Never mind, you can see how happy they are singing and dancing – that’s what counts.

ernie

The chorus line is now stuck in my head and won’t go away. 😈

nice to see people bouncing about and having a good time. not my job to criticize people that like bouncing about.

Can’t people refer to christians as christians and not god botheres or other defamatory language?

Can you re write history so that people were not killed for saying they did not believe in God? Galileo’s treatment for a heliocentric world and subsequent banning of his book for a couple of hundred years….think yourself lucky you could have been born an atheist 400 years ago [ god willing obviously]
We have waited along time to be able to speak freely about you and your beliefs [ an we still cannot do it in every country] We have some way to go to get to your levels of oppression for those who do not agree with us.
PS I am pretty sure you are meant to just FORGIVE US

So your justification for being rude, insulting, and offensive, to Christians, is based on the fact that they weren’t very nice to nonbelievers 400 years ago, particularly Galileo ?

I hope you’re not black mate.

I’m not meant to do owt, i never professed to be christian. Oh and the “they started it” argument doesn’t wash. Who cares who did what to who, its whats going on now that matters n all i see is people arguing. The article promotes love and equality for all, christian, gay, athiest, whoever you are, but it seems like the argument always seems to go back to who did what to who.

I have never used the term to my knowledge But I am sure you will search for me

I was trying to explain why people had such hostility towards christians and to suggest their protests may fall on deaf ears as they do not have a long and glorious tradition of tolerance themselves.

We do need more folk like you ernie though who are respectful to those with views different from theirs.
This PC, thought police pseudo lefty thanks you for all you have done to help bring about respect and tolerance for divergent views on here.

Junkyard

So how do you or “they” treat Germans ,Japanese French, Spanish?

I was trying to explain why people had such hostility towards christians

People have always been hostile towards christians. This attitude is nothing new.

The thing is religion likes to have a fight, wether its northern ireland, the catholics v the protestants, muslims v the rest, and now church goes v gay people, they just dont know when to give up and cease hostilities.

Lets all live happily together if you dont like someones way of life ,ignore it, or learn to live with it, one thing is for sure sexuality will outlive religion, just look at all the closed churches,and the number of outspoken christians trying to recruit more believers,just like the unions theyre on a loosing slope.

We have some way to go to get to your levels of oppression for those who do not agree with us.

Maybe you shouldn’t view intolerance as a target 💡

I was trying to explain why people had such hostility towards christians and to suggest their protests may fall on deaf ears as they do not have a long and glorious tradition of tolerance themselves.

So the only excuse you can come with to justify some individuals on this forum being rude and offensive to people with with religious views, is based on what Christians did, particularly to Galileo, 400 years ago?

God you’re desperate ….. bottom of the barrel scraping at its very best.

project – Member
The thing is religion likes to have a fight, wether its northern ireland, the catholics v the protestants, muslims v the rest, and now church goes v gay people, they just dont know when to give up and cease hostilities.

Wrong in every respect I’d say!

The reason for the hostility is the offensive attitudes of many of them

Millions dying of aids because of the pronouncements of the catholic church

The offensive assumption of superiority

The offensive patronising behaviour.

I have to say Ernie I find your unquestioning support of the religious sitting strangely at odds with your usual stance.

Freedom to worship is fine – so long as you keep it to consenting adults in private. Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, don’t patronise me and do not look down on me as a lessor being.

nick1962 – Member

project – Member
The thing is religion likes to have a fight, wether its northern ireland, the catholics v the protestants, muslims v the rest, and now church goes v gay people, they just dont know when to give up and cease hostilities.

Wrong in every respect I’d say!

and WHY.

bottom of the barrel scraping at its very best

aye replying to your gentle repetitive trolls is indeed the bottom of the barrel in debate terms.
Forgive me

Maybe you shouldn’t view intolerance as a target

This is not my aim an I was simply suggesting that the church and the religious are hypocrits…be rude about gays and anyone else not in their big book of facts [heathens] whilst asking for tolerance for themselves to be mean.

As their record on tolerance is not great and perhaps they should – as christian values are what this society is built on -enjoy the rich irony of reaping what they have sown.

yes we should all be excellent to each other but if you have not been doing this for 2 millennia it is a bit rich to complain when you are on the receiving end.
I can understand why people are like this.

are you trying to start an argument TJ? thats three times you’ve said the same thing.

8)

but unlike the offensive Xtians you’ll still show them love, right?

The offensive assumption of superiority.
The offensive patronising behaviour.

Oh, teh ironing!

I find being told what I can and cannot do and being told I am a morally inferior person offensive.

Me too, TJ. So, I’ll keep hunting. I’ll go fishing. I’ll eat foe gras. I’ll drive a car with a lumping great engine. Etc. In fact, I’ll try and find things you don’t like, and I’ll do them. You’ll tell me what I can and cannot do, you’ll tell me I’m a morally inferior person. Just because I don’t conform to your view of what is acceptable.

Stop assuming your own superiority. Let other people have the freedom you pretend to believe in.

project

Northern Ireland ( simplified) -Loyalism vs Republicanism
and now(hardly new?) Church vs Gay people-Read my earlier post and link to see how homosexuality is accepted to varying degress within Christianity
muslims vs the rest- WTF? Over 2 billion Muslims in the world.I take you are referring to extremist groups like “Al Quaeda”
They just don’t know when to cease hostilities-How many religious organisations are at war?

