Yes, I think I always was one. But it was the sitting up and saying…I’m not going to take this (other stuff) anymore that was so great. I don’t exact scream it to all my kith and kin, but I don’t hide it either. (I do hide my blog..lol )
Careful, Lady Sighs will out you! She’s a mischievous one. But seriously, we’re born atheist, its then written over by theistic nonsense (without ever asking for it, mind you), then we grow a brain, cast that drivel off and then re-discover our natural state of a-theism. Like coming home!
You know that sculpture is almost enough to convert me to atheism, that is, the acceptance that I might have to mention god in order not to believe in him/her/it…
it’s almost a quandary being a Not-theist!
Foolish woman, you don’t convert to a-theism, you return to it 🙂 And anyway, you’re the linguist: isn’t the “a” in atheism simply a “not” or “without”?
Actually in linguistic terms it can be anything you like, it’s a cultural reference, though like every aspect of language it is very much open to interpretation, and what particular flavour you like on the day. Language is symbolic and vague, and because of that it cannot be prescriptive. But you know that…
You’ve seen it? Lucky sod. I think my favourite sculpture/statue I’ve seen so far is Ettore Ferrari’s statue of Giordano Bruno in Rome. Some of the stuff in Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea is awesome, too.
Indeed I have. I have photos of it somewhere as well. It’s located here in town in front of the GlaxoSmithKline Building, which I’ve always found to a be a bit amusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuWBVADYJQ0
Had to look up Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea which is quite lovely :0)
-b
Chole: at the time I spent an afternoon downing beers and gazing at her until I fell off my stool she was in Young & Jacksons pub (“Railway Hotel?) (it was a long time ago) in Melbourne.
Art in NZ has always been anything rugby.
Today the kids are being taught—indoctrinated—that anything Maori is art. Personally I’m not impressed that a gibbering hopping prancing fat-gutted ‘warrior’ in a swishing grass skirt poking a sharpened stick in my face with rolling staring eyes (his, not mine) and poked out tongue yelling “Ugga Boo!” with lots of little yips and squeaks constitutes art … to each his own, but it gets a bit wearing.
To Argie: I truly admire you cultural subjectivity. It really highlights the way you view your world around you, with deep insight and empathy! Hahaha! 😀 Or perhaps apathy!
The subject of knowing thy self is as diverse as any subject; I am not sure atheist know themselves better than any other -ism. Life is ambiguous at best and because of that, we long after something. Your something, my something are just somethings that pertain to living.
I really respond to this sculpture; this idea of freedom; especially freedom from our assumptions. The ideas behind non-attachment give flight to this unbounded release.
Always interesting to read your post; you keep me questioning what is open and unanswerable; which makes us at heart: philosophical.
Nicely put, and I agree. I guess the point was more, “know yourself” (as best you can) without religion (an unjustified belief) defining/corrupting any aspect of that definition/knowing.
supposedly we are here to round each other out; to take off those jagged edges we acquire over time and this weekend i took on some heavy blows that just about annihilated the box i live in; I guess it made me more philosophical and even quieter and your statues of liberation was forgive me the pun a god send.
Sorry to hear you had a shocker over the weekend, never fun to be smacked around, but i’d add to your sentence: we are here to round each other out, and cheer others on 😉
The first sentence of Pope John Paul II’s tour de force, “Fides et Ratio,” goes like this:
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”
There was a “fact” in there? Where? Point it out, will you… I must have missed it while giggling at seeing “faith” and “reason” used in the same sentence.
You should really learn some history, SOM. Know thyself (Gnōthi seauton) is one of the Delphic maxims. It was carved into Apollo’s temple at Delphi and dates back to before the 6th century BCE.
Now, seriously, I need you to point out the “fact” which you say exists. I can’t see it. Help me, SOM, show me your “fact”
OK, now I’m just baffled. So let me get this straight; in your mind Thomas Aquinas commandeered all of classical Greek thought, Christianized it, and that rendered everything from the Sophists and Stoics to the Epicureans magically non-existent in human history? What a vivid imagination you have, SOM!
