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Dark_Moon - I often wonder what people who write such posts think their
chances of having any form of success are?
At least when some chucklehead takes it upon him/herself to email the heathens on Blogit, or engage them in dialogue, they are being proactive.
posted by
gomedome
on July 10, 2008 at 11:57 AM
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...i saw a post like that very recently...not directed to me but to everyone...i was very tempted to comment..."Oh well then, I'm fucked."...but i'm not interested in debate or disputation and i knew that i would be a subject of the author's ire forever...so i let it go...it took me over 5 decades but, i finally got tired of arguing...guess i'll just coast the rest of the way down the hill...moon
posted by
magic_moon
on July 10, 2008 at 9:34 AM
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Pat_B - we have that in common in asking too many tough questions
This line cracked me up:
"(who treated her with the polite attention she reserved for disturbed and potentially dangerous individuals)"
As I mentioned in this post, I can see how people are motivated to make conversion attempts within their families or community, amongst people they genuinely care for. What I cannot fully comprehend is how some people can convince themselves their motives are genuine when dealing with strangers, especially when so many of them become offensive.
posted by
gomedome
on July 10, 2008 at 6:48 AM
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Re: One might ask,
hagi - where would you like me to begin in shooting down your comment? "One might ask" if they were intent on ignoring the fact that I have never once in my life tried to save anyone but have endured these efforts continuously from other people, especially since joining Blogit. Overtures that have come from a variety of people in the form of emails, comments and posts directed at me to conform to some stranger's beliefs. Many of these efforts have been decidedly offensive in nature almost universally under the guise of caring about my well being. The way you pose the question implies that I have made similar claims of caring for people while hiding intentions of imposing my beliefs on them. Nice try but turnabout doesn't work in this case.
As for your attempted analogy using electricity; I have seen this type of argument used many times to depict the workings of faith but have never seen such a bad example. Only the technically ignorant could possibly draw the parallel you are attempting. Where we cannot see electricity we can measure it, manipulate it and demonstrate it's existence at will. One needs only to own a multi-meter or some other similar type of measuring device to prove the following constants: X watts = X amps multiplied by X volts or: X amps = X watts divided by X volts. Electricity is also only an "unseen entity" by a stretch of the definition of this phrase and is clearly not in the same context of what I was referring to in this post.
I don't mind if you want to make attempts at challenging what I say in my posts but you simply have to do a little better than this last comment if you are intent on doing so. Also keep in mind that after nearly 5 years here on Blogit, just about every argument, catch phrase and bad analogy that someone could think of has found their way to my comments section.
posted by
gomedome
on July 10, 2008 at 6:37 AM
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I don't know why so many seem to have that missionary spirit,
and feel they have to "save" everyone. Sister Lela came by my house when I was twelve to inform my mother that I was "touched by the spirit" and destined to become a light to the heathen. As she talked to my mother (who treated her with the polite attention she reserved for disturbed and potentially dangerous individuals) she took inventory of our clean but shabby home. Satisfied that the entire stock of furniture and accessories might have cost a hundred dollars or less, Sister Lela came to the end of her spiel, thanked mother for the cup of coffee and departed. What had spurred the woman to blurt into our family was that I'd asked questions in Sunday School. I wanted some explanations of things they said that made no sense. Sister Lela apparently remembered the accounts of child Jesus asking questions, put two and two together and got it wrong. I remember being seen and not heard during her visit, but mad enough to throw a fit. I never set foot in Sister Lela's church again.
posted by
Pat_B
on July 10, 2008 at 5:16 AM
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One might ask,
why do you care so much about other people's beliefs when you don't give a flying fig about other aspects of their lives except the fact that they happen to believe in "unseen entities".
Well, this wasn't correctly put too, as you, I presume, believe in electricity although you've never seen it - you've just been told that it exists and how it works. And, I also presume, as long as it "works" you believe it exists (which is also logical) and probably you'd be willing to talk some sense in anybody who tried to postulate there's no such thing as electricity.
Before you charge, I'll make it clear that I don't believe in Christian God because Christianity "doesn't work" for me - I don't see the inner logic in this view of the world and it doesn't help me or make me happy in any way. But I believe in many things which are not necessarily "real", because frankly I don't care about whether they are real or not - as long as it works for me and helps me dealing with this life.
posted by
hagi
on July 10, 2008 at 12:35 AM
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Luz_Briar - first off welcome to Blogit
The funny part about the common assumption that a person needs some form of religious belief to be a moral person, is that morality is fortified by integrity or basic inherent honesty. An inescapable reality for those who continue to advance the notion of having faith being synonomous with being a moral person, is that the truth is something completely different.
posted by
gomedome
on July 9, 2008 at 9:38 PM
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exactly. i wish i could have put it in those terms when my mom asked me why i had "no morals"---all i told her was that i wasn't Christian. she assumed it meant i had no morality or ethics, and it wasn't fair.
posted by
Luz_Briar
on July 9, 2008 at 9:03 PM
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