Come clean..

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
21

In England its Blairs Labour Party that has the highest proportion of leftie antichrists, and in America its the Democrats, I sometimes wonder whose side they’re on…
For example over the years, John Kerry voted against many weapon systems which later went on to be powerful jewels in Americas defence such as the armoured Bradley troop carrier. Perhaps he preferred US troops to patrol Baghdad in flimsy jeeps?
ThePatriot missile - excellent medium-range SAM, it protected Israeli cities from Saddams Scud missiles.
The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber - worlds best strategic bomber.
The Aegis SAM warship - worlds best defence vessel.
The F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bomber - Firstclass carrier fighter-bomber, flies into the enemies back yard.

At least Kerry’s not all bad, I hear he led flotillas of gunboats against Vietcong waterside villages in Nam, spraying the places with machine-gun fire, but the villagers had usually heard him coming and had fled, so all he wasted were a few chickens.
No sweat, at least they were Charlies chickens…

22

Well I’ve got a pimple on me bum, its not infected yet but my hand absent-mindedly starts picking at it when I’m reading in bed, so I shall have to watch it…

23

Stop the indecisive lukewarm flip-flopping and make up your mind mate, a joker or liar, which is it? :wink:

24

Mick,

Are you angry? You seem to enjoy more than discussion and thrive so much more on pissing people off. Is this fun for you?

Why the hostility?

25

Mick,
I’m a Confucian (see sig), with particular focus on the School founded by Xun Zi (Hence Xunzian).

So I’m quite open about my religio-philosophical leanings. Not my fault you are unable to see that which is right in front of you.

26

Xunzian says

This seems sacrastic and elitist to me. I am not saying that to be mean to you. Some things are better left unsaid, don’t you think?

27

Decorum has its limits.

Mick manages to violate not one, but both warnings outlined in my sig.

I gave him a fair chance to figure it out and after failing 1) to notice beforehand, when it was already clean from other threads I have been in 2) to wake up after I answered his question with my, ‘Duh, look’ post.

28

A joke can be a lie.

You can be joking, and be lying.

I wasn’t indecisive or flip-flopping in any temperature.

I used a ’ / ’ sign and you could not grasp the implications.

29

ICED COKE ANYONE? by Mick
If you live in a nasty slum (the earth) and a guy (Jesus) arrives and tells you and your neighbours to follow him out to live in his dads paradise (heaven), you’ll soon be sitting sipping an iced coke on the verandah of your heavenly villa overlooking the glorious blue ocean under a warm golden sun, and you’ll barely give a thought to the nasty place you left, and the people you left behind. “They didn’t want to come, they had their chance” will be your philosophy as you insert another Star Trek video…

Jesus said “In my fathers kingdom are many mansions,I’m going on ahead to get them ready for you, then come back to fetch you so that you’ll be there with me” (John 14:2-6)
“There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4)

30

I’m incandescent !
I’ve just realised I missed the film “The Rocketman” on channel 5 TV this afternoon!
Never mind, I shall cheer myself up by watching “The Shrink Is In” at 8pm -
“A neurotic woman poses as a psychiatrist to snare the man of her dreams…”
Hmm sounds good

31

What, that pic of the statue of Liberty snogging another woman?
Hey I used to think lesbians were tough after seeing that marine gal kick alien butt in Aliens 2, but a few years ago I answered a newspaper ad by a lezzie who was looking for outdoorsy female pals to go hiking and camping with.
I wrote to her saying - “I know I’m a guy but don’t hold it against me, its just that I’m soon doing a 180-mile cycle ride to Skeggy and back over 3 days and you’re welcome to come along”
She never replied.
Huh, what a wimp, aliens would have her for breakfast…

32

Okay here’s an honest question - If Confucius had been around in Jesus’s time and seen and heard him, what would he say about him?
(I’ve asked the same question to our Buddhist friends about what would Buddha have said about Jesus, but so far haven’t seen a clear answer)

33

Given that Confucius made a point not to discuss spiritual matters, and that his religion didn’t recognize avatars, as such, he would have though Jesus was a little . . . off for claiming to be the son of God.

Though, overall the traditions have a great deal of similarity. Indeed, the Jesuits when they were trying to convert the Chinese would normally wear the garb of Confucian scholars and tried very hard to paint Confucius as a proto-Jesus. Indeed, the name “Confucius” is the latinized form of “Kong Fu Zi” as rendered by the Jesuits. Mencius (Meng Zi) had a similar treatment.

