SonOfFred

I do live in the US, and I don't celebrate it, either.

gagster

Bible John,

You really ought to grow some thicker skin if you want to post here and on usenet. My messages to you have not been mean spirited in the least. You interprete disagreement as hostility and it's not. I've given you some advice. Feel free to take it or not take it.


Greg

Johnny Skeptic

A better question is, "Did the Bible writers speak for God or for themselves"?

Illandur

Where in the above did I insult Mr. Gastrich? Do you consider it an insult to compare your debating "styles"?

Also, why do you feel it necessary to quote the bible? Do you think that we are all unfamiliar with this text? Do you believe that by merely copying a few passages we will be instantly won over by your remarkable charisma and impeccable charm? If you wish to perform well in this community, you must change your style of apologetics. People with your zeal and unwaivering frankness are a dime-a-dozen on these forums. We see them come and go all the time. I, for one, always enjoy a good conversation regarding the nature/reasonableness of aspects of theology, but not many here will take you very seriously if you try to rain fire and brimstone down on every point you attempt to make.

Wayne Delia

I got that impression myself. "How dare you insult Jason Gastrich by comparing his style to mine?" Reminds me of an old episode of The Munsters:

Bully: "If that's what your father thinks, he's a bigger dope than you."
Eddie Munster: "He is NOT a bigger dope than me! NOBODY'S a bigger dope than me!"

Surprisingly (or not), many wanna-be apologists or self-styled "Bible teachers" were won over by someone else's charisma and charm, and employ the "Greater Fool" economic principle (briefly, a person is foolish enough to buy a product for $X on the assumption that there's a "greater fool" willing to pay more than $X when he resells it) to assume that they'll get as much or more respect and attention from others. It's a huge cognitive dissonance, though, when the result is refutation, ridicule and derision instead of respect and admiration.

Actually, I think that price has been slashed for Christmas sales. Ba-doom ching.

As well, even fewer will take a wanna-be "Bible teacher" seriously, who sets the requirement that the Bible must be assumed to be true before we investigate whether the Bible is true or false. In other words, no more of this crap about "you are blind to the truth of my side of the argument since you are unbelievers."

WMD

bobhope2112

In checking out Simpson's catalog, I see that they use a 4.3 scale. It seems odd to me, but an A carries a value of 4.0, but an A+ actually nets you a grade point of 4.3. Is that common? I don't remember an A+ being worth anything more than an A at the university I attended.

[rant]On a tangential note, I noticed something odd about my nephew's high school. If you look as the translation table from percentage to letter grades, they're not linearly related. The top 8 grades are some sort of A, the next 8, Bs, the next _11_ are some type of C, and the last 4, at 70% or better, are Ds. When did they start lifting the wire fence so that cadets could more easily scramble under?[/rant]

Nice Squirrel

Please don't lump us Christians together. Please, I beg you. I am on my knees. :notworthy There are some nasty people in that bunch who do very bad things.

Nice Squirrel

Yeah, why are you so nasty to us? Not one of you has offered to buy me a car! MOM!

(Remebering that Bible John said I wasn't a True Christian ® )

Johnny Skeptic

I have never been nasty to you. What I want to know is why you assume that the Bible writers were speaking for God and not for themselves regarding homosexuality, and do you have any practical arguments to make against homosexuality? How about it?

David Vestal

Mea culpa, and I apologize. I sometimes forget that the intellectually dishonest ones aren't a representative sample.