The Goat Pen

And now for some Blood Meridian:

"Far out on the desert to the north dustspouts rose wobbling and augered the earth and some said they’d heard of pilgrims borne aloft like dervishes in those mindless coils to be dropped broken and bleeding upon the desert again and there perhaps to watch the thing that had destroyed them lurch onward like some drunken djinn and resolve itself once more into the elements from which it sprang. Out of that whirlwind no voice spoke and the pilgrim lying in his broken bones may cry out and in his anguish he may rage, but rage at what? And if the dried and blackened shell of him is found among the sands by travelers to come, yet who can discover the engine of his ruin?"

I curse God every days for creating you.

something out there much more intelligent/living longer/that no one here understands how or they they exist

you can call it god if you likebut it probably has nothing to do with our creation

but the supernatural out there cant be explained by a few scientific bangs

I see no evidence of anything "much more intelligent out there" and I've never seen anything "supernatural" - in the end, we like to put answers to that we don't understand. We always have. That's why there thousands of gods in man's history - as well as the assortment of ghosts, goblins,and magic spells.

I believe there might be aliens out there with some type of consciousness that we might recognize as intelligence, but then again, there might not. It's quite possible and perhaps probable that we are the most intelligent creatures in the universe, but then again, we may just be ants. Of course, those two statements are not mutually exclusive, we could be both...

We are not the only intelligent creatures in the universe, but whether we will ever come across another is another thing.

I believe in a higher power. I think Jesus was a fantastic philosopher, even if he wasn't the Christ (or even real). I just spent a couple days this past weekend participating in rituals of life and death in His honor, foolhardy or not.

I also understand how some people can say that it's a total waste of time.

(I do wish everyone would recognize the amazing influence the Talmudic law has had on ordering modern society, though)

I believe in a higher power, too: Lord Saban. Verily, and it has come to pass that the heretics rejected the teaching of His Process. They shall be punished and suffer eternal damnation in the lake of mediocre football.

Amen.

hedge wrote: It's quite possible and perhaps probable that we are the most intelligent creatures in the universe

I take it you've never met Rat....

AlabamAlum wrote:I believe in a higher power, too: Lord Saban. Verily, and it has come to pass that the heretics rejected the teaching of His Process. They shall be punished and suffer eternal damnation in the lake of mediocre football.

Amen.

[img2]http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_we ... 001549.jpg[/img2]

Lord Saban moves in mysterious ways some times. He does it to test our faith. Without such acts, we would become prideful.

But, on a serious note, I don't begrudge anyone their beliefs. When asked, I give my viewpoint that belief in a bearded Sky Dad is silly - be it Zeus or Jehova or Odin or Ra or whomever.


Forgive them, Lord Saban.

AlabamAlum wrote:Lord Saban moves in mysterious ways some times. He does it to test our faith. Without such acts, we would become prideful.

Heh. Well done.

if we believe in creation of all things, then who created the universe, when did time begin?

a higher power is perhaps the easiest answer to wrap your head around as answers.

but if a higher power does exist, he/she/it doesn't give two shits about what happens to planet earth, much less individuals on it.

Deism baby - it works on multiple levels

crotch wrote:

hedge wrote: It's quite possible and perhaps probable that we are the most intelligent creatures in the universe

I take it you've never met Rat....

Well done you old fucker.

hedge wrote:I believe there might be aliens out there with some type of consciousness that we might recognize as intelligence, but then again, there might not. It's quite possible and perhaps probable that we are the most intelligent creatures in the universe, but then again, we may just be ants. Of course, those two statements are not mutually exclusive, we could be both...

I think you need a meeting

I don't really begrudge anyone their beliefs, as long as they don't infringe on me. I like to take the hard line in here and elsewhere, but the plain truth is that most of my fambly and friends are christians and most of them are good folks. I went to church with my brother and his kids last Sunday, his pastor was our former youth director and I have known him since I was a kid. He's a great guy and I love seeing him and talking to him and listening to him preach. He had a good message on Sunday, about living the christian example. I think one difference, though, is that his idea of the christian example focuses on kindness and joy, not fire and brimstone. Of course, some of that is no doubt due to the social status of his congregation. Fire and brimstone doesn't go over very well in the nicer suburbs of upwardly mobile cities, but I can understand how it plays very well in some shithole in the Arkansas outback (etc) or some rock-strewn wasteland of Afghanistan (etc). When things are going pretty well for you and yours, you probably want that for everyone else, too. But when your world is shit, you want everyone else's to be, too. Material progress on a personal level is the best thing that can happen to most people's religious beliefs...

one thing about fire and brimstone especailly during your formulative years is I think the fear of god makes us better citizens--less likely to hurt eachother/less likely to sin so to speak.

by and large most of christian/jewish/muslim/baptist/catholic america is a benevolent group. taking belief in god totally out of the equation and your much more likely to have chaos.

I don't quite agree with that, but having a deity to point to does help with holding structure. If it wasn't God, though, there would be something else doing it...like economic interests (sort of what hedge was alluding to) or some other social contract outside of organized religion.

We could get rid of God, per se, from our existence but I don't think it would stop man from being exactly what he is today...a bit narcissistic, greedy, myopic and fucked up.

I don't agree with it at all. I know many people who lie, cheat, and steal who profess to be devout Christian or Jew. They never give a second thought to the Great Bearded Sky Dad when they do wrong. Heck, it's more sin ever day and get absolution on Sunday with some.

Oh, it sounds nice, but it's not supported by research. In the US, between 1980-1989, 1100 people who committed a serious crime (rape, murder, etc) 78% voiced a devout belief in God.

I don't believe being religious makes you more likely, but it sure doesn't abate such behaviors, either.