Gemma Therese

You wrote:

<<<And you continue to slander...What is the purpose of saying this everytime you end a post other than to bother non-theists or theists of different religious belief? It proves nothing, it means nothing, it has no true purpose that I can derive. Why do you insist on placing this nonsense here? Self-righteousness and bigotry rears its ugly head once again.>>>

I still don't understand why it bothers an atheist.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese

Thor Q. Mada

Dear Gemma,

Leave you midwest town, and go travel. Go to europe, and visit all the "holy" places such as lourdes, fatima, rome, with your eyes wide open. See the deception for yourself. End the delusion, and free your mind.
As an example Gemma, herewith an article on the recent visit of god's representative on earth:
Does this not strike a little cord??
Does the medievalness of this show that the catholic church and religion is in a time warp??


Quote

Slice of old pope for new cathedral
By Rory Carroll in Rome
May 28 2002


Mutilating a corpse and discreetly packing a piece in your luggage before
boarding a plane is the sort of thing that gets people arrested.

But not if you are the Pope. Lopping off a bit of the dead Pope John XXIII
and donating it to Sofia's new cathedral was considered an honour to
Bulgaria's Catholics.

Which part was cut off is not clear, because the gift was not part of the
official programme of the Pope's four-day visit to Bulgaria, which ended on
Sunday.

John's body was embalmed hours after his death in June 1963. When it was
exhumed last year, it was found to be in almost perfect condition, a feat of
preservation hailed by some as a miracle. The relic was removed from the
corpse last July after it was put in a glass coffin and displayed in St
Peter's square to thousands of pilgrims.

Known as the Good Pope for his compassion, John is on a Vatican fast-track
to canonisation, after which he will be known as St John.

Probably the most popular pope of modern times, he is revered in Bulgaria
because he served there as a priest from 1929 to 1934 and fell in love with
the people and country.

Sofia's new cathedral was built to replace one destroyed by bombing in 1944.
According to the Rome daily, La Repubblica, the relic, wrapped in a medieval
cloth, will be kept in the cathedral as an object of veneration.

The cathedral authorities were expecting a relic in order to make a shrine,
but had no inkling they would receive such a spectacular present from the
Vatican.

It has now emerged that the Pope chose to give them a relic.

It could have been any part of the body. The basilica in Padua in northern
Italy displays StAnthony's tongue, jawbone and vocal chords. Other churches
and cathedrals boast hanks of hair, bits of bone, heads, fingers and toes.

The practice has long been criticised as a medieval hangover. Pope John Paul
is a traditionalist whose reverence for relics has reinvigorated the
tradition.

The Guardian
Unquote

Samhain

Gemma:

It doesn't bother me "as an atheist" per se. It bothers me as a rationalist. Considering that most of the infidels here are rationalists in some form or another, the argument can be extendend to that area of reasoning. It has to do with unsupported assertions or assumptions. Don't make statements that you cannot logically or scientifically prove. That statement is the offspring of an unsupported (perhaps even unsupportable) assertion.

I still don't understand why you feel compelled to say it anyway? Are you so insecure in your spirituality or your relationship with your god that you must resort to trying and proving how committed you are to everyone? Are you doing things behind your god's back that you need to make up for by posting that little message at the end of every post? Remember, your god sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good...

Mageth

Maybe he gets one less minute in Purgatory for each time he says it...

Typhon

Oddly enough, perhaps (and I'm being sarcastic here, in case you don't "get it") due to lack of time, you didn't address any. Not one.

Personally I suspect that this was because you are unable. You have to prove that you are capable of actually answering hard questions, as judged from your typically evasive tactics here on the board.

Mythos:

Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. 1995.

mythos

NOUN: A body of traditional beliefs and notions accumulated about a particular subject: folklore, legend, lore, myth, mythology, tradition.

Catholic:

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

catholic church

[Gr.,=universal], the body of Christians, living and dead, considered as an organization. The word catholic was first used c.110 to describe the Church by St. Ignatius of Antioch. In speaking of the time before the Reformation in Western Europe, Catholic is technically used to mean orthodox (i.e., those who accept the tradition as mediated by the Roman Church). Today in English it usually means the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants use the word catholic in its original sense to designate the Christian Church taken as a whole

To elaborate further, myth, fable, nuttering fancies, much like Roman or Greek or Sumerian mythos. Yours is no different save that it still has a viable following.

As I was saying, Catholic mythos aside, all thinking people have great reason to fear and hold suspect the Christian god and the various sects and cults which practice such theology.

The Roman Catholic church in particular has a terrible track record of atrocities, abuse, and worldly interference in what should otherwise be, purely secular affairs.

No I said, "Well, for starters, god does not exit.

No.

I do not believe in any god or gods, period, lower case or otherwise. I certainly don't believe in any with a capital "G."

No, I did not say the Catholic church was static. Nor have I said "it has always been this way." As usual you are apallingly wrong and litter your statements with obvious and glaring errors, all the while dodging the questions posted to you originally in well intended and valid criticism of your rather breezy statements.

Why don't you get back to me on this one when the Roman Catholic church starts publishing its results in Nature or even Scientific American?

Actually, I hold my university degree in medieval history, with a Western European focus. As part and parcel, I'm quite well read in the history of the development of Western thought and religion, including that of the Roman Catholic Church and its predecessors. I attended a secular university, and have studied the Christian church, Catholic or otherwise, as an important part of Western culture and history, rather than as a theologian, true, but then I'm a secular historian so I find this perspective to be most appropriate to my studies. I have, that said, a deep and expansive understanding and background in the rise of your particular branch of Christanity, as well as a life long exposure to its particulars. I have great interest in early Christianity, with a specialty in 4th and 5th century monasticism.

I hear egg is quite good for the skin, better than cucumbers and high in protein as well, LOL.

I don't know WHEN you will ever answer one hard question rather than pretending you don't hear us. Oh wait, let me guess, never?

Why don't you return to the discussion when you're interested in defending some of these silly things you throw out there as hit-and-run statements. I'm always happy to explain and post the reasons why I'm very certain that your particular god doesn't exist, at least not in any literal, canonical way.

Cheers,

.T.

[ May 29, 2002: Message edited by: Typhon ]</p>

Liquidrage

I'm in awe of the amount of new insights about the subject of "free will" being discussed in this "free will" thread.

Maybe the title should be changed to
Dogma vs Demanding Atheists

Typhon

(Chuckles) Actually, everything you do, you may indeed do, THINKING you do it for god. Unless you know the supposed unknowable mind of your god (which you admitted you do not fully understand in an earlier post), and are incapable of sinning (if so, welcome to the halls of fast track canonization St. Gemma!), then I remain skeptical that you could possibly know, that even if your implausible god did exist, that everything you do, you do for god.

Everything I do, I do because I do,

do-wop-I-do!

.T.

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814

Vorador

EDIT: I'm an idiot and didnt realize there was any more than one page here. =P

[ May 29, 2002: Message edited by: Vorador ]</p>

Gemma Therese

Typhon,

Excuse me a second while I stop laughing and pick myself up off the floor.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese

Gemma Therese

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Typhon:
[QB]

(Chuckles) Actually, everything you do, you may indeed do, THINKING you do it for God. Unless you know the supposed unknowable mind of God (which you admitted you do not fully understand in an earlier post), and are incapable of sinning (if so, welcome to the halls of fast track canonization St. Gemma!), then I remain skeptical that you could possibly know, that even if God did exist, that everything you do, you do for God.

Typhon,

I try to go to confession weekly. I sin daily, and I have NEVER posted I am incapable of sinning.

Thanks for capitalizing God.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese