Messages From Marilyn Burge
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A FAIR & JUST GOD
But, you keep glossing over the fact that, according to the myth,
your god made it quite different. Now, you so blithely say that
as it was made at the beginning would be hell. You can't have it
both ways. Either death is not necessary and was added on later
as a bugfix when your god saw what he had wrought, or it is
necessary and your god invented (just as he brags he did in
Isaiah). Take your choice.
A FAIR & JUST GOD
And there have been many so-called pacifists who said they were
Christians who believed in capital punishment and war. For them
pacifism is just a word, certainly not a commitment. It is of
those that I was speaking.
A FAIR & JUST GOD
I don't live in a vacuum, and I'm not a fundy who insists that
everybody else on the face of the Earth must live by my lights.
I allow others to be wrong. We learn from our mistakes, not
from obeying the fiat of others.
To me, there is a qualitative difference between a policeman
killing a robber in the act of robbing, and the State killing
an unarmed man in cold blood a decade after he did whatever it
A FAIR & JUST GOD
I would tell you that I don't make other people's decisions for
them, and that the choice was yours. I would, however, tell you
to think through very carefully all the ramifications of gun
ownership, its hazards, and responsibilities, and think them
through carefully. Once that decision is made you must live
with it the rest of your life. And, don't forget that killing
another human being is a horrible thing to have to live with,
even if the guy
GAY LOVE
The missionaries of past generations have so thoroughly done their
job that the ONLY justification for continuing said missions is
much the same as the cigaret companies' justification for
advertising: to steal "market share" from one another. Given that,
it is hardly surprising that you would get such a response if you
asked a "mission" group the question you suggest.
Quite frankly, I see the "work" that missionaries do (with the
exception of those missionaries that are FAR more interested
YOUR DAILY MURDER
You have to remember that little girls have a bond with their
fathers that is deeper than you can imagine. It's the old Electra
Complex thing. It's very real. Given that, if a father treats his
little girl that way, she grows up thinking that's how females are
treated. Unless she has a huge dollop of the ability to question
EVEERYTHING, as I did, she takes such treatment for granted by the
time she's twelve. As much as I adored
Boy Scots Finally Lose On
There is really more to it than that. The BSA is hawked in the
public schools. In many communities, it uses school facilities
free of charge (and did long before the equal-access laws were
enacted). In short, the BSA wants it both ways: the ability to
retain its "right" to discriminate against people based on their
religious stance (not religion, but stance), and the "right" to
mix freely with the government and its institutions. Did you know
the BSA also
CC5
There's something else wrong with his statement. How can he
possibly know that builders are "motivated by love of man and love
of god"? He offers not one shred of evidence to support that bald
assertion. It is one of those grandiose statements that is made
with one purpose in mind: to prop up an assertion for which there
is also no evidence. The entire statement from start to finish is
nothing more than his take on How Things Should
Time for a chuckle or two
From: Free Inquiry's Secular Humanist Discussion Group on behalf of Richard
S. Russell
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 1996 3:51 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list SECHUM-L
Subject: Why E-Mail is like a Penis
From Richard S. Russell (RSRMadison@aol.com):
REASONS WHY E-MAIL IS LIKE A PENIS:
Some folks have it, some don't. Those who have it would be
devastated if it were ever cut off. They think that those who don't have
it are somehow inferior. They think it gives
A new voice is heard in the land....
From: errancy@freethought.tamu.edu on behalf of Michael Fisher
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 1996 11:15 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: First-Century Miracle Claims
From Black's Law Dictionary, an excerpt: "Evidence. .Testimony, writings,
or material objects offered in proof of an alleged fact or proposition."
This I think is a fair definition of "evidence" as it is commonly used.
Blacks also has a useful discussion of "proof". "Proof is the logically
sufficient reason for assenting to the truth of
Going Away
No you don't. Words have meaning.
VEGANS: eat no animal products of any kind.
VEGETARIANS: eat only vegetation and animal products that can be
gotten without killing any animal
All the rest are nothing more than modified forms of OMNIVOROUSNESS.
Heavenly Father
Psychic, are you? How do you know I didn't have an open
"hear" when I read it?
Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brains fall out.
GAY LOVE
Generally speaking, our core beliefs echo those of our parents.
Even rebels will eventually adopt those core beliefs. For example,
the proverbial "preacher's kid" will likely end up believing there
is a god, even if he or she rebels against that god and belief.
When a thing so thoroughly permeates a culture that it is impos-
sible to avoid that thing, it becomes a part of all the members of
that culture, one way or another. Sometimes that permeation takes
A FAIR & JUST GOD
HE lays down those rules for ME. That is the difference. To
me, that is patently absurd. You call him loving, yet he lays
down rules for me that are far more stringent than the rules by
which he chooses to live. Therein lies the difference: I don't
make rules for gnats, but I also don't claim to love gnats, nor
do I condemn them to eternal torment for ignoring the rules that
are too good for me, but that
A FAIR & JUST GOD
No, simply believers who say they agree with the Ten Commandment
yet support war (whether selectively or not) and capital punishment,
at the same time they use scripture (nonexistent) to call abortion
"murder." Most Christians, quite frankly, are all over the map
when it comes to the subject of one human being taking the life of
another human being.
A FAIR & JUST GOD
Yes, and a strong, very vehement no. I would definitely prefer a
police force where force was seen as much more undesirable than it
is in our culture. And, I am a very strong supporter of our
constitution. As such, I see the Second Amendment as being every
bit as important as the First Amendment. I think there has already
been too much encroachment on the Second Amendment, and I would
roll back all gun-control laws, if I could. They
A FAIR & JUST GOD
I meant fundy in that context as being synonymous with
"dogmatist." To me, that is the essence of fundy-ism: dogmatism unwilling to compromise one's PUBLIC actions to more peacefully
blend with the society in which one lives.
A FAIR & JUST GOD
I suppose it would depend on the mood I was in. I do tend to be
rather verbose. But lecture? I dunno about that. As I said above:
I would point out that all actions have consequences, and that owning
a gun certainly has consequences, including the possibility that you,
as a novice with them (I'm assuming that's a given, or you wouldn't
be agonizing over the choices you have) would be more likely than
a seasoned gun-owner to leave
A FAIR & JUST GOD
That's only true if you concede that I have claimed unconditional
love for virii, gnats, etc. Otherwise, the analogy breaks down
before it gets out of the garage.
A FAIR & JUST GOD
I don't know if we can make that determination or not. While
certain behaviors might APPEAR to be against our best interest,
they may, in fact, from another perspective be in our best
interest.
Have you read _The Selfish Gene_? Dawkins talks about this very
issue at considerable length. When there is danger nearby, birds
send out alarms so their peers can run for cover. By doing that,
they "give away" their own location, decreasing their individual
chances of living