 douchebag |
I’m surprised he isn’t on an island beach somewhere with the $100 million+ he scammed from his followers.
The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda a day later, very much alive but not so well.
“It has been a really tough weekend,” said Harold Camping, the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6 p.m.
[…]
“The issue is the Bible is mythology,” said Larry Hicok, state director of the American Atheists, bluntly laying out his case. Roughly 200 people attended the hastily scheduled conference to discuss the impact of organized religion on American culture.“Every ruler needs a religion,” Hicok said. “Everybody knows that’s the way you get power.”
The emperor has no clothes !!!
Maybe this means its over for him and he will apologise and retire.
He would be doing everyone a great favour if he did.
Cursor_
uh-huh.
Its worth noting that DOGMA in the religious setting is easy enough for us all to mock, but the same level of idiot DOGMA in the politcal realm is earnestly advanced/believed every day of every year:
“Cutting taxes will create new jobs.”
The only difference is that the Religious DOGMA is proven laughably incorrect only every few years and is believed by only a few hundred. Political DOGMA however is believed by millions and disproved every day.
Go figure—and be careful out there===choose your DOGMA carefully.
Alfie–you are constantly DOGMATICALLY wrong, and not even clever or cute. If you take “all the pay” of a worker” you still won’t create (net) new jobs.
You are a bobbing unthinking turd.
I could have been tougher. The rapture could have come and he would have been left behind. Come to think of it, maybe that is what happened. Jesus came, took a look around and left alone.
A year or so ago, Mr. Camping said that if he was wrong, he would indeed retire. I find him interesting in that his situation illustrates that there are other sources of temptation than money and cupidity. No one has been able to show that he has taken anything from Family Radio, and he seems to have led a blameless, though peculiar, life. He gave in to the temptation of thinking of himself as God’s special messenger. Given that he’s well versed (no pun intended) in his Bible, I can’t imagine that he isn’t trying to find a loophole in those passages about false prophets. Ah well, I guess I am overly sympathetic. He gets quite a lot of criticism even from his own employees, so why should I add Ossa on top of Pelion.
U have to laugh at all the Bible sheeple who fell for this.
Jealous–isn’t that the most likely scenario? Since god changed his mind about killing everyone around (Moses, Sodom) he “comes down” and surveys his work and takes all the good souls that meet his approval back with him– never more than 1 person and by some hypocrisy that mans family. Why the nepotism on issues of faith and goodness?
Silly Hoomans. Why aren’t these End of Days shysters fleecing their flocks of Millions prosecuted for Fraud?
Yea Verily.
What is funny to me is the atheist are as dogmatic and overbearing in their disbelief as Christians are in their belief.
Oh alfie, your turd in fact is not bobbing, it sung long ago and remains submerged. No cleverness, no wit, no humor, no insight, just school child taunts that you typically misapply.
Every pinhead does have a point, that is the point of the insult.
Does your memory fail you this much or were you home schooled?
Well, as this is all you’ve got: keep em short.
Semantics–how can one be equally dogmatic and overbearing when the evidence is 100% lopsided?
A particular kind of dismally evil spin to equate things of very different important and standing ….. don’t you……think?
Atheists are making up Christian jokes like there’s no tomorrow.
He’s a true Christian Taliban entrepreneur exploiting the sad, poor segment of the loon market. The broader loon market is dominated by the church.
Why is this business not taxed at 50% ?
Oh alfie–I expressly told you no apology was necessary==but how is you recognizing I am not a fracking turd got anything to do with you remaining a sunken unthinking turd? What am I to Hecuba or Hecuba to me?
Now, watch out Big Boy–your posts are creeping longer. Remember, the shorter the better.
Jeebus Alfie you are a dolt:
You need glasses /// how so?
…not a turd, a torpedo of truth…and when flying, a missile of enlightenment. /// Actually a good reference. I was going to quibble/correct my lack of humor comment above but I thought to do so would encourage you. I forgot who I was dealing with. I apologize for both sins.
AND you are evading the issue, it is elementary “if we rob the good that was to be gained by the act, the actor will not act.” /// That doesn’t even make any sense. What “good” is robbed?
Tax all the profits away, and its like taking the worker’s pay away, both stop working. /// NO ONE has ever said or near suggested taxing all the profits away, nor taking the workers pay away. But even granting you this idiotic hypothetical, you remain not making any sense.
