Ha! You’re absolutely right. Caught me in an ugly massive generalization. What can I say? Caught. Caught. Caught.

I was tired. Perhaps, I should be eaten by lions or clubbed upside the head with a cross.

But, I have to agree with Mr. Hoke. Aren’t Protestants Christians? Well, I mean, unless they’re, you know, Protestant Satanists or something like that.

Seriously though, my bad. No more massive generalizations. ::smacking hand:: bad. bad. bad.

THEN AGAIN, I did say “some” and implied that I knew them personally, didn’t I? Hmmm. Still I could be generalizing ...

Wouldn’t it be even scarier if I was a Christian myself?

It makes the mind boggle. Really.

Just teasing you. Well, about some of it. I wonder which part ...

That wasn’t my point. I was trying to get people to stop calling people like the ChristianExodus the Religious Right, it should be the Theocratic right. The Southern Baptist Organisation are Protestants, and they are the gay-hating hellbent-on-taking-over-the-world Christians, whereas Catholics just want abortion outlawed. They are both Christians, but Catholics are the lesser of two evils. You do see my point, no?

I think Iv seen “Fundamentalist” nutjobs from every “Sect” if Im not mistaken.

I classify Christians in categories more in tune with what mind they may have left.

Christians be they Catholics, Protestants, or whatever “Cult” that basically believe there could be a god, go to church once in a great while, maybe swallow some parts of the Bible at best, Fully believe in Evolution, and that the Earth is Billions of years old, etc.
These Christians are basically just going through the motions probably because of peer pressure more than anything else, have a fairly Logical & reasoning mind left. Category #1

Then there are Christians whom are borderline which I think makes up the majority out there, they “want” to believe in some pie in the sky god because it gives them comfort to do so, in essence they brainwash themselves to believe in the unbelievable just to have that cosmic father figure looking over them keeping them safe and giving them assurance that they will never technically die, as Death scares the bejebus out of them.
These Christians have lost some of their faculties, for the most part they “Compartmentalize” the insanity within so they can function in society then let the beast out so to speak amongst other Christians, they go to church more regularly to meet with others infected with the same Meme. Category #2

THEN regardless of Sect/Cult there comes the Fundamentalist Nutjob which has completely lost their mind entirely, all logic and reason completely thrown out the window.
These lunatics brainwashed themselves into obsession, their Cognitive Dissonance has taken over forcing them to totally deny even blatantly obvious, positively proven fact, in favor of blind faith in something that has no more basis in reality than the Tooth Fairy, they believe the Bible 100% as factual cover to cover word for word. Category #3

These Christians are the dangerous ones, the extremist, the Fundies, complete lunatics, these freaks are in EVERY Sect/Cult of “Religion” not just Christianity, not just certain Sects of Christianity or Islam etc.
These lunatics I think represent approx. 30% of all Christians regardless of Sect, although some sects seem to breed a larger percentage of these lunatics than others.
Southern Baptist, Pentecostal Holiness are prime examples of Christians with very high percentages of poor deluded humans that have completely lost their minds, they dont even pretend to Compartmentalize, they are too far gone.
So I dont think its necessarily just Protestants as you can have Fundamentalist Catholics, Methodist, Mormons, Jews, etc all equally as crazy.

The ChristianExodus freaks are obviously full blown Cat3 nutjobs that need serious medication, I think it would be a fantastic Idea for them to self contain themselves in South Carolina, maybe we could have a few C5s fog the whole state in a blanket of Thorozine, or medicate the water supply.

The Boss: Would it be really terrible if I said no?

I was just teasing you before, but if you want to be Serious (with a capital ‘S’ naturally) ...

I think that the somewhat glaringly big answer, expressed, I’m sure, countless times elsewhere on this very blog (A VERY nice and interesting blog, by the way, thank you--I hope I’m not being an intruding pain in the ass), is I believe there are crazy, crazy people everywhere, in all walks of life and with all sorts of different belief systems.

And I’m not sure clarification of names makes anything clearer. I mean, seriously, one could start calling all the people who handle snakes in church the “Snake Snuggle-Bunnies” or those people who are moving to another state to consolidate their power the “Big Silly Poopheads” a la the poet Billy Collins and I’m not really sure it’d make all that much difference. Names can be effective, I suppose, but in this case, I think we may be dealing with semantics more than anything else. (In which case, I vote for “Big Silly Poopheads.") I believe in the power of words, but nit-picking with words to achieve some desired ‘response’ sometimes seems a bit much to me. Not always--but in this case, maybe so.

I can’t say one Protestant religion is better than another. I have no idea. I’d kind of have to experience them all first. And, honestly, I’m not really eager to do that. There are a bunch of them I feel somewhat eeked out by. Besides, heck, even if I did ‘experience’ them all, it would still simply be my opinion based on my experience.

My complaint in the original post, probably, no, most definitely not expressed well was that the intolerance level really shoots up amongst my acquaintances in certain groups, primarily Christians. And, it makes me very angry and confused, because, it doesn’t really fall in with that “Turn the other cheek” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” stuff. It seems much more like good old-fashioned hatred to me. Not exactly the proposed Christian ideal. 

That’s what I was trying to express here earlier.

My original post was meant to say “It’s not all Christians that pull this stuff, it’s Protestants. Stop with the generalisations.” Some comments on SEB express that all Christians are like a few Protestant morons. I’m not trying to defend Christians, just saying that 8.5/10 times a Christian does something stupid or tries to make others conform to the Christian belief system, it’s of the Protestant “cult”. I see your point and I agree that most Protestant Theocratic Right members are complete hypocrites. But still I’d that most of the time the Theocratic Evil Conservatives asshat that tries to get Intelligent Design itno Public Schools or tries to force the Pledge of Allegiance down kids’ throats is a protestant, and I understand that Protestants and Catholics are both Christians.

I’m “only” 39 years old, but I’m already tired of fighting this fight. When I was a young lad, I saw all religions following the slope that they always have (over the long run). Ceding more and more of their ground to increasing understanding of nature and reality. Flat earth, witchcraft, anthropocentric universe, etc. I assumed that religion would die a natural, albeit slow, death. I realized that there would likely be temporary setbacks, I just didn’t realize that I would see one, or that it would strike me as so incredibly offensive. By it’s nature “faith” is immune to logic and reason, indeed many theists revel in their lack of understanding. “Don’t confuse me with your so called facts, I got all the facts I need right here in this book”. I am sorely tempted to turn the believers over to their fate, and wish them all a fun journey. Am I getting cranky at an early age? Am I justified in washing my hands of these people? Will it be worth watching the nation go down the shi*ter just to be able to say “I told you so”?
I really am very tired.

I’m “only� 39 years old, but I’m already tired of fighting this fight. - Bradmst

Take a deep breath, and pace yourself.  Don’t give up.

It might be great if they all left to go trade bible verses, but it won’t work out that way.  Enough of them are messing with our laws, our science textbooks, trying to morph the whole world to their pack of legends.

Blah Blah Blah, gees.. I read until my eyes hurt.
I can sum it all up.  Being christian is everything
that brings you joy everyday and how to handle or “get through” the things that don’t without opening fire on your co-workers, or whatever, you get my point.  I am not sure what to think about this christian exodus.  I just know I try to live a good clean life and I am good to my neighbors.

History is witness to millions massacred by Christians in their crusades against Jews and Muslims.  Witch killings is another one of historical notriety owned by Christians. And yet, you can’t stop Christians sermonising others about human rights.  Hypicrisy is their trademark.  This Christian exodus is not a surprise! Even famous.  Writing about the profound ignorance of the Popes have filled some history pages. A highly intellectual astronomer Galileo (not sure of the spelling)who declared in his writings that it was the Earth that went around the Sun, and not the other way, around as mentioned in the Bible, was dragged to Pope’s mension and forced with a fear of death to strike out his declaration and instead write: it was Sun that went around the Earth. So much for the garbage in the Bible. 

Although pretending otherwise, it is not the Bible that these staunch fanatics really care about but how they can use the masses that they have conditioned and so enslaved into following Bible, to attain their own goals.

Read the bible, our nation is in peral. If we dont stop these GAYS and LESBIANS from getting into our government we shall surely go straight to HELL> AND you all shall follow.

Read the bible, our nation is in peral. If we dont stop these GAYS and LESBIANS from getting into our government we shall surely go straight to HELL> AND you all shall follow.

Do you really think America is in peril because of gays? I hope that was a joke.

Damn, some people have a BIG mouth! Way to go Tony.

Yes we plan on taking over the country and the first things we’re going to change are the following:

The National Anthem will changed to “Tiny Dancer”.

The National Flower will be a Pansy.

