I saw a sign...

[bradm]

The results of the second reading (sorted by last name of the MP) can be viewed here.

Aloha,

Brad

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I think I've got to start making an effort to erect more signs around in this world...

Thanks for those, StoneMtn. I'll make sure I leave them as wallpaper on the computers in our department. We enjoy all sorts of tensions with people at the Toronto School of Theology and all the confessional colleges (Wycliffe, Knox, St. Michael's, etc.) over what questions we should be allowed to ask in the study of religion. Our approach is doggedly academic and comparative, which rubs a lot of those other folks entirely the wrong way. It's good to remind them what they're in for whenever they walk through our doors.

The best one so far, apparently, was the Marvel superheroes in the Bible pic - damned if I can't find what thread that was in, though. One of the secretaries herself asked for a link to it.

[Gr8FuL]

I drive by this church out in the countrey all the time , on sundays outon Smoke tour...they have an ever changing double sided billboard, i've gotta get some pics to post but the new message of the week is:

"This is a CH_ _ CH. What is missing? U R."

the other side stated this:

"Knowledge Puffs You Up, But Love Lifts you up. Have you found Jesus?"

I get a huge kick outta this churth the sign changes all the time too... gotta get a digital camera!

[bradm]

I drive by this church out in the countrey all the time , on sundays outon Smoke tour...they have an ever changing double sided billboard, i've gotta get some pics to post but the new message of the week is:

"This is a CH_ _ CH. What is missing?

The part that says "Channel 11, Hamilton"?

Aloha,

Brad

[StoneMtn]

At least they tacitly admit they are not preaching "knowledge". I do appreciate when the ignorant admit their ignorance.

BTW, is Jesus lost?

[bradm]

At least they tacitly admit they are not preaching "knowledge". I do appreciate when the ignorant admit their ignorance.

BTW, is Jesus lost?

I think it was arcane who told me about someone she knows who, when asked, "Have you found Jesus?" replies with, "What, have you lost Him again? You think you people would be able to keep track of your messiah!"

And, for the record, I checked behind the couch, and even under the cushions, and He ain't der.

Aloha,

Brad

[Gr8FuL]

Hahaah i figured a few of ya would enjoy that, but if you could see it, and in the shape i am when I see it, then it'd be 10 times more entertaining and thats a bob marley Guarantee!! I wish i could remeber more of the "Slogans" that church posts, some of them were soo crazy!! Thats it, i'm gettign a digital camera tofday, and documenting the Signs this church posts from now on,this should be interesting, i'll keep y'all posted!~

Cheers

Josh

[CookieMonster]

My favourite church sign of all time didn't say anything about Jesus, but it read:

"Remember mom on Mothers Day"

Uh, right...thanks for that. The title "Mothers Day" is always so misleading!

[ggrtrhhrtgg]

a couple of weeks ago, I was bartending and a group came in to the bar----"Christian Speed Dating"

Well, a few people at the end are friendly they are like "how are you?"

--fine and you?

--I'm great.

--He's from Manitoba!!! (excentuating the excitment, these people really need to get out more)

--Oh, Manitoba, wow!! What bring you to St.Catharines?

--God! The one redemmer!

--Well, that's great, enjoy St.Catharines, would you like another water?

I don't understand why fundamentalists believe that crusading is the "answer." Why do you they feel the need to convert others to believe in the so-called "one God?" I just boggles me that there are people out there that really believe that its all about believing in the "right way." and not believing in the principles. Honestly, not that I have a great understanding of theology, but, isn't the basis of all religion love, respect one another, unselfishness...

I mean, I don't know, but, a couple Our Fathers, or Hail Marys, just don't seem to cut it in my opinion.

I mean, if two people love each other, what business is it of anyone's to prohibit them from sanctifying their union?

Lots of interesting stuff here.... Going to be reading for a while--thanks!!

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I don't understand why fundamentalists believe that crusading is the "answer." Why do you they feel the need to convert others to believe in the so-called "one God?" I just boggles me that there are people out there that really believe that its all about believing in the "right way." and not believing in the principles. Honestly, not that I have a great understanding of theology, but, isn't the basis of all religion love, respect one another, unselfishness...

I wish it were the basis of religion. If people loved like they should, religion would never have arisen [a bit like Zappa once said - if music really made people do things, then why is there so much trouble given that there have been more love songs written than anything else?]. But of course it varies; there's a big spectrum between, say, Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses, or Sufis and Wahhabi Muslims.

I keep thinking of the term "cognitive dissonance". It was coined back in the 50s in a book called When Prophecy Fails, which looked at how a UFO cult dealt with all the evidence that ran contrary to their belief system. The prime way they did this was to do their damnedest to convince everybody else, so nobody would contradict them. I think that's an important part of why anyone might proselytise, especially this lot.

And then there's the insecurity, which runs really deep in these circles. I don't mean uncertainty, but a deep fear of personal annihilation, which drives them to collapse the world into two dimensions just so they can cope.

