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I know, relgious people hate the heat and wish these threads would go away, but it's not religion per se. It's stupidity in general that I rail against, religion just happens to be stupid on a massive scale.


Seriously, if your going to be making the whole thing up, why not be clever and funny? It took a grad student a couple of days to come up with the whole Flying Spaghetti Monster pastafarian thing and it's way more fun than any of the other organized relgions that have been around for centuries. I mean you had thousands of years to make it better, WTF?

 

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If you continue to ignore the problem maybe it will go away. That would be super scientific.

Again, you clearly have no grasp on science...

 

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That was a super scientific retort too.


It reminds me of that time you tried to argue against Onin by saying lots of smart people disagreed with him so how could he be right? That was an excellent scientific retort as well.


You sound a lot like a religious person who insists you just don't understand when you question his beliefs.

Personally I am not religious and I think you and the other fundamental atheists are fucking idiots.
When was the last time there was a thread by the religious dedicated to mocking the non religious? Its about 50-1 with the stupidity tilting to the militant atheists side.

 

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We've already been through this, yuki. You and onin clearly stated that your beliefs come from intuition and epistemology makes it pretty clear that's the wrong way to go. So what's there left to talk about? How you guys don't understand philosophy? How is that going to be any fun?

 

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Enkidu, you might be awesome at science, but I don't think you have a good grasp on people and what drives them. Even people that believe as you do can see this.

 

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Shotoku has fascinated me for a variety of reasons, none the least is he was born either in a stable or near a stable with a star ascending over it [depictions on display in the British Museum]. There are reports of his birth, either in or near a stable, that on the surface conflict but that maybe a function of translation rather than 'reporting'. Since obviously his mother would have been in distress at delivering a prince in such a place, she was immediately attended to by her husband's advisers [wise men] who brought her ointments and scented incense to improve the smell of the stable. He predated Christ by several centuries and his region became known as either of the son, or of the sun.


Buddha vehemently denied his own deity which some of his followers insisted on foisting upon him. He clearly regarded himself as a teacher, and if people are praying to him clearly they did not read his own writings. Buddha wrote several prayers which were to be said, or chanted, in study or temple groups to begin the path to enlightenment, or the empty mind. They are still chanted by Tibetan monks prior to deep meditation. The four heavenly kings are essentially north, south, east, and west. The names of the kings are used to refer to the person who has the teachings and spirit of that king flowing in him. If you were to adhere to the virtues represented by one of the kings you would be referred to with his name. There is some mythology around their children but I am really unsure where that plays into Buddhism at this time. The number 4 is repeated throughout the centuries, four kings, four elements, four continents of meaning, etc. some of which have been discarded in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary.


I don't want to fight over semantics either, but recommend the same book to you as I recommended to AA, if you are interested.

 

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Hasn't always been that way though, I used to enjoy it when it was flipped around - now there just isn't any sport in it at all...

This topic IS the Outposts dead horse...

 

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