tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post113079517401510791..comments2023-10-10T08:02:18.073-04:00Comments on Rationally Speaking: Why bother?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130882418104558722005-11-01T17:00:00.000-05:002005-11-01T17:00:00.000-05:00Read your own entry Cal. If you say "fall" and you...Read your own entry Cal. If you say "fall" and you did, the rest of us must assume that's what you meant! Maybe it was just a bad choice of words.<BR/>I'm with Charlie - from Catholicism to atheism is a giant step UP for mankind, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130873418147569452005-11-01T14:30:00.000-05:002005-11-01T14:30:00.000-05:00"Who said anything about a fall? I consider it a s..."Who said anything about a fall? I consider it a step up. ;-)"<BR/><BR/>Okay. I might have thought so too at one point in my life.<BR/><BR/>We work with a lot of former Catholics. (our church is possibly 40% former Catholics) I note that many have a tendency, for awhile at least, to take militant anti-catholic positions. <BR/><BR/>Our congregation encourages a lot of self study and self application tho. So eventually even the hatred of the RCC wears off. :) When you know about these matters and have confidence about your grasp of them, the things that use to bug and threaten seem so small. <BR/><BR/>calAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130871223709959272005-11-01T13:53:00.000-05:002005-11-01T13:53:00.000-05:00That is not a long ways to fall tho.Who said anyth...<I>That is not a long ways to fall tho.</I><BR/><BR/>Who said anything about a fall? I consider it a step up. ;-)Charliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06582002690213501584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130861558865808502005-11-01T11:12:00.000-05:002005-11-01T11:12:00.000-05:00"I was a very conservative Catholic who gradually ..."I was a very conservative Catholic who gradually became a liberal atheist and humanist, so I know it can be done."<BR/><BR/>That is not a long ways to fall tho. <BR/><BR/>Most Catholic churches and priests do not encourage in-depth study of God's word. So the day any of us cracks a BOOK to the contrary open and it reveals to us what the writer presumed that the Bible may have said, that is equal in power, if not more powerful, over one's perception of what the Bible means and says.<BR/><BR/>Former Catholics are always in greater danger here. That meaning, "I may never miss something I've never had," in terms of a working biblical knowledge. Therefore, so many other not ligit. things can come and take the place of this void. I was born Catholic, (not raised much that way tho) and I have seen that Catholics can really be "haters" or dogmatists. And in my mind, that's quite a senseless position if one really has the truth. <BR/><BR/>calAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130855751741122672005-11-01T09:35:00.000-05:002005-11-01T09:35:00.000-05:00You're absolutely right that people do change thei...You're absolutely right that people do change their minds. I'm proof. I was a very conservative Catholic who gradually became a liberal atheist and humanist, so I know it can be done.Charliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06582002690213501584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1130813581739834622005-10-31T21:53:00.000-05:002005-10-31T21:53:00.000-05:00Today's neo-conservatives (as opposed to the Repub...Today's neo-conservatives (as opposed to the Republicans I grew up among) really have mastered the art of continuous repetition of their message, and they have reaped good results from their efforts. <BR/>They have a good number of people who think the war is just peachy, and there are more than a few people who feel, at the insistance of our government, that torture is legitimate and the Geneva Conventions are only for sissies not real men. <BR/>They have a large following that abhor the thought of some poor person receiving even a pittance of public money, yet have no qualms about corporate welfare and creating more and more tax breaks for those who can't spend the money they have already. They have sold the American people on an economy in which top management is paid 5-6oo times what and average worker is paid. (In apan that ratiois about 25 times) Then the average worker is made to take a wage cut while the dead wood in the ivory towers give themselves enormous pay increases and "incentive" bonuses.<BR/>They are in favor of condoning religious charlatans, who prey on the weak, the insecure, and the elderly all in the name of some nebulous god.<BR/>They have no problem sending thousands of young men and women to their possible deaths because the ignorant president couldn't figure out any other way to stimulate the economy, and without a viable economy he had no chance of being relected. As a result we have 2000 plus Americans who have been slaughtered on the alter of Bush's second term. He and his minions care not a whit for these people or their families.<BR/>They say he has brought democracy to Iraq. A democracy in which dozens of people die each day in terrorist attacks. A democracy in which the entire country had to be locked down in order to hold a simple referendum: that referendum nearly ensuring that Iraq will be a theocracy with fewer civil liberties than existed when Saddam Hussein ruled.<BR/>The right wing has slam-banged Mr. & Mrs. Average American to the point where they are numb with fear. Will we hold them accountable or will we let them run roughshod until the United States is a feudal society consisting of a few lairds and a multitude of cowering serfs! <BR/>This is what the right has done with repetitive messaging - progressives must become attack dogs and throw the lies back in their faces, and start pounding away with an alternative plan for the country.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com