Saliph banned for posts in this thread? 
Religion, what's the point?
- Thread starter TheRedFlag
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran are here to talk about a frustrating 2 points dropped at Crystal Palace. They then discuss the regeneration of Old Trafford. Finally, Nik is joined by special guest Michael Statham from the Football Oranje podcast - who gives us a more in depth look at our EL opposition FC Twente, and then runs through the (many) Dutch connections currently at United.
Saliph banned for posts in this thread?
No, he was banned for a variety of reasons, mainly dealing to things outside this thread.
which translates as "There is nothing permanent except change.Everything flows and nothing stays.A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one."
Deep Raoul, deep!
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/...-state-dispute-over-public-prayers/?hpt=hp_t3
Yippee a case from my town made it to the Supreme Court!
A bit of a silly case really. Silly of the town to have prayer to open up the meetings (especially since they mostly chose mostly from Christian clergy) and silly of the two plaintiffs to get so upset by it in my opinion. They felt "margainalized"? Really? Too fecking bad.
This is what happens in the US when two groups of idiots don't realize they are both being idiots, you get a Supreme Court Case.
Again I think the town should not be having prayer open the meetings but on the other hand there is no need to make a court case out of it either. In my opinion of course, others will see it differently and that is great.
Yippee a case from my town made it to the Supreme Court!
A bit of a silly case really. Silly of the town to have prayer to open up the meetings (especially since they mostly chose mostly from Christian clergy) and silly of the two plaintiffs to get so upset by it in my opinion. They felt "margainalized"? Really? Too fecking bad.
This is what happens in the US when two groups of idiots don't realize they are both being idiots, you get a Supreme Court Case.
Again I think the town should not be having prayer open the meetings but on the other hand there is no need to make a court case out of it either. In my opinion of course, others will see it differently and that is great.
Having relocated to the States some 10 years ago, it still surprises me how religious this country is. Nearly everyone I work with is openly religious. Total contrast to living in England, where none of my friends were religious. It doesn't really bother me either way, except when they make obviously stupid choices due to their beliefs and they are people I care about. There's one woman at work who has 3 kids and is really, really struggling to make ends meet; but she and her husband don't use contraception due to their beliefs. Of course she got pregnant with her fourth child, wouldn't even hear the word abortion and is now working a second part time job on top of her full time job with us. She can't even afford basic things for her kids. What a mess.
Last year, I confided in a close friend at work about some of the stresses I had been going through with my divorce etc, and all she kept telling me was to "let Jesus into my heart" and my troubles would go away. That really pissed me off because she knows I'm atheist and she just kept going back to that. Made me wish I hadn't even bothered talking to her about it.
But on the whole if people keep their beliefs to themselves, it's all good.
Last year, I confided in a close friend at work about some of the stresses I had been going through with my divorce etc, and all she kept telling me was to "let Jesus into my heart" and my troubles would go away. That really pissed me off because she knows I'm atheist and she just kept going back to that. Made me wish I hadn't even bothered talking to her about it.
But on the whole if people keep their beliefs to themselves, it's all good.
Yeah they take their religion way too seriously. I'm from a pretty religious country (India) personally but people there though outwardly religious took most things with a "pinch of salt", "subject to interpretation", "surely god will understand" attitude. Americans have a lot in common with the Middle-East in how literally they take their religion.
Typical American mentality to be honest. Religion is a crutch for the majority. I've witnessed this since my childhood days in Texas, being raised Baptist and believing all that nonsense.
I went to America last year (Washington) and got talking to some randomer on the tube (they just start yapping to you over there) he was telling me that a portion of his income goes directly to the church, sort of direct debit style. Apparently that type of thing is common place across the states, that's just mental.
Happens in Germany too.
Tithing, the greatest con the church ever put on the people.
In medieval England it was not uncommon for people to leave the Church all their possessions as a way of safeguarding their passage into heaven. This is why the Hell myth was pushed so hard, and so graphically. It was a similar story all over the world, of course, especially where the Catholic Church was concerned. Even today it's not uncommon for impoverished people in less developed regions of the world to leave large portions of what little they do have to the Vatican, which is absolutely disgusting. It's the very reason the Hell myth was so aggressively perpetuated, and still is to this day.
