Picayune Gods & Those Who Market Them

Not at times, but rather always.Plus you simply ignore ALL of the evidence people have provided for you if it doesn't say what you want to hear.You are simply willfully ignorant and stupid.

Not at all. I simply dispute what you claim to be evident.You really cannot convince a believer that God is all in their head. I suppose you can call that fact stupid, but I would call your response infallibly arrogant.

God is irrelevant Phat.Believers believe the fantasy they create.But we are talking about reality rather than fantasy.And you NEVER dispute, you only deny. I don't think you have any idea what the word dispute even means.

Do you really think he is talking only about a god?

No, I knew that he was referring to my thinking process and ideological beliefs about humanity in general

I have had a lot of "spiritual" (perhaps to some of you it is humanist) thinking lately. My plan was initially to go in the other room and quietly pour my heart out to God concerning a couple of people who were(are) on my heart, but what ended up happening is that I decided to watch Amazon Prime (The Marvelous Mrs.Maisal) God spoke quite clearly to me through the very Jewish secular drama and humor. The reason that I started this particular post, however, was to respond to Percy while taking the conversation out of Church History and placing it here. Ironically, that was one of the lessons that I learned tonight. There are no insignificant people in this world. That in a nutshell is what God wanted me to know. Not to also drag this old thread off topic, but you DO realize what would happen if this world had no borders. Poor and hungry people would pour into our communities and we would be forced to help them. Do you honestly think that is what Jesus would want? I am prepared to make an argument that the Left Wing can be quite authoritarian themselves, but I will try and finish this post without reacting. Comments?

My god, Phat, you're supposed to be a christian. I thought the answer to this would be obvious.

The question was WWJD, not WWPD (AbE: I originally misread Phat's response. I responded more appropriately in Message 94.) I'm against all anti-democratic leanings regardless of origin, while you justify the right's anti-democratic tendencies by saying, "Oh yeah? Well the left does it, too." Except that they don't.My political wind vane isn't left/right but democratic/anti-democratic and sane/insane. New Hampshire has a Republican governor who is democratic and sane, my two primary qualifications. He's fine.On the other hand, Florida has a Republican governor who is certifiably anti-democratic and insane. He's ghastly.Who I favor politically, who anyone favors politically, should depend upon their having sane positions on important current issues, upon having the best interests of the country at heart (rather than of a political party or even just a single individual), and upon having demonstrated good judgment that will serve them well as the they face the unforeseeable during their term in office.Anyone who's choice of candidate is based on left-good/right-bad or vice versa is putting no thought or research into it and shouldn't be voting.That being said, Trump has bent the Republican part all out of recognizable shape. They're no longer conservative, don't even know what they are. They're so uncertain what they stand for, other than being against Democrats and anything Democrats want to do, that they didn't even have a presidential platform in 2020. Their policy positions? Whatever Trump last said. It's a lot easier to find insane Republicans ("The 2020 election was stolen." "January 6th was like a tourist visit." "Covid was faked." "There's no climate change, and even if there is it's natural variation.") than Democrats (I can't think of a single Democrat conspiracy theory).About your quote from The Two Christianities and Their Problems, sounds good to me. How about you?--Percy

Some of us fear a one world government without borders. You don't?

Nope. Not sure why we should.

You fear one world government because people would flow from less advantaged regions to more advantaged regions, and the people of the more advantaged regions would be forced to help those migrating in. I have two questions:

• Where is your Christian love and charity? How is it that you appear to have none, in stark contrast to atheists and skeptics here who appear to have it in spades. Why are by far the least Christian expressions coming, consistently over a long period of time, from the Christians?
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  We are all just people and we're all in this together. When other people are in need we help them. We tighten our belts and contribute what we can. In the end, the better off the newcomers the better off we all are.
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• If one world government ever comes to pass, why do you think it will happen like turning on a switch rather than gradually over time?

But something like turning on a switch did happen when the Soviet Union fell and East and West Germany joined to again become one country. There was a net outflowing of people from East to West Germany, and the eastern economy was uncompetitive with the west. It was very disruptive for a time, over a decade. The government stepped up social welfare programs for those in the east, and major infrastructure investments were made in the east. Eastern Germany remains weaker economically than western but only trails by about 18% at present, and overall Germany has become stronger and wealthier than ever.--Percy

Because of course Jesus's most famous lesson was "Fuck you, I got mine". Seriously Phat, this kind of thinking is why Jar always said that heaven isn't going to have a lot of christians in it.

There are some authoritarian tendencies at the extremes. The leftists that I know and have known have all been of the "live and let live" way of thinking. The right seems far more authoritarian. What you quoted seems to be a good assessment of the authoritarian tendencies of religion.

Nope.One of my degrees is in economics. Borders disrupt the free flow of people and materials across regions. Just like the free market, let the needs of the population dictate this flow and even-out the disparities. Governments and borders get in the way. Indeed, they make such disparities much worse.Why fear, Phat? What do you think you are going to lose?

You'd have been against the formation of the United States of America because it meant the states had to give up some power to be part of a larger union with greater benefits.