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My apology gomedome! My interpretation of your overall
message was according to your comment incorrect! Thanks for clarifying this for me! Keep writing,
faholo
posted by
faholo
on October 25, 2006 at 7:42 PM
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faholo - I am going to ask you to be fair as well - you are suggesting that
I lump all Christians together, when in fact I make a point of not doing so.
I attempt to never use sweeping generalizations, to qualify every statement with the word "some" or a similar indicator and I seldom speak in absolute terms. There is an exception in this post where I state in absolute terms: "that all religious constructs depict the non believer as a person of lesser character" . . . I can say this without using a qualifier because it is absolutely true, there are no exceptions.
posted by
gomedome
on October 24, 2006 at 8:11 PM
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Gomedome, I just want to tell you, I am a Catholic Christian
I do not condemn non-Christians, non-believers or anyone else who does not believe as I believe. I do not believe it is fair to categorize all Christians into one general group and accuse all Christians of attempting to force their beliefs upon you and others.
Some Christians do exactly as you say, I have had
some at my front door attempting to convert me to their way of believing.
Some Christians are guilty of everything you said, but please be fair only
SOME Christians do this things just the same way as
SOME non-christians and non-believers attempt to force beliefs on
SOME Christians. As to Prophets, I will writing about these old gentlemen, tomorrow! Keep Writing,
faholo
posted by
faholo
on October 24, 2006 at 7:57 PM
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SuccessWarrior - in the past, an uncanny perceptive ability was all that
was needed in accompaniment with the voices.
If you could wow them with a few parlour tricks, even better. Hypnosis worked sometimes, convince the drunken party guests that the barrel of water they are drinking from is actually wine....but you said it in an earlier comment. They are all false prophets. There is a reason why all of the prophets that are now central icons of the major religions were elevated to diety status posthumously. It took a number of years for the truth of their mortality to fade from memory and to build up the public relations momentum.
posted by
gomedome
on October 24, 2006 at 10:49 AM
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The thing is, where do you draw the line.
Asylums are full of people that hear voices in their heads. Which ones are true prophets and which ones are crazy? How do you pick? Purple smoke from a holy chimney?
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on October 24, 2006 at 10:31 AM
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SuccessWarrior - God has spoken to me
The last time it was just 2 words repeated over and over again . . . sell Enron, sell Enron, sell Enron.... okay that's not funny but think about what being a prophet in direct contact with God actually implies. People are following and putting a great deal of faith into the words of someone who hears voices in their head....
posted by
gomedome
on October 24, 2006 at 9:55 AM
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I'm being sarcastic about all of it but...
here's something that seems to get conveniently overlooked by religious folk. The guy in the article was a prophet of god. Who can say that he wasn't? He talks to god and god talks to him. He's a prophet. Fine.
But religious people will say that he's a false prophet. They will likely say that everyone on the planet except their very own leader is a false prophet. How do they know? Can't god talk to more than one person? Or maybe he's talking to none of them and they are all false prophets.
We get back to the egocentric or the hypocritical when we talk about things like this but so many people fail to see it.
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on October 24, 2006 at 9:46 AM
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SuccessWarrior - if you are referring to the guy in the link dropped by
TVBlogger . . .
I wonder why the insanity defence was not used? If you are referring to the antagonist I depict in this posting . . . same question?
posted by
gomedome
on October 24, 2006 at 9:13 AM
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Who are we to doubt god's orders?
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on October 24, 2006 at 8:40 AM
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TVBlogger - isn't that a sad story
In a free society people can be as wacky as they want with their beliefs but that story isn't just a case of one guy that heard voices in his head. His wife, son and other cult members helped him murder those people.
As for a blogger convention, . . . some folks would have trouble scheduling their day passes at the same time.
posted by
gomedome
on October 24, 2006 at 8:28 AM
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Consider yourself lucky....
...at least you didn't run into this
guy. This news story shows just how far this need to vilify unbelievers can go.
The truth is, none of us know our fellow bloggers here. Almost the entire image we have on them is our own construct woven from their words and our assumptions. I imagine almost everyone here, including me, has a false image of who you are. It would be fun to have a blogger convention and find out who the people behind the words really are. I bet we'd all be surprised.
posted by
TVBlogger
on October 24, 2006 at 8:16 AM
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