The Goat Pen

"The 16th century? Pshaw. That was the day before yesterday in Orthodoxy. We have been around 15.7 centuries before that.

But to Protestants like Sardis, the 16th century is where their timeline begins. They're newbies."

If longevity is the measure of authority, I think the jews have you beat. Catholicism is as much of a simultaneous protest and yet continuation of judiasm as protestantism is of catholocism. I say fuck em all, but hey, that's just my little personal protest against all you stupid, pompous fucks. Luckily, I have reality on my side...

I thought I farted in my pants earlier. Once I sat down I realized it was more than that.

I thought this was a theology thread. We were discussing theology. I can see how Christian theology can bore you, like engineers or insurance people talking about their interests. But might I suggest that, if you don't like theology, don't visit a theology thread. Perhaps you would like to start a thread about atheism, and you and AA and Rat can have a ball.

::This is about where the pictures start getting posted...::

The thread title says "all things considered". That means if some people consider theology a crock of shit, this is the place to express those views. If you don't want that, maybe you should change the thread title to "Theology "discussion" thread, only if you have warm and positive things to say about theology, esp. christianity, esp. catholicism". But somehow I doubt that will end the sass. My sass is ceaseless...

His cease is sassless?

I love discussing theology. I specifically enjoy the Christian mythologies. I usually do not poke the believers with sass for their beliefs, though.

I shall continue to post here as I see fit.

it was poop by the way

More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God - Gallup (June, 2011)

the percentage at 92 is virtually unchanged from the result Gallup received when it first asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?" in 1947

92% is way too much of anything. I can understand young hedge's angst.

Interesting. And a bit sad. A few months back I read that only 44% of Brits believed in God (or thereabouts). Huff Post, I believe.

AlabamAlum wrote:Interesting. And a bit sad. A few months back I read that only 44% of Brits believed in God (or thereabouts). Huff Post, I believe.

According to HuffPost, that survey of 1,329 was done as a tie-in with the new video game "XCOM: Enemy Unknown". Indeed - says here the gamers favor extra-terrestrials over God 52% to 44%. And a big percentage believe the Apollo moon landings were fake.

I bet somewhere near 100% of them believe XCOM is the bomb.

Here is a pretty comprehensive world-wide survey on the matter


http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf

Sad.

On the bright side, you get your pick of the Sunday morn tee times.

the percentage at 92 is virtually unchanged from the result Gallup received when it first asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?" in 1947

That surprises me.

"I love discussing theology. I specifically enjoy the Christian mythologies. I usually do not poke the believers with sass for their beliefs, though."

Would you poke fun if somebody seriously believed in Zeus and/or Thor? Not even a little?

Professor Tiger wrote:

the percentage at 92 is virtually unchanged from the result Gallup received when it first asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?" in 1947

That surprises me.

Same here.

The political breakdown:

98% republicans
89% independants
90% democrats

I suspect a bunch of people claim to believe in some god, but they either have no idea what that means or they really just don't believe it at all but have been saying it so long they think they do...

hedge wrote:I suspect a bunch of people claim to believe in some god, but they either have no idea what that means or they really just don't believe it at all but have been saying it so long they think they do...

Just curious, hedge...do you give your relatives the business around the holidays or any other time? Or do you limit flaming the theists to the intraweb?

I am not surprised by the survey. Throughout the whole history of civilization, people believed in a supreme being. We have an inherent sense of right and wrong and subconsciously it tells us someone is the author of that.

"Just curious, hedge...do you give your relatives the business around the holidays or any other time? Or do you limit flaming the theists to the intraweb?"

None of them do too much in the way of proclamations or arguing or even discussing religious matters. Very much unlike the setup in here and most other internet chatrooms. Also, I don't deny doing my share of flaming (I guess it's only flaming if the person is saying something you don't like), but I'd hardly call a skeptical comment about the verity of the claims of some portion of those who say they believe in god to be "flaming".

Would you poke fun (or, if you prefer, "flame") at someone who truly claimed to believe in Zeus or Thor? And tried to have serious discussions about his beliefs in that regard and how his moral and ethical behaviors were shaped by his belief in Thor or perhaps by some text that he purported to be the direct word of Thor? I would certainly find such a person most likely harmless enough and mostly a source of amusement, but I wouldn't be able to really take them seriously...