| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Tombstone Blues |
Posted - 23/09/2007 : 18:30:39
http://www.one2believe.com/
Hours of fun! |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Anubis |
Posted - 24/11/2008 : 18:45:28
How sobering!
If this is the general populace speaking -- and clearly it is --- how come idiots like me still believe humanity is capable of creating a rational world ....
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=86400
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| Tombstone Blues |
Posted - 11/11/2008 : 18:08:37
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3439588/Garden-gnomes-banned-from-church-cemetery-because-they-are-unnatural-creatures.html
The lunacy continues.
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| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 08/11/2008 : 11:59:01
Well, there you go folks, the credit crunch is all down to god punishing us mere mortals ... according to the Bishop of Lewes |
| Anubis |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 22:17:24
quote:
Originally posted by sweeny todd
it seems to me that whilst you all seem in my view to have a rather negative view on the thesis of there being a god does anyone think of anything better ! ie a superior being that may or may not have seeded this planet ? all replies welcome ! jocular or otherwise !
"little green men"? is one possibility --- you apparently missed the various alternatives considered on the previous page, Sweeny ....
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ut-ZwWVotls&feature=user
work through 1 - 5 !! |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 22:15:24
God doesn't bother me so much as what 'man' has determined God to be. All things to all men and the devil take the hindmost. Personally I am ambivalent about the existence or otherwise of God. Its a bit like the monarchy really ... I try and be law abiding not because I revere the Queen but because I hold that lawful conduct is more conducive to a general sense of societal well being. By the same token, I try and accept my fellow man, woman and child, not because of some God decree but because it is more conducive to a general sense of societal cohesion.
As for the geocentric (in the secondary meaning, to wit: based on the earth as the centre of perspective and valuation) view of life being something designed and created ... Personally I favour the long line of accidental mutations as the origin of live, the universe and everything.
And the answer is still 42!   |
| sweeny todd |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 21:13:07
it seems to me that whilst you all seem in my view to have a rather negative view on the thesis of there being a god does anyone think of anything better ! ie a superior being that may or may not have seeded this planet ? all replies welcome ! jocular or otherwise ! |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 18:15:03
This sort of veneration for old bones goes back to Ancient Egyptian times and beyond!
There is an interesting account going about regarding the prophet Elisha's bones ... (OT 2 Kgs 13.21 & 2 Kgs 2.14) |
| Anubis |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 16:27:03
quote:
Originally posted by Miriam Binder
I've been to Santa Katerina. It is a fascinating place. Do you know they keep the skulls of all the monks that died there in a huge vault ... well vaults actually. There are also the mummified remains of the very first abbot. The monks are odd creatures - vitriolic when they think you do not understand what they are saying. But the library .... Wow! A gorgeous collection of hand-scripted books with absolutely gorgeous calligraphy and the decoration on some of them is out of this world. So absolutely beautiful!
On a lighter note ..........
Don't make the mistake of imagining 'keeping the bones of priests' only happened in other countries ... as a small extract from one of my favourite "History of Britain" books reminds us:
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| Anubis |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 11:02:06
quote:
Originally posted by Miriam Binder
I've been to Santa Katerina. It is a fascinating place. Do you know they keep the skulls of all the monks that died there in a huge vault ... well vaults actually. There are also the mummified remains of the very first abbot. The monks are odd creatures - vitriolic when they think you do not understand what they are saying. But the library .... Wow! A gorgeous collection of hand-scripted books with absolutely gorgeous calligraphy and the decoration on some of them is out of this world. So absolutely beautiful!
