Author Topic: Christians who make my skin crawl! (Read 18669 times)

https://guernseypress.com/news/2018/02/18/vicar-of-baghdad-receives-sign-from-god-and-visits-alderney/

I have just seen this on the Guernsey Press website, and my skin is beginning to itch. I bet Alderney is really excited, NOT.

Oh dear! I just hope the atheists of Alderney will turn out in force to protest!! That's if there are any of course!! There must be one or two...!

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #80 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:03:42 PM »

Quote from: SusanDoris on February 18, 2018, 11:59:10 AM

Oh dear! I just hope the atheists of Alderney will turn out in force to protest!! That's if there are any of course!! There must be one or two...!

Look in the fleshpots of St Anne (twinned with Las Vegas)

SteveH · « **Reply #81 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:05:58 PM »

Quote from: SusanDoris on February 17, 2018, 03:47:22 PM

Interesting idea. Could you go through it, pointing out how it can be taken metaphorically? I could, clenching my teeth, just about manage the first line bbut 'maker of heaven and earth'?

We "make" heaven and earth by giving it meaning. Admittedly, that's a bit far-fetched, but it floats my boat.

SusanDoris · « **Reply #82 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:14:50 PM »

Quote from: Steve H on February 18, 2018, 12:05:58 PM

We "make" heaven and earth by giving it meaning. Admittedly, that's a bit far-fetched, but it floats my boat.

I don't know about far-fetched, sounds rather superficial to me.
I think an examination of the Nicene Creed might be interesting.

SusanDoris · « **Reply #83 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:16:49 PM »

Quote from: Littleroses on February 18, 2018, 12:13:11 PM

I sure there are. I have never been to Alderney, although I have flown over it many times when visiting my home island of Guernsey.

I've sent an e-mail to Alderney Info for info re Humanist or atheist groups in Alderney!!

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #84 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:17:22 PM »

Quote from: SusanDoris on February 18, 2018, 11:59:10 AM

Oh dear! I just hope the atheists of Alderney will turn out in force to protest!! That's if there are any of course!! There must be one or two...!

What would that look like I wonder?

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #85 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:20:59 PM »

Quote from: SusanDoris on February 18, 2018, 12:16:49 PM

I've sent an e-mail to Alderney Info for info re Humanist or atheist groups in Alderney!!

Don't you think the Lord Dawkins has this in hand and will grant special dispensation for some local sealife to rapidly mutate into hard arsed strong atheists?

Rhiannon · « **Reply #86 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:22:47 PM »

Quote from: Steve H on February 18, 2018, 12:05:58 PM

We "make" heaven and earth by giving it meaning. Admittedly, that's a bit far-fetched, but it floats my boat.

It isn’t far fetched to me. Of course I don’t see this in a Christian context, but as Sartre said, it is up to us to give a meaning. I have no problem with heaven being a sunny Sunday afternoon with good coffee and birdsong, if that’s the meaning that I give it. Without me making them my heaven they are just sun, coffee, birds, existing without judgement.

bluehillside Retd. · « **Reply #87 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:24:13 PM »

Humph,

Quote

And YES we are the only true Christians

That's very funny. Has there aver been a Christian who didn't think his group were the only true Christians?

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #88 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:25:04 PM »

Quote from: Rhiannon on February 18, 2018, 12:22:47 PM

It isn’t far fetched to me. Of course I don’t see this in a Christian context, but as Sartre said, it is up to us to give a meaning.

where does he think one starts?

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #89 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:26:07 PM »

Quote from: bluehillside Retd. on February 18, 2018, 12:24:13 PM

Humph,

That's very funny. Has there aver been a Christian who didn't think his group were the only true Christians?

That would be an ecumenical matter......

SteveH · « **Reply #90 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:33:56 PM »

Quote from: bluehillside Retd. on February 18, 2018, 12:24:13 PM

Humph,

That's very funny. Has there aver been a Christian who didn't think his group were the only true Christians?

Yes - all the liberal ones. I'm a liberal anglican, but I accept Catholics, Orthodox, non-conformists, happy-clappys, bells-and-smells merchants, and others as fellow-Christians, even though I have disagreements over non-essentials with some of them.

