Sunday, August 10, 2008
Middle aged America
In a skypecast in Skypeland entitled "Middle Aged America", an interesting discussion developed with a lady from Pakistan about the political situation inside Pakistan, the status of Kashmir and Waziristan and Ali Khan. Into this deep discussion where a lot of people were learning a lot, someone from Europe entered. He was disgusted and interrupted the people talking over and over to declare that this was inappropriate for a room titled "Middle Aged America". When he finally managed to get the floor to talk, he regaled us all with accounts about how proud he was that he still had nice bowel movements, could still urinate fairly easily and once in a while even had sex, at the age of 52. Oh brother...
AIDS is genetically engineered
The range of lunatics one encounters in Skypeland is amazing. I stumbled into a discussion where a group claimed that a huge conspiracy exists to drastically reduce the population of the world by AIDS and SARS. AIDS and SARS are supposedly genetically engineered to only attack nonCaucasians. They gave as evidence a passage in the UN documents that the population should be reduced. They said that the Illuminati were behind this, and the Freemasons, who are the keepers of the magical sacred geometry. Anyone who obtained a vaccination would immediately come down with a terrible disease and die.
I said I thought it would be good for the planet if the population of humans would be reduced to help with pollution problems and agriculture problems. Most of the people in the room were outraged and attacked me. I was told that it would be trivial to move all 7 billion people on earth to the USA. I asked how we would be able to feed ourselves that way and they told me it was trivial because I was forgetting about the "free energy". I asked where I could get my free energy and no one answered me.
I asked how they knew about this supposedly secret program and they dismissed my question because others had also asked this question.
When I asked the leader of this group what his education was, he became enraged and said he was educated by the world. Someone asked if he had a passport and he said he did not need a passport and had never been out of the country. They told me that no one needs to have a passport to travel since "all countries are corporations". Therefore, each person can claim to be a "displomatic citizen", or therefore a "sovereign" and travel anywhere and live anywhere without a passport. They talked about a place called the "Country of Alaska" which someone said had issued his documents.
It was claimed that there were no governments anywhere on earth. All the governments were an illusion.
I said I thought it would be good for the planet if the population of humans would be reduced to help with pollution problems and agriculture problems. Most of the people in the room were outraged and attacked me. I was told that it would be trivial to move all 7 billion people on earth to the USA. I asked how we would be able to feed ourselves that way and they told me it was trivial because I was forgetting about the "free energy". I asked where I could get my free energy and no one answered me.
I asked how they knew about this supposedly secret program and they dismissed my question because others had also asked this question.
When I asked the leader of this group what his education was, he became enraged and said he was educated by the world. Someone asked if he had a passport and he said he did not need a passport and had never been out of the country. They told me that no one needs to have a passport to travel since "all countries are corporations". Therefore, each person can claim to be a "displomatic citizen", or therefore a "sovereign" and travel anywhere and live anywhere without a passport. They talked about a place called the "Country of Alaska" which someone said had issued his documents.
It was claimed that there were no governments anywhere on earth. All the governments were an illusion.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thin skin
Sometimes in Skypeland, one meets a "know it all". I entered a cast with the following description:
I thought it sounded promising and I listened to a long confused description of String Theory and Quantum Chromodynamics and Dark Energy and Dark Matter and Zero Point energy. I listened politely and then decided I would correct the host's misconceptions a bit. This did not go over very well.
I tried to tell him that String Theory had been replaced by M-Brane Theory. He dismissed this and said that String Theory is incorporated inside M-Brane theory. He did not understand why M-Brane Theory had been created, or who had created String Theory. At this point the host jumped down my throat and demanded to know my background. He said he had a degree in "applied mathematics" and a masters in "Business Management" so he was clearly more of an expert in theoretical physics than someone who did research in physics, since he lived in the "real world". He demanded that I tell him what schools I had obtained my degrees in, and sneered that I was not an expert in M-Brane Theory. I tried to ask him about renormalization and explain it, but he was not interested.
I started to try to tell him the difference between Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Zero Point energy, since he said he wanted to know, but every time I started he interrupted. I tried again, and he interrupted again, being clearly very sensitive about this. The host said he wanted to learn, but when I tried to tell them what my understanding was, he said I was being arrogant. I apologized and offered to be quiet, but this made him angry.
He claimed that all hydrogen atoms vibrate at 1.1 Gigahertz, and even if you slow a hydrogen atom down to 0.5 Gigahertz, it will automatically speed up to 1.1 Gigahertz, and the energy for this comes from dark energy, drawn in from a higher 4th spatial dimension. He felt that energy from quarks also can leak out to electrons, as another bond between them besides electromagnetic energy. He felt that water must grab energy from a higher dimension to maintain its natural form. The host believed that inflation is the correct version of astrophysics because of this sucking of energy from a higher dimension. He claimed that the electron spinning around the proton is thought to be a perpetual motion machine, but there is friction and it needs to get its energy from a higher dimension. He equated this higher dimension with heaven. He said there was insufficient energy in the vaccuum energy between an electron and a proton to power the spinning of the electron, since it would run out of gas in a few days. Therefore, it has to get its energy from another dimension. The zero point energy is inside the quarks, he said. He said there will be a coming Big Rip where the universe will tear apart, associated with the electrons and protons tearing apart from each other. He said the red shift shows that the universe is going away from itself. Newtonian physics would say that the universe would keep expanding at the same rate. He said that if one included gravity the universe would have to collapse in on itself, but the universe is expanding at an exponential rate, proving his theory. He said that this extra energy is coming from God. He said that neutrinos were Dark Matter. He felt that the universe was like a balloon with water in it, and the water was the Dark Energy, and the balloon was the matter that we can see. He stated that he believed in the Holy Trinity and that his theories prove it. It was an incredible stream of consciousness spew of nonsense.
Eventually I became irritated and I left. I have better things to do with my time.
God, UFO's and AstroPhysics
This show is for people who believe in God. We will rejoice in God through Science and His creation. We may discuss topics such as string theory, quantum mechanics, astrophysics, black holes, white holes, worm holes but no a-holes!
I thought it sounded promising and I listened to a long confused description of String Theory and Quantum Chromodynamics and Dark Energy and Dark Matter and Zero Point energy. I listened politely and then decided I would correct the host's misconceptions a bit. This did not go over very well.
I tried to tell him that String Theory had been replaced by M-Brane Theory. He dismissed this and said that String Theory is incorporated inside M-Brane theory. He did not understand why M-Brane Theory had been created, or who had created String Theory. At this point the host jumped down my throat and demanded to know my background. He said he had a degree in "applied mathematics" and a masters in "Business Management" so he was clearly more of an expert in theoretical physics than someone who did research in physics, since he lived in the "real world". He demanded that I tell him what schools I had obtained my degrees in, and sneered that I was not an expert in M-Brane Theory. I tried to ask him about renormalization and explain it, but he was not interested.
I started to try to tell him the difference between Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Zero Point energy, since he said he wanted to know, but every time I started he interrupted. I tried again, and he interrupted again, being clearly very sensitive about this. The host said he wanted to learn, but when I tried to tell them what my understanding was, he said I was being arrogant. I apologized and offered to be quiet, but this made him angry.
He claimed that all hydrogen atoms vibrate at 1.1 Gigahertz, and even if you slow a hydrogen atom down to 0.5 Gigahertz, it will automatically speed up to 1.1 Gigahertz, and the energy for this comes from dark energy, drawn in from a higher 4th spatial dimension. He felt that energy from quarks also can leak out to electrons, as another bond between them besides electromagnetic energy. He felt that water must grab energy from a higher dimension to maintain its natural form. The host believed that inflation is the correct version of astrophysics because of this sucking of energy from a higher dimension. He claimed that the electron spinning around the proton is thought to be a perpetual motion machine, but there is friction and it needs to get its energy from a higher dimension. He equated this higher dimension with heaven. He said there was insufficient energy in the vaccuum energy between an electron and a proton to power the spinning of the electron, since it would run out of gas in a few days. Therefore, it has to get its energy from another dimension. The zero point energy is inside the quarks, he said. He said there will be a coming Big Rip where the universe will tear apart, associated with the electrons and protons tearing apart from each other. He said the red shift shows that the universe is going away from itself. Newtonian physics would say that the universe would keep expanding at the same rate. He said that if one included gravity the universe would have to collapse in on itself, but the universe is expanding at an exponential rate, proving his theory. He said that this extra energy is coming from God. He said that neutrinos were Dark Matter. He felt that the universe was like a balloon with water in it, and the water was the Dark Energy, and the balloon was the matter that we can see. He stated that he believed in the Holy Trinity and that his theories prove it. It was an incredible stream of consciousness spew of nonsense.
