Recent posts by cantonaitis on Kongregate

Topic: Serious Discussion / I. do. not. want. to. live. on. this. planet. ANYMORE!

While you’re at it, you might want to find a planet where mispelling ‘the’ is considered clever and ironic.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Does suicide mean you are going to hell??

Not all christians. But it does tend to happen that the ones who espouse christian beliefs also tend to be bigoted and/or social reactionary. ‘The muslim’ as you call him, is the same way, and is treated accordingly. That being said, his response to the topic differs in one important way from yours:

Originally posted by thepunisher52:

As a muslim, I consider Suicide a highway to hell.
Unless you are a fidayeen.
No. its not same as suicide bombing, its more like thermoply style last stand or fight to death.

He qualified his statement. For muslims, suicide is a terrible sin. It’s not much, but it’s enough to set him well enough away from what you said, that tried to apply christian belief on everybody.

He also probably got away with it because no one knows what are fedayeen. Judge for yourself whether or not it differs all that much from suicide bombing. Considering how often he romanticizes terrorist ideals, I’m going to say, ‘not that much’.

Also I think it would be proper to reflect on the supposed flak you get.

Originally posted by jmj1011995:

Originally posted by MyTie:

It&#8217

The way to Heaven is through Christ, and doing what He wants you to do.

Really? What about other religions and the teachings of their prophets and gods. Surely they would argue that to get into heaven you must follow what their god says. Furthermore, are you saying you cannot get into heaven if you do not believe in what you believe in?

He is not insulting you. He’s merely pointing out that you were talking about your beliefs as though they are universal truths, when they are not. Not for other religions, not for this forum. Then when karma said basically the same thing I said, you responded with:

He’s not questioning the accuracy of my opinion, Karma. He was explaining to me that there are other belief systems. I’m all like “no crap, really?”. Also, please don’t question how “accepting of others” I am, just because my religious beliefs differ from theirs.

Except you seemed to be missing the point. If you accept that there are other belief systems (like Islam) then it follows that you accept that there are differing moral views from your own, equally certain there’s is the true path to salvation. In other words, you gain a sense of perspective which tempers your tendency to make grandiose claims about the absolute rightness of your beliefs. But you don’t. Your belief system doesn’t just ‘differ’ from others, it can’t co-exist peacefully with others (if followed through). Your belief system sounds something like: ’I’m right and everyone else is damned to hell,’ which you might agree, is not particularly tolerant. So, to put it another way, why should the damned treat your beliefs with any more tolerance than you treat theirs?

Wait, did I just sum up the golden rule? How about that.

Now you might say that the people who criticize you here have no beliefs so the golden rule doesn’t apply. Well, most probably don’t have much in the way of religious belief, but if i might generalize, what they have in common is a belief in the supreme importance of tolerance. If people show tolerance, they deserve to receive it, if not, they can go to hell…figuratively speaking.

Topic: Serious Discussion / hackers need to go

You can kiss me goodby

How about we skip the kissing and you just go.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Does suicide mean you are going to hell??

lol.

Just the idea that christians get more flak than muslims…astounding.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Axiom: Christian God exists and the Bible is true.

…

I see.

And you…founded this church?

I just find it strange to encounter a theology that apparently doesn’t bother with anything else but the bible. I mean, even the evangelical literalists use commentaries or other christian scholars to inform their beliefs. It’s partly why the protestant dislike of Catholicism is so off-putting, because not only is it the church all other churches came from, but it’s been around long enough to have a pretty rich history of debate and discussion about the bible. If you only focus on the bible then yeah, Catholics are heretics. So are most protestants. But to me i think of it in academic terms, where the bible is the source text, and the writings ON the bible are the secondary criticisms…and the latter isn’t just there to take up space. They can be valuable aids to understanding and reflection.

Or else, that would be to claim that the first churches in Corinth, Phillipa, Thessalonica, Collose, Macedonia, Asia etc. where all Catholic, yet if I remember correctly, they often judged each other for their different practices and beliefs, which is shown in the epistles of the apostles.

But…those were the early churches, yes. Roman Catholicism wasn’t established until later…but the fact that they’re mentioned in the epistles makes it clear that they weren’t using the whole bible; they were much closer to messianic jews than Christians.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Axiom: Christian God exists and the Bible is true.