And then when there are enough of them confirming that world for one another (programmed for at least once a week, on top of all those stadium gatherings like PromiseKeepers, etc.), you see all the cockiness and obnoxiousness, along with all the different kinds of violence that comes out as well - violence against children ("discipline" - Dobson instructs parents where to inflict pain on their children where it won't leave marks), against their own instincts, and against people that disagree with them or challenge their vision of the world. That's why you see so much panic around the gay marriage issue, I think - imagine what it must do to them to see gays recognised by the highest level of authority in the country. They'd much rather that gays and lesbians just stopped existing altogether.

Sorry, I'm spouting off. I feel guilty for being mad at them when the more sensible thing is to feel compassion.

[StoneMtn]

I feel guilty for being mad at them when the more sensible thing is to feel compassion.

You are far more compassionate and understanding than I.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

No, that's just what I like to tell myself. In point of fact, I'd probably find all sorts of happiness throttling them all . Or at least sending them off to some remote island.

[balogna pogna]

I got a call last week and the phone number on the display said 111-111-1111 and it was a recorded message telling me that my local MP wanted to vote against the same-sex marriage bill and "reminded" me to call him and tell him to follow his conscience and vote against gay marriage.

The thing is my MP is a Liberal and quite progressive and is likely not going against party line anyway.

Sheesh.

Maybe when the REAL Jesus comes back he can sort all this out for us.

[SaggyBalls]

the way the world's going most of those fundamentalists will probably get cancer and die anyway.

i disagree with fundamentalism, as the 'do unto others' mentality leads me to be accepting of gays, lesbians, and different points of view. it's a-ok by me if somebody's ignorant...but when it starts to infringe on other peoples' freedoms is when I take sides.

but here's my spin on the creationism/evolution debate.

since there's no way of actually proving evolution made humans the way they are (seriously - missing link...evidence leads logic down the path, no concrete evidence) and there's no way of proving god's involvement, I believe that life begins under divinity.

to me 'god' is the same as 'life force' or 'energy' or 'existence'...just because some people grasp to ownership of ideals, nobody owns the inexplicable essence of life - which really boils down to 'god'. there isn't any other one word to describe it for me.

all science is trying to do is explain how god works for us to have a tangible understanding.

to go against spirituality/religion just because others misappropriate their efforts and fail to understand the key principles they preach seems silly to me.

god is great...whether you see it as the son of god being a martyr, god sending a prophet, man reaching the heights of god through contemplation and acceptance, or nature working harmoniously with the unseen, it's all connected.

If god is my shepherd I should thank him for this lambswool sweater. i feel the warmth of life's good vibes almost every day.

[StoneMtn]

Beats:

It sounds to me like you are saying that there is simply "something" out there we don't know, can't know, and could never sense. You can call that "God" if you want to, but to me it sounds more like Kantian Noumena.

I don't really care what label you put on it, but you should bear in mind that when you use terms like "God" it truly does have certain implications that draws you right back into religion and all the dogma that goes along with it.

If you have not yet read it, I highly suggest you take a look at Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" or "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics".

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

to go against spirituality/religion just because others misappropriate their efforts and fail to understand the key principles they preach seems silly to me.

Hear hear. Religion is and has been anything to anyone. Some people use Tillich's phrase "ultimate concern" to narrow that down a bit, but we're all ultimately selective about what we pull out of any tradition, as well as what drives that "ultimate concern".

[Kaidy Mae]

If you have not yet read it, I highly suggest you take a look at Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" or "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics".

I'm truly looking forward to the day when we can sit down over ice cold Manhattans and talk philosophy. If it were possible to have a favourite lawyer, you'd be it brother.

Beats:

"The death of dogma is the birth of reality."

~ Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

I love this one:

"I had to set limits to knowledge in order to make place for faith."

~ Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Spot-on references. The Prolegomena is a pretty quick read, as far as Kant goes; the Critique of Pure Reason ate up the better part a year for me way back when. His point is still simple enough: we can never know anything beyond our categories of understanding - i.e. we can't get past our brains being the filters that they are, in terms of what our senses feed us and in terms of how we organise it all so we can have a handle on it.

Some people have treated that as a dead end, and just shelve it all and pretend it never came up; I like where people like Theodor Adorno take it - doing what we can to free objects from the limits of our own subjectivity, to not impose our understanding on them, but open ourselves to the possibility that we might be changed ourselves. Charles Taylor (the one at McGill, not the African dictator) argues much the same thing around the paradoxes of Canadian multiculturalism.

But back to the point - I think all that would fall on deaf ears with those goofs spraypainting ID websites all over nature, or pushing us to repress difference through the political process.

[StoneMtn]

I'm truly looking forward to the day when we can sit down over ice cold Manhattans and talk philosophy.

"Philosophy"? I don't think I know much about that.

Oh! Wait; you mean "Phil-osophy"! Ya, I'm a big fan of that bassist; used to see him play all the time.

[Kaidy Mae]

Hahaha Corey! So cheeky!