Your previous comment is an example of an atheist hallucination.
If you had ever studied the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas you’d be a little more on the ball.
His work is standard reading in any grad school philosophy class and he represents a critical link between the world of the ancients and the modern world.
Oh SOM, you are a weird one. Natural theology is kinda’ funny, though. Always reminds me of Thomas Paine’s deeply accurate 1794 observation that “The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on nothing; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing.”
Now, I’m quickly growing bored. Are you going to let me in on what “fact” you were talking about, or are we to simply assume you were just making that up?
John, glad to know that you’re a cat person too. I have too many;) But if the cats would tolerate, I’d host almost any other kind of domestic creature too.
We’d have 20 already if we could. With our dogs as well there’s (sadly) a limit to space and the attention needed for each little rascal. I’ve honestly lost count of how many we’ve rescued, mended, treated, fixed, straightened out and had adopted. It’s an on-going problem here in Brazil… stray’s everywhere and there are only so many shelters you can support financially.
That’s fucking brilliant mate! I felt like the last one this weekend. If that’s what being an atheist is, sign me up. I’ll be having me some more of that please!
Sweet baby Jesus, it’s so obvious now! He starts off all glum, dark, forlorn, no friends, isolated, violent… then, as he sheds his fundamentalism, he starts meeting people, better people, happier people fighting the good fight. He transforms, a breach in his bricked-in appears and a smile gouges its way across his face like a geological opening… until BAM! He bursts from the light, saves the day, and is loved by even princesses!
I like the way you digress from fundamentalism to idealism like it’s a good thing! People and aliens still had to die in order for Hans to be like by Princesses. That is truly Penthouse-flaw[ed] logic.
I still love ya though 😀
Han Solo is actually the atheist in the Star Wars series. He says: “…I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.” And I do think he is vindicated during the series, even though the Jedi do a lot of weird and extraordinary stuff by controlling the “midichloriads”, there is no evidence that these symbiotic beings actually controll anything on their own. They are just part of the observable universe, the use of which only seems magical and supernatural to people who are unaware of them.
Hey John, I notice you’ve spent a bit of time over at chicagja’s site and dared not to echo him. I’ve already been banned trying to do what you did – offer evidence contrary to his claims – so just a ‘head’s up’ to expect the same ‘moderation’. For someone who says he doesn’t believe in god, he seems pretty convinced that ICR and the Discotutes are just the kind of experts he needs for his quote mining to show a Law Giver, a First Cause, a Designer (Blessed be His name) but won’t tolerate anyone who questions his ‘experts’ and tries to put the quotes into context. His schtick is to claim those who correct him do so for an ‘ideology’. But for a guy who claims to be an ethical warrior fighting to uphold the truth, he does a piss poor job being one and respecting what’s true. What a piece of work.
He’s an odd one indeed, and i think he’s already banned me. He pretty much announced, “i don’t like being corrected, you’re asking questions i don’t want to answer, so you’re outta’ here!”
Not much you can do with willfully ignorant people like that.
Why would you think the man with arms outstretched and his head looking up to Heaven is an atheist? That makes no sense. What I see is a man has found harmony in nature and science, and understands the interconnectedness of all things. In that sense he is rather more like the Magician of the Tarot.
thesuperstitiousnakedape.wordpress.com 
This captures it perfectly, at least for me.
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The artwork is actually called, Freedom. Seems appropriate.
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Fabulous pic.
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Great sculpture.
http://zenosfrudakis.com/sculptures/public/Freedom.html
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This really makes me think…
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Then my work here is done! 🙂
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🙂 I’m a very open-minded person and not much grabs my attention anymore because I’ve seen, done or heard about pretty much everything. Well done.
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Cat people are always open-minded… We have to be! 😉
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=^..^=
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‘Twas the middle of the night
I awoke with a start
Felt a quickening of my senses
Rapid beating of my heart
An awareness oh so keen
Pulse beating like a drum
I was free – free at last
For an atheist I’d become
It did happen exactly like this. It was the most emancipating feeling! YES!
