Maybe First Baptist Church is not so powerful...

[spuwho]

When I read this thread, I feel like I am watching the cat chase the laser light on the floor.

[BridgeTroll]

When I read this thread, I feel like I am watching the cat chase the laser light on the floor.

I have eaten so much popcorn and consumed so much beer reading this I think I may be nauseous...

[JayBird]

When I read this thread, I feel like I am watching the cat chase the laser light on the floor.

I have eaten so much popcorn and consumed so much beer reading this I think I may be nauseous...

Ditto

And me without my popcorn

[ronchamblin]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  To appreciate fully this writing, keep in mind the era within which he lives.

Compare his eloquence, and his perception into the mind and predicament of man, to the words of a Glenn Beck, a George Bush, or a Pat Robertson, or most of the front runners of the last Presidential race.

Got to work.... later.

[BridgeTroll]

The nausea has nothing to do with d'Holbach's writings...

[JayBird]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  To appreciate fully this writing, keep in mind the era within which he lives.

Compare his eloquence, and his perception into the mind and predicament of man, to the words of a Glenn Beck, a George Bush, or a Pat Robertson, or most of the front runners of the last Presidential race.

Got to work.... later.

Oh no, actually I am learning quite a bit and enjoying it. It is just the undertow of clashing personalities that seems to have drowned poor Mr. Knowledge.

[Demosthenes]

[TheGeo35]

In this episode of "Who Runs Jacksonville?", I discuss at length the history of First Baptist and the role that they have in Jacksonville Politics   http://youtu.be/h9uNIn6G_LQ

[ronchamblin]

Meh.  I don't think that eloquence is really a substitute for truth, btw.

And I think your comparison suffers all the more when you juxtapose reasonable writing (like the passages you quoted) with claims that Christians will kill babies, or are mentally ill, or that white people coming the same conclusions about science that Muslim culture and the Chinese had already established centuries earlier 'saved' the world from ignorant Chrisians.

I don't think its possible to borrow the dignity of other peoples writing in order to cover the execrable claims that one makes about one's neighbors.

I know many people in the very Baptist environment of my childhood who have a similar belief.  That they can demean, or pass judgement or berate people unreasonably, (and sometimes out of no other motivation than cruelty and the feelings of self validation that it can bring) and then quote the sweet and gentle words of Jesus to cover such behavior.

This kind of rank hypocrisy and smug, thinly veiled hatred that is the root of so much that makes our everyday lives lesser places is very unbecoming.

By the way, its too bad that the only voices you hear in the world belong to Glenn Beck, George Bush, or Pat Robertson.  There are others, you know.

Perhaps if you tuned into the very real Enlightenment that is going on in the real world around you, you wouldnt think that the way to 'fix' the imaginary problems of the 18th Century is to call people like Debbie Thompson or Ocklawaha mentally ill or potential child murderers.

Believe it or not, the intellectual milieu that exists today outside of the very lowbrow world of politics and people sitting around in a cafe bitching about the punditocracy of that world is more moving, more stirring, more viscerally exciting than anything that has ever happened to humanity in its long history.  And I suspect that you are totally missing it.

Also, may I suggest that you update your reading and your explorations on this matter.  It seems that you probably stopped forming your opinion on these issues sometime in the 1970s, and every vapid televangelist, and every false move by a posturing politician has only cemented the conclusions of a thirty year old version of yourself.

May I suggest that you start with the writings of Mircea Eliade?  While hardly the last word on the subject, he is a good starting point.  An excellent place to start is in his treatise: The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (trans. Willard R. Trask), Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1961.

Eliade is more like the Spinoza of his age, I think.  I am a great admirer of his ideas, although not necessarily his prose.  But I suppose one gets used to that in philosophical treatise.

Perhaps the Western War on Religion is dying down as we come to a keener understanding of the mysteries of both Science and Faith. 

But you will convince no one that you have any Truth to peddle by telling them that they are mentally ill.  Except maybe addicts.

Stephen ..... and I am being completely honest with you ...... as I have no reason to avoid honesty.... but what you have said above contains so many untruths, exaggerations, distortions, insults, and attempts to denigrate, it would take me too much valuable time to respond to each and every point.  I simply do not have the time to engage such nonsense.
 
Therefore, I shall ignore all of them, not because of an inability to engage them productively, but because this potentially valuable and productive forum should not be used to engage the foolishness you continue to inject .... not only regarding me, but with many others, many of whom have jumped ship to escape your habitual juvenile nonsense.  In other words, I am not willing to dignify your nonsense with a response to it.

As I've said before, you seem intent of cultivating an unreasonably high image of your knowledge and your intellect, both I suspect as being reasonably high, but not as high as you would like others to believe.  The problem, and I said this before, occurs when someone threatens your image, perhaps by suggesting that you are ignorant about something, or by innocently asking you to explain something.  You become threatened, and then defensive, and then verbally attack with all sorts of nonsense to obscure your lack of knowledge, or perhaps some mistakes you made in conversation.  You then waste many posts attacking whomever is the victim for that day.  There is nothing wrong with being ignorant Stephen.  We are all ignorant about many things.

Enough Stephen.  Let us have productive forum.  As I've said before, I enjoy your posts, as they are for the most part interesting and witty, although occasioning too many stilted words to attempt further enhancing your image.  I suspect that when you know it best to use a word known by 98 percent of the readers, you spend 15 minutes searching for a word which means approximately the same, but has the advantage that it is known by only .05 percent of the readers.  The purpose is not to impress with stilted words, but to convey accurately your ideas.

[ronchamblin]

I see that you have reposted some of my posts.  Wonderful.  Are you willing to have a civil discussion about one of them?  I am willing to discuss the events and my reasons for posting them.

Or do you simply wish to throw insults?