Eventually I became irritated and I left. I have better things to do with my time.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Some Islamic Preaching
In Skypeland, one often meets assorted characters who want to preach and promote their own particular views. The most common religious views that are celebrated are varieties of Christianity and Islam.
Today I ran into some great examples of Muslims who wanted to preach at great length about how their beliefs (and only their beliefs) are correct. The first was a young man from Algeria who claimed that all science and mathematics and languages originated with the Arabs. I asked him about Al Ghazali and his book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers , and he became enraged. He was positive that the Western accounts of what is in this book are wrong. He also said that the word "" was not of Germanic origin as the dictionaries claim, but was instead of Arabic origin (he said it came from the Arabic word "bannaa" which means "builder"). When I asked him why he thought he was correct and the dictionaries were incorrect, he shut off my microphone. And then proceeded to rant and rave and curse me for many minutes afterword.
I then ran into a Sunni from Egypt in a room entitled "they do not Cursing mohammed they Cursing us" who recounted his own idiosyncratic religious philosophy. He told me that Mohammed had predicted huge numbers of events that had come true, such as the oil wealth of the Arabs and the backwardness of Islamic countries. He claimed that Mohammed predicted the Tsunami in Indonesia over 1000 years ago. He felt that there would be a tsanumi in California because California now allows gay marriage. He told me that the Bible stated that God would never do anything like destroying Sodom and Gomorrah as God had done previously, but this Sunni did not believe it. This Sunni was certain God was prepared to destroy societies to punish them.
He said that politicians, particularly Western politicians and American politicians studied the predictions of Mohammed in the Koran. He felt that American politicians secretly know the Koran much better than any Muslim. He said that the Protestants and the Catholics, including Americans, are all Romans, and that Mohammed had predicted a huge war with the Romans. He said that at the end of time, there will be a huge battle signalling the end of the world with horses and bows and arrows, with no guns or missiles, as predicted by Mohammed.
He gave me an example, to try to enlighten me, in text:
To be honest, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.
He said there are no contradictions between the Koran and the bible, but then proceeded to give me many examples of contradictions. He is convinced that the Koran is the absolute truth. When I asked him about the similarity between the Gilgamesh story and the story of Noah, he dismissed the Gilgamesh account since Gilgamesh does not appear in the Koran. He said he only believes what is in the Koran.
He told me that the Shiites were not Muslims, and were secretly Jewish. He said that the Sufis were not Muslims either, and were organized by the Shiites as spies against the Sunnis in Egypt. He said that the Sufis were in hiding because they are afraid. He told me that there was no such thing as Salafis or Wahabis, or any difference between different types of Sunnis who are the only true Muslims. Interestingly, he told me that he believed in the Mahdi and his imminent return, which is not a mainstream Sunni belief, but it is a prominent Shiite belief.
I asked him about the philosopher Al Ghazali, and he told me that Al Ghazali had renounced all his books and writings before he died. Al Ghazali at that time supposedly wanted to go back to being a simple Muslim, instead of a philosopher. He told me that philosophy was evil since it was a science of the Greeks and did not come from Muslims.
He told me that the name Jesus was a false name, and so is Jehovah. He told me that knives cannot cut wood because that is the property of knives. He told me that Abraham was not ordered to kill Isaac, but Ishmael instead, which is a common Muslim belief. He said that the Last Supper was not associated with Passover. He said that Mohammed is a prominent figure in the Christian bible.
I asked him about artwork showing pictures of Mohammed. He said that Muslims never drew pictures of Mohammed in previous ages, but have done so recently because there are now many bad Arabs and bad Muslims. He said that most Muslims are bad, but eventually all Muslims will be good. He said that the Danish newspaper comics showed Mohammed kicking his women, which Mohammed never did and never would do.