You can hardly say your beliefs didn’t branch off from any church – anxiety of influence – but all right, what’s your church, then?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Axiom: Christian God exists and the Bible is true.

Good idea for a thread. I’ve transferred the post I made from the suicide thread to this one, since it was so off-topic, along with the post I was responding to.

Originally posted by MyTie:

I guess I should say that the majority of Atheists I’ve talked to view the portrayal of the Christian God as some sort of tyrannical unjust meanie. As far as Catholicism goes, they make up the will of God, in places that the Bible is silent. They even change it from time to time. Sometimes they say God sees something as a sin, and then later not, or vice versa. But, the will of God doesn’t change. It’s the most obvious self contradictory “branch” of Christianity there is, although I don’t believe that true Christianity branches out at all. Anyway, it isn’t as though my issues with Catholicism are “irrational”. I’ve thought it out pretty well and can explain my reasoning. I chose to bring up Catholicism because they are the example I can think of who believe that suicide will land you in Hell, among other things that they have decided will send people to Hell or not. They play God, not Church.

Subjectively you may think your view of Catholicism is very clear-cut, but your beliefs are inherently contradictory. You say you don’t believe in the idea that Christianity has branches but that’s what protestantism is – your own sect came out of a larger sect of Christian dissenters. Catholicism is the tree that sprouted those branches. That’s not an endorsement of the Church, by the way, but it is a historical fact.

Your connection of atheists and catholics is not unheard of, but it certainly is bizarre. JFK was the first Catholic president in US history; at the time that was considered groundbreaking, but these days most people have gotten over it, except for protestants like yourself who think Catholics somehow have more in common with atheists than other Christians. Well, perhaps they do, if it’s your kind of Christian – a Biblical literalist.

Atheists are, by and large, people committed to rational inquiry. Catholics, by and large, rely on rational inquiry as well, though not to the extent atheists do (ie. first principles). Catholics don’t believe in a literal bible – no thinking man or woman could. The fact that it was quite obviously written by human beings makes it, if not necessarily fallible, then at least human. And what does that mean? Humans do not communicate the literal meaning of what they say, all the time, or even most of the time. They use metaphor, simile, hyperbole, and many other rhetorical figures to sharpen and excite their audience – other humans. It only makes sense that such rhetorical figures would be in the bible, because even if it was inspired by God, it is still a human creation, and unlike God, there is a gulf of difference between thought and action for us humans.

Because Catholics don’t believe in a literal bible, they have less problems getting along with other religions (and secularism) than the biblical literalists do. Few Catholics see any objection to evolution, or having it taught in schools. Catholics, as I said earlier, rarely try to put their beliefs into law, whether or not the population that follows those laws are Christian. When Pope John Paul II told Christians in Africa that use of condoms was proscribed, the decree only applied to the Catholics, and even then it was left up to their consciences; he could make no binding law to force their obedience. I also seldom hear about Catholics who loudly talk about how they hate homosexuals, or picket abortion clinics. I’m sure they exist, but they get swallowed up in the huge mass of protestants who do that. All in all, I think you may be mischaracterizing just which Christians believe in a vengeful, angry God.

It’s hypocritical for you to claim that Catholics are the ones playing God and not include your own brethren along with them. Yeah, Catholics believe that things change, that the bible can be reinterpreted. So do you, you just pretend otherwise. If the bible was both literal and not open to change, our society would still look like the middle ages. Societies are not static. They progress (or regress) and religions have to adapt or they’ll fall behind. Catholicism at least makes some effort to adapt, but on the whole it’s not good enough – as you unintentionally point out by the Vatican’s continued insistence that suicide is a mortal sin. Protestants like yourself can’t even do that much, and unless Armageddon comes in the near future, your sort of Christian will get left behind.

Yes, that’s a pun. I wonder how many inside jokes are in the bible that are taken as eternal truths by biblical literalists?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Does suicide mean you are going to hell??

That’s really up to God, not the Catholic Church, nor Atheists, both of whom would normally insist God is a vengeful awful intolerant being.

I’ve never understood the irrational prejudice some American protestants have against Catholics. As far as an intolerant God is concerned, Atheists don’t believe in one, and aside from strongholds like the Vatican, Catholics typically don’t try to impose puritanical and discriminatory laws on an entire population the way the far right Christians do in the US.