This thread is such a trainwreck that it would take an act of God to fix it. The OP would've done just as well to spin the article as "The data shows that the economy has been soooo bad for sooo long that people are losing their faith in a just, loving and merciful God."
Well, for such a fundamental difference the discussion is very civil, especially compared to shedding blood over some trivial doctrinal question like whether it's okay to serve fake wine in tiny non-reusable plastic cups. I'm generally leary of atheists because while believers are all destined either for Heaven or Hell, the atheists aren't going anywhere. That means they'll be free to lay claim to all the empty churches and use them as tax shelters, or even turn them into spooky medieval themed night clubs. ETA: Oh, good news on the cat! And my new orange kitty is now best friends with the regular black kitty, which means I have to type with eight paws on me instead of four.
Thanks. I'm glad to hear your kitties are getting along. Feel free to post about them in my other thread so we don't derail this one too much more. Or find that "feline follies" thread and post pics and an update, that might be better.
I will try, but I think that frustration goes both ways. I'm no longer talking about what this group says or what that group says, but maybe it's the act of putting on labels where they don't belong. I'm guilty of this, but when I see things in the news about how the church is wrong here or how fundamentalists have taken the church to the extreme, and then I read stuff here and it feels like the only things I read about the church are negative, I just have to wonder what is really going on. As for the Misunderstanding or actual discrimination, I can't begin to fathom what that is like. I appreciate what the idea of atheism is, which is not believing in God and taking the science route, and I'm cool with that. Science is a good thing, and like I asked last night, why can't god and Science go hand in hand. I mean I do believe that someone had to start the creation of the universe, there had to be that one drop in the water to put everything in motion. I like to believe that God made that drop, gave us faith, but decided to let Science do all the rest. God is the spiritual, Science is the physical. If it goes against my religion to believe that, than so be it but that is exactly what I believe. Take this weekend for example. When I went to church, the last paragraph in the Gospel reading was about looking at things through the eyes of a child. Of course before that last paragraph is was all about marriage and divorce, but the priest wanted to focus on that last thing. The point of the homily was that sometimes we lose sight of the things going on and maybe we need to step back and look at the world through the eyes of a child. Children can be so innocent and creative that if we do that, we see things in a whole new light. Then I read the stuff happening in the news and a lot of times on here and I wonder, what am I missing. Why is the church that I go to so different that teaches forgiveness and looking at things through the eyes of children from the one that tries to force their beliefs down other people's throats and say this is wrong or that is how things should be done. I think that's why when I saw this thread title and posted what I did, I got so uptight. I know I have a tendency to put labels are groups and I repeated what I had said before despite the claims to the contrary, and dialing it back is very sound advice. I hope I don't come across as disrespectful here and if I do, then I will try to not be that way. Like I said, it might take awhile to break down some of these walls (And in my life time I have seen some of the attitudes on both sides and really do wish we could all be more tolerant) but I do think this thread has turned into a blessing (Pardon the pun ) in disguise to talk about it civilly and not in the form of a "joke" thread.
I mean that some churches do emphasize not judging etc.. and you hear that and almost no hellfire or whatever. They sound very lovely and inclusive. But actually show up with your same sex partner or any number of other things and all that goes out the window.
You're probably right, and I'll be the first to admit that the Church has so many flaws. I don't think they are evil, but I know they're not perfect. Hell, there's still the cloud of the child abuse scandal (Along with other things the church is criticized for), which almost made me stop going to church entirely. I still don't think they ever brought that to conclusion, which is disgraceful.
Speaking of child abuse scandals, earlier today I noticed a bizarre one about a BBC personality's headstone being removed, ground up, and dumped in a landfill due to outrage over recent revelations of decades of child rape. Time story from a few days ago Today's Daily Mail story It must be like finding out that Dick Clark and Mister Rogers were actually Jerry Sandusky in disguise. I've heard of statues being removed because of outrage, but grinding a headstone into little bits is a notch higher. Maybe this merits a seperate thread somewhere.
^ Clint's expression leads me to believe that he needs to get more fiber in his diet. Some folks have been known to actually pass out from the strain, fall off the toilet, and injure themselves.....
Frankly, I always found Mr. Rogers a bit creepy. He reminded me of the nice, quiet neighbor who has a dozen dismembered corpses buried in his basement.
As said earlier, I think this comes from more people being comfortable admitting that they're not religious which is a great change. It's sad how many people are atheist/agnostic and are worried about admitting it.
I found him very creepy, like he was the clerk at the Bates Motel whose severed balls were still clenched by his dead mother's corpse, hidden away in a forgotten puppet storage room.
I liked Mr. Rogers too, and didn't find him creepy. I heard he was hiding full sleeves of tattoos under those cardigans, though! Can't make any claims as to the veracity of that, but I like to think it's true.