Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

"I don't have anything against God...
...it's his fan club that I can't stand!"

Whether its a cut or just reallocation, the fact that a federally microscopic $39 billion cut over 5 years is major news is very discouraging. All that wrangling for, what, around 00.3% (yes ZERO point 3 percent) of total spending for that time frame? Is this going to make *any* diff in the grand scheme of things?

We spend this much in 4 months in Iraq. Everyone's going after small game, the low-yield targets that don't get you anything but are easier to fight over. The big money is Defense & Soc Security (though the latter is currently running a surplus so is not YET a deficit source, but eventually it WILL be) and Medicare is really the bull in the china shop with regard to budget -- SS reform doesn't have much traction, so I say for the latter two categories it's time to get realistic and target the retirement age, index it to life expectancy! Got to eliminate this expectation that everyone can just sit around from 65 to 105, the economy needs a certain proportion of the population producing goods & services to do what is being asked of it.

michael corrieri said:
EDIT - Since there's no response, and I need to do some things today, I have to say that you obviously have no clue what ignosticism is about. It's a core belief that the discussion of God cannot even be had until we fully understand what is meant when somebody says the word God.

Wouldn't that take all the fun out of the discussion? 8) 8) 8)

No one in the thread save Tim has made an attempt yet to address the actual question so I'll take a crack at it:

God:
1) A cosmic-scale force/intelligence/consciousness, either (a) external to the observable cosmos, or conversely (b) permeating all of it.
2) A consciousness that is superior to all that exist. A "supreme being".
3) Some form of intelligent/conscious cosmic governance.

When I talk about God (which is not too often) my tendency is to think along the lines of 1(b) or 1(a). I think the most fundamental definition that has commonality among believers of various sorts is (3). I certainly would NOT choose a title such as 'Creator of all that exists' since it is internally contradictory (i.e. if God was not created by God then how can he/she/they exist?).

My 2 cents, I gotta go bike off some heavy holiday calories now

Sandy's inauguration day!

Welcome aboard

Sandy Stubblefield said:
Those who trust in God stand strong in the assurance of His promise. It's not a matter of God changing His mind but, of being confident that He will keep His word.

There are many, some here, that have changed their mind about being sure God is on their side. God will always keep His promise.

It is not that one doubts that God would keep a promise. What one is left to doubt is whether the promise is, indeed, his... or if it is merely the words of men claiming to speak on His behalf (i.e. primitive versions of Pat Robertson).

It's not really about distrusting God as such. It's more about questioning the knowledge (and sometimes motives) of His spokespersons.

Sandy Stubblefield said:
What's wrong with this?
There is No Problem with being sure God is on your side...

It's great when it's a positive thing. But the writer was of course referring to other all-too-common situations.

Unfortunately, many are just as sure God is on their side with regard to killing innocent people in terroristic acts. Or persecuting those of other religions, or of other denominations within one's own religion.

Being sure God is on one's side allows one to cast aside normal moral judgment and rationalize almost any course of action, however wrong or inhumane it might be, since no cause is higher than God's. And there is no opportunity to change one's course of action, since God doesn't change his mind.

And for some queer reason the person sure God is on their side generally assumes that God's prime cause has something to do with the advancement of that person's particular religion. 8)

That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with it.

Just in case it should get dredged up, I just wanted to disclose right here and now I got a speeding ticket about 4 years ago.

I'm glad I got that off my chest. 8)

God: The personification of the abstract concept of pure perfection. Ineffibly pure and uniform, unvarying and free of defect. The Ultimate Idealized State of Existence.

I know it's kind of a nod to things Jim has said before (and which I generally argued against at the time) -- I am going somewhere with this, but wanted to throw it out there in case anybody wanted to throw anything into it first. 8)

Robert Apruzese said:
The garden of Eden is full of AP apos in unlimited supply. Original sin is CHROMATIC ABBERRATION. Baptism is with holy oil used to space AP tripletts, it washes away the sin of color error, and makes us optically pure and worthy of salvation.

Some of us of course foolishly ate fruit from the Tree of No Money, and so the salvation of AP apos eluded us. We were cast out of Eden, and forced to toil with tubes and optics, to earn our salvation from chromatic aberration with our good works of constructing long-focus newts. 8)