Go to Religion in the Modern World
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Kabu - Yes most of them do calm down after awhile, there is almost a
recognizeable shelf life.
Many fall off of the rails after awhile. Thank you for stopping in to read, I have put you in my "Little Furry Bloggers" link rotator script in the left hand column of this blog. Phantom clicks are clicks nonetheless.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 10:24 PM
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Talion - it is a natural thing to seek the company of like minded people
It is part of human nature and universally true. Many of our discriminitive qualifiers for determining who we do associate with are subliminal or subconscious in nature. We also have some obvious qualifiers, like I wouldn't want to hang out with Pat Robertson for example. . . BTW I put your name in my little furry bloggers script rotator correcting a longstanding oversight.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 10:10 PM
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gomedome you always have interesting things to say and I enjoy reading you
Don't be too hard on people who have a personal relationship with God. They do very often calm down from that high point of fevour. How boring is anyone who has just fallen in love!I do hear you though. So often being preached at over and over just makes a person sick and I never ever discuss politics or religion myself. Still even if I don't leave a comment I stop by to read what you have to say so good for you.
posted by
Kabu
on May 15, 2007 at 8:08 PM
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gomedome
You know, now that I think about it, when I get together with my friends, rest assured we all have cigarettes in one hand and cocktails in the other, playing darts in a bar or poker or something at our homes. Seldom, if ever, is the preachy crowd represented. I guess it's a matter of like-minded individuals being drawn to each other, cases of water seeking its own level.
posted by
Talion
on May 15, 2007 at 3:22 PM
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Talion - I can say the same, I have a number of friends where religion and
discussing such things just isn't done and for whatever reasons.
It is fair to say however that our personal qualifiers pertaining to whom we associate with has something to do with this reality. I don't last long in the company of the hallelujah crowd, usually finding the nearest exit. They wouldn't be my friends if they wanted to talk religion all of the time.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 3:16 PM
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gomedome
I have good friends who have no idea how I feel about religion/God and I haven't a clue how they feel. No, we haven't made some pact never to discuss such things. The religion subject simply never comes up. We have hundreds of things we'd rather talk about, even retelling the same old stories over and over, other than religion, God, and who's soul is going where after we die. In my experience, those who've mentioned the most about God actually knew me the least. For me, religion is an intensely private matter, second only to the intimate details of my relationship with my wife. It's definitely nothing to be ashamed of, but simply no one else's business.
posted by
Talion
on May 15, 2007 at 3:07 PM
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sannhet - I can vouch for that, if not for extreme patience and tolerance I
would have been jailed for assault years ago myself.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 2:54 PM
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strat - that's how I feel about it, we have all run into the talking heads
Or those who can spew the right words on demand but it has been my experience that there is a much smaller percentage of people that actually get the point of their own religious message. I agree, the ideal is impossible to attain but any effort undertaken to emulate this ideal makes the world a better place.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 2:48 PM
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Tonyzonit - the word "God" evolved just as the construct itself did.
The English word "God" originated from an old Anglo-Saxon word which itself was derived from the Germanic word "Gott" which was used originally to refer to any being superior to man and not necessarily the supreme creator being we now know as God. In English language translations of the bible, the word "God" is used as a translation for a number of different divine names, which are all thought to be referring to the concept of the singular supreme creator being. It could be argued that the concept of one single supreme entity began taking shape with each subsequent translation of the bible. This position has credence primarly on two fronts. Ancient man has left us enough of a chronicle to show us that most cultures believed in multiple dieties.
The second and most telling is in the translation from Hebrew of the old testament and specifically the word "Elohim", pronounced "el-oh-heem". It is the most frequently recorded name for God, appearing more than 2,500 times in the old testament. It is actually a word which is plural and was altered to singular with the translation from Hebrew. Thus laying the groundwork for the evolution of the concept of one supreme being.
posted by
gomedome
on May 15, 2007 at 2:42 PM
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Gome -
Tolerance is great. But I would think that patience is even more important. I know watching my non-believing friends deal with some of the, shall we say passionate, believers in our area, I am constantly amazed that they haven't killed any of them yet, the way my friends are treated.
posted by
sannhet
on May 15, 2007 at 2:07 PM
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That's exactly it: Show me; don't tell me.
Let me run across you, just by chance, bringing blankets to some homeless guy in the park because you care if he freezes to death that night. Let me do work for you and know I won't get screwed out of anything.
It's all about the example. We're all going to fail the idea -- it's unrealistic to think otherwise, but the striving -- without the megaphones and trumpets -- is where the meaning becomes real, at leaet to me.
posted by
strat
on May 15, 2007 at 12:17 PM
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Who came up with the name, God?
It's as inventive as calling the sun the sun, the moon the moon, etc. In the Bible, God actually has a name of sorts - Yahweh / Jehovah etc. We should have kept that appellation, in my opinion - after all, we are talking about the same being, are we not? The Muslims came up with a good name - Allah. God is what he is, not his name.
posted by
Antonionioni
on May 15, 2007 at 11:38 AM
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