Freemasons vs Lord Jesus: Theocracy barely avoided

[boomerang]

I continue to read much of the same things but I'm not convinced.

As a general rule- Pick out the most extreme example you can find and make it the poster boy for your cause. The underlying message is that all religion is evil, all religious people are evil. I don't buy it.

People here( Mike) preach the religion of the bad god or the religion of the no god. Using the same techniques listed above. You can't or won't see the forest for the trees.

If a good poster boy can't be found people find a way to create one.

Politics is much the same way. Our entire system is corrupt. Can we agree on that?

Of course not all religious people or evil. Just as not all atheists or agnostics are good. This part is not hard. What is "not good" is the mixture of any organized religion with politics in an organized and targeted way. History is strewn with wrongness justified (not necessarily caused) by affiliation with religious movements. Moderation is these cases may be discarded. After all: What action, no matter how extreme in the eyes of man, could by definition be wrong in the eyes of a supreme intelligence who makes all the rules ?

This is what I meant earlier about "intent" as the root of all good and evil. Intent to do good or bad will manifest within systems of any label, whether it be Communism or a nation ordained by god.

No reasonable person is concerned about how anyone worships his or her personal god. In our own way, perhaps we all do. But we see increasing evidence of a wider process. We see almost daily in the news a trend toward the citation of personal knowledge of what deity wants as justification to mind the secular business of others. To suggest religions do not have a long history of this would be, I think, somewhat disingenuous.

The link between right wing Christianity and the corridors of military power for a besieged American culture is somewhat predictable. Ironic that those who most loudly proclaim the power of heaven are often the first ones to arm themselves with all the high tech weapons of mass destruction they can grab.

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."

Robert A. Heinlein

 

[RenaissanceLady]

Wow, what a story. You know, there is nothing more dangerous than a "righteous person" who feels fully justified by his ideology, faith, or self-delusion.

Is it any better in Uruguay? What are the violent crime rates and so forth like? This assessment doesn't paint a very rosy picture.

I know people who have had things snatched, but that is usually the worst of the problems. There had been a shooting of a police officer - several years ago. It's considered such a rare problem that it's still discussed. Also, by and large, the country was left unaffected by this recession, so they don't have the problems facing much of the world.

In spite of the pilfering, I keep reading that Montevideo is among the 30 safest cities in the world and the second safest capitol city after Tokyo. I should also add, while Ciudad Vieja (the old part of Montevideo) and a few other touristy areas has lots of petty crime, most of the rest of the city and the country doesn't seem to have these problems. My friends are in Atlantida and I know they have no qualms walking around late at night.

Uruguay is also considered to be among the world's best democracies, with extremely low levels of corruption and extremely high levels of press freedom. If you haven't, it would be worth reading about their current president, Jose Mujica. He's been described as the "world's poorest president," because he gives 90% of his income to charity. I cannot imagine any American politician doing such a thing. He seems to be very popular, including with my American friends in Atlantida. I also give him praise for understanding the necessity of having a strong infrastructure. The truth is, they all work together to build and maintain a strong infrastructure, in a way I could not imagine happening over here any time in the near future.

I haven't yet visited there. The sad thing is, I had planned on doing this about three years ago, but put it off due to my work schedule and some family concerns. I wish like hell I had committed at that time. My friends finished the move a little over a year ago and seem genuinely happy and grateful to be there. I know they love the healthcare, including the emergency services they had to use when one of them had serious problems with pulmonary hypertension.

 

[starise]

What Does Rapture Theology Say About Christians?
1.The greatest event they can imagine is their god destroying all life on Earth, especially those humans who don’t share their ‘faith’.

2.They believe that they alone, of all the humans who have ever lived, and of all the human societies throughout history, have got it right; everyone else, without exception, got it wrong.

3.They believe they will be given a grandstand seat to watch everyone else suffering eternal agony, and that this will be a reward for being such good people.

4.They believe they are such good people that they deserve to have everything for themselves when all the 'underserving' humans have been killed off.

5.They believe they alone are good enough to occupy an exalted place alongside their god whom they believe is creator and ruler of the entire Universe. No one else is, or has ever been, that special.

6.They know this because they have been told by someone else that it’s true and despite the complete lack of any corroborating evidence. They believe it simply because they can’t imagine NOT being that special.

And these people condescend to lecture other people on matters of morality, ethics and love, and demand the right to meddle in our legislatures, our courts, our schools, our science, and in all aspects of our lives, including what we do in the privacy of our own homes...

Mike you need to make some heavy assumptions to arrive at these conclusions.

There are several views on the so called Rapture. It is an assumption to think all Christians believe this . There are so many straw men around here it's getting hard to see anything.

Who are the "they" you speak of? This isn't a cross section of the Christians I'm familiar with. The word "rapture" isn't even mentioned in the Bible.

The wording of point one is just wrong and an excellent example of twisting something almost beyond recognition.

As a Christian I look forward to meeting God. I don't look forward to seeing anyone die and I wouldn't consider God destroying life on earth the "greatest thing". A more careful reading of the text talks of a new heaven and a new earth. With you the glass is half empty. In my view the glass is half full. Actually mentions a kind of mobile city. Hows that one for a big UFO?

Point 2. This statement tries very hard to make it appear that Christians are somehow stuck up and non inclusive of others. We don't have it right but we believe God has it right and we are simply following Him.If this puts us in another category it isn't bigotry that puts us there.

Point 3. Where do you even begin to find this statement in the Bible?

Point 4. Once again the writer of this is trying really hard to make Christians look like conceited bigots. Most true Christians realize we don't "deserve" anything. None of us deserves eternal life.

Point 5. Redundant to the other points and inaccurate in my view.

Point 6. I don't know where to start. I can't imagine anyone getting it so wrong. Mike it's you who seem to condescend in seeming to know all about what we believe when it is apparent you don't seem to know. Do you consider being part of the politic meddling?When has it been a bad thing for a citizen to become involved in politics? Are you saying we should only elect atheist politicians? Is it only meddling if it opposes your views?

Just as an experiment I propose that we do away with all ethics, morality and love for just one week. Close all of the prisons in New Zealand there where you live. Lay off all law enforcement. Disregard all written laws.

 

[Burnt State]

I work in the industry. We have been talking about this for a while now. People that I work with daily that have technical expertise in this area are simply astounded that this project was executed in such an unprofessional and incompetent manner. Yes, it could have and should have been tested. This is the result of gross incompetence and junk code. The fact of the matter is it is a technical fiasco that could have and should have been avoided. This is what happens when "elected", incompetent, and corrupt officials attempt to throw money at something (usually being thrown into the hands of their friends and family) instead of expertise.

Large portions of it will have to be scrapped and re-written, perhaps even fundamentally re-architected. It's a project in dire need of a proper manager.

But don't gross incompetence and gov't implementation go hand in hand? In the world of the lowest bidder, and where you have to lobby to be on the tender list in the first place, I'm surprised that any bureaucracies function to any reasonable extent at all. The flaws have been built into the system thus defeating any good ideas from rising upwards effectivey.

The other thing I notice, regarding managers, is that their appointments are not always based on skill. And in an age of technological shifting rarely are they up to speed, but they're still in charge. It's aways disappointing to see good money and time going into the toilet but those cycles need to repeat themselves multiple times before someone gets the genius idea to reject redefining all the measurement systems on the size of the new king's foot. Eventually rationalism wins out and the good idea will succeed. Patience is needed before we ask for skill and insight to be per-requisites for gov't bureaucracy.