I wonder how clever you think you actually are? Like “me?” Ha, ha. Talk about your overbearing dogma? Where are semantical powers when they are so needed.
Say something intelligent Alfie and not post at all.
Go!!!!!!!!!!
This Christian Taliban has you all fooled. He exploited the low end of the loon market like Psychic Readers Network exploits the poor in the southern states and Bernie Maddoff exploited the high end.
The Church handles the mass market. Alphie is a salesmen like the loons with giant Jesus signs strapped to their backs annoying the public here on Market Street, downtown San Francisco.
I’ll see if I can find one those loons and take a picture but they seem to be scarce lately.
#13, two years ago for Lent I decided that my penitential act would be to listen to Family Radio. It was certainly an interesting sociological experiment! I find Calvinistic predestination, infant damnation, and all, pretty barbaric. No, he never used the word prophet, but he made it clear that he and he alone had the answer, and that if you didn’t listen to him, you were SOL. He fired everyone who worked for him who didn’t agree. It was interesting to listen to him tell his callers that even if they were 100% good and faithful and did everything right, there was no way to tell if they were going to be among the saved. This is the kind of reasoning that caused one of Cotton Mather’s sons to starve himself to death. In my opinion, this kind of teaching can only lead to despair – if your best effort isn’t good enough, and only a certain number are predestined to be saved, then why not just give up and live as sinfully as you please.
No offense to you Calvinists out there. There’s enough offensive speech going on in this thread already and I’m thankful that none of it was directed at me (so far).
lynn –how is a penitential rite any more or less stupid/evil than Calvinist predestination?
Your point does echo (or predate?) Chris Hitchens (never call him Chris — its Christopher== ha, ha) makes the same point calling it one of the great evils of christian thought. It boils down to faith, doubt, and fear.
Quite a nice little set of DOGMA going there.
So, how did it work out for you this penitential ritual? Making fun of other religions and learning nothing about your own?
Ha, ha.
Silly hoomans.
29, Bobbo, your point is well taken. Self righteousness has always been one of my major character faults. So we have that in common, at least, my friend.
As to how it worked out, I learned something about beliefs that I hadn’t been exposed to before.
#29–Lynn==Ok Semantic–its your turn at bat again.
The self righteousness when wrong is not the same self righteousness when right.
And I do thank you for the recognition. You aren’t wrong about everything.
lynn==on this recognition on your part, I look forward to your deeper analysis posted here as soon as you proof it? A thinking Catholic. Always instructive.
#29 – The issue is that all of us who are self-righteous think we are right. I am agnostic in regard to knowing whether my ideas are right or wrong (not in the faith sense). Bobbo, I had no idea you were a Calvinist and if I had known, I would never have made such a rash comment. I sort of assumed you were an atheist. I prefer to stay on your good side.
For approximately 150,000 people in the past 24 hours, the world has indeed ended.
Atheist putting up billboards & being quoted, hmmm proselytizing…
Atheist gathering together, hmmm congregating…
Atheist criticizing others beliefs, hmm bigotry…
Hmmm, seems Atheism has become a religion as well… Pot meet kettle.
Ha, ha. A sense of humor? No. You miss the point, and I don’t assume on purpose.
Your self righteousness is evidenced on its face by its very presentation. You claim my pointing it out, and your agreement with same, is the very same self righteousness. And it might, or might not be, but it is not evident by its very presentation.
Not the same thing at all and that is why I called for semantic to post again.
Self Righteous: Defined:: convinced of one’s own righteousness especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others : narrow-mindedly moralistic.
And more prosaically: “Self-righteousness is the devil’s masterpiece to make us think well of ourselves.” Thomas Adams
My easy observation of the objective facts is not self referential or revealing. Your false equivalency is a sham, as most equivalencies are. A failure to probe past the initial hubris.
I am not a Calvinist although I do find the issue of predestination as a logic block to god being all knowing and yet able to place moral blame on our own supposed failings. Don’t you?–or might that be next years penitential offering?
I am not an atheist. I an an anti-theist. Even if god did exist, I would contest his power. Of course, I would lose, power being what it is, but what else is being moral?
Any response on point, as yours has been, wrong, but on point, has you on my good side, as irrelevant as that is.
