What Would an Evangelical Christian Country Be Like

[sunni]

lets put the bible discussion where it belongs

Spirituality & Sexuality & Philosophy

Discuss marijuana in all forms of life, sexuality, religion, and spiritual practice.

www.rollitup.org

and goback to the politics thanks

 

[Bagginski]

The mental gymnastics required to believe that the world was populated not once but twice through incest is a leap too far for me.

God would have known that people wouldn't change and he drowned them anyway - what kind of loving god does that!

View attachment 5274866

My wife was lucky to only attend Sunday school once at a young age. She was so mortified by what they were telling her that she soiled her panties - never to attend again. I wish I'd have been taken to the library instead of church.

I was very lucky…I learned to read at three, & libraries quickly became my happy places…there was even one in the church, where I discovered Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke in addition to the juvenile SF (back when mainline Christianity was comparatively sane and normal (if fiercely racist))

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

lets put the bible discussion where it belongs

Spirituality & Sexuality & Philosophy

Discuss marijuana in all forms of life, sexuality, religion, and spiritual practice.

www.rollitup.org

and goback to the politics thanks

this is a thread about what it would be like living in a religious run country, we may not be laser focused, but it seems some discussion of religion would be required in a religious themed political thread?

 

[Bagginski]

Oops - that was for the GOOP leadership thread….

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

I was very lucky…I learned to read at three, & libraries quickly became my happy places…there was even one in the church, where I discovered Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke in addition to the juvenile SF (back when mainline Christianity was comparatively sane and normal (if fiercely racist))

i had trouble reading through first and second grade. in the summer between second and third, i discovered comic books, and wanted to know what they were saying so bad that i taught myself to read, and never looked back. from unable to read at age 7 to reading at a highschool level by age 8...thank you Batman and Ghost Rider.

 

[Bagginski]

At some point there’s gonna be a ‘come to reality’ meeting with those who’ve been led by the nose for the last 50 years. Could get messy.

 

[Bagginski]

i had trouble reading through first and second grade. in the summer between second and third, i discovered comic books, and wanted to know what they were saying so bad that i taught myself to read, and never looked back. from unable to read at age 7 to reading at a highschool level by age 8...thank you Batman and Ghost Rider.

It sounds like you took to it once you were ‘in’ - well done, you! Did your teachers brag to each other about how well they’d done ‘helping you read’? I was trotted out to perform for a visiting school-board somebody once, 7 or 8; handed me a book, serious textbook, asked me to read out loud. When I finished, they asked if I understood it & to summarize in my own words. They took the book back with an air of satisfaction, the S-BS shook hands with the principal, made congratulatory noises, he left & I went back to class.

My mother taught me to read @ 3, I was instantly voracious, reading every source of words I could find, just as I couldn’t be kept away from a piano or organ. SCHOOL had nothing to do with it, and even discouraged me from progressing at my own rate

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

It sounds like you took to it once you were ‘in’ - well done, you! Did your teachers brag to each other about how well they’d done ‘helping you read’? I was trotted out to perform for a visiting school-board somebody once, 7 or 8; handed me a book, serious textbook, asked me to read out loud. When I finished, they asked if I understood it & to summarize in my own words. They took the book back with an air of satisfaction, the S-BS shook hands with the principal, made congratulatory noises, he left & I went back to class.

My mother taught me to read @ 3, I was instantly voracious, reading every source of words I could find, just as I couldn’t be kept away from a piano or organ. SCHOOL had nothing to do with it, and even discouraged me from progressing at my own rate

My mom bought me the illustrated classic comics, knowing it would be a lot easier than trying to get me to read the actual books, but once she gave me Ivanhoe, the man in the iron mask, the three musketeers, Moby Dick, war of the worlds, and Frankenstein, i started to read those books. i think i've had a book open ever since then.

 

[cannabineer]

I was very lucky…I learned to read at three, & libraries quickly became my happy places…there was even one in the church, where I discovered Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke in addition to the juvenile SF (back when mainline Christianity was comparatively sane and normal (if fiercely racist))

Larry Niven was my gateway drug.

 

[cannabineer]

At some point there’s gonna be a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with those who’ve been led by the nose for the last 50 years. Could get messy.

fify
couldn’t resist

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

Larry Niven was my gateway drug.

i'm about to reread the ringworld series, never got around to the last book, finally saw it at the used book store, so i'm rereading the entire series before i even open the cover.