So, lucky you! Never managed Israel and/or surrounds .. and the majority of posters will, like me, have missed out a lot. Looks fascinating in the pictures one sees of the monastery and no, I for one didn't know monks' skulls would be in evidence, although this seems to have been customary in early Christian communities. Obviously the extensive catacombs in Paris are quite different in that it was just a massive common burial place and the thousands of re-arranged bones greeting the visitor are hardly showing the devotion and respect which you describe, Mim. I read your post about an hour ago and have spent the intervening time trying to remember the name of the small town in the south of Germany, very close to the Czech border, where there is a small Catholic church/priest residence and in the church, on display, are about eight (?) clothed skeletons of medieval priests/monks. Parishioners, sitting in their pews during services, would be looking at these skeletons surrounding them. Maybe someone else can remind me of the name of the town I'm talking about. (If I've got it right, the skeletons came to the south of Germany in 1943/44 from Italy (Vatican?) to save them from destruction in the invasion of the country. After the war, the Italians wanted them back, but the church was now part of the DDR and the request was refused. Where am I talking about? ... it's a small town, just a main street and a small square in front of the Church I'm talking about).
Alzheimer's onset is painful to watch, isn't it!
Interesting notes from you, Mim. I'd like to see it all as well, but can't imagine ever making that journey (or any lengthy trip -- I'm just getting too old for those far-away hikes. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 09:26:49
I've been to Santa Katerina. It is a fascinating place. Do you know they keep the skulls of all the monks that died there in a huge vault ... well vaults actually. There are also the mummified remains of the very first abbot. The monks are odd creatures - vitriolic when they think you do not understand what they are saying. But the library .... Wow! A gorgeous collection of hand-scripted books with absolutely gorgeous calligraphy and the decoration on some of them is out of this world. So absolutely beautiful! |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 08:37:26
New? Who said anything about new? What is interesting are some of the comments below the article ... |
| Anubis |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 08:34:55
quote:
Originally posted by Miriam Binder
Well, this should be interesting.
Nothing "new" Mim -- the separate texts are well known already to those interested enough to look for/at them -- joining them together and digitalizing them will add nothing more .... |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 07/10/2008 : 06:28:38
Well, this should be interesting. |
| Daveb |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 05:59:39
Drunk abd blind cows stampede and many are killed on their way to the temple to protest against cattle getting the blame for global warming! |
| camelot |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 00:43:32
That is disgusting Daveb, To compare the tragic deaths of people to sacred cows...I would comment further but my vision seems to be failing.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3716048._Counterfeit_vodka_could_cause_blindness_/ |
| Daveb |
Posted - 30/09/2008 : 20:36:42
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7643373.stm
There must be a link here somewhere?
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3714370.Railway_stampede_leaves_five_cows_dead/ |
| Anubis |
Posted - 30/09/2008 : 09:42:51
For the 'non scientist', this is probably the best, most humorous, light-hearted tackling of controversial related issues to come from Dickie Dawkins -- at the Edinburgh Book Festival earlier this year: (Watch all five tapes, in order)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ut-ZwWVotls&feature=user
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| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 25/09/2008 : 14:19:05
That woman is seriously scary ... |
| Anubis |
Posted - 25/09/2008 : 13:20:02
Thank heavens! At least we won't have witches in control of the USA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj-on3kfWuE&feature=related
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| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 20/09/2008 : 08:51:40
I think they are hoping it will bring in the cream cakes. |
| Anubis |
Posted - 20/09/2008 : 08:41:18
This surely must take the biscuit !!??
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4790856.ece
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| Anubis |
Posted - 18/09/2008 : 22:36:54
Ankara - Turkish internet users have been blocked via a court order from accessing the site of prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins after complaints from lawyers for Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar, the website of Turkish television station NTV reported on Wednesday.
A court in Istanbul ordered that Turk Telekom block access to the site and since the weekend Turkish internet users seeking the site have been redirected to a page that says in Turkish 'access to this site has been suspended in accordance with a court decision'.