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Oh quit being so dramatic, meme!
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If I may be so bold
I don’t mean to scold
But to your atheism
My friend, You ALWAYS were one!
(Yes, yes… I know, that’s a terrible rhyme. I only have Nescafe in the house this morning and my brain is on a go-slow in protest)
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Yes, I think I always was one. But it was the sitting up and saying…I’m not going to take this (other stuff) anymore that was so great. I don’t exact scream it to all my kith and kin, but I don’t hide it either. (I do hide my blog..lol )
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Careful, Lady Sighs will out you! She’s a mischievous one. But seriously, we’re born atheist, its then written over by theistic nonsense (without ever asking for it, mind you), then we grow a brain, cast that drivel off and then re-discover our natural state of a-theism. Like coming home!
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Poetry in motion! Love it 😉
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Cheers Heathen. Seemed like an appropriate tweak of the man’s art.
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Perfection!
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That is an awesome piece of artwork! Although I still prefer Not-theism-in-the-slightest 😉
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By the way was that last one modelled on you John?…
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Only if he secretly took a picture of me the first time i saw As Véia restaurant.
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You know that sculpture is almost enough to convert me to atheism, that is, the acceptance that I might have to mention god in order not to believe in him/her/it…
it’s almost a quandary being a Not-theist!
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Foolish woman, you don’t convert to a-theism, you return to it 🙂 And anyway, you’re the linguist: isn’t the “a” in atheism simply a “not” or “without”?
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Actually in linguistic terms it can be anything you like, it’s a cultural reference, though like every aspect of language it is very much open to interpretation, and what particular flavour you like on the day. Language is symbolic and vague, and because of that it cannot be prescriptive. But you know that…
Now class is dismissed!
😉
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Anyway… the fool is the one that believes his definitions to be fact.
😉
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I like this sculpture
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As do i
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It is a great sculpture, timeless
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Spectacular piece of work.
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Hard not to like sculpture, and Zenos’s work is pretty cool.
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Oo one of my favorite sculptures in the city :0)
-b
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You’ve seen it? Lucky sod. I think my favourite sculpture/statue I’ve seen so far is Ettore Ferrari’s statue of Giordano Bruno in Rome. Some of the stuff in Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea is awesome, too.
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Indeed I have. I have photos of it somewhere as well. It’s located here in town in front of the GlaxoSmithKline Building, which I’ve always found to a be a bit amusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuWBVADYJQ0
Had to look up Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea which is quite lovely :0)
-b
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I was told there are great art works in Australia.
I’ve seen ‘Chloe’ in Melbourne, still looking for the other one. You reckon Sydney~?
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Chloe is a mystery to me, but i think i’ve visited just about every BIG from Cairns to Melbourne. Some of that is fine art, especially the Big Prawn.
What constitutes art these days in New Zealand?
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Chole: at the time I spent an afternoon downing beers and gazing at her until I fell off my stool she was in Young & Jacksons pub (“Railway Hotel?) (it was a long time ago) in Melbourne.
Art in NZ has always been anything rugby.
Today the kids are being taught—indoctrinated—that anything Maori is art. Personally I’m not impressed that a gibbering hopping prancing fat-gutted ‘warrior’ in a swishing grass skirt poking a sharpened stick in my face with rolling staring eyes (his, not mine) and poked out tongue yelling “Ugga Boo!” with lots of little yips and squeaks constitutes art … to each his own, but it gets a bit wearing.
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To Argie: I truly admire you cultural subjectivity. It really highlights the way you view your world around you, with deep insight and empathy! Hahaha! 😀 Or perhaps apathy!
LikeLike
The subject of knowing thy self is as diverse as any subject; I am not sure atheist know themselves better than any other -ism. Life is ambiguous at best and because of that, we long after something. Your something, my something are just somethings that pertain to living.
I really respond to this sculpture; this idea of freedom; especially freedom from our assumptions. The ideas behind non-attachment give flight to this unbounded release.