 

[cannabineer]

i'm about to reread the ringworld series, never got around to the last book, finally saw it at the used book store, so i'm rereading the entire series before i even open the cover.

I really liked the collabs with Pournelle. Footfall and the Mote duo are among the best sf I’ve read.
Have you read any Greg Bear?

 

[Bagginski]

fify
couldn’t resist

Grrr….

I love Niven, but somehow the work with Pournelle never caught with me. I read Mote in God’s Eye when it came out, and I remember it as a dreadful slog. Tried again w/ Lucifer’s Hammer (always found restart stories gripping), but I don’t remember if I finished it or not. Looking back on it, it seemed like Larry’s voice was gone, or muted. Much more fond of the Known Space tales, Protector, World of Ptaavs, Ringworld, etc.

(and of course his classic thought piece, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”j

 

[cannabineer]

Grrr….

I love Niven, but somehow the work with Pournelle never caught with me. I read Mote in God’s Eye when it came out, and I remember it as a dreadful slog. Tried again w/ Lucifer’s Hammer (always found restart stories gripping), but I don’t remember if I finished it or not. Looking back on it, it seemed like Larry’s voice was gone, or muted. Much more fond of the Known Space tales, Protector, World of Ptaavs, Ringworld, etc.

(and of course his classic thought piece, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”j

De gustibus and all that …
I’ve read it maybe ten times and have worn out my copy. I need to replace it as I intend to read it again.
I remember the essay you mentioned. I particularly remember the imagined consequence of him having a climax. I forget if he opined on the condition of the ceiling (roof, migrating birds, low-flying aircraft) in his boyhood home.

Footfall is perhaps the best aliens-invade tale I’ve encountered.

 

[Bagginski]

I’ll look it up

 

[bursto]

the whole story is ridiculous to begin with, 2 animals is far too small of a breeding population for most of them to have survived, and the ones that did would have serious genetic problems from their severely limited gene pool.
They sort of skipped over a lot of stuff in the story...most of the animals on earth didn't live anywhere close to noah, so i guess god made them want to travel across the globe to board his ark, and then made them want to go back to their homes to breed nonstop till they died...what a kind and considerate use of an animals life, to allow a deity to act like a murderous spoiled child.
I'm guessing gawd made the carnivorous animals vegetarians for the year plus that they were floating? Or did gawd just magically supply huge amounts of fresh meat daily, and tons of silage? did they just shovel all the shit overboard?
It's one of the more ridiculous stories in the bible, not one word of it makes any sense.

whats ridiculas is someone who is looking tiring to add up piles of cow shit to prove god doesn't exist

lifted from net
As far as we know, the first author outside the church to mention Jesus is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes (probably turning Josephus’s negative account into a more positive one), but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.

About 20 years after Josephus we have the Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, who held some of the highest offices of state at the beginning of the second century AD. From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels. Pliny contributes the information that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Neither of them liked Christians – Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.

 

[cannabineer]

whats ridiculas is someone who is looking trying to add up piles of cow shit to prove god doesn't exist

lifted from net
As far as we know, the first author outside the church to mention Jesus is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes (probably turning Josephus’s negative account into a more positive one), but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.

About 20 years after Josephus we have the Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, who held some of the highest offices of state at the beginning of the second century AD. From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels. Pliny contributes the information that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Neither of them liked Christians – Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.

It’s not so much about god existing, as it is about scripture being right. Narrower claim.

 

[HGCC]

whats ridiculous is someone who is trying to add up piles of cow shit to prove god doesn't exist

That isn't how it works though man

Prove you aren't God.

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

whats ridiculous is someone who is trying to add up piles of cow shit to prove god doesn't exist

lifted from net
As far as we know, the first author outside the church to mention Jesus is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes (probably turning Josephus’s negative account into a more positive one), but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.

About 20 years after Josephus we have the Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, who held some of the highest offices of state at the beginning of the second century AD. From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels. Pliny contributes the information that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Neither of them liked Christians – Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.

i've never denied that a man named jesus existed at the time he was supposed to have existed...i'm denying that he was in any way a devine being, anything more than a man who had a cult, albeit a benign one.
I'm not actually an atheist, i'm not sure if a deity exists or not, but I'm convinced that not one single religion that exists today has anyone's best interests at heart except their own, and that the world would be a better, more peaceful place without any of them.

 

[cannabineer]

That isn't how it works though man

Prove you aren't God.

I’m satisfied he isn’t.