CFH – there is a huge difference as I am sure you know.

I think you are wrong on some of those things – not a lessor being. I don’t offer to pray for you to save you, I attempt to persuade you.

a lot of church goes dont agree or even like anything gay, because their big book tells them so, propogated by an old chap who should retire.

Idont like a lot of things christians do, but i accept its the way of life theyve chosen for themselves, i just dont want to see their propoganda all around me.

Alo show many of these so proclaimed christians attend church every sunday, especially when John Lewis is calling.

a lot of church goes dont agree or even like anything gay, because their big book tells them so, propogated by an old chap who should retire.

There are a lot of people that aren’t church goers that “don’t even like anything gay” I think people like that are just intolerant tools it doesn’t mean I judge the whole of society as such. How many Christians live their life exactly as they are told by a priest or by the bible? Very few I would expect. They like anyone else will cherry pick the bits of Christianity that suit the way they want to live their life.

I think you are wrong on some of those things – not a lessor being. I don’t offer to pray for you to save you, I attempt to persuade you.

By saying the same thing again and again and again till I’m banned 😉
Totally agree with you TJ about barrier contraception and the Catholic church’s deadly paralysis on this issue.

. Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do,

Moderators excepted!

and abortion, and child sex abuse by their staff.

I have to say Ernie I find your unquestioning support of the religious sitting strangely at odds with your usual stance.

You mean my usual stance concerning that people should be free to live the lives they choose free from offensive insults ….. including gay people and Christians ?

And yeah you’re right, I give unquestioning support to the right of people to practice their religions free of hate. Unlike you I see it as one of the most basic and fundamental human right. Which btw keeps me firmly in step with the UN and global opinion on the matter. I make no apology for my stance.

I would just like to say a big thank you to the Christians for the Easter bank holidays and Christmas.

project
Don’t want to sound patronising but you are getting thnigs a little mixed up.
abortion-is a complex ethical issue which is governed by laws made by parliament and upon which many groups including religious ones have an opinion.
It is not mentioned in the Bible nor did Jesus pronounce on the subject AFAIK(not meaning to be flippant)
child sex abuse is wrong,covering up child sex abuse is also wrong . No argument from anyone on that one.
Allegedly Joseph married Mary when she was 12 and Mohammed consummated his marriage with his wife Aisha when she was 9 although they had been married several years.

aye replying to your gentle repetitive trolls is indeed the bottom of the barrel in debate terms.

You haven’t replied to my comments at all Junkyard……and why would you ? Even you I’m sure can recognise the stupidity of responding to someone’s displeasure to the term “god botherer” on this forum with some half-cock nonsense about what Christians did to Galileo 400 years ago, when it’s pointed out to you.

You didn’t respond in any meaningful way and I didn’t expect you to.

Ernie – I have no issue with the right to worship. My issue is with the influence they have and try to have over the lives of others.

Religion is a regressive force and causes much harm. so whilst I believe they should be free to practice as they wish I detest and abhor the negative effects they have on society as a whole – from the suppression of women in the Muslim world to the millions of deaths from aids in Africa

So Ernie – do you think the freedom of religion should allow the oppression of women? The treatment of women in some muslim countries would appear to be against fundamental freedoms.

I am confused you say i did not reply then I did not reply meaningfully which are you claiming?
FWIW I replied twice once I used your name and once I quoted you…I am sorry I will try and make it clearer for you next time to try and stop you getting confused.

I think this may be the pointless arguments to which STW towers refer and I think they have a point.

Even TJ’s getting confused.Happy to be corrected on this but
AFAK it is not Islam per se that oppresses women in some parts of the world but more a cultural, educational and power issue. The Saudi treatment of women for example.
Muslim women on my street appear to lead full and active lives as does my Muslim female GP and my recently divorced Muslim female co worker.

Hang on, hang on, hang on…. Poetry break. Here’s Uncle Philip:

Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,
Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new-
Cleaned or restored? Someone would know: I don’t.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
“Here endeth” much more loudly than I’d meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate, and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognizable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation — marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these — for whom was built
This special shell? For, though I’ve no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

nick – its done in the name of islam with the imans pronouncing on what women can and cannot do.

Chris Hitchens once said that after he had lost his Marxist Faith, it felt like an amputated arm. No longer there, but still itching…

Hang on, hang on, hang on…. Poetry break.

Thought it would last just a TAD longer… 😕

Mr Woppitt…you read…poetry??
Poetry Face off Atheist vs Believers

I’d just like to say a big thank you to the pagans for the Easter bank holiday and Christmas , though if any one can make Jesus’s birthday a holiday I’m willing not to go to work on Jan the 4th too .

I am confused you say i did not reply then I did not reply meaningfully which are you claiming?

So easily confused eh ? You responded to my post but not my comment, which as I say, is hardly surprising. That is what is meant by “not replying in a meaningful way”. Hope that helps and you’re a little less confused now 🙂

Mr Woppitt…you read…poetry??

Yes. What do you think of that one?