Always interesting to read your post; you keep me questioning what is open and unanswerable; which makes us at heart: philosophical.
LikeLike
Nicely put, and I agree. I guess the point was more, “know yourself” (as best you can) without religion (an unjustified belief) defining/corrupting any aspect of that definition/knowing.
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supposedly we are here to round each other out; to take off those jagged edges we acquire over time and this weekend i took on some heavy blows that just about annihilated the box i live in; I guess it made me more philosophical and even quieter and your statues of liberation was forgive me the pun a god send.
LikeLike
Sorry to hear you had a shocker over the weekend, never fun to be smacked around, but i’d add to your sentence: we are here to round each other out, and cheer others on 😉
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I will clink your glass to that: cheers my friend!
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Fundamentalism worship God.
Atheists worship themselves.
That atheists don’t get their creepiness demonstrates how ruled they are by their own personal bias.
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Silenceofmind, do the nurses know you’re at the computer?
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John,
The first sentence of Pope John Paul II’s tour de force, “Fides et Ratio,” goes like this:
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”
When did you start plagiarizing Catholic popes?
Is that the New Wave in atheism these days?
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Well done, Silence: Linguistic buffoonery at its best
Faith: belief WITHOUT evidence
Reason: Think, understand, and form judgments by a process of observation and logic.
Evidently the best of bedfellows, right?
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John,
Facts are not linguistic buffoonery my good man.
An atheist plagiarizing the Pope is a prime example of buffoonery.
Because you are the one doing it, it is my Christian duty to charity to point it out to you.
We don’t want everyone thinking you’re a moron like Dawkins and Hitchens.
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There was a “fact” in there? Where? Point it out, will you… I must have missed it while giggling at seeing “faith” and “reason” used in the same sentence.
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Dear John,
Pointing out the obvious to atheists is not my job.
But thank you very much for the employment opportunity.
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OK, now I’m just confused. So was there or wasn’t there a “fact” in there. Help me out, SOM.
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John,
Leave it to an atheist to confuse the issue with the facts.
My original comment concerned you plagiarizing a Catholic Pope.
Know thyself is about as Catholic as Catholic can be.
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You should really learn some history, SOM. Know thyself (Gnōthi seauton) is one of the Delphic maxims. It was carved into Apollo’s temple at Delphi and dates back to before the 6th century BCE.
Now, seriously, I need you to point out the “fact” which you say exists. I can’t see it. Help me, SOM, show me your “fact”
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John,
Catholic mastermind Saint Thomas Aquinas melded Greek philosophy with Christianity during the Middle Ages.
I think it is you who need to learn your history.
The atheists are Johnny cum lately’s to “know thyself” school of thought.
Maybe Viagra could help solve your cum lately problem.
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OK, now I’m just baffled. So let me get this straight; in your mind Thomas Aquinas commandeered all of classical Greek thought, Christianized it, and that rendered everything from the Sophists and Stoics to the Epicureans magically non-existent in human history? What a vivid imagination you have, SOM!
Now how about pointing out that “fact” for me?
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John,
Your previous comment is an example of an atheist hallucination.
If you had ever studied the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas you’d be a little more on the ball.
His work is standard reading in any grad school philosophy class and he represents a critical link between the world of the ancients and the modern world.
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Oh SOM, you are a weird one. Natural theology is kinda’ funny, though. Always reminds me of Thomas Paine’s deeply accurate 1794 observation that “The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on nothing; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing.”
Now, I’m quickly growing bored. Are you going to let me in on what “fact” you were talking about, or are we to simply assume you were just making that up?
As a side note, is this you on your meds, or off?
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and again, I like this!
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and again, I’m happy you like!
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John, glad to know that you’re a cat person too. I have too many;) But if the cats would tolerate, I’d host almost any other kind of domestic creature too.
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We’d have 20 already if we could. With our dogs as well there’s (sadly) a limit to space and the attention needed for each little rascal. I’ve honestly lost count of how many we’ve rescued, mended, treated, fixed, straightened out and had adopted. It’s an on-going problem here in Brazil… stray’s everywhere and there are only so many shelters you can support financially.