It's organised Christianity's cash cow. The greatest tool of extortion in history.
Yep it's always peddled to us that it is the Eastern religions that are the religious nutters but from my time in America I would say yanks are just as fanatical albeit in a different way. There was a church in or around Washington that you could probably see from space, huge building, no expense spared, it really was an immense sight. From memory it was a church of the mormons and would likely have cost millions to construct.
Why ?
Why ?
IIRC, Mormons give more money to their church than any other major religious group. The tithe (10% of all income) is a requirement.
I'm getting rather irritated bu the 'Pray for x' phenomenon on Twitter. At the moment 'PrayForThePhillipines' is trending as a cyclone Haiyan hits. Yeah God, please protect the people from the big feck off storm you've just sent. If 10,000 people die horrible deaths and one baby survives through all the odds, I'm sure you'll be thanked and praised for your miracle of saving him from the storm....which you could have prevented in the first place.
God created a natural world, and extremes like this are part of the way that nature operates. It's completely understandable that people see a contradiction, but I don't see one - God doesn't intervene in natural phenomena like extremes of weather or seismic activity. Hence praying for people who might be affected by natural disasters makes a lot of sense to me.
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
You can't smell your own shit on your knees
Marilyn Manson, 'Beautiful People'
It's the same in the south. There are two mega churches in the Warner Robins, GA, area where I reside (home to Robins AFB). They are constantly reconstructing to be bigger than the other. Both are Baptist churches.
If he's not going to interfere to help in natural disasters, he shouldn't be interfering at all really. He's obviously a pretty capricious guy but even for him, it strikes as particularly vindictive to only intervene for those who've been prayed for when none of the victims are at fault.
But if he's not going to intervene, why pray for them at all?
God seems like a really shit person.
The power of prayer should never be underestimated, in my personal opinion.
I do agree that prayer has considerable power for the person praying as long as they don't take it too literally. I think we just disagree on whether it has any effect otherwise.
I once prayed to a plastic pink flamingo in my neighbor's yard. The prayer was answered. Does this prove the plastic pink flamingo is a god? Or was it sheer chance the prayer was answered?
What did you pray for ?
It's more likely that the two angels that were assigned to you overheard the prayer and thought they'd feck with your head a bit.
It absolutely should. In fact, its power should never be estimated at anything beyond the value of nil. In terms of a direct outcome related to what you are praying for, that is. Of course prayer might personally benefit the person doing the praying because it might give him comfort, and it may even have a positive effect on the person being prayed for in the sense that they might derive comfort from knowing that somebody is praying for them. But somebody praying to their god to keep somebody safe in a storm is totally pointless and nonsensical when it comes to actually keeping them safe. It's a superstition.
If God doesn't intervene, as Nimic asked, what is there to be prayed for?
You seem to be suggesting that God doesn't intervene to stop the natural phenomena that he has created, but that he might intervene in the results/the aftermath of such natural phenomena. But isn't the aftermath part of his natural world, which he apparently doesn't intervene in?
Rednev can we take it your a stout atheist ?
I think he believes in the possibility of Guinness.
Mild reference there.
Despite what he's said, I'm not bitter.
No, is the short answer to your question about the aftermath. The aftermath is how people affected by a disaster are cared for and how other people respond to the suffering of their fellow man. All those things are in the power of men and women, one way or another.
So disaster relief is in the power of men and women, but disaster prevention isn't? As if that wasn't bad enough, God then makes the decision to dispense help and miracles essentially on the basis of popularity. If you have friends, and they pray for you hard enough, he just might help you. If you don't... well, tough luck.
The more I learn about God, the more I think he sounds like one of those people who keep hurting their children so they can take them to the hospital and feel good for caring for them. He's a bit of a scumbag.
It should be consistently underestimated, lest people are actually silly enough to depend on it in real life situations. http://news.sky.com/story/1111428/praying-parents-who-let-child-die-lose-appeal
Well, it's all academic for you in any event as you don't believe God exists.
I'm sorry Penna, but that's a massive cop-out. You're saying that as if those two are completely separate, but they aren't. Things like this is the very reason I don't think God exists, because it simply doesn't make any sense for an almighty, all-loving superbeing to act like such an.. iron age tribesman.
"Worship me or I won't be nice to you....nanananananah!"