So it is entirely possible that Confucius would have recognized that Jesus was as close to a Gentleman as one could reasonably expect a barbarian to be. So, Confucius would have probably aknowledged that Jesus wasn’t a terrible philosopher, though there are a few non-trivial differences in their systems of thought, but overall the similarities are there. One of those major differences is there hereafter. Confucius would have considered 1) it hybris to discuss that with authority 2) that it isn’t discussion worth having 3) the idea of God communicating directly with humans doesn’t fit his religious beleifs at all and 4) that since human sacrific had been banned by a Sage King, that the manner in which Jesus died is out of keeping with that commandment. On top of that, Jesus could not have been perfectly virtuous since the world failed to become virtuous because of him.

So he would probably have considered Jesus an acceptable philosopher, albeit incorrect in his claims of divinity.

34

But why would Confucius think Jesus wasn’t the Son of God?

35

Mick,

Try reading some information regarding Jesus. Was he from a virgin birth. I doubt it. Was he a good guy, basically. The son of God, I doubt it. Why would God send a lower class carpenter, with little clout to push God’s agenda.

Also, much of your posts discuss armaments. Would Jesus have advocated this. Nope. This is strictly OT, and has little to do with NT philosophy.

This is one, of the many, reasons I walked away from Christianity. True Christianity is to turn the other cheek or walk away from hostility. This does not work. I will not walk away when attacked, I have and will fight back and will continue to do so. This is not true Christianity.

Keep your faith as it comforts you, but do not believe you are a true Christian is you believe in violence, regardless of the provocation.

With regards,

aspacia

Deist

36

=D> Asp

37

I sincerely doubt it since:

  1. Heaven, as Confucius understood it, wasn’t anthropomorphic

  2. Did not produce Avatars.

  3. Did not speak.

So . . . no, he wouldn’t have believed Jesus’ claims of Divinity.

38

You got something against the lower classes? :wink:
Anyway he had enough clout to establish what’s become the worlds biggest religion by far, thereby trouncing all the other “holy men”, thinkers,gurus, sages, prophets and fairy queens before and since, just as he said -“I’ve beaten the world” (John 16:33)
Not bad for a young country-boy :wink:

39

Hitler bombed my mam in a big Luftwaffe night raid on Leicester, England in 1940 but missed. He also went around bombing a lot of other Brit cities too, so we had to do D-Day to stop him,I have no prob with that.
At wars end he even had an atom bomb program under way, and a big transatlantic “Amerikabomber” to deliver it…
(The Horten HO18 Amerika Bomber. In 1944 the Reichsluftministerium issued a requirement for an aircraft with a range of 11000 km (6835 miles) and a bomb load of 4000 kg (8818 lbs). This bomber was to be able to fly from Germany to New York City and back without refueling)

Jesus’s “cheek” remark was simply a lofty semi-abstract ideal that we should all aim for, but being human we fall short.
Hey his right-hand man Peter carried a sword remember, and used it when they came to arrest Jesus -
HIGH PRIESTS FLUNKY - “Jesus of Nazareth, alias Son of God, you are hereby arrested for upsetting my boss, you have the right to remain silent, but…”
PETER (drawing his sword) - “You little sh*t!”
FLUNKY - “Aargh me ear!, me ear!”

Jesus told Peter off for it, but the fact remains he allowed him to pack a sword in the first place :wink:

"Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear." (John 18:10)

40

Mick,

I was raised fundamentally Mormon, hell fire and brimstone kind.

And I was taught to do just what you are doing, to defend my religion at all costs. I was taught to try to proove that my religion was always right and was the “one true” one, gods plan on earth. Other religions where all wrong or incomplete, and I should proove it wrong by my own reference points, being the mormon cannon. You are constantly trying to proove christianity right by its own references, that is not prooving anything Mick.

As I grew up, and went to college, I realized that in the real world, we can’t “proove” everything, actually what we try to proove today, may be prooven different tomorrow etc etc. This is just a basic part of life that is important to understand if you want to see the world HONESTLY.

The reason that people think many Christians and Muslims are crazy, is because some extreme ones display behavior like you are doing on this thread, where you always try to proove your point at all costs, with your own religion to back it up, which is not a way to proove any point. Also, to never ADMIT that someone might have something valuable to say if is different than yours is just plain annoying at times.

That is why I assume some people are annoyed at you here, because you don’t LISTEN to them, or agnoledge when they say something they put thought into.

I don’t know all the answers, and neither do you, even though we all THINK we do at times.

Ok, forget what religions say for one moment. Don’t think, “what would the bible say about this?” Just think reason without a religious reference point for one second please. . . What really matters the most, “How you live your life, or what you profess to believe?” Think about that without the reference of a religion.

How people answer this says a lot to me about where people are at ethically.