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Beautiful! Where did you find this?
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Saw the photo and inserted the words… a miracle!
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Reality in four unspoken words — I should be so succinct …
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Well, to be fair, there is a few tonnes of forged metal art in there also 🙂
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A forgery, huh? I might have guessed …
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Oh, clever dog!
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Three wags … 🙂
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That’s fucking brilliant mate! I felt like the last one this weekend. If that’s what being an atheist is, sign me up. I’ll be having me some more of that please!
TSK
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After reading your post i understand what you mean. Hallelujah!
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Praise the almighty atheist on two legs!
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… or maybe more aptly “please myself!”
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Better company 🙂
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You’re probably right 🙂
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lol at the deist…he just, can’t, quite, entirely, break free
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Captures it quite nicely, huh?
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Can I please erect plaster casts of this around the Vatican? I promise to be very quiet and polite.:)
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Hehehe, capital idea, Notes 🙂
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Wonderful work old chap. So true too.
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Thank you, my cultured friend!
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“Go know thyself.”
Sounds like the words God would have used when he introduced Adam’s transgendered clone, Eve.
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Ohhh, nicely played Sir! Nicely played, indeed
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Wait. Han Solo was an Fundie?
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Sweet baby Jesus, it’s so obvious now! He starts off all glum, dark, forlorn, no friends, isolated, violent… then, as he sheds his fundamentalism, he starts meeting people, better people, happier people fighting the good fight. He transforms, a breach in his bricked-in appears and a smile gouges its way across his face like a geological opening… until BAM! He bursts from the light, saves the day, and is loved by even princesses!
LikeLike
I like the way you digress from fundamentalism to idealism like it’s a good thing! People and aliens still had to die in order for Hans to be like by Princesses. That is truly Penthouse-flaw[ed] logic.
I still love ya though 😀
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Bad aliens deserve to die…. Have you learnt nothing about good magic? 😉
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😀
Fair point (secretly I agree, but don’t tell anyone)!
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Han Solo is actually the atheist in the Star Wars series. He says: “…I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.” And I do think he is vindicated during the series, even though the Jedi do a lot of weird and extraordinary stuff by controlling the “midichloriads”, there is no evidence that these symbiotic beings actually controll anything on their own. They are just part of the observable universe, the use of which only seems magical and supernatural to people who are unaware of them.
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Hush, you Heathen! These are not the droids you’re looking for…. Move along…
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Superb !
Sadly, some folks simply can’t handle freedom – of any kind.
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… and yet they’re often the one’s who scream most loudly for it. Odd.
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FREEEEEEEEDOM! Go to hell religion (including God if he ever to exist)!
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No gods, just us 😉
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Hey John, I notice you’ve spent a bit of time over at chicagja’s site and dared not to echo him. I’ve already been banned trying to do what you did – offer evidence contrary to his claims – so just a ‘head’s up’ to expect the same ‘moderation’. For someone who says he doesn’t believe in god, he seems pretty convinced that ICR and the Discotutes are just the kind of experts he needs for his quote mining to show a Law Giver, a First Cause, a Designer (Blessed be His name) but won’t tolerate anyone who questions his ‘experts’ and tries to put the quotes into context. His schtick is to claim those who correct him do so for an ‘ideology’. But for a guy who claims to be an ethical warrior fighting to uphold the truth, he does a piss poor job being one and respecting what’s true. What a piece of work.
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He’s an odd one indeed, and i think he’s already banned me. He pretty much announced, “i don’t like being corrected, you’re asking questions i don’t want to answer, so you’re outta’ here!”
Not much you can do with willfully ignorant people like that.
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This is awesome. Breaking free.
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Thank you, my theist friend!
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Why would you think the man with arms outstretched and his head looking up to Heaven is an atheist? That makes no sense. What I see is a man has found harmony in nature and science, and understands the interconnectedness of all things. In that sense he is rather more like the Magician of the Tarot.
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Fair enough, if that works for you, then it works for me.
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