The National Tree will be anything with hard wood.

The National Pastime will be line dancing.

And the National Velvet will be hung like a horse.

UJ, can’t we all just get along!
I am not a christian that did all those horrible
things you speak of.  My mother is american indian and my father is German.  So somewhere down the line in America.... Two different nationalities set aside all the bull crap and here I am.  I am a pretty good person and I thank the LORD..that’s right.. the LORD that I am here. okay, this is consuming too much of my time, going back to watching a Rodeo..

cmpangel, when I was a young teen I sold Cokes in the stands at the Rodeo at Ellensburg, Washington Yee-Ha!  That sure was a lot of fun. (Man, we need a smilie with a cowboy hat on.)

The National Anthem will changed to “Tiny Dancer�.

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s a huge fan of “Saint Elton”, who is actually probably an atheist. Elton is said to hate religion.

Laffs.  I agree! That would be cute.  I wish more people would think about different smiley
faces instead of what religion is doing what or which one is better, or which one killed the most people in the past! ps i just experienced
watching a rodeo for the first time a year ago
and I love every minute of it..hehe

I want everyone to know I dont think gays or lesbians will send us to hell but keep in mind, sodom and gamora were just examples of our all mighty gods wrath. be ye in his hands or in the hands of HELL> you have the right to choose. Its in the scriptures.

Tony, I don’t give a shit if it’s in the scriptures. I don’t believe the Bible to be anything more than a work of fiction created by men wishing to dominate other men. First convince me I should give a shit what the Bible says before you try to use it as a justification for your silly prejudices.

In reading this thread I think the real problem with any sort of whack job religious fanatic(of any type/faith) is the way they blindly put their faith in a books written hundres years ago.

Lets use the bible as an example: the bible/other “holy” christian writings claim that they were written by god. There is absolutely no way of verifying that. It very well could have been written by humans. These humans may also have been skilled manipulators of public mind back in that time. So to keep their power they created a doctrine(the bible) that claimed its legitimacy from within itself. That means there is no external verification of the doctrine and thus no proof of it; however, if no one thinks to hard they will not bother with seeing this.

You cannot prove that some thing is true if you start with a false given. In fact with a single untrue given ANYTHING can be proved. A mathamatician a few hundred years or so called Wrustle managed to prove he was the pope in a few lines of logic based on the given 1 + 1 = 1.

I think an example to clarify the bible supporting itself would do: a stick that supports a stick that in turn supports the stick supporting it. It is never really supported because they both together have no support. Some thing like this would probably end up in two sticks falling to earth yet touching. That is what the bible is like. A book that claims that it is not fiction yet with nothing outside of it to back that claim up. It would be something like LotR claiming itself to be truth.

Cheers BunBun

is the way they blindly put their faith in a books written hundres years ago.

I disagree. Its because they blindly put their faith. Full stop.

Or would a book written TODAY merit blind faith any more than one written, say 60 or 600 AD?

True statements (if they even exists) are something that we humans will probaby never know. We can feel that something is true, and we can be sure enough of some ‘truths’ that we can (and should) base our lives around them (such as the nobrainer - in whatever phrasing - that we should not hurt someone else unless absolutely necessary).

But with our limited view, no truth will ever be complete or unable to be revised with new data. Fanaticism is simply an attempt to end the discussion.

Shit, I must be drunk to make so many spelling errors…

Perhaps your bloodsugar is too low?  It’s almost supertime in Germany.  I just got my first morning coffee and SUGAR mmmmm… ready for the day.  Ah Brock you brighten the morning with your wit!
hey and they Washington monument is already a big Phalic symbol.

I see your point about the time difference but a book written 2000 years ago is much harder to place an author to. Now adays you would probably have a much more clear idea of who wrote it. Which could help people realize that people write books. Not some transfinite figure we have never seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched.

Basically what I am trying to say is that an older book would be easier to blindly put faith in than a newer book. Although it does not matter the book’s age once faith is blindly thrown about. I agree on that.

Cheers BunBun

You guys are still at it?? Geez

What is the first thing ANYONE does when they
are in pain or some type of suffering???  Christian or not.. Everyone in the time of need
will say.. OH GOD PLEASE HELP ME… or something of the sort.  Example.. non-christian or “God” believing person having a child abducted, this person fell to the ground and prayed to God to please help her find her child… hmmm… good point or what?  (don’t say anything mean to me.. I am sensitive)