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Gome - Deja Vu Part II

posted by CunningLinguist on August 11, 2006 at 4:58 AM | link to this | reply

Melody - I feel I should tell you not to bother leaving comments here

As I won't be responding. Where I have nothing against you, the last time I responded to your comments I suffered the indignity of having your partner write an insulting post about me. I have no desire to invite this scenario again.

posted by gomedome on August 10, 2006 at 8:31 PM | link to this | reply

Gome - Deja Vu

I agree with Moon

"Human nature is very self-centered. Not only do we propagate collectively our own religious beliefs, and disbelief, but we subdivide into groups until reaching our individual core. In the likes of the program, Suvivor, we battle it out until the only survivor is ME. . . i.e., our god is better than yours, followed by; our church is better than yours; our political affiliation is better than yours; our country, culture, race, gender, sexual preference; trailing it down to,  I am better than YOU. . . including but not limited to my dog is faster, bigger and prettier than yours. Well, that's supposing you and I have dogs."

OOPS, right you don't have a dog... a WABBIT!     Melody

posted by CunningLinguist on August 10, 2006 at 6:17 PM | link to this | reply

Sunnybeach7 - it is sad, extremely sad

Many of those who do promote what they feel are the examples and teachings as demonstrated for them by their saviour, are doing nothing more than proliferating the very mentality that had him crucified. The only good news is that their numbers are dwindling in conjunction with the growth of a secular humanist mind set. The rational, non religious members of our species are the only hope for our species.

posted by gomedome on August 10, 2006 at 12:19 PM | link to this | reply

It's really sad Gome

It's sad that they fight within their own religion, and with anyone outside of it.
And somehow they can say people like you are to blame for starting wars. LOL
I just don't get it.  Where does this thinking come from? Why can people not think rationally?

posted by Afzal_Sunny7 on August 10, 2006 at 11:14 AM | link to this | reply

Sunnybeach7 - you would think that the numbers would be larger

Even more startling is the fact that the "brand" of Christian that we hear so much from here on Blogit are members of a religion that has only existed in its present day version for about 350 years. Though many of its adherants are ignorant of this history.  

posted by gomedome on August 10, 2006 at 11:10 AM | link to this | reply

Oh, and also...

This is off-topic for today's post, but of general interest to you.  Last night I watched an epsiode of the documentary series "30 Days."  In this episode, an atheist lived with an evangelical Christian family for 30 days in an attempt to gain understanding of each other.  I blogged about it today on my Hollywood Trenches blog if you're interested. 

posted by TVBlogger on August 10, 2006 at 10:48 AM | link to this | reply

Gome

Thanks for these statistics.  I actually thought it was a much larger portion than this, with the way they talk.

It's really something when you break it down like that.  And a lot of them don't even have the same beliefs within their own little group.

posted by Afzal_Sunny7 on August 10, 2006 at 10:47 AM | link to this | reply

TVBlogger - that one gave me a good laugh - and ain't it the truth?

I've always gotten a chuckle at the notion of one specific religion being the one and only right one. I was brought up that way as well. Everyone else in the world, except us lucky few, were going straight to hell for not believing as we did. With this teaching there are many unhealthy messages proliferated through implied subtleties. Probably the most obvious being that those who believe in another version of God are misguided compared to us chosen folk. Inevitably this mind set leads to considering all of those outside of a specific religion as inferior. Yet, many who believe in an omnipotent creator being have no problem reconciling the incredible inconsistency of countless religions and beliefs existing in the world, with the notion that they have it right. This has always astounded me.

posted by gomedome on August 10, 2006 at 10:38 AM | link to this | reply

I saw this recently

in "The Sun" and I thought it might give you a chuckle.  It's a joke attributed to Emo Philips:
"I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off.  So I ran over and said, "Stop, don't do it!... There's so much to live for!"  He said, "Like what?"  I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?"  He said, "Religious."  I said, "Me too!  Are you a Christian or Buddhist?"  He said, "Christian."  I said, "Me too!  Are you Catholic or Protestant?"  He said, "Protestant."  I said, "Me too!  Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"  He said, "Baptist!"  I said, "Wow!  Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"  He said, "Baptist Church of God!"  I said, "Me too!  Are you original Baptist Church of God, or Reformed Baptist Church of God!"   He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of god."  I said, "Me too!  Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879 or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"  He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"  I said, "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.

posted by TVBlogger on August 10, 2006 at 10:15 AM | link to this | reply

Moon_Spirit - one thing I find really humorous about this subject is:

that while a member of a religious sect will claim vehemiently that members of other sects within the same religion are not "true whatevers"....this assertion seems to be entirely flexible in certain circumstances. Missionary work is a good example. You can hear the same people who have declared that Catholics for example, are not true Christians, all of a sudden begin counting them in when they want to make a point about the numbers of Christian missionary endeavors. Or if they want to impress you with how many newly converted Christians there are in some third world countries there are no denominational barriers. It's just too bad that they couldn't expand this selective practice a bit further. 

posted by gomedome on August 10, 2006 at 8:42 AM | link to this | reply

Gomedome, it takes a certain amount of irony to make me laugh out loud. I laugh a lot inwardly (as a friend recently observed) by audible outbursts are somewhat rare. Your post produced such an outburst. It always amuses me immensely that Christians say of each other that the other is 'not a Christian' or 'not a true Christian' or 'not going to heaven' or that, for example, that a particular sect is 'pagan' and not Christian and the list goes on and on and on......major LOLOLOLOL.......so much arrogance.....it's amazing......the Church of the Last Resort that opened its doors down the street 2 months ago is the only group of people in history to discover what God really wants and believes (as if God has a belief) and they are the only ones 'going to Heaven'......I can't stop laughing. Apparently, this is not unique to Christians, it plays out in other religions as well. I'm very closely associated with many people of many divergent religions. The Jewish people (depending on who you talk to) have widely different beliefs and heated debates about 'who is a Jew.' I've mused to Jews I know that I think it is odd that (being such a small minority) they would want to exclude members from their ranks. I know Muslim sect members who are actively persecuted by other Muslims. The same goes for Hindus. Whatever, there is no end to it. Okay, I stopped laughing. Now I'm getting really sad about the state of mankind. MoonSpirit

posted by syzygy on August 10, 2006 at 8:28 AM | link to this | reply