(no subject)

[stonebender]

Via baerana, firecat surelars and serenejournal:



10 favorites...
Favorite Color: Red, though I like lots of colors.
Favorite Food: Something fried I'm sure
Favorite Song: Today I have been playing the heck out of "The Distance" by Cake
Favorite Movie: Matewan, today
Favorite Sport: I just don't care for sports. How about those robot fights?
Favorite Season: In Illinois: autumn; Here: spring
Favorite Day Of the Week: any day
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Ben & Jerry's Heath Bar and coffee crunch
Favorite Time of Day: nighttime

9 Currents...
Current Mood: bored
Current Taste: The bacon and coffee from the breakfast
Current Clothes: gray T-shirt, blue jogging pants and black tennis shoes.
Current Desktop Picture: A picture of the surface of Titan
Current Toenail Color: N/A
Current Time: 9:37am let's see how long it takes me to post this thing. Current Surroundings: My study
Current Annoyance(s): General life stuff nothing of import
Current Thought: Jelly.

8 Firsts...
First Best Friend: Richard Mulvey.
First Kiss: It was at summer camp at a kissing booth of all things. I'm slightly embarrassed that I don't remember the girl's name.
First Screen Name: guywt I'm the imaginative sort. :-)
First Pet: Slowpoke, a turtle (This is not a mistake. I actually had a turtle of the same name as serenejournal's)
First Piercing: Ear, age 20?
First Crush: Renee Fosdick, yes quite an unfortunate name.
First Music: Beatles. Although, I do remember being quite the Bobby Sherman fan for a short time.
First Car: 1973 orange Volkswagen bus.

7 Lasts.....
Last Cigarette: Sometime in 1979 I was never a huge smoker unless I was drinking.
Last Drink: Coffee.
Last Car Ride: With serenejournal and munchkin to Rasputin's records.
Last Kiss: loracs maybe this morning (I was sleepy) definitely last night.
Last real kiss: All my kisses are real
Last Movie Seen: The Shawshank Redemption
Last Phone Call: To loracs, she heard Big Moves being interviewed on NPR!
Last CD Played: Cake, "Fashion Nugget"

6 Have You Evers....
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Friends: All my lovers are my best
friends
Have You Ever Broken the Law: yes
Have You Ever Been Arrested: yes, twice
Have You Ever Been on TV: yes, several times
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: yes

5 Things....
5 Things You're Wearing: pants, shirt, shoes, socks, and glasses
5 Things You've Done Today: got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, got on the Internet, made a phone call.
5 Things You Can Hear Right Now: clock ticking, music playing, ice dropping in the ice machine, next-door neighbors dogs barking.
5 Things You Can't Live Without: food, water, shelter, air, brainwaves
5 Things You Do When Your bored: I fool with the formatting on text files downloaded from the Internet (You know, fix weird page breaks, cut out strange characters etc.), try to figure out possible ways to emigrate to another country (not that I'm planning to, although it would be nice to have a second citizenship), look at porn, listen to music (although I do that when I'm not bored as well), fill out live journal surveys.
4 Places You've Been To...
1. New Orleans, LA
2. Canada
3. Houston TX
4. Tijuana
5. Memphis TN

3 People You Can Tell (most) Anything To...
My partners

2 Choices...
1. Black or White: Black
2. Hot or Cold: Hot

1 Wish...
World peace (I wonder if I wished for economic equity would I get 2-for-1?)

Comments

Re: Really?

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

I take the Bible quite seriously. One of the things it says is that Christians are not bound by the Mosaic law; indeed, that to try to be bound by it is to court condemnation. "The Law cannot justify, it can only kill." Christianity (based on the Bible, sc. the New Testament) teaches that the Law was given to show that we cannot live justly by our own power, and that what we need is not justice but mercy; even the later parts of the Old Testament, which I quoted in my last, make it clear that legalistic Judaism had missed the point. (This is not an anti-Jewish statement; it is a statement about the specific form of Judaism that was prevalent in the later pre-exilic period.)

*****

Yes, I take the position that a religion teaches what it teaches, rather than what its worst exponents say it teaches. Judging Christianity by gaybashers is like looking at a Trek convention and concluding that SF Fandom is all about geeks with no lives who live in their mother's basement to the age of forty ... which, of course, isn't even a fair assessment of Trek fandom. But that's what I say you're doing here.

Or if you were to say that all conservatives think the Constitution gives the President the right to bug US Citizens without a warrant, that would be a similar way of forming conclusions.

