinating! You’ve managed to locate two other people who made the same grammatical error that you did! Congratulations are definitely in order! I can certainly see why you won VW’s best-buddy award.
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Thank goodness the world isn’t full of perfect whittle assholes like you.
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Wow, sounds like SOMEbody woke up on the wrong side of the floor this morning! Good morning to you too! What was it Thumper’s mother said to him? Oh yes, “If ya can’t say sumpin’ nice about somebody, don’t say ANYthing at all –“
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You need to practice your own advice, boo boo.
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“You need to practice your own advice, boo boo.”
Would you please show me a single instance in which I was nasty to you? I even apologized, the one time I wasn’t entirely correct!
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Again, what part of my apology did you not get?
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[I feel like I should jump in to say you’re both reading each others’ comments out of synch …]
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He told me a while back, in email, that he rarely, if ever misses an email notification. So he should have gotten that apology long before his vinegar comment. But after your comment, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he missed that one.
Hmmm, wait — I just got another notification via email where he quoted me under Claire’s comment. If he meant it — how disappointing. We’ve already had this conversation via email a while back and he said he didn’t take offense to me giving him a hard time. He dishes it out himself, and not just with me. Most of the time I was jesting, and he knew it — said he wouldn’t want it any other way. Is he double-minded?
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““Hmmm, wait — I just got another notification via email where he quoted me under Claire’s comment. If he meant it — how disappointing. We’ve already had this conversation via email a while back and he said he didn’t take offense to me giving him a hard time. He dishes it out himself, and not just with me. Most of the time I was jesting, and he knew it — said he wouldn’t want it any other way. Is he double-minded?”
Yes, I saw that too, and wondered WTF? but just chalked it up to one of the many wonders in the Wonderful World of WordPress, but now, here’s another one as well – I SWEAR I’m doing the same thing each time, but not always getting the same result.
And no, you’re not offending me, we’re just having fun – us archeopterexeses have thick, leathery skin, and can take anything you can dish out.
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Good, glad we cleared that up, and you’re not the first to experience glitches on WP. For some reason it happens more on Violet’s blog than any other blog I’ve been on. Perhaps it’s her template. Dunno.
But I do wished I had of been fully convinced that I hadn’t offended you, otherwise I wouldn’t have shared so effing personally about my childhood.
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“But I do wished I had of been fully convinced that I hadn’t offended you, otherwise I wouldn’t have shared so effing personally about my childhood.”
Well, if it bothers you that you did, then I’m sorry that you felt the need, but I suspect the time-stamps would have told the story. On the other hand, I’m sure I’m safe in saying that no one here is going to think any less of you for revealing that little bit – if anything, it just goes to show how much more you’ve managed to over come than anyone realized.
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Thank you Arch. ‘Twas a huge leap of faith for me to start blogging much less commenting without an edit option. But I have seen huge progress, even though my brain and fingers still have communication issues from time to time. Thank Google for Google AND spell check. 😉
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So that’s it? Storm’s over and we’re good now? I’ll wait a couple of days to let the fresh wounds scab over, then I’ll harass you again, so you won’t feel neglected – that’s just the kinda guy I am —
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LOL Arch — I’m a rather fast healer. The scab already fell off. 😛
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Good to know. 🙂
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Wait — that should be “honey boo boo”.
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Whittle as in little. There was no mistake. =P
Lazy, or hitting the sauce like Ruth mention?
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When are you awarding presents next? I want to be best blogging buddy again. I even forgot when I received this award.
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Don’t worry, I’ll give you a special tip-off next time there’s an award up for grabs. 😉
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I will be looking forward to this.
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So, I take it no new car or a trip to Bermuda –?
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Considering the overuse of the word, “epistemic,” I’d say someone just got themselves a learn-a-word-a-day app – use it three times, and it’s yours, just one more to go —
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Do you know where I can find this app? It would do me some good.
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I’m not sure they have one in Luo —
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English will do. I hear there was a congressman in the US of A who said if English was fine for Jesus it is fine with him. Send me the English app 😛
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“I hear there was a congressman in the US of A who said if English was fine for Jesus it is fine with him.”
Funny and sad at the same time – funny, if a joke, but sad, because it’s more than likely true.
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I think I found the reference here
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Since WHEN did Americans speak English for Christ’s sake?
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Maybe when they were still under the queen?
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Lol….
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Having seen pictures of the Queen, I can certainly understand why we got out from under her as quickly as we did.
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Are you saying she is such that there is no story to write home about
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Hey, I resemble that remark!
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Sorry, Y’all! 😉
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Smartass.
For the record, I don’t say y’all. 😛
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“‘Well, God bless Uhmerica. fer that..y’all” 😉
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and praise Jebus. 😉
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Hey, y’all stop runnin’ down us ‘Mericans, by god! It’s downright insultin’!
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That’s right, Ruth. And if they don’t behave, we will flex our righteous military power and crush them into fine powder.
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Careful there, we might hafta use our nucular powers. 😉
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*flexes*
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“Hey, I resemble that remark!”