He told me that many of the Catholics in Columbia are converting to Islam, and as "proof" gave me a youtube video supposedly showing a young Finnish man who had converted to Islam. He said that the bible had been changed a lot over the years, particularly after Mohammed appeared and showed Jews and Christians the errors of their ways. He said that the reason there are two separate words for "fornication" and "adultery" in English is because that the English invented the new word "fornication" to allow them to engage in this act without consequences, because the original Hebrew does not have separate words for "fornication" and "adultery".
He said there was a huge advantage to Islam over Judaism and Christianity, because Islam has a huge database of "people with footprints"; a large blacklist since the time of Mohammed. They knew who slept too much, and did other bad things, so they knew who to trust. He said that Jews do not have a long history compared to the Moslems. He said this is because there is a big 300 year gap between when the bible was written and Jesus died. He said clearly no one can trust such a book with such a gap. When he was asked if he thought Judaism was not a valid religion, he disagreed and said he believed in Judaism. He said he also believed in Christianity.
He said that Jesus was preaching from the first day he was born, since it is written this way in the Koran, but Jesus is not God in spite of this. He said that Constantinople was taken peacefully without any deaths, with only one word: "Allah". He said that while the Muslims had control of the Holy Land for 1400 years, that Jews and Christians were free to visit it whenever they wanted. I guess he does not understand why the Crusades were mounted.
He also said that in colloquial Arabic, the word "73" was equivalent to infinity.
Wow. Just wow.
Today I ran into some great examples of Muslims who wanted to preach at great length about how their beliefs (and only their beliefs) are correct. The first was a young man from Algeria who claimed that all science and mathematics and languages originated with the Arabs. I asked him about Al Ghazali and his book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers , and he became enraged. He was positive that the Western accounts of what is in this book are wrong. He also said that the word "" was not of Germanic origin as the dictionaries claim, but was instead of Arabic origin (he said it came from the Arabic word "bannaa" which means "builder"). When I asked him why he thought he was correct and the dictionaries were incorrect, he shut off my microphone. And then proceeded to rant and rave and curse me for many minutes afterword.
I then ran into a Sunni from Egypt in a room entitled "they do not Cursing mohammed they Cursing us" who recounted his own idiosyncratic religious philosophy. He told me that Mohammed had predicted huge numbers of events that had come true, such as the oil wealth of the Arabs and the backwardness of Islamic countries. He claimed that Mohammed predicted the Tsunami in Indonesia over 1000 years ago. He felt that there would be a tsanumi in California because California now allows gay marriage. He told me that the Bible stated that God would never do anything like destroying Sodom and Gomorrah as God had done previously, but this Sunni did not believe it. This Sunni was certain God was prepared to destroy societies to punish them.
He said that politicians, particularly Western politicians and American politicians studied the predictions of Mohammed in the Koran. He felt that American politicians secretly know the Koran much better than any Muslim. He said that the Protestants and the Catholics, including Americans, are all Romans, and that Mohammed had predicted a huge war with the Romans. He said that at the end of time, there will be a huge battle signalling the end of the world with horses and bows and arrows, with no guns or missiles, as predicted by Mohammed.
He gave me an example, to try to enlighten me, in text:
zakariah bin ahmed said to hamad said to mahdy and mahdy said to jezo that he heared mohammed pbuh "pray in your choses becouse the jews dont pray on shoes"
To be honest, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.
He said there are no contradictions between the Koran and the bible, but then proceeded to give me many examples of contradictions. He is convinced that the Koran is the absolute truth. When I asked him about the similarity between the Gilgamesh story and the story of Noah, he dismissed the Gilgamesh account since Gilgamesh does not appear in the Koran. He said he only believes what is in the Koran.
He told me that the Shiites were not Muslims, and were secretly Jewish. He said that the Sufis were not Muslims either, and were organized by the Shiites as spies against the Sunnis in Egypt. He said that the Sufis were in hiding because they are afraid. He told me that there was no such thing as Salafis or Wahabis, or any difference between different types of Sunnis who are the only true Muslims. Interestingly, he told me that he believed in the Mahdi and his imminent return, which is not a mainstream Sunni belief, but it is a prominent Shiite belief.
