4th of July!

[Skylark King]

Though I'd love to see a battle royale between Jesuits and Shaolin monks!

I'd love to see them play Soccer.

[Rkolter]

Just my own .02 on the topic as a polythiest.

I've never really liked the 'under God' portion of the pledge. I've chosen not to say it, but it leaves me uncomfortable in silence while other people recite it. Not saying it is not the same as it not being there.

As for 'In God We Trust' on our currency, there is a qualitative difference - that was a statement going back into the 17th century on our coinage; IMHO it's had time to become part of our legacy as a nation. "Under God" was added during the cold war at the request of the Knights of Clumbus to deliberately poke at Communists. IMHO, it's not yet part of our legacy.

Also, to those who say 'well then give me all your money'. I reply, sure. Give me all your credit cards, bank accounts, IRAs, 401K plans, and other forms of fiscal media that do not say "In God we Trust". Fair trade.

Lastly, and it's something many people who say 'Why are these people so uppity' forget... Christianity is the majority religion in the US; it is not however, the religion of the majority of US citizens. With around 43% of the population in the different Christian faiths, that still leaves a disenfranchised 57% of the public.

Heh. Boy did I have trouble with the police when I asked if in addition to their manger and candelabra out front around Christmastime, they could add a pentagram. I was wholeheartedly denied, and almost arrested.

Religious freedom exists in the United States, so long as you don't mind being inundated with Christian teachings. Argh. End Rant.

[Fadedflame]

5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee

Translation: Honour your parents - or I'll kill you. I'll have to disagree with this though. I tend to believe respect has to be earned.

I've never agreed with the ten commandments, even when I was forced to go to church when I was little the beliefs were never mine.

However this one I disagree with the most. I should honour my mother who abused me everyday of my life until I finally ran away and built my own life at 16? The same woman who stole thousands from me that I earned by going to work and school everyday on top of the money I had to loan her to buy her a car and pay our bills with because she spent too much at the bar? Nahh I'd rather not. Any God or person who demands that I honour someone like that I'm not going to have any faith in. People have to earn their respect.

~Faded

[JPSloan]

You can't run a country by a book of religion,
not by a heap, or a lump or a smidgeon
of foolish rules of ancient date
designed to make you all feel great
while you fold, spindle and mutilate
those un-believers from a neighboring state

F. Zappa
"Dumb All Over"
C. 1980 Munchkin Music

[JPSloan]

Another item for our esteemed colleagues who feel that atheists, polytheists, and other non-Abrahamic citizens are being too "touchy" about these subjects:

http://166.70.44.66/2004/Jul/07072004/utah/181590.asp

I mean, how can anyone claiming to uphold the Constitution also endorse these views?

[BRP]

*looks at fallacious arguments and starts laughing*

...while I do believe just about everything I said, I really am just doing it for kicks. Giving a bucket of conservatism among a group of cartoonists is a lot like waving an Israeli flag at a pan-Arab convention, or burning an American flag in front of a crowd of burly men whose understanding of constitutional rights is songs they break out at war times. Minus the getting beat up part, of course.

[Psiogen]

Giving a bucket of conservatism among a group of cartoonists is a lot like waving an Israeli flag at a pan-Arab convention

Well, yeah, conservatism and creativity are pretty much opposites.

*looks at fallacious arguments and starts laughing*

You know what's gonna be reeeeally funny? When we're all dead and you're in Heaven and I'm in Hell, and you and Jesus will be sittin' back, drinkin' beer, laughing your asses off at all the poor unbelievers getting tortured forever....ah man, that's great.

[Rkolter]

Giving a bucket of conservatism among a group of cartoonists is a lot like waving an Israeli flag at a pan-Arab convention

Well, yeah, conservatism and creativity are pretty much opposites.

*looks at fallacious arguments and starts laughing*

You know what's gonna be reeeeally funny? When we're all dead and you're in Heaven and I'm in Hell, and you and Jesus will be sittin' back, drinkin' beer, laughing your asses off at all the poor unbelievers getting tortured forever....ah man, that's great.

I dunno about you, but with all the Jack Chicks going to heaven and all the lawyers going to hell, I'm shooting for limbo.

[BRP]

The Bible only mentions wine in heaven....

...so there must not be any beer! It was invented in ancient Sumeria, where the worshipped THE COOKIe GOD!!!!111oneoen

Seriously, though. Conservatism is not the opposite of creativity. Maybe you should look in a dictionary

"...and remember, kids: Creativity... is NOT creative." - A little bit of advice that got my OM team 4th place at worlds.

[Rkolter]

The Bible only mentions wine in heaven....

...so there must not be any beer! It was invented in ancient Sumeria, where the worshipped THE COOKIe GOD!!!!111oneoen

Seriously, though. Conservatism is not the opposite of creativity. Maybe you should look in a dictionary

"...and remember, kids: Creativity... is NOT creative." - A little bit of advice that got my OM team 4th place at worlds.

Beer wasn't invented in ancient Sumaria. And they didn't have a cookie god. And, not surprisingly, you aren't coming off as clever and funny.

And maybe you aught to read a dictionary yourself.

Conservatism: The disposition and tendency to preserve what is established; opposition to change; the habit of mind; or conduct, of a conservative.

Creativity: Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing.

Not exact opposites, but very similar. And in the context of this discussion, it's not wrong to suggest they are exact opposites, because of the relevant definitions being used.

Nor do I know what you mean by Creativity being not creative. Creativity is based on the root word creative, which in turn is based on the root word create. Creativity is nothing more than expressing creative tendencies.

Perhaps your advisor meant it as a play on words - as in, during a contest, creativeness (being creative) is not creative (an advancement on an existing idea).