I am SO sorry, Ruth – when you made that comment, much earlier, you had no way of knowing (nor did I), that it would be just the (bad) luck of the draw, that it would follow on the heels of my own, later comment, making it seem as though your comment was in relation to mine about the Queen!
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Just for clarification: I resemble the Queen in no way whatsoever.
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🙂
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That IS funny! I sent it along to my (sadly) Christian daughter, the white sheep of the family.
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Haha, I wonder where he got the “commensurable critical framework” from. Oh, I just googled it, and it only exists on my blog!! I should do a post on it – all rights to Duck for coining a catchy new phrase.
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arch and pink have me crying with laughter!
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Then my work here is done.
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“A reading that doesn’t even aim to have clear definitions of God, moral culpability, monstrosity, and historical context is on epistemic par with fundamentalist, literal, “plain meaning” interpretations.”
No plain meanings, then. Only tortured ones from now on.
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It’s rather handy. Anything that doesn’t sound useful in a ‘plain meaning’ has been worked over by theologians for thousands of years so that there’s always a palatable interpretation to hand.
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I am with Duck at least to the point of saying that reading the Bible to find it monstrous or silly will get less out of it than reading it to find what is valuable in it. My example is Psalm 137: for me, it shows God with the Jews in the extremity of their rage and despair, which makes my own rage and despair acceptable. It’s horrible! you say. Well, s’pose- but I still find it valuable.
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It’s an interesting collection of stories, no doubt, and with some useful ponders. I shouldn’t write it off as useless. I just don’t think it has the value ascribed to it by most Christians, and it definitely doesn’t describe what they want it to.
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Duck would just have written, if you don’t read it as I do, you are doing it wrong and it would have been to understand. Now one things he is writing something very well thought out and serious.
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“if you don’t read it as I do, you are doing it wrong” aka the global Christian mantra 😀
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Can you develop one for atheists? It would be nice to have such a mantra for uncomfortable questions
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If you think invisible deities exist you’re most probably wrong – ?
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Good try but this doesn’t come out as well as their you are reading it wrong.
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Epistemic reliability? Beautiful combination of words! I remember when someone told me the “average person reading” of Genesis means that evolution cannot be true. . . I guess Cogitating Duck remembers something like this too. 🙂
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Yes, he coins some stunning phrases in that little comment. Gives us all, and the thesaurus, something to aspire to. 🙂
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Once one peers beyond the ornamentation, behind which he pretentiously obfuscates his thoughts, does he SAY anything of value?
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Oh, absolutely not. Makagutu summed up the three glorious paragraphs with the traditional Christian mantra: “if you don’t read it as I do, you are doing it wrong”
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But what does it mean?
I’ll stick to pigeons and doves, ta very much.
Your manky pigeon isn’t too bad! Wotcha worried about?
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What does what mean? I hope Insanity’s comment struck a chord with you. 🙂
I wasn’t worried about my manky pigeon, just thought it was sad competition for a sunbird …
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But it is a very good shot…and that’s what counts.
Chord? Yeah right. She still hasn’t replied to my last question. lol…..
Some of these people should have electric shock therapy…they are that crazy, and they walk among us.
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Thanks! But Victoria’s my new best blogging buddy for this week and nothing you say can change that. She won my 10,000th comment prize. I bet she’s chuffed to bits.
We’re all crazy but no-one needs electric shock therapy …
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Okay…don’t panic. Maybe just a box of Swan Vestas?
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Or a conversation with you?
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There is that, yes…. The Ark…The Atheist Inquisitor….
cue scary music.
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“Some of these people should have electric shock therapy…they are that crazy, and they walk among us.”
There was a time when I would have agreed with a lot of what insanitybytes says. Thankfully it didn’t take electric shock therapy to bring me into reality. It’s the oddest thing, though. Now I have this picture in my head of all these fundamentalists walking around with shock collars on. lol
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Yes, it is difficult for me to actually image someone such as yourself or Victoria being a strident god -botherer, proselytizing to all and sundry.
Tell, me, honesty, were you truly ever like Brandon, or Fide Debilis in the sense that you would openly engage non believers and either fear for their soul or berate them for not believing?
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Oh, Ark…you have no idea.
When I was a TrueBeliever I emailed back and forth in debate with none other than Ed Buckner. At the time he was the president of American Atheists. I threw everything in The Book at him up to and including fear-mongering of hell.
After my deconversion I looked him up on facebook and apologized. He was quite gracious to accept.
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“When I was a TrueBeliever I emailed back and forth in debate with none other than Ed Buckner.” You should do a post on that, sounds great! 🙂 I only ever got as far as disrupting our Physics classes at school by trying to point out to our atheist Physics teacher that if he thought this was all there was to life, why was doing a job he clearly hated. Unfortunately my point still stands …
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“I only ever got as far as disrupting our Physics classes at school by trying to point out to our atheist Physics teacher that if he thought this was all there was to life, why was doing a job he clearly hated. Unfortunately my point still stands …”
Perhaps he rather liked eating? So weighed disdain for his job to the benefits doing it provided? 😉
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I so wish I had saved the emails. My memory of the details is a bit fuzzy, but we had several exchanges.
