Randi Rhodes Forums

Matthew 24:10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Isn't it funny that the haters are the ChristAIns?
They hate anyone who offends them.
They were the ones who betrayed family and friends during the time of Hitler
They are the ones who were offended and hung supposed witches in Salem
They are the ones who want you to get a gun and let" god sort them out"


They, ChriSTAINS are the deceivers. They are the liars. They are the haters
Look at them, they are divided. They can't even have church with integrated congregations.

They claim to have the power of GOD but they are weak with the sickness of hate.

(In my opinion at this time in my life.)

And fundie atheists wonder why no one takes them seriously....

This is an argument that simply makes no sense to me, still...

Regardless of what anyone says, not believing in Leprechauns does not make me a fundie of something...

There is equal proof of the existence of Leprechauns and of God...

I love my Christian liberal brothers and sisters deeply and dearly, no buts.

(I even love the very few libs I argue with and cant get along with, they piss me off greatly, but I love them, cuz they are liberals and i know that makes them love worthy, usually anyway)

i know this won't be the popular opinion but

if a person tries to live an honest life ~ i try not to judge them on their religious or political beliefs. (that doesn't mean i don't think they're wrong about some things and i express it based in logic and fact, but ultimately i am not my brothers keeper)

2 of my best friends are conservative and many of my friends are religious. but i don't sleep with them and despite our differences, we are all the same really. imo.

It's actually pretty simple. The fundamentalist mindset isn't limited to one particular religious ideology.

Without rehashing a discussion we've had on the RRMB several times, it boils down to this:

-A fundamentalist is someone who has an exclusive claim to Tha Trooth.
-They try to convince others that if only they would listen to Tha Trooth, that person would understand everything perfectly.
-They extend this to say that if ALL people would just listen to Tha Trooth, we'd live in a utopian society with no wars or greed. Unicorns would fart glitter.
-Anyone who has heard Tha Trooth yet had the gall to reject it is now apostate. They are THE ENEMY. Their status is now less-than. There is now no level of rhetorical excess that is unacceptable in denigrating the enemy.

Let's use Lila's post as an example.
Childish manipulation of someone's term for themselves a la "DumboCRAP Party"? Check.
Invocation of Hitler? Check.
Painting the whole group as murderous monsters? Check.
Prooftexting with the Bible by self-proclaimed non-believer? Check.

Not all atheists are fundamentalists, no more than all Christians are fundamentalist. In both cases, however, they tend to be the noisiest of the bunch.

One of the few Christians on this planet I have any respect for is Mark Thompson, radio guy

Turns out he is becoming a regular guest on Odonnell, i think, last night anyway

He is so natural, so raw, and just a good guy...even on the radio i dont get the "show biz" thing from him that I get from all radio people...

Just an FYI, JK. I didn't get Lila completely at first either, but from what I've seen over time, she's actually a (somewhat unconventional) Christian who AFAIK deals with issues of sexual orientation as well.

Agreed. Declaring people worthy or unworthy of love based on political affiliation reminds me too much of having been a fundo.

Fundamentalist thinking is found in many areas of life.

"Abstract paintings don't belong in museums. Only figurative painting is worthwhile, nothing else is art, and everything else is crap."

"If Marx said it, it can't be wrong. If it can't be made to harmonize with Marxism, it's not worth studying it." (Or substitute Lenin, or Mao.)

"The way our tribe does things is the best and most perfect ways of doing things, any other group must be primitive, savage, or inferior."

Those are all fundamentalisms.

It's not just "religious" people who show traits of dogmatic thinking. It's just that many religions tend to attract dogmatic thinkers.

my worthy comment was a clumsy way to refer to one person on this board...

i dont waste any of my energy finding the "good" in righty anymore, too hard

That, and I've found people will make religion out of anything. Even secularism, even science. I don't know how many IT people I've known who look down their noses at "stupid religious people", yet believe literally and fervently in straight-up creation myths, such as Apple Computers in garages.

Well, I know what you mean, there. It can indeed be exhausting to try, that's for sure.

Well, yeah... look, I'm a Mac guy, but I never really got into the Cult of Steve Jobs.

He was never more than a pitchman. Just a really good one. Out of the two, I'd say Woz was closer to being a so-called "genius". And he had his own reputation for being a dogmatist. Every Apple Store had to look a certain way, the mouse HAD to have one button, for a while Apple not only made its own monitors they even made their own printers & peripherals; and my favorite "Apple will never do a cell phone" ... it was always his way or the highway and being a notorious control freak, he made sure Apple controlled the "experience" from "A" to "B".

And yes, I think sometimes his dogmatism is what consigned Apple to 5% market share. His first action when he came back to Apple was to kill its hardware cloning program, right before it had a chance to work. In some ways, and I know this heresy to the cultists, the company may finally get better now that he's out of the way. Maybe even allow clones again?

Of course, I've seen the flip side. There are also diehard fundos who would sooner have their fingers fall off then touch an Apple product, and I've heard all their crap. "People buy Macs just because they look pretty." And "all Apple products are overpriced underpowered ripoffs." Not only would they get gangrene before they would touch a Mac, they wouldn't contaminate their PC by using an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. And they would call me a "fanatic" because I like to use Macs personally (although I never insisted it was "the one true way" for everybody).

Sigh, I remember all the silly Usenet wars I used to watch over this stuff. Ahhh, Usenet.