therin's story made me 
[OT] I'm supposed to pray for Patrick Stewart?
- Thread starter ronny
- Start date
A Monty Python skit waiting to happen.Peasant: "Sir Knight, Sir Knight--please sir, the trolls are attacking the village."
John Cleese: "Trolls? No, no--we're up to 'O'. Yes, we're looking to fight ogres."
"But... our homes are being burned and our women interfered with..."
"Yes, but by trolls. That starts with the letter 'T'. It makes a t-uh sound, you see."
"Couldn't you just... fight the trolls today and go back to the ogres on the morrow?"
"Absolutely not! You want us to go out of order? Have you any idea the sheer logistical difficulties of ridding of medieval landscape of evil? Do you? Hmm? We can't go about fighting evil all hiddley-piddley. The minute we have our backed turned fighting trolls, the basilisks are running amok! Is that what you want?"
"Well... no..."
"Then kindly let us go about our way unless you're being attacked by ogres. Or any other beastie starting with the letter 'O'; we're not inflexible, after all."
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
(Although they lost a little bit of my respect when they wrote a gushingly positive review of Nemesis.)
Doesn't that constitute heresy?
Prayer can be a great thing, and as a Christian I believe in it and think it's a kind and beneficial thing to do for someone--BUT...
I don't care for it when people use stuff like "I'll pray for you" in a snide manner, or using it as an excuse to trash-talk. That I find to be quite a misuse of what's supposed to be a power for good. My rule of thumb is that if you're doing something snidely, or in a way that you know hurts others, then there's something wrong with the way you're going about it.
That sounds like a reasonable question, except that it's like asking how could someone who believes the Earth is flat not try to prevent people from taking around-the-world sea voyages.
I'll be praying for anyone who thinks they know what happens to human "souls" after we die.
^ The real problem, even beyond questions of belief, is that it claims to want to help people who are/will be suffering while simultaneously offering unconditional support for the entity responsible for said suffering. It's sort of like bemoaning the victims of a dictatorship while offering full support for the Dear Leader in question, blaming the victims for their own ill treatment instead; there's a central hypocrisy that renders any moral claims unsustainable.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Found it! It was in mine.
In Christian theology, God is not the one responsible for a person ending up in hell. His will is that all men should be saved, but some turn away from him by their own free will. Since you obviously don't share the Christian belief in hell, it really makes no sense for you to incorrectly explain our beliefs and then criticize your own interpretation.
Yes, He is, because He is the entity who chose to create a Hell to which to condemn people who do not live up to the moral code He made up.
^ Hell, it's not even about the moral code. Immoral individuals who are 'saved' are admitted into Heaven, while moral individuals who are not 'saved' still take the express elevator down; all other temporal dictums are overriden by the big spiritual one. The only thing that matters is whether or not you sign the loyalty oath.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
People seem to want two things where this "God's omnipotent/It's not his fault" theology is concerned:
1) They want it accurately described and understood;
2) They want it to be viewed with respect.
They can't really have both.
Okay, I don't expect this thread to remain open much longer...
Wrong.
Wrong again.
For the record, I don't mind off topic thread here, I don't mind discussions of religion in Lit, but please keep it civil, otherwise this thread will be shut down very fast, and we will issue warnings.
Bit disappointed at how many Trek fans see it as reasonable to completely mock a theology, yet then go on about how great a programme that promotes respect for all opinions, beliefs, cultures etc.
Guess that's what I get for living in the 21st century!
Guess that's what I get for living in the 21st century!
Okay, I'm wrong about the imminent shutdown of this topic, which surprises me, because there's no TrekLit angle. This is a multi-forum bbs, so there's always an appropriate place to post stuff that's OT here.
I'm not wrong about seeing some other moderators get extremely touchy about the subject matter and shut down threads prematurely elsewhere on TrekBBS. I've seen it happen more than once.
It's not about "mocking a theology." I have plenty of respect for Christians who are sincere in their beliefs. But using Christianity -- or any other belief system -- as an excuse to judge and condemn others for being different in their beliefs is definitely worthy of criticism. It's a hypocritical abuse of what Christianity is supposed to be about.
I don't mock a theology, I mock a hypocritical excuse to set one's self and one's preferred individuals up as the moral arbiters of the universe when the entire point of Jesus's message was, as the saying goes, "To try to fix yourself and help others, not to try to fix others and help yourself."
Ah, that makes more sense. As a Christian myself, I heartily agree with you.