A Question for Merlyn...

[Achilleez]

You have a peculiar way of loving your enemies.

 

To anyone else reading these posts, does anyone else find BW's unhospitable viewpoint troubling? From what I remember, Christians were a loving, generous lot who were happy to help all. Have Christians gone nasty in the 35 years since I've been one?

[Bob White]

Where did I say I had enemies? Where did I say that I did not love my neighbors? Where, for that fact, did I say I did not love my enemies? And where in the Bible am I encouraged to embrace those that reject God?

 

Your question Achilleez is false and misleading. The premise you base it on was never established ,and was in fact fabricated by you as part of your question.

 

Your choice of disbelief is your free will to make. But I am neither required to agree with it, or give comfort to it, and neither is the BSA.

 

I welcome others to give their opinion of how I have represented my beliefs in this discussion. But no matter what they are, I do not expect that they will sway either of us from the paths we have chosen.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[WHEELER]

Nothing goes "ad infinitum" except maybe space. Cause and effect do not go "ad infinitum". Aristotle said so. He called the Mind of Anaxagoras the Prime Mover. That which can move yet is not moved by itself. The Mind is pure spirit. Aristotle's four causes describe physical change in the universe; does not apply to God. Aristotle is much more smarter than you and I yet he wrote of both the four causes and a prime mover. There is no contradiction here or else Aristotle would have seen it himself. My books are in storage, so I can not do my research on this more thoroughly.

[dsteele]

I'd be heartened to learn, as WHEELER said, "Aristotle is much more smarter than you and I yet he wrote of both the four causes and a prime mover." that Aristotle is much more smarter than all of us except that I fear that Aristotle had even less mastery over the English Language than does WHEELER.

 

What's that you ask, how can I expect Aristotle to have mastery over the English Language? I don't. He was dead long before English was pertinent and those who came after him have translated his utterances as best they can. I do expect someone who quotes him to be accurate with his words, however.

 

"More smarter" doesn't cut it.

 

DS

[Sturgen]

Aristotle is much more smarter than you and I

Mes think he done gone to grammar skooling.

When was Aristotle reborn, I thought he was dead?

Sorry I couldnt resist.

 

[Achilleez]

"Cause and effect do not go "ad infinitum". Aristotle said so. "

 

Well, if Aristotle said so, it must be true. Oh wait, Aristotle also said that the areas between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer were uninhabitable because they were too hot. Looks like the boat hasn't sailed on that one though. Aristotle was a man, not a god. Why have you chosen to treat his words like Divine Scripture?

 

I was also going to make mention of your poor grammar, but it looks as though that cow has already been milked.

[packsaddle]

Aristotle also explained occurrences of marine fossils in terrestrial rocks by spontaneous generation. It boggles the mind.

We owe Aristotle a huge debt for all the contributions that have stood the test of time or have contributed to modern thought. However, we owe him nothing for those things that have PROVEN false. The blade cuts both directions.

But what we owe more than perhaps anything else is to honor him by placing him alongside the best we have now, subjecting his ideas to the same tests, and celebrating those ideas that pass...for now.

 

[Campfire Fairy]

Wow, it's been a while since I've been to the forums here... they've updated and everything, and I feel all shabby and inadequate with a little half star rating... like I'm underdressed in a really expensive restaurant.

 

So, some time may have passed since I was here last, but old habits die hard and I just have to throw in my two cents...

 

An awful lot of people have responded to this thread who -aren't- Merlyn, despite the specifications of the title. Although I suppose if OGE wanted this to be a one-on-one conversation he would have privately messaged Merlyn instead of making it a public discussion...

 

At any rate, these are my thoughts on this matter:

 

Stop trying to persuade one another to conform to your own beliefs. If a person could be swayed so easily, his or her faith must not be very strong. Gentlemen, if you're having an affair (please excuse my immoral example;))with a married woman who says she'll leave her husband for you, what faith can you have that she won't turn around after marrying you and have an affair with another man, and then leave you for him? It's the same way with religion... if I can get Achilleez and Merlyn and other atheists to believe in God, then their belief in -no- God was weak and unsure. Therefore their "belief" that God does exist will also be weak and unsure. In which case, are they any better off?

 

And vice versa to the atheists out there. You can't fully convince a devout Christian that God doesn't exist. He might say, "Nope, no God for me, thanks," but there will always be that niggling thought of, "What if He does? Will I be screwed over when I die?"

 

And now I'd like to take the time to vent about one of my pet peeves. I have a couple friends who claim to be atheist, and yet they say things like "Holy s---" and "Goddammit" (sorry, folks) and "What the hell?/Go to hell." If you don't believe in God or the presence of a Greater power, these are words and phrases that shouldn't be in your vocabulary. If you don't believe in God, don't ask Him to damn things. If you don't believe in Heaven, you consequently don't believe in Hell, so don't order someone to go there. And if there's no higher power, then nothing is holy, perhaps only holey or wholly.

 

That's my dose of babble for the day. Or at least the hour. Ah, how I missed this place...

(This message has been edited by Campfire Fairy)