This topic contains 7 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
David Hayward 1 year, 9 months ago.
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Sometimes I get the feeling when I’m talking with devout Christians is that they are angry because I’m talking during their movie. It’s like when you might watch Star Trek and someone says when the spaceship whooshes by that since there’s no air in space it would be silent. Everybody looks at them because they are ruining the illusion. Just let us enjoy the movie!! You’re ruining it with all your reality talk.
That’s alright if all we are talking about is entertainment. The difference is that Christian beliefs influence education, what we value, and quality of life. Negative influences have been a hostility to education, the increased societal suffering in some nations due to overpopulation such as the Philippians where the Catholic church has opposed birth control, and evangelical’s war on homosexuals.
I think there are times when I have had to learn to not be polite and interrupt the illusion because people are suffering because of Christian’s positions on certain issues. The difficulty is many of these positions that Christians hold don’t respond to reason. This is because they hold their position based on the authority of a particular interpretation of the Bible which is not subject to the lack of evidence or reason.
This problem goes back a long time. Christianity opposed Galileo’s discoveries because it refuted the Biblical teaching that the Sun went around the Earth and the earth was flat. The inquisition was willing to put him to death for discovering a truth that discounted the Bible. This was so extreme that a Flat Earth Society was formed and functioned until the 1980s. It was reformed as late as 2001.
Their Aim: To carefully observe, think freely, rediscover forgotten fact and oppose theoretical dogmatic assumptions. To help establish the United States…of the world on this flat earth. Replace the science religion…with SANITY.
Some headlines from Flat Earth News during the ’70s and early ’80s:[22]“Whole World Deceived… Except the Very Elect” (Dec. 1977)
“Australia Not Down Under” (May 1978)
“Sun Is a Light 32 Miles Across” (Dec. 1978)
“The Earth Has No Motion” (Jun. 1979)
“Nikita Krushchev Father of NASA” (Mar. 1980)
“Galileo Was a Liar” (Dec. 1980)
“Science Insults Your Intelligence” (Sep. 1980)
“World IS Flat, and That’s That” (Sep. 1980)
“The Earth Is Not a Ball; Gravity Does Not Exist” (Mar. 1981)The Christian Church opposed emancipation because the Bible is not anti-slavery and the curse of Ham indicated the Christian god’s unhappiness with black people. This is still a Biblical doctrine of the KKK a Christian organization.
Christianity still opposes evolution because it negates the Genesis story even though we have a mountain of evidence. It is quite simple to prove that life on this earth has been here much longer than 6000 years with simple physical tests. There is a lake in Japan that has cherry trees which drop a layer of white on the lake every year followed by a layer of yearly brown sediment.. The sediment on the bottom of the lake has over 15,000 alternating layers of white and brown. We have calculated the permafrost in a bay in Alaska took over 500,000 years to produce.
We now have Christianity as the primary voice against gay rights. It is clear that no one chooses to be gay or that it can be changed. This is provided by evidence from ministries devoted to changing sexual orientation. Most of them have imploded from internal scandal. We often see the most aggressive Christians against gay rights are often gay themselves. Ted Haggard, the one time head of the National Association of Evangelicals, provides one example of this.
Now I realize that not all Christian individuals are like this, but a large majority of organizations that represent Christians are.
So to refrain from speaking during the Christian movie is no longer a matter of politeness. It is a matter of defending truths based on reality, rather than an illusion.
AnonymousLord protect me from your followers. That is a great wise prayer for sure. God makes people mad. Contemplation of the transcendent is a constantly evolving thing, it’s not the journey some want to take. I wish we could have taken the message of Christ out of the Church and maybe we were able to. We have to wait for those newly disenchanted with the harlot that is the modern church to come to the place of asking themselves if they really ever did love Christ, Christs message, Christ symbolic meaning of grace and freedom through that graceful salvation. Maybe you didn’t it’s okay. It’s gonna be fine anyway, I believe. My idea of a beneficent God of Love, which I do see a place of and evidence of, in history and in the present, all over the place.
I blows my mind when adults are asking my fourth grade questions. Why does God allow _______ or _______or _______! I have had wonderful teachers in my life, just wonderful. I am so grateful to all the gracious and peaceful people in my past who reminded me that this earth is ours to exercise our free will , where the ruled and the rulers make decisions that cause _______or ________or _______. We in America have a gift of our ability to speak to our leaders and expect respect. In most countries expressing your political or religious views are death sentences. We have a gift of peace in America. I hope we don’t blow it.
I adore science, the pictures we are getting back from our deep space probes are wonderful. Have you heard about the Magnatar? lol. I love Neil DeGrasse Tyson and if Stephen Colbert didn’t have such a grating voice, I would love him too. lol. Just kidding. I love Stephen, “in a weird Catholic way, I do.” lol. Very cool video, I saw this before. We watch pre-recorded Colbert’s around here. lol. We balance out our other news outlets with comedy central. It’s a survival trick we’ve learned over the years.
Anonymous“So to refrain from speaking during the Christian movie is no longer a matter of politeness. It is a matter of defending truths based on reality, rather than an illusion.”
And it’s also about getting victims out of the clutches of those who only want to yield power. I remember a particularly contentious forum thread in another group where the Catholics were being asked how they could possibly remain steadfast to the Catholic church after another set of heinous sex crimes were uncovered and this did not go over well.
It’s about loosening the grip on tribalism I think. Protecting “ours.” Who is “ours”? Who is not one of “ours”? And why? A lot of people don’t want to ask and answer those questions either.
perfect analogy richard. i like it. but could you hold that thought until we’re done? which is NEVER!!!
AnonymousIn my case, it is almost as if they have a reality filter that filters out everything any of us have to say… It’s not like we bother them when they are watching their movie, it’s that they are so focused on watching Fonzie jump the shark that they don’t even hear us talking.
The enchantment of the movie is powerful … oh to extend disbelief in reality!!!! Like a far side cartoon… what someone says such as “fido don’t pee on the chair.” and fido hears, “fido, blah blah blah blah blah.” And Jaymar, Fonzie jumping the shark! So bad! ha ha ha ha ha ha
nice analogies thanks!
David,
Maybe there’s a cartoon idea in there somewhere. LOL
Richard
That’s where my mind always automatically goes.
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