katzgar (04-08-2021)
Christians have matured since those days. The only religion still at that violent stage is Islam.
Why don't you give credit where credit is due instead of impugning the religion which is no longer going on Crusades?
I think your reluctance to criticize Islam tells us which religion you think should be feared.
katzgar (04-08-2021)
moon (04-08-2021)
moon (04-08-2021), ThatOwlWoman (04-08-2021)
Cultural wars don't end with changed hearts, Owl.
They end in partition [my preferred solution],
genocide [hopefully nobody's preferred solution],
or they don't end at all.
Political polarization may diminish as politics evolve.
Cultural polarization is forever from what history tells us.
People either separate from one another, get wiped out, or keep fighting forever.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Samuel Johnson, 1775
Religion....is the opiate of the people. Karl Marx, 1848
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Kris Kristofferson, 1969
ThatOwlWoman (04-08-2021)
Hear, hear.
Your point about the Carters is the perfect illustration of why Xtianity is dying in this country at the hands of the evangelicals. They prefer a faux "strong man" like #TRE45ON, who is as much a Christian as I am a Corvette. They see true Christians like the Carters as weak and puny. It's much the same way that the Romans at first saw Christ -- He was weak and puny compared to their robust, war-like, lusty gods and goddesses.
"Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain
Cypress (04-08-2021)
"Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain
Cypress (04-08-2021)
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Samuel Johnson, 1775
Religion....is the opiate of the people. Karl Marx, 1848
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Kris Kristofferson, 1969
ThatOwlWoman (04-08-2021)
Agreed. Respect for others is part of unity. Obviously not everyone on JPP believes this to be true.
George Carlin was great. Like South Park, nothing was sacred and I liked that. Even atheist LWLs have sacred cows and watching them clutch their pearls is as much fun as watching the RWNJs clutch theirs.
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
I'm personally a Catholic by ethnicity, not faith. I turned to secular humanism by high school age.
I believe the New Testament has some good advice in it, but that advice isn't apparently "over" with Christians.
My dream is Middle American remaining "United" to their hearts' content,
while the Northeast becomes The Atlantic States of America
and the West Coast [plus Hawaii but probably not Alaska] become/becomes The Pacific States of America.
That's a fantasy. I've no expectations of it happening in my lifetime.
I do believe, however, we'd all get along much better as neighbors and trading partners who aren't writing one another's laws and tax codes.
Because Owl, it takes staggering imagination to see any compatibility between the factions in our cultural divide.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Samuel Johnson, 1775
Religion....is the opiate of the people. Karl Marx, 1848
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Kris Kristofferson, 1969
ThatOwlWoman (04-08-2021)
Most respectful people, regardless of religious beliefs, are too busy with their own lives to worry about telling others how to live. Religious extremism is tied to political extremism since both seek to dominate and impose their beliefs onto others.
The "bad ambassadors" are those kinds of people. We see those kinds of people all over JPP and in protests where violence is involved. It's not a Christian thing per se, but there are certainly a lot of self-labeled Christians spreading hate and authoritarianism both on JPP and in Washington DC.
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
Cypress (04-08-2021)
Disagreed on several points. The main one being that the world isn't Black & White. One doesn't have to be a foaming-at-the-mouth "Christian" or a staunch, religion-hating atheist.
There's religious dogma, militant atheism and a panoply of spiritual beliefs in between. Science covers the Natural Universe. Where science conflicts with religious dogma, then science is correct because it's provable.
OTOH, science doesn't cover everything and that is the realm of faith. An atheist who declares that doesn't exist is an example of a person going on faith, not science.
There's a JPP Christian!
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
ThatOwlWoman (04-08-2021)
They're just barely related.
Religious extremism is exclusive to the cultural war.
Political extremism is a made up concept that each side of the cultural war attributes to the other.
The entirety of sanity, intellectualism, and morality combined are regarded as political extremism to you, Oom,
so your opinion must be considered with that in mind.
Keep seeking that "middle" that exists only in your imagination, Oom.
What a shame. The Dutch people in the Netherlands seem to be smart.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Samuel Johnson, 1775
Religion....is the opiate of the people. Karl Marx, 1848
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Kris Kristofferson, 1969
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