I asked him about the philosopher Al Ghazali, and he told me that Al Ghazali had renounced all his books and writings before he died. Al Ghazali at that time supposedly wanted to go back to being a simple Muslim, instead of a philosopher. He told me that philosophy was evil since it was a science of the Greeks and did not come from Muslims.
He told me that the name Jesus was a false name, and so is Jehovah. He told me that knives cannot cut wood because that is the property of knives. He told me that Abraham was not ordered to kill Isaac, but Ishmael instead, which is a common Muslim belief. He said that the Last Supper was not associated with Passover. He said that Mohammed is a prominent figure in the Christian bible.
I asked him about artwork showing pictures of Mohammed. He said that Muslims never drew pictures of Mohammed in previous ages, but have done so recently because there are now many bad Arabs and bad Muslims. He said that most Muslims are bad, but eventually all Muslims will be good. He said that the Danish newspaper comics showed Mohammed kicking his women, which Mohammed never did and never would do.
He told me that many of the Catholics in Columbia are converting to Islam, and as "proof" gave me a youtube video supposedly showing a young Finnish man who had converted to Islam. He said that the bible had been changed a lot over the years, particularly after Mohammed appeared and showed Jews and Christians the errors of their ways. He said that the reason there are two separate words for "fornication" and "adultery" in English is because that the English invented the new word "fornication" to allow them to engage in this act without consequences, because the original Hebrew does not have separate words for "fornication" and "adultery".
He said there was a huge advantage to Islam over Judaism and Christianity, because Islam has a huge database of "people with footprints"; a large blacklist since the time of Mohammed. They knew who slept too much, and did other bad things, so they knew who to trust. He said that Jews do not have a long history compared to the Moslems. He said this is because there is a big 300 year gap between when the bible was written and Jesus died. He said clearly no one can trust such a book with such a gap. When he was asked if he thought Judaism was not a valid religion, he disagreed and said he believed in Judaism. He said he also believed in Christianity.
He said that Jesus was preaching from the first day he was born, since it is written this way in the Koran, but Jesus is not God in spite of this. He said that Constantinople was taken peacefully without any deaths, with only one word: "Allah". He said that while the Muslims had control of the Holy Land for 1400 years, that Jews and Christians were free to visit it whenever they wanted. I guess he does not understand why the Crusades were mounted.
He also said that in colloquial Arabic, the word "73" was equivalent to infinity.
Wow. Just wow.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Lets start the killing !
The other day, I was talking to someone who identified himself as a police officer. We started discussing the death penalty and he opined that it was a waste of time and money to have prisoners on death row and filling up our prisons. He thought that all these expensive trials and prisons should be done away with by letting the police just carry out justice on the spot by killing those they suspected were guilty. It was all a conspiracy by lawyers and judges and people who build prisons to steal tax money, after all.
I pointed out to him that under his scheme, some people might be falsely accused and that innocent people might be executed. He rejected this, and said that people were never falsely accused. Ever.
I pointed out that the introduction of DNA evidence had lead to large numbers of people on death row being proven innocent and released. He ignored this.
I pointed out that there is corruption among the police and that is why there are internal affairs departments. He ignored this.
I asked about the Blackstone ratio, which is the well known principle in jurisprudence that in our society, we want to have a legal system that falsely convicts fewer innocent people than criminals that the legal system permits to avoid punishment. He denied that the Blackstone ratio existed. I tried to explain it again, and all that it did was anger him.
He stated over and over that the police be allowed to do what they should do. He demanded that the police should be allowed to just kill whoever they wanted, whenever and wherever they wanted, no questions asked.
As I contemplate this conversation, it reminds me of another conversation I had with the Head of the Police Department of the City of Chicago. I met him in a restaurant near the US Naval Academy where his son had been admitted to go to college. I asked him what was the hardest thing about his job. He told me that the toughest thing about being the head of a large police department was ferreting out those who are psychologically unsuited to be police officers. He told me that he has to deal with a never ending stream of officers who only want to use their position to attack the citizens, and be as brutal as possible, to get "even" for some imagined slights, etc.