Regardless of what individual Christians say or do, Christianity teaches "Judge not, lest ye be judged"; it teaches mercy. It also teaches that those who are merciless in the name of Christ will have a very nasty surprise at the end of things. This is not me making shit up; check out the story of the sheep and the goats in ... I think it's Matthew 23 or so; I'm not the sort of person who can quote chapter/verse from memory.

Atheism, of course does not teach mercy, because atheism doesn't teach anything.

Nor have I seen any evidence that atheists, on the whole, are more merciful, less judgmental, or less violent than Christians. In societies where atheists have power, they abuse it in much the same way Christians do where they have it. This is a statement about humans, not about religion ... and one for which Christianity offers a plausible explanation. So does atheism: it's called evolutionary psychology, and most atheists I know reject it because they think it's "genetic determinism." As a Christian, I accept evolutionary psychology because it seems to explain why people are the way they are rather well. Go figure.

As for "religions other than Christianity" ... well, I speak for myself, not for Buddhists, Moslems, Jains, Jews, or Born-Again Pagans. I don't even speak for the Catholic church.

If I were to speak about other religions, I might be snide about Islam and patronizing about Buddhism. I have no desire to do either of those things, so I remain silent; similarly, I remain silent about religions like Jainism and Zoroastrianism about which I know relatively little. My relationship to Judaism is more complex, and I'm not going into it here except to say that if I weren't a Christian I'd probably like to be a Jew.

Re: Really?

[someotherguy.livejournal.com]

I take the Bible quite seriously. One of the things it says is that Christians are not bound by the Mosaic law;

I don't need to go to Mosaic law:

1 Corinthians 11:3-8 Is a very clear statement sexism, in part:

...the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man...For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.

Besides which the cool thing about having a holy book that contradicts itself so often is you can prove pretty much any point you'd like to:

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Yes, I take the position that a religion teaches what it teaches, rather than what its worst exponents say it teaches.

No, you take the position that the things that religion teaches that don't support your argument don't count. You still haven't explained why, other than to say that in your opinion that's the way it should be.

Judging Christianity by gaybashers is like looking at a Trek convention...

Not exactly, because there's nothing in the Star Trek canon that says "Thou shalt live in thy mother's basement til the age of forty." While there is something in the Christian canon that says "kill men who sleep with other men."

If there was nothing in the Bible that promoted gaybashing, or only something that had to be really twisted to support it, then you would have a point.

I never said all Christians were gaybashers. Many Christians choose to emphasize the happy fluffy parts and I have very little problem with them. That doesn't change the fact that some Christians, and some people of other religions, emphasize the nasty parts.

Atheism, of course does not teach mercy, because atheism doesn't teach anything.

Atheism teaches that there is no god, but basically you're right. There's no such thing as atheist morality. Most atheists I know are also Humanists, but it's not a necessary connection and probably doesn't hold true everywhere.

Nor have I seen any evidence that atheists, on the whole, are more merciful, less judgmental, or less violent than Christians.

Google "prison population by religion." and you'll see that atheists make up a disproportionately low percentage of the prison population. That's not proof, but it is evidence.

In societies where atheists have power, they abuse it in much the same way Christians do where they have it.

Since all the societies where atheists have power are communist dictatorships, I'm not sure that means much, but regardless in this society the atheists don't have power, so their anti-religious bigotry can't cause the damage that religious bigotry does. How much having your toes stepped on depends on whether or not you're the one wearing the sandals, or you're the one wearing steel-toed boots.

Regardless of what individual Christians say or do, Christianity teaches "Judge not, lest ye be judged"; it teaches mercy.

Yes it does, but it also teaches bigotry, sexism, and horrible acts of barbarism. Which is emphasized dependeds on the sect. And let's not forget that some Christians are so sure that they're right that they concider it act of great mercy to force their beliefs on "poor lost sinners"

As for "religions other than Christianity" ... well, I speak for myself, not for Buddhists, Moslems, Jains, Jews, or Born-Again Pagans. I don't even speak for the Catholic church.

Exactly. Your personal religious views seems fairly reasonable. I don't think I would have much trouble hanging out with you in real life. But there are other people out there who have religious views that are not reasonable, and those people are motivated by those unreasonable religious views to do horrible things. The fact that those views are not part of your religion does not change the fact that they are part of other people's religion.

Re: Really?

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

At this point all I can really say amounts to: Whatever. It seems to me that we're ... not exactly talking past one another, but talking about two different things, and I won't talk about what you're talking about, and you won't talk about what I'm talking about, so what's the point in arguing?