NTV reported that Oktar complained he and his creationist book 'Atlas of Creation' had been defamed by comments made by Dawkins on the site. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 15/09/2008 : 11:29:47
A loop-hole in the law ... well, there's a new one. Next you will see that loop hole closed! |
| Anubis |
Posted - 15/09/2008 : 09:23:49
and so, dear readers, don't say it's 'come without warnings' --- from this very post in livewire !!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055764/Islamic-sharia-courts-Britain-legally-binding.html?ITO=1490
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| Anubis |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 23:21:30
quote:
Originally posted by Miriam Binder
And further to Daveb ... how absurd that anyone should object to debating anything too much because they feel it is merely "word meanings". It is words and their meaning that give shape to our thoughts and allow us to express our view of 'reality' to share with those around us. If we cannot agree on "word meanings" then there is very little point in any debate as we will never really know whether anyone has anything more than a vague notion of what we are saying.
Sorry, but I'll have to leave the 'linguistic logic' to you two -- quite honestly, I just cannot understand what this sentence could possibly mean "How absurd to assume thet anyone could agree to a statement that all the fairy stories use any form of common logic to assess their numbers" .... To add to my humiliation, Mim obviously DOES understand it, agrees with it and develops it "further", using a logic that is equally far beyond my understanding; I freely acknowledge my very obvious limitations. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 21:23:11
And further to Daveb ... how absurd that anyone should object to debating anything too much because they feel it is merely "word meanings". It is words and their meaning that give shape to our thoughts and allow us to express our view of 'reality' to share with those around us. If we cannot agree on "word meanings" then there is very little point in any debate as we will never really know whether anyone has anything more than a vague notion of what we are saying. |
| Daveb |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 20:15:13
How absurd to assume thet anyone could agree to a statement that all the fairy stories use any form of common logic to assess their numbers. |
| Anubis |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 09:28:22
quote:
Originally posted by Fluffy Sheep
If you consider a child `abused` because it is raised in a culture and/or a faith with a sense of belonging, then surely you must consider it equally an `abuse` when a child is raised in a void of indifference - its parents out to shift work, pub or bingo, child left to its own devices with juvenile babysitters/elder siblings, telly and electronic games, till it`s barely old enough to roam the streets and find a sense of `belonging`, even in a gang of hooligans.
As I said, this is not something I wish to argue about too much, Fluff, simply because I think it's "word meanings" we are talking about. I remember about twenty years ago reading about a bombing in a family home in Ulster. The family was not "at home" when it happened and so there were no human casualties -- but the bit canary, in a cage, had died. One of the locals living on the "other side of the street" had smugly remarked, well it wasn't a complete waste of effort ... after all "it was a Catholic canary".
Yes, absurd, but no more absurd than the Catholic practice of counting as members of their Church every child born to a Catholic family as contributing to the "Catholic community". OK, so Dawkins chooses to regard this as an "intellectual abuse" of the child .... and I agree it's NOT the terminology I would choose to use. But the same word can have many meanings ... and this is no rare exception. In common parlance we talk of gamblers "cheating" at cards, we talk of husbands "cheating" on their wives .... people can understand each "cheating" refers to activities fundamentally different (in the first example, nobody gets irate and argues the gambler has been accused of fucking the Ace of Spades!
On the religious aspect of number counting, that each congregation has a different methodology for deciding how many "members" they have is THEIR business and THEIR BUSINESS ALONE .... but for those who may be interested in COMPARATIVE religion, it does help if everybody uses the same approach. I'm sure you must agree. |
| Fluffy Sheep |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 00:13:50
If you consider a child `abused` because it is raised in a culture and/or a faith with a sense of belonging, then surely you must consider it equally an `abuse` when a child is raised in a void of indifference - its parents out to shift work, pub or bingo, child left to its own devices with juvenile babysitters/elder siblings, telly and electronic games, till it`s barely old enough to roam the streets and find a sense of `belonging`, even in a gang of hooligans. |
| Daveb |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 18:19:17
You will find that we are in one pigeon hole or another from birth and at many other stages of life.
Even if we are not someone will carry out some research and collate the results to put us in one.
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