The Glade 4.0

My invisible friend doesn't tell me that homosexuals are evil tools of the betrayer and need to be shunned or fixed or put to death.

My whole problem with religion is the people in it. Don't **** tell me how to live my life, because if I don't do it your way, I'll be damned to some sort of torment because I think that homosexuals should be able to get married.

Just a related side point: Diamondeye, as a Lutheran, is about as Catholic as I am.

You want more? Read Sex & God by Darrel Ray.

Neither does mine...

It surprises me that you are so concerned with what other people think about what will happen to you after you die.

Patently False

This is where you run into the phenomenon of the American Christian. As long as you believe in Jesus, oppose abortion, oppose gays, oppose birth control, and oppose liberals, there is indeed a fraternal membership to which both individuals belong.

This is where you run into the phenomenon of the American Christian. As long as you believe in Jesus, oppose abortion, oppose gays, oppose birth control, and oppose liberals, there is indeed a fraternal membership to which both individuals belong.

This is where you run into the phenomenon of the American Christian. As long as you believe in Jesus, oppose abortion, oppose gays, oppose birth control, and oppose liberals, there is indeed a fraternal membership to which both individuals belong.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"
He said, "Like what?"
"Well ... are you religious or atheist?"
"Religious."
"Me too! Are you Christian, Jewish, or Muslim?"
"Christian."
"Hey! Me too! Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Wow! Same HERE! Are you Episcopalian, Baptist, or Lutheran?"
"Baptist."
"YES! I am too! Are you First Baptist or Southern Baptist?"
"First Baptist."
"Ding ding ding ding! Winner! Me too! Are you Original First Baptist, or are you Reformed First Baptist?"
"Reformed First Baptist."
"That is CRAZY! I can’t believe it! SO AM I!! Are you Reformed First Baptist 1867, or Reformed First Baptist 1918?"
"Reformed First Baptist 1918!"
To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.

Uh... really? You're going to argue with me that Diamondeye is not Lutheran? I know for a fact he is. I chat with him about this all the time.

Lutherans are a protestant faith, part of the Anglican communion. Hell, as a technicality, I'm a baptized Anglican too. Neither of us are Catholic, at all.

The Anglican Communion considers itself to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and to be both Catholic and Reformed. For some adherents it represents a non-papal Catholicism, for others a form of Protestantism though without a dominant guiding figure such as Luther, Knox, Calvin, Zwingli or Wesley.[4] For others, their self-identity represents some combination of the two. The communion encompasses a wide spectrum of belief and practice including evangelical, liberal, and Catholic.

Regardless, it's the same as if I were complaining about Democrat leadership, and Joe, a registered Republican, comes along and says "You have no business complaining about Democrat leadership, because you're not a member of the Democratic Party." Neither is he. The fact that I'm Canadian doesn't make me any more "Not Democrat" than Joe, who is a Republican. We're both Not-Democrats.

You can safely be an atheist anywhere in Ireland. But being wearing Orange or Green this Sunday and wandering into the wrong religion's neighborhood will still get the **** kicked out of you. Don't pretend there is some fraternity of implied membership between the two.

My invisible friend doesn't tell me that homosexuals are evil tools of the betrayer and need to be shunned or fixed or put to death.

My whole problem with religion is the people in it. Don't **** tell me how to live my life, because if I don't do it your way, I'll be damned to some sort of torment because I think that homosexuals should be able to get married.

Anthropology and evolutionary biology have shown* that those rules didn't exist prior to religion adding them, and that human sexual behavior has no such compunctions without religious interference. Why would that change if religion was removed?

* - I highly recommend chapters 9 (Unholy Biology: Busting the Monogamy Myth) and 11 (Sex Before God) of Sex & God, by Darrel Ray.

Which has all basically started within the last 40 years or so as part of the "moral majority" bullshit and was created entirely to get more power in Washington.

you and the rest of your ilk

Very Christian of you.

This thread started by talking about the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Members of that church are the Catholics being discussed. Diamondeye is no more a member of that church than I am. If you want to speak of "non-papal Catholocism", that's not really relevant here. It's not the same religion. In fact, as far as the Vatican is traditionally concerned, all you splitters are just as damned as us nonbelievers.

If DE wants to say that non-Catholics should shut the hell up about the Pope, then he should stay the **** out of this thread, because he's also not Catholic.

My statement is not false. I'm every bit as Catholic as Diamondeye is...which is to say, not-at-all.

LOL. Coming from the witch who goes on anti-religious rants just to get a rise out of people because you have daddy issues.

Former witch.

And yet, your statement is (I believe) intentionally misleading. If your insistence that DE is not a Roman Catholic because DE is not a Roman Catholic, that is fine, but an implication that a Pagan/Atheist is on the same theological level as a Lutheran when it comes to religious beliefs [i]vis a vis[i] Catholicism is absurd on its face.

Now that's the BS. This country as it is today, is way more to your liking or side than it was 40 years ago. I have zero doubt that this country will head the way you and the rest of your ilk want it than it will the "moral majority".

I've go to a congregation of over a 1000 a week and I'd be surprised if I could find 5% that thought like that. You're the one with the problem if you think the majority is like that.

You mean that only 5% of your church thinks Homosexuals shouldn't be able to get married?

I call bullshit.

It's kinda hard to deal with people who believe an invisible being is in control of everything, and dictates everything in their life (and thus your life). I don't mean to be insulting or down right mean about it, but if you had a grownup who still believed his invisible childhood friend was real, or a grownup who was never told Santa wasn't real.......what is the appropriate way to deal with that without coming off as insulting? At some point, we have to say it's kinda messed up. And I'm not sure there is a nice way to put that.

I get that there are some real jerks out there, but that street goes both ways. And when people come knocking on my goddamn door to try and coerce me into believing in their invisible best friend, and why I should come to their church and donate my money, I gotta say my patience gets a little thin (and my beer is getting warm, dinner cold).

I think I should have just gone with Taly's remark a few weeks ago......I believe it was "**** religion".

Incredible claims require incredible evidence. It really is just that simple.

If you want to claim that there is an omniscient and omnipotent benevolent God, that places 1 species ahead of all others out of ~8.7 million species only on this planet which is only 1 out of likely trillions or more plants in the universe, which quite possibly could be 1 universe out of many multiverses, then you better have some really incredible data to back that up.

The warm fuzzy feeling that some people get from reading a couple century old book, that constantly contradicts itself isn't enough.