[JPSloan]

I dunno about you, but with all the Jack Chicks going to heaven and all the lawyers going to hell, I'm shooting for limbo.

I dunno about you, but I intend to reincarnate and come back to Earth...

...where we have both wine AND beer! Woot!

And shaolin soccer.

I kid, I kid...

We're all really just having fun with this. Truth is never as exaggerated as we love to make it. One thing I'd like to stress, though, is that I in no way disdain the religion of Christianity, or Islam, or Judaism (though I consider them to be basically the same religion with major schisms). I'm all about people fully believing and practicing their beliefs.

I just would care to see more sensitivity on the parts of several of our lawmakers towards those of us who are actually being discriminated against (it's happened to two friends of mine, and my fiancee) according to their religion.

So, basically, that's it for me. Outside of that, rock rock on.

[YarpsDat]

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
This Yahweh character needs to calm down with the jealousy. And I don't really like the idea of holding grudges, especially against a person's third and fourth generation just because their ancestor broke some religious law.

I never saw that one, we have a different #2. (like, skip your #2, and then divide #10 into #9=don't desire other people's vives and #10 nor their belongings, it always seemed silly to me, but I guess the name nonalog would be even sillier.)

So anyways, this sounds like that Yahweh is realy on to defending his copyrights. And I thought a lawsuit and cease and desist is the worse thing that could happen. >_>

[JPSloan]

So anyways, this sounds like that Yahweh is realy on to defending his copyrights. And I thought a lawsuit and cease and desist is the worse thing that could happen. >_>

I guess that means Joe Smith got by on "fair use".

[Warren]

So anyways, this sounds like that Yahweh is realy on to defending his copyrights. And I thought a lawsuit and cease and desist is the worse thing that could happen. >_>

I guess that means Joe Smith got by on "fair use".

I don't know, sounds like Someone put out a hit on him.

[Fadedflame]

I dunno about you, but with all the Jack Chicks going to heaven and all the lawyers going to hell, I'm shooting for limbo.

I dunno about you, but I intend to reincarnate and come back to Earth...

...where we have both wine AND beer! Woot!

And shaolin soccer.

I'm with you on that, besides, from what I've read, researched and been told about heaven, I doubt I'd want to go there anyways. I don't trust happiness. I'd rather come back to Earth and experieince the ups and downs all over again in different ways.

I don't look down on other religions, though I may not always get along with those who practice them. I do look down on being alienated or discriminated against because of your religion. You don't have to agree with someone to respect their right to make their own decisions.

~Faded

[TheGoobla]

So anyways, this sounds like that Yahweh is realy on to defending his copyrights. And I thought a lawsuit and cease and desist is the worse thing that could happen. >_>

[McDuffies]

13. Thou shall not break the copyright law.

[Melody]

I think conservatism and creativity are indeed opposites. Not verballly, but in what they represent.

I suggest reading Gilgamesh. A certain story of the Bible took something straight out of it. So...pathetic! As I said somewhere else, those who wrote the Bible were in great need of creative writing classes.

The dumbest thing in the Bible in my opinion is the way God is portrayed. Happy one moment, violent the next. That sounds a lot like a regular human man. In my eyes, this gives away any possibility of trust in the Bible. Way to model your god after yourselves, you idiots.

[Skylark King]

I think conservatism and creativity are indeed opposites. Not verballly, but in what they represent.

I suggest reading Gilgamesh. A certain story of the Bible took something straight out of it. So...pathetic! As I said somewhere else, those who wrote the Bible were in great need of creative writing classes.

The dumbest thing in the Bible in my opinion is the way God is portrayed. Happy one moment, violent the next. That sounds a lot like a regular human man. In my eyes, this gives away any possibility of trust in the Bible. Way to model your god after yourselves, you idiots.

Actually most major cultures and religions have a flood story. Gilgamesh and the Bible aren't the only ones.

As far as God being portrayed as a person, christianity has that wonderful little argument that 'man was created in God's image.' So, obviously it's not that we made God to be like us, rather that God made us to be like him.

I qill now quote scripture

Dear God,
hope you got the letter, and...
I pray you can make it better down here.
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer
but all the people that you made in your image,
see them starving on their feet '
cause they don't get enough to eat from God,
I can't believe in you

Dear God,
sorry to disturb you, but...
I feel that I should be heard loud and clear.
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
and all the people that you made in your image,
see them fightingin the street
'cause they can't make opinions meet about God,
I can't believe in you

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make
mankind after we made you? And the devil too!

Dear God,
don't know if you noticed, but...
your name is on a lot of quotes in this book,
and us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look,
and all the people that you made in your image
still believing that junk is true.
Well I know it ain't, and so do you,
dear God,
I can't believe in
I don't believe in

I won't believe in heaven and hell.
No saints, no sinners, no devil as well.
No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
You're always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
Those lost at sea and never found,
and it's the same the whole world 'round.
The hurt I see helps to compound
that Father, Son and Holy Ghost
is just somebody's unholy hoax,
and if you're up there you'd perceive
that my heart's here uponmy sleeve.
If there's one thing I don't believe in
it's you...
Dear God.

So sayeth the Partidge...

[Melody]

As far as God being portrayed as a person, christianity has that wonderful little argument that 'man was created in God's image.' So, obviously it's not that we made God to be like us, rather that God made us to be like him.

Obviously. I mean, it is completely impossible that God would have been created in our image, even though we are the ones who wrote the religion and its book.

Gilgamesh is a lot older than the Bible, so either global flooding is extremely common, or someone needs to pull out plagiarism laws against the Bible.