The Hall of Fire

TED-- But then, if you don't believe in God, the question of goodness is somewhat moot, is it not? ;) Speaking as someone who once was Christian, back in my believing days I had trouble reconciling the notion of a omniscient and supreme being with a hierarchy of other spiritual beings, whether in hi...

It's not at all certain that the bar-bet buddy described in Job is at all related to the shadowy figure Jesus is tempted by, or the serpent in the Eden story. The devil lacks a cohesive narrative in scripture, and in its absence, numerous narratives have been created for him...Dante and Milton being...

That's because he WANTED you to see him as a feminist.

GC is the most elusive bastard in the canon, IMHO. Always another layer to peel in those innocuous little stories...especially if you know the history of the time.

I may have to get some of those tee shirts...

My memories of grades 7 and 8 are that they were complete and utter wastes of time for everyone except those with Attention Excess Disorder. The hormones certainly didn't help, but the real enemy was the lack of challenge. In my district, after you learned to read and to do fractions, you spent the ...

In the grand scheme of things, is it actually possible to teach 14 year olds anything? In a classroom?

Even the need to be loved pales in comparison to the need to be understood, I think. Not approved of, just understood. Understanding is rarer than either love or approval. What is it about Saturday mornings and aphorisms? But anyway, I can't help but admire people trying to understand the pieces of ...

Most Christians for whom Hell matters believe that the real punishment there is eternal separation from God, which sort of begs the question of why the tangible torment (flames, et al) is necessary. It makes more sense as a metaphor, really, of the eternal consumption of the self by the self in the ...

This conversation really does remind me of the sample of medieval Scandanavian poetry (in translation of course) included with Cvltvre made Stvpid: We sail down from our frozen shores And havoc wreak on you pallid bores We cut off your hands and laugh We cut off our hands and laugh That's the kind o...

If Selig is not replaced by someone from outside the ownership, baseball should lose its antitrust exemption. End of discussion. It's the only stick they're really scared of.

I would say something about the Cardinals, but I refuse to support them for at least the first year in their new old bloated ballyard.

This is totally separate from my other discussion here, but...a God that could not suffer would be incomplete and not much of a God. One need not believe in the Incarnation to believe in the absolute necessity of the divine experiencing what we do.

There is to me a difference between things having a purpose, and things having a place. The first implies design and intent, the second only functionality. Suffering, functionally speaking, is what we feel when we experience something that isn't good for us. It's how we KNOW it isn't good for us. In...

I also figured this was the fastest way to hear from the poster formerly known as tp, yes. If not necessarily the most in-depth.

(looks at some of nerd's posts)

Or maybe not.

I'm saving the absinthe for the SF moot, which in the interest of saving space, I shall heretofor refer to as the Sfmoot, pronounced by simulating the sound of an underinflated tire going over a speed bump.

No more political or religious debates for me. There are more important things to do.

Not living isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know. We really are programmed to perservere. Most of humanity live what most of us would think to be pretty miserable existences...and yet suicide rates are no higher in Bangalore then they are in Baltimore. We may hate our lives, our faces, our selve...

Physical pain is an inevitable result of living.

Emotional pain is an inevitable result of living with others.

Both are preferable to the alternatives.

(wipes feet on nice rug, which for some reason they have hanging on the wall) I'm mostly here to facilitate going to the SF moot, which I understand has a Godless Heathen shortage. While not necessarily Godless, I am certainly a Heathen by temprament, and wanted to assure all other Heathens, whether...