I did, however, save the apology message I sent him. Perhaps I’ll post it.
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Oh, and to answer your question: No, I never berated anyone for not believing but I did worry about their souls; not just people I knew, but everyone’s soul who didn’t believe.
That is what belief in eternal damnation does to people.
Did my answer surprise you? Or just make you walk away murmuring bad words under your breath?
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“Yes, it is difficult for me to actually image someone such as yourself or Victoria being a strident god -botherer, proselytizing to all and sundry. Tell, me, honesty, were you truly ever like Brandon, or Fide Debilis in the sense that you would openly engage non believers and either fear for their soul or berate them for not believing?”
Ark, the only unbeliever (that I was aware of) I met was my late husband (initially), and he was agnostic until he sustained a brain injury and started having non-convulsive seizures in the form of religious experiences. Then he became hyper-religious and started reading the bible all the time. When I met my husband, I believed in god, but no way did I proselytize. I didn’t go to church either, and had long left the Catholic church. I had a quiet faith. However, when my husband became hyper-religious, he started the biblical programming process on me. Then, after his death, the fundies further programmed me when I was the most vulnerable.
But regarding your second sentence, I don’t recall having god discussions with people until, as I said, my late husband became hyper-religious. But the evangelical churches I got involved in after his death taught me to fear unbelievers. When I first started engaging with unbelievers online, I was stunned that they were caring, empathic and civilized. That just goes to show you how powerful indoctrination is.
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” But the evangelical churches I got involved in after his death taught me to fear unbelievers. When I first started engaging with unbelievers online, I was stunned that they were caring, empathic and civilized.”
I’ll agree with that, Victoria. I didn’t wholesale proselytize. I didn’t go around waving the Bible around or really even engage in religious debate online with people. I’m not even sure what made me think I could match wits with Ed Buckner. When our conversations were finished I felt…inadequate. If I had to mark the beginning of the end I would say that was it. Though it took me a probably three years or so to give voice to any of the seeds of doubt that were planted.
I wish I had saved those emails. One thing he said to me, which I’ll never forget, is that “Fear does not generate love and fear is never a good reason to commit oneself to a belief in something.”
What I didn’t get then, and fundamentalists still don’t get, is that atheists don’t believe hell exists. It’s hard instill fear into someone who has researched and has valid reasons to disbelieve.
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“Fear does not generate love and fear is never a good reason to commit oneself to a belief in something.”
Bingo. We have proof of this now via neuroscience — brain imaging. Even the bible says that love can’t be perfected in fear, yet for all the years I was involved in church as a devout Christian — fear of the “other” was instilled in me. Fear of “stumbling” and disobeying god, and fear of missing the rapture, and fear of angering the god God, and fear of not knowing my heart (only the god God does), and fear of hell — and fear of my loved ones going to hell — were mainstays.
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“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
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Murmer, murmer Fst%^&@#…
sorry, Ruth…what was the question? 😉
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Heh!
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This may entertain y’all:
At one point he says “This may sound strange”.
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As much as it pains me to say this Clare, he appears to be right – obviously HE is brain-dead, yet he seems to still be functioning.
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That was great! I was torn between being totally convinced by it and thinking it was a Brasseye special.
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The first video on the site was about how God does not object to gays, and I thought, well, hooray. But that was immediately followed by this one. Win some lose some, I suppose.
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Did it have cool drawings along the lines of the soul floating out bodies? I might have a look. 😀
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The cool drawings were of LOVE expanding. Well, yes.
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“My apologies if I offended you.”
Which time?
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I have just seen this. Does the person who gets an organ transplant have two souls? Can the souls fight each other?
Is this person serious or is this an April’s fool joke come a bit late?
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Here’s another one for you, Mak – in an article I believe Neuro steered me to not long ago, there was a man who, for reasons I don’t recall, had had the connections between the left and right hemispheres of his brain totally severed. Using questions specifically geared to the left or right side of the brain, the left side proclaimed a belief in god, while the right maintained it was an atheist. Go figure —
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I saw that post on her blog. The million dollar question was if one side goes to bell and another heaven?
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“Again, what part of my apology did you not get?”
Is there any magical WordPress way to just put ditto marks under my last comment? I REALLY don’t want to go through all of that again —
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Love the pigeon shot Violet! You really captured its beauty and those beautiful shiny colours!
As far as the comments are concerned, I think I’ll just keep quiet. 😆
Have a fun day! 😀 ♥ Hugs ♥
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Thank you Sonel! You’re much better at picture praise than Ark ever was. Hope you’re having a good day too. 🐻
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LOL! Thanks Violet and don’t worry about Ark. He’s just out of focus a bit. 😛
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“I match your mangled pigeon and raise you two slightly out of focus doves.”
That’s my favorite.
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Obviously. The man’s a deity, he’s good with words. 🙂
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