Humph Warden Bennett · « **Reply #91 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:35:29 PM »

Quote from: SusanDoris on February 18, 2018, 11:59:10 AM

Oh dear! I just hope the atheists of Alderney will turn out in force to protest!! That's if there are any of course!! There must be one or two...!

Alderney is not "one of the smallest of the Channel Islands which hardly anybody has heard of", I would have thought that title would go to somewhere such as Jethou?

Humph Warden Bennett · « **Reply #92 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:36:09 PM »

Quote from: Steve H on February 18, 2018, 12:33:56 PM

Yes - all the liberal ones. I'm a liberal anglican, but I accept Catholics, Orthodox, non-conformists, happy-clappys, bells-and-smells merchants, and others as fellow-Christians, even though I have disagreements over non-essentials with some of them.

What about Unitarians?

bluehillside Retd. · « **Reply #93 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:36:41 PM »

SteveH,

Quote

Yes - all the liberal ones. I'm a liberal anglican, but I accept Catholics, Orthodox, non-conformists, happy-clappys, bells-and-smells merchants, and others as fellow-Christians, even though I have disagreements over non-essentials with some of them.

So which of them are the "only true" ones in your opinion? (And if it's not your group, why not join the one you think is the "true" one?)

SteveH · « **Reply #94 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:41:04 PM »

Quote from: bluehillside Retd. on February 18, 2018, 12:36:41 PM

SteveH,

So which of them are the "only true" ones in your opinion? (And if it's not your group, why not join the one you think is the "true" one?)

What on earth are you on about? I'd've thought my earlier post was clear enough. Which group of atheists do you consider to be the only true ones?

Rhiannon · « **Reply #95 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:55:35 PM »

Speaking as a former liberal Christian, my take was that all were welcome to expressing their truth as they saw fit. Along with some amusement at the denominations that still divided us into sheep and goats. Oh, and I was an Anglican universalist.

bluehillside Retd. · « **Reply #96 on:** February 18, 2018, 12:57:36 PM »

SteveH,

Quote

What on earth are you on about? I'd've thought my earlier post was clear enough.

I'm talking about the tendency of religious types to call their branch, group, sect, sub-sect, micro-sect etc the "only true" subscribers to a particular faith (think the Peoples' Front of Judea), and often too to condemn (or worse) the rest for getting it wrong. You know, Freud's "narcissism of small differences" and all that.

Quote

Which group of atheists do you consider to be the only true ones?

It's not a claim necessary for atheism.

SteveH · « **Reply #97 on:** February 18, 2018, 01:23:35 PM »

Quote from: bluehillside Retd. on February 18, 2018, 12:57:36 PM

SteveH,

I'm talking about the tendency of religious types to call their branch, group, sect, sub-sect, micro-sect etc the "only true" subscribers to a particular faith (think the Peoples' Front of Judea), and often too to condemn (or worse) the rest for getting it wrong. You know, Freud's "narcissism of small differences" and all that.

Reasonably liberal Christians, who are the majority, don't do that.

Quote

It's not a claim necessary for atheism.

Why not?

bluehillside Retd. · « **Reply #98 on:** February 18, 2018, 02:05:06 PM »

SteveH,

Quote

Reasonably liberal Christians, who are the majority, don't do that.

But lots of Christians do, and in any case presumably lots of those liberal ones do think they have it right (otherwise why be that way?) and, say, Fred Phelps' lot have it wrong.

Quote

Why not?

Because atheism isn't a positive claim about something. Rather it's just the finding that, so far at least, there are no cogent reasons to think that there are gods.

Walt Zingmatilder · « **Reply #99 on:** February 18, 2018, 02:10:47 PM »

Quote from: bluehillside Retd. on February 18, 2018, 02:05:06 PM

Because atheism isn't a positive claim about something. Rather it's just the finding that, so far at least, there are no cogent reasons to think that there are gods.

What is it about this statement that gives it a ring of half an argument?

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Author Topic: Christians who make my skin crawl! (Read 18669 times)

Rhiannon

Rhiannon