I look forward to your posting your deeper understanding gained from your penitential rite. What is it about the dogma of other religions that informs you about your own dogma?
You contest with God? Pardon my observation, but doesn’t that make you… could it be…Satan?
I find that in matters of belief, whether it’s belief in the supernatural or belief in something equally unprovable, like romantic love, it’s pointless to use logic.
To answer your question, however, we can only see things clearly when we stand in a place with perspective. I anticipate your objection and I agree, it isn’t possible for us to do that, fully. Was it Archimedes who said, give me a lever and a place to stand and I shall move the earth? The problem is, there is no other place for us to stand.
This is called ‘taking a sociological perspective’. To see the strange in the familiar, and the general in the particular (Peter Berger).
When I look at someone else’s beliefs and note my own reaction, I can easily see the reaction that others may have to my beliefs.
I’d never try to convert you, Bobbo, but out of curiosity, whence stems your animosity toward God, or the gods?
There should really be a venue for us to take these off-topic comments to; maybe something along the lines of “e-dissonance”.
BigBoy… an atheist may or may not be religious (an adjective) about being atheist, but a theist is a Christian and therefor always religious (noun).
Religion by definition, refers to a specific fundamental set of beliefs. There is no fundamental set of beliefs for an atheist, so by definition an atheist isn’t part of a religion. You might as well say that up is down and black is white. Not in this universe.
#16
“An attribute of godhood is omniscience, and as it requires omniscience to say there is no god, the atheist defeats himself.”
That’s a terrible argument, try replacing ‘God’ in that sentence with ‘Santa Claus.’
If there’s no evidence for something then there’s no reason to assume it exists.
It’s very easy to structure an argument in such a way that it cannot be proven or disproven. Such arguments are irrational. Most Christians believe in the same crazy rapture bullshit Camping does, the only difference is that he made his beliefs testable.
lynn–whats up? Church van broken down today? You hardly ever respond to anyone, much less myself, yet today it is a torrent. I will taste the forbidden fruit as long as it is before me.
Let’s parse:
You contest with God? Pardon my observation, but doesn’t that make you… could it be…Satan? /// No, I clearly stated it makes me moral, and more to the point, by implication you and other thumpers, not moral. It is definitional.
I find that in matters of belief, whether it’s belief in the supernatural or belief in something equally unprovable, like romantic love, it’s pointless to use logic. /// Silly. Belief in Romantic love stops at that very recognition and is proven or not by its return. Not so with the supernatural which by its very name marks it as nonsense: “super” natural. Why do you make such equivalencies in your mind? I know the answer to that question. Surely, its an actively chosen debating technique on your part so dishonestly offered?
To answer your question, however, we can only see things clearly when we stand in a place with perspective. /// huh? Sounds like a tautology, but lets give it a chance……
I anticipate your objection and I agree, it isn’t possible for us to do that, fully. /// Nothing ever comes from analyis that starts with a quibble.
Was it Archimedes who said, give me a lever and a place to stand and I shall move the earth? /// Yes, he did.
The problem is, there is no other place for us to stand. /// He was speaking methaphorically. A religious type should be totally on board with that. In how many ways can the earth be moved?
This is called ‘taking a sociological perspective’. To see the strange in the familiar, and the general in the particular (Peter Berger). /// Can you state your antecedent to this vague strange hope?
When I look at someone else’s beliefs and note my own reaction, I can easily see the reaction that others may have to my beliefs. /// Ok, put empathy on your list of claimed attributes. But the question/value to you is closer to home: when you look at someone else’s beliefs and note your reaction, how do YOU apply that recognition to YOUR OWN BELIEFS? Can you move your world, or do you find no fulcrum?
I’d never try to convert you, Bobbo, but out of curiosity, whence stems your animosity toward God, or the gods? /// It springs from my innate desire to be left alone and the steady application of the Golden Rule. From whence comes your submission to others?
There should really be a venue for us to take these off-topic comments to; maybe something along the lines of “e-dissonance”. /// There is the cage match but surely this impulse of yours will wear off soon? Run out of sugar?
Logic, values, introspection.
Faith, doubt, fear.
Omniscience, power, responsibility.
Triads.
I never thought of Santa Claus as omniscient, but he is, isn’t he: “he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…” Scary.