I guess I can believe the Chief, after what I heard in my conversation with the police officer. But what is amazing to me is, how certain this police officer was that he was correct. He was so sure that he was correct, he probably would have killed me if he could have. After all, that would have proven that he was correct, right?
I pointed out to him that under his scheme, some people might be falsely accused and that innocent people might be executed. He rejected this, and said that people were never falsely accused. Ever.
I pointed out that the introduction of DNA evidence had lead to large numbers of people on death row being proven innocent and released. He ignored this.
I pointed out that there is corruption among the police and that is why there are internal affairs departments. He ignored this.
I asked about the Blackstone ratio, which is the well known principle in jurisprudence that in our society, we want to have a legal system that falsely convicts fewer innocent people than criminals that the legal system permits to avoid punishment. He denied that the Blackstone ratio existed. I tried to explain it again, and all that it did was anger him.
He stated over and over that the police be allowed to do what they should do. He demanded that the police should be allowed to just kill whoever they wanted, whenever and wherever they wanted, no questions asked.
As I contemplate this conversation, it reminds me of another conversation I had with the Head of the Police Department of the City of Chicago. I met him in a restaurant near the US Naval Academy where his son had been admitted to go to college. I asked him what was the hardest thing about his job. He told me that the toughest thing about being the head of a large police department was ferreting out those who are psychologically unsuited to be police officers. He told me that he has to deal with a never ending stream of officers who only want to use their position to attack the citizens, and be as brutal as possible, to get "even" for some imagined slights, etc.
I guess I can believe the Chief, after what I heard in my conversation with the police officer. But what is amazing to me is, how certain this police officer was that he was correct. He was so sure that he was correct, he probably would have killed me if he could have. After all, that would have proven that he was correct, right?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
You are a selfish motherfucker
I was listening to a discussion in a room about Islam in Skypeland that swerved into a discussion about how evil the United States is, and how they should recruit more people to kill Americans since they are against Islam. I decided I had to go in, and told everyone that we should live together in peace and tolerate each other. I was impressed that most people seemed to agree.
Then a Serbian came into the room about Islam, and said it was a good religion. I said I was surprised since I had heard from many Serbians with different attitudes.
We started talking about World War II and he told me that the United States had not helped England or France or Russia in World War II. He told me that Australia and New Zealand had not participated in World War I or World War II. When I said this did not sound correct, he was dismissive, and said that the United States did not play any important role in the second world war. He said this was especially true since the US had never come to Belgrade in World War II.
Eventually we started talking about Serbian relations with its neighbors, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. He told me that the Bosnians were just Serbians who had converted to Islam after 1955 and then started their own army to try to separate. He told me that the people in Kosovo were just Albanian Muslims who had snuck into Kosovo. He said that all the people in countries around Serbia spoke the Serbian language, so they were all secretly Serbs really who had become Muslims and wanted to separate and were therefore terrorists.
I told him that the US had only gone to the former Yugoslavia because the Europeans had asked for US assistance to stop the killing. He denied this was true, and said that I was a "selfish motherfucker" for wanting to stop the killing of people from Kosovo and Bosnians by Serbians. He said that the US attacked Serbia because they wanted to have a strategic base from which to weaken Russia, and because the US wanted to steal the resources in Kosovo. I asked him what the resources in Kosovo were that the United States was trying to steal, and he said that Kosovo had a recently discovered a deposit of one million tons of nickel and also had a lot of concrete.
Eventually the host returned, and was dismayed that things had gone bad, since he claimed that they had a nice conversation before. I will note that the previous conversation was about how evil Americans are and how Muslims should kill them, but since no one disagreed, it was a "nice" conversation I guess.
Then a Serbian came into the room about Islam, and said it was a good religion. I said I was surprised since I had heard from many Serbians with different attitudes.
We started talking about World War II and he told me that the United States had not helped England or France or Russia in World War II. He told me that Australia and New Zealand had not participated in World War I or World War II. When I said this did not sound correct, he was dismissive, and said that the United States did not play any important role in the second world war. He said this was especially true since the US had never come to Belgrade in World War II.
Eventually we started talking about Serbian relations with its neighbors, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. He told me that the Bosnians were just Serbians who had converted to Islam after 1955 and then started their own army to try to separate. He told me that the people in Kosovo were just Albanian Muslims who had snuck into Kosovo. He said that all the people in countries around Serbia spoke the Serbian language, so they were all secretly Serbs really who had become Muslims and wanted to separate and were therefore terrorists.
I told him that the US had only gone to the former Yugoslavia because the Europeans had asked for US assistance to stop the killing. He denied this was true, and said that I was a "selfish motherfucker" for wanting to stop the killing of people from Kosovo and Bosnians by Serbians. He said that the US attacked Serbia because they wanted to have a strategic base from which to weaken Russia, and because the US wanted to steal the resources in Kosovo. I asked him what the resources in Kosovo were that the United States was trying to steal, and he said that Kosovo had a recently discovered a deposit of one million tons of nickel and also had a lot of concrete.
Eventually the host returned, and was dismayed that things had gone bad, since he claimed that they had a nice conversation before. I will note that the previous conversation was about how evil Americans are and how Muslims should kill them, but since no one disagreed, it was a "nice" conversation I guess.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Holy Bible
In a religious discussion in Skypeland, a fervert fundamentalist became quite irate at the suggestion that Catholics used a "holy bible". As far as she was concerned, ONLY the King James Bible is "holy", or possibly other versions of the Protestant bible. According to her, the bibles used by the Orthodox Churches or Catholic Churches are not holy bibles. She was extremely angry about it. I said she should consider being tolerant. This made her furious of course. (Interestingly, http://www.catholicdoors.com/bible/index.htm advertises a Catholic "holy bible".)
I suggested that people who claim to be Christian should follow the "golden rule" (also known as the ethic of reciprocity) since it appears more than once in the bible, and even was quoted by Jesus when he was asked about the most important commandments. Immediately the fundamentalists claimed the golden rule is not in the bible and that Jesus never said "love they neighbor as thyself" was the most important commandement. Several people in the room disagreed with them. The fundamentalists were incensed, but relatively cowed. I said that the problem I have with fundamentalists is that they use their faith as a reason to hate others who believe something slightly different, even other protestants, or Catholics, or Orthodox, or God forbid, the filthy Jews, or the Muslims, let alone the Hindus etc. I pleaded for tolerance of others beliefs and their right to follow their own spiritual paths.
This of course made the fundamentalists really angry. They claimed that they are ordered to "teach" others about their faith. Others in the room said that teaching is fine, but it should not cross the line into judgement, condemnation, superior attitudes and hatred. I was going to point out that the Pharisees are condemned several places in the bible for similar kinds of attitudes and behavior, but then I lost my connection...
After a while I start to notice a pattern or two. I have previously heard Harold Camping of Family Radio preaching fervently that no good Christian should love his neighbor as himself. I have had other fundamentalists and evangelicals become extremely strident and angry when I suggested that the golden rule is an important precept in Christianity and in Jesus' teaching. Hmm...interesting...
I suggested that people who claim to be Christian should follow the "golden rule" (also known as the ethic of reciprocity) since it appears more than once in the bible, and even was quoted by Jesus when he was asked about the most important commandments. Immediately the fundamentalists claimed the golden rule is not in the bible and that Jesus never said "love they neighbor as thyself" was the most important commandement. Several people in the room disagreed with them. The fundamentalists were incensed, but relatively cowed. I said that the problem I have with fundamentalists is that they use their faith as a reason to hate others who believe something slightly different, even other protestants, or Catholics, or Orthodox, or God forbid, the filthy Jews, or the Muslims, let alone the Hindus etc. I pleaded for tolerance of others beliefs and their right to follow their own spiritual paths.
This of course made the fundamentalists really angry. They claimed that they are ordered to "teach" others about their faith. Others in the room said that teaching is fine, but it should not cross the line into judgement, condemnation, superior attitudes and hatred. I was going to point out that the Pharisees are condemned several places in the bible for similar kinds of attitudes and behavior, but then I lost my connection...
After a while I start to notice a pattern or two. I have previously heard Harold Camping of Family Radio preaching fervently that no good Christian should love his neighbor as himself. I have had other fundamentalists and evangelicals become extremely strident and angry when I suggested that the golden rule is an important precept in Christianity and in Jesus' teaching. Hmm...interesting...
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